NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

Hello!

Firstly I'd like to say I hope you had a lovely Christmas and got what you wanted, and secondly I'd like to apologise for how late this post is uploaded because I've had a busy week, and not had much time to write up anything special.

Today I'm going to be telling you my New Years resolutions. Most of these are your standard NY resolutions, but a few are my own personal ones I want to achieve.

1. Eat healthier food.

Every year I set myself the task of trying to eat healthier, and I attempted it this year until I realised how big my disliking for salad was, which infact made me throw up after eating a plate of ceaser salad-oops. Anyway, this year I aim to only eat healthy foods, and have 1/2 days a week in which I will be able to eat unhealthy snacky foods (chocolate, sweets, bacon). At the moment i'm going quite well with eating healthily, and persuaded myself to pick a salad over a pudding which was a nightmare to eat, because I really do not like salad, however I made myself eat it and felt good about myself after.

2. Go to the gym.

At the moment I do a 20 minute workout daily just before I go to bed and I just use apps on my phone for the workout, however I think it's time I hit the gym and used proper equipment for once. I do have a rowing machine and exercise ball at home which I use, but I don't feel quite in the right atmosphere working out at home so I think I'd benefit more from going to a proper, kitted out gym. The reason I want to go to the gym is not to lose weight, but to gain muscle and tone up. I am quite muscly in my legs, torso, and arms because of dance and previous activities I did, but I want to get proper muscle and in shape.

3. Use less heat on my hair.

Currently, I don't use heat on my hair very often compared to how much I used to, but I'd still like to get out the habit of straightening/curling my hair and let it sit naturally. Not long ago I really discovered the dangers of using heat on hair, and the effects of long-term use really are frightening; some of which I don't want to happen to me. In previous months I have straightened my hair non-stop for weeks, aswell as curling it, but I am slowly getting out of that habit and only using heat for certain occasions, or if my hair is looking completely mental.

4. Make the most of opportunities.

 I sometimes feel as though I'm not taking on all the opportunities that are thrown at me, and take for granted what I can do in life which others can't. I would like to accept any non life-threatening opportunity thrown at me, whether that be going somewhere knowing hardly anyone and having to interact/make new friends, or do something out of my comfort zone and possibly find a hidden talent.

5. Get a tan.

I know this sounds like something silly to put on a NY resolutions list, and isn't really a resolution at all, but I really would like a tan. As I'm going on holiday this year 2-3 times to hot, tanning locations, I'd really like to come back with a brown tone to my skin. For me tanning isn't the easiest as I have fair hair and sensitive skin, so I burn indefinitely, but I don't like the thought of fake-tanning because it doesn't always turn out the best, and can sometimes look really tacky. 

Happy New Year!

 

3 CHRISTMAS DESIGN IDEAS

Hello!

Last Christmas, I didn't really put much effort into decorating and making my friend's presents something special, but this year I've broken that uncreative banner and stepped out of the box. Nearly every present i've wrapped has had some sort of decoration around it, but these design ideas I'm going to show, and explain to you today may help you step out of the box when it comes to wrapping.

The 3 design ideas will consist of a wrapping, card, and present idea, which look like this:

The first idea I will be explaining to you about is the Fabric wrapping with bows and glitter:

I came up with this idea when I was looking around in my fabric box for some ribbon to tie around things, and I thought I should try and do something creative with the fabric for wrapping up my bestfriend's presents considering she put lots of effort into my birthday gift. Anyway, I then came up with a solution and made a very easy fabric wrapping paper, which looks very sweet and rustic.

How To make:

1. Get a piece of fabric bigger than the present you're giving away, place the gift in the middle of the fabric and collect the fabric at the top of the gift, but make sure you leave enough material at the top to tie something around it.

2. Try your best to bunch up the material at the top of the present making the bottom bit as tight as possible so there aren't too many gaping holes.

3. Get a piece of ribbon or wool of your choice and tie it tightly around the scrunch at the top. I chose to do colours that match the present inside just for a sweet touch.

