BIRTHDAY HAUL

. MY BIRTHDAY – HAUL .

As you will know if you follow me on any of my social channels (or checked out last nights blog post), yesterday was my birthday. Hooray. My birthday has come around so quickly this year, I can’t believe we’re already mid April, Christmas only feels like a few weeks ago. But regardless of how quickly time is flying, my birthday was a welcome occasion and prompted me to book a 4 day weekend too! Yesterday was a bit of a whirlwind of present opening, a lovely brunch and of course preparing for my annual barbecue which always ends up taking most the day transforming the garden into a sort of Moroccan snug (sadly I didn’t take any pictures this year). I had the loveliest day with Jase, my family and friends, and got absolutely spoilt rotten.  Today I thought i’d share some of the wonderful gifts my family bought me …

. OLYMPUS PEN EPL7 PANCAKE ZOOM . BARE MINERALS STARTER KIT . COPPER GLASS HANGING POT & CACTUS .

. COFFEE MAKER, TIN MUGS  & PLACEMATS . UO PHOTO FRAME . STARBUCKS MUG . JUICE BOOK & NOTE PAD .

Whilst this year I didn’t really make much of a birthday list, my family surprised me with the most wonderful and perfect presents. The theme of my presents clearly being ‘home decor’, makeup, photography and coffee. They know me too well.

I absolutely love cute and chic home wear and this year I got some absolutely gorgeous pieces like the copper and glass hanging jar which my sister Harriett bought me with a cactus to go inside (I also got a matching copper photo frame from my friend Anna), the beautiful pastel blue tin coffee maker (from my nan) and matching tin mugs & ‘M&J’ place matts (from mum) and my printed photo frame  and Starbucks coffee mug from my sister Lily. I also got the most fab Juicing book from Harriett & a very cute note book for blogging from Jase.

I received some absolutely beautiful gifts from my friends which I opened last night (post shoot sadly), they always buy me such lovely things. I was spoilt with printed Anthropologie measuring cups, Scandinavian home books & cute hand painted little sugar pots, beautiful flowers & an Orchid (plus of course some home made tasty treats too).

My mum and dad also bought me the BareMinerals starter kit which I’ve been wanting for so long now. I can’t wait to start using this after hearing so many amazing things about it, especially for my skin & how great it’s meant to be! The starter kit is brilliant as it includes basically everything you need, foundation, concealer, blush and powder and over £60 of brushes to boot.

And as you may have noticed, I also was super fortunate to get money towards the Olympus Pen EPL7 (pancake Zoom) camera from my Dad, Jase and Jase’s parents (and me too). The camera was a rather impromptu decision, i’m obviously a huge DSLR fan and am obsessed with my 5D IIII but I was really starting to want a more ‘day to day’ size camera which I could easily carry around and snap pictures whilst i’m out and about (my 5D is far too heavy to carry out and about). I’d heard so much about the Olympus Pen & loved the fact it still had SLR functionalities, interchangeable lenses and of course it’s WIFI functionality. I opened it yesterday and am already super excited to get snapping & testing it out.