Getting into the Christmas Spirit!

The one week countdown to Christmas begins!! Wahoo!! Love this time of year and I’m especially looking forward to the next week as I have lots of Christmas catch ups coming up! So this past week just gone I’ve been really trying to get in the Christmas spirit, so I thought id share with you what I’ve been doing to get in the Christmas mood...

First up, one of my awesome friends is an amazing artist and crafter and put on a wreath making class. It was two hours full of moth, holly and mulled wine. A ridiculously fun evening! I’ve never made a home made wreath before and am so happy with what I ended up with.

Every year I get Xmas themed nails and I love them! I usually go for bright and tacky but this year I wanted something a big more classy so went for black nails with white nail art and its perfect. Its understated and has a vintage feel.

I have a bit of a tradition lf making home made Gin which I then hand out as a present to various people This year I went for strawberry flavoured Gin and I’m really pleased with the results, it  is yummy! After a few months of brewing and agitating it, this week I was time to decent not bottles ready to hand out for Christmas.

We also finally put up our Christmas tree!! I went for a gold theme and It looks great, even if I do say so myself. I just had to share this photo, how cute do my puppies look framing the tree!!

Fifteen Festive Favourites

I bloody love Christmas and am beyond excited about it this year! This time last year I was in Australia and completely missed the build up to Christmas and that is my favourite bit! So I am planning to make the most of it. I’ve really been reigning it in nut now its officially the 1^st December I feel like I am going to completely go all tinsel and fairy lights on everyone! I have seen this ‘Fifteen Festive Favourites’ on a few blogs lately and thought I would share mine with you all....

1.       Favourite Festive Food

Turkey dinner with all the trimmings! My dad makes the best roast dinners and his Christmas dinner never fails to disappoint!

2.       Favourite Reindeer

Rudolph – he has a shiny nose and he saved Christmas!

3.       Favourite Day of Christmas

Christmas eve – its full of excitement and dropping off presents to friends. Such a magical day!

4.       Favourite Christmas Song

This is the easiest question! It has to be ‘Fairy-tale of New York’. It is THE best Christmas tune!

5.       Favourite Present

My friends got me a The special edition set of Harry Potter books a few years ago anf it meant so much to me and showed how well they knew me.

6.       Favourite Festive Film

Its a wonderful life – its not Christmas till I’ve watched it.

7.       Favourite Festive Cracker Toy

Tje fish that can read your emotions! You know the one where the head and tail curls up? Always provides a few minutes of entertainment.

8.       Favourite Cracker Joke

What does Miley Cyrus have at Christmas? Twerk.....

9.       Favourite Christmas Decoration

This is a tie between fairy lights and the big star on top of the tree.

10.   Favourite Christmas Candle Scent

‘Snow in Love’ a Yankee candle scent.

11.   Favourite Christmas TV Advert

The Coca Cola advert!!! Its not Christmas till this has popped up!

12.   Favourite Festive Tradition

I’m not we have any particular traditions but getting everyone together on Christmas day is pretty special.

13.   Favourite Place to Spend Christmas

Anywhere all my family are! I think its more about the people rather than the place.

14.   Favourite Christmas Fact

The chances of us actually having a white Christmas here in the UK is 1 in 10. I think that’s not too bad, I would love a white xmas!!!

15.   Favourite Snowman Accessory

Aww it would have to be his coal buttons and coal eyes – cute huh!

Beating SAD

I was diagnosed with SAD (seasonal affective disorder) around 2 years ago also known as the winter blues. I really struggle once Autumn hits but this weekend it's worse than ever! I've had a to do list I really wanted to tackle this weekend but yesterday I pretty much slept all day. I have zero motivation at the moment, I feel low and exhausted and it's hard, real hard. If you know, this isn't me at all and I like to be busy and social but right now I just want to hide under my duvet. So this is why I'm sat in front of my computer screen, I want to tackle this head on.  No medical expert but I know what helps me and who knows it may help one of you too. I feel if I put pen to paper or in this are print to screen, I have a plan and it may help so here's how I'm gonna stand up to my SAD this week....

1. Fix my lumi light! - if you haven't heard of this these then your missing out! It's a light that wakes you up with a fabricated natural light instead of an alarm. It's fantastic and does really help! I know what your thinking though.... If it really helps why isn't it working now? Well my friend, because I've been feeling so shit I haven't even had the energy to change the time settings on it since the clocks went back a few weeks ago now so it's been out of action. That's how unmotivated I've been. So tonight I'm gonna push myself to sort it out and fix it!

