pretty presents

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas! It's been so nice spending the last few days relaxing with the family, and if I'm honest I've been spoilt rotten!
I love giving presents even more than I love receiving them... this year I decided to go for minimalist wrapping with plain brown paper and cute ribbon that I found in Copenhagen.



Me and my family all agree that it's nicer to buy lots of little presents, and this year I got some gorgeous little bits and pieces.
More new PJs, which believe it or not are from Primark like the previous pair I posted about last month- I love the prints!



I think one of my favourite gifts this year was this 1947 copy of Good Housekeeping and these vintage Limoges pieces- a needlebox and miniature perfume bottles in their own little basket.







Homemade peppermint marshmallows ♥



Hot chocolate with an iceberg of peppermint marshmallow



So now all the commotion of Christmas is over, it seems just about time to start stressing about plans for New Year.. do you have your plans sorted yet? I'm looking forward to having a few chilled out days to catch up on my reading - and by that I mean blogs and books!

may your days be merry..

I always love getting dressed up on Christmas day. I don't have a particularly big family, and in fact we don't really do anything special, but it's still nice to put on something new. This year I was tempted by the wide array of festive jumpers until this little number caught my eye, so as you can see I'm opting for the Christmas skirt instead...



Despite being stuck at work all afternoon, I came straight home to a house of baking...




With my Mam cooking mince pies I decided to try out a recipe a Martha Stewart recipe I'd spotted on Cupcakes & Cashmere for peppermint marshmallows. So the mince pies are now waiting to be iced, the marshmallows are busy setting and now I NEED to start wrapping my Christmas presents..




And I know it's cheating but I wanted to share photos of my little treat from J, a vintage trifle case filled with treats (she knows me so well.. note the pastel nail polish and chocolates!)






Hope you all have a brilliant Christmas!

please have snow and mistletoe, and presents under the tree..

Sunday skating

Having went to review a mate's band, The Sons of Bido Lito, in Sunderland last night, my Sunday was spent mildly hungover for the most part. What better way to cure a hangover though than catching up on gossip over gingerbread lattes and ice skating?





p.s apologies for shoddy iphone photos..
p.p.s I didn't think you could see my new boots very well on the last post so I thought I'd take a better photo of them..

sheepskin coat: vintage, jumper: H&M, shorts: Topshop, boots: Urban Outfitters, bag: vintage, mittens: Primark

A few things that have made me smile..

First snow of December, new boots (courtesy of the new Urban Outfitters in Newcastle), black velvet ribbon in my hair, and we finally got our Christmas tree!



jumper: Topshop, shirt: Warehouse, skirt: H&M, boots: Urban Outfitters

with a smile and a ribbon in my hair

So one of the many things I decided to treat myself to today was some velvet ribbon to wear in my hair, inspired by Julie Christie in Dr Zhivago and Brigitte Bardot, and Valentino's AW 11 shows. Couldn't choose between red or black so I decided to get both.










Spent the day in Newcastle with one of my lovely ladies, eating Mexican, gossiping and overspending in the new Urban Outfitters store. WHY has it taken them so long to open one up here?? I'll fully admit the purpose of the shopping trip was to finish off my Christmas shopping but I ended up buying mainly presents for myself. (More photos of aforementioned purchases tomorrow.) It was so festive today in the city with NE1 screening White Christmas on Grey Street, although there was far too much shopping to be done to sit around watching films...

catching up

Ok so first thing's first, I promised a spy of the Bond girl outfits...



Needless to say we weren't too imaginative and all just opted for pretty dresses.. mine was a fairly simple number from Motel that I paired with some nude mary janes from Topshop, these are the only two surviving photos I'm afraid. It's probably for the best though because when you're getting vouchers for drinks instead of having to pay, things end up quite messy...

Anyway, I've been very neglectful this weekend but what with work parties and catch-ups I feel like I haven't had a chance to sit down! I spent Sunday in York with the family for the festival of angels, enjoying the ice sculptures and having a festive day out.

Licence to thrill

Tonight is my work Christmas party, and guess what the theme is...





















I don't have an accurate costume but I do have a cute Bond girl inspired dress picked out, more pics to follow..

bloggers, buttons, html & headaches

Ok so I've been having some HTML headaches at the moment with my button... any of you who grabbed it before now will you please repost with the HTML code now displayed to the right... this one should work!!


Apologies!


Ps. if you want me to display your blog button feel free to get in touch!

P.p.s thank you to the lovely Sarah for pointing out the broken button!

Christmas carols and Cotton Love

As I told you yesterday my parcel from Cotton Love..








It was so cold today, so perfect weather for debuting my new hat! Now I'm feeling even more festive after spending the day volunteering at the nursery where my Mam works. The kids were performing Christmas carols for pensioners at the community centre and I was responsible for helping to supervise their walk down. It was a lovely day and I felt so proud of them. One little girl, even sang Away In A Manger by herself, so cute! And so brave for a four year old.


hat: Cotton Love, coat: vintage, scarf: H&M, jumper: Topshop

attention to detail

Today is my last French lesson until the new year so I figured I would commemorate it with a Parisian style outfit complete with a Chanel inspired jumper and leopard print beret.





Thank you to everyone who replied with suggestions of presents for my brothers! I'm heading into Newcastle early today to try and finish my Christmas shopping and catch up with one of my favourite ladies over coffee and cake.

p.s my parcel just arrived from Cotton Love, promise I'll post photos tomorrow!

p.p.s yayy 101 followers!! I bloody love you lot!

jumper: Topshop, hat: Topshop, watch: Michael Kors
brogues: Topshop, lipstick: Dior Rose Basier, nail polish: Nails Inc Basil Street