Birthday goodies!

Well it's official - I am now 40! Although I have taught my small folk to tell people I am only 28 - it's not really lying, it's just a bit of creative maths. I had a fabulous birthday, lots of lovely gifts and treats. Don't you love these gorgeous measuring cups! My sister-in-law gave me these - little did she know I've had my eye on them for ages.



My dearest friend gave me the most wonderful bag of goodies including this delightful book. This is the book I was talking about in a previous post - where my body butter recipe originally came from it turns out. It is full of wonderful old fashioned tips, household hints and recipes. I'm really looking forward to having some quiet time next week when school goes back, so I can sit and have a really good read.

I was also given some gorgeous tea - a beautiful New Zealand Breakfast mix which I tried last night. It was absolutely beautiful. The other one is Earl Grey Blue Flower which is my all time favourite. Brewing a pot of this is just such a treat. Having it in a vintage tea cup makes it taste even better! So it is perfect timing that I am going to start making a beautiful tea cosy in the next week which I'm sure will make the tea taste better still. Can't wait to get started on it but it will have to wait a few more days while I finish off another project first.

High tea and a bit of crochet!

I finished my gorgeous scarf last night - and I absolutely adore it. Roll on winter I say! It was remarkably simple to make (once I got my head around the pattern) and looks much trickier than it was. As mentioned previously, this was a pattern on Ravelry by Kathryn Nunes called the Van Ness scarf. I have decided that I can be a bit blonde when it comes to following patterns. I don't just look at them and get it immediately - but then again I am fairly new to this crochet thing! I always get there in the end which is the important thing.

I tweaked the pattern slightly by leaving off the final few rows. I did them originally but I decided I didn't want the ends to flare out so much so I undid it and love the result. I think it looks fab. I'm off to buy more wool tomorrow to make one for a friend of mine. It was such a lovely pattern to work with - I highly recommend it. In total it probably took about 3 hours to complete. A brilliant last minute gift project perhaps?

Apologies to anyone who is currently in the middle of winter ... but this was just the most blissful hour on Friday. Sitting in the sun on Oriental Parade, looking like a bit of a nana with my crochet hook, but it really was just perfect.

It's now Sunday here and I'm trying my best to ignore the fact that today is officially my last day in my 30's - eeek - but I'm slowly embracing this momentous point in my life. As a bit of an early birthday celebration it seemed only right to leave my 30's with a nice nana-y high tea. Surrounded by wonderful family and friends, we ate and drank until we could hardly move. We had tea at the James Cook Hotel, on the 17th floor so the views were fabulous. The food was gorgeous and I secretly wish no one wanted their chocolate mousse as I really, really wanted to have more than just the one!! I am told that calories don't count when it's your birthday so phew, that's just as well. I will definitely go back there again with girlfriends - it was gorgeous. I've been to a few high teas around town, but the food, huge tea list and adorable staff made this just the perfect morning.