My Christmas

Hiya lovelies,

I hope you had a lovely Christmas (if you celebrate it.) I had a good one - we've certainly been busy!

Our Christmas, like many others in the UK, started off wetly. We had a horrible scary journey to visit our families. We encountered an accident which closed a major road resulting in a major detour virtually as soon as we left home, then we came across a flooded road, then a telegraph pole which was swinging in the wind, and finally a raging torrent. I'm so glad it was day time or else it would've been absolutely terrifying.

The first flooded road we came across wasn't too bad as we could drive through it quickly. The second flooded road was one which normally sits in a dip between two fields which both have gentle winding streams. Because of the recent downpours the streams were now massive lakes with no grass to be seen anywhere and the road was under at least 2 feet of water. All the cars going through in front of us were 4x4s, and then there was us in our small Toyota. As we got to the lowest point in the road the wake of the water was nearly as high as our windows and I was seriously shitting it. My husband is a nutjob. The force of the water ripped our front number plate off! 

1. Flood on A21
2. Wobbly telegraph pole
3. Flood near Bodiam Castle
4. And again - I think the water is brown from me cacking it!

1. Why am I yellow?!
2. Christmas dinner
3. My mum
4. Classy Christmas - Lambrini with lunch

1. My hubby and my brother
2. Me looking shagged after 4 hours sleep
3. My aunt, the cook
4. In the Christmas spirit

1. Pretty onyx earrings from the ma and pa in law
2. Hubs in a gift bag
3. Canary Wharf in the clouds
4. Pretty Christmas trees

On Christmas Eve we went to Kent to see my mum's side of the family, with a quick stop off with my dad's side of the family to drop off the presents. We had Christmas Day lunch at my aunt's house, then went to London to see hub's parents. After an hour or so we headed off to his grandad's house, where all the family gather on Christmas night. There were about 30+ people there, which was down on last year's numbers, thankfully - it gets stiflingly hot and crowded as it is. My brother- and sister-in-law brought the baby, who's now 8 months old and as cute as a button. I was blowing raspberries on her cheeks, which she loved. I also sang to her ('All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth') and she was kicking her legs in time. Poor babe must be tone deaf! ;)

On Boxing Day we went to the cinema to see The Desolation of Smaug again. It's even better the second time around. Yesterday we spent the day with my mum and step dad as it was my mum's birthday. We spent the day going around the shops before going to see an aunt and uncle for a chat and a cuppa, then going to see another aunt and uncle for a Chinese takeaway.

I had a really good night's sleep on Christmas night after consuming copious amounts of vodka, but other than that sweet respite I've felt as rough as a porcupine's arse. I've been weak, shaky, nauseous and my legs were so tremulous at one point I thought the ground was shaking underneath me. I'll be going to see the doctor as soon as I can drag butt there.

It's been lovely to see everyone but I've been a bit detached as I've felt so poorly.

Christmas run down
Rows witnessed: 1
Floods: 2
Sprouts eaten: 24
Bacon sarnies: 2
Alcoholic beverages: 9
Family members seen: 50+
Swear words deployed: 327 (at least 290 during flood crossing #2.)
Vol au vents scoffed: 5

How was your crimbo?

Thanks for reading.

Christmas Day OOTD

Hello lovelies!

Here's what I'm going to wear tomorrow. Let's start off with a derp photo shall we?

I really need to take that bloody hairband off my wrist for blog photos!

The dress is lovely - loose fitting (I'm wearing a 26) and comfortable with gorgeous gold sparkle amongst the navy. It could probably use a belt but never mind!

Dress, New Look 
Jacket, Matalan
Earrings, Club Indulge Xmas Market
Shoes, Very (past season.)
Festive hair piece, made by Nancy

To all my readers have a FANTASTIC Christmas! Thanks for all your support and your lovely comments. I hope you have an amazing Christmas/Yule/Wednesday (if you don't celebrate Xmas.)

See you on the other side! x x x

Jolly OOTD

Hello you!

I have a casual festive look for you today. I bought this 'jolly' t-shirt from New Look online. It was only £7.99 and I had a 25% off code at the time so it was a no-brainer.

Give it a few days and it'll probably be half price! ;)

I'm wearing my Christmas pud necklace from Black Heart Creatives which was half price at £7.50. Yes for bargains! I talk about BHC so much you might think I'm sponsored by them, but I've bought all my necklaces myself - I bloody love them!

You can see my re-shaved undercut here. I attacked it just before I went to bed a few nights ago. There's a scary amount of grey coming through, including a coin sized chunk by my temple. Henna time!

T-shirt, New Look
Necklace, Black Heart Creatives
Cardigan, Primark
Skirt, ASOS Curve (past season.)
Shoes, Very (past season.)

