It’s my birthday today!

It’s my birthday today! I’m  24 years young and pretty damn happy about it – there won’t be a full post today because sadly I’m at work after a weekend at a festival – so feeling a little delicate and knackered! Plus it’s raining! It never rains on my birthday – think the weather is sympathising with me being at work after the beautiful weekend. But despite all of this, I have a smile on my face and I’m feeling pretty good! I’ve got some old school soul boosting my mood with a cracker of a happy birthday song that my friend sent me and thought I’d share it with you:

Gorgeous right? Just what I needed this morning to pick me up. Now I’m looking forward to getting home, having a big glass of wine and putting my feet up. In the meantime, I’ve been thinking about how much things have changed over the last few years and how even with a pretty rough start to the year, I’m a very lucky girl. So here’s a big thank you to all of the people who have made these last 24 years amazing – here are just some of the ones who have made a big difference to my life more recently:

• My beautiful best friends who have been there through the very worst and best of times. In the last few years I have never been more grateful for them and in the last 12 months I have seen one happily married and the other making huge plans for the future. With all of our birthdays within a few weeks of each other, I’m pretty sure 24 is going to be good for all of us!
• My family who have helped me make one of the biggest decisions of my life, to completely up sticks and travel across the world, leaving my job and everyone behind. It is simultaneously the scariest and most exciting thing I have ever done and I’m so grateful for all their help in making this decision and plans.
• My boyfriend, who still after eight years puts a big smile on my face and knows exactly how to make me feel better post-festival with pizza and Homeland.
• My girls – for the first time in my life I actually have a massive group of girl mates who actually outnumber my boy mates! They again have been there through thick and thin and can always be called on for a great laugh and plenty of fun – something I have been much in need of after the last few months!
• My festival buddies – without you last summer would have been boring as hell, I love you all for dancing with me until the sun comes up and for making that walk home after a long night still laughing about absolutely nothing. This summer will no doubt be just as amazing because it will be spent with you all again and I can’t wait.
• My fellow bloggers – you know exactly who you are, the wonderful friends I have made through this blog. The ones who comment on every post and keep me wanting to write more, the ones who have made me feel part of the blogging community and the ones who have proved how amazing it is to be a blogger.

There are lots more people I could be thanking but it’s my birthday and I’m sure you already know who you are. In the meantime – here’s to the next 24 years! Gulp, I’ll be nearly 50 then!

A Big Apple birthday celebration

Last Friday, my parents and I jetted off to New York for a week of celebrations for my mum’s 50th birthday and for a chance to catch up with my sister who is studying fashion over there at the moment. It was an amazing trip – I still can’t believe how much we packed in and it certainly hasn’t sunk in that I’m back home – and a fitting celebration for my mum’s birthday! We started the celebrations early with presents and cake on the Thursday night as a surprise for mum before we set off in the early hours to Heathrow. She was spoilt with lots of lovely presents including jewellery, a pair of Ray Bans and lots of other treats, but the best present had to be the smallest one – a birthday badge I got for her which helped us out with lots of lovely freebies over the week!

At the airport we continued the celebrations with a gorgeous breakfast of smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and Prosecco, which definitely got us in the holiday mood and helped stave off the boredom when we ended up being early for our flight. Didn’t stop us spending a fortune on make-up and perfume in Duty Free though! The flight was great and with mum wearing her birthday badge we were treated to warm chocolate chip cookies from first class and constant top ups of wine and coffee – star treatment!

After the flight, we were excited to arrive in the Big Apple and to see the Manhattan skyline, we hopped in a taxi and arrived at the hotel where were greeted by the lovely chap on the front desk who straight away spotted mum’s badge and promptly went about reorganising the rooms so that we were all upgraded – mum and dad to a Queen-size room with a great view, while I was a few floors down in a King-size. What a treat! The rooms were lush and it was really lovely that he went to such lengths to treat mum for her birthday – more than you would ever get in the UK!

An hour later we were joined by my sister who had come straight from college with a gorgeous Red Velvet birthday cake for mum – I tell you it was absolutely divine! The best Red Velvet cake I have ever tried. And mum was so surprised when she opened the hotel room to find us waiting to sing her Happy Birthday with cake and more Prosecco! We just had to dive into the cake there and then while we had a catch-up, then a bit later headed out to Times Square for dinner.

The birthday celebrations continued all week but we decided the birthday meal was to take place in our favourite restaurant in Little Italy – we have returned on four holidays in a row now because it is just so good! Mum finally got the incredible carbonara she had been craving, along with a nice glass of red wine. Here’s the birthday girl loving life in the restaurant – 50 years young!

How Instagram took over the world in just three years – and how I am a total addict!

How Instagram took over the world in just three years

I’m Lucy, and I’m addicted to Instagram.

I’ve always been an avid photo-taker. On nights out, I was always the one who caught every moment on camera and my friends dreaded the eventual upload of the pictures to Facebook. But the discovery of Instagram has definitely encouraged this habit, not just on nights out, but in everyday life! Now, although not big on selfies, I am constantly updating my Instagram with pictures of myself, my friends and whatever I happen to be up to on that particular day. I don’t think there is anything wrong with this, and it certainly helps to update my blog if I capture the pictures as I go along, but it makes me wonder what I used to do before Instagram – just three short years ago!

I find it amazing that an app can so affect how we live our lives in such a short time – Facebook and Twitter did a similar thing and I find it fascinating how our lives just seem to envelope such technology and adapt to fit it in. It makes me wonder just what the next addition could possibly be!