JACK WILLS GILET

I hope everyone had a great Christmas or just had a great day if you don't celebrate Christmas. I know my Christmas Day and Boxing Day was incredible and it was so nice just being able to spend time with my family and just get to relax and not worry about studying or writing for this blog but I am not back. Up until Christmas Day, I did blog every day. This won't be happening again until probably after my exams finish in May where I will blog for the whole month but I might do a week of full blogging in the lead up to Valentine's Day but I will have to see how busy I meant to have a blog post up yesterday but if you don't follow me on Twitter, which you can if you click here, then you won't know that I actually went shopping yesterday.

The sales in the UK start on Boxing Day although I did get emails from some brands on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day telling me about their online sales starting. But on Boxing Day my family and I always go out for a meal and it's always too busy too go shopping on Boxing Day and I just wanted to relax with my family rather than go shopping. We actually went to a outlet centre yesterday called Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth. I actually went with the intention of buying a dress for New Years Eve and in the end I came home with three dresses from Coast, which I will do a blog post later on this week, I also got some cleaning products for my Uggs and then I got a Gilet from Jack Wills which is what I wanted to write about today.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! | BLOGMAS DAY 25

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This is just a very quick post to end Blogmas 2015 but also to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas! I hope you have all enjoyed Blogmas this year and I will definitely be doing the same next year. I cannot believe how quickly this month has gone and I cannot wait for New Years Eve and also to see what 2016 holds for me and this blog.

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I hope you all have an amazing day and I will see you all in the New Year!!

HOLIDAY HOME TOUCHES | BLOGMAS DAY 24

Hey everyone and Merry Christmas Eve,

I cannot believe that it is finally the big day itself tomorrow and I am so excited. My favourite part of the holidays is the build up with seeing friends and family and getting to do something that I love which is bake and cook a lot of food. Over the past month I have shown you the Christmas trees and the cake that I made but I wanted to just show you some of my favourite decorations that we put up around the house each year for the Holidays. I didn't want to write too much because I am quite busy today but I have taken lots of photos and included some photos that you have already seen in previous blog posts as well.

LAPLAND HOLIDAY | BLOGMAS DAY 23

Hey everyone,

I was meant to upload this blog post last night but the traffic was so bad after a Christmas party that I did not get home til midnight and I just thought it would be easier to post this today instead. So technically it is Christmas Eve and I will have a post up following this one and I didn't really know what to talk about. I knew I couldn't write a review or show you how to make something because it is too late in the month now for you to recreate anything that I had planned. So I knew that I wanted something that I could just write about and it be a quick and easy post because today is very busy for me and I have so much to do.

CHRISTMAS PUDDING TRUFFLES | BLOGMAS DAY 22

Hey everyone and happy 22nd of December,

I can't believe that Christmas is only a few days away and I realised that I have not given the recipe that I use to make Christmas Pudding Truffles. I love these truffles and I make them every year and they are always a favourite after dinner on Christmas Day. This is so simple and will really impress you family and friends and can be given as a gift at Christmas as well. I'm not a massive fan of Christmas Pudding but I love these truffles and they are not time consuming at all and can be made a few days in advance but they are even better if you make them the day before you want to serve them. These are a great alternative to chocolate truffles, even though there is chocolate in them but it's also got Christmas Pudding in them as well. There is also alcohol added to these truffles but  obviously if you make these then you could make some without alcohol if there are children or people who aren't keen on alcohol or don't drink.

2015 CHRISTMAS CAKE | BLOGMAS DAY 21

Hey everyone and happy 21st of December,

I feel like December has gone by so quickly and it makes me sad to think that the build up to Christmas is almost over but I am so excited that it is almost Christmas Day as well. I wanted to write about this years Christmas cake design and I know I wrote a post a couple of weeks ago about my past Christmas cake designs and I said I would probably just put a picture up on Twitter and Instagram but I decided to write a whole post on it.

MY CHRISTMAS DAY OUTFIT | BLOGMAS DAY 20

When I was little, my family made a lot of effort with what we wore on Christmas Day, especially what I wore. I would always wear a tartan dress pretty much every year until I could tell my Mum what I wanted to wear. Now we put in still quite a lot of effort but we don't wear fancy dresses or anything like that and it's more smart casual because I have to help cook the Christmas dinner and I can't really do that in a tight dress plus I don't like wearing anything expensive in case I drop it all down me. At the moment I kind of know what I am going to wear but that might change because it will depend if I get something that I asked for but I will let you know later on in the blog post. First of all I'm going to tell you what I will wear to open my presents and then what I will wear for the rest of Christmas Day and what I wore last year.

