Make it like your birthday every day

You thought my birthday celebrations were done after only one weekend of celebrating? You're clearly new here. I may be getting older but I'm certainly not toning it down and so I've been out celebrating every day last week! First up was a meal out with Laura and we always like to keep an eye on new places that pop up in Nottingham and give independent places a try. So when I saw that a gin bar and restaurant called Juni had opened, I put it straight on the list. And the verdict? I'm so glad I did because it was amazing. Lovely gin cocktails, nice varied menu and really tasty food; we got a mix of small plates between us and everything was amazing. Another amazing part of the night was the presents from Laura! She always excels in what she gets me and knows me very well; this year, she got me a lovely new luggage tag, bumble bee decoration, giant hat for my next holiday and red wine glasses that are the tulip shape (not the round ones).

Next up was dinner and drinks with Paige and we were so in sync that we got exactly the same cocktail and dinner ('on wednesdays we wear pink' and grilled salmon). We started at pitcher and piano but it's never a quiet, low-key night for me and Paige so after drinks in Das Kino, and happy hour cocktails in Alto, we went and behaved like 19 year olds in baa bar until 2 in the morning. It was really good fun and we had such a laugh (like we always do), although the birthday cake shot that I got bought was beyond grim (I'll stick to the tequila thanks)!

I woke up on my birthday morning (only 4 hours after I'd got in from the night before) to be greeted by a big birthday balloon; my mum knows to get me one no matter how old I get because the one year she didn't, it didn't go down well. After realising that I actually haven't baked for everyone at my job yet (even though I've now been there 6 months), I figured I better pull my finger out for my birthday and got to work on some super pretty fairy cakes. They definitely went down well; one guy had an alleged 8 of them by the end of the day, and another said I should be contractually obliged to make them once a week. But we're a give and take sort of business; I baked cakes for them and they got me pizza for lunch (which was yummy). They also got me some lovely presents which were amazingly well chosen; a bottle of pomegranate gin and a gorgeous Beauty Bay eyeshadow palette.

Despite the fact that I literally spend half my life eating out and going out for drinks, my actual birthday is always spent at home with my family. So after a quick outfit change when I got home from work, it was present time! Despite some banter in my work group chat about the fact that it looked like I'd wrapped up random shit in my living room, I really did get that many presents! My dad said it took him hours to wrap everything and he got through like 8 rolls of wrapping paper - it literally looked like the Aladdin cave in our living room and unwrapping everything took me forever. As always I'd been completely spoilt and felt very lucky. I also felt a little tipsy, after topping myself up from the night before with a few aperol spritz'. We also had a lovely picnic-style dinner (my favourite kind), an amazing carrot cake (baked by mum) and then a night of games.

I'm getting a bit bored of nightlife in Nottingham so I wanted to do something a little different on the Friday night (I did two rounds of celebrations with my group, largely because Little Katie was on holiday last weekend). I've done a few cocktail making classes and always think they're so much fun but after having a quick look online, all the places offering them seemed to be extortionate (£30 for 3 drinks) and only offering your bog standard cocktails (mojito, cosmo etc) so I wasn't too impressed. However, when I looked on my trusty wowcher, I found a cocktail class at a new place for only £12 each! Parliament bar was not somewhere I'd noticed or heard of but I'd definitely go back - the cocktails were really nice and not the ones you get everywhere, the prices were really reasonable and the music was good too. For my night of cocktail making, I wore paisley printed skirt, white mule heels and white cape top - all of which proved to be terrible decisions on the way there because it absolutely chucked it down (for about the millionth time that week) and my feet ended up soaked and my cape was blowing around in the wind. I'm not one to let the weather ruin a good night though, and after doing the cocktail class and being joined by Big Katie, we went for cocktails and plenty of food at Bunk, drinks in Revs and then dancing in Revs de Cuba.

It was another night of no sleep on Friday night because me and mum were up bright and early to drag the birthday celebrations out one last bit! So we hopped in the car and drove down to Birmingham for a girly weekend, where (despite only being an hour from home) we acted like total tourists with a printed map from the hotel where we were staying.

For day 1 in the city, I went with smart casual and wore black slogan tee, beige trousers, black blazer and black espadrilles. The shoes were necessary too because we ended up doing quite a lot of walking! We started by heading to Brindley place (one of our favourite areas of Birmingham) and had lunch at Carluccio's, and then had a little look round the market that was on and treated ourselves to some cannoli's from one of the stalls.

Apparently the weather couldn't behave itself for a whole DAY and we got very dramatically caught in the rain while heading out to go shopping. Luckily, the Bullring is indoors so once we'd fought through it, we had a pretty productive day and bought some pretty bits and bobs. Contrary to stereotype, I don't actually enjoy shopping that much though (tiring, crowded and slow walker central) and was very happy to head back to eat our cannoli's. But I got more treats than I bargained for as the hotel sent me up a balloon and some brownies for my birthday!

Being 23 (as of Thursday), I'm at an age where I don't get to really dress up much - I'm too old for prom but still a bit young for my friends to be getting married. So when Mum invited me as her plus one to the Slimming World Oscars (she works at their head office), I was really excited to get all dressed up. I've always loved Chi Chi London dresses and they were the first brand I thought of when I knew I needed something fancy. And they didn't let me down. This dress is a gorgeous champagne colour with mesh floral navy overlay and lots of floaty layers - there's a flexible wire in the hem that gives it that bit of flare. I added champagne coloured heels and lots of gold jewellery, before me and mum (who looked gorgeous in an equally fancy frock) headed down to the hotel bar to enjoy some cocktails, also given to us for free for my birthday.

Hosted at the ICC, the awards night was spectacular and they'd really done it nicely. We started with a prosecco drinks reception in the foyer and then went in to our tables (where they'd given us some cute branded lollipops). The night was a weird way around because normally you'd have dinner and then do the awards but they did the awards first (after a dance group performance and a segment from a Strictly come dancing winner). So by the time the starters finally came out, it was like half 9!! Everyone was completely starving, which explains why some people actually ate the starter. Honestly it was minging; a red pepper terrine which was made with gelatin and literally looked like cat food (the second someone pointed that out I couldn't eat any more). But the main was lovely and the dessert was amazing so the food was getting progressively better as the night went on.

Then the rest of the night was really good fun; there was a full monty style routine from some of the head office staff members, an old-fashioned singing group (we must've had can't take my eyes off of you about 4 times) and then a DJ who brought out all the classics like the cha cha slide and the macarena.

We weren't staying in Birmingham for Sunday but we did treat ourselves to a really nice breakfast before we left. Cafe Rouge may be a chain (not normally a fan) but the one in Brindley place is really pretty and we don't have one in Nottingham so I allowed it. One dish is simply not enough so we both got a sweet and a savoury each and all of the food was amazing.

Even though we'd had a lovely girly weekend, it wouldn't be right to leave the boys alone on Father's day - a celebration which officially ends my birthday each year. Obviously we spent it at the pub - because apparently I hadn't had enough to drink last week. Needless to say, tonight has been spent at the gym.