merry christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!
I hope you all have a lovely day and that Santa has been good to you all!
Thank you so much for reading, I'll be back on Monday to show you all my gifts!
xxx

blogger secret santa

Argh, I'm so sorry for not blogging much this week! Like everyone else I've been caught up in last minute Christmas shopping and I've been working the past few nights too. Would you believe I'm working Christmas Eve, Boxing day and then I'm even working until 8pm on Hogmanay?! Awful. Hopefully it's quiet because they usually put everyones name into a hat and send a few people home early.

Anyway, my real reason for posting was to show you what I got from my Blogger secret santa. I managed to resist temptation and save it until today. Here's what I got...


Collection 2000 nail polishes in Mint Mojo, Parma Violets & Wham
Amazingly big Primark flower ring
White Chocolate and Strawberry buttons - my favourites, how did you know?!
More Thorntons chocolate and a gorgeous key keyring
I love everything my secret santa bought me and she even managed to buy me 3 nail polishes which are colours I don't already have! I have to say though, the keyring is probably my favourite present! I've been admiring lots of jewellery and accessories with keys on lately and I also needed a new keyring so that I could hook my house keys onto my car keys and stop annoying my Mum by locking myself out because I keep forgetting to take my house keys so this is perfect!

Thank you SO much Secret Santa, you've put together such a lovely present full of things that I would have chosen myself! ♥ I can't wait to see everyone else's gifts!

festive baking

After my post last night I went straight to the kitchen and baked some gingerbread men using my ABC (Already Been Chewed) cookie cutters that Liam bought me for my birthday in August. I had been saving them until December because gingerbread men are the perfect thing to bake with them!

I followed the recipe below but made a bit of a mistake because I used molasses sugar when the recipe suggests, by measuring it in MLs, that molasses is some sort of liquid. Despite this, my gingerbread men turned out perfectly. They're nice and spicy, crunch on the outside and chewy on the inside! I also didn't have an electronic set of scales so I would have found it impossible to measure out 2 or 3g of the spices so I just guessed. I think I used about half of a teaspoon of each but I mostly done it by tasting the mixture and deciding how spicy I wanted it.

Recipe via Allrecipes.com
Makes 2 1/2 dozen.

INGREDIENTS:
110g margarine
100g sugar
120ml molasses (I used 110g of molasses sugar)
1 egg yolk (I used 2 to make up for the lack of liquid in the molasses)
250g sifted all-purpose flour (I used self raising and left out baking soda and powder)
3g salt
2g baking powder
2g baking soda
1g ground cinnamon
2g ground cloves (I left these out and added extra cinnamon)
2g ginger
2g ground nutmeg

DIRECTIONS:
001. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar until smooth. Stir in molasses and egg yolk. Combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg; blend into the molasses mixture until smooth. Cover, and chill for at least one hour.

002. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

003. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until firm. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks. Frost or decorate when cool.



Making these has actually reminded me of an old kids TV show I used to love called The Gingerbread Man. I think there's an ancient VHS of it still in a cupboard somewhere but I've managed to find the intro and a short clip on Youtube and it's brought back so many memories! Does anyone else remember it?!

secondary complications

cropped top: primark
panel bodycon skirt: h&m
birdcage necklace: accessorize
bee ring: asos
I honestly have no idea where the time has gone! Somehow there is only 6 days until Christmas and I still feel massively un-prepared. A lot of the presents I have ordered as far back as the 6th of December are still in the post somewhere and I'm starting to get worried! My present from the Blogger Secret Santa organised by Rani did arrive though (if you're reading Santa, thank you SO much for sending it special delivery!) and it's sitting under the tree as we speak! SO EXCITING! I'm trying to last until Christmas Eve before opening it but I'm not going to lie, I've had a good feel at the packages and have a few ideas about what's inside! I'll make sure to do a post when I open it.

I picked this top up in Primark whilst out Christmas shopping last week. They had it displayed on a mannequin at the door and I couldn't leave without buying it! I love the shape of it and I had visions of it photographing really terribly but it doesn't look too bad.

