We've obviously been home from Rothenburg ob der Tauber for a good while now, but there always feels like there's a piece of you still on holiday while you're continuing to edit the pictures. But these are my last pictures from my dreamy little birthday trip. I have to say I really love taking a short birthday trip with Thomas every year. Sometimes we only go away for a night or two, other times we manage to squeeze a few more days into it, but he always makes an effort to book somewhere special for me and it's the best gift. I didn't have a problem with birthdays when I was little--I mostly remember them vaguely as being fun and exciting. My mom would always make my favorite meal and bake a cake, I'd get fun presents and sometimes have a party with my friends. But when I became a teenager birthdays got a lot less pleasant and my sixteenth birthday was especially awful. Both my sisters were away at university so my built-in best friends weren't around and we had moved somewhere new not too long before I turned sixteen and I had really struggled to make friends in that town. I basically had that nightmare scenario where you invite a group of friends (with handmade invites because this was old school) to your party and then nobody came. Mortifying for an already shy and awkward teenager--and this was around the time shows like "My Super Sweet Sixteen" were on television showcasing lavish parties for sixteen year olds where they had huge crowds around them and got a car that cost more than my house as a present. Point being: sixteen wasn't so fun for me; the birthday was an ominous start to a rocky year. After that, I spent several years not telling people it was my birthday rather than tell them and have them "forget" or find out that they just don't care enough to say or do anything. Since Thomas found out about all my teenage birthday angst, he's made a special effort to make my birthday a day I look forward to rather than one I dread. Of course, even without the special trips I'm not really haunted by my embarrassing youth anymore--I mean it has been 16 years! Now it's more of a funny/sad anecdote when people act like I'm very cool and I want to assure them I am nothing of the sort! It's also a good reminder that things can get better and that you don't need a crowd around you to celebrate your birthday. My parents got me a really nice present that year (not a car obviously, but well I couldn't drive anyway!) and my mom made my favorite meal and the best cake--things I didn't value enough as a teenager because I was so focused on the wrong things. It's all about the quality not the quantity. In retrospect I don't really wish all those people I had invited had showed up, I just wish I hadn't bothered inviting them! It's far better to celebrate quietly with a few people who really care and give you meaningful gifts from the heart, than to have that big lavish day with an expensive present but it be completely empty of true affection. So, these little trips are a nice escape every year. A chance to get away with Thomas and count up all the people I'm grateful to have in my life.
P.S. My lovely mittens in this post are a gift from the sweet shop Voriagh. Their mittens are all handknit by a women's collective of widows and victims of the ex-Yugoslavian wars. So with every purchase you help support a traditional handicraft and women in need. 

I found this vintage dress on Etsy recently and fell in love. I bought it as a bit of birthday present to myself and when it arrived I knew it would be perfect to wear on our trip to Germany. The criss-cross ribbons on the bodice reminded me of the classic timber framed houses that decorate Rothenburg ob der Tauber. A fairytale dress fit for a fairytale town. Of course, it's not quite as "perfect" as things could be considering we did visit Germany in February--a mild February to be sure, but it's still winter. Dresses aren't the most practical winter wear (especially paired with ballet flats), but I did double up on my layers underneath the dress, donned my best *nude* tights, and had several outer layers that didn't make it into photographs. I probably could have been warmer in a different outfit, but I'm not sure I would've been happier. That's always the battle you wage when you identify so much with your fashion sense--function or fashion. These days I have a pretty happy compromise; I knew I'll feel better in clothes that make me feel good, so I'm willing to put up with chilly limbs--after all, I'm not hiking a mountain top in this outfit! With my cardigan, coat, mittens, scarf, and hat, it's cozy enough to take me down the cobbled streets and into various museums, churches, cafes, towers, or wherever we end up wandering...