Thursday 20 December 2012

Insta-Fortnight - My fortnight in photos.

Hi everyone!

I've been a busy bee recently so thought I would show you a few pictures from the last fortnight :)



Philosophy's gorgeous Christmas collection.




End of semester celebratory drinks at the Gallery Restaurant and Moet & Chandon Bar in Selfridges, Birmingham.


Dominos! Heaven.



I <3 wrapping presents! The 'Warning' photo is an awesome giftbag that I spotted in Tesco.


Eugh.

A blurry fettucine con pollo e spinachi - my favourite dish at Cucina Rustica, a little Italian restaurant in St Pauls Square, Birmingham.



Getting festive in Green trousers and my favourite Brown brogue boots from Topshop.


HOLIDAYS ARE COMING!



My christmas tree and a toasty warm fire <3


The best drink in the world.


Cocktails at The White Swan in Harborne. Mojito for the boyfriend and a British berries concoction shaken with Lemon and topped with Moet for me!


1am trip to McDonalds to cure cravings.


Not long now!

Ring and nail polish co-ordination.



Mid Christmas shopping break at the Soho Coffee Company.


Blurred winter beauty essentials.

5 sleeps everyone! xxx

Saturday 15 December 2012

Mini Haul

Hey everyone,

I thought I would show you a few things I have purchased over the last week. Nothing big, but worth a post :)




These goodies were picked up from the Bomb Cosmetics stand at the Clothes Show Live 2012. They came in a lucky dip bag which we managed to get for only five pounds as we were exhibitors and it was the end of the show. Bargain!



This is my first O.P.I nail polish, strictly speaking I'm a Nails Inc girl but I'm always willing to try something new!





This is a little something for my Mother's Christmas present, Lush is a one stop shop for christmas presents and I love their pre-wrapped gift sets! My mother loves Cath Kidston so this bath mitt accompanies the Lush set perfectly. As with all Cath Kidston products, the quality is amazing and the material is really thick and fluffy.


When I saw these mini candy canes, I couldn't resist buying them! My idea is to sellotape them onto my christmas card envelopes, for a unique and festive touch :-)

What do you think of these purchases? Do you have any good ideas for creative christmas cards?

xxx

Friday 14 December 2012

Stocking Filler Guide

11 Sleeps 'till Christmas !

I thought I would put together a little stocking guide for those stuck in a rut of buying sweets and travel sized cosmetics to go into stockings.


Gifts Featured

For anyone with an iPhone and a love of Ted Baker, this iPhone case is a must! Crafted from a beautiful 'Eudora Sequin' print with a Gold Ted Baker plaque, this makes a brilliant stocking filler. Find it here.

'Fun' by Lush is essentially play-doh for the bath! A product of a thousand uses, Fun really lives up to it's name. After pinching off a small part of the bar, it can be used as bubble bath, a shampoo, lathered up as shower gel or even crumbled to hand-wash clothes with. These cute bars come in five different colours and are priced at only £5.00 each.

Candy Canes are the key to any great stocking. Whether you prefer the real Peppermint sweets or Philosophy's sweet lipgloss version, these are essential for any well stuffed stocking.

A Christmas manicure in a bottle! At only £13.00, Nails Inc Magnetic Polish in Shaftesbury creates beautiful Emerald Green nails which turn into a 'swirly' effect when the magnetic lid is hovered over the nail.

All I can say is, Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Love Actually. Grab a copy here for only £3.00!

This fur headband is perfect for those freezing winter days, and would look great with the Barbour jacket featured in my Christmas Gift Guide in yesterday's post. The one I have chosen for this post is from Jack Wills, but I have also seen similar from ASOS and Debenhams.

For any Chocolate lovers... Charbonnel Et Walker are the cream of the crop. Beautifully packaged and absolutely delicious, you can buy these Dark Chocolate Rose and Violet truffles here.

