Birthday bae

Ollie clearly got dealt the best hand in life when it comes to girlfriends (duh hello) but not so much on the lockdown birthday front. There, he definitely drew the short straw as he's just celebrated his second birthday of the pubs being shut. Regardless though, we still managed to have a fab time celebrating, starting with drinks and an amazing Chinese takeaway on Friday night.

Our takeaway choices are kind of limited since we live in the countryside (Ollie insists it isn't the countryside but I literally saw a horse in the field next to us the other day). Fish and chips, pizza, Chinese or Indian - that's pretty much our lot. So trying to make an occasion special can make selecting food awkward. But luckily I stumbled across a place called The Factory Kitchen online. It's a fine-dining-for-normal-people place where the chef has worked in some really fancy places and then returned to his hometown to open his own place at a more affordable price. Through lockdown, they've been offering at-home meal kits (where the stuff is mostly prepared and you finish it at home), takeaway coffee and waffles. We'd already planned to do the meal kits on Sunday night so when we collected them on Saturday, we couldn't resist sampling the rest of what they offered and got lattes and a rhubarb and custard waffle.

My outfit from Saturday has kind of a funny story behind it. Spring time is naturally the season for a light jacket and I wanted a cropped, fitted black one that would go with everything. I loved the look of this boohoo one with slight bell sleeves and cord fabric and at only £20 I thought it was great value. It turned out I got more than I bargained for because it was actually £20 for the co ord set so I got a skirt I wasn't expecting! And it's great because I love the set together and I also love both pieces individually and know they'll go with loads so it's a great staple purchase (that I wasn't fully aware of). I wore it with black tights (I'm not quite in bare leg season yet), nude bodysuit (ASOS) and nude suede boots. I finished the look with lots of statement gold jewellery; chunky chain necklace, flower earrings, rings and feather hair slide.

Sunday was Ollie's actual birthday so naturally I went all out from AM to PM, starting with presents, a full english and cake (baked by yours truly). I haven't baked in ages so it was fun making this biscoff overload cake. I followed this recipe but used the crunchy biscoff spread instead of the smooth. It was initially only because that was the only one in the supermarket but I actually think it probably worked out better! I also used the biscoff sandwich creams instead of the regular biscuits and went off book a little with the decorating!

Sunday night was date night this week and when I got ready, Ollie said I looked like a sexy Henry VIII (which I will take). I'm loving all things puffed/statement sleeve lately and this was one of my latest purchases from ASOS. I love the sweetheart neckline and the flattering fit and it was even on sale! I paired it with a burgundy bandage skirt, zebra heels and queen bee earrings.

Then it was time for the meal kits! It was all packaged up really nicely and it came with some pretty good instructions with a bit of personal touch from the chef (what he'd recommend etc). The instructions weren't totally fool proof though. It said things like 'cook the fish until golden brown' but without any indication of time so when you're trying to time two dishes right, I'd say you would need at least some knowledge of cooking to be able to follow these. We had wild mushroom fricasse on rosemary foccacia with smoked egg yolk for starters, then for mains I had an Asian monkfish dish with the most amazing mussel and saffron sauce and Ollie had slow cooked beef with truffle mash and an elderberry and red wine gravy. For anyone thinking of doing one of these, I'd consider both having the same dish. Trying to coordinate two different main elements, two different carbs, two different vegs and two different sauces had me in a bit of a fluster! Remind me to cross 'chef' off my list of possible future careers. But I managed it and the food was amazing! We were actually so full that we had to have the desserts the next day but they were amazing too. We shared an earl grey pannacotta with blood orange and thyme syrup, and a salted caramel ganache with popcorn and popcorn ice cream. And the whole meal went down beautifully with chambord royales and gin cocktails!

After lots of drinks all weekend, we were very glad we'd both booked Monday off work! Cue a chill day of wandering round the garden centre (because you know, they're the only thing open), getting a starbucks and filling up on more cake. Well, you do only get one birthday a year.