HOMEMADE POTPOURRI | BLOGMAS DAY 18

Nothing is better than walking into a room and it smelling amazing! There is not a room in my family's home where there isn't a candle or a diffuser in the room. However, over the Christmas period I wanted to create the smell of Christmas but rather than buying a candle I wanted to make my own potpourri. A lot of people think that potpourri is very old-fashioned and can sometimes smell horrible; however, I am so impressed with how this turned out and the smell was incredible. Christmas (to me!) reminds me of cinnamon, oranges and pine cones and I thought that would be the perfect scent for my potpourri.  If you read my gift wrapping ideas post, which can be found here, you will know that I dried my own oranges for the presents that I gave this year, and I had cinnamon sticks and pine cones for that as well. This is so inexpensive and would make amazing presents for work colleagues or to give to teachers.

This is so simple to make and actually only has three components; these being cinnamon sticks, pine cones and oranges.

CREATING YOUR OWN LUXURY HAMPER | BLOGMAS DAY 17

Sometimes it can be difficult to think of ways to present gifts and one of my favourite ways is to buy smaller gifts and place it in a hamper. These can look amazing and you can create a budget and a theme to follow. I have made one this year and it is more of a pampering hamper, but you can create a food hamper, a movie hamper, a sports hamper, really you can create any type of theme that you want. I have chosen products that were fairly cheap but I do have quite an expensive gift in there as well. I don't want to go through every item individually because most of them you will have seen in old blog posts, and I will just give a quick run through of what I have placed in there but I haven't included prices because I can't remember all the prices and I can't remember where I got everything from either.

HANDMADE REINDEER STOCKINGS | BLOGMAS DAY 16

I have always had a stocking since I was a little girl and I still have it because my Mum made it for me when I was 7 years old and it just gets filled with silly little presents that don't cost much. Some people will have the same as me and it will be smaller presents and then sometimes people just have a stocking which may have a variety of smaller and larger presents in it, or some might not have a stocking at all. So I wanted to show you how to make your own stocking with felt reindeers appliqued on it and it will look amazing hanging over a fireplace or just hung on the door, like mine is.

These would be perfect for anyone, but they would definitely be amazing for children and you could even get your children involved when you make it. I sewed all of my design but if you want to make this with children then you could glue the reindeers onto the stocking with fabric glue. I made the whole stocking out of different pieces of felt and ribbon but if you don't want to go out and buy felt then you could use any scrap pieces of fabric you have around the house. Also you don't have to do the same design as mine and you can do whatever design you want to.

GIFT WRAPPING IDEAS | BLOGMAS DAY 15

My favourite part of the Holidays is the build up and decorating the house, wrapping the presents and baking. For the last few years I haven't put much effort into wrapping and I just try and get it done quickly because it can be quite time consuming especially if you have a lot of people that you have had to buy for. But this year I was well prepared and started most of my Christmas shopping in November because I just can't deal with the shops in December because they are too crowded and the queues are a nightmare. I know that a lot of you will not have the time to put much effort into the wrapping and there will also be some of you who don't care what the wrapping looks like, but I thought I would give a few simple designs that can make any present look gorgeous under the Christmas tree and they are fairly cheap and some are more time consuming than others.

One of the biggest trends this year is to instead of using wrapping paper, you use brown parcel paper which you can buy anywhere and I got mine in a Supermarket for £1, so it is so cheap because wrapping paper can cost a lot of money. I love the look of using brown paper and then I spend a bit more on trimmings and things like that just to make it look more festive. I have four easy designs which will not take much time to do and will not cost much and then I have one design which is more complicated and will be more time consuming that the other four.

DECORATING THE CHRISTMAS TREE | BLOGMAS DAY 14

Hey everyone,

Some of you might not have known that the reason why I haven't been uploading recently is because my blog hasn't been working properly and also my internet connection isn't great so I haven't been able to post much and when I get internet connection I have to write loads of posts all at once just in case I lose it again. If you haven't seen my Twitter, Instagram or Facebook then you might not have seen the Christmas Trees that my Mum and I have decorated and I wanted to include this on my blog. You all know I am not showing off but I just want to reiterate it because I love to share some things with you and I know a few people who haven't even put a tree up yet and have asked me for inspiration so I wanted to write this post.

STOCKING FILLER GIFT GUIDE FOR HIM UNDER £20 | BLOGMAS DAY 13

Earlier I uploaded my Stocking Filler Gift Guide for Her and today I wanted to upload the Stocking Filler Gift Guide for Him. This was meant to be up at the weekend but unfortunately my blog has been playing up so I have only just been able to write this post now. If you are late with your Christmas shopping or you are struggling to find smaller gifts for men then hopefully this will be able to help. In today's post I had 10 gifts that I managed to take photos of and then I had a few more gifts that I gave the links to which I wanted to buy. Unfortunately, I didn't have as much time to buy all of the stuff I wanted to buy for this gift guide so there won't be as many gifts that I can show but I will have lots of links at the end of this blog which I would have got if I had the time to buy all of them. All of the gifts are under £20 and these gifts are all towards the £15 to £20 price whereas with the women's gift guide I did have a few gifts that were a lot cheaper. But the links that I will link at the end will have some expensive items as well as having cheaper gifts, which will be perfect if you are on a budget. You will also find that some of the gifts were included in the women's gift guide and some of the gifts linked below could also be purchased for women as well. I think there is only 7 proper gifts in this gift guide because I don't have that many men to buy for as there are more women in my family but I will have 10 links at the end for more gifts to help give you inspiration.

