What I got for Christmas 2014!

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and having been enjoying the festive period. I absolutely love seeing what people received for Christmas so I decided to share my own! I'm kinda obsessed with watching the vlogs, I find them so interesting ha. I am by no means bragging about the gifts I received, I really just wanted to share them as I enjoying looking at other people's posts so much. My main present from my parents this year was a voucher for driving lessons. I also got a jacket from them that I forgot to picture as I've been wearing it. It's a big oversized coat with flowers on it that my Mum described as being 'very me' which it very much is!


I received a few decorations for my bedroom from my Mum and Dad. I'm excited to try out the white heart light as my we have a star one in our living room and it looks lovely at night. I also really love owls so these little ornaments are perfect.


My Granny gave me a smartphone projector which projects the video image from your phone onto the wall for watching films/tv etc. It took a lot of assembling and adjusting to actually get the picture to work. In all honestly, it doesn't project a crystal clear image and the results are not great but it is such an awesome gadget. I found that it works best on a white wall and I'm excited to use it properly! I also got a joint present of a Selfie Stick with my sister which was a total surprise. It was actually really good fun on Christmas Day ha. I never really thought as to how they worked before but it connects to bluetooth to allow you take pictures by pressing the button on the stick. I saw a fair few celebrities with these on Instagram too! 


My Dad gave me Katherine Pierce's sunlight necklace. He said he didn't know what it was and he just typed 'The Vampire Diaries' into eBay and it came up ha! Bless him. I was really happy with this as Katherine is definitely my favourite character. My sister also got Elena's vervain locket.


I received a few books this year. I'm interested in crimes and such things so the conspiracy theories book will be a good read. I asked for The Ultimate Box Set Guide and everyone was saying it was really geeky and a "pointless book" on Christmas morning but I think it's pretty damn cool. It reviews the most popular TV shows and the good thing about it is, the majority of them are all relatively new so will be easily available! I wanted the Orange Is The New Black cookbook more for the behind the scenes element which there really isn't much of...  I do like the little blurb written by each character describing their recipe, they are well done and pretty funny. The recipes do look good though so I am looking forward to trying a few out!


Cosy pyjamas, socks and a cute Penguin pyjama bag!


I love perfumes and I was especially excited about the Ted Baker one that I got in my stocking from my grandparents. They make us all a stocking up to open after Christmas dinner. The other fragrance is from Next which I have had a few of before so excited to try that too! The item on the right is lip balms.


Some novelty gifts from l to r - Owl Latch Hook Kit, Photo Booth, Bottle Top Challenge Game, Cinderella DVD and an iPad case



My Mum buys me a calendar every single year but this year she made me a custom one and I love it. She has used pictures of films and TV shows I like and made the majority of the months up of pictures of our bunnies. It's such a nice personalised gift.


My sister bought me the big Soap and Glory gift set which is unreal! It was such a lovely thought and I am really chuffed with it. The products are all full size and it came in a gorgeous limited edition box for me to keep. I can't wait to try the products out as I haven't used most of them before. 


Inside the Soap and Glory box.


Such a great selection of products inside!


Best blanket ever. I don't know how to describe the purple side but it's really smooth and the other side is so fluffy!


My Dad got me this OITNB t shirt which is pretty cool as I am a massive fan of the show. The only thing is the 'black' is hard to read as it's printed in orange on orange!


And finally, what I spent my Christmas money on! I certainly did not get enough Christmas money to purchase this so I did put a lot of my own money towards it. I did not plan to purchase this at all as I picked it up in the sales! My sister bought the Macbook Air with her Christmas money on the same day so it was a really exciting trip. I'm so glad I put the money towards something like this and didn't filter it away on bits and pieces. I have been wanting a new laptop for a while and wasn't sure whether to spend the extra money to splurge into getting a Mac. I never make impulse decisions so this was a big deal for me ha. I am so excited about it and loving it so much already. It is very different to adjust to but I'm getting there slowly. 

I hope you enjoyed this post. What did you get for Christmas this year?


BLOGMAS DAY 24 - Merry Christmas!


It's the last day of Blogmas!! A big thanks to all of you who have read my posts this past month, it was lovely to see that people were viewing my blog more than ever before. Blogmas really helped me get stuck into blogging, it may have been a tough schedule but I'm really glad that I took part!

