What I Got For Christmas 2016

It's that time again!

Merry Christmas ~

Merry Christmas one and all! ~

Well, the big day itself has finally arrived. I'm sure that no one is reading this because there's presents to open and people to cuddle amirite?! But I thought I'd pop up a little post anyway to wish you all a wonderful little day. If it isn't wonderful, then that's cool to. I'm all about that lowkey Christmas life these days.

I'm sure I'll check in with you all before New Year, hopefully with a 2016 Favourites and that good old classic 'What I Got For Christmas' post. But for now I'll wish you a Merry little Christmas and send you all manner of well wishes, kitty cuddles and high fives because I survived Blogmas after all!

 

 Instagram | Twitter | Bloglovin | Pinterest | Goodreads

How I Can Tell It's Christmas

{ B l o g m a s :: day twenty-two }

❅ My Animal Crossing: New Leaf villagers are all wearing festive jumpers & keep dropping hints for Toy Day.
❅ We've got the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special on repeat.
❅ My little sister keeps randomly bursting into excited squeals / giggles when she remembers we're mere days away.
❅ Everyone is off of work / school and we're practically tripping over each other in our little house.

❅ Our dogs are wearing their Christmas knit jumpers out on our walks.
❅ The kitchen cupboards, fridge and freezer are stuffed with food we're not allowed to eat.
❅ My mum keeps making mad dashes to the Pound shop for last-minute stocking fillers, batteries and snacks.
❅ Christmas songs are playing through speakers whilst I'm doing my weekly food shop.
❅ There's a palatable buzz in the air, tinged with equal amounts of stress and excitement.
❅ I've got my Christmas Day outfit washed and ready to go. (It's a bottle-green ASOS skater dress I found in a charity shop, if you're wondering)
❅ My dad keeps threatening to 'cancel Christmas' next year, the same way he has since my brother and I were tiny.

❅ I've uttered the word 'Blogmas' approximately 675483902 times within the past three weeks.
❅ Ditto 'Vlogmas'.
❅ My mum has been spending an hour every evening hand-making Christmas decorations for various friends and the school fayre.
❅ There's a cream lantern filled with baubles standing by my fire place.
❅ We've had the fire going every night for the past week.

❅ Yells of "GET OUT I'M WRAPPING YOUR PRESENTS" have become a daily occurrence.
❅ My Animal Crossing: New Leaf town is covered in snow.
❅ My bedside bookcase is covered in pretty cards from my blogging pals.
❅ My bedroom smells like Lush Christmas bath bombs, the scent coming from both my own collection and Luke's Christmas stocking.

How can you tell it's Christmas? Leave me your own little list in the comments ~

Instagram | Twitter | Bloglovin | Pinterest | Goodreads

Lush Shoot For The Stars

{ B l o g m a s :: day twenty one }

Another Sunday has passed, another Lush bath has been had. This time I used Shoot For The Stars!

The Best of Blogmas 2016

{ B l o g m a s :: day nineteen }

I know that Blogmas isn't over yet but in just under a week's time most of the posts we've worked so hard on aren't going to be relevant anymore... until next year at least! Today I thought I'd put together a little post sharing (what I consider) the best of the Blogmas posts this year.  Of course I don't follow every blog out there and I'm sure there are some incredible posts I've missed out on but these are the posts I've been reading this December. There's a real mix of lifestyle, food, cruelty-free beauty, DIY and book-related posts and can I just say how well everyone has done! It was hard to whittle down my list, to be honest. Technically not all of these bloggers participated in Blogmas but I wanted to share their posts nonetheless.

Vegan Gingerbread Biscuits & Egg-Free Royal Icing

{ B l o g m a s :: day seventeen }

By popular request (I'm basing this on the 5 favourites my tweet received) I've decided to share the recipe for the vegan gingerbread biscuits and royal icing I made the other day!

Self-Care at Christmas & How I Cope

{ B l o g m a s :: day fifteen }

Christmas is a time of joy, love and family but it's not always so easy if you struggle with a mental illness. Last year I found Christmas Day & Boxing Day extremely difficult because of my depression, anxiety and the issues I was having with food at the time, so I thought I'd write this post to offer some advice and comfort to anyone else struggling this year.