4. (optional) Dip the top of the scrunch in some glue and sprinkle glitter on for a more festive look and effect.

  Handmade personalised christmas card:

 This card is also for my bestfriend in returns of the adorable card she made me for my birthday with her creative talent. I had seen quite a few of the bauble designs online but instead of photos as the baubles, buttons were used, however I wanted to add a personal spin and use photos instead.

How To make:

1. Get a piece of card and fold it in half, draw 3 lines from the top downwards ,and make sure they stop and different lengths.

2. Print off the photos you want to be at the end of the lines, and cut them up into circular shapes to represent a bauble.

3. Stick something between the joining of the "bauble" and "string" to neaten it off-I made little bows out of wool.

4. Decorate the rest of the card how you wish. I used sequins to represent snow, and stuck a long line of sequin fabric at the top in which the "snow" would fall off of.

For the inside of the card I wrote in my own message, but made a red woolen bow to stick in, aswell as adding an extra photo of us in the top sector and neatening the edges off with white wool wrapped round a few times! You don't have to add all of these touches, but I did to make it a more personal card.

Rainbow Sweets Jar:

 Sticking with the homemade theme, I made this really cute sweet jar full of M&Ms' for my friend Bee who happens to be into handmade gifts, and sweets. Anyway, I was unsure on what to get her and saw this really cute jar in Wilkinsons which only cost me £1, and I had seen a few other people fill jars with sweets and things but I took it to the extreme ocd, and made each layer a different colour.

How To make:
1. Get your jar and make sure it's big enough to fit in a good amount of sweets, then open up the coloured sweets you're using and organise them into colour groups. (Make sure you wash your hands before fiddling around with the sweets because the person you're giving them too won't want dirty sweets.)
2. Go round the bottom edge of your jar with one colour then fill in the middle with the rest of that colour.
3. Repeat step 2 until you fill up to the top, and the jar is really compacted. Beware this gets quite tricky as you go up because the sweets want to intertwine, so don't move the jar/sweets around too much.
4. Close the lid and tie a ribbon around the jar.

What you could also do to add something extra is attach 2 candy canes either side to make a little sleigh like this:

 OR tie the candy canes in the back of the ribbon so they just poke out the top of the jar as this also looks really sweet.

As I only post on Sundays I won't have anything up on Christmas to say Merry Christmas, so Merry Christmas and I hope you have a lovely day!

REINDEER CUPCAKES

Hello!

Today I thought I'd change things up and do a baking post, so today you will learn how to make Reindeer Cupcakes. I'm no where near as good as a chef when it comes to cooking or baking, but I enjoy doing it in my spare time and thought these cupcakes were cute, and tasty enough to share with you!

 

Ingredients

- 125g/4½oz butter, softened 

- 175g/6oz caster sugar 

- 2 free-range eggs

- 200g/7oz self raising flour

- 2 tbsp cocoa powder

- 100ml/3½fl oz milk 

- 100g/3½oz dark 70% cocoa solids chocolate, melted

- 2 tbsp Irish cream liqueur (optional)

For the chocolate icing:

- 50g dark chocolate (chopped)

 - 3 tbsp double cream 

 

Decoration:   

- giant chocolate buttons 

- crisp-coated chocolates (such as Smarties or M&Ms) 

- mini pretzels (preferably plain)

- black or dark chocolate writing icing

- mini marshmallows (sliced)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3. Line a 12-hole muffin tray with paper cases.

2. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Gradually beat in the eggs until well combined, then sift in the flour and cocoa powder and mix until combined. Fold in the milk, melted chocolate and Irish cream liqueur-if using.

3. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until well risen and lightly firm to a touch. Remove the cakes from the tin and set aside to cool on a cooling rack.

4. For the icing, heat the chocolate and cream in a saucepan over a low heat until the chocolate has melted. Whisk the mixture until smooth and set aside to cool slightly.

