Blogmas: Day 8!

So tonight I baked some Christmas cookies for a bit of fun and something for the family to all do together. Thought I would share with you guys how easy and simple it to do and cheap also!

You will need:

• 250g butter, softened
• 140g caster sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 300g plain flour
• stuff to decorate the cookies

First grab a large mixing bowl and a wooden spoon - then mix together the butter and sugar until it looks a little something like this.

Then add the egg yolk and vanilla extract

Stir all this in until it is mixed in well. Also while doing this make sure the oven is preheated to about 170C.

Then you slowly sieve the flour into the mixture and this is where you can get your hands a little messy too, making sure its all blended in nicely.

Then make sure you have a nice clean surface to roll out the dough, using a rolling pin or whatever you desire roll it out.. use plenty of flour if you need to because mine was still quite sticky.

Then cut out the shapes and place them on some greaseproof paper on a baking tray.

 

Think the batch I made was big enough for about 3 trays full of biscuits, and shove them in the oven. It suggests that you put them in for 15 minutes but the most important bit is to keep an eye on them because mine were done in about 11.

 Wait for them to cool - and now for the fun bit.. 

Now I am no baker, and I just did this for a few giggles tonight with my family - so the decorating may not be amazing but its more about the fun. 

And there you have a really fun and cheap way to have a good night in with your family being all festive. 

Blogmas: Day 7

Hello lovelies, I do apologise for not posting a blogmas yesterday, but today you can get two! Plus another blog post entirely, Zoella's book review. So I think i've made up for being rubbish yesterday, sorry guys.  

So first of all, if some of you are doing the same blogmas as me and think, hold on - thats not the right day! You will be right. I've had to mix them up a little bit because I want to do some cute DIYs with you guys but I didn't have all the stuff for it when it needed to be posted.. but that will be coming soon, I promise.

Winter items I couldn't live without

• First one would have to be my microwavable teddy.

He is like a cute cuddly hot water bottle, you basically take his little tummy out and its like a bean bag kind of thing and then heat that up in the microwave and then pop it back in and hes nice and toasty to cuddle with. Mine is exactly like this little elephant here and his name is Alfredo, but you can get them in all different shapes and sizes.

• Next would have to be a winter jumper 

You always need something super warm and cosy in these cold 

December months, and why not make it festive too? A good winter jumper never fails to make people happy. I think its worth every penny, whether you spend that at Primark or Hollister, as long as it makes you happy. 

• Something to keep my lips in check

Obviously these cold days see our lips in not very good shape with the bitter cold making them dry and horrible, I always need to have something in my bag to make sure they stay nice and moisturized. I've mentioned this before in my posts but I am still loving my mint EOS lip balm, its so handy to keep in your bag and make your lips feel great after using it.

• Hot Drinks

It is important this kind of year to keep nice and warm and what better way to do this than with festive drinks - Hot chocolate and mulled wine being my personal favourites.

I wish we could drink mulled wine all year round, but it makes it extra special when we can during Christmas. 

• And lastly, I know its not technically an item - But an open fire, lots of candles and fairy lights

Feeling cosy at Winter is super important to me, I want to get home and instantly feel warm and cosy inside, so I love loads of candles and fairy lights and a nice fire to feel amazingly wintery. 

Once again I apologise for my not posting yesterday - What item can you not live without this season? Hope you are all feeling more festive every day!

Zoella 'Girl Online' Book Review

Hello lovelies, So today as well as my blogmas post you also get an extra one! I decided this is something that couldn't be incorporated into my blogmas so it gets it own little post. Today I am going to chat about the ever popular Zoella and her brand new book 'Girl Online'.

So I initially was a bit sceptical when I saw Zoe was bringing out a novel, and I thought the book itself sounded a lot like it was aimed at a much younger audience. (me, being 20 years old) But I saw in Waterstones it had 5 pounds off and I thought why not give it a go.

After Girl Online sold more than 78,000 copies in its first week, and becoming the fastest selling debut novelist since records began, I have to hand it to Zoe. She has done an amazing job! The only thing for me was that I was right about the younger audience, however when I was reading, I picture characters in my head my own way anyway so I just imagined them a little bit older. But in regards to writing style, Zoe has actually done a brilliant job - She kept me hooked. Once I started reading and I finished the book in 3 days! Last time I read something that fast I think it was the last Harry Potter book. Now lets go onto all the talk at the moment about it being ghost written... Anyone who watches her vlogs and follows her on twitter will know she went to so many meetings about her book and was very much involved in the writing of the book, of course she got help with it but who doesn't nowadays. It is her first novel she isn't a perfect writer, but with the help of her team she has done amazingly well, I think everyone needs to stop being so negative towards her and her success.

