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Thursday 22 December 2016

#Blogmas Day 22

Ok so it's 3 days until Christmas and I am getting unbelievably excited!!

Knowing that I usually get quite a lot of clothes for presents or I buy myself a lot in the sales (because who can resist the sneaky sales), I decided I would be a good egg and clear out my wardrobe. It literally took two minutes before I regretted it.

I'm one of those girls that will open their wardrobe, it be rammed full but still have nothing to wear so stick to the same four outfits that are in different shades of black, blue and grey. Even though my bedroom is a mix of white, pale yellow, blue and pink, I hate colour, always have done. So having to say goodbye to my trusty old black tshirts, blue skirts and grey dresses was a hard time, tears were shed, goodbye my lover, goodbye my friend.

But now, I have slightly more room for any new clothes I acquire, which I already know I'm getting four dresses, some knee high boots, two jumpers and some underwear (I'm at that age where NO ONE is aloud to pick my clothes except me, because it's practically social suicide, like I pick my Mum's clothes for her, imagine her picking mine, the horror!).

I've also had a good clean in my room and got rid of a hoard of bottles (who isn't guilty for this), random bits of paper and other little bits of junk that I have no idea why I kept. So now, I feel all prepared for Christmas and now my room is nice and tidy and clear, I'm getting even more excited for Christmas Day.


Does anyone else do a huge clear out before Christmas or am I the only prepared one?

Wednesday 21 December 2016

#Blogmas Day 21

4 days until Christmas!!! Is anyone else getting excited yet?!

Today's post is about birthdays. I have a lot of friends with birthdays in December which is pretty awkward with the added expense of Christmas presents but this year I've had a 22nd, a 21st, a 20th and my friends little boy's 7th. Expensive I know!

Luckily for me, most of them have fallen on weekends so I've had the excuse of working so I've saved money this year but the 7th Birthday party is today. As much as I love him like a little brother, I'm really not looking forward to sitting round a bunch of screaming kids and adults drinking their sorrows away. However, I have been told their is a bouncy castle and food so I'm not one to turn that down..

Birthday's in December is such a difficult time, especially with my older friends. It's the choice of do you get them a Christmas present or a Birthday present but we normally just spend a little bit more and say it's a joint present which everyone has been fine with for as long as I know them but then you feel bad. My Birthday is in May so I actually get a Birthday and a Christmas present (lucky me right). Although, now we are all at the age to drink, it's the 'I'll get you a drink when we go out', which for me, I think I'd rather have than a joint present anyway and then you'll be happily drunk and not spend a penny for your Birthday.


Anyone else have this struggle?

Tuesday 20 December 2016

#Blogmas Day 20

5 days until Christmas!!!

It gets to the point where you're looking through your cupboards for food to eat and your asking your family if you can eat it or if it's for Christmas which is probably the worst part of this time of year. But thinking of food, who's looking forward to Christmas Dinner?!

Every single Christmas for the 20 years I've been on this Earth, we've had Christmas dinner at my Mum and Dad's and I literally can't imagine having it anywhere else. It's a pretty straight forward one because we're a family of fussy eaters. My Mum is a vegetarian, my little brother practically is with only eating certain meats, me and my Dad don't really like veg except carrots and the only meat we properly like is chicken and my big brother will literally eat anything.

We usually have a chicken with stuffing already in, Mum usually gets a turkey as well even though I won't eat it, she usually gets a small ham joint as well which surprisingly is actually really nice. She makes a load of veg for her and my brothers, me and my Dad get carrots. We always have small roast potatoes cooked in goose fat which are literally heaven on a plate and of course, you can't forget Yorkshire puddings! Christmas dinner isn't real without a hoard of pigs in blankets, oh no, me and my little brother have this challenge every year of how many we can eat and we both managed 19 last year, game on bro! Mum always makes two types of gravy, the standard chicken/beef gravy for us and some weird stuff she eats along with cranberry sauce and boom, there you have it.

My parents don't really drink that much and we don't sit at a table to eat because we don't have a proper one and it's so hard with a 2 year old dog and a 6 month old puppy so we use my Grandparents huge garden table, all sit together with crackers and we all have a drink while the dogs sit and wait impatiently for theirs. Yes, our dogs get Christmas dinner too, they get leftovers and the bits we don't eat on the meat and they love it. They even get Christmas presents as well though..

