A break, a birthday and some birthday post

Hi! It's been a while... I have a few reasons (excuses) for my blogging absence: busy times at work, photographing and baking for a big fundraising event, two birthdays (one of which was mine), a laptop that has become painfully slow and doesn't like processing my DSLR photos, and the week of glorious weather which meant I'd rather be outside in the sunshine than sitting with my laptop getting all overheated. The main reason though, is that I just fancied a break... I was feeling a bit uninspired with posts and so it was nice to be able to do things without thinking "must get a photo of that so I can blog about it!" and generally spending a bit less time screen gazing. Anyway, I'm back now. My laptop and camera are still not speaking to each other though, which is taking a little joy out of my photography...who wants to buy me a Macbook?

As I mentioned, it was my birthday last Thursday and I had such a lovely day. My mum had the week off work and for the fourth year running I was very jammy with the weather and was able to enjoy blue skies and 27 degree sunshine! I will save what we got up to for another post, but I wanted to share some of the lovely gifts I received...including a wonderful surprise in the post...

I came downstairs on the morning of my birthday to a huge jug of one of my favourites, cow parsley - handpicked as it's in abundance in the hedgerows and meadows at the moment - and an array of envelopes and presents! Lots of lovely wrapping paper this year - I do appreciate good wrapping.

Gifts from family and friends. Baking, slippers, Michael Kiwanuka, gorgeous notebooks and a Moleskine recipe journal...they know me well!

And a huge Cath Kidston bag containg my first ever sewing box! So excited about this, as I'm doing a beginners dressmaking course soon and want to get handy with a needle so I can eventually make my own dresses and things...

One particular envelope had my whole family guessing for a few days...the handwriting was similar to one of my friends, but I already had a parcel from her so I was puzzled about the origin of this mystery envelope. It was beautifully decorated with tape and a typewriter typed address...

It turned out to be a gorgeous handmade card from Katie of Sugarpatch! One of the loveliest surprises I have ever received - I genuinely had no idea and it really made smile. I was touched that she had gone to so much effort! A big thank you Katie (this girl is so creative, visit her blog!), and thank you for the gorgeous brooch courtesy of Zoe @ Ladybird Likes (who is equally talented, you should all go and check out her amazing blog and shop)!

I feel like a lucky girl. Birthdays are the best.