I turned 37 (WHAT?!) last Saturday, June 13th, and I had a lovely birthday! I started off by treating myself to a bagel and cream cheese and an iced coffee, and chatted with my parents who called from a seaside resort in the Netherlands (they were there for a family member’s 80th birthday). My husband and I went to Meow Parlour for an hour—I had made a reservation two months in advance—and spent some quality time playing with the kitties. Before we registered at the cat cafe, we stopped in at their patisserie around the corner and picked up some treats to take to the cafe. A cat macaron? Don’t mind if I do!

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If you’re as much of a cat person as I am, you definitely need to visit Meow Parlour. Basically you pay $4 per person per 30 minutes to hang out with kitties, and it is amazing. The cats are all adoptable and are provided by KittyKind, the no-kill cat rescue organization I’ve been volunteering with for 5+ years. Of course, I took a lot of photos while we were there and made a couple photo collages of my favorites:

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Before we left the cafe I decided I NEEDED this tank top:

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Nothing says Cat Lady like a MEOW tank!

After the kitty bliss, we stopped off at the Lowe’s near our apartment so that I could pick out a birthday orchid—my thoughtful husband’s gift to me.  🙂  I chose a cute greenish-yellow moth orchid to add a little variety to my collection. It’s a beauty!

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After a nap, I spent a little time prettying myself up to go out to dinner with my husband. Birthday selfie time!

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My husband treated me to a lovely dinner at a French bistro, Le Paddock, down the street from our new apartment. Oh yeah, did I not mention that WE SIGNED A LEASE last week?! Yes, we will be moving from Park Slope to Windsor Terrace at the end of this month and we are excited to explore our new neighborhood. Le Paddock is a cute little corner joint right by the F/G trains at Ft. Hamilton. When we entered, the place smelled like smoked mozzarella and you know that got me super excited.  😛 We started off with some tasty cocktails:

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This being a French bistro, you wouldn’t expect brick oven pizza to be on the menu. But it’s there, and that’s why my husband chose the place because I am a Pizza Monster (in addition to being a Cheese Monster; I suppose these things go hand in hand). I ordered the Mediterranean pizza, and it was so good! Those caramelized onions went so well with the salty olives and the sweet tomato sauce.

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I’m definitely looking forward to going back there and trying more of their pizzas and cocktails. We closed out my birthday by going across the street to a bar called The Adirondack and having drinks on the sidewalk with a friend who lives nearby. Oddly enough, I thought the bartender looked familiar and I asked him if he also works at Halyards, which is one of our current local bars. As it turns out, my facial recognition was totally on point—he does work there! What are the odds that the bartender at our current local also pours drinks at our new local? Small world….this is the way my life goes.  🙂

I got some more fun presents in addition to the beautiful birthday orchid. (My mom asks me for a gift list every year.) I got a Starbucks gift card, which always comes in handy. My in-laws sent me a gift card that I’ll most likely use to treat myself to some super geeky toys at Comic-Con next month. I also got these three books, all of which I’m excited to read:

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I got more Naples Soap Co. unscented sea salt scrub as well as their unscented body butter. I’ve been using the scrub and I love it, so I’m looking forward to trying the body butter too!

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I always ask for some beauty products for my birthday, and this year I specifically requested a few from Credo Beauty, which I talked about in an early Friday Five. I asked for and received Coola Liplux SPF 30 Original Formula, Vapour Organic Beauty Stratus Soft Focus Instant Skin Perfector, and Acure Organics Shampoo Pure Mint + Echinacea Stem Cell. Fun stuff to play with! And apparently I’m attracted to products with blue packaging:

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But the gift I think I’m most excited about is the Candlescience soy wax candlemaking kit! Remember how I took that candlemaking workshop at Brooklyn Candle Studio awhile back? The kit I got is the one that’s recommended in the workshop’s workbook. I don’t have a photo of the kit because haven’t cracked it open just yet; it’s boxed up nicely and because we’ll be packing this weekend I figured I might as well wait until after the move. Here’s Amazon’s pic of the kit:

I also used some of my Birchbox points + the 10% discount code from my June box to treat myself to a couple more goodies: a full-sized Parlor by Jeff Chastain Moisturizing Sea Salt Spray (which might be my holy grail hair product; see above selfie) and Coola SPF 30 Makeup Setting Spray. Apparently I can’t get enough of Coola products these days!

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So I had a very nice start to 37! I can officially no longer say I’m in my mid-30s; it’s late 30s only for the next few years. The thing that has sucked post-birthday is that I got hit with a cold at the beginning of this week and I’ve been fighting my way out of it ever since. There’s really never a good time to get sick, but better to deal with it now than next weekend when we’re moving, or god forbid, three weeks from now when we’re at San Diego Comic-Con! I actually feel lucky that I’m getting it out of my system now. If this post has seemed at all spacy or loopy, that’s because I’ve been hitting the DayQuil bottle for the past couple days.  😛 Fingers crossed that I’m all better soon!

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