This week me and my twin sister had our 34th birthday (errr where did that time go?!?!)
Here’s what we got up to!
Birthday morning
In the morning, I enjoyed some breakfast pastries and juice prepared by Tim. I then opened some lovely cards and presents with him before work.
Birthday afternoon
In the afternoon, once I had finished work, I got changed and met my sister in town for a late lunch. We went to our local Revolution and saw outside in the sunshine. We shared some of their delicious picky bits, a cocktail each, and we exchanged our presents.
And of course, we took our traditional photo booth photos…
We had a bit of extra time to kill, so we headed over to Boom Battle Bar and played an hour of augmented darts, which was fun!
Birthday evening
In the evening, we headed over to our mum and dad’s with my husband, and my sisters husband and my two nephews.
We hung out for a bit and opened our presents from our parents, which was nice 😊
Me & Tim went home when everyone else left and enjoyed a little bit of dinner (didn’t need much!) We watched some tv together and then I started one of my birthday books.
A lovely day 😃🎈
Happy Birthday to us.
👭🏼
(Special mention to Agatha, the Caterpillar cake I made for us this year. Really happy with how it came out.)
Have you started planning your birthday yet?
What sort of things do you like to do on your birthday? 🎂
Train journeys are the perfect time to pick up your book.Coffees, walks & catch ups.Sunshine & sea.Takeaway Nandos 🙌🏼Lil ice cream at the cinema treat.My fave reading spot.Shorts in April? Who dis?Cinema with hubby 💗Breakfast with my nephews.Mediterranean brekky, delish.Colour hunt – I spy purple. Colour hunt – I spy yellow.Spring floral nails by moi.Colour hunt – I Spy orange.AC birthday tradition photo. Book one of the hols.Work ✌🏼 at least it’s sunny.The Sims ⭐️ Brunchin’ with a friend. Book 2 of the hols. 20° – whattttt!?
Week Two
Out for lunch with Mum.Breakfast crossaint 🤤Fun playing The Sims.With my favourite 3.Easter craft session with the kids. Easter Egg hunt time.& finally, chocolate Easter Nest making.Enjoying Good Friday on the Waterfront.Our yummy brunch sandwiches.Playing Catan at Geek Retreat.My Easter Egg.Yummy Easter desserts for a family lunch.Out for a lovely Easter Sunday afternoon walk.Me & Tim 💗Our traditional family Easter Chinese in the evening 😀
I hope you’ve enjoyed the long Easter weekend, if you celebrate it 🐇
So, I had an idea to document some more memories on my blog. I used to do a lot more of these sort of posts before I started posting more book/reading content, and when I had more time haha, life seems to be busy these days!
So I thought as we are a quarter of the way through the year, I could do a quarterly memories update to capture 2025.
This is part one, the first three months of the twelve of 2025!
Let’s take a look.
January
I’m not always a fan of January. It always seems such a miserable month after the festivities if Christmas, but this one wasn’t too bad! Me & my husband went to London together for the day, we saw ‘Harry Potter and The Cursed Child’ (again) and had a delicious dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant.
There was more footie with my nephew and lots of reading this month!! I love making my new reading lists and new book purchases for the new year. I also had two baby showers to celebrate, which was lovely! Not a bad start to the year, really!
February
In February, we had some fun sleepovers with my Nephew’s and Niece, me and my twin sister played the OG ‘The Sims’ game on its re release anniversary special, so amazing nostalgia there! I went to London to meet up with my Uni friend Kirsty and we watched ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ Musical… we also had dinner with another friend afterwards which was a great catch up (The show was really good).
Me and my Twin sister also saw a show, but in Norwich, we watched Giovanna Fletcher in ‘The Girl on the Train’. It was so cool to see Gi in a show and it was done really well on stage (I love the book!!) Speaking of books, Me and some friends from work started up a reading library in our staff room which has been going well and is nicely stocked now.
This month I also added some colourful accessories to our bathroom to finish it off, (we had it redone at the end of last year), and I have been meaning to add some colourful for a while! And we, of course, enjoyed a lovely Valentines evening together at our favourite Turkish restaurant.
