Judd is 30.

My boyfriend turned 30!

I don't know how it happened. One day he was 28, then he was 29, and then he was 30. So, I guess I do know how it happened.

He is a rather private person by nature, and he doesn't like to be the center of attention unless he has control over how he got there, like by saying something loud and inappropriate. But my girlfriends and I decided that he deserved to be celebrated, and to throw a party for several of his absolutely closest friends.

I wanted this to feel special, intimate, and so I decided to hand make paper invitations for our guests:

There was a sale on stamps and stamp pads, so I went a little nuts. Each color was assigned a letter, and then I began.

Such an exciting declaration:

Date, Place, Time, Bring, all to be filled in later with a black pen:

It is:

After doing this for a few hours, I started losing some control of the letters and the colors, and this started happening:

And then this tie-dye started happening:

What a beautiful mess:

And I thought to myself, this is maybe the most beautiful thing I've ever made.

So much so that I had to make one for us:

but ours was not very informative:

I recently came upon a handmade garland on the internet, and set to work on one for our party:

I wrapped the yarn a billion times around this cardboard, and then it formed little bundles that needed to be snipped at each end:

And then they burst apart to become these spiny little creatures. Then they get strung together.

This one went on for miles.

Chloe agreed to host the party. Finally, the date was upon us! We bought a small grill for the occasion, and got corn at the farmer's market that very day:

We set up a little beverage bar. Chloe made a ginger basil simple syrup in sparkling water, and spa water with lemon and cucumber, and I made a lavender lemonade. Our guests who drink alcohol could then mix their favorites into their own cups, and our guests who do not drink alcohol had some truly delicious choices to make:

(poem in the background by justin runge)

The music was playing, the water was sparkling (ginger-basil water!) and the air conditioner was on, thankfully. I thought to myself, this may be the most beautiful thing I've ever made, this beverage bar.

Judd requested a key lime pie for his birthday. It is here , in vintage pyrex, next to Chloe's vintage pyrex cucumber (from her mother's garden!) and feta salad. The pie was one of the most delicious things I've ever made, and beautiful:

Not that long ago was Chloe's birthday. In honor of her family's long tradition with horses, I gave her what any good cowgirl needs: a cake pan in the shape of a horse's head.

She returned the favor by making a horse cake that looked like Judd (surrounded by banana cupcakes):

We had a small section of the table with things honoring Judd's obsessions. Peanut butter and chocolate was not in short supply, and I ordered these small notebooks with a portrait of David Foster Wallace on the front, and HAPPY 30TH, JUDD on the back:

The seeds were, of course, RED BEARD onion, because Judd has a red beard.

(also: homemade curried chickpeas and jordan almonds because they're delicious, and in the dark blue bowl is candied ginger, because he's a ginger). This little corner of the table was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever made, maybe:

In this photo I had just delivered some news. Something along the lines of the camera's battery is dying....

And the garland! Though it was dimly lit in the house, I thought it looked so beautiful, and our friends with cats were able to take a pom-pom or two at the end of the night for their critters to play with:

Outside we had strung tiny white lights all along the porch, and lined the porch and stair with candles in mason jars. It was one of the most beautiful, breathtaking things I'd seen:

But at some point during the night, I looked at Judd, and I thought of our years together as friends and our years together as something more here in Kansas. I thought of the community we've built of these wonderful friends, the home we've made from second-hand furniture and family photos, the fun that we are having, and the way that we love each other, and I thought, no, this is definitely the most beautiful thing I've ever made.