Birthday Coords

The beginning of the year for me always means birthday stuff. It can be a bit dreary sometimes, as everyone’s either on a diet or saving money after Christmas, so I try to squeeze as much out of it as possible. This often involves frilling up because if you can’t dress up for your birthday, then what’s even the point, right? This time I was lucky to get two opportunities to do so, so you bet that I took them! 

| Alice and the Pirates Sugar Plum Fairy Princess JSK | Chess Story The Secret Key of Elves blouse | Innocent World Pearl Ribbon OTKs | offbrand shoes | Triple Fortune headdress | Summer Tales Boutique Strike a Pose pin | vintage ring |

Don't lose your head!

Really struggled with a selfie that evening.

This is the best one, but it doesn't crop well to square format. But it does show off the ring, at least.

I wanted to give some coloured looks with this dress a try and this was as good an occasion as any. This coord is relatively fancy because of the drama coming from the sleeves, though at the same time fairly simple, with only a couple of pieces of accessories. The Triple Fortune headdress is super easy to just throw on, although I didn’t tie the ribbons properly enough and they came undone halfway through the evening. Luckily, the headdress is on alligator clips, so it wasn’t a big deal. What I’m particularly pleased with, which I only really have one picture of, is that I was able to use my Grandma’s ring with this. When she passed away, I was given a few items of her jewellery – her style was very different to mine, so they are mostly sentimental pieces. But that night I looked at my rings and this one was just perfect. It’s one I do remember her wearing a lot when she was going out, which made this outfit that little bit extra special. 

As my birthday fell on a Wednesday, there wasn’t much to do on the day itself. However, past me made myself a present of buying tickets to see Six, a musical about Henry VIII’s wives as if they were a girl group. So my plans after work were to have dinner and then see that. 

Sadly, the evening got off to a stressful start. I decided to take the bus instead of a tram, as Google told me that one would arrive soon and that stop is a little nearer. Well, good 20 minutes later, after two buses were supposed to show up, I begrudgingly ordered myself an Uber, as walking to the tram stop would take too long and I didn’t eat so that I could have dinner out and I really needed to have something before the show. Then, although the restaurant I went to is normally pretty fast with orders, other theatregoers must’ve had the same idea because it was quite busy. I burnt my mouth a little, trying to eat as quickly as I could and while I managed to finish, pay and get to the theatre on time, it meant that I couldn’t enjoy my meal as much as I wanted (and definitely had no time for dessert, although there wasn’t much that appealed to me either). 

Still managed to be that gurl taking pictures of the food. It was nice, I was simply in too much of a rush to enjoy it.

However, the show more than made up for the stress and upset. Not only my cheap seat turned out to be really good (am I really that lucky with seats or are theatres set up that way?), but the musical itself was absolute PERFECTION! You may have already guessed that I’m slightly obsessed with Henry VIII, so this was right up my alley anyway. Still, the way the show was done, from the script to casting, from costumes to lighting, was absolutely superb. This definitely felt more like attending a girl group concert with a bit of plot rather than a more typical musical and that format worked great for the stories of the wives. I loved all the very subtle pop culture and girl group references, the tongue in cheek humour, the references to contemporary youth culture (particularly language) and ALL the history within it. I have laughed so hard, as well as cried a fair bit, and at the end the entire cast received a fully deserved standing ovation. The writing of Six kept with the concert vibes so much that they even did an encore and when I spotted a few people taking some sneaky pics and videos, I snapped a few too, but only those, as I wanted to enjoy the experience. So if Six ever comes to your area or you have a chance to see it somehow (and if it ever comes out on DVD, I am SO buying that), I wholeheartedly recommend it, it’s a solid 11/10! (I believe an Australian tour has just started?) 

I forgot that I got my ticket with a student discount - though I still would've gone without it.

That cast was amazing! I later learnt that thsi is the UK tour cast, which is different to the one who recorded the studio album, and I'm slightly sad that I can't listen to "my" queens.

*~*~* 

| Violet Fane Charming Town skirt | Axes Femme sweater | Violet Fane Antiguite tights | Sosic Shop shoes | Cutie Creator headbow | offbrand brooch |

That mirror is the best place at my boyfriend's to take outfit shots, but at least I got a very good selfie this time.

