Birthday Presents & My Week

I've been getting so stressed lately. I've had a few appointments and things that have taken me out of the house and away from blogging. You miss a day or two and before you know it, you've got a backlog of posts, photos to edit, emails to reply to and blogs to read and comment on. You get into this frustrating cycle of trying to catch up but there's always new posts, so you never can. All the while in the back of your mind you're wondering if people are losing interest in your blog or think you're treating it half heartedly just to get the posts published and ticked off your to-do list purely because you feel like you're rushing through blogging and not giving enough time to taking photos and promoting through social media and all that jazz. My life has been hectic in and outside of blogging and not a good or happy hectic, so on Monday, I thought, that's it, enough is enough. I'm taking time to do nothing. Instead of chasing my tail which doesn't achieve anything, I'll really "do nothing" and so I spent the entire day in my jammies watching cheesy films that I've never seen before (LOL, New Year's Eve, What To Expect When You're Expecting and Beastly if you're wondering). It was brilliant and exactly what I needed. I wasn't worrying about work, it was completely stress free.
Yesterday I was still in my jammies, but I decided to tackle the blog posts I've missed over the past few weeks (bloglovin' is great for that). I managed to write comments on 38 posts (round of applause, thank you) and still have a ways to go, but thanks to Bloglovin' keeping me right, the remaining posts seem much less daunting (boy have I missed reading about your lives btw). For someone who isn't in the least bit OCD, I find I like things neat and in order in my mind, so this was a big achievement yesterday. I did end up watching Valentine's Day in the afternoon and then fell asleep for an hour because I was shattered, but a productive day nonetheless. Which brings me to today and my plan is to tackle my own blog posts that have been neglected and reply to your comments. Starting with some snaps of my birthday pressies this year throughout this post and how much do we love the 'when I grow up' pony to unicorn card my l'il sis got me? Adorable! The Gorjuss mermaid one, my Mum made for me (she's very into crafting and card making).
My birthday was bleurgh this year! For the past few years, I've not only had non-eventful, but in most cases actually disastrous or chaotic birthdays! This year, I spent most of the day alone until my sister called at lunchtime to say she was getting away from work early (she was supposed to be off, but at the last minute had to go in). I was knackered, grumpy and still in my pj's and in no mood to celebrate. It was a lovely day though, so we went out for a walk in the afternoon with the wheelchair (very quick outfit post coming soon on TSGD). I feel guilty if I don't take advantage of nice weather, seeing as it's few and far between right now, but at the same time I've just been so tired that I've not felt up to going out. My wee sis has tried her hardest to make this birthday work (bless her) and got me a lovely Disney Fairies cake, put up unicorn birthday banners and brought me home this huge piece of tiffin (which I looooove) from Bibi's.
Anyway the next day my sister was off, so we planned to go and see an afternoon screening of Epic. We saw Rise Of The Guardians last year and as this is much the same we thought we'd like it. It was brilliant (so beautiful) and I really enjoyed it.
My other sister had been mucking us around all day with the 'we might be through to see you at some point' vagueness that she's so good at (!), so I'm glad we stuck to our guns and just did what we wanted to do, even if we did spend an hour afterwards waiting for big sis to arrive! She, by the way, bought me shoes. She wanted to attempt and get me something other than money and although I commend her efforts and it was sweet of her to try, the shoes had like a 2" heel and were just not to my taste at all. We like the complete opposites and she struggles to walk in 1" heels, so it was almost doomed from the start! I couldn't actually get the zip pulled up at the back anyway, so she's returning them. I felt guilty, but she did say I had to be honest about them and it was actually a stroke of luck that they didn't fit. She also got me a jewelled hair clip, that I wore the other day and it's so pretty on.
My little sister got me Rainbow Dash from the new My Little Pony range at Build a Bear. I'd known for weeks that I was getting it, but completely forgot in the run-up! She also got me a unicorn that drops sprinkles for cakes out of it's ass, because everyone needs one of those right?
Among other things from my parents who were and still are on holiday (they miss my b'day every year, tut tut), I got this amazing teal clutch with sparkly skull. The skull is huge, I wasn't sure if I captured the depth of it in my images, it's really massive. I also got this air-balloon necklace, pen and amazing bag covered in vintage inspired sewing pieces, it's so cool! I think it's supposed to be a makeup bag, but I'd like to use it as a clutch because it seems a waste to hide it away.  
