18 days till Christmas - Hey, opps, what's been happening and just a few photos....

Hello, hey, sorry *sheepish grin*. I forgot to post yesterday which means I have already failed at the everyday thing.... I kinda knew this would happen at some point! Yesterday I went to a Christingle service which took up most of the morning and then Martin Freeman and David Tenant took my time up (in Nativity 1 and 2) in the afternoon, followed by an early Christmas dinner with guests, the Strictly come dancing results show (Helens out *sad face :(*) and Girl Online the book (expect a review, I'm now on the second one) so can you let me off just this once??!!

Today we went to a National Trust property called Killerton. They had dresses up the house and gardens for Christmas in the theme of Narnia, which was pretty cool. The light was a bit funny and I was taking pictures on my phone so don't expect much, but here are the pictures I got:

 

 

 

A bit of a pathetic effort on my part, don't you agree? I didn't get many Narnia related photos but I promise there was stuff there. I did like the plastic lion though, I thought that was kind of funny!

 

 



 

I took these at a café we "happened across" afterwards!

 

 

Cafes, garden centers, the sky, plastic lions, the usual. See you tomorrow hopefully I will have a proper post for you. What did you do today? x

20 days till Christmas - Christmas trees

So, as you probably gathered from the title.... we got our Christmas tree!! We go to a farm nearby to get our REAL tree, every year and this year was no exception. It's tall, thick, smells gorgeous and most of all, it is now covered in beautiful, shiny, glittery decorations!! I will post a few "make your own decorations" soon as I can, but in the mean time I will finish off this little note of a post with some -even if I do say so myself- pretty cool pictures I took yesterday at the farm.

This was a really lucky photo, we were driving back and my brother was suddenly like "Millie, Millie, look, look, Millie, get your phone, Millie, are you even listening, get your phone!!", and then I had to lean out the window to get it, but I am glad I took it in the end!

Pictures of the tree decorated in all its splendor will follow soon along with some re-vamping decoration ideas and how to's!

21 days til Christmas

It seems obvious that within this lil' Christmas build-up there should be some recipes, so I'm kick starting it off, with an amazingly simple to make recipe. It also uses cheap ingredients and is perfect for a gift (plus you can sneak ingredients, whilst your making it - hey, it's not stealing if you call it chefs perks!). I'm calling them Chocolate ball, circles, round, spherical like puddles/splats. I had a bit of a problem with what to call them, as you can see, but basically they're a flat, chocolate, circle. It feels like a bit of a rubbish way to describe them after all the build-up, but hey ho, they taste nice.

You will need:

Milk chocolate, white chocolate, dark chocolate

Cranberries/Raisins

Almonds

-judge how much you use by how many you want to make

How to make:

Melt the milk chocolate in a pan on the hob.

 Pour onto a tray covered with baking paper. I am pouring it into little circles but I have also poured it into one big sheet before and smashed it up later.

Chop up the cranberries/raisins/almonds and sprinkle them on the top of the chocolate before it sets. Then put the tray into the fridge to set.

   When the milk chocolate is solid, melt the white chocolate in another pan and drizzle it in zig-zag's over the milk chocolate circles. When the white chocolate has set, repeat the process with the dark chocolate!

 If you did one big sheet when everything has set smash it up into shards.

 If you are going to give them away, put in a paper bag or glass jar and tie with some ribbon!

22 days till Christmas - Candle holders and Candy Cane nails

Another crafty gifts one today, but BONUS POINT, there’s a cute nail art idea at the bottom

Candle holders

  

You will need:

A jam jar or something of that sort

Candle stubs

Sweet wrappers or cellophane

Glue, scissors, stuff like that….

How to do:

Cut the sweet wrappers or cellophane into little shapes of strips. If you have cellophane, cool, I want your art cupboard, but if not, then, oh poor you, you’re going to have to break into the Christmas sweeties! Stick them around the jar in any pattern you want, just don’t layer it too much because the light won’t shine through as well. Stripes of different colours looks cool, or little hearts and stars in Christmassy colours! Put the candle stub inside the jar. When you light it, all the light will shine through the paper and throw pretty light shapes over the room.

