Christmas 2012 & Gifts

 

Hello!

I hope you've all had a really wonderful Christmas and enjoyed the overload of festivity over the past couple of days - I know I have! I have definitely consumed enough alcohol, chocolate, turkey and pigs in blankets to be able to last me until Christmas 2013. I've been carrying a little food baby around with me all day today and had a total of 4 outfit changes last night in order to find something that hid my super bloated tummy! Damn all those Christmas puddings and fruit ciders.

 

I've been totally in two minds about the 'What I Got For Christmas' posts and was originally really keen to write one up myself . I have read every single one that I've seen so far and had a huge nosy on Instagram on Christmas afternoon of all the uploaded opened present pictures; I just find them really interesting to look at! But when I heard people saying it's bragging and nothing more than showing off how spoilt you are and that put me right off doing one! I don't want to be a braggy show off :( I doubt anybody intends it that way at all, and that's not the way I see it either, it's just any other haul post really isn't it? But little old me worries about judgement from others (even though I shouldn't) and thought that maybe instead I should just not mention anything at all and individually review each of the beauty items over time. In the end I settled on a compromise and I've just combined a quick Christmas recap and a really brief mention of the presents because most are beauty related and girly but I'll still be doing full reviews of all of them so keep your eyes peeled because there'll be exciting stuff coming up in future posts!

 

Christmas was a little different for our family this year and I was apprehensive in the run up to it all, fearing that as we weren't sticking to our usual traditions that it wouldn't feel like Christmas at all - but all my worrying was for nothing and Christmas Day and all of the surrounding days were just as lovely as usual! Christmas Eve was spent cosy infront of the fire watching The Grinch and Prince Caspian and eating chinese takeaway after I had pampered myself to the absolute extreme, before lying in bed for hours and hours being too excited to sleep (seriously, how old?!) and it felt like I'd only had my eyes closed for a second before my sister came bounding in dragging me up to open our presents at quarter past 7! After all presents had been opened and 'thank you's had been exchanged then the preparation for Christmas dinner began and this year we were hosting the family dinner at our house - it is usually at my grandparent's house and they have 14 of us round for dinner but they just didn't feel up to the stress of it this year!

 

It's rubbish quality but here's a picture of my mum's idea of funny.. dressing the four of us in matching Christmas jumpers from Primark! I kept mine on all day but nobody else did :(

 

..And my mum clearly gets her sense of humour from her own mother because here is the family Christmas present from our Gran.. make of it what you will!

 

I don't want to ramble on too much about my Christmas Day but after our yummy three course meal we wound down with cups of tea and plenty of family laughs and a couple more present exchanges and a dip in the hot tub! My boyfriend and my sister's boyfriend both came around in the evening and we had a buffet style tea and then even more present exchanges! Followed by more stuffing our faces with sweets and cider before lying in bed watching The Dark Knight Rises feeling 3 stone heavier!! Boxing Day.. same again! Huuge family meal but this time followed by a girls night out in town and I really enjoyed myself - today is recovery day though.

 

My 'main present' from my parents was a laptop that I got early because my old one died a slow and painful death back in October, and mostly from my relatives I received money and cheques which I've used for just one treat in the sales and that's a new YSL Touche Eclat, and all of the rest of the money will be put towards a 2013 summer holiday! The pictures below are my 'stocking fillers' and the presents I received from my sister, boyfriend and boyfriend's mum - Of course I'm a very lucky girl to have received all of these really lovely things and I'm very grateful and appreciate them all!

 

Zip Hoodie (Topshop) from John, Christmas Jumper (Primark) from my mum, Embellished Jumper (Dorothy Perkins) from John's family, Studded lace body (Primark) from my mum, Dress (Republic) from my sister.

Nail Varnishes - High Voltage and Razmatazz (Topshop) and Studded Phone Clutch (Urban Outfitters) from John, Lock and Key Charm (Pandora) from John, Desperate Housewives Season 8 from John, Lady Million EDP from John, Perfume Set from Grandma, Pandora Mirror from my mum, Next Jewellery from a friend of the family. 

Lee Stafford Argan Oil Gift Set from my mum, Ojon Rare Blend Oil from my mum, Moroccanoil from John, Philip Kingsley Conditioner and Elasticizer from my Nanna.
How exciting!! Beauty lovers dream!!

More stocking fillers; some from my mum and some from my sister. Chocolate and sweets, beauty bits; deodrant, moisturiser, eyelashes, candles, socks and PJs!

 Every year it seems the build up to Christmas is so huge and the day can sometimes not live up to it's enormous hype, but this year I didn't feel too excited in the countdown to the big day but I enjoyed myself 10x more - or atleast that's what it felt like but I'm sure I say that it was my 'best Christmas ever' every single year!

 

I've well and truly indulged myself in an excessive amount of food and drink, spent quality time with all of my family and had lots of fun nights out with my friends, and been spoilt with beautiful gifts!

I hope that Christmas was as good for all of you as it was for me!

