My 29th birthday was on Monday (February 4th). Yay! If you are interested, I’d love to share how I celebrated!

I had a plan to go to Verameat in the East Village and pick out a piece of jewelry for a present to myself with my friend Anna, but then we ended up going early because they had a huge sale on January 31st! I felt so lucky that Anna noticed the sale and told me about it. I was able to pick out a few pieces that I wouldn’t have splurged on otherwise. Like this spine duster and feather ring. I also bought a “little teeny” (as I call it) ring that goes inbetween my knuckles. Those rings have always reminded me of my mama, who wears more rings than anyone I know. My siblings and I joke that when she’s late for something, it’s because she’s still putting on rings.

On the day of, I celebrated pretty casually, but still had a beautiful dinner with some of my best girlfriends at a great restaurant downtown. We went to Freeman’s on the Lower East Side, where I had a white bean soup with a side of roasted brussles sprouts. My friends were so sweet to treat me to dinner and fancy drinks, which made me feel even more special considering it was nice enough of them to come out on such a cold night (which might be the worst part of a winter birthday!).

Jen, Me, Kristen, Karrie and Anna.

Even though it was a cozy and casual event, which is really just the way I like it, I still wanted to feel a little special. Lately, my “special” hair secret weapon is a row or two of clip in extensions! My friend Lacy has her own hair extensions company, and recently came out with a new line of ombre clip-ins. I trimmed them to my own length, and had my colorist ,Carla, gloss them to match my hair exactly. They blend perfectly, and just thicken up my hair a little more on the ends, which actually makes it look much longer! It’s perfect for someone like me, who likes almost no daily fuss or maintenance when it comes to my hair, but really likes to go all out once in a while. Plus, I have a drawer of hair in my bedroom which literally makes me laugh out loud every time I open it.

If you have a special occasion (or not!) coming up, and want fancy hair, please check out Laced Hair Extensions!

And I’ll be doing a tutorial on how to put in your clip-ins soon!

After New Years, Jake and I decided we’d be photo boothing much more often. We built this booth in about 2 minutes, so if you look closely, you can see it’s a little jimmied. Anyway, I didn’t really want a party, but I did invite over a couple of my girlfriends to wear dresses and be silly with me. I greeted them with starry halos to wear so they could match my birthday girl hair accessory. I feel like birthdays lose their magic after your 16th, and in hopes of never becoming a “birthday dreader”, I try to keep them fun.

Cue photo booth, party dresses and gold hair accessories!

and cue the snaps.

…

High fashion animal ears for the win!

Jake was kind of not hanging out with us but I stole a kiss (with cracker and brie in hand)

I also made myself a cake!

I will post a tutorial for my head piece on Friday. I thought it was a great substitute for the cheap plastic tiara!

Do you get gussied up for your birthday?

Thank you so much for the birthday wishes! To celebrate Saturday night I had cake and laughs with 4 girlfriends (and 2 dogs and 1 Jake). There’s more to come, including a tutorial for my headband!

So far, 28 is my jam.