Fever London-Honest Mum

My Big Fat Greek Birthday and Blogiversary Party

Birthday party-Honest Mum

This Sunday I turn 34 and on the 10th my blog turned a whopping 4! Honest Mum was officially born on the 10th of November in 2010 but like to celebrate my very FIRST POST along with my birthday!

Wow a lot has happened in 4 years, the last (almost) 3 have seen me become a full time professional blogger working with brands I love, modelling professionally, appearing in campaign films and doing consultancy work (not what I’d ever imagined or set out for myself all those years ago)…I also started a second, sister blog, a style blog, Mummy’s Got Style, a year and a half ago too, it’s been a busy, exciting 4 years let me tell you …

I hand on heart LOVE what I do and feel grateful to have found a career that I’m as passionate about as filmmaking which works around for my family. Blogging really ROCKS!

So to mark this double whammy of a celebration, I got together with 5 of my closest blogging buddies, women who’ve become family to me, sisters I’ve met through blogging and social media (and of course many times off line too) who’ve been there for me in happy and sad times, supportive women who are great mates and even colleagues and whom I pretty much spend most days with online!

Blogging friends-Honest Mum

It’s hard to explain to non-bloggers but we’re a big part of one another’s lives and it’s pretty damn marvellous!

…Having arranged this get-together months ago, all our emails, tweets and fb messages had gotten us excited for meeting up again in 3D and we couldn’t wait for a much needed girly night out!

Admittedly, I’m really milking my birthday this year (clearly still a party girl at heart) with a family party on the weekend too and another night out with close friends from home and abroad coming up, but why not hey?! There’s not enough partying in life I say!

But back to Saturday, meeting in my hometown of Leeds, Mirka (All Baby Advice and Fitness 4 Mamas) and Zaz (Mama and More) travelled from London, Hannah (Mums Days) from Newcastle and Franki (Little Luca & Me) and Kate (Pouting in Heels) live in Yorkshire like myself so had a shorter journey!

It was amazing to have everyone in Leeds after so much planning!

Sadly, my other wonderful blogging buddies Nomita of Ebabee Likes, Uju of Babes about Town Michelle of Bod for Tea, Helen of Mummy Mode and Sophie of Franglaise Mummy couldn’t make it but hopefully another get together will happen in the new year!

Back to Saturday- arriving at my parent’s house in Leeds (which is nearer to the station than mine) for cupcakes (thank you amazing Sprinkled Magic), pots of Yorkshire and South African (Rooibos) tea and plenty of hugs and laughter, the girls naughtily showered me with presents before we all got ready together in one of the spare rooms, feeling about 15 again in the process!

Then, of course, all being bloggers, it was naturally time for a photo shoot with Peter my husband behind the camera and a keen photo bomber in Oliver, my 4 year old desperate to make every photo! Bless!

girls-Honest Mum

Here we all are rocking our stunning gifted Fever London dresses that are so stylish and chic, I don’t think I’ve seen a more glamorous group of ladies, have you?!

My outfit is the striking floral Anthea Cowl Neck Pencil Dress with Maria Lace Panel Cropped Cardigan, figure hugging and flattering and will be one I wear and wear! I fell in love with it at first sight, it’s so me!

My gold drop earrings are also Fever London, the necklace a birthday present from my husband!

Fever London-Honest Mum

…I love this shot of the girls snapping away on their phones as we each took it in turns to pose! The blogger paparazzi! Work it!

bloggers-Honest Mum

Don’t you just the floral print and lace detail on the cardigan? Swoon! On the dress, not myself. Now that would be weird!

Fever LondonAnd the cutest accessory for A/W 😉

Vicki and Oliver-Honest Mum

…Somebody likes the camera-can’t think who he takes after, can you?!

Oliver-Honest Mum…Huge, HUGE thanks to Lauren at Fever London who styled me up for the night and for making us all feel a million dollars!

And here are some shots of us all-the girls are smokin’!

Mirka

Mirka-Honest Mum

Kate

Kate-Honest MumFranki

Franki-Honest MumZaz

Zaz-Honest Mum

Zaz-Honest MumI love these shots of us together too (told you it was shoot)!

