'Goodbye 2012..' | Resolutions & Plans for 2013

image source: weheartit

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

♥

 

I'm a day late wishing you all this, but I was hardly up to the task of blogging yesterday - my bed was all I needed. Being ill and having a hangover isn't a very healthy combination and I just thank the world that I'm not yet a member of the full time working world and have this day to stay in bed still and can recover fully! I welcomed the new year in by celebrating in Liverpool with my friends and had one of the best nights in a really long time. It was made extra special by the fact that my boyfriend was also in Liverpool with his friends and we were coincidentally in the same place when the clock struck midnight so I managed to get a new years kiss for the first time in 3 years!

 

So, we wave good bye to the year of 2012 - one of the best years that our country has had for a very long time, full of celebrations and reasons to be proud. A great year for sport, the Royal Family, and our country. 2012 was dominated by our hosting of the olympic games and our amazing success within the games, earning ourselves a total 65 medals, 29 of these being gold and finishing third in the medals table. Think Mo Farah, the Brownlee brothers, Ellie Simmonds, David Weir, Jessica Ennis, Andy Murray, Chris Hoy, Tom Daley, Bradley Wiggins, do you need me to say more?? Don't forget the Queen and James Bond jumping from the sky, and the Spice Girls performing at the closing ceremony. More celebrations during the Queen's Jubilee and of course it needs to be mentioned that Prince William and Kate Middleton announced their pregnancy this year too! Aw Royal Baby on the way! It's undeniable that all of this happiness and these celebrations brought us all together with 'pride' as a uniting factor.

 

image source: telegraph.co.uk

 

In beauty terms, 2012 was the year that everybody wanted Bioderma, Revlon Lip Butters, the Naked Palette, Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish, Origins skin care and Moroccan Oil! What will 2013 bring for us all? I have no idea, except that I know for sure I'll be picking up a few of the Rimmel Apocalips as soon as they are released at the end of January - they're set to be a huge hit.

 

2012 was the year that I started my blog, and although I've only properly been doing it for 5 months now I can't really imagine not having a little space to write my thoughts and rambles on anymore! I absolutely love it and I am also really grateful for all of the support and love that I have received over the past few months too. I reached the 500 follower milestone on new years eve which was an absolutely brilliant way for my blog to end it's first year and it made me so happy! Thank you to everybody that follows. I've also come across some really amazing people this year, through blogging, and it's restored my faith that not all girls are nasty bitches! How come girls who blog are so much nicer than normal girls? Everybody is just so kind and supportive of each other, encouraging and praising things that other bloggers do and it's a really great thing to see and be a part of.

 

On a personal level, I would say that 2012 hasn't been that special for me and there has been no stand out events of excitement, which is a shame but it did have a lot to live up with 2011 being such a good year. 2011 was the year that most of my friends turned 18 so there was lots of parties and celebrations with the novelty of 'going out' still being relatively fresh, and for the most part we were still in Sixth Form with no worries or stresses, we had our amazing girls holiday to Kavos, and first year of university began in September. So, when 2012 is compared to a year as eventful as that of course it seems a lot more tame and kind of dull! Most of my friends have settled down now with long term boyfriends and full time jobs so we're just not the party animals that we used to be ..20 going on 70! I'd still say 2012 was good for me though, because although nothing stood out as making it amazing, there was also nothing negative that stands out either. I've had no major troubles, problems or hard times this year which makes me incredibly lucky and for the most part I've been extremely happy with life.

 

What more is there to need when you have health, love, happiness and a roof over your head?

 

image source: weheartit

2013: It's compulsary to start all new years with a positive outlook and a brand new burst of motivation to make little changes to your life and make it the best that it can possibly be, and also to make yourself the best person that you can possibly be. I started to change my outlook on life towards the end of November and stopped saying 'no' to so many things and just tried to take more advantage of opportunities that come my way. I plan on keeping up this attitude to be a little bit more adventurous and just to 'do more'.

imagesource: weheartit

While browsing weheartit.com for motivational and inspirational images relevant to this post, I came across an adorable idea of having a jar at the beginning on the year and filling it with notes of the amazing things that have happened over 2013 and then emptying it out on new years eve to remind yourself of what's gone on throughout the year and all of the little moments of happiness that may have slipped your memory - I bet there'll be more than you think. I really want to do this, and I think I am going to find an empty jar as soon as I've posted this, but I just hope I don't fail on it by about March.

