Pages

Monday 19 October 2015

Brilliant Birthday

I celebrated a big birthday today wherein I officially started my third decade on this planet. Most of the celebrations however happened Saturday night when a lovely mixture of school and work friends joined me for a fun filled evening in an Italian restaurant. Thankfully everyone headed my request for no gifts and some very kindly donated to charities as per my suggestion as an alternative to presents. These included Médecins Sans Frontières  (doctors without borders) and an equine/donkey sanctuary in the UK. How great are these guys?!

Fab birthday card collection
My oldest school friends sneakily got together at 9am on Saturday morning to go to the stable when they figured I wouldn't be there & take birthday pictures with my two girls to include in a wonderfully personal photo album of our times together. They also gave me an awesome doggy bank to help me save towards future puppydom ♡
One of them who is a cupcake making wizard,  made me super tasty lemon flavoured cupcakes *swoon*

Nancy kept trying to "hold" (aka eat) one end
and Kika apparently couldn't make up her mind
between being curious and afraid of the sign lolz
Some of you may remember my belated posting of a 30 b4 30 bucket list back in December (i think) last year. Needless to say, I have failed rather spectacularly at fulfilling many of my hoped achievements. Mostly because the majority of my income every month is being split between ponehs, house & feeding myself - no complaints here as these are all things that keep me very happy but rather broke and unable to achieve many of the tasks I set myself. However, I am not disappointed and here's the two main reasons why ;-)

My puppy bank needs a name,
any suggestions?

One
I technically shouldn't be turning 30 till January 4th. What can I say?! I was a pretty early baby, born after only 7 and a half months cooking. I don't think it has impeded me any and for that I am super grateful; but i am using this as an excuse to extend my 30 b4 30 deadline for achieving some of the tasks I set myself lolz. That and the fact I was a couple of months late posting my bucket list last year so I figure a grace period isn't too far fetched an idea.

Delicious lemony-goodness

Two
I am seriously considering changing this endeavour into a decade long attempt at goal setting and upgrading it to a 40 b4 40 challenge to give myself a bit more wiggle room and maybe set myself some loftier goals with plenty time to make savings and budget for them over the decade. ;-)
Anyone want to join me in a decade long quest?
The more the merrier :-)

Amazing hand-caligraphied piece my aunt and uncle
sent me with all my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents 
and immediate family's first names intertwined
in a Family Ties portrait.
 Both sides of my family, such a beautiful gift that is being framed tomorrow and will have pride of place in my flat. #love

Ps: if one of you awesomely techie wiz kids wanted to whip up an epic graphic for a 40 b4 40 undertaking. This artistically challenged individual would be forever grateful and would obviously give credit where credit is due each and everytime said graphic would be used *scouts-honour*

31 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday! That calligraphy is AMAZING!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Isn't it just?!
      I adore it and cannot wait to pick a wall to hang it from *swoon*

      Delete
  2. Happiest of birthdays, Aoife!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Happy birthday amazing lady!

    Glad you shared with us. I've been missing you. ♡

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aw *hugs*
      I've been missing you guys too, I've been very bad at keeping up to date on my favourite blogs. Here's hoping I can catch up properly soon!

      Delete
  4. Lemon Cupcakes are heaven. Happy Birthday!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are the super tasty times, I have one left which I hope to devout this evening #yummy

      Delete
  5. Hope you had a lovely day, happy birthday! :) xx

    ReplyDelete
  6. Happy birthday! What a neat idea asking people to donate to charities for you! I might do the same for my impending 30!!!
    Also, I'm totally on board with the 40 before 40 idea. Much more realistic for me (having not created a 30 before 30 and only have 4 months left in my 20s). ;-P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Woohoo a potential fellow 40 b4 40'er. Thinking up goals is so tricky especially budgeting time wise & financially - have to figure out what can feasibly be achieved ;-p

      The charity idea worked out really well, I didn't feel bad accepting gifts I'll never use but more importantly money went towards worthier causes than I ☺

      Delete
  7. Happy birthday!! Those cupcakes are making me drool.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks C, they were super tasty. I must get back into baking myself, I do enjoy following recipes and sampling the goods once done but hate the clean up lolz

      Delete
  8. Happy Birthday to a fellow Libra! Glad it was a good one!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sounds like a great birthday! And I think a decade long 40 before 40 is brilliant

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We can all do it together...now to magic up an awesome graphic to share

      Delete
  10. Those lemon cupcakes look delish! And that calligraphy is beautiful! Happy Birthday

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks C, it was a fab day with wonderful surprises

      Delete
  11. Happy birthday!!! :D Hope you had a wonderful day!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks KR, dunno how i missed this reply. It was a fab day ☺☺☺

      Delete
  12. I apologize for this being so late, but Happy Birthday!!! Great idea on the donation to charities for a gift! I'm glad that you had a great day!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had a fab day and felt even better when people took up the request to donate to charity. I know it wasn't my.money but i felt lighter that good was coming of the request *blush*

      Delete
  13. Belated Happy Birthday!!! I have already posted my 40 Before 40 list on my other blog (not Chrome's), so I'm all for joining you on it. :D I like your logic for extending the 30 Before 30 lol!! I so do that. It's our goals and dreams so there's no reason we can't manipulate it to work for us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yay, you dis so.much better than me in meeting your 30 b4 30 goals that I am sure you will kick my butt on the 40 b4 40 to ☺

      Delete
    2. Aww don't compare! I had more time to do mine. Also remember I changed mine several times too as my interests and financial situation changed. So by most anyone else's standards I cheated lol. This reminds me I really need to do my last posts on the list. I finished it ages ago but I never posted! Oops!!

      Delete
    3. Nope not cheating ... smart ☺

      Delete

I love to hear from readers, thank you for your comment :-)