2. Running - since autumns kicked in my runs have gradually come to a halt. I've got my first half marathon in March and really need to have a giant kick up the arse!! The wonderful thing about SAD is you feel exhausted so I've barely done any of my usual exercise so I've gone from 6 gym sessions and 3 runs a week to just 2 gym sessions. This is bonkers as I find exercise really clears my head, is my number one stress reliever and I get such a buzz after it. So this week I'm gonna really push myself and run every other day. 

3. Diet - so when you feel lower than low you either don't want to eat at all or want to eat EVERYTHING and I mean everything wrong! These last few weeks I've either not eaten or just been eating toast, crisps and sausage rolls and for someone who tries to eat mainly clean and unprocessed foods it's definitely playing havoc with my body! I feel massively bloated - I am literally one Dorito away feel someone asking when my food baby is due! I know it won't be helping my energy levels either so this week I'm cutting out the junk and furlong myself properly...

4. Relax! - I get super stressed and pissed off as I like to get things done, to be busy, to achieve things but when you have SAD getting out of bed is a huge achievement let alone doing anything else. I need to let that go, listen to my body a bit more and chill!

5. Embrace Autumn! - ok so I actually really like this time of year. I like the autumn evenings, the chill in the air, the pretty colours of the leaves. I just hate the way having SAD makes me feel. But do you know what it is the time of year for hibernating and cosying up at home and I think I need to be cool with that! I run around like a blue ass fly most of the time so actually maybe my mind is telling me to switch off.

Wish me luck with this!

Life Lately...

I haven’t done a life lately post in so long! I really enjoy doing them so thought I would throw one T you guys today! So here’s what’s been happening in my word lately!

1.      Game of Thrones – okay so I am like 10 years behind everyone but I’ve finally got round to watching this awesome show and I can’t believe I waited so long! I have real issues sitting and watching box sets when the weathers nice and I can be out. I get such bad FOMO. This leads to a massive ‘to watch list’ ready for the autumnal months when all I want to do I hibernate! I don’t feel as guilty hiding away at this time of year. Anyways, I’ve just finished season 3, my gorgeous Rob Stark has just met his death and I’m traumatized and unsure if I can carry on. However I’m assured it keeps getting better and better, I just need to learn not to get attached to ANY characters!

2.      Leopard Print- I bloody love leopard print and always have, however I feel this may have escalated lately! I picked up this gorgeous faux leather jacket from New Look the other day on a whim. Its a beauty, I love the leopard print collar. I’m definitely going to be adding to my leopard print collection over the next few months..

3.      Arrow –  another box set I’m indulging in...  I am half way season through season 3 and have the worlds biggest crush on Oliver Queen -he is FIT. If you love a good old vigilante story then I definitely recommend this for you! He’s topless ALOT which also helps!

4.      Fireworks – or autumn in general! I suffer from SAD so really struggle brain wise but still love all the aspects of autumn especially fireworks night! I love a good fireworks show and last Saturday was no different! I went down to our local beach with some friends to watch a display. It was a great evening. There’s something very magical about fireworks and k love the cold crisp air of this time of year.

5.      CHRISTMAS -OMG I am beyond excited for Christmas already!!! I have started Xmas shopping and have been writing my Christmas cards already! This time last year I was on a beach in Oz which was awesome but I really missed the build up to Christmas which I love way more than the actual day itself! So I am planning to make the most of it this year!

6.      Diet Coke – if you follow this blog on a regular basis you will know I have a slight addiction to diet coke... I drink waaay too much of the stuff but you can currently buy Diet Coke and do a bit of a good deed in doing so as Diet Coke has paired up with Asda to support Tickled Pink, to raise money for Breast Cancer Care and Breast Cancer Now. I cause that means a lot to me. They have 58,000 limited edition 30 can Diet Coke multipacks available exclusively in Asda and 40p from each purchase will go towards Tickled Pink... so if you fancy a doing our bit, pick up a pack!

Top Tips for Organising a Hen Do!

 This summer I organised a hen do for one of my gal pals. I have been to many a hen do but this was the first time I organised one! We ended up having a weekend away at a beautiful lodge with a hot tub and we spent the day at a spa. It was perfect and everyone had a fabulous time! However being the organiser was an eye opener! It made me realise some people are pure bonkers, I am waaay to polite and people love sharing their opinion.... so I thought it would be fun to share a few tips, words of wisdom if you will, for anyone who may have the pleasure of organising a hen do themselves sometime soon....