Candy cane nails

So the idea of this is that it looks like the red and green stripes of a candy cane (hence the name).
They are also going to be slightly glittery to Christmasifie it even more!

You will need:
Sticky tape
A pencil
Red nail polish
Green nail polish
Clear polish
Glitter

How to do:
Cut some thin stripes of sticky tape - about a few mm wide - and stick them firmly in a diagonal line across your fingernails with a space in between each stripe. You should be able to fit about 3 on each nail. Paint your nails as you would normally with the red polish. When they have dried gently pull off the sticky tape and you should hopefully have perfect red stripes. Make sure the red stripes are completely dry before sticking more tape BACK OVER the red stripes. Press down as hard as you can so the next colour doesn't leak through. Paint 1 or 2 of the gaps with green nail polish, leaving a few blank to represent the white. Again when these have dried, carefully peel off the tape. You should know have a few red stripes a few green and a few blank/white. Now paint all your nails with clear polish and sprinkle glitter over the top before it dries. You might want to put another layer of clear over the top of the entire lot, to keep the glitter in place.

For my red nail polish I used Rimmel London Double Decker Red 60 Seconds Super Shine.
This comes out in a gorgeously bright and shiny red, that really captures the Christmassy feel!
This range comes in so many cool colours but this was my favourite. Also featured in the pictures is Colin/Roger the cuddly reindeer. We're not entirely sure which to call him, so for now he is both!
Of course this is my own opinions and pictures.

23 days till Christmas - Photo albums

Hello, seems like I only posted this morning.... Oh wait I did....Sorry about that....I honestly did forget to post it yesterday, Mr Darcy and Lizzie Bennet were just too distracting....

This afternoon I've got one of those "how to's" and true to what I said earlier, it is perfect for a Christmas gift. Photo albums. So simple, so effective. Great for relatives or fill one full of selfies of you and your friends!

You will need:

A plain notebook with a hard cover (no ring-binder because you’ll just make things difficult for yourself)

Glue

Scissors

Wrapping paper/pictures from magazines/tissue paper

Ribbon/buttons/stickers/glitter

Pictures of you, your friends or family

How to make:

Step 1: Lay your wrapping paper, or whatever you choose to use as your base pattern, pattern side down on a flat surface and put the notebook open on top of it. Make sure there is enough to cover the pad, then stick glue over both covers of the book. Lay it down on the paper, then open the pad making sure the paper sticks to the spine before you stick the front down.

Step 2: Either cut off the excess or fold it down on the inside. If you cut it off, then you could maybe stick the edges with pretty sticky tape.

Step 3: Now for the fun bit. Decorating! If you could hear me, then you would know I said that in a squeaky/excited/weird voice….yeah,I’m sad…. You could maybe use a favourite photo on the front, or stick strips of ribbon on the front. Cut pictures out of magazines and make a collage or use patterned paper to cut out shapes. You could outline the pictures with buttons or ribbons. Really go wild, make it special and totally unique!

Fill it with pictures of you, your family and friends. You could decorate each page especially with stickers, buttons, pretty, patterned tape or doodle silver stars and rainbow coloured hearts in the corners of the pages. You could make more than one and give them to grandparents or all your friends. Make them unique for each person, changing the pictures or amount of glitter.

I’m sure whoever you give them to, they will absolutely love it!

24 days till Christmas

Okay, so I do know that as of today there is 23 days till Christmas, but I forgot to post yesterday, because of a few things, namely; adventy excitement, pride and prejudice, biology, the great wall of China, dancing and a piano. Don't ask.
So anyway, lucky you guys, there is 2 Christmas posts coming your way today!! 