Things I'd Like For Christmas 2016

{ B l o g m a s :: day five }

Lush Never Mind The Ballistics Bath Bomb

 



{ B l o g m a s :: day three }

Never Mind The Ballistics is one of the new additions to the core Christmas range at Lush this year and it's one that drew my attention right away. The design doesn't scream Christmas in the traditional sense like Golden Wonder or Father Christmas but I do think it's festive. It kind of reminds me of Nutcrackers and the kind of sweets you'd get in a pick-n-mix. It's quite simple but the vibrant colours make it exciting.

Why I'm Buying Second-Hand Gifts This Year

{ B l o g m a s :: day two }

I have been met with nothing but positivity following my announcement to buy 90% second-hand this year, but I thought I would pen this post anyway to give a little explanation as to the exact reasons why.

Christmas Gift Guide: Gifts for Harry Potter Fans

I'm really into Harry Potter again at the moment (scratch that, aren't I always?) and I feel the releases of The Cursed Child and Fantastic Beasts have also re-ignited the spark in a lot of other people across the word. Today I thought I'd share some gifts perfect for the budding wizard in your life ~

Christmas Gift Guide: Gifts to Calm & DIY Self-Care Hampers



Welcome to my second gift guide of 2016!

Lush So White Bath Bomb

Apologies for the poor quality of the first photo in this post - I wasn't planning on reviewing So White at all! I took a few photos of it on my phone for the ol' Instagram feed but had the good sense to use my proper blogging camera to take some in-action shots of it in the water, which I was planning on using in a Sunday Post or something. But it ended up being much prettier and more exciting than I expected and I felt So White deserved its own post!

Christmas Gift Guide: Gifts For Cat Lovers



Welcome to my first Christmas gift guide of 2016!

What I Got My Boyfriend For Christmas



I can't count the number of times I'd uttered the words "I can't wait to give Luke his presents" on the run up to Christmas, but I know for a fact that I'd said them once or twice (or five times) here on the blog. So I thought that now that he's opened them and assured me that I was right to be excited about them, I'd show you what all the fuss was about! I got him one 'main' present and a few smaller 'main' ones, then I just did him a stocking. I hope you don't think that I'm doing this in any malicious way, or that I'm bragging - I'm just so happy with what I got him and we both want to remember it! I also thought that it might be helpful for anyone who finds the men in their life difficult to buy for - Christmas may be out of the way, but they do have a birthday before the next one!

What I Got For Christmas 2015



SURPRISE! I bet you didn't expect to see me pop up in your Twitter/Bloglovin' feed this afternoon, did you?! It's rare for me to upload a post at a time that isn't 8am, but the blog lighting Gods dictated that I couldn't photograph this post until about an hour ago. So here we are at 2pm!

Lush So White Bath Bomb

 

BLOGMAS DAY NINETEEN.



So White appears to be a real Cult Classic for Lush at Christmas Time, yet it's a bath bomb that I'd never tried before this year. I feel like the reason I never picked it up is because of it's innocent white exterior - it looks especially plain when stood next to something like Golden Wonder or Father Christmas. But I was determined to try all of the Christmassy bath bombs this year so I got Luke to grab me one whilst he was in town a few weeks ago.

20 Festive Blog Photo Props

BLOGMAS DAY ELEVEN.

It's always fun to accessorise blog photos with props that are relevant to the time of year, whether that's by using confetti hearts on Valentines Day or conkers during Autumn. I've been playing around with using different festive things when taking my Blogmas photos recently, so today I thought I'd share with you some festive prop ideas for your own Christmassy blog posts!

Things I'd Like For Christmas 2015

BLOGMAS DAY THREE.

Since I've been dishing out Christmas gift guides left, right and centre since the beginning of November, I figured that it was about time I showed you what I'd like to get for Christmas this year. Of course these are all material things, so my other personal Christmas wishes (such as happiness, love, health for my family and a roast dinner) are being hung on the Christmas tree instead. I haven't exactly asked anyone for any of these gifts (aside from one or two) and I genuinely don't mind if I don't get them. This is just what I'd like!

Christmas Gift Guide: Gifts for 90s Kids

We all love a bit of nostalgia don't we? At least I know I do, which would explain why I'm currently playing Spyro: Enter The Dragonfly on my old PlayStation 2 at the moment (those graphics tho). So today I thought I'd throw together a gift guide dedicated to all of the things I loved as a child. (I was going to add a Tamagotchi into this post but, ya know, most of us are now attempting to adult now and I know how hard it was looking after them at school, let alone at work.)