♥ ♥ ♥

20th Birthday Presents

 

 

Hello my little lovely jubblies. I'm coming to you with a biiig smile on my face today after having another absolutely amazing weekend and have been spoilt so, so rotton! As some of you may know, it was my birthday on Friday and my nearest and dearest definitely treated me well, the little gems! I've hit the ripe old age of 20 now and have left those wonderful teenage years behind me *sob*, so as I'm an old prune now and this was no milestone age then I was expecting about 3 cards with a tenner shoved inside them and maybe some flowers from my boyfriend.. I didn't really expect to be showered with so many wonderful gifts and be up to my eyeballs in new and exciting things to try!

I feel like a spoilt little princess.

A very grateful, spoilt little princess.

 

Just a little disclaimer that this is no way intended to be any kind of 'bragging' or 'show off' kind of post at all, as it is basically just a haul.. apart from it wasn't me that picked the items out.. or paid for them. I personally like reading these kind of posts that other people do after their birthdays because more often than not they're full to the brim with beauty bits which excite me and also they're great for gift ideas so this could give you some hints and tips if you've not started Christmas shopping yet!

 

When I first caught wind of these advent calendars from Ciate way back in October I had my heart well and truely set on getting one - what could be better than opening a door to a bottle of nail varnish every single morning leading up to Christmas Day?! I puppy dog eyed my mummy if she could get me one as a birthday present and tryed my best to justify the steep price tag with the fact that it contains exclusive shades and and 4 bottles of the ever so famous caviar pearls. She finally said 'yes'.. but then let on to me that they had all sold out before she had chance to order one, allowing me to moan and sulk that I'd missed the chance and she well and truely threw me off the scent that she had snapped one up for me. Little minx. I was jumping for joy when I realised she'd tricked me and I ripped open that yellow Selfridges box and admired my new Ciate Mini Mani Month and all of it's glory with a great big smile on my face. Yay!
 

The Benefit 'How To Look The Best At Everything' gift set pictured above was from my younger sister and contains minis of everything that you need to create the ideal complexion and base with the Pore-fessional primer, Hello Flawless foundation, 2 shades of Boi-ing concealer, and Me Vain? setting powder and it comes in a super cute old fashioned book style packaging - LOVE. The earrings were from my boyfriend's parents and the elephant Pandora charm was from my Grandma. She also gave me some money with strict instructions that I 'must treat myself to something pretty' with it, and treating myself is of course one of my favourite things to do so I don't think I'll find that too hard!

 

Below is a 'Topshop Hottie', i.e. a hot water bottle, that I got from one of the girls that I live with at uni and she said that she picked this one out because it's a wolf.. but when he has his hood up he's a cosy little sheep - aw! Now, I know that the saying 'wolf in sheep's clothing' means something to do with pretending you're something you're not?.. but lets just pretend it's nothing to do with that and it's nothing but a cute little wolf with a fluffy white jumper on! This is adorable and who wouldn't want to receive this as a present?



The little collage above is all the gifts I got from my two best friends at university; how generous? Rachael decorated our house with 'Happy birthday' banners and even got me a little cupcake from Greggs and put a candle in it for me - aw! As if a gorgeous clutch bag from River Island wasn't enough there was a nice purple box absolutely full of little goodies! They definitely satified my beauty cravings as well as my massive sweet tooth! So many sweets haha. Soap and Glory goodies, earrings and a ring, eyelashes, Rihanna perfume, a Skittles candle (mmm) and more!

 

The collage below is presents from my boyfriend. I asked if there was any particular order that I should open them and his only specification was the one that needed to be last.. and it was the socks which confused me why these had to be last until I realised that inside one of the socks was a little Pandora box! It's the white mother of pearl 'Love Me' charm, and he said he didn't want it to be too obvious what it was straight away so tried to disguise what the box would be by putting it inside pair of socks haha! He also got me a Body Shop gift set with scrubs, body butters, soaps and shower gels and moisturisers in and although I've never known what 'Moringa' is before it turns out to be a scent I really like - it's fresh and floral so I'll be saving these for spring and summer, but the coconut body milk has already been put into regular use.

 

I think the biggest surprise was definitely a camera, there was no hints or clues about this one! I don't actually own a camera - I steal my mum's to take my blog pictures and have to take them in bulk too because she uses her camera all the time, but now I have my very own! It has lots of fancy settings on it that I'm not quite sure what I'm doing with yet but I've had a good play about with it and it has good focus on close up pictures which I really like. That's why this post is so photo heavy - I've been trialling my new camera!

 

Andddd on top of all that he also got me some sweets and one of THE best onesies that I have ever seen.. ever! It's from Next and I'd spotted it before and told him that I'd never buy it myself as it's expensive for a onesie - and I wasn't even hinting! Safe to say I want to live in this now for the next few weeks, it so amazingly cosy and warm, and look how well I match my new hot water bottle!!

 

I like sweets more than I like cosmetics and I think people may have figured this out! My teeth are going to fall out after I've worked my way through this great big pile of sweets - mmmm!

 

♥