Birthday haul!

Hey y'all!

Since last Friday was my birthday and I posted my vacation haul, I figured it was only appropriate to follow that up today with my birthday haul!

To start, I figure you might want to see the nails I was sporting for my birthday.  Basically I was just playing with my nail foils and created this look.  Also, sorry for the crappy dry state of my nails - it was an afterthought to actually photograph what I'd done.  However, they're shiny and festive and I don't think it was a half-bad first attempt at foil nail art.

Mr. Faff was exceptionally good to me this year.  He satisfied my geek needs as well as my shiny needs!

The DVDs I had before are pretty much useless over here because of regional formatting, so I was super psyched to get this box set of all 7 seasons of Buffy!

Since he was the one who got me into watching Game of Thrones, it's kind of only appropriate that he also satisfy my true geek need to actually read the books as well.  This will keep me busy for a while!

The our first Christmas or maybe my first birthday after we started dating, Mr. Faff gave me a beautiful pair of gold hoop earrings.  Unfortunately the post in one of them came loose and I lost the dadgummed thing - never to be found again.  I'm sure it's probably crushed into the gravel somewhere between our house and the shops in town.  I have been so sad about it, so I almost cried when I saw he got me these beauties.  Side note:  the posts are both VERY secure!

While I was making coffee, the post arrived.  Strictly speaking this isn't really part of my haul since I bought them for myself, but I'm including them because the packages showed up on my birthday!  I was very sad when Catriona announced that Belle Glamour was closing up shop, so I took advantage of grabbing some of her inventory on clearance prices!

We headed into Cardiff for the day, and our first stop was having lunch at Chimichanga, a restaurant in the St. David's Arcade.  One of my favorite foods that I somehow didn't order while I was in Texas is chimichangas, so it was kind of fate that I was able to get one on my birthday.  Mexican food, in Cardiff.  Weird.  However, it was very tasty!

My next stop was over the elf store to get myself a little makeover while Mr. Faff went to HMV to waste time do a little shopping for himself.  The girls instantly recognized me even though it's been about 6 months since the opening event, so that was kind of bizarre and beautiful!  After chatting with Chelsey and Hannah for a bit, they set me up with Amy, who did a lovely job on my makeup! 

And of course no trip to the elf store would be complete without doing a little shopping!  I picked up a few new products based on my makeover, including that yellow-toned concealer and the eyebrow kit.  I also grabbed some new essential concealer brushes because they're brilliant for cleaning up your cuticle line.  Because it was my birthday, Hannah also threw in 6 of the elf mini nail polishes and made me promise to do some great elf-only nail art, so that will be coming up soon!

I finished up my little birthday spree with a stop at the M&S beauty department to spend a gift card from my father-in-law.  I have been greatly let down by other "glass" nail files, and decided it's because I keep buying cheap ones, so I splurged on a Leighton Denny crystal nail file.  For a little pampering of my face, I grabbed this Apivita face mask with green clay.  When I spotted the Downton Abbey nail varnish trio, I knew I owed it to my girls to at least try them out.  Last but not least, four of these Limited Collection textured nail polishes jumped into my hand, because those shades are so perfect for spring, and you know I still love textures!

When we got home, we took the rest of the night easy.  We threw a frozen pizza in the oven and watched Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorceror's) Stone, and then called it a night.  All in all, it was a perfect birthday!

I hope you guys all had a good week, and are set to have a great weekend!  I'm going to be working on getting a stash post up for you sometime soon, as well as some new swatches and reviews of some of this stuff I've been hauling! 

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