Thanks for peeking!

I hope you're all ready for Christmas/Yule/Giftmas/Wednesday (if you don't celebrate.)

Blog parade - New Year's OOTD*

Hello!

As I wrote yesterday, I'm part of a blog parade organised by Flo and Alison. Between now and New Years Eve two bloggers a day will be posting their festive outfits.

I'm wearing a gorgeous top which was gifted to me by Stef at Bonmarché in a lovely surprise care package which knocked my socks off.

I couldn't decide if the outfit looked better with the pearls or without, so there are a few shots of each.

Festive hair adornment, made by Nancy
Pearls, Primark (past season.)
Art deco ring, Past Times
Top, gifted by Bonmarché*
Wide belt (worn back to front) ASOS Curve
Skirt, Yours (past season.)
Shoes, Very (past season.)

The tunic is absolutely stunning and the photos don't do it justice. Here's what they say about it on the website:

Offered as part of our David Emanuel range, this glitter tunic has all the sparkle to make you dazzle. A true party piece for the holiday season ahead, complete with an elegant chiffon sleeve and gold stud detail for added glam perfect for teaming with a colour slim fit jean and your favourite clutch bag. A flattering fit with built in stretch makes for a comfortable tunic. Due to the unique process used the manufacture this garment, some glitter loss is to be expected during wash and general wear.

If I hadn't been gifted this tunic, had I seen it in the shop I would've bought it anyway. It's lush.

Are you pulling out the sparkle over Christmas and New Year? Thanks for reading!

Christmas trees & me OOTD

Hiya lovelies!

I've got 5 mini Christmas trees up indoors, ranging from 3-4 feet high. Two are on the table in the corner of the living room, one is on the coffee table, and two are out in the sun room. We have no power out there so I've got battery operated lights on the latter. Because the living room is 'walled' in glass we can see through to the trees out there. It's very cosy each evening watching the lights twinkle out there.

It was an accident that I got the trees in the photos as I was faffing around trying new places to catch the light. Excuse the mess - you can see the tumble drier, an old beer fridge which we haven't used since we've lived here, and various other odds and sods.

Makeup whore necklace, Trashy Doll
Tunic top, given to me by Rebs
Wet look leggings, Miss Difusa
Boots, Simply Be (old.)
Handbag, Tesco (old.)
Lipstick, Barry M 52

I'm not a traditionalist at all when it comes to Christmas. I've got a silver tinsel tree, a pink tinsel tree, a white tree, a pink tree and a black one.

What's your Christmas decor like?

Thanks for reading.

50 things I want to do during the festive season

Hiya loves,

I saw a post on Louise's blog called 50 things I want to do during the festive season and immediately knew I wanted to do it too. I LOVE Christmas and everything about it. If you're not following Louise, you need to be. Her wishlist Wednesday and Serendipity Sunday posts are always gorgeous!

The photo belongs to Louise as well

 Let's crack on!

1. Go to see the Christmas decorations at Westfield (village, not the shopping centre.)
2. Go to Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park.
3. Put up the trees (in progress.) ✓
4. Put up lights all around the living room (OK, instruct hubby to!) ✓
5. Put a bit of Christmas in EVERY room, even if it's only a bit of tinsel.
6. Listen to Christmas songs non-stop.
7. Watch Elf.
8. Watch Home Alone.
9. Watch Die Hard. (What, it's not a Christmas film?!)
10. Watch Love Actually, which feels quite Christmassy to me. 
11. Watch The Polar Express as I've never seen it. 
12. Sit round in my PJs or new fleecy lounger watching Christmas films in the dark with only the fairy lights on. 
13. Find at least one new Christmas decoration. I like to buy one every year so as I dress the trees it brings back lots of memories.
14. Write out my Christmas cards and post them. SOON! ✓
15. Send my usual Christmas card to A Hero, Headley Court Military Hospital, Headley, Epsom, Surrey. KT18 6JN. 
16. Make small donations to a few charities who are close to my heart.
17. Wrap up the presents I need to send and get them to the post office so I can relax. ✓
18. Wrap up all the other presents and organise them into bags and boxes.
19. Buy something for myself from hubby since he'll forget otherwise. ;) ✓
20. Buy something to myself from myself. And why not? :) ✓
21. Get a new dress to wear on Christmas Day. ✓
22. Get a cheesy Christmas jumper, even it if does make me look like an apple on legs.
23. Watch The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. LOTR & The Hobbit series will always feel like Christmas films to me because of most of them being released near Christmas.
24. Go to a Christmas market.
25. Get my hands on the BIG Soap & Glory gift set which is always more than half price just before Xmas. ✓
26. Drink ready made mulled wine or make my own. Yum. 
27. Eat mince pies. ✓
28. Take the opportunity to do lots of sparkly Christmas make up.
29. Do a few different Christmas nail art posts.
30. Go to see some Christmas lights locally.
31. Go to see Christmas lights around my home town with my mum and step dad.
32. Go the scenic route on the way to my mum's so we can take in more Christmas lights.
33. Go to my mum's for Christmas. 
34. Get dressed in my new dress and put on hideous Christmas earrings and a big Christmas hat.
35. Give my mum and step dad their presents and watch them open them. I love this bit!
36. Open my presents.
37. Have a bacon sammich or full English for breakfast.
38. Have Christmas Day lunch at my aunt's house.
39. Open more presents after lunch. 
40. Give everyone big fat Christmas hugs.
41. See my mad extended family and remember why I don't see them a lot. HAHAHA.
42. Have a few festive Christmas tipples.
43. See my dad's side of the family. 
44. See hubby's side of the family.
45. Hopefully have a roast dinner at my aunt's because she's a feeder! Her roasts are legendary!
46. Avoid falling arse over tit if it snows. ;)
47. Christmas buffet food - prawn vol au vents!
48. Eat a few Christmas chocolates. It'd be rude not to!
49. Find somewhere in the UK who sell pepparkakor, Swedish gingerbread with an extra kick of pepper. They're seriously THE BOMB. (Edit, found somewhere, yes!)
50. Soak up every last minute of it because my parents, aunts and uncles are all getting on in years and I don't know how many more Christmases I'll have left with them.