STOCKING FILLER GIFT GUIDE FOR HER UNDER £20 | BLOGMAS DAY 12

This is the time when I am going to help you with some last minute Christmas gift ideas which will be perfect for stockings or if you are on more of a budget. These are all gifts that I have got for my friends and family and a few of them will be familiar because I have already written blog posts on these in the last week or so. There will be 10 gifts with pictures to help you but at the end of this post I will be adding links to other perfect gifts under £20 that you could take inspiration from but I was not able to buy them in time for this blog post. I have found that I have put more effort into this gift guide so the men's gift guide will have more links because I have to buy more gifts for women rather than men. I hope you like this blog post and I'm sorry it is late up but I have been having a lot of problems with my blog lately and haven't been able to upload anything for a while.

This will be perfect if you are struggling to figure out what to buy the women in your life whether it is family relatives, friends or work colleagues.

THE BODY SHOP GLAZES APPLE FEEL GOOD TIN | BLOGMAS DAY 11

Hey everyone,

I unfortunately couldn't post anything yesterday because I was travelling home for Christmas and when I did get home I was so tired and I fell asleep almost straight away. But I wanted to put this post up now before my stocking filler gift guide which will be up this evening around 7pm. This is actually the reason why my gift guide is now under £20 rather than under £15 because I really wanted to include it so I had 10 gifts to put up which will be great for anyone.

HOMEMADE NUTELLA | BLOGMAS DAY 10

I absolutely love Nutella, I will use it on toast, as a ganache for cakes or really anything else. Christmas is the one time of year that I will go baking crazy and make everything from sausage rolls, truffles to the Christmas Cake. But one thing that I really wanted to try out and have on the table on Christmas morning is a chocolate spread that I have made from scratch. I must admit this is a lot of fuss when you can buy a jar for a couple of pounds but I think Christmas is the one time of year where you want to go all out. Plus these jars make really cute Christmas presents and could be given as a little extra gift for someone who is obsessed with Nutella. There are quite a few recipes for chocolate spread and this is perfect on toast, cakes or brownies. This will definitely be a favourite on Christmas morning!

MY FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS JUMPER | BLOGMAS DAY 9

Hey everyone and Happy 9th of December,

I am finally up to date with all my blogs but I am so tired and look like rubbish right now that I will not be uploading the photos for this blog til some time tomorrow because I have taken all my makeup off. But one of my favourite parts of Christmas is wearing the tackiest jumpers but I have one jumper that I absolutely love and it's got the feel of Christmas without being too tacky, even though I have plenty of over the top Christmas jumpers.

TED BAKER COMPACT MIRROR AND BAUBLE | BLOGMAS DAY 8

Hey everyone,

This post was meant to be up yesterday but like I said in my previous blog post, for the last couple of days I have had to write and edit my assignment which is due tomorrow. I have now submitted and I can now keep up to date from now on as I am actually going home this weekend. Now these two items are going to be in my stocking filler gift guide this weekend but I wanted to write a post on them because I am absolutely loving the Ted Baker beauty collection, which is being sold in Boots. I actually got these two items with something else as it was 3 for 2 and I wanted to share these two items with you in greater detail. I have always been a fan of Ted Baker and I always love the way they package all of their items and this is still the case with these two stocking items. Not only could they be stocking fillers but you could buy them for a work colleague, or a family member or a friend and they will absolutely love it, especially if they are into their beauty.

PAPERCHASE CHRISTMAS ESSENTIALS | BLOGMAS DAY 7

Hey everyone,

This would usually say happy 7th of December but you might have realised that I have been busy for the last couple of days writing my assignment. I have now handed that in and I am going to be writing this post which was meant to be up on Monday. I went out shopping and I got some essentials that I need for gift wrapping. This is a very quick haul because most of the items are for my stocking filler gift guide which I don't want to include in this haul as I will be writing these this weekend. I have five items in this haul which are for Christmas presents and then I will have a couple more items to add to this haul when they are delivered this weekend. I know this will be quick but I want to get back up to date.

I love Paperchase at this time of year because they do some really lovely gift wrapping as well as gifts that I would want to receive. I have some bits that I have ordered online and then I want to go back in tomorrow because I am going to be writing a post on how to wrap a present and make it look really festive. So I will add those items when I buy or receive them and will let you know on my Twitter.

