happy birthday to my dearest

 
we recently celebrated my partner's birthday!

my partner chose to put on a powerpoint night party for everyone (which is seriously the most fun thing ever lol please host one with your friends) to celebrate their 23rd lap around the sun. i asked them if they'd like me to wear lolita or tone it down for the night, and they said i should don a coord for the party. :-) and so: low-effort comfy coordinate.

coord rundown
skirt - perfume bottle, metamorphose
cutsew - angelic pretty
headbow - angelic pretty
socks - angelic pretty
accessories - dolly house and chocomint
cat - lady wynnifred

(this is the third time in a row i've worn this cutsew to something, but in my defense, it's super comfortable and my other brown cutsews are running a bit late!)

 

 my partner, being a very big coffee buff, asked me to make a dessert that was both chocolate and coffee flavored. after some back and forth discussion, i ended up with a plan to make coffee mug-shaped cup-brownies! it was a little ambitious and i tried some things i haven't really done before, but i think they came out really nicely.

 

 they're black cocoa brownies with whipped oreo-espresso icing, placed inside a white chocolate mug shell and sprinkled with some espresso powder. they were definitely a hit with the birthday individual (which is the point!) but everyone really enjoyed them :-) they were a perfect bittersweet treat and had a texture kind of like a cake pop - thick and moist with a crunchy outside. the bottoms of the shells were a little bit thick lol but i've never really worked with chocolate like this before. i'm happy that it worked at all hahaha

 

 pretty much as soon as everyone arrived, my partner set out the delicious party snacks they cooked up, and we started powerpoints. the premise of a powerpoint night is that everyone makes a slideshow about something they're interested in and presents it to the rest of the group, who is encouraged to listen, ask questions, and generally participate. at least in our friend group, there is a sort of unspoken rule that you should also be silly with it, so there were a lot of laughs all around. my partner, since it was their party, opened up the presentation night with a slideshow about a doctor who extended universe book, the empire of glass.

this presentation was perhaps the meatiest of them all. i left this one with the impression that doctor who spinoff books are terribly underrated.

 next up was mac, not with a traditional slideshow, but a jeopardy game about a variety of topics!

 

not pictured - the several questions about deep-cut garfield lore.

 i neglected to get proper photos of this one, but our friend did a presentation on the homestuck blood colors and relationship styles.

my days of trying to understand homestuck started and ended in high school, but i really like hearing about it from people who grasped it better than i could.

and our friend wyrm did a presentation about japanese brand MILK and some of the things he likes and dislikes about it.
 

most of the presentation featured catalogue pictures and cool street snaps, but it was fun to see how the brand even influenced pop culture.

my own presentation, which was scheduled to close out the night, was a slideshow about my favorite lolita fashion incidents -- including the el dorado cutsew, the cookie brooch, and the 17 detachable sleeves lucky pack.

 

i clocked out at 10 incidents and about 7 honorable mentions that didn't quite have the substance for a whole slide or two.

 i say "was scheduled to" because, while she had claimed no intention to present several hours prior, our friend robin announced that she actually had a five-minute slideshow. i couldn't tell you what it was truly  about because it was more akin to some elaborate performance art. it had everyone howling on the floor.

 

not pictured - the "sherboi direct" title card, the 7 shapes that mean nothing, the 1 subscriber wheel of fortune punishment, and many other bits you just had to be there for.

  

for readability purposes, i didn't split up the slideshows, but as an intermission we had brownies, candles, and a birthday song chorus for my partner - pictured in the delightfully classy t-shirt!

 after the festivities finished, we did have to rather abruptly send people home so that we could make it to an important (in hindsight, not really) appointment in the morning. that being said, we will reconvene for another round of partner-celebration later this week at the movie theater! they've chosen to see the backrooms, which is maybe the first time in many years that either of us have seen a horror movie in theaters. it'll be exciting to extend the festivities!

 

my partner earlier that day wearing their gift - a set of headphones!

 this is my blog, and so naturally it is a bit of a self-centered affair lol. most of the posts are about me, my hobbies, and the things i like... but this whole wonderful day belonged to my partner, so i want to write about THEM!! the day was for them, but they still worked incredibly hard to bring everyone together for a wonderful evening of birthday festivities.

 

this is only the third year i've had the privilege of celebrating their birth with them! they are a truly wonderful person - smart, funny, friendly, and most importantly, deeply kind and loyal. they mean the whole world to me and have enriched my life in innumerable ways. they're my better half, my best friend -- my person! i hope i get to celebrate many more birthdays with them.

 

and YOU! i know you read my blog because you support me in everything i do. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! i love you so much and i'm excited for the big twenty-four next year!