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Yay, it’s that time of the year again!! And to really get everyone into the spirit of things, I am starting a new series of posts, one on each day up until Christmas eve, each with a different Christmassy activity, to make, do, bake, or see. I might post a few normal posts as well to break things up a little, (don’t wait on it though, chances are I will be way busy – at least in my head -), but from now on expect to see mainly snowmen and snowflakes, jingle bells and jam tarts, winter woollies and wonderlands, I’ve run out of alliterations so I think I will leave it at that!

This first one is on gift giving. Sorting out who you’re going to give gifts to and which you’re going to buy and which you’re going to make.

Sorting out who you are going to give gifts to

It’s sometimes hard to buy gifts for all your friends and family, but if you sort out who you are going to BUY things for and who you are going to MAKE things for, then you can give everyone something lovely but not bust out your savings! It might be helpful to start a Christmas gifts savings pot, so you don’t “accidentally” spend your designated gift money on something that you don’t actually need (I am guilty of this). Here’s a link to a post I did an AGE ago, on making your own Pencil pots which could alternatively be used as a money pot!

Step 1: Write a list of all the people you want to give things to.

Step 2: Divide the list into two parts, BUY and MAKE. For example, say a sibling has asked for a CD. Well you can’t really make that, so put them under the buy heading. Another example, you have an auntie who you don’t know what to get, so put her under the make section and look out for my next posts, to decide what to make her. Keep going like this until all the people on your list are under one column or another.

Step 3: Now write next to each person, what you are going to buy or make them.

Step 4: Add prices or things you need to make the gifts. If you don’t have enough money, then move a few people off the buy list and away to the making party!!

Step 5: Go shopping – always a good plan

Step 6: Now all you have to do is make the homemade gifts and frankly that’s the fun bit!

And remember to always make the wrapping up look beautiful as well, just adding a ribbon or some of that curly wurly, sparkly, string stuff, can make all the difference!

Watch out for my next few posts, because they will be full of sparkly, Christmassy fun, glittery and most probably red, green and gold, homemade Christmas gifts, how to do’s!

Until then sing some “dreamin’ of a white Christmas” and hopefully it will come true!!

Children in Need - Pudsey bear cookies

Not donated yet? What are you waiting for, people, its tonight!! If you really want to donate, but haven't had the time to do your bake sale/sponsored silence/sponsored run/sponsored bathe in custard (bathing in custard, sounds soo fun, doesn't it!) then now's most defiantly the time

There are so many different things you can do to raise money for Children in Need and it is not only REALLY EASY it is also REALLY FUN and on top of that could there be a better cause??

Me and my family made some Pudsey cookies and some spotty cupcakes, which we sold to various friends and neighbours and I have to say, they were DELICIOUS and very, very CUTE!

We asked for donations and guess how much we got!!

Roughly £65!! All for Children in Need!!

A few years ago we did this and got about £40. We bought a special kit, with a Pudsey cutter and bunting and a tea towel and a recipe and what not.... So, we used the cutter again and these came out! The recipe is really simple, just, butter, sugar, flour and cornflour, in a bowl, turn into breadcrumbs, then squish together, roll out and cut out the shapes. The bandanna is ready roll icing with Smarties for the spots! Even if you don't have a bear cookie cutter you could print out a bear picture and cut around it, to make the shape. We made the cupcakes with just a simple plain cake mixture e.g. sugar, butter, flour and eggs with a icing sugar and water icing, again decorated with Smarties! The facial features, for the cookies are just black food dye applied with a cocktail stick or if you have a food pen, that's perfect.

Because children in need is tonight, you might have a bit of problem selling them if everyone has already donated, but you can only try!! Ask your neighbours for donations, you will hopefully get more than asking for a fixed price. Obviously make sure you know the people you are asking!!

Good luck with the cookies and remember even if you don't get much money from the cookies, donate something to children in need, which starts tonight at 7:30!!

Radio waves, kept me company....

Yep it's the next one in this series already! Told you it would be soon.

This is one of those where I tell you what I'm listening to, recommended stuff and general la di da.

Previous Music posts;

    Saw your face in a crowded place....