*Decoration Time*

1. Spread the icing over the top of the cupcakes until well covered.

2. Press a chocolate button onto the cake as a nose.

3. Stick a crisp-coated chocolate on top using a little icing to hold the sugar coated sweet on the button.

4.  Stick on two slices of marshmallows as the eyes, and use the black writing icing, or dark chocolate for the pupils.

5. Cut 2 little slits near the top of the cupcake big enough to fit in the pretzels.

6. Firmly slot the pretzels into the slits, don't apply too much pressure otherwise the cake will split.

The finished result:

If you made these cupcakes then I'd love to know how they turned out, I hope you enjoyed this baking post and enjoyed the cupcakes if you made them!

FESTIVE BEAUTY PICKS

Hello!

As we are now officially in the festive period, I think it's time to be doing some Christmassy posts, so this 1st one will be my Festive Beauty Picks. Today I will be explaining the products that I think are most suited to the Festive Season.

I don't use all these products everyday, and do have other Festive products in the same category as some of these, these are just a few examples of what can be used during this season.

1. Bourjois Blush/Bronze in Sienne-85.

 The first item on my beauty picks for this season is a bronzer from Bourjois in the shade 85 Sienne. You may think it's quite odd to be wearing bronzer in Winter, but for me I think it's an essential. I have a very pale complexion all the time, but in Winter I just look way too pale for my liking, so wearing a bit of bronzer all round my face tans me up ever-so slightly, and helps to vanish my pasty skin. I switch between this bronzer, and Seventeen Instant glow bronzer during the week, the Bourjois bronzer is a little over-priced for my liking at £7.99 for the amount of bronzer you get, but the little brush does add more value to it. However, my Seventeen bronzer is £4.59 for a larger pot, and just as good but without a brush.

2. Revlon Top Speed Nail Varnish in Ignite.

 A red nail varnish is a must have in Winter, especially near Christmas time. My nail varnish is called Ignite and is from the Revlon Top Speed range, it's a very pretty red with some shimmer in which makes it even more perfect for this season. I think any sort of red/gold/neutral colour looks so pretty near Christmas time, obviously other colours do aswell, but these are the main ones that I love the best. I got this nail varnish from Fragrance Direct for 99p, and it was a great buy for such a minimal price, I highly recommend you check out the website and purchase a Revlon nail varnish from there.

3. Soap&Glory Handfood and Vanilla Sugar Foot Lotion.

I'm pretty sure nearly everyone suffers with dry hands during Winter-well I certainly do, but I also get quite dry feet as well which is a little odd, however I have a foot lotion called Vanilla Sugar from BHS, and it's an absolute darling for my feet. I like to apply this to my feet at night-time so that it sinks in throughout the night leaving me with moisturized, and lovely smelling feet in the morning. The hand cream I currently use is Hand Food by Soap&Glory, this also works wonders for me and sinks in very quickly, without leaving my hands feeling greasy or sticky afterwards. Unfortunately, I got the foot lotion ages ago and it's now not on sale any more, but another good foot lotion is Sanctuary Foot polish.

4. Collection 2000 Lasting Colour lipstick in Valentine.

Red lipsticks are worn throughout the whole year-not throughout a particular month, but my favourite time to wear red lipstick is Winter. There are lots of different shades of red worn this season, you have the dark reds to bright red and admittedly I'm more of a bright red girl, but I think any shade looks lovely on anyone. As you may know, Collection 2000 is a rather cheap and cheerful make-up brand than a Mac sort of brand, but their lipsticks are surprisingly good. I got this one for Halloween, and have worn it ever since, because I think it's very good at a very cheap price of £2.99.

5. Calvin Klein blusher in Heather Silk

Not only do I wear bronzer more in Winter, I also sometimes like to change up the bronzer for a deep pink/berry blusher, and this Calvin Klein blusher in Heather Silk meets my expectations dearly. With one very faint sweep of my brush over this blusher, I get a lot of product on my brush-this is quite annoying because I don't always want a full on pink look, but it doesn't bother me too much. I also got this from Fragrance Direct for £2.99 which is great value, and I saved £10 buying it from Fragrance Direct then a Calvin Klein retailer.

