My 33rd Birthday Bonanza

Tomato Growbag Covers from the OutLaws

To say I was spoilt for my birthday this year would be such a gross understatement but I cannot think of any other term for it. I often say as a compliment to people that you can judge a person by their friends. If I live by that statement, then I am a pretty fantastic person.

Bird Cage String Lights, also from the OutLaws.

Having flicked through the pages of two issues of Mollie Makes and two issues of Making Magazine on Wednesday, my friend Emma declared to me, “I’ve always wanted to learn soap making”.
I thought it might be too soon for her, but I knew that there was a soap making course being run on my birthday at The Sustainability Centre where we buried William. The main reason Steve and Emma chose that centre above any other woodland burial site was the positive things that go on there, it is so much more than just a burial site.
Anyway, I took the plunge and mentioned it, and Emma was dead excited by the idea so we were booked on as quickly as we could be.

Stunning Half Apron

What this meant was that I was going to have to spread my birthday out a little. On Friday at A Crafty Coffee, Karen gave me the most beautiful homemade half apron with the cutest pockets. I think the fabrics are all Tanya Whelan and/or Amy Butler fabrics. It’s just such a generous gifts, not so much because of the expensive fabrics, but more so the time spent selecting a pattern and making something like that for me, something that I will really enjoy. I am so touched.
That evening, with the party started, I opened a parcel that had come in the post from my sister and nephew. They had been shopping on the Hotel Chocolat site but had thought of something that I would never have thought of. They got an end of season sale gift, meaning I got 175g of chocolate instead of 85g … brilliant thinking huh?
I guess the downside was that I had eaten about 100g before my birthday had even arrived!

My Family in a Tent

Including Our Gnome

Saturday started well, we planned to go to my folks for a barbie and time in the hot tub. As I arrived at the passenger seat of the car, I discovered a cake box where I needed to put my butt! I squealed with excitement and asked if I could peep at it. My friend Anna of Entice Celebration cakes (watch this space) had made a little A-frame tent cake complete with bunting, hamper, vase of flowers and gnome! A little icing gnome. It was not only magnificent looking, it tasted delicious too!
Mum appeared keen for me to open my pressies which I would usually save until the day but given that I had to be out at 8.30am and was not planning on being back before 5pm I agreed that it would be nice to have them early.
My brother’s girlfriend (and my brother of course, but given that he is working in Paris I doubt whether he had a hand in the purchasing) had got me the blingiest, sparkliest ring ever and these fantastic sparkly stud earrings too, all in shades of green … you all remember how I love green?
Mum and Dad gave me a Cath Kidston dress, some little Soap and Glory lotions and potions and some beautiful drop earrings. I’m telling you, I have seldom been so spoilt.

Then, the evening before my birthday I had David Tennant on the doorstep. Yes, you read that right.
My comedic friend Claire brought round an almost life sized cardboard cutout with a card attached as she knows that I find DT particularly pleasing to the eye.
After I had got over that hilarity, and settled down for the evening … another friend, Stephanie, came over with a stack of homebaked chocolate brownies and a bottle of Prosecco. I didn’t find out until the next day that she had also enclosed a birthday candle so we lit that at tea time on the big day.

So you’d think, with all that spoiling already, there would be no surprises or treats left. Wrong. I was up, dressed and out of the house at 8.40am, not bad, only 10 minutes later than advertised. Emma and I drove the scenic route out to Petersfield (ish) which was wise because the rain was incessant and not conducive to motorway driving. Anyway, when we got there we were a few minutes early so Emma gave me to beautifully tissue wrapped and wired ribbon tied gifts. She’s a bit of a book worm, so if you get something book shaped from her it will have been a) carefull selected especially for you and b) rigorously vetted through Amazon reviews before purchase. I got Food for Free and Hedgerow, River Cottage Handbook No7. They are amazing and have inspired me to look way beyond the elderflowers, elderberries, blackberries and apples that I have picked up thus far in God’s pantry.

Of course, we then had the day of learning soap making. A certified course which, at £65 per head promised to be very worthwhile. And it was. But not in the way I was expecting. Our teacher was like something out of a sitcom, she didn’t have all of her equipment ready, she hadn’t prepared enough photocopies of the information sheets, she spoke slowly, quietly and with absolutely zero enthusiam or passion about the subject of soap making, or anything else for that matter. And to make matters worse, she couldn’t answer any of the questions the group posed to her, there were only seven of us and we were all novices, so with her 10 years of soap making experience behind her I was expecting a fully knowledgeable patter.
I would like to be able to say my expectations were too high, that I was being unreasonable, but one of the other course participants said at one point, “it’s like the blind leading the blind”.
Now, you may be forgiven for assuming from this little rant that I have come away feeling like I wasted my £65 but you’d be mistaken. Between the seven of us, we had enough scientific knowledge, enough enthusiasm, enough communication skills, enough curiosity and had completed enough soap making swotting-up to be able to tutor ourselves.
Emma and I will look into making soaps ourselves first, and then running small group courses for A Crafty Coffee members to see how we get on, we came away really boosted that we were skilled and gifted enough to impart our new found knowledge with charismatic teaching styles.

Soaps from the Soap Making Course

And so we arrive at the end of my birthday weekend, DD poured me a cider and brought presents over for me to open from my nuclear family. My Darling Husband had bought me a subscription to Mollie Makes so I don’t have to hunt down each issue individually now. My Son had requested that they buy me ‘grown-up apple juice’ which was locally produce here in Hampshire. My Daughter had selected Cath Kidston Rose Handwash and Lotion in a pretty little bag. I was delighted by all three.

Grown-Up Apple Juice

Just a final paragraph to point out that the listing of the gifts was not a gloat, but a reminder to me of how thoughtful those around me can be, and how worthwhile I must be as a friend at times, even when I feel like I am a waste of the air that I breathe … I am loved.