BLOGMAS 2016 DAY 12 - My Best Dressed at the Critics' Choice Awards

You don't need to look far on my blog to discover that I love Awards Shows. This has spanned from me being quite little loving the British Soap Awards to following the big awards nights such as the Globes and the Emmys now.

BLOGMAS 2016 DAY 8 - Advent Tree

The past few years my Mum has made my sister and I a homemade advent tree but this year she has honestly taken it to the next level. The tree was initially bought from Hobby Craft and we usually decorate it different for each season such as eggs hanging from the branches at Easter etc. It often sits on our hallway stairs decorated with fairy lights during the time in between the holidays. 

BLOGMAS Day 18 - Advent Tree

Just a quick update today as everything still pretty much the same as yesterday! This year, my Mum made us a lovely advent calendar by filling baubles with assorted things and hanging them on a tree. We have this tree sitting on the stairs all year round and it is decorated seasonally e.g. Easter, Halloween. Instead of hanging Christmas decorations onto it this year, it has become our Advent Calendar!

So far we have had an assortment of different chocolates and a few small jewellery pieces. In today's bauble, we got these lovely mint green bracelets! I can't wait to wear it as it even fits my (freakishly small) wrist haha!

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 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 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 15 - Mint Chocolate Cookies

Today I tried out making some mint chocolate cookies! I was inspired to make these from a Becky Crocker recipe (here) and due to the lack of ingredients available in the UK, I ended up making my own recipe up. I really wanted to try dying them green like in the recipe but our food colouring was 2 years out of date so I wasn't going to be using that! Here is my step by step guide to making my own version of mint chocolate chip cookies.

You will need Betty Crocker's Milk Chocolate cookie mix
 (quantity depending on how much dough you wish to make) and 1 box of mint Matchmakers 

Empty the cookie mix into a large bowl

Cut the Matchmakers into small pieces

Add the Matchmakers to the bowl

Add 2 tbsp of water per packet to the mix to form a dough. This was the recommended amount but not nearly enough for me to make the cookie dough so I just added water until the dough began to form.

Make the dough into balls and place on a baking tray. The cookies will expand when baking so make sure there
is plenty of space between each one

Put cookies in the oven at 190 degrees for 10-12 minutes

Leave cookies to cool for as long as necessary and then you can eat them!

Another king from today's advent calendar!

I hope you enjoyed today's baking post! I'll be back tomorrow with another gift guide.

BLOGMAS DAY 14 - Christmas Festivities

Today I was feeling very festive as we finally decorated our tree and went to visit a shop that was decked out with Christmas things! I snapped some pictures to share for today's Blogmas post

Mason jars in the centre of a festive wreath

Close up of our finished Christmas tree

This looked so pretty lit up in the dark!

Look at these reindeer menus!!

Ornamental mice for your Christmas tree...

Who hangs a fan from their Christmas tree? Seriously?

I loved these cookie jars! I had a salted caramel one and it was really nice but it was actually pretty salty so not so great

Yesterdays advent calendar treat was another Lindt chocolate bear. They are sooooo good! Today we recieved another figurine so I'm sure we are building a nativity scene. There was also two small chocolate snowman's in the pocket.

BLOGMAS DAY 13 - Gift Wrapping

I finished my wrapping today!! This wasn't part of today's plan but I decided to just get it out of the way this afternoon.  I was feeling pretty inspired after buying some gift tags to finish wrapping everything up!  I have a few things left to sort that need to go in gift bags etc. I thought I would share some pics as I have themed all my wrapping this year. I remember being little and just picking different paper for everyone but now I like to having everything matching. 

I bought two rolls of wrapping paper out of Morrisons for £1.75 each (there was a 2 for £3 offer but I thought I only needed one roll and had to go and get more!) along with a pack of three different styles of ribbon and various different bows costing £2. It's not too clear on the pictures but one of the ribbons says 'Merry Christmas' and I absolutely love it!  I picked up the gift tags today from the Card Factory on a whim for 99p and I love them! I only really wanted the '25 December' tags and spent the time in the queue making sense of the 'absolutely snow peeking' ones. It finally clicked that it's a play on 'absolutely no peeking' silly me! I actually rather like those ones too now. I also got a gift wrapped in Cath Kidston a few weeks agin as they were only charging 5p so who would refuse that? It doesn't  go with my theme but it was too good of an opportunity to turn down.

I actually forgot to open my advent calendar today and I'm currently blogging from the train so can't even go snap a pic now! I'll update in tomorrow's post. 

Have you finished your gift wrapping yet or is it still work in progress?