6. Urban Decay Naked Palette

 My last and final beauty pick for Winter is my Urban Decay Naked Palette. I think all of these colours in the palette suit Winter SO much, all the different tones of browns suit that bronzed/gold look, and the deep black/greys suit the musky, smokey look. I wear the brown tones more because they suit me more in my opinion, and go with my usual makeup for Winter at the moment; red lipstick, bronzed cheeks, winged eyeliner, however it's very easy to create a very pretty Winter look with this palette, because all shades in the same colour range suit eachother. This palette goes out of stock a lot throughout the whole year because it's that popular, but I was lucky enough to get one, full priced, at £37.00-pretty pricey, but worth it.

The colours close up and on skin:

So those were my favourite beauty picks for the Christmas/Winter season, I hope to find more seasonal makeup items, and share them with you!

BIRTHDAY HAUL

Hello!

On Tuesday 26th November it was my birthday, I've just turnt 15 and surprisingly don't feel any older, and will most likely go through that phase of telling people I'm 14 forgetting I've turnt 15.

Anyway, today I will be showing the gifts I received from multiple family members and friends. I know I have quite a lot of stuff, but I am very grateful for it all and have no intention of bragging about it!

 

*Beware, lots of pictures*

The first things I will show you are from my mum and stepdad:

1. Ted Baker Tinicon bag

I've been wanting this bag for a while now, and to receive it as a present was brilliant, I'm so excited to use it. As you can see the bag is a pale pink, with a black bow and gold detailing. Also, on the sides of the bag it says "No ordinary designer bag", all of the places Ted Baker has a shop in, and a funny little catchphrase inside.

2. Liberty's salted caramel chocolates

 Salted caramel chocolates are my favourite things on earth, I could almost live on them...or not. Anyway, these were from Liberty's which is a posh shop in London selling expensive foods and goods.

3. Nail Caviar

This wasn't on my birthday list, but I really like the sound of nail caviar so was happy when I received a set. As you can see, the colours I have are; blue, green, lilac, pink, and gold, I like all of those colours aswell which is a bonus.

4. Mac Plushglass and Lipstick

I couldn't believe it when I got these 2 products, I've loved these products from Mac for ages, and have always wanted both for ages! I will definitely be doing a review on both of these. I got the Plushglass in the colour Nice Buzz, and the lipstick in Creme d'nude.

5. Mac Pigment and glitter set

I originally only asked for Mac Vanilla Pigment, but my mum was explaining to me how it was a better deal to get this 5 piece set, which luckily contains the vanilla pigment I wanted, so I was very excited to unwrap these.

6. Shoe plasters

Every year my mum gets me a jokey sort present, and this year it was a plaster set, containing plasters representing shoes, and a few jokey looking plasters about shoes. As sad as it sounds, I now purposely want to have a cut that needs covering up with a plaster because I want to show off my new plasters.

7. Topshop fuschia socks

If you've read my blog for a while now, you may have noticed I have a rather large collection of frilly socks, and surprisingly I didn't have this bright pink pair which lead mum to buying them for me for my birthday!

8. Topshop Voucher

I only got the Topshop voucher from my mum which has £50 on it, and the other voucher was from my step auntie/uncle which has £20 on it and can be used in a variety of shops, I will most likely spend this in Topshop though.

9. Mac Makeup Session

I was given this by my mum as a Birthday treat, I get to choose anything from the right hand column of this Mac Professional Makeup Menu to go to. I think I'm going to go for the Makeup in 60 session, because it sounds the best value for money, and something I'd get a lot of knowledge and joy from.

That's it for what my Mum and Stepdad got me, they also got me some money, aswell as my Dad and a few other relatives, but I don't want to share how much I got.

My Nan and Grandad got me this:

I'm so happy I received the 1D perfume. I love 1D so so much, and to get a perfume which they supposedly made and crafted together was mind boggling. For other people, this may not be something too special, but as it's One Direction and gorgeous smelling, I am officially in love.

Presents from Friends:

Poppy:

My best chum ever Poppy made me this adorable set full of things I like, and only contains pink things which is my favourite colour. I love this set so so much, and the fact she put so much thought into it made this gift extra special, so thankyou very very much Poppy!!