 

I'm not making any huge resolutions or long term plans as I'm more than content with how myself, and how my life is right now. I hope to continue smiling every day and be surrounded by my wonderful family, friends and boyfriend, stay positive and appreciate the little things in life. ♥

 

image source: weheartit

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Aphrodites Boutique Lodge | Two Years of Love ♥

 

Hello, I'm going to try and keep this pretty short and sweet and not get too carried away in a super soppy ramble, no one wants to be feeling queasy while reading a blog post, do they!

 

Yesterday was the 'official date' marking the two year anniversary of being the luckiest girlfriend in the world. With this being so close to Christmas it seems a little bit silly to buy each other a gift so instead we made the decision to have a night away last week in a luxury, local(ish) hotel as celebration and a pre-Christmas treat. I say 'local-ish' because it's only around 20 minutes drive from where I live but people come from miles to stay here; the couple infront of us at reception had come from Essex to stay until Boxing Day. It's in Windermere, in the Lake District, and the hotel is called Aphrodites Boutique Lodge - You can find their website here: link. It's pretty pricey for just one overnight stay but everybody needs to have a splurge and indulge themselves every once in a while. We halved the cost and called it our 'gift to each other'.

 

Each of the rooms are 'themed', which some people might find tacky, but we just thought that it was a bit of a novelty and something different to your standard hotel room. There's themes such as The Flintstones, James Bond, Cleopatra, Robin Hood, Pine Cabin, etc, and even the ever so cringe 'Love Shack Suite'. Try telling your family you're staying in there ;) !! Our choice of room was the Tarzan and Jane Suite (when I say 'our'.. it was my choice really), and it included themed decor as you can see from the pictures above and had a sauna in the room (picture on the top right), along with a jacuzzi bath tub complete with a TV. I now have my heart set on my own TV in the bath! Oh and I also took pleasure in pinching the complimentary Molton Brown toiletries provided.

 

We arrived on Sunday night, relaxed, made use of the sauna and the bath and the giant TV but decided against going for a dip in the swimming pool. It was Christmas Eve Eve and we wanted to get in the Christmas spirit so watched 'Christmas With The Kranks' sprawled out on the humongous bed with a Rekorderlig in hand totally loving life! We went for our evening meal at a place called Bodgea in Bowness and went a little overboard on the tapas - they were a quite a lot bigger than we anticipated so our 7 'mini meals' was probably enough to feed four people, not two! No point in wasting it of course so we stuffed our faces and practically had to roll ourselves back to the hotel. I don't want to chatter on for too much longer, but it was absolute heaven to be able to wake up on Christmas Eve and be all cosied up in this gorgeous hotel room lying next to the person I love most the most (hehe).

 

 

 

We wanted to do something nice yesterday but both of us have come down with symptoms of the flu and I didn't feel up to doing much unfortunately :( John snuck up early and nipped out before I woke up to go and buy bacon and sausages and cooked up an absolute feast for breakfast! Hashbrowns, fried egg, bacon, beans, toast, sausage, and whatever else is part of an fry up was sitting there on a plate ready for me - I feel so bad that I was too ill to eat much more than a few mouthfuls! He also bought me a lovely bunch of flowers that you can see in the picture above. We'd had a table booked for an evening meal but gave it a miss to be able to stay warm on the sofa looking like death! It is a shame, but it's not that it matters much anyway because of course it's not about spending lots of money or going out anywhere fancy, I just think it's nice to do something special every once in a while to break the mould and what better excuse than the anniversary of two years of being together and happy?

