Life Diary : My 18th Birth Week

Wow. I'm officially an adult. Somehow saying that is so strange but also feels so right. I know that might sound cringey but I have seriously noticed a change in my behaviour and my general aspect/view on life recently. I'm not saying as soon as I turned 18 I became someone completely different; I just feel like my views, opinions and approach to certain things have altered from about February onwards. Oooops, I'm off track - maybe we should save this little reflection for a separate post? Anyway, to put things straight, I've decided to document (what I described as my) 'Birth Week' through photos, videos and writing a little summary over on this space. Look out for my coinciding 'Birth Week' vlog over on my Youtube channel, alongside my 'What I Got for My 18th' video...

I think this will be a long one, I got up to a lot of things over the course of the week. Let me know what you did for your 18th birthday or what you plan to do in the comments below. I would love to get to know you guys more :)

MONDAY

Unfortunately, Monday morning wasn't the perfect start to my incredibly hyped-up birthday week. I had work...I woke up at 5, had a shower, got in the car and drove to work for half 6. Very fun, I know...The day went really slow and I ended up completing a tedious 12 hour shift. However, my evening brightened up my day as my best friend, Megan, and I were preparing our picnic for the following morning. After getting home from work, I threw on some comfortable clothes and picked up Megan. We bought a lot of ingredients and food for our picnic as we wanted to make it really special. Overall, we managed to find the time to make chocolate and sprinkle covered cake pops, brownies, chocolate covered strawberries, berry-infused lemonade and berry and lemonade ice lollies to freeze overnight. Of course, being girls who giggle uncontrollably, we had a lot of laughs when making our treats and I had such a lovely time catching up with Megan on life (we both go to separate schools so don't see each other 24/7). To treat ourselves after a very hectic evening in preparation for our picnic, we decided to make ourselves some herbal tea (more to come on these soon, they were gorgeous!), relax, have a chat and put on some incredibly hydrating face masks from Nugg. Let's just say, it didn't take very long for us to fall asleep...

TUESDAY

Waking up crazy early by a screeching crow was probably not the best 'wake-up call'; however, probably worked out better for us to get cracking and sort out our picnic. It was impossible for us to take the berry ice lollies with us so we had one before taking off. They were so refreshing and fruity - I know these will definitely go down well next Summer. Megan made us adorable and classic triangle-shaped sandwiches and toasted pitta to add to our enormous basket of goodies. I love this beautiful picnic basket my Nan kindly lent us - there is so much room, it is the perfect size and has buckles to attach any wanted cutlery, which is super handy. We decided on a spot just next to the lake - it was a very quiet area with little people and a beautiful view. In our younger years, Megan and I always used to go to Sywell Park so we quickly came flooding back with memories when we arrived. Seeing as we had no breakfast, we wanted to eat straight away then pack everything into the car before a walk around the lake. Our food display was delicious! The lakeside walk made me reminisce a lot; however, I never remembered being so tired and exhausted afterwards. In the later part of the day, I headed over to my Nan and Grandad's house as they told me they needed to show me something. They bought me a dusty pink, silver-glittered playsuit which I knew would be perfect for my family party on Saturday (you will see this later), as an added present. How kind of them?! To finish off this busy, yet relaxing day, Megan, Lucia and I drove to town to get our nails pampered. I opted for a very Autumnal colour - a deep chocolate brown to coincide with my favourite season.

WEDNESDAY

Today was my boyfriend's 'assigned' day ;) We wanted to try and do as much as possible so we started by heading to a local supermarket to buy rocky road ingredients. If you've been an avid reader of my blog, you will know that my boyfriend and I love to cook and bake. Strangely, we've never gone down the rocky road route - I have no idea why because we both LOVE it! Evidently, this didn't take too long to make as the cooling process was the section that took much longer. We sat around watching Youtube videos and made ourselves a small bite to eat. Around 2 o'clock, Aidan and I ventured down to our local bowling alley. Another strange thing, we haven't been here either - we are a very competitive couple and always want to win against each other. We have played a lot of bowling before but somehow never been to our local one. The games went relatively quickly - Aidan won the first game and I won the second - we need a decider now!!! Fortunately, I managed to catch some cool bowling footage on my camera (which you can see on my birthday week vlog up NOW). In the evening, Aidan and I went to one of our favourite dining places - Bella Italia. I am a very fussy eater but Italian pizza is my one true love. The lighting isn't the most flattering on people in restaurant but I love the interior and authenticity. For starters, I went for the mini ciabatta rolls baked in garlic butter whereas Aidan opted for Polpette. The service is always incredible in Italian restaurants; I always find that everything is so swift and the personal service is extremely polite. Then for our main course, I composed my own pizza - margherita with seasoned chicken and broccoli - with a side of fries. Aidan went for the beef and red wine ravioli, also with a side of fries. Our night was perfectly concluded with a catch-up on the Great British Bake Off. We only started watching this year and absolutely LOVE it!