I wanted to share this gift that my Mum presented to me today. It's a personalised Christmas bauble which is really nice as I can't get my name on anything. It also lights up! 


Advent update: Mary and Jesus joined the nativity! We also got chocolate coins both days. 


It's currently 7pm here in the UK so Christmas is so close! I'm much more excited now that I have finished up work for a few days. Later on tonight we are going to watch Miracle on 34th Street with some hot chocolate. I hope you have a fantastic Christmas and enjoy yourself. I may post again before the New Year but if not, I'll be back then! :)




BLOGMAS DAY 21 - Winter Wonderland Tag!

For Blogmas Day 21, I'm going to be doing another tag post! I found this one on Nikki's Haven Station Blog. Feel free to copy the questions if you wish to take part too! 
1. Favorite thing about winter?
I love wearing jumpers, big jackets and scarves. I feel like I was more wrapped up for winter last year though for some reason, I don't think it's generally been as cold this year!
2. Scarves or Beanies?
Scarves! My staple scarf this winter is a big tartan one and I've been wearing it pretty much everyday.
3. Favorite holiday movie?
I've always liked Miracle On 34th Street but more of a recent favourite has been Elf. I've also watched Four Christmases for quite a number of years now, that is such a great Christmas movie. Reese Witherspoon is my fave.
4. Favorite nail polish?
Anything sparkly. 
5. Favorite Starbucks drink?
Coconut Mocha Frappe.
6. What are your top 3 winter essentials?
A cosy scarf, nice jumpers and a good pair of boots.
7. Name one item on your wish list this year?
American Horror Story on DVD.
8. Favorite holiday song?
I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday.
9. Did you go Black Friday shopping?
I was working on Black Friday this year! It's not that much of a big deal here but I did have a look online.
10. Must have winter lip product?
A nice lipgloss for parties and such like!
11. Will you be rocking an ugly Christmas sweater this year?
No thank you, I will stick to my nice one.
12. Have you ever had a white Christmas where you live?
I think so but it would of been a long time ago! I don't think there is much chance of it this year as we only had very light snow.
13. Favorite winter candle scent?
I'm not really into candles as I don't like lighting them. I do like that generic Christmassy scented one though, not sure of its name! 
14. How will you be celebrating this holiday?
Same as every year, wouldn't like to break the tradition! Visiting family, having my Granny over for a buffet lunch then off to my grandparents for Christmas dinner at night!
Today's advent calendar find was a Lindt chocolate bear! I'll be back again tomorrow for the final week of Blogmas eek!


BLOGMAS DAY 23 - My Favourite Apps!



Today for Blogmas Day 23, I thought I would share some of my favourite apps! I use my iPad mostly so I store most of my apps on there. In all honestly, I have tonnes of apps that I download then don't even use but I never seem to delete many when I have a clear out! I do have apps that I use pretty much every single day so I'm going to share those ones with you:

Kim Kardashian Hollywood

I've mentioned this one on my blog before but I absolutely love this game! I am a pretty big fan of the Kardashians anyway so I was really looking forward to the release of this game in the summer. You basically create a character and work your way to becoming the number one celebrity. It's a quite slow game in terms of progression as it works in real time but you do complete quests eventually. I rather like cramming quests in on my days off as they pile up at the side and it annoys me ha! They recently also added Kourtney and Khloe to the game so that was pretty exciting too.

The Simpsons Tapped Out

I've played this game for about 2 years now maybe and I go through phases of  playing it and then not playing for days. Homer has blew Springfield up as a result of a nuclear disaster at the plant so you have to rebuild Springfield. I've progressed so far in the game now that it has become increasingly difficult to level up. It also runs on real time so it's sometimes more effort than it's worth. The buildings on the higher levels have got ridiculously expensive that you would have to be doing tasks solidly for weeks to earn them! I usually play Tapped Out on a daily basis when they run a special holiday event such as the Christmas one running at the moment.

Family Guy: The Quest For Stuff

The Family Guy app is very similar to The Simpsons one except you collect items to unlock characters and everything is much cheaper to purchase. However, you earn less money from your tasks in this app in compared to Tapped Out. The game can get a bit tedious constantly not receiving that one last item you need for a character but they do pop up eventually! I really love designing the town therefore that is probably one of my favourite aspects of the game.

