Birthday Bits & My Dressing Table

Hi, I had my family birthday party on Saturday and I have loads of photos of nice bits to show you. This was my outfit - Topshop black dress and Topshop necklace...

Close-up of the sharp shoulder and studded necklace. My sister wore a black knitted pinafore dress with a waist belt, plum tights and matching jumper but my silly phone won't load up the pic as its in my messages folder and I can't move it to my gallery.

Anyway, these are some of my lovely presents. The fabric on the left is two dressing table runners my mum made to my specifications. I wanted pink velvet with stud and beaded detailing and that is what I got! I have two big chests of drawers that I use as dressing tables and I wanted to dress them up with some luxurious covers. The pink rose was decorating one of my presents, it has a clip on the back so I can attach to whatever I want. The mirror on the right is something I really wanted and my mum managed to get it for me even though it was sold out in loads of places! I also got the new Lady Gaga CD and some Rose & Violet cremes from Hotel Chocolat.

My granny bought me this pug calendar as she know I love them, my boyfriend got me the Vivienne Westwood perfume and my sister got me the Cath Kidston Wild Rose handcream, it smells gorgeous. I love Sarah Waters and I have read all her other books so this completes my set. And finally my mum bought me a couple of nice cook books and a beautiful pink spatula to bake with. I can't believe I got so much!

This is my revamped dressing table with my make-up box on the left - its great not having to do my make-up in the bathroom anymore amongst all my boyfriend's man's things! There was no decent light in this room before but the bulbs on my mirror are so bright, it has a magnifying side as well and a storage space underneath. I was in two minds about getting it as I read mixed reviews about how easy the replacement bulbs were to come by but i think the fact that it sold out in Argos shows what a good product it is.

This is my other chest of drawers, where I do my hair and display all my jewellery, obviously the mountain bike in the reflection does not belong to me...

My ring tray, I got this from ebay years ago.

These are a few little bits I have collected - the two at the top are compacts, the large one from an antiques fair and the small one was given to me by my mum. The two either side are compact mirrors I got from Accessorize. The little glass dish I use for keeping tiny necklaces in, it is part of a set from an antiques shop and came with a much larger one which I display my perfumes in and two candle holders.

A few make up brushes, and real perfumes alongside empty but pretty bottles.

Both my chests of drawers were originally pine, I painted them white and replaced the plain wooden knobs with fancy ones from Monsoon. I bought loads to do a whole set of bedroom furniture, and no two are the same. I did this about five years ago and it took absolutely ages to sand down and paint it all.

And finally a close-up of my beautiful bespoke velvet runners. So much to look at, hope you like my stuff!