The snow is back, much to my amusement and anger. On Thursday night I found out that the Deadmau5, Magnetic Man, Calvin Harris and Zane Lowe gig I had been looking forward to for so long was cancelled because of the snow. What snow? There was none. I woke up on Friday, the night of the gig, still no snow. I woke up on Saturday and, as you can see from my Twitpic, still no snow Err, until 10 minutes after I posted the Twitpic and this was the view from the window! Still though, that's two gigs missed out on this year because of bad weather. Not happy!

Lots of other bloggers have been posting recipes and photos of their Christmas baking and it's made me want to bake something festive so I think I'm going to make some gingerbread men after posting this. Yum!

wednesdays wishlist

one, two, three, four, five

This week I have been a little bit obsessed with blouses and prints of animals. I fell in love with the Miu Miu SS10 collection as soon as it hit the catwalks and I absolutely love that so many high-street shops are selling items with animals all over.

001. I saw this bird print shirt in New Look today and fell in love. I love the colours and little yellow birds are adorable. I can see this looking great tucked into my leather shorts or even paired with a pair of dark blue skinnies.

002. The fact that I have two clock necklaces and an ever-growing collection of owl jewellery already tells me that I really don't need this necklace, especially when it's priced at £34, but I can't help loving it! They don't have any measurements on the website but I'd love to know how bit the owl pendant is.

003. Now I'm not usually a fan of anything with rhinestones on it but there's just something about this ring - I love it! The little black nose is so cute and I can picture the tail sitting nicely over my finger.. Definitely one I need to look out for next time I'm out shopping!

004. I really like the vintage feel and the detailing on this tan belt. The tan belt I have at the moment is a cheap £1 one from Primark and it does the job well but it's a bit flimsy and isn't anything exciting.

005. This is my favourite piece on the whole wishlist. Anyone who knows me in real life will know I'm mad about cats (but annoyingly I'm seriously allergic to them!) so this tunic was basically made for me! It's perfect and I must own it!



I also really like this swallow print tunic from ASOS, especially the rust coloured one. If I bought it I would definitely style it like ASOS have done with the leather skirt though I'm not sure about the knee high boots, but I never have been a fan of knee high boots anyway!

I'm really loving blouses and tunics at the moment because they're just so easy to wear. You can throw them on with leggings and boots when you're feeling lazy or even pair them up with body con skirts and leather shorts - they're so versatile. The only thing that I'm still trying to figure out is what to wear under them. They're often styled without anything underneath (except a bra of course) and I get that this looks good most of the time, but have you been outside lately?! I've been wearing a plain coloured vest top underneath but sometimes it just doesn't look right.

love predictor

dress: forever 21
cardigan: primark mens
boots: new look
necklace: this charming girl
ring: made by me
This post is actually cheating because I wore this yesterday. I did have intentions of posting yesterday afternoon but a quick journey into town turned into spending the whole day wrapping Christmas presents! I think I'm almost finished my Christmas shopping, I've got seven things to arrive through the post and I'm going shopping today to get a few more bits and pieces. All I'm waiting on is for my Mum to agree to putting the tree up! How are you all getting on with your Christmas shopping? Have you finished? Not even started?

So anyway, onto the clothes! This dress was one of my first purchases from Forever 21. I think for only £11 it's such a well-made dress (much better than Primark quality!) and it fits nicely too. The panel emphasises your waist nicely and it definitely gives the illusion of being a few cup sizes bigger too! My only complaint is that at 5ft 7" it's a little bit short when I bend over but most dresses are so it's no biggie. I'm considering buying one in every colour - it's just that good, and easy to wear!

The cardigan was borrowed from Liam after getting snowed in because, not expecting the snow, I had turned up to his with just a tshirt and a cardigan and it was far too cold to go home wearing just that.

I don't quite have enough space for full length photos so I apologise that you can't see the boots in full. These are my snow and ice boots! They're the only pair of boots I have that have a decent grip on them so I haven't taken the off recently for fear of slipping outside!

