So this last Tuesday I turned 25. I'm not going to lie, I don't think I'm taking it overly well... I think I'm having a bit of a mid-mid-life crisis. But never mind that, I'll get over it soon - like Maggie says "Stop whining and find something to do!".

It was the first year I worked on my birthday which was quite odd, I didn't like it to be honest despite getting lovely gifts from my co-workers and my Dad popping in to bring me some lovely pink roses. I think it felt like I only had an evening of celebrating rather than a whole day - what a brat I am!!!

We had a lovely birthday dinner at my parent's place. My Mum made her gorgeous watercress soup, and Dad did a lovely tuna and rice puff pastry pie with a creamy parsley sauce, a very old fashioned recipe that was one of my favourites when I was younger. My sister baked me up our Great Aunt Marcia's ginger cake recipe which is always delicious especial when the weather turns colder.

We also had dinner at Carluccio's with Pete's parents and had a lovely night on Saturday with friends having a few celebratory drinks at our house.

I was a very lucky lady and got some fabulous presents too. Pete bought me La Petite Robe Noir, Guerlain's new perfume and a Hendricks gin afternoon tea in London! We're going to head down at the start of December to wander through some festive department stores and eat lots of delicious treats!

My sister bought me a lovely metallic lilac Barry M nail polish, a wonderful peachy pink Yves Saint Laurent lipstick and some candy corn Oreos and her boyfriend Stef got me a big candy cane scented candle jar that smells fab.

I got some lovely other bits and bobs from other family and friends including Coco Mademoiselle body mist and another lovely lilac nail polish from my best friend Sarah and a spangly Betsey Johnson knitted bow scarf from Pete's parents. They also got me some lovely high waisted jeans and pretty kitchen equipment.

My lovely friend Anne gave me a gorgeous drawing of my cat Cleo that you can see in this post and my lovely tattooist friend James gave me a voucher to do some work on getting my arm tattoo coloured and finished!

I also treated myself to a new handbag by Ted Baker as my faithful old Paul's Boutique doctors bag had finally given up the game. I ordered it from Littlewoods, but they (and everywhere other than the Amazon link above) appear to have sold out in the black now and only have the pale pink, purple and red versions left.

I also ordered a lovely PU biker jacket from Simply Be, although once again this has now sold out in most sizes. I never want to take my long Winter coat on nights out and as much as I kid myself that my lace jacket keeps me warm it just doesn't, so a casual bit of outerwear is much needed and this one fit the bill perfectly as I can wear it with dresses or jeans on the rare occasion that I wear them out of the house!!!

 

So, I have some amazing super creative friends. Lots of them in fact, which means I'm very lucky. I love the fact that my friends are one of my biggest sources of inspiration in not only my work but in my life. Your friends affect so many things in your life be it your manners and how you treat others, your style, your outlook on life and even what you eat and how you speak. So you can see, it is wonderful to have clever and talented friends to share experiences and ideas with.

My friend Anne is a fabulous artist, and every time I see her I go away just itching to get back to my sketch book. Working two jobs can sometimes make it hard for me to find the impitous or the imagination needed for drawing and painting, so talking to other artists gives me that little push I need.

Anne is a graduate of Fine Art at Nottingham Trent university and currently lives in Leicester with her boyfriend (and good friends of mine and Pete's) James who tattoos at The Ink Surgery. For my birthday this year she gave me the amazing drawing of my cat Cleo that you can see at the top of this post, it's so beautiful I can't wait to get it framed and on the wall!

As you can see from this little selection, Anne's work is delicate and feminine with lovely textures and small details that really bring each piece to life.