With December pretty much here and the sun going down  by 4pm, it is now perfectly acceptable to jump into the comfort of your pyjamas at this said time! ...not that is stops me the rest of the year...

I love buying new pyjamas, especially Christmassy ones!!! I bought these red tartan ones from Primark for just £7... I find them festive because of the red and green colouring but I guess I could get away with wearing them all year. They're very comfy and have saved me sleeping in a dressing gown as they're so warm. Bliss.

I also picked up some slippers to keep my toes toasty.I think these were £3 - such a bargain and you can never go wrong with reindeers!

Primark always has soooo much choice when it comes to pyjamas and lounge wear at very student friendly prices too.

It's so nice coming in from the cold and throwing on this little ensemble, putting the kettle on and grabbing a mince pie - pure indulgence!!

The Christmas Tag

Surely it's not too early now to start being excited about Christmas?!My excitement started a while ago now (see here for more on that) and I just couldn't resist doing this tag after seeing it on Milk Bubble Tea! Feel free to copy and paste the questions, I'd love to see your answers!

And before we get started, here's a photo of my adorable Hamster, Bruno, who is also getting into the Festive Spirit!! He's soooooo cuuuutteeeee! *in that 'talking to our pets' voice*

1. What is your favourite Christmas Movie/s?

I love the good old traditional "The Snowman" - it just reminds me of being little and watching it in my pyjamas on Christmas Eve. I also really liked "The Snowman and the Snowdog" - the dog's so cute with his little glove patch and sock ears :) You can never go wrong with "The Grinch" either, both the animated and non-animated films!

2. Do you open your presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?

Always Christmas morning :) except for my best friend's present..we usually wait till midnight on Christmas Eve, if we're not together, and open them. This year we're going to book somewhere nice for an early Christmas dinner (you know, pretending we can actually afford these things) and exchange presents a little earlier - I don't think we'll resist tearing off that paper!

3. Do you have a favourite Christmas memory?

One year when I was little, I looked outside my window in the middle of the night, on Christmas Eve and saw something sparkly in the sky - Santa and his reindeer!.....Obviously a dream but at the time I was never sure if I did dream it or not.

4. favourite festive food?

Pigs in blankets - you can never have enough! And warm mince pies with a nice cup of yorkshire tea - perfection. My mum is an amazing cook so really, everything we have on Christmas Day is top notch!

5. Favourite Christmas gift ?

One year, after I thought I'd finished opening all of my presents, my mum came round the corner with another box. Inside was a beautiful handmade personalised bear. She picked the fur and what accessories she has. She's definitely a gift I'll always treasure. 

6. Favourite Christmas scent?

The smell of tinsel and Christmas trees - only time of year you smell it!

7. Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions?

We usually all watch a Christmassy film as a family....I say Christmassy but I'm pretty sure we watched Transformers one year.

8. What tops your tree?
We have a star and an angel and it usually alternates each year. It's what's around the bottom of our tree that I love - we have a little train that choochoos round and round. One of the carriages has reindeer heads sticking out, it's so cute!

9. As a kid what was the one (crazy, wild, extravagant) gift you always asked for but never received?
I always and still do ask for a dog - although, of course, a dog is not for Christmas! One year my parents got me a big chest for my room and when it was all wrapped up, I was convinced it was a big pet carrier with a dog inside... Still a nice chest though!


10. What's the best part about Christmas for you?

I love having all the family together and the festive vibe in the air. I almost prefer the build up to Christmas to the day itself, all the Christmas markets and the fact that the films shown on the tv get a lot better around that time of year!

Olivia Burton Watches

Last Christmas, my brother got me this beautiful Olivia Burton watch. I'd actually spotted it on a blog a while ago but never mentioned it to anyone so it was such a lovely surprise. 

I love how dainty it is, I have small wrists so I wouldn't wear a large watch. It really does finish any outfit off :) Mine came with white straps, which unfortunately got mucky very quickly so I would suggest going for a darker colour! I couldn't find my exact watch on the website but there's lots of similar ones here!

They come beautifully presented in the box shown above and would make an ideal Christmas gift - mine certainly was!

Below are some of my favourites...

"Time gives good advice"

Fashion Favourites

I've never done a post like this, but there's a first time for everything! Here's a few items from New Look that I'm keeping an eye on. They have a sale with up to 50% off on at the moment so definitely worth a look!

1. Grid Print Backpack - I've wanted to get a backpack for a while now as they're so much easier to carry than shoulder bags and there's so many cutes one out now! This one I've been lusting over for a while...lets see how long I can resist!

2. Dark Red Top - I'm not always brave enough to wear crop tops but I do think this one would look great with the skirt! Red always reminds me of Christmas as well so it's something I'd maybe wear for drinks with friends. The long sleeves provide extra warmth now the nights are getting colder! 

3. Black Boots - I actually own a similar pair of boots to these already, but I managed to break the zip on them so these would be a great replacement and there's no zip for me to do any damage to!

4. Monochrome Check Skirt - Well we've seen tartan and checks everywhere recently have we! I think this skirt looks very wearable for both the day and evening! 

Chocolate Heaven

It was my friend's birthday yesterday so me and a friend decided to make her a surprise birthday cake! We used my cheeky chocolate fudge cake recipe and decided to give it a bit of a makeover.