Of course it goes without saying I'll be photographing and Instagram-ing the shiznit out of every moment of Christmas!

If you want to do this post, feel free but make sure you link to Louise's blog. The graphic is hers as well.

Thanks for reading!

What are you looking forward to about Christmas?

My Outside My Comfort Zone outfit post will be up in a few hours, so pop back for that.

Christmas Tag

I love Christmas, so when I saw this tag over at Makeup Pixi3 I was in like a shot.

1. Do you prefer a real Christmas tree or synthetic?
Synthetic. We did used to have real trees when I was a child, but we woke up to a pile of pine needles everywhere each morning, so by the time Christmas came around we had an almost bald tree. I also find real ones to be quite sparse, and I want a full look so I have fake ones.

2. You're in a coffee shop, it's December, what do you pick?
I'm in a coffee shop?! Geddafuggout. I've never seen the attraction of paying £3+ for a coffee when you can get a whole jar in the supermarket for that price. Plus coffee gives me the shits! HAHAHA. If I did happen to fall into a coffee shop (unlikely) I'd be having a hot chocolate. I'd sooner go to the pub!

3. Whats your favourite colour scheme for decorating the tree?
I have a mini forest of trees - hot pink, pink tinsel, silver, silver tinsel, white, black. I do a different theme for all of them. I love colour and do everything BUT traditional red and green.

4. Giving or receiving?
Giving. There have been years when my mum has been unable to buy me anything, and it doesn't bother me a jot. I ask her to knit me something or make me a cake instead, as I know those things have all her love poured into them and that's more important than all the money in the world. If I'm having a crap year financially I may not buy Christmas presents for my friends, and vice versa, but I don't keep tally. The main thing is spending time with each other. Of course I love presents, but there's no way I'll see someone go into debt to show their love when they can do that all year round just by being there.

5. To mince pie or not to?
Yes, one every couple of days with a cuppa is nice.

6. What's your traditional sunday lunch?
We go to my aunts who usually does 3 different meats, roast potatoes, new potatoes, several veg, Yorkshires, pigs in blankets etc. etc. It's very nice!

7. Christmas day fashion.
I always like to buy a new dress for Christmas Day. That way everything feels all new and special as soon as I get up. Most likely I'll have thrown something down it by breakfast time though!

8. What's your favourite Christmas song?
Oh. My. Gawd. So many - I love all the old ones - Bing Crosby, the Phil Spector Christmas album, Slade, Wizzard etc. but my favourite current Christmas song is this one by Rob Thomas. The lyrics never fail to choke me up. They talk about peace and compassion - the warm feelings we tend to have toward our fellow man at Christmas time (and why not all year?!)

 

9. What's your favourite Christmas film?
I love Home Alone and Elf. Oh, and Love Actually even though it's not specifically a Xmas Film. And the Die Hard set at Christmas. Hahaha.

10. Open presents before or after lunch?
Both! I usually stay at my mum and step dad's on Christmas eve, and we open our presents from each other before, during or after breakfast. Then we go to my aunt's, have lunch and do it all again. 

If you want to do this tag feel free as long as you give credit to Makeup Pixi3. I'd love to see your answers, so feel free to share your link here afterwards. 

Thanks for reading.