THURSDAY

My week so far had been so jam-packed and quite frankly, I was exhausted. I absolutely loved having this really chilled day with my best friend Jess - eating shitty food and watching/making/editing videos. Jess arrived at my house around 11 o'clock and we almost instantly ordered pizza. Both being super hungry, we ordered a large Domino's pizza...EACH! So yummy...I love having cold, left-over pizza the following day (fun but gross fact about me!). The whole of our day was spent creating videos - Jess and I both love Youtube and the filming aspect so wanted to make a LOT. We filmed 3 videos, edited one together and had such a laugh. It was so lovely having someone on my channel to bounce off - I feel like you guys can get more of my personality that way. Make sure to check out our video together over on my Youtube channel - there will definitely be a lot more to come of us :) 

FRIDAY

One of my favourite day trips have to be the zoo. I honestly find animals so interesting and beautiful; I love the diversity between each species, as sad as that sounds. However, don't get me wrong, I know the zoo isn't the best place for a lot of animals. I did feel really bad when I thought an enclosure was too small and unfair on an animal's original habitat but also glad that some were there so that they can be cared for accordingly. Most definitely, Whipsnade Zoo is one of the best zoo's I've been too - the variety of animals was crazy and the attraction is located in a nice area. My favourite animals were the penguins and the meerkats. I witnessed (and caught on camera) a penguin fight which was absolutely mental and I loved watching the meerkats run around and climb over their little rocks. It was nice to spend the day with family admiring the beautiful wildlife and having a chilled day walking around the park. Near the end of the zoo day, we went to the farmyard area, petted some of the goats and had a peek in the butterfly garden. The butterfly house was incredible - I just wanted one to land on me; my favourite ones had these cool transparent wings! After a tiresome day walking around, I slept the majority of the way home. My boyfriend and I went out for a meal when we got back, where we both had southern fried chicken burgers...mmm!

SATURDAY

Finally, the day I had been waiting for. Although this wasn't actually my birthday, I couldn't wait for this day to arrive. All of my family, best friends and boyfriend were going to be in the same place...all at once! I love when everyone is brought together - it was incredible being about to talk to all of my favourite people in the same day. The morning started with frantic decorating - Jess and I got to my grandparents' house early (the generous hosts) to decorate with balloons, sequins etc and lay out all of the goodies. My dad brought round all of the hot food dishes he'd made for everyone, as my mum worked on my gorgeous cake. My mum is amazing at buttercream cakes and decorating - she also got me sugar paper makeup to put on my cake, so cute! For my makeup, I matched my outfit - silver glitter on the lid and a muted pink in the crease. Jess bought MAC Stone, which I have wanted for a long time, so I popped a bit of this on and it matched my outfit perfectly. I accessorized with simplistic silver jewellery - a pair of diamonte silver hooped earrings and my silver Swarovski ring. Something major happened just before the party actually began...Basically, my nan started dancing to 'Cotton Eyed Joe', fell and broke her hip. Fortunately, she has had a replacement and is home, recovering but it was such a shock at the time for everyone there. However, my Nan insisted on carrying the day on because she didn't want to ruin it - bless her little heart. The rest of the day and evening consisted of fun party games, a quiz, lots of eating, drinking and dancing. I won one of the party games and my prize was drinking goggles...I hate to say it but I loved them! The night finished with my family all singing 'Happy Birthday' to me at midnight and popping tonnes of party poppers over me :)

SUNDAY

The finale to my week...MY BIRTHDAY. Noone will ever be able to comprehend how grateful, thankful and loved I felt this day. I was overwhelmed by the amount of gifts, love and people who cared for me. The presents I received were unreal - just to name a few, I'm going on a long weekend to Paris with my boyfriend, I got a Tiffany Necklace, personalised cakes, a spa treatment, handbags, jewellery, a West End perfomance and so many incredible things. Thank you to everyone who sent me a card, birthday wish or present! My parents completely surprised me by buying me a CAR! I can't believe it, I will have my first ever car in the next few weeks - we are still searching for one though. The last part of my birth week was spent opening presents, thanking family and friends, visiting my Nan in hospital and knocking out on my bed at home. 

Sorry for the long post. I hope you enjoyed! See you soon :) 

Lots of love