Taking a detail shot on a flatlay for a change. Just look at those textures!

Then at the weekend I visited my boyfriend. Originally this was supposed to be the weekend of his present for me as he booked me for a vintage makeover photoshoot, but the studio owner fell sick and they had to reschedule. So in the end I dragged him to a shopping centre near him for a chill day out. My main goals with this outfit were to pack as little a space possible, because I travelled straight after work, and to use some of my new Axes Femme bits. Because of this the coord ended up straddling the line between casual classic lolita and otome-kei fashion, high I’m totally ok with. This was very comfortable and chill, whilst still looking super cute. I couldn’t have asked for model, really. 

My shopping plans were simple: get someone tights from Primark and try out the new Ultraplant from Lush. Well, I kind of failed the first one, as Primark didn’t have the tights I wanted. I got some other ones instead, which turn out to not fit very well, and I indulged in buying a pair of Minnie’s Mouse sneakers on sale. I justified hem based on price, on them being flats, which surely means practical, and on the fact that I have one pair of shoes that I’ve worn to death and needed to throw out, so there’s was room on my shoe rack. However, I did win at Lush — not only I tried Ultraplant, but I completely resisted buying anything. That’s a total success! 

This was an acceptable use of £5.

After that we went to the cinema to see 1917, which we both absolutely loved. As you can surely imagine, it’s not light entertainment and the film deals with some pretty horrible themes, so it’s definitely one of those films you have to be in the mood for. However, once you are, it is absolutely worth it! The editing and filming teams have done a fantastic job with the ‘one cut’ execution (yes, if you want to be very pedantic and look for cuts, you’ll find them, but don’t be that person, just enjoy the experience), it makes the film more dynamic and aids immersion. The cast have also done a great job and while the famous cameos do feel like famous cameos, these are all A-grade actors, so it doesn’t detract from the fact that you see military officials through their famous faces. And as a bit of a film music score nerd, I enjoyed Thomas Newman’s work, it suited the mood of each scene perfectly and never took over the visual experience, but certainly added to it. Like I said, 1917 touches on a horrible moment in human history and it doesn’t shy away from showing you that, but it’s also not made for any kind of gore gratification. Any gory scenes are predominantly in the background and if you want to, you can choose to focus on the foreground and ignore it – you would be missing a big part of what made World War 1 the key point in history that it is, but the point is that it’s done tastefully and without taking away any realism. If you get a chance, I recommend seeing it in cinema, a big screen definitely enhances the viewing experience. 

Since we caught quite an early showing, we ended up going back before dinner. We were supposed to go to a completely different restaurant, but it turned out to be booked until pretty late and we had to find something else. There were places available, it’s just that in my head I was ready for that particular kind of food and didn’t really fancy settling for something else, but we had to. We ended up at an Italian restaurant, where I opted for a veggie pizza followed by a brownie. The pizza was delicious, though definitely best hot (I took some leftovers with me for next day’s lunch and it wasn’t quite the same), although my brownie was slightly more dry than I would’ve liked. Not sure whether it had more nuts in or whether it was made using a different flour, or whether it was simply a tad overbaked, but without that scoop of ice cream it would’ve been pretty hard to finish. 

It was a very nice pizza, though thin crust doesn't make for the best second day eating.

Looked nice, tasted ok, I'd only rate it a 5/10 (I'm also biased, I make way better brownies).

And that concluded my birthday activities and coords. Well, most of them. Like I said, the photoshoot had to be rescheduled (for February, pending confirmation), while my parents absolutely shocked me by following my wishlist and getting me tickets to see James Blunt in February. (I’m not sure if the rest of the world also has the same ‘love to hate’ relationship with James Blunt that the UK does, but I like him and am super excited!) So there will be more delayed birthday things happening next month – this is just what I’ve done so far. The only thing that could’ve improved my overall birthday experience would be getting a slice of nice cake, since I did not get any birthday cake and that brownie was disappointing. Hopefully the meet this Saturday will fix that!