Cross stitch birthday card

I made this card back in February for a friend's birthday. The pattern is from Donna Kooler's 555 Fabulous Cross-Stitch Patterns (Chapelle Limited, 1996).

For the most part I was please with how it turned out. My only niggle is that the style of writing used results in a huge space before the -y in 'birthday' which leaves it looking as though something went very wrong somewhere. If I were to make the card again, I'd lose a couple of the stitches that make up the join.