We used chocolate fingers to go around the edge of the cake and then to divide it into six parts. Two are filled with malteasers, two with skittles and two with chocolate crunchy balls. 

It was so easy to do yet really effective and I think you could have fun using all kinds of sweets for this :)

If anyone has done a similar style cake, please send me links! :)

A Healthy Winter Warmer

When I was little, I'd refuse to eat any soup unless it was made by my Great Granny Brennan, who lived in Scotland. My mum used to tell me that my Great Gran had sent soup in the post for us, just so that I'd eat whatever my mum had actually made! I genuinely believed her for years and actually felt a bit deceived when the truth came out!

With the colder months upon us, I decided to try and recreate the same soup as my great gran to keep me warm after a hard day at uni! You will need:

4 small-medium potatoes

3 large carrots

3 small onions

chicken stock

tomato puree

olive oil

ground black pepper and salt for seasoning

1. Peel and wash all of your vegetables. Cut the onions into fine slices, the potatoes into small cubes and grate the carrots. (you could do small carrot cubes but grating was what my gran did!)

2. In a large pan, heat up a tablespoon of olive oil and slowly fry the onions until golden in colour. They'll start to smell sweet when they're ready

3. Add boiled water and chicken stock to the onions and make sure the stock properly dissolves in, before adding your carrot and potaotes

4. I added a touch of tomato puree to my soup, I think canned chopped tomatoes would also work well if you wanted to change things up a bit! I also added LOTS of ground black pepper and a pinch of salt

5. Leave the soup mixture to simmer for about 20 minutes. Check the potatoes are thoroughly cooked through before you take it off the heat!

6. I didn't blend my soup as I quite like it chunky, but if you prefer it smooth, then this is when you need to get your hand blender out!

7. Voila!! Simple and yummy, not to mention good for you!

The Festive Bug

I'm sorry but it's happened. I went home for the weekend and I caught the festive bug! As soon as I arrived at the station my mum whisked me off to a cute cafe which had a little shop with loads of Christmas decorations and I felt like I was coming home for Christmas, not just the short stay I was actually there for. I even started my Christmas shopping on Sunday...you know, have to avoid those queues in December :) It is still very early but here's some of the festive pictures taken from the weekend. Don't look if you're not ready for Christmas excitement yet!!

Anything that looks like it's made of gingerbread is a winner in my eyes!

This little fella' reminded me of Monty off the John Lewis advert, he's so cute with his little basket!

This is probably one of the nicest bears I've ever seen!

We like to play dress up haha :)

I'd love to have a big extravagant ball to wear something like this to!

Fireworks and Toffee Apples

Pumpkin Spice Latte...mmm

What I love about this time of year is being able to wrap up in the cosiest of clothes with a mug of something delicious in hand to warm up your tummy! Coffee shops bring out all their seasonal flavoured hot drinks and I can't help but spend all my money trying them all!

Another thing I love is bonfire night! I actually get fed up of watching displays after about five minutes..what I really enjoy is the excited atmosphere, that smoky smell in the air and tasty bonfire treats.

We actually missed the display we'd planned to go to thanks to our taxi not showing up so we decided to go out and walk towards any fireworks in hope of finding another display...and we did :)!!! After running through the streets, me practically tripping over my long scarf, we managed to catch the last five or ten minutes of some fireworks in a park I had no idea was even near my house! We quickly poured ourselves some mulled wine and enjoyed the moment :) 

I literally spent the entire day waiting to eat my toffee apple! You don't even want to know how much toffee there is stuck in my teeth and hair on this photo, they really are quite a challenge to eat but definitely worth it!

Another challenge was trying to get a decent photo of the fireworks! I have so many photos of an empty night sky! All of you who have taken clear photos capturing the fireworks going off, I applaud you! These were the best I had of a bad bunch I'm afraid...although I do love the silhouette of the crowd against the glow of the sky :)

Sooooo Halloween and Bonfire night are over...lets get excited for CHRISTMAS!!!

That Place

That place where you can clear your head and completely de-stress. That place where you find something beautiful each time you go. That place you don't get tired of, no matter how many times you visit. That place you want to show to all your friends. This is my place. 

I've been a bit homesick recently so I was looking through all the photos I have of my favourite place back at home. It's basically a walk around a reservoir and there's always geese bobbing on the water and happy dogs running around proudly with a stick in their mouth, tails wagging. About a 20 minutes walk away is the sweetest little village with cute tea rooms and cosy pubs with log fires. There have been so many heart to hearts at this place, it's very special :) !

There's something a bit 'Notebooky' about this picture!! If you've seen the film, you'll get...if you haven't then I highly recommend you watch it soon with a box of tissues at the ready..and maybe some chocolate.

But be warned..if you go here to have a Picnic the Geese will want in on it too! They have been known to sit on my leg!

Halloween Make up

Hope everybody had a great Halloween, whether it was a night in watching scary films, a house party or a wild night in town! I love seeing all the photos of people's costumes the next day. This was mine, I was a ....spider web? Not really sure but I just wanted to wear these amazing eyelashes! I'd love to see people's costumes so post any halloweeny post links in the comments below!!!