Happy birthday DC!!!

DC is 28 today!!!! Booooo for having to go to work all day and teach kids on your birthday, but I did have this surprise for him this morning...

I'm so glad my sneaky decision to pop around my sister's to say hi and pick up DC's presents worked, as her boyfriend blew up all 50 balloons for me (result). We had a bit of a production line going on with him blowing them up and me tying, and it was done in 5 mins - it would have taken me hours in the dark cold garage by myself!! 

We opened presents after work and here's DC in his new Superdry jacket that I bought him. I also bought him some Hollister joggers (he was over the moon - I wasn't over the moon with the £10 p&p though...) , some CK in2 u aftershave, Clinique men care, and some sweets and choc. I think I did well and he was completely spoilt. 

We went out to a pub in the next village for dinner, DC had a gourmet burger and I had a chili pasta, then I persuaded DC to have dessert because I had already secretly given our server some candles. 

We had chocolate torte with ice cream for DC and cream for me, with lots of fruit on top. 

And then even though we were full, I had bought DC's favourite birthday cake that I buy him every year so this was his final surprise:

We haven't had any yet but I am looking forward to wrestling DC for the caterpillar face. 

PS I think he likes his new coat. Happy birthday DC!!!!

Dans x

If I said I didn't like pretty things I'd be lying

I would love to still be in birthday mode but it's so busy and hot at work and my party seems like a gazillion years ago. I am on a health kick which means no sugar to get me through the day, although I just popped out on lunch to get some washing detergent and softener and was mega distracted by the sweet aisle. I had a quick glimpse and then remembered how rubbish I would feel on my run later if I stuffed myself full of chocolate now. 

I am planning to get my 2/4 run completed today, I have absolutely no reason not to go so I'm going to get out there tonight and give myself tomorrow off before running 3/4 on Friday and 4/4 Saturday morning, which will complete my goal this week. These small goals are definitely helping me because 

1) they feel small enough for me to know I can complete them and 

2) it keeps things fresh and exciting

So as I'm tired and hot and a little bit bored today, I thought I'd share with you some of the gorgeous gifts I received from my amazing friends and family this year. Btw this is mainly to remind myself that there is still some joy in life when turning 25, and that 25 isn't as boring as the life I have seemed to lead since Monday. 

My sis had a plastic replica of a library lamp that I absolutely fell in love with. When she was about to give it to me, it broke, so as an amazing surprise she bought me this brass one for my birthday, which goes perfectly on my dressing table. 

Ok so it's a fact universally acknowledged that I have inherited wonderfully chubby fingers from my dear Father. Even when I lose weight, the fingers don't budge. I think I'm still having a hard time accepting this although not as much as when I was in school when I used to hide them under my uniform jumper. Anyway, my bestie most amazing friend ever bought me this gorgeous Pandora ring that features my birthstone Peridot. It's SO PRETTY.

I love my new Cath Kidston iPad case from DC's sister. I think it could double up as a hand mitt when it gets too cold. It just looks so comfy. Check out the mess on the floor from where I got all iPad-excited and threw my rubbish. 

Yes is really happened. And no I didn't share it. Well actually I gave DC a bite but he took off much more than I was happy with so I told him his time was up and he had to go get his own salted caramel cheesecake chocolate slab. This was the first thing that was demolished on bank holiday Monday. 

I got a lot of vouchers too which I'm wondering whether to save or splurge, but that's for another post ;)

Dans x

Some things are worth quitting and my birthday photo album

So everyone knows that the only way to get rid of leftover BBQ food is to have sausage cobs for breakfast the morning after, and another BBQ for dinner. These were the only two productive things that DC and I did yesterday, apart from cleaning the house. The other 18 hours were spent recovering from our amazing weekend, with some of those used getting frustrated at Minions Rush which I downloaded and we are now addicted to. 

I have seen so much meat this weekend that I think a veggie week is definitely in order. I am also back on the eating well wagon after a gazillion glasses of Pimms and far too much food. I think I forgot to mention that I quit weight watchers a few weeks ago. I'm done with counting points, bored of it. Instead I'm simply trying to eat more of the good stuff. So today is muesli for breakfast, a ham beetroot and coleslaw salad for lunch (I did sneak a packet of Snackajacks in there for lunch though) and jacket potato with salad and cottage cheese for dinner. With as much fruit as I like in between. I'm saving all of the good stuff I got for my birthday until the weekends. 

Anyway, I mentioned that I wasn't good at taking photos throughout my birthday on Sunday, so it's a good job that people around me are much better at it than me! Here's some snaps I've stolen:

I bought a new dress from Topshop (of course) to mark the occasion and I love it. 

Me & my most amazing friend, before the madness started. 

My cooking ladies saved me from spending all day in the kitchen. 

Our friends. 

The cutest nieces ever in the whole universe. 

Another one of us before the madness started. I like how I look as brown as DC here, usually he steals all of the tan thunder.

My most favourite ever photo from my birthday. 

Honestly look at that face. 

I was a bit crazy to clean the dishes at 2:47am but it saved my sanity on Monday when there was less cleaning to do!

Dans x

PS

How could I have forgotten tell you that my last blog post was written on my new iPad...! Wow-wee did  DC spoil me this year. 

I woke up at 7.15am on my birthday, which is mega unusual and early for me especially as we walked 50 minutes home from my sister's BBQ the night before (I am definitely feeling the tiredness now). DC was eager for me to open my present so we got right to it. 