This year, we have our Grandparents around too so hopefully nothing will go wrong or we'll all be having pudding for dinner!

#Blogmas Day 19

This did not post for some reason so here it is!

Day 19 is about Christmas nails!

Working in a pub, it's hard for me to have real nice pretty nails because they get damaged so easily so I normally stick to a plain colour and doing themes myself. Because it's Christmas and we have to dress up for Christmas Eve, I thought I'd mix up the normal plain colour and put a bit of glitter on it.

I love painting my nails, it also stops me from biting them as well. I have a huge collection which is mainly different shades of blue, green, grey and black with the odd red in it. I have a gorgeous black Mac nail varnish which I only bought a few weeks ago, it looks amazing alone but with it being Christmas, I used a gold glitter nail varnish that I got for Christmas last year which actually goes on like proper glitter. Instead of doing a proper pattern or anything like that - I'm a student and a barmaid not a nail artist - so I put the gold on my ring fingers and a little bit on my thumbs and middle fingers and it actually turned out to be pretty good.

I've been complimented on them a lot and asked where I've had them done and when I say I've done them myself, people have asked for me to do them.

They may not have special snowmen and Santa's on them but they're still snazzy enough to look like something has been done to them just for Christmas with just two simple nail varnishes and obviously the clear base and top coat.

Sunday 18 December 2016

#Blogmas Day 18

I know, I have been absolutely terrible with keeping up to date with this #Blogmas but I have been ridiculously busy, so I'm sorry!!

Also, it's a week until Christmas! I am so unbelievably excited. My Mum decided to be adorable the other day and gave me a Christmas present early, to try and cheer me up a bit as I've been a bit down the past few days and now I am the proud owner of a unicorn onesie!! She is definitely the best.

Todays post will be about winter skin care. Being allergic to pretty much everything that touches my skin, it's really hard to keep on top of everything especially in winter so I usually just wash my face with soap and a flannel in the bath/shower and use make up wipes or baby wipes with a bit of moisturiser when I'm in a rush.

When I do have more time, I do have my main go to products that I know my skin is ok with and I love.

No 7 makeup wipes are my saviour! I thought I would be allergic to them but it turns out I am not so now I literally use them for everything. They're so soft and gentle on my skin and leave your face feeling baby soft as well.

No 7 Essential Moisturiser Day Cream, another saviour literally all year round. My Mum first got me this one Christmas because it's in the sensitive range and as I was fine with the face wipes and was in desperate need of a nice face moisturiser, I gave it a try. This is perfect for my skin type, sorts out all dry skin problems especially in winter pretty much straight away without leaving your skin feeling greasy and horrible and another plus that I'm not allergic to it!

I think you've all got the point that I love No 7 now, it's my favourite skin care and makeup brand. The gentle cleanser and toner are something I don't use very often unless I have plenty of time on my hands or I'm having a pamper night because I'm yet to find a face mask I'm not allergic to. I do love these though, again they leave my skin feeling so soft and the toner isn't as harsh as others seem to be and the fact they are in a pretty pink colour. Finish these off with the moisturiser above and voila, soft soft skin.

At first, I wasn't so sure about this as I'm usually not great with Garnier products but a lot of my friends use it and I saw it in pound shop and thought I'd give it a try and now I love it. I try not to use it on my full face too much as it makes my cheeks itch a bitch but it is perfect for my eye makeup remover, especially when I have totally messed up on my eyeliner, put a bit of this on a cotton bud and perfect eyeliner in seconds. It removes it so quickly which is a definite plus compared to some makeup removers.

I got this product from my Mum originally, I had never used face scrubs because I couldn't find any that didn't sting or itch after but my Mum gave me this to use and I've used it for at least three years now. Even though I have to put moisturiser on after, it leaves my skin feeling so soft and nice and it smells gorgeous as well! It is pretty expensive, but you don't need to use a lot and it is definitely worth it.

I do use other little products here and there but these are the main ones that I stick to for my face. I am still trying to find a face mask product that I won't be allergic to, so if any of you have any recommendations, throw them my way!

Thursday 15 December 2016

#Blogmas Day 15

Well then... Unfortunately for the last week I have been soooo busy at work especially finishing at 4am one morning and then having the flu jab so being ill as well, I just haven't had any time to blog so sorry guys!!

Day 15 will be about working over Christmas!

