My Favourite Christmas & Birthday Presents

Christmas and Birthdays are great. It's so nice to get lovely new things! It is a shame that my Birthday falls so close to Christmas, and it all seems to be over so quickly every year!

This year I thought I would document some of my favourite gifts, so that I can appreciate them a little bit more.

My Mum must have taken notice of  my christmas wish list, because I finally got an awesome little terrarium with an air plant to look after. It can hang up as well! But I am plotting carefully where to put it as I have visions of it falling to a terrible death!

Chris's Mum was a little incapacitated this year as she had an operation on her foot, so she couldn't get out and about to go shopping. Instead she made us all lovely hooks to mount on the wall! Each one had a different design, and this one was mine!

My friend Kate bought me a very cute foxy necklace which I have been wearing rather a lot recently. I don't usually wear necklaces much (probably because I don't have many), but I have even found myself actually wearing this one to bed by accident on several occasions. The etsy shop it came from has loads of other really lovely jewellery too, you should check it out. It is called BK&JIO.

Chris did very well and bought me not one, but two jumpers in my favourite colours! Well, he actually bought me three if you count the Christmas pudding jumper I got in my stocking! This one came from Topshop, and along with the other one I am pretty much wearing it constantly. He also bought me some weird tiny socks that I don't know what to do with, but we won't talk about that!

I love this massive L mug my friend Jess bought me for my Birthday. I had been eyeing them up in M&S for some time. Now I only need A U R A and then I will have a set!

Laura xXx

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Healthy Ice Cream Recipe - Mint Choc Chip

For my birthday my parents bought me an ice cream maker! Yay! Then I found out I was intolerant to lactose. Boo!

I do love regular ice cream, especially Ben and Jerry's mint choc chip when I'm at the cinema! But I have always been interested in finding healthier alternatives. The base for this recipe is coconut milk rather than cream. So it makes it much healthier and also ideal for lactose intolerant people like me.

The Ingredients

3 frozen bananas
1 tin of coconut milk (chilled)
1 teaspoon of peppermint extract
1 avocado
Cocoa nibs (or a few chocolate chips for those of you that can or want to have milk)
Agave nectar or honey to taste

The Process

Mix all ingredients other than the cocoa nibs/chocolate chips together in a blender.  Stir them in at the end.  Then pop into your ice cream maker and follow the instructions for your machine. Mine took about 20 minutes. It is probably best to eat it straight away, as this will have the best texture. But I put mine in the freezer to save for later. You just need to give it a little while to defrost before you want to eat it.

If you don't have an ice cream maker you can still make this. You just need to use the old, 'stir it every hour' technique, and then keep putting it back in the freezer. Or you could use lolly moulds and make Ice lollies instead!

The Verdict

I think that this is one of those tastes that grows on you. I was a bit disappointed when I first tried it, but the more I ate the more I liked it.  Lets be honest, it is never going to taste the same as Ben and Jerry's.  Once you get that comparison out of your head it tastes pretty good.

I think I will be trying out some other flavours of healthy ice cream before making this one again, but I will definitely be bearing it in mind, and I am sure it will be making a re-appearance!

Laura xXx

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Revlon Chalkboard Nail Art Review

For Christmas one of my friends bought me Revlon's duel ended Chalkboard Nail art set. As it is a bit of a novelty varnish, I thought I would give it a go and do a little review for you while I am at it!

So here is how my nails looked once I had painted 2 coats of the matt black. Let me tell you, this stuff dries super fast! It was great!  Next I had to come up with a design to paint on them with the chalk paint. 

It has a skinny brush so that you can do intricate designs. Although, I don't know anyone that would be able to draw something freehand neatly on their nails, especially when using their non dominant hand! 

I decided to get out my trusty nail stickers to make the design as neat as possible. I opted for a  lightning bolt effect using these stickers (number 7).

So here is the finished effect! What do you think? Probably not as neat as I would have liked.  In fact, I quite like the black on it's own. I'd like to try out using just the matte black together with a shiny black, like in this post. Although I think you would need to use a matte top coat if you wanted these to last for more than a day, as it does seem to chip quite easily. So I'm  not quite sure how you would get a top coat to work with that design!

The other thing I noticed about this dual varnish, was that there were a few times I started opening it upside down by accident,  I could see it making a bit of a mess if you aren't careful! Also, the skinny shape of the bottles makes them a little wobbly when you set them down, so definitely one to have an old magazine or something under just in case!

What is your take on chalkboard nails?

Laura xXx

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December Review

In Life

Well, where did December go?! Not much to report except for the usual fun and festivities. We had a great Christmas spent with the family at Chris's parents house, but how come Christmas day goes so fast!? Now that it is January it is time to seriously start planning this wedding! Gah, I am running out of time!

What We Watched

This Is 40

Anchor Man

Wreck it Ralph

Thor

The Avengers

Iron Man 3

The Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug

Pitch Perfect

So we watched a lot of movies because its Christmas and thats what you are meant to do right?! My favourite out of all of these was actually Iron Man 3, and I am now getting quite into the whole Avengers franchise. I need to watch the Capatin America film now!