All in all, I think Zoe should be so proud of what she has accomplished, and although I still enjoyed it I do recommend the age is around 14-17 year olds.

Blogmas: Day 6!

When do I open my Presents?

This has changed over the years, when my sister and I were a lot younger I think it was at about 5.30! But one thing that has stayed the same is that we always open our Santa presents first, then we have to have breakfast (if you read yesterdays post you will know that is always chocolate covered strawberries) and then after breakfast we are allowed to open the rest of them from friends and family (which are usually the best ones) I really like how that breaks it up a bit and we don't just open them all at once and go.. oh thats it.

This year as well, because my boyfriend and I won't be able to be with each other on Christmas day, as we both have younger sisters and family stuff to go to, we are gonna have our own little Christmas a few days later so that will mean more presents then!

Blogmas: Day 5!

Hello lovelies, today is the 5th of December - I feel like this week has gone so quickly already.

Today it is favourite Christmas food, now I don't know about you, but I basically eat everything at Christmas time, its the one time a year that our house is constantly jam packed with food! So I eat a lot, and probably put on about 5 stone in the process.

One thing we do do though, and I was going to put this in traditions but I thought it fit more in foods, we always have our amazing breakfast of chocolate covered strawberries, and we only do that for special occasions.

And obviously everyone's favourite bit of food at Christmas will be the Christmas dinner, but I wanted to just mention this - What does everyone have with theirs? I know people choose to have different meats, but I thought it was kind of standard to have the rest the same.. like stuffing, roast potatoes, yorkshire puddings, veg, parsnips and all that. But the other day my friend said she doesn't have yorkshire puddings with her Christmas dinner and I thought this was an outrage! So let me know what you actually have in your Christmas dinners, and if its normal not to have yorkshires. 

After the dinner I am well and truly stuffed but I can obviously make room for the lorry loads of chocolate we've been given while we pig out and watch Christmas TV until our bellies explode! 

As I said before please let me know if i'm the only one that finds its wrong to have Christmas dinner without yorkshire puddings! They are the best bit. Hope you are having a great December so far and enjoying blogmas...

Blogmas: Day 4

Favourite Christmas music

Now I'm a lover of all the classics! Wizzard, Wham, Paul McCarntey! All the best ones are the oldies in my opinion.

But some of the more recent (ish) ones I am liking at the moment are, obviously the new Band Aid, but one that was actually played at work today and had me dancing around and that just makes me happy is: Shake up Christmas by Train.

Its just a perfect song to listen to earlier on in December, and makes you really happy!

I could make this a much longer post and literally list every song I loved but just pick up the 'now thats what I call Christmas' album and they will be all the ones on there! So i'll leave this post for now, but let me know that one song that gets you totally excited for Christmas!

DIY: Ripped Jeans

Hello lovelies, just a quick post today that I thought i'd share with you. I'm really into my DIY's at the moment and this one is the easiest one ever!

Recently my friend bought some topshop jeans in the sale, with the ripped knees, which everyone seems to be wearing at the moment. But I didn't really feel like spending 30 odd pounds on a pair of jeans from Topshop. I did find some cheaper ones online but then I never like buying jeans online, I really wanted a pair but I was a bit stuck, until it occurred to me. Something as simple as a rip in the knees is ridiculously easy to do, why are we paying so much for it?

So heres what I did-

You will need:

• A pair of plain jeans (Old or new)
• A pen
• A pair of scissors 

I got my jeans from Primark for only 7 pounds and after doing this they are now my favourite pair!
So I sat down with my jeans on so the jeans were quite stretched out, and drew on them with a normal pen (I wouldn't recommend using sharpie as the line will be too thick and might stain). I drew about a 4cm line on each knee right in the centre of my knee cap. This is the important bit, to look in the mirror and check they are even before you cut, I got my friend to double check too, just to be safe. You might think the line you have drawn is too short and you want a longer slit than that, well I did in the knowledge that they will rip a bit more once I wear them and it will look more ripped than cut when that happens.

So then take the jeans off for the cutting part! And cut them carefully and keep putting them back on and seeing if you are happy with them, remembering they will rip further once you wear them a bit. And that is how simple it is! And I spent a total of 7 pounds.

If this post inspired you to get creative and save some money, send some pictures of your DIY Jeans!