So I've said before I work in hospitality, a busy pub at that and I actually hate weekends in December with a passion. Although I managed a miracle of getting last Friday off which was a nightmare even just for going out, I am literally working all weekends for the next month pretty much including Christmas Eve, Mad Friday and NYE.

As much as I love my job, my little work family and the environment I work in, it is actually terrible over this time of year. We're only a small pub like and we had over max capacity in last weekend, over 1200 walked through our doors and I swear literally everything went wrong that night, we was low on stock and our water cut off for two hours which means no way to wash glasses, no flushing toilets, etc. It was horrible and it wouldn't surprise me if every other night is going to be similar too.

All you lovely people that have Christmas leave, what is Christmas leave?!?! That exists?! 9-5 still exists?! Not for us, unless you count 9pm - 5am which sucks. But hey ho, we all have to make a living somehow and there has to be those brave souls to volunteer to work in hospitality so people can let their hair down like we do during the week - Shout out to Beaver and their fabulous karaoke nights <3.

Everyone working in this industry's favourite phrase is "That's time at the bar", it is literally music to our ears and we have a little happy dance and a cheer at the fact we can finally get the clean down done and go home into the comfort of our beds. A lot of people don't realise how hard working this industry is but please give all the bar staff a bit of consideration while you're all out having fun at your Christmas do's and parties and love the bar staff too!!

Thursday 8 December 2016

#Blogmas Day 8

Top 12 Christmas Movies!!

  1. Elf - I don't care what any of you say, this is literally my all time favourite Christmas movie and always has been!
  2. The Polar Express - This was a hard choice between first and second as I do love these films equally but Elf is more comedy and I love a good comedian.
  3. The Grinch - Always loved this since I was a kid and I still love it now, I can definitely relate to the Grinch 99% of the time..
  4. Frozen - I seriously love Frozen, I know all the songs off by heart as well and even though I was 18 when I got it, I got the film for Christmas with an Olaf Build a Bear, I nearly cried.
  5. Nightmare Before Christmas - I love this film too, another kids film but they do make the best ones.
  6. Love Actually - Yeah it's a cliché lovey dovey film but it is cute and Christmassy
  7. Home Alone - I'm guilty to loving this film.
  8. Gremlins - Okay, fair play to the fact that it isn't really a Christmas film except the fact that it's set around Christmas but Gizmo is so cute and fluffy ok.
  9. Mickey's Christmas Carol - Is it obvious that I love kids films yet?..
  10. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer - I remember making my Mum put this on repeat for ever when I was younger, it's definitely a classic for me.
  11. Jack Frost - I think this is a classic for everyone and I cry literally every time I watch it when it turns out the snowman is his Dad :'(
  12. And finally, Miracle on 34th Street - an old Christmas movie that everyone loves and will always be in the top Christmas movie charts, definitely an old classic.

I haven't started being able to watch Christmas movies yet with having university deadlines and a lot of work hours but now I have a few weeks off lectures for Christmas and only two small essays to write, I will definitely be catching up. I hope Netflix have a good stock of Christmas movies this year.

Wednesday 7 December 2016

#Blogmas Day 7


So today is going to be slightly different with a mix between my most recent New Look Haul following on from my amazing socks yesterday and a Christmas night out outfit!


Unfortunately for me, I'm lacking on the pennies front right now especially after switching jobs and having to pay out for Christmas presents but with New Look still having a massive sale from Black Friday, I thought I'd have a nosy. Lucky for me I found this gorgeous blue scuba Bardot dress which was only £10 and a definite new favourite of mine, it's definitely long enough too! I also found this long tie sleeve Bardot dress for only £9.99 also so I thought I'd treat myself and get it in black and khaki. The only bad thing is that with me being a lovely height of 5'10 (ridiculous, I know), they are pretty short on me but will still look great with a pair of leggings or thick black tights and to be honest, I have given up caring about shortness of dresses now.
 

And now, outfit time! I work in hospitality so having a weekend night off is definitely a novelty for me so when I got my rota for this week to find out I have Friday off, of course it's going to be a well needed girls night out! So after buying these dresses and raiding my wardrobe to dust off my going out clothes, I have put together a Christmas worthy night out outfit. This will include the blue dress, these black sandal heels (I know, huge heels at 5'10, I am brave), my trusty old tattoo choker and a standard black clutch bag (Yes, I like black).
Living in a small town, I don't need to worry much about the cold as it literally takes me about 5/10 minutes to get home from the place I always end up in which on the plus side is my new work place so guess who gets staff discount!! But this can obviously be paired with a pair of tights if you are worried about the cold.