When I was getting ready I noticed the love-predictor necklace hanging on my dresses and until then I had completely forgot I owned it. It's a little bit tarnished now (my faulty! I really should look after my jewellery more) so I might clean it up a bit at another time but I actually quite like the worn look it has. I made the Scrabble ring myself, it's something I've been doing for a bit of extra money!

I do have another dress from Forever 21 that I want to post but I'm really not sure on whether I want to keep it or not so I'd love some opinions on it. Look out for that post on Sunday.

crackity jones

topcoat & basecoat; barry m
bright pink; barry m
instant nail effects; barry m
can you tell I'm a fan?!
I'm a bit late in posting about Barry M Instant Nail Effects since the product was released about 2 months ago now, but I've been trying to track it down ever since it was released and it was only last week that I found a shop that wasn't sold out! I bought it along with Mushroom and Bright Pink in Superdrug's 3 for 2 offer.

I was really excited to try it out despite having read lots of reviews about it already. There's just something about it transforming from a boring black coat of polish into a unique crackle effect on each nail.

The instructions told me to "apply a single coat of Instant Effects, don't over lap." I tried to follow this but because I'm so used to painting my nails with thin coats of polish (if I do it thick it peels off within hours like children's polish does!) I found it difficult getting enough polish on to the brush to coat the full nail so I did overlap quite a lot. I done my pinky first and after applying quite a thick black coat, and over lapping it, I sat staring at it waiting for it to transform. It took what was probably only a second, but seemed like forever to me, to transform and I was left with lots of tiny crackles on my nail. It only took 2 or 3 minutes to paint the rest of my nails and I'm so pleased with the results!

After experimenting a little bit I've found out that to achieve lots of smaller crackles - my prefered look - you should put quite a thick layer of Instant Effects onto your nail and over lap it. The larger crackles are achieved by following the instructions and not over lapping. I can't wait to try this out with some other colours and experiment a little!

Also, apologies for my dry cuticles. I've been neglecting my Lemony Flutter lately and the cold weather seems to have dried my skin up!

(don't) let it snow...

apologies for the rubbish quality phone photos!

Hello my lovelies! Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been so busy and now I'm snowed in at Liam's house with only my Blackberry and his netbook to keep me company whilst he studies for his exams. I am beyond bored and I can't even go outside because I don't have a change of clothes or suitable footwear! I promise you a blog post as soon as I get my hands on my camera (and a computer with more than Paint on it!) - I've got so many new clothes I want to show you all, including a few dresses from Forever 21.

I know this is such a boring post but I felt bad for not posting in so long! As I say I'm using Liam's netbook at the moment and I am not liking it at all (Windows, bleugh!) so it just feels so awkward trying to do things on it. I will make up for it as soon as I'm home though - which, fingers crossed, hopefully won't be long! In the meantime feel free to follow me on Twitter!

horses & snow

top; peacocks
cardigan; topshop
After being snowed in for 2 days I finally managed to dig my car out and this morning I went shopping with my Mum. We had a 40% off Peacocks voucher that was given to me by a friend who works there. Peacocks isn't a shop I would usually shop in but they have some really nice items and with the 40% off it was all quite cheap. I really liked a few pairs of shoes and boots but they had completely sold out of my size!

I bought the top above, some plain black leggings and some Christmas gift bags (errr, how exciting!). The top was only £7.20 with discount, and the leggings were around £6 for a pack of 2 - bargain! I've got a bit of a thing for horse prints and camel coloured clothing at the moment and couldn't resist it.

I'm back to work tonight after being off since Sunday. I only work 4 hour shifts during the week but it's been really busy lately and the heating has been broken for the past few weeks (we had to wear our coats and gloves on Saturday - it was that cold!) so I'm not really looking forward to it.

I've just this minute received my email to tell me who I'm buying for in the Blogger Secret Santa that was organised by Rani and I'm SO excited to start shopping for them! The list they have given is quite short compared to the one I sent but I have a good idea of what I'm going to buy already! Cannot believe it's only 24 days until Christmas. I think I'm going to make a Christmas playlist for the drive to work tonight! What's everyones favourite Christmas song?