Seeing as my parents weren't around and not much else was happening, my friend had said she'd come down to visit on the Sunday and we'd go out for lunch. I don't get out much, so this was a bit of excitement for me. This was her first time driving long-distance alone with her daughter, so we had it all planned with the best times for her to be driving (and the baby sleeping) and when she'd need fed etc. It's always a struggle in town to get parked and especially as I can't walk very far, I really need to be parked right outside where we're going. I didn't bother to book anything just incase we couldn't get parked and thought it was better to keep our options open of where to go. I was anxious about it all week, because it was the bank holiday weekend and the weather was nice, so the town had been busy and I knew my friend would get cranky if we had to drive around and muck up her daughters routine (even if it wasn't my fault). Plus because I'd had the dentist and cinema etc beforehand, I was tired and not feeling like getting dressed up and chatting and smiling all day, as much as I appreciated her making the effort.  So we'd messaged on Facebook the night before and she was due to arrive around 11am which if I'm honest is very early for me to get up and dressed, but it worked for her. Anyway, I was quite impressed that I wasn't rushing last minute and by quarter to eleven was all ready to go.
My friend doesn't get reception on her mobile at home, so I didn't expect to hear from her. Come half 11 though, I started to wonder where she was. She'd mentioned her baby would need to eat at 12, so I wondered if she'd been running late and stopped to breast-feed and would be here after 12. Twelve came and went as did one and by then I was getting really worried. As I knew she was driving alone, I feared the baby had distracted her and something had happened, so although I hate texting people when they're driving, I didn't have much choice. Still no reply. If she'd been unable to make it, she would've phoned right?  There was no message on the landline, no missed calls or texts, so by quarter to 2 I began to fire up the computer to see if she'd said anything on Facebook.
I have to admit, I was at the point of not wanting her to come, because I had no energy left and the thought of acting all cheerful was filling me with dread!  I was tired and cranky (not to mention starving) as I'd literally been sitting waiting for 3 hours with nobody home and no tv or computer on as I'd expected her to arrive any second. I eventually got on FB and there's a message from her at half 8 in the morning, saying she can't make it because her and the baby have a stomach bug. I. Was. Fuming! Well first of all, I was relieved nothing had happened to her and illness can't be helped, but it was the way she handled it. She has a landline, so all she had to do was leave a message on my phone (landline or mobile) because you can't just assume someone will log onto FB especially if you know they'll be rushing around and probably won't have time, plus we'd already confirmed arrangements just a few hours previous, so I wasn't expecting a change in plans.  She knows the effort it takes for me to get ready, so I would've thought she'd have tried to spare me that, by letting me know of the change as soon as she could and making sure I heard!  Seeing as I never replied to the FB message, she would know I hadn't got it and should have tried calling. I was sooo angry and sooo pissed off. I'd wasted my time getting ready (talk about being all dressed up with and nowhere to go) and not only that, I'd wasted hours doing nothing when I could've been working and was tired from getting up early and sitting uncomfortably. I had put my older sister off coming on Sunday as I'd had plans, plus my little sis had run around hoovering, cleaning and dusting before her work, so the house was tidy.  All a big waste.  
I actually had a wee cry, which was more exhaustion than anything and for a second considered getting on the next bus and just going anywhere by myself, so the whole day (and outfit) wouldn't be ruined, but I was too shattered. Instead, I ate my weight in chocolate (yes it's a family sized bar, but I didn't eat it all and no judging!), cookies and crisps (man those deep ridges are addictive) and also because I hadn't taken bread out of the freezer so there was nothing else to eat! What a shite birthday eh? It was so pathetic you have to laugh really. I sent a reply on FB to the friend and because I can't be mean to anyone face-to-face, I was polite and all 'oh not to worry, can't be helped, hope you feel better soon' (while seething on the inside) but I did let her know I hadn't received the message until 2, so she's never replied-probably feeling guilty or else not bothering her arse, who knows? She wants to come down in a couple of weeks, but I'm still too mad to arrange anything just now! 
So there you have it, my week of crap. I wouldn't recommend turning 33 or indeed anything after 21. No I'm joking...kinda. I do want to thank you all for your lovely messages on Facebook, they genuinely cheered me up! I've got some amazing beauty hauls to show you, now that I have my money situation resolved and a new pair of shoes, then there's my outfit you'll get to see that nobody else did from the day of doom, lol!!! I've also just realised that the whole point of going to the trouble of dying my hair again was because I knew I had all these 'events' arranged, had I known I'd just be sitting in the dark in a cinema I wouldn't have bothered!  Soooo, I want to hear your dramas too, what pissed you off recently, who let you down, what's bugging you? Have you had an absolute disaster of a birthday?  Shout, shout, let it all out!  I know some people think you shouldn't get too personal on your blog, but I'm of the opposite opinion, there's nothing worse than looking at someone with the perfect wardrobe, hair and life, where nothing goes wrong and nobody gets stressed, it's just not real is it?  We keepin' it real here homes!