Makeup wise - well for me, it's not much with having sensitive skin and eczema, I am literally allergic to everything. So, my makeup for the night will be a standard smokey eye with black eyeliner and a dark red or purple Mac lipstick to finish off.

Boom, let's go and get merry girls!


Tuesday 6 December 2016

#Blogmas Day 6


Day 6 and it's time to bring out the Christmas socks!!!!

I love socks, I don't have a proper explanation why I do but I love them. I especially love them at Christmas time and I will always look for an excuse to buy some new ones, which of course, I have.
It seems to be that New Look (also my favourite shop) do some amazing ones and at the special offer of 3 for 2, it is hard to say no.

So, first up we have the Grey Christmas Penguin Print socks.


I love these, they are in fact glittery as well! I love that the penguins are in hats and scarfs..

 Up next, the Cream Pompom Reindeer socks.
 


The only bad thing about these is the pompoms when I have a 6 month old Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppy that just LOVES to chew anything like this.
 
And last but not least, the Grey Giraffe Print Socks!
 
I am well aware of the fact that these are not Christmas socks but I love giraffes and I love socks so I win.


 
 
I am lacking slightly on the Christmas socks right now, but have no fear, by the time the 25th December is here, I will have more!


#Blogmas Day 5

Day 5 will be all about these Hot Chocolate cones that I keep talking about. They are so easy to make and they're great for stocking fillers, small presents and good little gifts if you have so many people to buy for especially if you have kids with friends to buy for.

All you need is:
  • A plastic cellophane cone - I'm sure you can get these off Amazon, eBay, etc
  • Hot chocolate powder - any will do, it does not have to be ridiculously expensive hot chocolate
  • Mini marshmallows
  • Candy Cane
  • Something to tie the cone with
  • Ribbon
Optional:
  • Something to decorate the cone and turn it into a reindeer face - red pom pom/sticker and googly eyes
  • Chocolate sprinkles/buttons
What to do:
  1. If you are decorating the cone into faces, stick the red pompom or sticker at the pointy end of the cone and the googly eyes about two inches above it.
  2. Fill the cone about half the way full with hot chocolate powder.
  3. If you have chocolate sprinkles/buttons, fill the cone about half way of what is left.
  4. Fill the rest of the cone up with marshmallows but leaving enough space at the top to tie.
  5. Scrunch the top up together and tie it up.
  6. Add the ribbon around the scrunched bit of the cone, tying a candy cane in with it.
  7. Turn the ribbon into a pretty bow or curl the ends.
  8. Voila, Hot Chocolate Kit!

You can also add antlers, turn into a Santa Clause, literally anything you want to do with it. There's the option to add in different sweets as well, like white chocolate chips, small bits of candy cane and flakes. You can add the ingredients in any order, this way is just the basic form.
Another idea is to do it in a clear mug/mason jar and then that way, they have the mug to do it in as well. You could also add a mini bottle of Bailey's for the adults.

 
 
                  



#Blogmas Day 4

Today's post is Christmas Gift Ideas!

Usually I will just ask my family and friends what they want and just get them it but last year I had a bit more money to play around with and decided to do something different for certain family members - My Mum, my Nanna and Brothers.

Mum:
I know my Mum well, she is literally my best friend and I decided to do her a basket of her favourite things and some cute little gifts. It included:
  • A jar of her favourite coffee
  • Her favourite chocolate
  • A tin of shortbread
  • A Pandora Charm - a little thing going between us both, we both have a bracelet which we get each other a charm for things like Birthday's and Christmas
  • A little angel ornament for the garden - she is obsessed with garden ornaments
  • Red nail varnish - her favourite colour
  • A gift voucher for a massage at her favourite salon
  • A Christmas themed nail set
  • A Christmas vanilla snowman lip balm - which is more exciting that it sounds
  • Some fluffy socks
She loved it, it was basically like a stocking for her with some bigger presents and she said she loved seeing the thought and effort I'd put into it.

Nanna:
My Nanna is really hard to buy for every year so I did her a basket too. Hers included:
  • The special face cream she uses
  • Bubble Bath
  • Candles
  • Cath Kidston Baking set - she loves baking
  • A voucher to get her hair done
  • A tea set - a mug and teabags which came in a nice gift box
  • Her favourite perfume
Again, she loved it but she did tell me off for spending more than £10 on her, oops!