Pic Fx & Pic Stitch

These are my two favourite photo editing apps for sharing on social media and blogging. There is a variety of filters on Pic Fx (a lot more than Instagram) and Pic Stitch lets you put several images into frames.

Quiz Up

This app is a hidden gem! The concept of Quiz Up is a simple trivia game where you can compete against friends or from random players across the world. There is an extensive amount of categories to suit everyone. It's a free app which would be a great addition to anyone's device.

YouTube 

I love using the YouTube app in comparison to the web as it's ultimately more convenient to watch my subscriptions. I also like that there are no ads that I have to either skip or sit through before I can watch a video. I discovered that I can link my iPad to the YouTube app on my PS3 which lets me control it on the iPad but watch on my TV. That feature is really cool.

Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

The obvious social media apps but they work so much better than on my phone.

Netflix

This one does not need much of an explanation! I use this mostly in my bed so I can curl up and watch my favourite shows without having a bulky laptop on my knee or having to plug it in to the TV!

I forgot to open my advent calendar today but will update tomorrow. Have a good a Christmas Eve :) 



BLOGMAS DAY 22 - Christmas Day Outfit Purchases

Sorry for the late post today! I have been non stop busy all day then when I finally had some time at 10pm, I got a bit hooked on the Sim City app... Oops! I really shouldn't of downloaded that before bed! I wanted to share my purchases today which I have chosen to wear on a Christmas Day. I did buy a really nice top well over a month ago but it was too big and I hadn't really looked elsewhere since. The shops are pretty dire now that I'm no longer in the city and the one decent shop we do have, I never go to look in there. I actually couldn't believe some of the prices but I did find a few things!

Anyway, I bought 3 items in the sale which were:






I plan to wear the red top for Christmas dinner at night! It's actually from the petite range so I had to buy two sizes bigger... It fits nicely though so I'm quite happy with it! I actually tried on a few other tops and I'm glad I did because they looked horrendous on. I decided on this one as it would be something I could wear all year round. am absolutely in love with the grey jumper! I'm planning to wear this during the day to visit family etc. It's really soft and the gems around the collar are such a cute touch. Im extremely pleased with this purchase and it's even a smaller size so very happy about that too. Finally, I picked up a new statement necklace whilst I was waiting at the till. Therefore, a bit of an impulse buy but I think it will be nice to wear with the red top as the neckline is rather low. 

I really didn't need these things as it was a bit of an expense but well it's nice to have something new to wear at a Christmas time! In today's advent calendar pocket, we found another nativity figure. We can decide if this is a shepherd or Joseph. What do you think?





BLOGMAS DAY 20 - The Originals Review




I finally finished watching The Originals this week so I thought I would share some thoughts! I have watched The Vampire Diaries since it first started so I naturally tuned into its spin off when it also first aired. I didn't keep going with it however, I did like it but during my busy honours year at university I was only really keeping up with the shows I really liked. The first season appeared on Netflix recently so I decided to give it another chance!

The first I would say is that I liked it but I didn't love it. Most of my friends said they enjoyed it more than The Vampire Diaries but I certainly couldn't say that. I felt sometimes I was watching some of the episodes because I had to get through them. However, some of the episodes were totally great and I got so hooked! 

I really liked Klaus, Rebekah and Elijah when they were cast members on The Vampire Diaries so I thought I would of liked this show much more than I did. I found it confusing in places and a lot of the characters I cared nothing for. I may sound a little cynical but I did not dislike it by any means or I really wouldn't have continued watching!  I was totally engrossed in the last episode though and was so shocked at the twist with Hayley. I actually reacted by saying 'whaaaaat?' and because I was wearing headphones everyone looked at me ha. I haven't started on the second season yet but that last episode definitely left me intrigued to watch more. I really felt that the show picked up more towards the end and I felt like I finally connected with it.

In today's advent calendar, we found another king and a Lindt chocolate!


Just a short post today as it's been a very busy day for me! Have you watched The Originals and what did you think of it?


BLOGMAS DAY 19 - White Collar Finale! (Spoilers)



White Collar has officially ended! To sum up the final episode, my Mum said it had left a "hole in her life". We have always watched the show together and as we got into it maybe two years ago, we were able to binge watch most of it. I included White Collar in my TV Boxset Gift Guide so I won't summarise the plot again. To fully convey my thoughts on the last ever episode, this post will contain major plot spoilers.

