Angie, it's fitting that you were born at the sunny time of the year. (Well....sunny for us in the Northern Hemisphere, that is ...) You're the sun around which this community revolves, and your warmth, generosity, and vibrant spirit nourish us all.

Even the fact that I had to check myself when I wrote "sunny time of the year" is remarkable. This community spans almost the whole globe. How many fashion communities do that? And it's all due to your intelligence, your incredible style, and your gracious personality -- along with Greg's fantastic photography and his and Inge's behind the scenes work, of course.

When I first joined this group three years and one month ago, I was struck immediately by how kind and thoughtful its members were to one another -- how well they seemed to know one another's wardrobes, how well they seemed to know each other's lives -- and how they genuinely seemed to care for one another. How could that even be possible on an online forum, I wondered?

Well, as I began to read your warm and thoughtful comments on people's threads, I soon got my answer.

Sometimes you'd drop little hints to bump someone onto the next leg of her style journey. Sometimes you'd reassure someone who was feeling down. Sometimes you'd give someone the little "chin up" she needed to keep her focus. And always, whatever the question or the problem, you responded with the tact, brio, refinement, emotional intelligence, and generosity that I've come to see as your defining qualities.

I had the incredible pleasure of meeting you in person this spring, and it was absolutely, without question a highlight of the year! I learned more by shopping with you and the other Fabbers in a couple of hours than I've learned in a whole lifetime before that! In fact, I'm still probably absorbing the lessons. And to see you at work in person was only to confirm everything I'd learned about you on the forum -- and then some.

May today dawn as sunny as your smile in beautiful Seattle. Thank you for all you give to us -- and many, many happy returns!