2013.. so the world didn't end.

So despite those pesky all knowing Mayans convincing everyone that the world is going to end, it looks like everything ended up alright doesn't it??

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I honestly cannot believe it is New Year's Eve already. Cannot believe just how quickly this year has passed by, it only seems like two minutes since I was starting my master's degree in 2011, and me and the boy were only just starting out. I'm not going to lie though, I'm glad to see the back of 2012. It was the year me and Anthony both lost our jobs, we lost our beautiful little house and I failed my degree. 2012 has been a pretty shit year with me and my man. However, always the optimist I believe that 2013 will be our year. 

My new year's resolutions you say? I usually have some stupid generic one like 'I will give up any food that has anything naughty in' or 'I will lost 10 stone'. However, I only have two this year.

1. Get my life together.

I want to have a steady job again, pass my master's with flying colours and to have a new house to spend Christmas in. One step at a time though, and lots of saving to do over the next few months!

2. Be Positive.

Most people who know me know that I'm a generally happy person. I don't see the point in being negative. However, these last few months has really made me struggle to stay that way. So in 2013 I promise to myself I will be a positive person once again :) 

HOWEVER

I don't want to be all doom and gloom. I have had some amazing times this year. Lets leave 2012 looking at the high notes!

And saving the best til last.. 2012 has meant everything as I have spent it with the love of my life :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!! Hope everyone has had a lovely day and was spoilt by what Santa brought!!!

Just a quick one to wish everyone a merry christmas!!

What did Santa bring everyone???

NOTD: messy little snowflakes

Just a quick nail of the day!! I used Barry M's Gelly nail polish in Blueberry for the base, a white nail polish from George at Asda, and finally the glitter topcoat is Barry M's Silver Glitter!!

Is everyone starting to feel Christmassy? :)

The Christmas Tag...

Christmas is one of my favourite times of year. I love the cold weather, and snow and Santa of course!! Therefore after seeing the Christmas tag floating around, I couldn't help but join in! 

(Questions I used were taken from Shona over at Fresh Beauty XoX )

When do you start getting excited about Christmas?

In the January sales?? haha, I'm so bad for buying stuff for the next Christmas in the sales. Especially Christmas cards and wrapping paper. Massive bargains to be had!! But properly, it's got to be about a week before Christmas when all of the last preparations are taking place. 

Do you still have advent Calenders?

Erm yeah. I got so mad at my boyfriend when he didn't buy me one til 1st December. However, he did spoil me to make up for it and I am a bit of a brat all the time sometimes.

What are your favourite Christmas films?

Oh my days, I freaking LOVE LOVE Christmas films. I absolutely love Elf, Home Alone, The Snowman and of course Jingle All The Way!!!

Do you have any funny Christmas memories?

When I was younger, I got the big Melanie's Mall shopping centre and it came with all of the figures and little clothes. However if anyone remembers these dolls, their clothes were the size of your little fingernail! So my Grandma trying to be helpful, mixed with me being messy, ended up with all the clothes going in the bin! Luckily we realised in time and managed to get them, however they were gravy stained til the end of time!

Talk us through your typical Christmas day.

I'm 23 year old and I still get up about 6.30/7am and wake my parents up. They tell me that it's too early but I'm still wide awake. So I just sit in my bed waiting for them to get up. I keep going back every 10 minutes until they get sick and wake up. My parents still set my presents all out in the sofa downstairs, and I wait for them to be ready to go down first (to make sure Santa isn't running late of course!!). Then we open all of our presents, taking turns so the attention is all on the present opener. Then my Mam makes dinner for about 2pm, we usually watch a film we've just got or standard Christmas telly. After munching on the dinner, we relent to the sofa to slob out as we've probably all ate a bit too much! Then have a snooze, then awake to a buffet type tea (I always make the chocolate cornflake cakes), then watch all the Christmas soaps and specials. Then off to bed!!

I'm especially excited for this Christmas, as I'm spending it with my boyfriend and his little boy and I'm more excited for Stephen to open his presents than my own!!

Do you have any Christmas traditions?

Not really no, my Dad has to be the first one in the living room Christmas morning and on Boxing Day it's always turkey, chips and gravy for dinner!

What are your favourite Christmas songs?

If I had to choose one, it would probably be Last Christmas by Wham. However I do love a good screech sing to Mariah's All I Want for Christmas!

What is the best Christmas present you have ever received?

Probably my Friends DVD boxset. Classics. 

Real or Fake Christmas tree?

We've always had a fake tree, and even though I'd love a real one. I don't think I'd love the cleaning up you'd have to do with one. Therefore fake is best!!

Obsessive Nail Polish Organisation..

Hello. My name is Jennifer and I'm a Nail Polish-aholic. I just can't stop buying them. So when my collection was nearing three figures and with no proper storage for them apart from in my drawer, it seemed such a faff on when I wanted to paint my nails with choosing a colour without dragging them all out. I liked the ideas of colour wheels, but didn't know how I would label them. That's when I saw nail sticks on ebay for hardly anything and I thought they'd be such a good idea and I couldn't help but share! (I bought mine from here)

I started off with the sticks and some white labels so I could write on the names of all of the polishes!

 Then I cut the labels to the right size, wrote the name of the polishes on them and stuck them to the stick. 

After this, I painted the stick with the nail polish. I also used a top coat on all of the sticks. 

Finally, I put them all in colour order, and put them on the holders to create a nail polish rainbow!