I spent ages trying to track down the perfect 'H' initial necklace and along the way found so many which either look tacky or were horrendously expensive. Just as I was about to give up my search, I stumbled across this sterling Silver Jack Wills initial charm. Priced at £29.50 for the charm (you can pick up a silver necklace practically anywhere if you don't already have one), this is just the right size and looks great as an everyday staple necklace.

Lush's Snow Fairy Star Wand is a solid version of Lush's bestselling Snow Fairy shower gel, and at £4.99 makes a great stocking filler. Whirl this around a bath for a bubble paradise then re-use it again, again, and again.

That's all for my stocking filler guide, I hope you enjoyed reading it and it has possibly given you some good ideas or starting points?

I would love to know what is on your Christmas lists this year?

xxx

Thursday 13 December 2012

Christmas Gift Guide

With less than two weeks until Christmas remaining, you probably have most of your Christmas presents wrapped and under the tree by now. But in case you haven't, and are really struggling to find the perfect item for someone special, here's a little Christmas gift rundown for you..


Gifts featured

Philosophy bring out brilliant christmas scents every year, and their bubble bath is the best in the business. At £14.00 each, these a great gifts for friends or relatives and add a little festivity to bathtimes! Products featured are Eggnog and Candy Cane. (Psst. They're also currently on offer at £12.60 in Debehams!)

These Ted Baker Sawp heels are to die for! Made from leather with a pony hair finish, these purple platforms are perfect for the party season! 

Personally, I love darker lipstick in the winter as I find it brings some colour into my face and stops me looking so pale! In my gift guide I have chosen MAC Viva Glam lipstick in 'Viva Glam 1'. MAC lipsticks are amazing quality and reasonably affordable at £14.00.

Wouldn't everyone love to receive a Barbour jacket for Christmas? My favourites from their collection are the waxed jackets with the cordrouy collars. Have a peek here. These iconic jackets never go out of fashion, so buying one for a loved one at Christmastime is a great investment.

Nails Inc is in my opinion the best brand of nail polish on the market, and I think the deep teal shade Kensington is a great little stocking filler!

This hat by French Connection is most definitely going on my Christmas list! At only £39.99, this floppy versatile number comes in a great Mulberry shade and would look great with a trench coat and some boots. Available in either Black (currently on sale for £20.00) or Shiraz here.

Sticking with my love affair for Ted Baker, these cute Safire pumps have been updated for Christmastime, in new winter colours with glitter instead of patent bows. 

L'Occitane's hand cream set is priced at only £20.00, and I think it's funky packaging and trio of gorgeous smelling creams would make the ideal gift this christmas. Plus, it comes in a lovely rectangular box for those who do not like wrapping presents very much!

Narcisco Rodrigues 'For Her' has to be my all time favourite perfume. At £71.49 for 100ml, it definitely doesn't come cheap, but if you are willing to splurge a little for an extra special treat, this perfume is elegant and musky, and I'm yet to meet a girl who doesn't fall in love with it.

Yankee Candles make brilliant Christmas gifts, as they last for ages and produce the most amazing smells you can ever imagine. Unless you have time to burn the candle for around eight hours at a time, go for the medium size jar or the tumbler ones, to avoid hollowing the candle and wasting all of the wax. Yankee Candles are available here, and the one featured in this post is the gorgeously fresh 'Clean Cotton'.

Last but not least, we have this beautiful bandage dress by French Connection. This dress has become somewhat of a staple piece in the last year, and an almost replica to those of Herve Leger. At £115.00, this makes a perfect present for anyone wishing to make the most out of the party season.

Wednesday 12 December 2012

End of Term & The Clothes Show Live

So the last week for me has pretty much blurred into one, very long, very hectic day. Last Thursday I had my final year university Advertising pitch, and afterwards to celebrate the end of a gruelling semester of work, my friend invited me over for a selection of my favourite food and a few glasses of champagne. She's a good 'un!

We started with mini caeser salads, bread batons, garlic and truffle oil mushrooms and a caprese salad. Mains were formed of pancetta wrapped chicken breast and potato rostis, and dessert was a calorific triple chocolate mousse with strawberries and sinking silver edible balls. Mmmmmmm.