    Music to try out

Somewhere in Stockholm by Avicci

Awesome. Just love the chorus.

    I hear echos of a thousand screams

    as I lay me down to sleep

    there's a black hole deep inside of me

    reminding me

    I lost my backbone, Somewhere Stockholm

A must listen to. Does it remind you of The Script or is that just me?

When I Was Boy by ELO (Electric light orchestra)

One of the best comeback songs EVER.

Bad Day by Daniel Powter

So calming, feel good stuff. But if you're looking for a laugh, search up the Alvin and the Chipmunks (remember that film? ADORABLE) version and blast it over the entire house!!

Hello Seattle by Owl City

Immortals by Fall out Boy

Theme for Big Hero Six. That film was so sad. I mean seriously, did they have to kill off his brother? But good song, none the less.

Harry Potter jumper

I love this jumper. It says "Yay, I love Harry Potter!!" but in a subtle (ish) way.

I got it in Primark when I was shopping with a friend and I had a hard time deciding whether to buy this or a t-shirt that said on it

    "After all this time?"

"Always".

Only someone who had read the books/watched the films several dozen times would get that!

In the end I got the jumper (obviously) and I'm so glad I did, because not only does it look amazing, it is oversize on me so it is super snuggy as well!

You could wear with just jeans keeping the focus on the symbol or you could wear with a more stand out piece, like a patterned skirt with boots or coloured trousers possibly with a beanie hat.

 That was an fun shopping trip, because not only did I get an completely awesome new jumper, I also discovered Japanese pancakes filled with custard! Off the subject I know, but they were delicious!

Magnus Chase - Pro's and Con's + Trials of Apollo

Yes I know I'm late.... Sorry.... But Rick Riordan has a new book out (yee!!) Magnus Chase and the The Gods of Asgard Book 1: The Sword of Summer. I only got it last week and have been glued to it since to get it finished, but then I was too busy to write this review. But anyway here it is, finally.


Contains some spoilers (however small), so if you haven't read it yet (and are even later then me!)
then you might want to shut this page now. Just warning you.

I will now read through it properly and slowly and probably find tons of stuff that's vital to the story but I missed the first time! I do that kinda thing. I skim read it as quick as I can 'cause I need to know what happens and then I go back and -most of the time- find at least 5 hilarious/useful/generally awesome paragraphs I missed! At least that's what happened with his other books. Unfortunately I'm not entirely sure if that will happen this time, cause I found it stop started in coolness.
That doesn't make sense does it! I guess what I mean is that I did like the Sword of Summer (don't get me wrong on that) it's just that I felt it didn't flow properly.I was expecting it to be as good as Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus and it wasn't, so I was disappointed.

I was also expecting to like Sam more, for her to be the next Annabeth and be all awesome and funny and she was, but more in a kinda action girl way.
    My favourite characters defiantly include Hearthstone, TG, Mallory, Blitzen, Magnus and of course Annabeth! I really liked how Magnus was a hero but not in a complete Action, swords, fight fight fight kind of way.

One more thing; I really wish that we could have read the conversation between Annabeth and Magnus at the end! Would have been so funny!

So over all it was cool, not quite awesome but I would definitely recommend. 

But on a even more exciting note, there is a new book set in the Percy Jackson world coming out next May!! I’m not giving spoilers, mainly ‘cause I don’t know any *awkward pause*.
    Though I do know this; it’s about Apollo, Zeus is sending him down to Camp Half Blood as a human and this series (yes, I know series!!) is about Apollo trying to regain his godliness!

There have also been a bucket load of hints about a few “well-known” characters making an appearance- I’m crossing my fingers for Leo to be one of those characters!

    Did anyone else nearly spontaneously combust with excitement when they heard this news??!! Please say yes, otherwise I just made myself sound seriously sad!!

Once again, sorry, I know most of this is old news, but I thought better late then never, hey?

And finally.... Lollipops! - London Pictures

What do you get when you stick me in London armed with a camera for half term?
A shed load of photos!! I thought I would share my favourite ones with you.
    You will get what the title means by the end!

