I thought I would start something new on my blog, which I have seen others doing and I thought it was a pretty good idea, which is a monthly review. These reviews will include a bit of everything, from places I've been and events that have happened to the books I've read and the films I've seen.
So, here is my month in review for June...
It was my birthday on 11th June. I had a lovely weekend before my birthday. The weather was so nice and we had a lovely flamingo-themed afternoon tea at my Mum's house. Mum surprised me with these incredible flamingo cupcakes (the cake sponge was pink too!) and birthday cake-flavoured ice cream.
I was at work on my birthday and I treated everyone to my favourite bake, Snickerdoodles, in the staff room. I'm happy to report they were a hit. You can see my recipe here.
Then my Mum revealed this absolutely amazing birthday cake! I love stars - I have a constellation tattooed on my ankle - and I wanted something that matched on of my favourite book covers, Hold Back The Stars by Katie Khan. This is possibly the most aesthetically pleasing cake I've ever seen and it tasted great too, with the buttercream and meringue. Yum!
I also received some lovely gifts, including Tanya Burr makeup, a huge bag of pumpkin spice-flavoured Lindt chocolates and clothes. I did get one book for my birthday, from my Mum, but apparently it's hard to keep track of which books I own or have already read so she picked the only safe option as Five Years From Now by Paige Toon had only just been released.
We also went out to Pizza Express in the evening, just because pizza is my favourite food ever!
A couple of days after my birthday, on 13th June, I felt so lucky to attend the Classic BRIT Awards. Clay surprised me with the tickets, so after work that day we got dressed up and headed to the Royal Albert Hall.
We had fantastic box seats and I got to see some of my favourite performers, including Alfie Boe, Michael Ball and Katherine Jenkins. Alfie and Michael did their West Side Story medley and Katherine did a phenomenal version of 'Never Enough' from The Greatest Showman. I cried at various performances, but nothing set me off like seeing the legend that is Andrea Bocelli walk out on stage to accept an award and then perform two songs.
The best moment of the whole evening for me has to be when Alfie & Michael won not just one, but two awards. I adore their voices and the work they have done together so it was so lovely to see it being recognised.
I have to make a special mention Bryn Terfel who did a fantastic rendition of 'If I Were a Rich Man' from Fiddler on the Roof. He was phenomenal and it was one of the best parts of the whole ceremony. It also ended with a fantastic celebration of Andrew Lloyd Webber's work, with the orchestra playing a variety of his well-known songs before a stunning performance of the title song from Love Never Dies by Meghan Picerno.
A few days after seeing Alfie Boe sing - and win - at the Classic BRIT Awards, Clay and I saw him again at Kenwood House in London. It was a lovely evening to be sat outside, eating pizza and drinking hot chocolate (because it cooled down a lot when the sun went down!)
Seeing him perform again really was the best ending to a great week.
I was also so happy to be part of a very special book blog tour in June. I am a huge fan of Estelle Maskame's writing and I had been eagerly awaiting the release of Just Don't Mention It, which is Tyler's take on the first book in her DIMILY series, Did I Mention I Love You? I was lucky enough to receive a signed copy of the book on my birthday, which I read before writing my blog post for the tour. You can read it here.
I also managed to meet up with some friends this month. I had my best friends from school over for a night in front of the TV, then I went to dinner with some friends who I used to work with. We also went to a BBQ and got to catch up with friends and meet new people. It was lovely to find the time to see them all because I've been pretty busy.
Then, right at the very end of the month, I was sick. I think it was just a kind of twenty-four hour stomach bug because I was fine when I went to bed the night before and I felt a fair bit better the next day too. Nobody likes being sick, and it was a horrible way to end the month, but I'm so glad it wasn't over the week of my birthday!
So here are the books I read in June:
Love Will Tear Us Apart ★★★☆☆
The Weight of a Thousand Feathers ★★★★☆
Did I Mention I Love You (reread) ★★★★★
The Geography of You and Me ★★★★☆
Open Road Summer ★★★★★
Just Don't Mention It ★★★★★
The Summer of Impossible Things ★★★☆☆
My Heart Goes Bang ★★★★☆
We Come Apart (reread) ★★★★★
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ★★★★☆
A Bad Boy Stole My Bra ★★★★★
The Story of Tracy Beaker (reread) ★★★★☆
And the films I saw at the cinema:
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ★★★★☆
The Little Mermaid (sing-a-long) ★★★★☆
Then I lost my glasses so I couldn't go to the cinema for over a week as I had to wait for my new glasses to arrive.
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Lots happened in June and I have another busy month in July, with a few events, another blog tour stop and a summer announcement that will be coming to you very soon, so stay tuned!
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