Christmas for me has always been about family. I absolutely love this time of year. Over the years we have had many traditions which we have followed since we were children, most of which have continued even now we are grown up and me and my brother are both married.


2016 marked our 3 christmas as a couple but our first one as Mr and Mrs so was even more special. Things this year were a little different for us as a family. Some of the traditions we were not able to do (like breakfast the week before christmas) purely for logistical reasons. As many of you know my Grandad hasn't been well for most of the last 12 months and although at home he needs a lot of extra care which means other things have had to slip too. We still had a lovely time it was just very different.

I was well and truly spoilt by my lovely husband who got me an Apple Watch! I have been eyeing these up for ages and he treated himself to the Samsung one in September! I am loving playing with the features and can't wait to get using it properly.

It was our turn to cook christmas dinner this year (we take it in turns with mum and dad and alternate) which was as yummy as always. I have realised this year how much i need to up my christmas game though and will be making notes to do so next year!

If you had come into my kitchen last night you would have been pretty convinced you had stepped into the Bake Off tent! Honestly it was like a serious production line of gingerbready goodness!!! I wasn't just cracking out 100s of little christmas gingerbread trees for no reason, we have a fundraiser for Rainbows and Guides tonight and a bit of festive gingerbread always goes down well. Ignore the fact that the sign says stars, this was my intention until I saw the tree!!

• 2tsp Ginger 
• 60g Brown sugar 
• 75g Butter
• 175g Plain Flour 
• 3 1/2 tbsp of Golden Syrup  

How is it even November already? It only feels like 5 minutes ago since we were welcoming in the new year and here we are with just 60 days left in the year...

Recently the lovely Lindsey whose blog My Dolce Vita I have followed and loved for a long time, through weddings and both her beautiful babies being born and growing up. She recently started up a new blog over at A Lindsey Christmas Story - I am so glad she is back blogging again because I love reading about her precious life and watching her babies grow into beautiful young children.

Lindsey restarting her blog has inspired me. She said in her first post in her new blog something which I have brushed on several times. I just want to write. I want to document and be able to look back and smile. This next year is the start of a very fun a venture and I want to document the ride.

Adam and I have been making some exciting plans! We have plotted out what we are going to do for our honeymoon - were planning on going on a little european adventure - Starting in London then going to Paris, Venice, Florence and Rome! I am so excited.

Lots of little details are getting sorted for the wedding now. We think we have chosen hymns and picked the people we want to do readings. Its all coming together now.

I can't believe its counting down to christmas again! It really does not seem like 5 minutes ago since we were shopping for our first christmas tree last year. I love the lead up to Christmas - Christmas markets, Nights snuggled up in front of the fire under a blanket with a candle burning (who am I kidding - take away the blanket and thats me all year haha), we have been doing christmas music in choir practice for a few weeks now and I love the services at church around christmas! All very exciting!

So my plan is to be back. I still want to talk about make up and beauty.. about life.. health (I have been trying lots of new recipes recently) and everything else that tickles my pickle. I am going to really try to make the last 2 months of blogging better that the rest of the year, which lets face it I have been pants!

Thank you for sticking with me for the ride. I hope you will stay on the roller coaster  - I promise it will be more interesting!

So as promised, I thought I would share with you my favourites of the past year. 2014 was a pretty whirlwind year with so many exciting things happening! Warning this post WILL be photo heavy!!!

Probably the best thing about 2014 is getting to spend the year with this amazing boy! I literally feel like we have been together forever (although we have been friends forever)


 Im sure you can guess what this is all about! Right in front of the castle at Harry Potter Studio Tour, Adam got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife.

Last night I got myself dolled up and headed out for my works Christmas party! Up until yesterday afternoon I had NO idea what to wear. I went to town with mum yesterday and after going round a couple of shops which I was disappointed with (whats with the lack of sparkle this year), I headed into New Look.


So this is totally not the normal thing I would go for but I am totally in love with this Jump Suit! The Belt is one I added from Primark and I added a cardi mainly because it was bloody cold yesterday! Since it was all black I decided to add a statement necklace again from Primark. Teamed with my trusty red heels this was the perfect party outfit!

Stay tuned for a break down of what I wore make up wise too :)

Christmas is a time for giving and enjoying the time spent with family and friends. When me and Adam first started talking about Christmas (way back in October) and we decided with this being our first one, we wanted to make it really special.

When we looking into decorations we found some lovely ones about but when we thought about it, we didn't want to spend a stupid amount of money on decorations and bits!

Step in Wilkos! - First of all excuse the crappy iPhone photos!




The aisles of my local wilkos is brimming with gorgeous christmas goodies! Their bauble packs are AMAZING! I picked up a couple of the packs of 50 baubles for £5 which have a variety of sizes and colours. The baubles in the top picture are £1.50 and they have some lovely decorations for £1.