In all honestly, my Mum and I have been a little confused with the running plot over the six episodes this season. There was moments when we were picking up and then it all got complicated again but maybe that was just us! I did however, very much enjoy the final episode. There was plenty of funny moments to make you laugh and Neal dressed up as a pilot wasn't bad at all! I particularly liked the scene where Neal presented Peter and Elizabeth with a bib and pretended he was psychic in regards to the gender.

On a more serious note, I was extremely shocked to see Neal shot by Keller towards the end of the episode. We discussed between us that the blood didn't look quite right on his shirt and thought he was faking it. We were quickly swayed just after that when we saw the ambulance tending to him. By the time they showed Neal lying in the body bag, I was probably in the denial stage. I was CONVINCED that this was a trick but they never seemed to be resolving it. The scene with Mozzie and Peter at that point was incredible and the emotion portrayed by Willie Garson as Mozzie was unreal. I felt so bad for him as it was almost as if Neal had let him down in some way by not having 'a plan this time'. In addition to this, the handover of the anklet was so poignant as it always was a big part of the show.  Flash forward a year later, everybody has moved on but noticeably has a Neal sized hole in their life. I absolutely called it that Peter and Elizabeth's baby would be called Neal so I was so chuffed that I was right!

The final con of White Collar revealed that Neal Caffrey had in fact faked his own death. I kinda had a feeling this was coming but I was glad to see they hadn't killed him off (He is so beautiful after all ha). I like to think the bottle of wine that prompted Peter to look through Neal's belongings came from Neal as he was often seen drinking wine in his apartment. It was a very clever way to wrap up the season with Peter finding all the clues that Neal had left for him. I ultimately felt sorry for Peter and Mozzie living through that year believing Neal had died but I have this feeling that Mozzie may have known about it at some point due to the Queen of Hearts playing cards. The final scene of the series was touching seeing Neal don his fedora for one final time.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching White Collar and wouldn't hesitate to watch the cast in other projects. I'm glad the final episode wasn't disappointing and the story was wrapped up fairly nicely.

In other news, today's advent calendar treat was a chocolate coin!

Did you watch the final episode of White Collar and what did you think of it?




BLOGMAS DAY 18 - Harry Potter Throwback!

For Blogmas Day 18, I am sharing a Throwback Thursday! In July, I visited the Warner Bros Studio Tour in London. It was something I wanted to do for a very long time so I was really excited to finally be able to visit. If you haven't heard of it before, Warner Bros have transformed what is essentially a big warehouse into a Harry Potter visitor attraction.The stages that you walk through were actually the ones they filmed Harry Potter within but they have moved the sets from their original locations. An additional tip I think is worth sharing is that the tour is described as being in London but it's actually rather far out. Google states it's about 43 minutes from central London so please be aware of the travelling time to make your time slot. 

It's not super cheap but not expensive at around £30 per adult and once you book your time slot, you can spend as long as you want in there. I think we spent around 4 hours in the attraction but you certainly could spend all day in there if you were looking at every fine detail. The first part of the tour is guided but you are free to walk around the rest of the sets at your own pace. There are 4 parts to the tour with the guided part, an indoor area, an outdoor area and another indoor area. In the outdoor area, you are able to purchase refreshments including butter beer which is awesome! They offer 3 cups with the prices going up with the cup size. I bought the smallest souvenir cup as they didn't have any tankards that day and I still use it for other drinks at home. I am the fussiest eater but I really liked the butter beer! I don't know really how to describe it but I would say it tasted a little bit like caramel. 

There are also photo opportunities during the tour where you can pose in front of a green screen on a broom and see yourself flying over London!  You can also pile into Ron's car and pretend you are heading to Hogwarts. You can also purchase the video footage of this experience. 

My favourite parts of the tour were probably seeing the Great Hall, standing outside Privet Drive, the costumes of the Death Eaters lined up in front of the fireplace in Malfoy Manor and the wizard chess pieces. The whole tour was fantastic though, I couldn't recommend it enough. There is also a (very expensive) gift shop at the end of the tour that you just have to buy something from. I purchased a chocolate frog which came with the wizard card included! I still haven't eat it yet, I really must do that before it expires!

Here are some of the many pictures I took on the day:

Scale Model of Hogwarts. This was huge in person, see the people to the
right of the picture for an idea of it's size!


