Her first ukulele was supposed to be a gift for a child, but Daphne Roubini just couldn’t keep her hands off it.

Some 10 years ago the accomplished jazz musician – a native of London, England who now calls Vancouver home – bought her nephew a blue ukulele for his second birthday. To sweeten the deal, Roubini asked her husband, musician Andrew Smith, to teach her how to play “Happy Birthday” on the little blue uke. The problem was that in the process of learning that simple little song, Roubini fell in love.

“He taught me to play ‘Happy Birthday,’ and that was it – I was hooked,” she says. “I kept that ukulele for myself.”

Don’t fret for the nephew though. “I bought him another one,” Roubini says.