Also as well as decorations they have some fantastic table decorations.


I picked up these purple table runners currently £4 and the silver charger plates for £1. I really love this! In fact I really want to leave it there all year!!!

If your in the market for some new plates and dish ware they have some great deals. I brought a 12 pack in purple for £12 which are beautiful!

Have you shopped in Wilko's this year?? Are you impressed by their offerings?

I feel like this week has been mental, works been really life in general has been busy... In fact when I look forward to the next few weeks I have lots of busy things planned!!!

Tomorrow is the christmas party at work (and I still haven't got an outfit sorted yet!!) but Im looking forward to a pampering and getting my hair and nails done. Also this week Adams mum and dad are coming to visit before they yet off to Tenefire for a week.

I also need to get my butt in gear and get some christmas shopping done. The only thing I have got sorted so far is my brother and his fiancé and a couple of things for Adam! I don't know why but I feel really unorganised this year!

What are your plans in the lead up to christmas? Are you sorted for your christmas shopping???

Is it me or has christmas seemed to have exploded this year? I feel like far more people have started putting their decorations up early and in general the christmas buzz just seems to be on all around. 

So I have seen a couple of people around the blogasphere who have decided to participate in Blogmas  and I figured I needed a bit of something to shake myself up so I thought I would join in too!

Basically for those of you who don't know, Blogmas is where you blog every day in December!

So here goes - Look out for lots of Christmas countdown posts, getting ready for the festive period, parties and gift guides!!!

If your taking part in Blogmas leave me a link in the comments :)

Hello my lovelies! Grab yourselves a brew!!!


Today I have decided to go for a nice hot chocolate 'cause you know you can't beat a hot chocolate on these cold nights!

How on earth are we nearly in December? Where on earth has November gone??

This month has been a right busy one! Lets catch up with what I've been up to since I last posted!

Me and Adam has been collecting lots of Christmas bits! It started at the end of December when we went shopping at our local garden centre in Trentham Gardens! Then to make it worse we nipped to Sainsburys home base for something and they had a 7ft Christmas tree on offer which obviously came home with us! Since then we have had a couple of trips to various stores which resulted in lots of Christmas decorations sitting in our spare room! Anyway yesterday this happened!



We had our Christmas Fayre at church on Saturday and planned to spend the afternoon watching Christmas films and we just decided that was it - we couldn't wait any more! We had planned to do it on 1st December which coincided with our Monday night date night but oh well! I love it!! Its getting me so excited now! :)

Last weekend me and mum went off to Leeds on our annual christmas shopping trip which is organised through work - normally its Manchester but it was a nice change to go to Leeds as Ive never been to Leeds before.



Leeds is a really lovely city and we didn't really see that much of it! We didn't even come across the Christmas Market! I loved all the little arcades and picked up some really cool christmas presents!

We have had a couple of lovely nights with friends! My best friend who this year moved over to one of the nearby towns finally got to meet Adam on Saturday when we went round to her new home! It was so lovely as me and her got the chance to catch up but also Mark (her partner) and Adam had a lovely little bonding session chatting about football, Sheffield, gaming... It was lovely to see.

In terms of blogging I feel really behind! The last couple of years I have normally done some of my gift guides by now, to be honest in terms of Christmas I am pretty far behind! I have only brought a couple of presents! I need to get my act together!!! Gift guide posts will defiantly be coming up over the next couple of weeks! I also have some new products to share with you!

Hope your all well! Catch me up with all your gossip!

It may only be October but the truth is, it is actually only 9 weeks until christmas!

I love christmas, I am like a child in a sweet shop and this year I am especially excited since it is mine and Adams first christmas together.

We made a detour to Trentham Garden centre on the way home when Adam picked me up from work yesterday. We knew they had started having their christmas stuff in because when we went a few weeks ago on our week off they were just starting to put the stuff out. When we went last night it was like full blown christmas!!! We had to hold ourselves not to grab a trolley and fill it with stuff! It wasn't just all the trees and decorations that got me excited, all the table decorations too! We have a 6 seater table which I love and we have decided we are going to have my mum, dad and brother around for Christmas lunch. I am looking forward to getting all the bits.

Thinking about Christmas also got me thinking about Christmas Traditions. When I lived at home we had several traditions; Its not Christmas until you have seen - Miracle on 34th Street, Elf, Muppets Christmas Carol and we always had bagels for breakfast on christmas morning. Me and mum always had a little tipple of baileys when we were making christmas lunch. Now I can't help thinking about other traditions and what traditions I would like me and Adam to start!

What Christmas traditions do you have as a family???

Also feel free to follow my Christmas board on pinterest (unloved button) - as well as my others of course!