Jaz Design

Ok, so my birthday was like a month ago, but I never did talk about it and I would like to!

My birthday this year fell on a Monday, so the weekend was filled with a party with my friends and a party with my family – lots of good food, good conversations. I had a fantastic weekend!

For the actual day it was just the Mister and I, he took me up to London for a trip on the London Eye – having never been.

You can find some of my photographs on flickr. I thought it was a great experience. Would love to go up at night as well! We were fortunate enough for it to be a mild day, with some cloud cover but lots of sun, so the views were clear, but it wasn’t too bright.

I’ve fallen in love with the pseudo tilt-shift effect and so thought I’d try it out with some of them, since I was looking from above and all

I got a ton of presents. I love presents. I can’t help it, everyone loves presents. And I loved everything everyone got me this year. Such great choices! Some things I never knew I needed until I had them (I’m thinking of the book about how to make felt animals – see below)

This is a small selection of my presents, I still have one to cash in (shopping!) and any money I got went on the Great Devon Trip to see Muse. These are the ones I hadn’t found homes for before remembering to take a photo!

In that black box is some incense. I’m halfway through the “Logo Design Workbook” now. The notebook has become my art/design notes book.

Check out the TRADITIONAL SHERBET at the top there. So much better than the plastic packaged stuff. I’m eating it sparingly, trying to make it last as long as possible. I’ll probably keep one forever. The earings were made by my friend Michelle, you can buy more of her excellent jewellery on her Etsy page.

The Cute Book is the felt animal thing. I love sewing. It’s not something I ever make time for, but for some reason I just love it. I took textiles at GCSE as a result. I didn’t know I needed this book until I had it. I’m now in the process of making my first lizard, something more than one person has asked me for. Getting the felt involved a trip to a Hobby Craft and my God was I in heaven there! SO MUCH ART STUFF. I nearly had a heart attack.

And the Mister was so kind as to replace the cheapo Claddagh ring I accidentally put through the wash, with a nicer, more expensive silver one

I was having a hard time choosing birthday presents for myself when I had the idea of going to a spa. With just one manicure to my name I had no idea what to expect. My mum and I were booked in at the Dove Spa in Reigate, Surrey for a manicure, pedicure, hot stones massage and a facial with the skin analysis.

We started with the skin analysis where they basically measure your skin’s moisture, elasticity, tone etc. They then tailor your facial based on this and give you some information on how to improve these factors.

The majority of the visit was spent in a private room for the hot stones, facial and pedicure. The hot stones massage was enjoyable, but very peculiar. I found it quite hard to relax which made some parts a bit uncomfortable. I then had a 45 minute facial where I have no idea what she did but I thoroughly enjoyed it. My face felt lovely and clean afterwards, and during the facial I had a head massage (which was nice, but the noise of my hair rubbing together was a bit off-putting) and an eyebrow tidy. Having never had my eyebrows waxed that was a pretty interesting new experience :S

Following this she gave my feet a treat (I tend to forget about them, as I’m told a lot of women do), and painted them a snazzy pink to match my hair. I foolishly forgot to bring some suitable shoes to prevent smudging, and was provided with some little foam sandles, which lasted about two seconds once I got out the door, but at least they tried. The result was one smudged big toe, but the rest still looked beautiful. Word to pedi-noobs: take suitable shoes.

I was then taken downstairs for the finale – the manicure. I naturally have long nails, but unfortunately had lost one of them somehow, meaning the rest of them had to be taken down to be the same length. Because of this my French manucure was perhaps less effective than what it could have been, but I still really liked the way it looked. The one thing I will say is it didn’t last very long, however a lot of nail varnish doesn’t last very long now that I have to clean my own place, and am doing more active things at lunchtime and in the evening.

It was £268 for both me and my mum, who had a shorter facial. From what I understand, as a total noob, it was worth it and I’d recommend a visit. I did take a look at the products they used to see if I wanted to purchase any, but at £30 for a moisturiser I had to pass. One day

http://dovespa.co.uk