Entrance to the Studio Tour


Voldemort and the Death Eaters 


Shopping for wizard supplies on Diagon Alley


Visiting Privet Drive


Wizard chess anyone?


"RONALD WEASLEY, HOW DARE YOU STEAL THAT CAR!"


The Trio


Class with Snape


The Great Hall


Robert Pattinson's costume! (I was a big Twilight fan)


Dining in the Great Hall



I recieved a chocolate Lindt bear in my advent calendar today. I didn't photograph it as I've posted them a few times and everyone knows what they look like anyway!

Have you visited the Warner Bros Studio tour? Let me know in the comments!




BLOGMAS DAY 17 - Movie Gift Guide For Guys

I'm back with my Movie Gift Guide For Guys! These picks are more mainstream movies than yesterday's picks as I frankly do not watch a lot of movies targeted at guys. Like yesterday, I have included links to purchase each film if you so wish.


Let's Be Cops (2014) - - $17.99 on Amazon


This film actually exceeded my expectations! I did want to see it but I never expected it to be as good or as funny as it actually is. It stars Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr from New Girl as two pretend police officers. Nina Dobrev from The Vampire Diaries also features as a love interest for one of their characters. The two guys become so immersed into pretending they are police officers that they end up putting themselves in danger by getting involved in real crimes. This film is a good laugh to watch in a crowd despite being a little silly in places. It's actually not released in the UK until the 26th of December (bad timing or what?) but you can purchase it now in the US!


Now You See Me (2013) - £4.84 on Amazon


This film would most likely appeal to both guys and girls. I've heard mixed reviews about this one but I would certainly recommend it! Now You See Me is about a group of illusionists who perform bank heists in front of a live audience in another part of the world. They then reward the audience with the money that they appear to steal. It has a star studded cast including Woody Harrelson, Mark Ruffalo, Dave Franco, Jesse Eisenberg and Isla Fisher. It's one of those films that keeps you guessing right until the very end.


21 Jump Street (2012) -  £3.00 on Amazon


21 Jump Street is one of my favourite comedies from the past couple of years. I'd guess that most people have seen this film but it would be a good purchase to add to any DVD collection. It stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill as two police officers who really are absolutely useless at their jobs. They are sent to Jump Street to begin working undercover with their first task being to pose as high school students to bust a drug operation. There are many quotable one liners to be found in this movie and lots of laughs right the way through. 


The Hot Chick (2002) - £3.65 on Amazon


I rented this film back in the day as it had Rachel McAdams in it and what a great find this was. It's literally one of the most hilarious films I have ever seen. On first glance, it definitely appears to be a film targeted at woman. However, I  have included it in this gift guide as I watched it with my Dad and he laughed so much so I think it would be a good pick for guys too! Rob Schneider plays 'Jessica' who has found herself trapped in a woman's body after wearing a magical earring. Rachel McAdams has the other half of the earring and portrays a weirdly unnamed male character trapped in a woman's body for a portion of the film. The initial scene of Schneider first discovering that 'she' is trapped in a man's body is one of the funniest parts of the movie. The Hot Chick is consistently funny and Schneider''s comic humour is absolutely brilliant. I would even go as far to say I believe this is one of his best roles.


World War Z (2013) - £5.00 on Amazon



I was interested in seeing this film due to my interest in The Walking Dead. I was not disappointed as it is a fresh take on the zombie genre. The film stars Brad Pitt who travels across the world to try to put a stop to the zombie virus. I won't say too much more as they do find a 'cure' to stop the virus from spreading and it's an interesting one indeed. Additional fact, the opening scenes of this film were filmed in Glasgow and I have actually been to the location several times. The designed the set to look like US streets so unless you could recognise the location, you probably wouldn't know. It adds that something extra to the film when you watch it to say that you've been there!


We're The Millers (2013) - £4.50



We're The Millers has a star studded cast including Jason Sudeikis, Jennifer Aniston, Emma Roberts and Will Poulter. Sudeikis' character hires a fake family in order to move a large portion of drugs over the U.S.border from Mexico. It's a little daft in places which leaves you thinking how on earth are they getting away with this? Despite this, it is very funny and I think it's especially tailored to guy humour.

Today in our advent calendar, we recieved a sheep to add to our growing figure collection. We definitely must be building a nativity scene! We also got a Lindt chocolate and these are so delicious so I was pleased to find this!