Bee:

My friend Bee got me a variety of things consisting of a cute pot, a scrabble letter coaster with my initial on, some bon bons, Hand food hand cream from Soap and Glory, and a really pretty rose candle-thankyou Bee!

Jenni, Becca, and Alice:

Jenni got me the really cute Tatty Teddy chocolate bar, Becca got me the 2 packets of sweets, and Alice got me 2 boxes of chocolates which I received after my birthday at school, and ate before I could get a picture. Anyway, thanks a lot to those 3!

That's it for my presents, I am so appreciative and can't express it enough on here, but thankyou thankyou thankyou to my wonderful friends, and family, and everyone who said Happy Birthday to me.

THOMAS SABO BRACELET

Hello!

I haven't reviewed a jewellery item before, and as I love this bracelet/brand a lot I thought I might aswell review it in-case any viewers were questioning about getting a sweet present for someone this Christmas, or for them self.

It was the day of my mum's wedding day, I was the bridesmaid and as a gift I was given a Thomas Sabo charm bracelet; the bracelets originally come with no charms-these are purchased separately. The overall idea of having a charm bracelet is just so cute, I find that having little charms on a bracelet that mean something to you is a great sentimental and personal piece of jewellery to own.

This is my bracelet at the moment:

 It's a sterling silver bracelet, done up by a mechanical lever (I have no idea what this mechanism is called). The bracelet itself with no charms was £19.95, and I think that's a really good price for something that good a quality, and durability. Also, the bracelet doesn't look like it's made cheaply, it looks quite expensive and glamorous.

Currently on my bracelet I only have 2 charms:

 One is a fan and the other is two hearts linked together. The fan doesn't really have any meaning to me, but my mum bought it for me as a present and it is admittedly cute, however the linked hearts were given to me the same day as I got the bracelet (mums wedding day) which is a day I will always remember.

Pricing: The fan charm was £25.95, and the linked hearts were also £25.95, overall the price of all 3 products were £71.85.

You can also purchase charms singularly, and they come wrapped up in a very cute little striped box, with a small paper bag around it encased in a big bag with some ribbon inside.

I really like the wrapping for the charms, it's so sweet and intricate, and is very pleasing to the eye when first received.

When you first purchase the bracelet it comes in a white and black striped box with a lining of ribbon around the edge-the ribbon is sprayed with the Thomas Sabo perfume which does in fact smell very nice.

The box with the bracelet in comes in a white bag, also in the bag there is a drawstring silk bag containing leaflets about different charms you can buy, and general information about Thomas Sabo.

Charm Wants:
Here are a few charms that I want for my bracelet, and why.

1. Princess-£49.95

 This charm doesn't really have a sentimental reason for why I want it, I just love princesses and anything to do with pink, palaces, diamonds. Also, this charm reminds me a bit of Barbie, and I love Barbie!

 

2. Snowflake-£21.95

Not only is this charm super cute but simple, it also represents Winter, and I love Winter. Even though the temperature isn't my favourite in that season, I love the appearance the snow and ice make.

 

3. "Z"-£21.95

As my name is Zoe and begins with a Z, I thought it'd be nice to add a personal touch to the bracelet with my initial. On the website there is a whole range of letters in this style, and a diamante style which I also like, as well as this one.

4. November Birthstone-£25.95

I was born on November 26th (this tuesday), and as this is my birthstone it'd also be nice to have that on my bracelet as another personal touch. It's a shame that my birthstone is yellow, because yellow is my least favourite colour, but oh well!

 

5. Nail Varnish-£48.95

The last charm is a nail varnish charm, this represents my blog and beauty. I find that blogging is now a regular hobby of mine, and is something I want to remember for a long time, so what better way to do that then get a charm of something beauty related? 

If you are stuck on ideas for a gift whether it be for a relative, or friend, then one of these bracelets would be a great idea. Bare in mind that the bracelets are quite pricey depending on what charms you buy and how many, they are very good quality and not just any cheap looking silver. The website is here if you want to have a peak.