My weekend, if you can call it that, was spent working at the Clothes Show Live 2012. Held at the NEC in Birmingham, I quickly realised that the glitz and glamour of attending the Clothes Show was a stark contrast to actually working at the event. 7.30am starts, 7:30pm finishes, long days selling shoes and smiling to the general public when your feet and legs are screaming out at you to sit down are not the best!

The show finishes yesterday, so we chimed out the end with a few glasses of wine and an early bedtime!

xx


Saturday 8 December 2012

Sorry!

Hi guys, just a quick post to apologise for the absence of posts in the last few days! I'm currently working the Clothes Show Live in Birmingham, which means 5:30am starts and not getting home until after 8:30pm!

The show ends on Tuesday, and I'm sure by then I'll have lots and lots of photos to bring you all up to date!

xxx

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Glitter & Sparkle Nails


With the days getting duller and the evenings getting darker,  bright and sparkly nails are much needed to brighten up our days! I've had both of these nail polishes a little while now, but decided to dig them out the other day to get some sparkle on the go.

Both of these are reasonably cheap, but the Barry M glitter (£2.99) tends to wear off pretty quickly. The Jack Wills one (£6.00) however is as good quality as Nails Inc, and lasts about three days chip free.




I painted my nails with my usual Nails Inc Basil Street base coat, then one coat of the Jack Wills Blue. The Barry M takes a few coats to build up to full glitter, but once you have finished I think it looks great.

Do you love glitter nail polishes in the winter? Can you recommend any good ones I should try?


Hannah xxx

Monday 3 December 2012

Christmas!

Eeeek, it's that time of year again, the presents are getting wrapped, the advent calenders are slowly going down and the trees are going up. CHRISTMAS!

This is definitely my favourite time of the year, and this Saturday was no exception. The day started with a spot of Christmas shopping, before purchasing a brand new tree and fairy lights, digging out last years baubles and getting ready to put up the tree. I had the most perfect evening in, Chalet Girl on in the background with a Rekorderlig Winter Cider in one hand and copious amounts of wrapping paper and sellotape in the other.

As the days of December go on, the chocolate disappears from my advent calender and the presents mount up underneath the tree. 22 days to go!


 I got these brilliant embroidered stockings from a shop on eBay. They were a little smaller than I thought they would be - less room for stocking fillers :( - but nonetheless I think they're great. If anyone wants the link, please leave a comment below and I'll dig it out for you :)







Rekorderlig's winter cider is amazing! I would recommend it to anyone, I know they serve it warm in some bars but I'm not such a fan of warm drinks. If you're like me, pick up a bottle from your local supermarket and drink it chilled, it's like Christmas in a bottle.



Hannah xx

Saturday 1 December 2012

Asos Haul!

As you may or may not have seen in my previous post, I recently completed a series of challenges on Yourvine to win a £250.00 Asos voucher, and was lucky enough to be one of the 50 people to win the top prize! There were five challenges in total, and you had to complete each challenge successfully to pass onto the next stage. The first reward was a 20% discount code, which you could redeem by sharing one of the Asos 'bestnightever' campaign videos onto your facebook profile. The number of winners on each level decreases as you pass through the stages, resulting in a challenge of creating four giftlists for friends and family and submitting them before anyone else to win the £250.00 voucher.

Here's what I bought..

ASOS - Black Coat - £90.00

Mango Chunky Sweater - Black / White Sparkle - £22.99

Nails Inc - Magnetic Effect  'London Town' - £11.00 

Barry M - Rose Quartz Glitter - £2.99

ASOS - Sheer Navy Shirt - £30.00

ASOS - Skull Mosaic Print Top - £18.00

I bought a few other goodies for my boyfriend and friends. Unfortunately the Nails Inc polish had leaked by the time it was delivered so I'll be making to do with the Rose Quartz Glitter for now.

I'm undecided on the coat, it is a lot longer than I thought and almost goes past my knees. I'm thinking of swapping it for a Barbour waxed jacket and paying the extra. What do you think?

Hannah xxx


Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...