Outside the British museum

Inside the British museum - Awesome roof

British museum - Oh look some more cool ceilings

And more ceiling....

A tree.... A very cool tree....

Window of Zara on Regent Street

Royal Opera House

Pineapple dance studios

Leicester Square

Another building on Leicester Square

Yep I know it's just a hot chocolate, but isn't it pretty? No? No.

And finally.... Lollipops!

Strictly come dancing 2015 week 6

10 best bits

1. Two words; Harry Potter - speaks for itself - instant awesome-ness.
2. Jay, Big Bad Wolf, Green contact lenses, crazy good costumes and oh yeah some pretty amazing dancing.
3. Helen George as a mummy....
4. Jeremy Vine turned Michael Jackson. Need I say more. It was amazingly hilarious.
5. Did I mention the Harry Potter theme? One more thing to say on that; Dancing on the table in heels. Kellie Bright is soooo cool. Star wars, now this
6. Anton's reactions
7. That waltz.... Those horns....The dress....The dance....That funny contemporary bit at the end....
8. ALL DA COSTUMES, to name a few; Jay, Jamilia, Helen, Antia, Kirsty and Brendan,....
9. Carol Kirkwoods hair
10. Oh and all the blow your mind dancing; Peter Andre, Jay McGuiness, Georgia May Foote, Helen George, Kellie Bright, Antia Rani....

When you realise tomorrows that Halloween party and you’ve nothing to wear

If you look at that title and say “yep, that’s me” then yeah keep reading!
I hope this helps all of you out there that are panicking, running around the kitchen dreading that moment when you turn up in a room full of ghosts, wearing jeans and a bright pink tee. Chances are if you’re in that situation you won’t be looking at my lil’ blog but anyways…. it might help someone, somewhere at some point. Today I was planning to do a vampire face-paint tutorial, but then that sorta spiraled and now I have tons of Halloween ideas so you got this instead! Hopefully after reading this, you will look dead gorgeous tomorrow (excuse the feeble pun….I just couldn’t resist).

For the ghost look:

Using a white blusher, foundation or sponge with white face paint on, cover your entire face with a light coat. Now use a light grey colour and make a sweeping motion up your cheekbones. Using a finger blend with the white, until it looks like your cheeks are hollowed out. You may need to put another dusting of white over the top for it to look fully natural. Do the same around the eyes, being very careful. Take a black eyeshadow and apply just to the eyelids. Above this put on a thin layer of grey eyeshadow, using the black eyeshadow brush to blend together creating a smoky look. Apply thick black mascara, eyeliner and a dark burgundy lipstick to complete the look! It might be cool to put some white streaks in your hair (make sure whatever you use can be washed off!!) then scoop half of your hair into a messy bun then twist the other half up and around it, in separate strands, bulking it out and crazifying it. You could attach some long strips of netting to a skirt and wear with long gloves and a little veil.

To make a skirt:

Take the biggest piece of white netting you can find and do a running stitch along the whole of the longest side. Make sure you use one entire length of thread because we are now going to gather it all up by pulling on one end of the thread and scrunching it up to the other end. Arrange the gathers so that there is enough material left to go around your waist. Attach the gathered side to an already existing skirt then sew up the sides.

To make a veil:

Scrunch up a piece of white material into a flower shape and put a few stitches through it. Cut out a square of white netting and fold one edge around a metal headband, stitch or glue to secure. Glue the flower on to the headband off to one side along with a bow made of lace scraps. You could make more than one flower and have a whole cluster of them, or alternately you could use fake flowers.

Off-duty vampire

Layer black and grey eyeshadow, like I did for the ghost look, but make it darker than before. Apply a thick layer of black eyeliner with decent sized flicks and mascara. Wear with dark lips in burgundy, red or if you’re feeling brave try black. If you want to go that tiny bit over the top use grey blusher along your cheekbones to hollow them out. Wear with “Just-woke-up hair” with a few strands plaited and pinned at the back of your head and a black-on-black outfit.