Here I am with Hannah, Zaz and Kate…

Vicki and Hannah-Honest MumZaz and Vicki-Honest MumVicki and Kate-Honest MumOnce our pictures had been taken (thanks Peter), it was time to actually head to the Olive Tree Rodley, my parent’s multi-award winning restaurant and EAT.

Olive Tree-Honest Mum Set in a Victorian Manor House, where the Lord Mayor of Leeds used to live, this is one of three Olive Tree’s my parents own in Leeds and I couldn’t wait for the girls to try the food and enjoy the holiday style ambience.

And enjoy it we did!

girls-Honest Mum
First up champagne (thanks Mum, and for the second bottle too-hic!) and then I arranged for seafood, meat and vegetarian mezze for us all to share, three sumptuous courses where the girls could try lots of my favourite dishes and they all said how bowled over they were by it all! (Recipes in the links).

Seafood salad

seafood salad-Honest Mum

Potato keftedes and cheese pastries

Potato keftedes-Honest Mum

Greek meatballs and chicken pastries

Greek meatballs-Honest Mum

Mixed fish and seafood platter

Fish platter-Honest Mum

Beef stifado

beef stifado-Honest Mum

Chicken kebabs

Chicken kebabs-Honest Mum

And the famous Olive Tree rice with vermicelli

rice with vermicelli-Honest MumAre you lot hungry yet?!

…George, the bouzouki player serenaded us with Greek and Cypriot songs and manager Fikret and the waitresses really looked after us too! Thanks guys, you did me proud!

bouzouki-Honest Mum

bouzouki-Honest Mum

bouzouki-Honest Mum

…Fikret even arranged some plate smashing for us as we hit the dance floor (fear not, these are special plates made for safe plate smashing)!

Woohoo!

plate smashing-Honest Mum

And we were up dancing all night long from start to finish.

dancing-Honest Mum

Greek dancing-Honest Mum

Mirka dancing-Honest Mumdancing-Honest Mum

dancing-Honest MumGreek dancing-Honest MumEven the Head Chef, George came out of the kitchen for a dance and my Dad, Papa G (another George) couldn’t help himself either!

Greek dancing-Honest Mum

Papa G-Honest Mum

Opa!

Greek dancing-Honest MumDad also joined us for some of the meal before I had to remind him it was a girl’s night out! Daaaddd! He begrudgingly left us to it. Eventually. He loves a party! Hilarious!

Love this picture below of us all laughing!

laughing and dancing-Honest Mum

It was such a funny night!

I actually can’t remember having so much fun!

There were times where we laughed so hard we nearly fell over, I actually told Franki and Kate (as we were crying with laughter) that I needed an oxygen mask at one point-that kind of laughter is just so good for the soul! You know, that ‘nearly weed in my pants’ (and Spanx in my case) laughter that’s so bloody joyous!

It was a night of such effortless fun with fabulous friends!

…Back to the food, full to the brim but excited for dessert, we actually had three courses for pudding too (I know)!

Sprinkled Magic-Honest Mum

Sprinkled Magic-Honest MumWe finished off the pretty Sprinkled Magic cupcakes which were delicate, light and oh-so tasty and my brother arranged for a creamy birthday cheesecake to be sent over to us from his lush Italian restaurant Giorgios.

cheesecake-Honest Mum

And as if that wasn’t enough, the wonderful Hotel Chocolat had their Assistant Manager Emma drop off some Chocolate Dipping Adventures with fine chocolates for us all to share and enjoy too. Truly so, so kind of everyone!

The perfect sweet finale to the night!

Dipping Adventure-Honest Mum

chocolate dipping adventure

Chocolate Adventure-Honest MumHotel Chocolat chocolatesChocolate dipping Dipping AdventureyumI must note too that Hotel Chocolat have also sent me a bespoke one-off birthday cake for my family party on Sunday-it’s a rocky road cake, my brother’s favourite and is patiently waiting in the fridge to be devoured!

If it’s anything as tasty as the dipping adventure, we’ll be happy! The girls all said they loved every course and we giggled our way back to my house for a sleepover and really did feel 15 again!

…What a gorgeous night with fun, caring, beautiful women inside and out, whom I would never had met had it not been for this blog right here.

friends-Honest Mum

Out of everything that has come from blogging, these friendships are what I cherish the most! Here’s to another 4 years hey (and hopefully many, many more)!

Opa!

Mama and More

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