 

We literally have no photos of us together except from hideous joking around ones, or the ones taken when we were on holiday in Marbella, so I just put together a little collage of Marbella photos to show you our happy, smiling faces! Can you tell I've just found a new collage making site that I really love? I'm not gonna be soppy, I promise, but I just want to say that it's been the best two years of my life, I've never been happier than I am right now, and I'm very loved up. :)

 

♥

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!

♥ ♥ ♥

Happy Birthday To Me | Half Way To 40!

If you follow me on Twitter (@hannahripley) or Instagram (hannahripley1) then you will already know this - because I haven't shut up about it - but it was my birthday on Friday and I hit that big old milestone of 20 years old. I did a post on Monday about the presents that I generously received and I basically just showcased a huge mound of sweets.. so if you want to tease your sweet tooth or have a nosy at what else I was treated to, including The Body Shop and Benefit goodies and a Ciate Mini Mani Month then you can see the post here: (link). This is just a post with a couple more pictures sharing the antics from the week and the weekend, hope you all enjoy.



Even Google wished me a happy birthday!



♥ Birthday girl with her cake and candle  |  Cute cupcake & card ♥

♥ Cake made by my mum  |  Full fry up made in the morning by John ♥

♥ Surprise MoonPig card from my best friend, Lucy  |  'Lovely' morning text from John ♥

♥ Banner on the front door of uni house  |  Banner on my bedroom door at home ♥

♥ Presents from the girls at uni  |  'Create your own' badge & Arthur Christmas film ♥

♥ Favourite texts from the day: 'fellow booty shaker'  |  Favourite texts from the day: 'blogging buddy' ♥

♥ More favourite texts from the day - how cute that my grandparents have learnt to text?! ♥

♥ Uni girls  |  'Uni family' ♥

♥ Jager shots to start the night  |  Beer pong! ♥

♥  Out in Preston #1 |  Out in Preston #2 ♥

♥ Out in Preston #3  |  Out in Preston #4 ♥

♥ More picture with the girls  |  Surprise Moonpig card from Lucy ♥

♥ Popular day for bloggers birthdays!  | Free cookie from Subway made my day ♥

I do love a good collage!
 ♥

Weekend in Liverpool: Michael McIntyre Live Arena Tour

I hope you all had a very good weekend and are enjoying your week - only 4 weeks til Christmas! Despite being almost 20, I am definitely still like an excited small child around the festive season with my daily countdown and extreme love for all things Christmas related! I had one of the best weekends that I've had in a reaaally long time and have decided to share it with you all, hope you enjoy..

 

For my boyfriend's 19th birthday present (in August!) I booked two tickets to see Michael McIntyre's 'Show Time' arena tour and an overnight stay in the Novotel Hotel in Liverpool city centre. We stayed in the Novotel last year and both absolutely loved it and enjoyed the luxury of a pricey 'executive' hotel room so I thought it would be a nice idea to take a trip down memory lane and stay there again, and also it's best to stick with what you know sometimes - I didn't want to risk picking a hotel that turned out not to be so great so played it safe. The hotel was just as amazing as we both remembered it and is in a prime location; one minute walk from the shopping centre and about five minutes to the Albert Docks and Echo Arena.

 

On the Friday we arrived, checked in and as it was only 4pm thought it would be the ideal time to hit Primark as maybe it would be quieter than Saturday morning and I was right, it was busy still.. but definitely bareable and gave me the chance to peacefully mooch around all three floors and spend a considerable sum of money... :D After treating ourselves to some Krispy Kreme doughnuts and a quick bite to eat we got ready and went to the Echo Arena. I was so excited for this! I tried to explain it to my friends as 'you know if you watch a comedian on telly and it's a bit like 'ha ha that was funny'.. well seeing them live definitely makes it a lot more like 'hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha I can't breathe, oh now I'm crying!' kind of funny and I can safely say that there were lots of laughs, it was a brilliant show. We planned on having a couple of drinks in Concert Square when the show finished but we were both just too tired and all I wanted was to get warm and snuggle up in bed. We wandered back across the docks and through Liverpool One having a peek at the ice skating and just taking in all of the festivity and Christmas decorations - it was a lovely romantic little walk.

