Birthday Bits & Bobs

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you may have seen that it was my birthday on Sunday. I turned the grand old age of 24 and had the best weekend EVER with my family and friends. My dad arrived in the UK from Australia on Friday and it was so lovely to see him – the last time I saw him was in 2012 when I went to visit – that was just after I’d started blogging so it feels like a lifetime ago. If any of you live away from family, I’m sure you know how difficult it is so that was the best birthday present ever.

Talking of presents, I thought I’d share a few of the lovely gifts I received from my family and friends. I mainly got money this year as I’m going on lots of weekends away with my dad this month and wanted some spending money but I also got some absolutely beautiful gifts that were totally unexpected. A few of you were asking where some of the bits and bobs were from on Instagram so I thought I’d throw everything into a blog post and include links where I can. Also, it’s always fun to have a nosey at the things people get as it can be a great help with gift ideas!

L’Occitane Cherry Blossom products | Link

My dad picked these up for me from duty free and I was over the moon when he gave them to me as the Cherry Blossom scent from L’Occitane is my absolute favourite. I received the hand cream in a gift set just before Christmas and ever since then I’ve been waffling on to anyone who’ll listen about how amazing it smells. I’m now the proud owner of the full size hand cream, shower gel and eau de toilette. I’m going to be smelling seriously good for the next few months!

Notebook (Link) & pen (Link)

My boyfriend paid for our weekend away to London at the end of this month but as a little gift to open he also got me this notebook and pen from the brand Happy Jackson and I love them. I spotted them in Fenwicks a while back and told him how much I loved them so he's a good en for remembering! I'm an avid list writer so I'll be using them for jotting down blog post ideas/shopping lists and to-do lists!

Swarovski rose gold bracelet 

One of my best friends Camille bought me this stunning Swarovski rose gold bracelet and I couldn’t be more grateful. She said she wanted to get me something special and she certainly did! I’m not sure if I’m going to wear it every day yet or save it for nights out/special occasions but either way, I can’t wait to wear it. It’ll look perfect next to my rose gold watch and I love how elegant and dainty it is. 

Miss KG 'Paige' Mid-heel Sandals | Link

I chose these gorgeous Kurt Geiger heels as my gift from my Nanna and I absolutely love them. I spotted them by chance when out shopping in Newcastle and as soon as I tried them on, I had to have them. They’re not high heels like I’m used to but that’s why I like them so much – they’re great for day to day wear when I want to spruce an outfit up or even for the evening if I want to look a little more low key and casual. I chose them in black as they’ll go with everything but they also had a lime green pair that I’ve now got my eye on! 

Matalan Necklaces 

When it comes to fashion jewllery, I'm a bit of a bargain hunter. I don't see the point in spending a fortune on jewellery from Topshop when you can get identical copies from places like Matalan (they actually have the same designer!) and as I'm always going on about how much I love their jewellery, my mum bought me two new necklaces to add to my stash. I love them both and they'll go with pretty much everything - yay!!

Photo album 

My boyfriend also bought me this lovely photo album as I've been getting lots of photos printed online over the past few months and as they're currently sat in a drawer, it'll be nice to have somewhere to display them! I think its SO important to get photos printed and have them in albums because if my computer broke and I lost them all, I'd be devastated! Print your photos people!!

Matalan & New Look tops 
As well as their jewellery, my mum knows how much I love Matalan for affordable fashion and she knows she can't really go wrong when buying me bits and bobs from there. I absolutely love this tropical print top she got me and the slouchy style with sleeves is right on style at the moment. I'm planning on wearing it tucked into a white skort I recently bought but it would also look great with a pair of skinny jeans! She also bought me this cute Summer crop top from New Look with a floral pattern and crochet detailing around the neckline. Again I think this is really cute and I'm sure I'll get a lot of wear out of it!

Pandora ring

I absolutely love my Pandora bracelet and the two rings I already own so I'm chuffed to bits to now own another beautiful ring. I'd actually been eyeing this particular one up for quite some time so the fact one of my best friends Debra picked it for me shows just how well she knows me! 

Photo Frame 

Debra also got me this lovely collage photo frame with some photos of us inside and I really love it. Gifts like this as they're so personal and thoughtful! I've already found a home for it in my flat and it looks super cute!

Too Faced Natural Eyes Palette | Link

I saw a few blog posts flying around about this palette and I loved the look of it for an everyday natural eye look so when my boyfriend asked me if there was anything I wanted, I chose this! I love that it’s small enough to pop in my makeup and that it has three different looks within the palette - it really takes away any guess work when it comes to putting looks together. I’ll definitely be doing a full review of this soon with swatches!

Spa treatment

Seriously, how cute is this? The fact my mum spent time hand making this for me is just so lovely and thoughtful! I recently went for a spa day with my Nanna and thoroughly enjoyed it so my mum said she'll treat me to a spa day of my choice sometime later in the year. I'm thinking it might be quite a nice thing to do when Winter rolls around and things are a bit more quiet! It'll be nice to spend some quality time with my mum getting pampered too - she deserves it!!

I hope you enjoyed reading about the bits and bobs I received for my birthday and I apologise for my lack of posts lately - I'm trying not to put too much pressure on myself to post all the time while my dads here as I'm just SO busy and can't manage everything. Bare with me though!!

Lots of love,

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