Now I can find any colour, without having to make my room and drawer a mess! Yippee!

Guest Post: Alternatives to the LBD

The lovely Sophie over at Pretty Passions, Fine Fashions has wrote a lovely post all about the alternative options to the LBD over the festive season!!

Christmas Party Dressing Alternatives

I LOVE dresses. I thought this would be a useful fact to mention before you read any further because this is about wearing anything but dresses. Do you find yourself wearing something quite similar every year? A variation of the same dress. Perhaps, this year the colour is different or it has a collar or if you’re really making a change, it might be longer or shorter (woah, hold on there, don’t get too drastic.) Are you getting bored with this dress pattern? If you wear something a little different people are sure to commend you for your style endeavours. Here are some stylish solutions to any winter wardrobe woes:

     The Sequin Tux

I have wanted one of these for a long time now. I think I saw Arizona Muse wearing one a couple of years ago and it looked so good on her. It can be worn more formally with a cream chiffon blouse or more laidback with a t-shirt. For a feminine look, wear with patent black point toe stilettos with a skinny heel and for a more edgy look wear black wedge heeled creepers. Keep the accessories to a minimum and make sure the suit is black in order to not hurt people’s eyes or make the outfit look too busy.

The Jumpsuit

Bring back an ‘80s Christmas in a dark purple jumpsuit with wide leg trousers. Purple is this season’s most popular colour as far as runway shows are concerned. I’m thinking of Gucci’s autumn/winter 2011/12 show for inspiration but dark shades of purple were in abundance at an array of fashion shows. Purple exudes beauty and royalty and Christmas is surely the best time of year to feel royal and it’s always nice to feel beautiful when welcoming in the New Year. Wear with purple platforms and a purple clutch.

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 Black Playsuit with Peter Pan Collar

Alexa Chung is my inspiration for this one. This is a very simple outfit so to inject some glamour, throw on a pair of super high heels; like six inches high. If it looks like you’ll have trouble walking in them then they are the right height. However, practice walking around the house in them before the planned party or Christmas Day. Walking in heels burns more calories than walking in flats so this can aid any pre-Christmas diets for a guilt free day. Wear huge dangly earrings too and make then silver and chandelier like. Don’t worry, the big earrings and either bigger heels won’t look trashy because, remember, you’re wearing them with a plain, understated monotone playsuit. 

Secret Santa Surprise!!

As I mentioned in my last post, I took part in a Secret Santa swap arranged by the lovely Sammy over at Bellini Beauty and received my presents on Friday! Unlike Sammy, I was too impatient and didn't take pictures of them all wrapped up, but it's what's inside the wrapping paper that's exciting!!!

Lush Candy Mountain Bubble Bar: I love Lush, and even though I worship the Comforter bubble bar, I've been wanting to try some of the others so this is perfect for me!

Barry M Supersoft Eye Crayon in No 3.: If anyone knows me at all, everyone knows I am a big fan of neutral colours, especially for my eyes. I think there isn't anything better than sticking to the classic earthy tones of green, gold and brown. This is perfect for me!

Barry M Emerald Green Lengthening Mascara: I've read a lot about coloured mascara making a comeback, and green mascara is meant to be perfect to bring out my hazely/green eyes so Sammy has either been stalking my pictures or she's a good guess :)

Collection 2000 Skylash Length & Definition Mascara: I have been wanting to try this for soooo long! I hate my eyelashes and am still on the hunt for my miracle mascara, so hopefully this will bring me one step closer.

Accessorize Nail Polishes in Damselfly and Ultra Marine Green: I am a nail polish addict, these have taken my collection to over 90! I'm especially excited to try the Damselfly Speckle nail polish!!

MUA Lip Boom in Doin Good: I've wanted to try a Lip Boom for so long as I'm such a fan of MUA products. So excited to try this!!

MUA Nail Constellation in Pisces: MUA's version of the Caviar Manicure. Wanted to try this since it came out, but it's always out of stock. So pleased with this!

Barry M Dazzle Dust in 32: This is such a gorgeous pink shimmery colour. I'm a massive fan of Barry M's Dazzle Dusts so excited to add this to my collection.

Barry M Lipstick Touch of Magic: Definitely my favourite product! This is amazing. I'll do a full review on it so as not to ruin the surprise!

Rimmel Traffic Stopping Shadow Trio in Speeding: Again, Sammy must of done her research knowing I love my earthy colours.


I am so happy with what Sammy sent me. She has totally spoilt me and I'm so glad I took part in this! If you want to see Sammy's post on what I got her, just click HERE.

Just want to say a massive THANK YOU to Sammy for organising all of this! :)

My #bblogger mojo is back..

So if anyone follows me on twitter, you'll know I've not been a very happy bunny recently.. I've been made redundant and my boyfriends had to leave his job as couldn't afford the petrol to travel there anymore. With Christmas coming up and a six year old to buy for, it has been stressful to say the least. I had a total melt down, and spent about a week barely speaking and bursting into tears at anything.

I originally had planned to blog everyday in December as part of blogmas however after I found out the news, my blog kind of became neglected unfortunately.. So today when I received a parcel in the post with some amazing goodies from a Secret Santa the lovely Bellini Beauty organised!! I'll do a full post on it separately. It just put a smile on my face, which is a rare occurrence lately!

Therefore with this, I think I've found some motivation to be positive again and blog all the things I had planned!!

So look out as I'll be getting blog happy up until Christmas ❄⛄🎁🎄🎅