Waiting To Be Picked Up | Wheel On Albert Docks | Michael McIntyre | Novotel Bed

The Lovely Lad Himself | City Centre | Christmas Tree | Christmas Lights & Decorations

 

The next day we hit the shops about midday and my bank account took a beating ..oops! I'm not sorry though because I got myself lots of lovely new things and made a start on Christmas shopping. I happily bought myself a pair of new disco pants in navy by Glamorous that I found in Bank with a little bonus of 20% off everything in store that weekend! What wasn't so great was that Tulisa's big chavvy face was slapped on the front of the shopping bag and I had to carry it around all day. Then I spotted Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant and suggested that we went there for lunch but when we went in they told us it'd be a 45 minute wait and our tummies were rumbling so unfortunately we didn't get to try it out.



 Shopping | Buying Christmas Presents | Decorations in Liverpool One | Jamie Oliver's Italian

Instead of Jamie's Italian we instead went for lunch at Las Iguanas - somewhere that I have wanted to try out for a really long time and it definitely didn't disappoint! I got a beef 'big burrito' and John's was chicken and we shared quesadillas for a starter. The food was aaaabsolutely amazing and I'd happily go again and would now choose it over a Nandos any day. Lunch was my treat so when our waitress brought over the pin/card machine to pay she passed it straight to John and I had to embarass her by taking it back out of his hands right infront of her and opened my purse to get my card out. Don't be so stereotypical - girls can pay too!



John in Las Iguanas | Las Iguanas | Beef 'Big Burrito' | Enjoying My Lunch

 

When we arrived back home on Saturday evening we were each heading off for a night out with our friends as it was the weekend of an annual festival in my home town: The Dickensian Festival, where everybody basically dresses up in old fashioned clothes, drinks mulled wine and eats roasted chestnuts while browsing our own version of Christmas markets. The evening always promises to be a great night out because it's always so busy and I had a really good time with the girls. The next day was a typical Sunday for me with a cooked breakfast.. bacon fried egg and cheese bun - thanks John! A chill out day and then a lovely homemade roast dinner with apple crumble for dessert with John's family later on, finally topped off by watching the final episode of Prison Break and ending up a sobbing mess even though I've seen it before ..but it really is just so touching and emotional!

 

If that's not a good weekend then I don't know what is!

Super loved up and happy!

♥ ♥ ♥

A Day Out At The Zoo

Hello. If you've not seen yet then yesterday I did a post all about myself called 'Get To Know Me' and if you're somebody who's interested in knowing 'the blogger behind the blog', or you're just nosy and like to have a read about lifestyle then you can see this post here: link.
 

In yesterday's post I did point out that although I come from a beautiful area - the Lake District - it is unfortunately pretty deprived of excitement, and even though going for a trip to a lake or up a mountain is a really lovely thing to do it obviously isn't to everybody's preferences to do on a Sunday afternoon. One thing that we do boast in our area is a zoo! Technically called a 'wildlife park' it's less than 10 minutes in the car from my house and has monkeys, rhinos, giraffes, etc.. so it's an exciting place to visit, no matter how old you are. We don't have a Primark but we do a have a zoo!

 

We all know that when winter comes around daylight hours are shorter and the air can be bitterly cold, meaning bad business for a zoo owner. Because of this, South Lakes Wildlife Park has free admission between November and February and asks for donations to keep the park running instead of a compulsary entry fee. As it was a nice day I convinced my boyfriend to take a Sunday afternoon trip to the zoo with me seeing as it's free and only down the road.

 

Here are a few snaps from our day:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now it's time for a cosy Sunday night in, with roast chicken for dinner, apple crumble for dessert and then a cup of tea in bed watching the final few episodes of Prison Break.

Hope you have all had a good weekend!

♥