Christmas 2014

A very belated Merry Christmas to those of you reading this! I had hoped to post this particular entry last week but New Year activities and seeing friends meant I've had to leave sharing some of my favourite presents with you until now.

Christmas is a day me and my family really love and this year we decided to go all out and really enjoy ourselves. In our house the day usually involves a really early present opening session followed by a light prosecco breakfast and then the afternoon is spent relaxing (napping) and cooking the dinner in prep for early evening. We took the day slowly and in the evening were joined by friends of ours for a game night which is always a laugh. Family fortunes was quite an intense but hilarious affair.

I should mention before you see the photos that we start shopping for presents in October to take some of the pressure off and really upped our budgets on eachother this year so there are a few presents I want to share with you. It's not me bragging I just want to share with you some of the lovely things I got. With the make up in particular I'll do reviews later on to let you know how good they are.

I apologise for the surface these photos were taken on and the lack of lighting but times against me and I had to make do with what I had!

The trusty YSL box!!

The absolute best smelling perfume in the world!

I do have the brush for this palette it's just upstairs with my collection

As is the brush for this palette

I got two of this palette because I've been going on about it for months and so two of my friends decided to put me out of my misery!

I could sniff this palette for life it smells that damn good

Yet another eyeshadow palette, this one I bought for myself because I always miss the Urban Decay limited edition palettes and because I get discount through my work. Not sure how to wear all the colours so I'm gonna have to play around with it but I love the jewell tones this offers. Got my sister one of these for her Christmas as well.

Cute present from my sister for my office

My sister got these shipped over ,the third colour is my absolute favourite to wear when I have pink through my hair. Swatched below!

Me and my sister absolutely love the film New York Minute and Ashley Olsens character 'Jane' had this organiser she basically lived out of in the film. My mum and dad got me and Lisa these for Christmas because we've been obsessed with them ever since. Mine has been used a tonne since I got it.

The following are a bunch of books from my Amazon Wishlist that I really wanted:

This is one of my old uni books and it gives me the worst flashbacks even though the book itself is amazing!

Pattern blocks! At last!!

Another uni book that was amazing

I went a little mental with wanting shoes and handbags this year as well and my work had these crazy sales on in the lead up to Christmas which totally prompted me to buy some of these! I was good and didn't wear them until Christmas though...

Julien MacDonald bag from Debenhams

Faith handbag from Debenhams

 Freaking amazing army boots that I LOVE and stop me falling over in the snow and ice


If anyone wants and inside views of the books or any of my opinions on them then leave a comment and I'll put up a post on the particular item. I've ordered a whole load of books off amazon since Christmas that are starting to arrive and I think are really good for fashion students to hear about and have a read of so I'll get those up in the future as well.

Have a good day!

Winter Wonderland-Edinburgh

I'm very lucky in that I live a mere 25 minute car journey from Scotlands capital city Edinburgh. It's a place that's really easy to take for granted when you live so close but thousands of tourists come here every year to see the castle, the architecture and the Fringe festival which is an unreal arts/theatre/comedy/music festival that takes place all over the city in the summer months. In short Edinburgh is a pretty awesome place to live near.

However I'm at a total disadvantage, whilst the commute through to the city is mere minutes I am very rarely through there to enjoy myself due to things like work and having to plan months ahead for a day where all of my family is off so we can go through together.

So this year as a Christmas treat to my family I put a date on the calender and got everyone into the car for a night at Edinburghs Winter Wonderland to help get them into the Christmas spirit. No ifs, no buts, we were going so help me God!

I was also reeeeally craving crepes with nutella and banana. 

Edinburgh is a pretty amazing place to behold anyday of the week but it really comes to life at Christmas time. Princes Street Gardens becomes a hub of activity as amusement rides are set up, market stalls become occupied and all manner of foreign foods and goods are sold to tourists and locals eager to bask in the festive spirit. Princes Street itself becomes lined with christmas lights and the high street stores window displays become so extravogant it's impossible to walk past and not catch the Christmas spirit.

There's just something amazing about walking through the European Market decked to the nines in knitwear, clutching some form of potato dish and listening to Christmas music whilst perusing all sorts of items that are there.

Some of the items we saw for sale there were hand-crafted Christmas decorations, hand decorated chocolates in the form of tools such as hammers, chissels etc and then hand painted to look identical to their metal counterparts. There are also fashions such as hand-knitted scarves, spice stalls, jewellery counters, coffee bean vendors, anything you can associate with Christmas is pretty much in Edinburgh for you to have a look at and buy whilst sipping hot wine.

My sister and I also decided to take in the sights from the Ferris Wheel (partly because the seats were enclosed and we found out they had heating) and listened to some facts about the town. We had a look at the ice rink there but if there's one downside to Winter Wonderland it's that everything is much more expensive than where we stay so you kinda just have to pick one ride to enjoy. Needless to say I still managed to spend a bomb on the family but everyone had a really brilliant and more importantly festive time.

Below are some photos from the night which were unfortunately taken on my camera phone and therefore aren't the greatest photos in the world but you get an idea of just how festive and lit up the place is at night and just how much there is to see and buy in the markets...