Birthday girl

Hellu,

I’ve been so excited to share this post with you all! Here’s a trip through my birthday this year, in pictures….

The day before my birthday, I was off of work ^ Justin made us pancakes in the morning cause he’s the best boyfriend anyone could dream of! Then we both got our hair cut later in the day. You probably can’t tell the difference with mine because I’m still growing it out and I only get the dead/split ends trimmed when I go to the salon. It still feels so much better to me (:

The next morning was my big day ^ we left for Fredericksburg at 10 and made it to the tattoo studio right when they opened. I was so happy with my outfit for the day cause I felt super Halloween-y! My man was looking fresh as well with his haircut. I didn’t make an appointment for this, but I still talked back and forth with my artist about what I wanted during the weeks leading up to my birthday. They take walk-ins every Wednesday, so we were welcomed when we walked in and got right into planning out my tattoo size and placement…

Now let me just explain the design for this special and FIRST piece ^ Dreamhouse is a book by Marzia Bisognin that I’m sure you’ve seen me mention here plenty of times. It’s her first novel and as someone I admire & someone who inspires me, I had to have a copy to read it myself. Justin and I ended up reading this book aloud to each other, alternating who was reading each chapter. It was something I’d never done before, but the experience was better than any other book I’ve read. That combined with how genuinely good this book is… that’s what sparked the idea of getting this tattoo! I had done some other designs on my iPad before finally setting this one (above) as the final image. As you can see it’s a house- similar somewhat to the one on the cover art, but in my own style. Then a sleeping “dreaming” cloud is in front with a few little stars. I was finally sure about it once I drew up this one and I was so excited to make it my first tattoo ever!

What made this even more special was that I didn’t just know my artist ^ we’ve been friends since elementary school (so like 15+ years). He’s an apprentice at the studio owned/run by my art teacher from high school, but I knew I wanted my first piece to be done by him! Once we had the stamp ready and on my arm, I was nervous, but only in the best way. I was so excited finally seeing it on my skin and couldn’t wait for it to be inked in. Now if you’ve never had a tattoo before, I wanna say it’s hard to explain the feeling- but mine didn’t hurt like so many people said it would when I had mentioned my placement to them. I would describe the feeling as a scratching or scraping more than anything. You can’t feel the needle poking into you and it’s more irritating than painful. I’m sure it would depend on where you got it and also if it’s linework or actual shading. I didn’t get the solid parts filled in because my artist advised me to get used the outline first. I could always come back and get it filled in if I decided that’s what I wanted, but I couldn’t get it undone if I liked just the lines alone more! Of course this made total sense and I agreed, but after almost 2 weeks- I know I wanna go back and have those parts shaded in completely. I got to have my picture taken afterwards and put up on their first-timers wall with a bunch of other polaroids. Then the aftercare was explained to me and I got myself wrapped up and out the door! I wanna say a special thank you to my lovely boyfriend who accompanied me, took photos, and paid for the best birthday present (:

The entire process took about an hour, so by the time we were done- it was lunch time ^ the guy who did my tattoo recommended the deli next door and it was really good! The chicken tenders I got were very crispy and not greasy at all, a 10/10 in my book. Then we stopped by my dad’s house to see him, show him my tattoo, pick up my mail, say hello to my kitty babies, and I thought I’d be getting an oil change too… but Dad couldn’t find the right oil for my car at the local shop, so I’m gonna get it later and bring my car back to him another day. My dad had very sweetly got me a bouquet of red roses, a birthday card, and that little pumpkin (above) with the cat face. Once we’d said our goodbyes, it was back to Richmond!

Once home, it was about time to undress my tattoo and give it a good wash ^ it looked awesome and I still couldn’t wipe the smile off my face at how happy I was with it. Then I had to cover it up when I changed into one of my favorite dresses for our dinner in town. I had picked where I wanted to go when we had dined at Casa del Barco a few weeks prior. It was so delicious and such a great atmosphere, that I knew it was the place I wanted to have my birthday dinner! Justin was totally on board as he really enjoyed it too. He looked so handsome in his baby blue (:

Dinner was amazing once again ^ I got a blood orange whiskey sour to drink (which was fabulous) and had the same chicken tacos I’d got the last time. Justin ordered the special, pork belly tacos with pineapple and avocado. They offered us their wine deal, but we weren’t really in the mood for that. We’ll have to come back because it really did sound like a great deal! Our waitress asked if she could take our photo for the restaurant’s social media as they like to post pictures of guests celebrating, so of course we said yes haha and at the end of our meal, she brought out fried ice cream with a candle in it for me! She didn’t sing (which I was grateful for), so this place is still 5-stars in my opinion. I’d never had fried ice cream before, but it was super tasty. After dinner, we walked around the mall for a bit as things were closing down…

When we arrived home, the froggos were spread across their leaves ^ they’re usually hiding whenever the light is on, so this was nice to see! Justin got me some gifts from Sephora and LUSH which I was very happy with as the items I picked out were some that I had before that got ruined in NY when they melted in my bag. So I made sure to get a tin for my serum bar this time! The Sephora stuff came with a bunch of free samples and my free birthday gift for being a part of their rewards program (you’ll see more of that in my favorites post later in the month). Once the light was off in their tank, the frogs were happy to give us some smiles for the camera!

Happy birthday to me!