I can't believe he wrapped it himself this year and it looked actually pretty good. I usually do all of the Xmas wrapping because he is just rubbish at it but he obviously learned some paper skills in the last eight months. 

I had absolutely no idea what he had planned to buy me and it was the biggest surprise. 

So the BEST thing about this news is that once I have learned to type properly on this thing (my backspace has had the most use so far) I will have absolutely no reason whatsoever not to blog every single waking moment.

I can even ship my new BFF to work in my handbag and blog on my lunch hour. This has many advantages. Think of all of the money I am going to save by not walking to Topshop every day. Bad for my wardrobe, good for my bank balance. 

So I'm super excited about this. Right now I'm sat in the garden in the sunshine, not with a huge heavy hot (get that alliteration) laptop, but blogging away with my new favourite toy. Bliss. 

Dans x

A goal well met and a life changing event

So I met my goals and did 4 20 minute runs this week. Go me! I even ran in the rain on Saturday morning. AND enjoyed it. So maybe I'm getting my mojo back.

So yesterday a life changing event happened. I turned a quarter of a century old. I wonder if this means I have to start being more mature and responsible now. 

We had planned our birthday BBQ quite a while ago but didn't actually add up how many people we had invited until Saturday, and we got to 45, which was not going to be a problem if the sun was out as our garden is a good size, but we definitely weren't fitting them all in our house if it had rained.

I didn't really need to worry anyway, as the sun came out especially for me and it was a beautiful afternoon. DC was completely stressing but I think once everything was in full swing he was happy. We were so busy that we didn't really get a look in on the food. We covered the meat and asked everyone to bring the nibbles. We ended up with a LOT of nibbles. DC was busy manning the BBQ and I was too busy checking my grandparents had enough tea. 

Me: "here you go nana, a lovely burger for you"

Nana: "oh no I don't want that, what sandwiches have you made?"

Me: "none nana, this is a BBQ, we haven't made sandwiches"

Nana: "I'm sure you've got some bread in your cupboard, a cheese sandwich would be lovely"

Grandad: "whilst you're at in Danielle put the kettle on"

So many of our neighbours came which was lovely, and it gave us all a proper opportunity to get to know each other. I do have to admit though that I had to open their birthday cards straight away so that I could find out what their names were to introduce them to everyone. 

It was actually the best birthday ever. I don't think I got around to having a proper natter with everyone but I am so blessed to have such great families and friends. They're the best things about birthdays, getting everyone together in one place. 

I do need to learn to take more photos at these kind of things though!

Dans x

The countdown has begun

It's now only 4 days until my birthday so I think I'm allowed to get excited now! I'm having a BBQ on Sunday on my birthday for our families and a few of our friends - it's always a bad idea planning a gathering on the Bank Holiday weekend as so many people go away, so I never usually do something like this but I thought this year, why not! We are tying it in with a housewarming party as we've never actually had one of those and we've been here for over a year now.

I did the main invitation through the good old Facebook, but here was the invitation I drew up for the wise people who don't use that social networking site. I was quite proud of it seems as it was a 5 minute job on Word.

I've invited the street as I thought that'd be a nice touch, I'm not sure if any of them will turn up but it's always a good opportunity to get to know more about your neighbours! My grandparents are also coming along which will be really lovely because my Grandpa is getting so old now and is in really poor health, so it'll be nice to get them out of the house for a couple of hours.

I'm trying to come up with a few ideas to decorate the garden for cheap but I'm a bit stuck as we don't have many places to hang things, so I'm going to have a look around town this week to see what I can see. I've also got hold of some good recipes for party food so I shall try my hand at that on the weekend.

The best thing about birthdays is getting everyone together in one place and I really can't wait. I'm not sure I'll be this enthusiastic the morning after when the cleanup begins but I'm looking forward to turning a quarter of a century with all of them.

Dans x

The second best thing I did while I was away...

DC's brother and his girlfriend had been planning their birthday house party for ages... with a Hollywood fancy dress theme! It was the best party ever. I had so much fun.

We kind of left it a bit very late to decide what we were going to dress up as, and on holiday we had a few chats trying to figure out what would be a good character to go as. We didn't really get very far, all I knew was that I wanted it to be homemade as they're the best kind of costumes. And cheap as chips.

Three nights before the party I decided what I was going to be...

Wilma Flintstone of course! Although I'm sure she was never seen with a beer in her hand but anyway.

I was really pleased with my outfit and couldn't believe it came together so well. The scariest bit was eyelining my eyebrows - I had finished my whole face of makeup and sat on the chair with the eyeliner close to my face thinking, hmm, this is either going to go REALLY well or REALLY wrong. But I think I did a pretty good job!

My wig was a red bob from a local fancy dress shop that looked more orange than red so it turned out pretty well. I bunned the back of it and tried to recreate the housewife quiff at the front.

My bambam was from the same shop, and my dress was made out of a king size fitted bedsheet from Wilko... thanks sis for taking hours to chop it up and pin it in for me! My necklace was a bit of a gem find... I found lots of polystyrene balls at a local haberdashery and just threaded some string through and voila there was my Wilma necklace!

DC's outfit was amazing too... he decided to go as the Papparazzi!

We made his big camera out of a Shredded Wheat box and one of those secret santa plastic pint glasses that twist down flat and back up again.

Here's the rest of the guys who made such a huge effort.. see if you can guess who they are!

Can you believe this was home made?!

 Dans x