Big Brother:
I never seem to buy my big brother anything much especially as I don't see him that much anymore so he got a box as well:
  • Pack of Shots
  • A drinking game
  • Socks
  • A hugeeeeee mug
  • A hot chocolate cone set
  • A bottle of vodka
  • His favourite chocolate
I got a grunt and a thank you from him but my Mum told me he was asking where I got the idea from so mission accomplished.

Little Brother:
He was at the awkward stage of being in between ages of too old for toys but too young for anything majorly exciting, so I made him a box too:
  • Pack of shots
  • Socks and fluffy socks but his feet are massive so it's very hard to get socks for him!
  • A hot chocolate cone
  • A huge mug too
  • Guitar picks
  • Guitar strings
  • Favourite sweets
  • Christmas jumper
  • Tickets to a band he likes - this was a joint birthday present as well because his birthday is a month after Christmas
He squealed like a little girl and said thank you for like a million years.


These boxes are a good idea if you're stuck on a main present to get your family and you can do them at a budget quite easily as well going to places like B&M and pound shops where I got a lot of mine from, they're easy to do and most people will love the amount of thought that went into them.

#Blogmas Day 3

Happy Day 3 of #Blogmas!!

Today's post will be about Christmas songs!

I know a lot of people are like it's too early for Christmas songs but I say Bah Humbug to you all!! It's the third of December and time to get in the Christmas spirit guys, plus I work in a pub so I've been listening to Christmas songs and been caught singing my little heart out a few times to them.. Also, X Factor have their Christmas weekend so it's officially time!

I can't say I really have a favourite Christmas song, but I don't say no to listening to the top 50 Christmas songs on literally every music channel going. If I had to pick one, I think I'd say it'd be the Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas? and the best one I would say is the 1984 version. I think it is for a good cause that a lot of celebrities get together to sing this to raise money and it is nice seeing that even celebrities will come together at this time of year.


#Blogmas Day 2

Day 2's #Blogmas will be about Christmas Hot Drinks!!

I'm not exactly a huge fan of hot drinks in general but I do love a good hot chocolate every now and again.

I popped into Costa the other day for the classic Christmas white hot chocolate to find out that they do not sell it anymore! I was obviously devastated and the lady behind the till told me that there has been a lot of complaints about it but recommended the orange hot chocolate anyway and I honestly think I have found my new favourite drink because it is the bomb! They even put whipped cream and sprinkles on it and I fell in love. I love the cute Christmas cups they come in as well.



Apart from Costa drinks, I do love a traditional hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows, my Mum usually gets us a hot chocolate kit cone in our stockings where you get the hot chocolate powder, marshmallows and a candy cane, it's really cute and a really good idea for stocking fillers or a small present!


Another favourite of mine is the Oreo hot chocolate you can get in the Tassimo machines, it is unbelievably nice, like Oreo's in a drink, just wow (yes I love Oreos).


Anyone else love hot chocolate or a certain type of Christmas coffee?

#Blogmas Day 1

Ok so I know I'm dropping in slightly late to #Blogmas and I am very sorry for that but fasten your seatbelts and be prepared for 6 days worth of posts in 1!

So Day 1's post will be about how much I love advent calendars!!! Lucky me, in my old job before I left, I managed to get an advent calendar from the boss as our Christmas Menu staff meeting present where we got a calendar and a selection box which was really cute of them. Although, I completely forgot I had this until I found it in my wardrobe and after having a little strop to my Mum saying that 20 is definitely NOT too old for an advent calendar when she happily bought my 25 year old brother one last year. So of course, she gave in and I am now the proud owner of two advent calendars, a Tesco special and the standard Cadbury one! I honestly tried to persuade my Mum that she'd be my most favourite person in the whole wide world and I'd love her millions and trillions if she got me one of those amazing beauty calendars but she wasn't having any of it so I may have to look into purchasing one for myself next year.

I'm not entirely sure why I love them so much, I guess it's the excitement of opening a door each day for the countdown to Christmas because lets face it, if you don't get excited on the countdown to Christmas, you're either too old of a big old scrooge. It's also a nice treat to get a chocolate every day when I am trying my hardest to be back onto the healthy eating so I don't manage to pile on 1032789487192 stone over Christmas like it happens every year..

So guys, are you too old for an advent calendar? If not, which is your favourite and which ones do you have?