Smiling on Sunday | What a Week!

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This time last week I was psyching myself up for a mini-break to Bruges after the most beautiful Saturday evening with my sweet boy at Secret Cinema's showing of Back to the Future.

Today we're having a family leaving party for my sister who is off to Hong Kong in just 10 days! After spending a lovely day and a half with our friend's Tom and Matt, this whole week will really have been a great one. Even the Thursday down time where I took the day off to get my life together post-holiday before popping out in the evening for a lovely collegue's leaving do and a pulled pork burger.

As action-packed weeks go, I think this was one of them and I feel like I'll be finishing Sunday up feeling rather blessed indeed - not a bad way to go in to my birthday week even if I do say so myself - just under 6 days until I join The 25 Club!

I'm kind of aware that I'm a bit behind on things as far as posting photos and stuff goes, I haven't even shared my Bruges photos with Moon yet, but I needed to get some words out there, you know... to let you know that I'm doing pretty darn well, actually.

Here are some other nice things from real-life and the Internet.

IRL:

• Starting a fresh, new notebook ♥ - I'm well and truly converted to bullet journalling and it's the way forward for me as far as keeping myself productive goes. This time I've gone against Moleskine for something a bit more purse-friendly but I can tell we're going to get along just fine
• The return of Great British Bake Off - I missed the first half on Wednesday as I was still on my way back from Bruges via London but was able to insta-catch up as soon as it was over. So sad that Iain isn't nearly as good a baker as he is a beard grower but I guess time will tell. Do you have a favourite yet?
  
• Seeing Moon get a bit excited about my birthday - Because we've been together since we were quite young, have been together for quite a long time and now live together, I sometimes feel like there's less room for elements of mystery and surprises - Moon has proved me wrong. I wouldn't at all call him romantic and I quite like him the way he is but to see him get all giddy about the place he's booked for us to go to dinner on my birthday and be completely schtum about what we're doing during the day does kind of set my heart into a flutter
  

Must-Try Recipes:

• Lemonade Cucumber Spa Pops - Having just discovered the delights of Qcumber water, these really sound good to me, so easy too!
• Rosie's River Cottage Soda Bread - I just picked up a new recipe book about baking bread last week - Rosie's recipe is a bit simpler than the one in the book, I can't wait to give it a go.
• Salted Caramel Rice Krispy Squares - I'm obsessed with salted caramel lately, I blame Haagen Dazs.
• Rhubarb Upside-Down Yoghurt Cake - I've never made a yoghurt cake before and I think this one would be a good one to start with, not sure I could make one quite as beautiful though.

Lovely Links:

Kaylah's birthday posts always bring a smile to my face, such beautiful bright colours.

Rosie's short but sweet post about her and her fiancé reading together is so nice. Moon and I have been reading a lot more recently so this might be something to try when we finish our current books, makes a nice change from staying up and watching TV.

I really liked Clare's golden hour photographs of her allotment, something I love about this time of year. Even as a Photography graduate though, lighting's never really been my strongest point I wouldn't say but Clare has nailed it - her blog has also had a cheeky makeover too, which is really nice to see.

50 Songs from the 2000s That Will Instantly Put You in a Good Mood - Go for it, there are some real gems there.

Hope you have a fun-filled, relaxing Sunday. x