In the February Half Term me and my husband went away for a long weekend. We stayed in Norfolk at a lovely inn and enjoyed a chilled weekend! The pub was lovely and cosy, the food was brilliant (breakfast included, always a winner with us!) And we had a little trip to Banham zoo, which I haven’t been to in years. We even had a Meerkat experience whilst we were there as they were only £15 each, bargain. It was a lovely relaxing weekend, much needed.
March
We had lots of fun in March, including the football and limited edition Ed Sheeran stickers!! My besties little boy had his first birthday party (under the sea themed), and our new sofas finally arrived!!
There was lots of yummy food, including a work meal at Prezzo, Wagas with my sister and our friend Dan, as well as our traditional Mothers Day homemade Afternoon Tea with my sisters and a Mothers Day lunch with Mum. I’ve also been ill a lot this month with coughs and colds, which is not ideal, so here’s to a healthier April.
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, New years, and are surviving through the longest month of the year! Gotta love January.
I got some lovely books and bookish presents for Christmas, so I thought I would do a little haul post for you.
Let’s take a look!
‘The Woman on the ledge’ by Ruth Mancini
‘I Died on a Tuesday’ by Jane Corry
Both of these thrillers were chosen for me by my twin sister. I love it when people choose books for me! (Although I have been told that it is harder to do these days due to the amount I’ve read 🤣)
I have read ‘I died on a Tuesday’ and really enjoyed it.
‘Stranger Things’ novels
My Mum picked up these two ‘Stranger Things’ novels for me for Christmas.
‘Book Love’
My mother in law bought me this very cute little book that is perfect for any of you book lovers out there! It’s full of cute little illustrations, bookish quotes, and comics.
I also got a few book themed presents.
A little purse/zip bag.
A very apt sign! I will be hanging this by my bookshelves.
A cute little book themed tote.
I also got a few National Book token vouchers, a Waterstones voucher, and a voucher for my favourite independent book shop! So, all in all, I am sorted for my book purchasing for a little while.
I am very lucky ✨️
I have bought a couple of books so far with my vouchers…
From Waterstones…
The first two ACOTAR books. My friend has been suggesting I read these for ages!
The 2024 Booker Prize Winner ‘Orbital’ by Samantha Harvey
That’s all for now, folks!
I hope you got some lovely books this year 📚 I can’t wait to get stuck in.
Thanks again for all the views on my Blogmas 2024 posts- I hope you all enjoyed them.
I thought I would include a little bonus post, rounding up the last few Christmassy days that followed the end of Blogmas, on Dec 25th.
Enjoy!
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve light Hunt.Christmas Eve meet up with friends and a final festive beverage.The end of my Hotel Chocolat hot choc advent calendar.Delivering Christmas Eve boxes to my niece and nephews.Starting my final festive book ‘Home for Christmas’ by Heidi Swain.Getting ready for Santa with my nephews.We finally found the newly released Premier League sticker books.Putting out my stocking for Santy Claus.
Christmas Day
Opening Christmas presents with my husband, at home.Our traditional Christmas day breakfast of DIY pan au chocolats.Visiting/exchanging presents with Mum and Dad.Christmas dinner 😋Me enjoying the festivities.Present exchanging with the Byfords.All my family coming around for Christmas day evening fun, presents and food.The Gavin & Stacey Finale 🥹
Boxing Day
A Christmas dinner take 2, at home.Watching the Wallace & Gromit new episode.A relaxing bath with my Christmas Capybara bath bomb.Playing games with the fam at Mum & Dad’s.Birds names. The ultimate Christmas game.Merry Christmas 💗
Christmas with the Byfords
My lovely husband Tim 💗A lovely walk.Our traditional family walk.Me & Tim.The Byfords.The buffet in the evening after our walk.More games, of course!Watching the football.
Other holiday fun…
Biscuit making with my nephews.Our Gingerbread biscuits.Me & Tim at the lights trail.My favourite lights on the light trail.The Colchester Zoo lights trail.A chilled New Years with friends, playing games & watching the fireworks on tv.Seeing in 2025 with my AC villagers as tradition dictates.New Years Day, family fun, food, and games at my Aunties.
