Turning Thirty-Four and What I Got For My Birthday

I know you wouldn't think it by looking at my youthful, wrinkle-free face 😉, but back in July, I turned thirty-four. 

How the hell did that happen?! I'd swear I was eighteen two minutes ago. Can someone slow time down a bit, please?

I thought turning thirty-four and easing from my early-thirties to my mid-thirties with very little to show for my life was going to feel horrible, but for the first time in my adult life, I found I didn't care about becoming a year older. It didn't linger on my mind nor did I lose any sleep over it, like I have done over birthdays in the past. I actually felt okay with it. I guess I've finally learned to accept the passing of time, and the fact that my life is probably never going to be like everyone elses or the one I hoped for myself before I got sick. I'm just doing my best to accept my life for what it is, and trying to live it one day at a time without focusing on achieving certain things by certain times, and making myself feel like shit when I don't. I have to say, it's liberating to take the pressure off yourself and go with the flow. 

Thirty-four hasn't been any different to thirty-three so far. It's been mostly boring and uneventful, but my birthday was lovely. Quiet, but lovely. I know it was ages ago now, but I'm behind with my blog posts (again) and I wanted to document a few photos from it, and also show you what my family gave me for my birthday.

On my birthday, I awoke to presents from my parents, and spent late morning to mid-afternoon wandering around The Cotswold Wildlife Park with my Mum. It's only a few miles down the road from where I live, so I've spent so many birthdays there over the years. It's sort of become a tradition. Since I've been ill and housebound, I've found myself craving the outdoors and appreciating nature more and more, and since I hadn't left the house in almost a month by this point, a birthday trip to the zoo was exactly what I needed. As an introvert, I'm not really one for parties or wild nights out, but a few hours surrounded by animals is right up my street.

I'm not going to go in to the visit as I've blogged about my trips to The Cotswold Wildlife Park so many times over the years (here, here, here and here), but we had a lovely few hours at the wildlife park enjoying the animals and plants, and these are some of the best photos I took.

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The rest of my birthday was spent quietly at home recovering and resting because I was worn out from wandering around the zoo. My Mum put together a buffet birthday tea for me with plenty of tasty snacks from M&S and a Patisserie Valerie chocolate cake, which we ate while watching Mamma Mia on Netflix. 

My parents had a Patisserie Valerie celebration cake custom made for me, and it was one of the most delicious cakes I've ever eaten. I can only remember having one other birthday cake that wasn't homemade or from a supermarket in my life, so it was a real treat. It was a chocolate sponge with layers of Chantilly cream and chocolate cream mixed with fresh raspberries and strawberries, with chocolate cream icing, strawberries and red currants on top, and chocolate curls around the sides. It was amazing! The celebration cakes are expensive, but they're so good I think they're totally worth it for a special treat.

Along with cake, I was also spoiled with presents from my family.

My parents gave me some money which I naturally spent on a couple of Erstwilder Endangered Animals brooches, which conveniently went on sale on my birthday. I also pooled my birthday money from my Nana and Aunties together, so I bought six brooches altogether from the collection. I just couldn't help myself... I bought the kakapo parrot, blue whales, bilby, tarsier, pangolin, and red panda brooches, which I recently blogged about, and you can read my full review of them here.

I also received a big box of Lindor chocolates from the parents, and a set of Sophie Conran Port Meirion Colour Pop pasta bowls to add to my collection (not pictured as I can't get down to the kitchen to get them to photograph, but these ones. Mum found them in the outlet village in Swindon for half the price). I've been slowly collecting the range piece by piece over the last year and a half as it's expensive, but I love the pretty pastel designs and the quality is fantastic, so I think it's worth the investment. I'm already planning a lifetime of colourful tablescapes for special occasions in my head! 

My younger sister, Sarah, gave me two awesome novelty bags from Truffle Shuffle- a Harry Potter Hogwarts letter clutch, and a Moomin house cross body bag. The Moomins was one of my favourite programmes growing up so it's basically the best bag ever. I will try to do a separate post to review and give you a closer look of them both soon.

A week or two after my birthday, I received a parcel of presents wrapped in Care Bear wrapping paper and colourful tissue paper in the post from my other sister, Marie, and brother-in-law, Steve They gave me the most random assortment of presents I think I've ever gotten.

I got a gorgeous Drop Caps edition of Five Children and It by E. Nesbit. It has a beautiful teal cover with teal edged pages and it's even illustrated. It's definitely my favourite gift they gave me this year. When we were kids in the early nineties, we loved watching a BBC Sunday teatime drama of the same name, but I never realised it was based on a book until I received it (or if I did, I've forgotten). I can't wait to read it.



They also gave me a flamingo cross stitch kit from Riverdrift House, a couple of cute magnetic needle minders (one is a flamingo design, the other is layered with cakes), and a pink polka dot Q Snap needlework frame. I've never tried one of these square plastic frames before, but it holds tension so much better than the wooden embroidery hoops I've always favoured, and it's actually kinder to my arthritic hands, too, as it's bigger and holding it scrunches up my hands less. If you embroider or cross stitch, I would 100% recommend you get your hands on one. You'll never want to use an embroidery hoop again.

My other presents included a couple of bags of fudge-flavoured chocolates, an adult colouring book, and some Crayola crayons and coloured pencils. Yes, you read that correctly; my 40 year old sister gave me a box of crayons for my 34th birthday... You'd better believe I thought this was hilarious and amazing, and that I've totally began using them to colour like a five year old! I regret nothing.

Thanks again to my family for the lovely presents! I love them, and they're very much appreciated.

Well, that was my birthday this year...

How did you celebrate your last birthday?