THE WINTER TAG | BLOGMAS DAY 6

Hey everyone and happy 6th of December,

I literally haven't left my house today because I have been trying to find quotes for my assignment and I am still struggling now so I have been so busy trying to write my assignment that I completely forgot that I haven't got a blog post for you all. I asked me friend if she could just try and find some ideas and she found a Tag for me to answer and I didn't want to do anymore Tags but I haven't got time to make anything or take any photos so I promise this is the last one and tomorrow I will be reviewing something or I might write a post on my Winter essentials, I haven't decided yet. My friend found this tag from a blog called RandomBeautyThings and I thought why not answer the questions that are on there but I have changed some of the questions slightly and added a couple more just so I could write more for you all.

HOW TO SHOP AT CHRISTMAS | BLOGMAS DAY 5

Hey everyone and happy 5th of December,

I am so busy with writing my assignments but I want to carry on and make sure I write a post every day, up until Christmas Eve and I was struggling to know what to write about. But I thought what is the most stressful part of Christmas and that has to be Christmas shopping, especially if you leave it too late. If you follow me on Twitter you will know that I started my Christmas shopping the first week of November and I know that is very early but I knew I had so many assignments due around this time and I just wanted to make sure it was hassle-free. But we now only have a few weeks until Christmas Day and the shops are getting busier and busier and it can be very stressful, especially when products start to sell out very quickly. So here are my tips to try and make Christmas shopping a bit more stress-free this year:

DECORATING YOUR OWN CHRISTMAS CAKE | BLOGMAS DAY 4

Hey everyone and happy 4th of December,

I have been doing a lot of baking tutorials recently and rather than tell you how to make something, I wanted just an easy post to write and I was thinking about Christmas traditions and there are a few that my family have, and one of them is that I will always make the Christmas cake and my Mum and I will always decorate it together. It's usually when my Dad isn't home because he works in London during the week and its then a surprise for him at the weekend. So I was actually thinking about the theme of my Christmas cake this year and I am inspired by a Marks and Spencer's one and when I come to decorate the cake I will probably post it on Instagram and Twitter.

GINGERBREAD CAKE | BLOGMAS DAY 3

Hey everyone and happy 3rd of December,

This is another instalment of my handmade Christmas gift guide and this recipe wasn't meant to be a cake recipe but instead it was meant to be gingerbread cookies with royal icing. But I got a lot of the measurements wrong and that failed and they turned into cakes. So I went and checked for a proper recipe for gingerbread cake so you can all make it properly and it will hopefully be a lot nicer. I have made this cake before and it was amazing and I don't usually like ginger at all. The recipe I found was for an orange icing, so I did make that but you could just use normal icing or even a spoonful of cream would work with this cake. I wouldn't give this as a present because obviously they won't last long like cookies but you can still take them into work or give to family just before Christmas so they can enjoy them! Also you don't have to cut them into stars either and you could just leave them like a tray bake and cut them into squares which will prevent wasting any of the cake!! I would usually also add candied orange peel which I make myself but I only had one orange and I needed that for the icing, but I will still give you the recipe.

MINCE PIES | BLOGMAS DAY 2

Hey everyone and happy 2nd of December,

I wanted to give you my recipe on how to make mince pies. Now if I was really good I would tell you how to make the mincemeat but firstly I don't have a recipe for mincemeat, secondly I've never tried to make mincemeat and thirdly does anyone have time to make it and it costs so much money when you can buy a jar for a few pounds. But I am going to show you how to make the pastry and I do also add a couple more ingredients to the mincemeat just to add a bit more flavour.

Mince pies have never really been my favourite Christmas food but I love to make them. However I decided to finally try one last year and I really like them and I now get a bit obsessed over mince pies and I will make over 100 over Christmas and I usually make around 100 for my Dad to take into work and another 50 for my Mum to take into work. So I make a lot basically and they don't last long in my house. This is such a simple recipe and it is particularly good if maybe you're not into baking or if you're not the best baker in the world but you still want to make something that is homemade and it is great to make if you have children or grandchildren because they will love rolling out the pastry and filling the pies with the mincemeat as well.

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT CHRISTMAS | BLOGMAS DAY 1

Happy 1st of December,

Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year and I don't just mean the day itself but I actually prefer the build up to Christmas. I love the decorating, the baking, buying presents and getting to spend quality time with my family and friends. Now if I was on YouTube I would probably be doing Vlogmas but at the moment I am not planning on creating a YouTube channel just yet but I am instead going to be writing a blog post for each day of December. I will have posts on baking, gift wrapping ideas and the perfect stocking filler gifts for men and women. I am going to be calling this series Blogmas just to make it easier for me so I know what day I am on.