Me and my twin sister met up with one of our oldest friends, as tradition on Christmas Eve (we’ve known each other since we were 3!!) Obviously, my nephews came too, so we all enjoyed a festive Costa.
I delivered Christmas Eve boxes to my niece and nephews! It is one of my favourite traditions. I love putting these together.
We went out in the evening for our traditional Christmas Eve Lights look out around our town. We all loved the festive Skeletons and this brilliant charity effort.
We got my nephews ready for bed and, more importantly, Santy Claus. We then enjoyed some picky bits (a Christmas Eve Camembert is a must!) We also played a new game. I got a little while ago ‘Scream The Game’, which was a fun little, fast-paced interactive game based on the film.
The we went home & I popped my stocking at the end of my bed and went to sleep.
I’m also a big fan of Christmas Eve as we have lots of fun traditions on that day that make us feel super festive.
I hope you’ve all had a lovely day and enjoyed yourself whatever you have been doing.
We’ve had a great time spending the day with family, that’s what it’s all about. And the Christmas dinner was fantastic.
Until next year, that’s me over and out for Blogmas 2024. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have.
Last week, we got the opportunity to have a look around a Christmas light trail. It was at a park nearby and we had a free evening so we thought, why not!
Let’s take a look!
It was a lovely festive evening. All cosy and wrapped up, the lights looked really cool, and they even had some lovely real christmas trees with warm lights, so simple but lovely.
We grabbed a nice hot sausage roll to eat whilst we walked around from the cafe in the park.
I love Christmas lights so much. They are one of my favourite things about Christmas (the more, the better!!)
As a new little tradition that we started last year, we go to the light trail at Colchester Zoo. We go after Christmas so it doesn’t appear in Blogmas, so it’s nice that we’ve gone to one during Blogmas so we can share it.
Every year, for the last few years, at least, I have included a post like this, and simply, it is just a collection of festive photos, of various subject matters that I have taken throughout the festive period.
If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m very fond of this time of year, and I love taking festive snaps to capture christmassy feels or moments.
Let’s take a look at the festive nails that I have done during the Christmas period. I have a little gel lamp at home. I’m not a professional, so it’s just my best, haha.
Let’s take a look!
Set number one, I went for a super festive nail art set. I wanted to try out a few different designs. I used my pinky gel builder as the base. I did a candy cane 🍬 Santa hat 🎅🏻 Christmas lights ✨️ a star 🌟 and as you can see below, a present bow 🎁
The next set was a lot simpler as I had less time when I was doing them. I really like this set, though, because it looks super festive, uses all my new Christmas colours, and is super glittery. Red, gold, and green are my favourite colours.
My final festive set is nice and fresh ready for my friends wedding on Monday and for the big day!!
I went for the pinky gel builder base. I did a candy cane pattern along each tip of my nails. I love the effect of this. I then added some nail art onto some of the nails. I really wanted to try out some more nail art, one last time! And to use some more of my Christmas colours.
I went for a candy cane 🍬 some multi-coloured glittery dots ✨️ and a Christmas tree 🎄 Really happy with how these cane out, especially the tips! It’s just a shame my nails aren’t longer as the tips would have been even more effective.
Have you got festive nails? What designs are your favourite for the festive period?
On Thursday, we had our final Book Club meeting of the year!We all met up at a local restaurant, which is the new location for our Book Club.
We all dressed up in festive attire, and the tablescape looked great and very Christmassy.
As is tradition, I made everyone a little handmade gift. For the last two years, I’ve made Christmas tree decs with the books we read that year in/on them. I thought it would be nice to do something different this year after two years of baubles, so I went for Bookmarks.
Simple, effective, and super handy for book lovers like us.
Our final book was…
‘Happy Bloody Christmas’ by Jo Middleton
I gave this book 🌟🌟.5 stars out of 5.
My take on the book?
‘Festive, funny, farfetched.’
I was an easy read! Perfect for the hectic Christmas period for a bit of light relief and a laugh.
Because we were at the restaurant we all went for the 3 course festive menu, which was yummy!
All in all, it was a fun evening! Lots of good discussion, festive cheer, and good food.
Here’s to another year of reading 📚
Are you part of a Book Club? What’s the best book you’ve read this year?
