Thirty One

Thirty One.

31.

Three One.

No matter how I look at it, turning thirty-one feels…strange. I was all about thirty and totally embraced entering a new decade. Looking back on my 30th year, I kicked ass and took names! It was a year of no regrets. If I remember correctly, my primary goal for age thirty was to leave my 20-year-old emotional bullshit behind. By some Festivus miracle I did manage to leave about 93% of that crap in my twenties. I’m still mulling over the bullshit that I need to work on in the upcoming year, but I’m running into more resistance. I’ll likely discuss this in subsequent posts.

Unlike last year’s fabulous birthday bash, my 31st birthday party was low-key and not a surprise. While surprise parties are something everyone should experience, it is nice to also have a laid back celebration with a few close friends. When it came time for me to begin making b-day plans I was excited to have another excuse to use Pinterest. Now that the holidays are but a distant memory, my Pinterest browsing has been uninspired, to say the least. But when I decided to make myself a “from scratch” birthday cake and birthday hats it was Pinterst to the rescue!

On the morning of January 14 I woke up early and got to work on cutie birthday hats. As Isaac documented in this fabulous photo, I didn’t waste any time doing things like brushing my hair, putting in contacts, brushing my teeth, or throwing on a bra. Thanks, honey.

By following this precious tutorial, I took a few paper cones from weird and plain to fabulous and festive!

My party hat skills are apparently much better than my cake baking skills. Even though I followed this recipe exactly, I still managed to burn the cake and over-whip the frosting. But thanks to my Capricorn resourcefulness, I still pulled an amazing cake out of my ass. Well…you know what I mean.

And with a few colorful sprinkles on top, nobody even noticed the lackluster frosting. Btw—sprinkles make everything better.

With my baking and crafting completed, I fit in some exercise before beginning my birthday beautification. I was very excited to wear my new shirt from Anthropologie.

The day before my birthday, I was at the mall picking up a pair of jeans I’d had hemmed and decided to quickly run through Anthro. Afterall, I had a 15% off coupon (not like that even makes a dent!). I came across the most perfect shirt and couldn’t resist. It’s dark grey, cotton, flattering, and made in the USA! What’s not to love?

To kick off the celebration, Isaac and I met friends at a wine bar.

After some of us enjoyed a few drinks, everyone returned to my place for Papa John’s pizza (the birthday girl’s specific request) and cake.

Our party of 6 dined, drank, and chatted for hours. I didn’t capture any photos of the group which makes me sad because everyone was so adorable in their party hats.

The night ended appropriately with cake.

No, I’m not one. For some reason I never remembered to buy birthday candles and couldn’t find any, but we did have Jewish candles. I managed to blow out my one candle, but I think I forgot to make a wish. Damn. Oh well, that’s ok. There’s always next year…and Pinterest.

Tagged as: 31 birthday, birthday charlotte nc, blogger birthday party, chocolate cake, paryt hats diy, pinterest birthday, urban sip charlotte nc, vegetarian birthday