Birthday reflections

Things have been busy around these parts. I turned 42 at the beginning of July and boy did we celebrate. I made sure the festivities lasted over 3 days, quelle surprise. TSH and I had a fab night out seeing my comic hero Ricky Gervais, I was treated to a fab brunch out with my besti and then on Sunday, I received a birthday breakfast of Buckwheat pancakes, delightful smiles and presents from the girls. The festival concluded with a Masterchef meal of my fav, Asian Crispy Pork Belly with a lemon/mustard sauce.

My birthday breaky in our new herb garden.

I am a fan of birthdays and believe they should be celebrated no matter the number. What a privilege it is, to have the opportunity to grow older. I look in the mirror and see that I am indeed getting older but I’m not too bothered by it. Mainly because I don’t have time to be and also, because getting older is so much more of a richer experience than the alternative.

I can see TSH is getting older too, but he is just getting more handsome IF THAT IS EVEN POSSIBLE. A couple growing old together, this is a dream for many and one I am grateful to be a part of.

I try to be a good role model for my girls too. When the topic of ‘age’ comes up, or I am asked how old I am, I’m never one to say ‘I’m 21 and holding HA HA HA’, I say, ‘I’m 42 and I’m loving it. My continued wisdom astounds you I am sure’.

So now that I am getting older and I am looking older, I’ve been considering changing my personal style! GAME CHANGER. For the last 20+ years I’ve been dressing in a style I would describe as ‘retro chic’ and on some days, I dress in a way that suggests a rich inner life.

See right, my new flower pot!

But now that I am middle-aged, I am not sure how much longer I can pull off the ‘retro’ part of it. With my penchant for knitted twinsets in mint, vintage eyewear, and dressing in materials that can be confused with upholstery, I’m a little concerned that my friend’s comments will soon change from, “Lou, I love your nanna look!” to “Lou, you look like a nanna”.

I’ll be taking suggestions of what style I should adapt, bring them on! I’ve been playing around with the idea of changing to ‘Boho Romantic Chic’ which TSH seems to be a fan of, or to ‘Modern Scandi’ which I don’t think I can afford it or pull off. But which ever style I settle upon, you can be assured, it will not need ironing.

Our family cabins, we arrive on Tuesday.

Enough of this! We are getting ready to leave for summer holidays.* We are heading to our family cabins in the very north of Sweden, land of the midnight sun. Follow along on my Instagram and Instastories which you can access by clicking on my profile circle. We were meant to leave at 9am but considering it’s 7:15am and I’m still faffing about writing a blog, we may leave a little later.

We’ve decided to break the trip up, by spending one night in a hotel in beautiful Darlana. Miss 6 has been busting our chops to stay in a hotel, ever since last summer when we stayed in a fancy pants hotel right in the middle of Stockholm. This hotel was amazing, was paid for with frequent flyer points and might have set up the wrong expectations of future hotel bookings, in her impressionable mind. This time, we are paying hard cash for the night and considering the hotel just wrote to me and asked if we would be bringing our own linen, the experience may be a little different. I’ve shown her photos of the place and she asked ‘where’s the bigger part of it?’.

So, I’m off to finish packing and then we are off! Stay tuned….

*I’ll still be working but it will seem like a holiday because, well look how beautiful it is!