Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year everybody! I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed 2014and you are looking forward to the new adventures that 2015 entails. Yesterday I had to go to work during the day and in the evening I had a nice meal with my family. We tend to do something nice like that every year. After that I went and stayed at a friends house with some other friends. We had lots of drinks, nibbles, dancing, chatter and stayed in until midnight. After that we walked into town to see other friends and go to a few pubs. Considering all of this I feel surprisingly fine this morning!


There is something so fresh and forgiving about the start of a New Year. Different to previous years I have decided not to set any New Year's resolutions for myself mainly because I never remember to keep them. Instead I have given myself some goals I hope to achieve by this time next year. Some of them are little like remembering to take my make up off after night out whereas some of them are bigger and more personal like cutting things out that are making me unhappy and toning up a little bit more.

As cringy and cliche as this sounds I really want to make 2015 a great year for me. 2014 was very up and down for me. I felt like I was stuck in a rut, wasn't confident in myself or what I was doing.

Are you all looking forward to 2015?

Have you made any resolutions?

Thanks for reading, I wish you all a Happy New Year and here's to 2015! 

Love, A x.

The Christmas Tag!

Seeing as it is four days until Christmas day and I'm finally in the Christmassy spirit I have decided to do the Christmas Tag. I have seen this floating around a lot of other blogs and wanted to do it too! I haven't been very good at keeping up with blogging this month. What with work and seeing my friends and family this has unfortunately taken a back seat.

Question one. What is your favourite Christmas film?

Elf! Such a feel good Christmassy film. I love Will Ferrell as well. My other favourites would be Home Alone 1 & 2 and The Grinch. 

Question two. Do you open presents on Christmas Eve, Christmas morning or Christmas evening? Usually we open presents Christmas morning. However this year we may spread it across the day and leave it for the evening. 

Question three. Favourite Christmas food? 

Turkey with all the trimmings is a complete winner for me! I love gorging on Christmas dinner as it's only once a year eh ;). 

Question four. Favourite Christmas smell? 

I love the smell of Christmas dinner cooking. I also love those traditional Christmas candle smells like cinnamon, star anise, cloves and orange. 

Question five. Real or synthetic tree?

I love the look and smell of a real tree.  But I have always had a synthetic tree so that's always felt like Christmas to me!

Question six. What is your favourite Christmassy coffee shop drink?

I love the black forest hot chocolate from Costa <3

Question six. Do you prefer giving or receiving gifts?

I love receiving gifts don't get me wrong, but in the last few years I've really enjoyed earning my own money, putting thought into gifts and giving someone important to me something they'd really want. 

Question seven. What do you do on Christmas Eve?

Usually I stay in with my family and we watch a Christmas film and my parents attend Midnight Mass. This year I will be seeing my friends on Christmas Eve which will be nice :). 

Question eight. What do you wear on Christmas Day? 

I usually wear something quite smart on Christmas Day. Oh and accessorized with a glam hat from a cracker!

Question nine. What is your favourite Christmas memory?

I remember when I was really little how strongly my sister and I believed in Father Christmas. Leaving a carrot out rudolph and genuinely thinking we heard his sleigh..Bless haha ;)

Question ten. What is your favourite part about the Christmas period?

I love having all of my family together, spending time with them and making memories. 

I tag all of you to take part in this! 

As always, thank you so much for reading this post. I hope you liked it. 

Love, A x.

My November in photos

November went by as quick as a flash. I worked quite a bit and I also started doing the 100 Happy Days photo challenge during as well. Basically that is when you take a photo of something that made/makes you happy everyday for 100 days. I can get stuck in a rut or grumpy mood so being able to see a good thing which makes me happy everyday will help me see the good in the bad. 

So here are my instagrams from the month of November so you can have a little snapshot into my photographic life! 

I met up with my lovely friend Sophie on Bonfire night. She came from London where she studies for a few nights and we went for a few drinks. 

This was an old picture of a vibrant red leaf I saw on an autumn walk. 

Raspberries are probably my favourite fruit and they look so nice as well! 

I went for a meal with my best friend Vicki. We both had the same sweet potato and red pepper burgers. 

This bubble bear bath bomb from lush was nice. It's not quite in the league of my favourite Dragon's Egg though ;)

This little optimistic photo just to remind me that everything that may seem bad now won't last and will get better. 

My little puppy sleeping on the sofa. 

Another little optimistic post from me. 

I made a lovely white tea with a slice of lemon before bed. 

I had a full day at work all on my own so my friend Vicki popped in on her break and bought me a cup of tea. 

My dog. 

A costa, a magazine, such a hard day at work..

On a family dog walk on a Sunday and the clouds looked so cool. 

My friend Titch turned 20 so I made this little photo collage. 

The day after was my best friend Vicki's birthday and we went to Frankie and Benny's. 

Vicki and I looking super cute with friendship bracelets. 

Quick show of hands who used to race raindrops down the window?

I saw these in a local deli my friend works at. Raisins or grapes?

Mexican food is probably my all time favourite. We had a Mexican night at home with Mexican rice, nachos and fajitas YUM! 

Purple/grey sky on the way to work one morning. 

The sunset on the way home from work looked so pretty. 

My manager got me a peppa pig advent calendar.

Salisbury Cathedral in the sun. 

Whilst shopping I treated my parents and myself to some costa hot chocolates. I had the white hot chocolate and they had the brownie one and the black forest one.

So that was November! I hope you all had a good month. 

Thanks for reading, I hope you liked this post! Love, A x. 

Everyday makeup

I thought I'd do somewhat of a tutorial on how I do my make up for the daytime whether it's a day out shopping or just going to work. 

Here is my non make up face! 

I start off applying cleansing my face with a tea tree face wash from Boots. And I then apply my normal moisturiser. Once this has soaked in I then apply my primer. 

I use the Gosh classic primer which comes as either a gel or a cream serum and I've got the gel. I like to use a primer as it helps the staying power of the make up and also gives my face that finished look. 

Once that's sunk in I then apply my concealer. I use a Collection concealer in the shade fair. 

I apply it on my dark circles underneath my eyes, on any spots, blemishes and problem skin areas! 

Using a beauty blender I pat this into the skin. 

Then I apply my foundation and powder to set. 

I use Rimmel London's Wake Me Up foundation in the shade Ivory. I dab into the skin and using a stippling brush I blend it in. 

This is after primer, concealer and foundation. 

Then using a tiny bit of the blush from the sleek palette I applied that to the apples of my cheeks for a rosy, daytime glow. 

In this photo I have no eye make up on. I then one or two coats of Maybelline's One By One volum' Express mascara. 

This is a great drugstore mascara, probably my all time favourite actually. It's not too wet, it's a plastic wand is moveable around your lashes too. 

This is after one coat of mascara.

I slicked on a bit of clear lip gloss and I was ready to go! I hope you liked this post! Let me know what you thought of it in the comments below as I don't usually do this type of thing! Love, A x. 

Matte berry nails

I love berry shades especially in the winter I think wine, berry and burgundy shades come into their own. I haven't painted my nails in a long time as they've become a little bit short and also I must admit I have been a bit lazy and just couldn't be bothered.

I used these this Barry M shade in Raspberry and a Rimmel London matte top coat to create this. 

I used two coats of the Barry M colour and then when they were tacky and almost dry I then used the matte top coat and waited about twenty to thirty minutes until my nails were fully dried to do normal things again.

Ta da! The finished look. 

Here's a closer shot. I really love the matte effect.

What's your favourite winter colours? 

Thanks for reading I hope you liked this post! Love, A x.