What I Read

Twilight - Eclipse 
Twilight - Breaking Dawn - Phew, I finally finished Twilight! I have to say, by then end of it I found it had grown on me, and I think these two books were my favourite. I'm interested to see how the films have interpreted them!

My Favourite Posts

ITS CHRISTMAS TIME

A HEALTHY BREAKFAST

WEEKEND CELEBRATIONS

THE CREATIVE CHRISTMAS PARTY

Laura xXx

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It's Christmas Time...

Oh my goodness, is it that time of year already? Only 5 days until Christmas! Well at least I have finally finished all of my Christmas shopping, phew! How are you doing with yours?

We are getting pretty into the festive spirit here. Last weekend my parents hired out their village hall to have a lovely Christmassy day with (nearly) all of the family, 21 in total. My mum designed and built the wonderful gingerbread house above, although we were told we were not allowed to eat it, as it was to be displayed again at a later date! Unfortunately the house had other plans, and because of the humidity in the hall where we were also cooking dinner, it had a rather slow and painful death.

For my birthday on Friday Chris bought me some Nerf Guns. God knows why! Fortunately he also organised a surprise trip to Champneys Spa, so he was just about forgiven. Anyway, my Dad had the idea to put these to good use at the party by making a shooting range game.  He painted some cut up wrapping paper rolls white, and we got everyone to draw their own little snowman character on them. Then we arranged them in a triangular formation, like skittles, and took it in turn to see how many snowmen we could nock down with 6 bullets.

Everyone had a go, including the grandparents, and everybody hit at least 2 down, which was pretty impressive! But I'm not going to lie, the snowmen didn't turn out quite as attractive as I had hoped...

I particularly like the picture below, as my Dad looks incredibly silly, and so does Chris even though he is a bit blurry. Isn't that what Christmas is all about?!

Here is a picture of me with my Aunts dog Tilly. I'm not overly keen on dogs, but if I was ever going to have a dog I think I would choose one like Tilly, she is the sweetest, and she wears silly hats with me! But she does not like crackers very much!

So I think I am going to be pretty busy in the run up until Christmas, as I am sure you all are, so I don't expect I will have time to post again until afterwards.

I hope you all have a fabulously festive time and get exactly what you are hoping for from Santa! Don't forget to make the most of the mince pies and mulled wine!

Laura xXx

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A Healthy Breakfast

I've discovered a delicious and nutritious new breakfast, so I thought I would share with you all. Basically it is raspberries and vanilla yoghurt with honey, along with a special mixture I concocted myself!

Instead of having cereal, which is full of bad sugars, I decided to make a naturally sweet treat.  In a blender I mixed a handful of dried medjool dates (pips removed), cashew nuts, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, dried goji berries, honey and a little bit of peanut butter. I pulsed until it was all well blended. Then I placed the mixture in a tin and flattened out, then left in the fridge to cool. 

Thats it really! Its all ready for you to scrape some out and pop alongside your yoghurt and fruit. It will probably last in the  fridge for a couple of weeks.

The great thing about it is that it will turn out differently every time, and you can use whatever you have in your cupboard to make it. Rececntly I made another one using dried figs and lemon zest, but you could also use raisins, dried apricots or prunes, or anything else you fancy!

Laura xXx

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My Birthday/Christmas Wish-list

Guess what? It's my birthday tomorrow! So I have probably left it a bit late to do this really, but what with Christmas coming up too, I thought I should put together a bit of a wish list.

1. Hello you lovely people! Door Mat 

Perhaps a rather strange thing to have on a wish list, but we still don't have any proper door mats in our house, and I have been keeping my eyes peeled for something a bit different. I think that this one from Ohh Deer is just lovely!

2. Hanging Terrarium 

I have always wanted a terrarium and this geometric one looks perfect! Although I have to say I do also like the ones with little people or animals in them too.

3. IPhone 4 Case 

The phone case for my poor iPhone is looking a bit worse for wear. I love the colour and the chevron pattern on this one from etsy!

4. Illamasqua 'I'mperfection Nail Polish 

Good quality nail varnish is always going to be a big hit with me. Especially something a little bit different like this speckled one from ASOS.

5. Bird Glass Tumbler 

We've got a bit of a shortage of glasses at our house, especially when we forget to do the washing up! I'd love some pretty patterned glasses like this gorgeous one from Cath Kidston.

6.Game of Thrones Retro Travel Posters

As you may be aware, I am quite a big fan of Game of Thrones, so I would be happy with GOT merchandise. But I do particularly love these retro travel posters featuring the important places in the book/show.

7. The Whisk Wasn't The Tallest Print 

Ever since I first set eyes on this print by Marc Johns, I knew it was destined for my kitchen. One day it will be mine!

Apparently tomorrow is not only my birthday, but also Christmas jumper day! A good excuse to get that festive jumper out I would say!

Laura xXx

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