• find out what the brides dream hen do entails, if there was something she hates or something she has always wanted mow is the time to find out! I was told no willies from the start!

• Its not about you! Put your perfect weekend/night out into your back pocket and leave it there. Its all about the beautiful bride!

• Its the little things – I surprised the bride with a personalised ‘bride to be’ dressing gown and slippers at the spa and a got her a customised ‘mrs..... to be’ pj set! She loved it and those touches made it seem a lot more special.

• find out if there are any ‘tricky’ invitees. If they are all your mates and you know them well then you are very jammy! I had to deal with friends and family I had never met and who deemed it appropriate to ring me at 6am to tell me they refused to share a room with certain people! Real story.

• know your hen party! I had to cater for mums and god mums and was warned blow up willies were a no no! My bride was also tee-total so going to a cocktail making class (as one of the other bridesmaid actually suggested!!!) was a no go!

• Sort out the money early on! For two reasons – you don’t want to be left out of pocket and you don’t want the cost for everyone else doubling! Work out a total cost early on and add a few pounds on to cover any extras. So everything was paid for a couple of months in advance and included everything! Trust me this will save you so much agro later on!

• Have a plan before contacting everyone. Giving options is a terrible mistake! People have an opinion on everything, no one will want to do the same thing and everyone will want a different price range. Give a plan and limited options! All for an easy life!

• Have a back up plan – make sure you have a few spare games to play if you need to fill any time up as well as make sure you have a back up plan for any activities just in case anything goes wrong!

• And finally the most important tip I can give you is to learn to smile and bite your tongue! You cant please everyone, just focus on making the bride happy!

Pretty in Pink // Bedside table upcycle

I love checking out upcycling projects on Pinterest and various blogs and I love a good crafting session, however I’ve never been brave enough to take on a piece of furniture and upcycle it myself. This is, until now!

My poor bedside table was purchased from B&Q about 8 years ago and has followed me round many numerous accommodations’ and as you can imagine was looking a little battered! The white paint on the top surface was peeling off and compared to my other pieces of furniture (its a giant mish mash of various pieces) it didn’t really fit anymore. So I decided to challenge myself and see what I could create, I figured it couldn’t look any worse than it already!

I’ve got a thing about the colour pink at the moment, after many years of being a tom boy I am finally embarrassing the colour and I love it! I’ve unconsciously been gaining more and more pink things for my bedroom and it now got a pink and grey theme happening. So I decided to fully embrace that and incorporate it into my cabinet. I therefore chose to go for a baby pink base with a marbled top.

To get the look, I decided spray paint would be a lot easier than actual paint, which I think is true but you may get a nicer Finnish with paint? Unsure on that one! I was patient, very unlike me I know and used a spray paint primer as a base. I did a couple of coats of this to make sure it was even. Once the primer was dry I then used the pink spray paint, and did three coats over all. I think finished it with a clear gloss top coat.

For the top I found some marble print laminate sticky paper in B&Q. I absolutely love this stuff and think it looks fab! It was quite easy to apply, you just need to make sure you squish all the air bubbles out!

I love the final look so much! On pay day my plan is to treat myself to a industrial style pink table lamp to Finnish off the look! What do you all think? Are you an upcycler?

20 Reasons Why I LOVE Autumn!

Source

1.       Halloween!! I love any excuse to dress up and party! I am currently prepping my little red riding hood outfit – think the grimms brothers rather than Hans Christian Anderson....

2.       Fireworks – one of my most favourite things ever! I love a good fireworks show, there’s something very magical about them!

3.       Log fires – cosy and romantic

4.       Candles – I love snuggle evenings with lots of candles lit around the room. There set such a relaxing mood.

5.       Lazy days

6.       Netflix- am I the only person who can’t do Netflix binges in the summer as I feel too guilty being inside on a nice day?! Although that all changes at this time of year!

7.       Autumn leaves, the colours of the trees are pretty spectacular

8.       Blankets and lots of them!

9.       Chai Lattés – forget hot chocolates this is what autumn is all about...

10.   Crisp air – its so fresh and energising

11.   Wrapping up warm

12.   Berry lips and Smokey eyes

13.   Pumpkins

14.   Fuzzy socks

15.   Wellies and long walks

16.   Thick winter pyjamas

17.   Cosying up with a good book

18.   Oversized jumpers

19.   Darker evenings

20.   CHRISTMAS IS ONLY WEEKS AWAY!!!!