China doll

Cover your entire face with a thick layer of white blusher. Using a thin brush with black face paint on it or a black eyeliner draw lots of little cracks coming out of your hairline and along your cheeks like you’ve been dropped several times but always not quite broken. Apply white lipstick then using a stand-out pink lip-liner draw a lil’ rosebud heart in the middle of your mouth that goes over both lips. Using the black again draw two cracks going out sideways on each side of your mouth. Pale blue eyeshadow and black lashes. Do neat bunches with ribbons tied around in loopy bows. Wear with several full skirts layered underneath a dress, preferably in a pastel colour. Sew strips of lace around the hem of the skirts so they peek out from underneath the dress to look like petticoats. Lace sleeves or puffed sleeves could really complete the whole Miss Perfect thing.

Go out and kill the party (*cringe* I'm so not funny!) with your awesome outfit tomorrow.

Please don't pull a stupid face and close the page - Double denim

Double denim. Boom. Don’t think I have to explain ‘cause it kinda speaks for itself :/ Please, don’t pull a stupid face and close the page, just hold on a moment and hear me out, Ok? Ok.

I noticed quite a few predictions about double denim (or DD as I am now calling it) appearing in the trend forecasts at the beginning of the season and I was really excited to see how they would bring it back, but…. It hasn’t seemed to happen which is a bit of a disappointment.
    I guess it’s the whole “scary ‘80’s thing” but I’m going to try to change your – or at least my small amount of readers- minds. So I am urging you to dig out your jeans and jackets and…. Wait for it…. Wear them at the SAME TIME! *Shock horror*

If you’re not entirely comfortable about wearing dd straight out (and frankly I don’t blame you) then here are some ideas on how to modernize this look and totally own it.

1. Put an oversize shirt (Not white, otherwise you are actually adding to the ‘80’s feel!) hanging open underneath your jacket, over a grey tee with a stand out slogan or graphic print to tone it down a touch. To take part of the attention away from the jeans and jacket, wear brightly coloured converse style shoes, or boots with coloured laces (You all know how much I love DM style boots!).

2. If you're wearing denim shorts then try brightly patterned tights or knee-highs.

3. For colder days, a eye-catching beanie is a must, along with several layers under your jacket in the form of a brushed cotton shirt, a thick cardigan and a thin hoody in a block colour that complements the shirt. Is that too much to remember? Sorry. These are just suggestions to give you a bit of inspiration, the most important thing is to keep your own unique style shining through.

As promised here are your pictures and I’ve actually tried doing an outfit grid this time, which is kinda exciting for me, so I hope you like them and are inspired to try double denim yourself!

Denim jacket: Levis
Jeans: H&M
Red shirt: H&M
Purple shirt; H&M
Boots: Internet
Beanie: Peacocks
Born to dance t-shirt: Covent Garden stall (can't remember the name)
Purple cardigan: H&M
Navy hoody: H&M

I don't only shop at H&M, it's just a coincidence!!

Saw your face in a crowded place....

Hi, remember my last Music to try out post? Well this is the next one, showing you what I listen to, hopefully introducing you to some new stuff and rediscovering all those old favourites you haven't heard in ages!!

You're Beautiful by James Blunt
Remember this one? Personally I think it's one of his best ever songs - This and Postcards which is amazing too- I recently rediscovered it and now I can't stop singing the thing!

Shut up and Dance by Walk the Moon
Ok you probably know this one but anyway's you have to admit it is pretty awesome! The video is soooo cool! I want a flashing all-in-one suit thingy too!!

Drive By by Train
I bet when you listen to this you will remember the tune and be like ooooohhhhh I remember this, I used to love this song, but you won't for the life of you be able to remember the title or band (at least that's what I did!) I also love Train's song Hey Soul Sister. That intro's so catchy, you can't stop singing it for weeks!

Will update again soon. Probably very soon knowing how quickly my taste in music changes!

BTW Superheros by the Script is still my favourite song!!