The Birthday Girl

Last week I celebrated my birthday - a day that, no matter how old I get, I always count down to weeks in advance like an over excited child.

It began, as all my birthdays do, with a carefully selected outfit for my special day. I always dress up on my birthday, it's a great excuse to wear something new. This year I picked out this pretty floral print dress. It was bought during a spending ban but Simon loved it on me so I got away with it.  

A large part of my birthday is always the food, starting from the moment I get up with breakfast. This year I decided to have not one but two almond croissants, hot from the oven, then smothered in Cadburys Chocolate Spread and washed down with some caramel coffee. A far cry from my usual week day porridge.

Once I'd eaten my daily intake of calories in one sitting it was time to unwrap the lovely pile of gifts from Simon and my family. 

There was definitely a rose gold theme with my stunning new GHDs and beautiful Zoeva makeup brushes. 

I've been using the same very old and tired GHDs for years and years so these new ones are a bit of a treat. I'm looking forward to attempting some curls (any tips?!) 

Knowing that I've recently been playing with makeup, I got some lovely new makeup to try including some Scandaleyes Shadow Stick pencils, Sleek blushes in "Flamingo" and "Life's a Peach", a Maybelline Colour Tattoo in Pink Gold and Loreal's La Palette Nude in Rose. 

The present I'm itching to try out the most is my Fuji Instax Mini camera. It'll be really fun for the weddings I'm going to this year. 

I love having my birthday in Spring and this year it was made extra special by the appearance of some beautiful sunshine.  For the first time this year I was able to wear my mac and sunglasses - the best birthday present!

As it was such a beautiful day we walked into Newcastle for my appointment at the bank. Going to the bank on your birthday may seem like a rather odd thing to do but it was our first very small step to becoming house owners so it was actually really lovely. 

We spent some time afterwards drinking coffee in the brand new Cafe Nero and happily discussing our future house plans.  Getting older is great when it involves exciting new adventures. 

The sun was pouring through the window of the coffee shop and it was so lovely to throw off our layers and soak up the beautiful warmth. 

I could have spent all day sitting there but we had a bus to catch! 

I always like to have an afternoon tea on my birthday and after last years disaster we wanted to make sure it was a good one. We decided to do an hour bus trip to Felton in Northumberland to visit the Running Fox.

I wasn't sure how much fun a birthday bus trip would be but the warm weather made it a very enjoyable ride.  Gazing out of the window at the lush green fields, full of skipping lambs made the journey fly. 

The afternoon tea was amazingly good so, forgive my teasing, but you'll have to pop back on Friday for a full review. I promise you epic sandwiches, homemade pie, massive scones and slabs of freshly baked cake. 

 

By the time we arrived back into Newcastle we were a little full so it was a bit of an effort to waddle down to the Malmaison on the Quayside but I really wanted a birthday cocktail (and show Simon how great the hotel's refurbishment is). 

 

You may remember I visited the new look Chez Mal recently and I've been wanting to head back to try out the bar in the evening. 

We loved how great the bar looked at night time and Simon was pretty quick to declare it our new local (fine by me!). We snuggled into a comfy booth and ordered a Zephyr (gorgeous fruity cocktail made up of vodka, fresh pink grapefruit, lemon juice, orgeat and tonic) and a Gentleman Jack. 

 

By the time we got back to our little flat we were shattered but not wanting the day to end we just about managed to keep our eyes open enough to watch one of my new DVDs. 

Old age has definitely set in, I was in bed by 10:00 pm, cosy in my duvet and happily thinking about what a lovely day I had 

Only 360 days until my birthday!