Blogmas 2024: Day 4 Christmas Book Recommendations

Hi guys ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿป

It’s Blogmas Day Four and it had to be all about books!!

What better way to start the festive month than with a brilliantly festive read to get you in the mood.

Here are a few Christmas book recommendations for you to read during this festive period ๐ŸŽ„๐Ÿ“š


I had to start off with these books… no festive period is complete without a Heidi Swain Christmas book. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without it now.

This year’s newest book is…

‘Home for Christmas’

But every one of her festive reads is worth diving into!

‘Mince Pies and Mistletoe at the Christmas Market’

‘Mince Pies and Mistletoe at the Christmas Market’ was the first ever Heidi Swain book that I read, and let’s just say I was hooked and have never looked back.

‘Snowflakes and Cinnamon Swirls at the Winter Wonderland’
‘Sleigh Rides and Silver Bells at the Christmas Fair’
‘The Christmas Wish List’
‘That Festive Feeling’
‘The Winter Garden’
‘Underneath the Christmas Tree’

They are feel good, festive, and full of friends that you’ll miss when you are finished.


Another great Christmas author is Sarah Morgan!

Her latest novel is…

‘The Christmas Cottage’

Her other novels include…

‘The Christmas Book Club’

I read ‘The Christmas Book Club’ last year and loved it.

‘The Christmas Sisters’
‘Snowed in For Christmas’
‘The Christmas Escape’

Some other Christmas reads that I would recommend are:

  • ‘Happy Bloody Christmas’ by Jo Middleton
  • ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens
  • ‘An Unfortunate Christmas Murder’ by Hannah Hendy
  • ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’ by Milly Johnson
  • ‘The Merry Christmas Project’ by Cathy Bramley
  • ‘Baby it’s Cold Outside’ by Emily Bell
  • ‘Finding Love At The Christmas Market’ by Jo Thomas.

Hopefully, there are enough suggestions there to keep you going throughout December and through to New years!

21 days until Christmas


Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

Blogmas 2024: Day 3 Decorating the Christmas Tree ๐ŸŽ„

Hi guys! ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿป

Here we are with day three of Blogmas 2024, and this one is a very festive one… putting up the Christmas tree.

This is a staple Blogmas post and I love snapping pictures of our lovely tree (Biased I know!) Plus there is nothing quite like a Christmas tree twinkling in your lounge to get you into the festive spirit.

Our Christmas tree colours are red, gold and green – very traditional. We also have some more personal ornaments, creations from my nephews and niece, sentimental ones from different years, and holidays etc.

I love getting all our decorations out each year and enjoying them and reminiscing whilst you hang them up. Me and my husband always decorate our main tree together.

Lets take a look!


The flat is feeling so festive and cosy now – I love it! Walking into the lounge just makes me smile (although it does take an age to turn all the different plugs on haha.)

Have you put your tree up yet? When do you traditionally do yours?

22 days to go.


Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

Blogmas 2024: Day 2 Advent Calendars

Hi guys! ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿป

Welcome to Blogmas Day Two. I thought we could kick it off with an advent (or many advents because apparently I have no self control) within an advent.

So, lets take a look at the different advent calendars that I have picked up for this fun, festive countdown.


Of course a chocolate advent calendar is a standard… my calendar of choice is of course a good old Cadbury Dairy Milk one. Delicious.

My lovely husband kindly bought me the Hotel Chocolat Hot Chocolate advent calendar. I may have dropped quite a few hints haha, but it was good all-round because he got it in a Black Friday deal, and he loves a bargain, so all’s well that ends well.

My twin sister very kindly made me a advent calendar, it cones with little Harry Potter themed boxes, one for each day, with little treats inside so I’m looking forward to opening that!

I also have my Harry Potter pop up advent calendar. I bought me and my twin sister one of these a few years ago and the cool thing is that each year you can reuse it! You never remember what each mini decoration you are going to get each day as you packed it up a year ago! Its a really beautiful advent calendar and such a cool idea.

and finally, I picked up a couple of mini advent calendars at a Christmas market that I went to. These are s sweet and I thought these would be fun to include too. One is a mini pop up advent calendar and one is a mini picture advent calendar.


I’m super luck to have these fun things to open each day just to add to the festivitiy.

What sort of advent calendar do you have?

Only 23 days to go!


Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

Blogmas 2024! Day One ๐ŸŽ„

Hi guys! ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿป

It’s that time of year guys, December has arrived and with it another month of festive blog posts – BLOGMAS 2024 IS HERE!!

For those of you who haven’t heard of ‘Blogmas’ before, its basically a blog post a day, every day, leading up to Christmas day. An advent of blog posts if you will. Very fun.

This is my 9th year of taking part in Blogmas and I am very much looking forward to sharing some of my festive plans with you, as well as some fun gift ideas, recipes and of course BOOKS.

So, if like me you love Christmas and all things Christmassy then stick around ๐Ÿ™‚


24 days until Christmas – Let the countdown begin.

Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

Halloween fun! ๐Ÿ‘ป๐Ÿฆ‡

Hi guys ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿป

I love Halloween! So I thought I would share with any of my fellow Halloween fans out there, what I’ve been up to this spooky season!

Let’s take a look…


What have you been up to this Spooky Season?

Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

Halloween ‘Boo baskets’ for kids ๐ŸŽƒ

Hi guys ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿป๐Ÿฆ‡

October is here and that can mean only one thing!!

Halloween ๐ŸŽƒ

I love a bit of Halloween, mainly because bats are my favourite animals, and it’s their time to shine, but also because I love a good horror film and I just love the spooky, autumn aesthetic.

Each year, I make a little Halloween hamper of sorts for my Nephews and Niece, and since the whole ‘Boo basket’ trend is going around, I thought I’d do my kids’ take on one…


Here they are!

Ideas for fun things to include…

Firm favourites with kids at the moment… slime! And fidget poppers. Both of these are only a few pounds in Tesco.

A cute little Halloween themed teddy. One of my nephews loves spiders, so I’m sure he will love that. Then I got the cute little pumpkin for my nievlce and the cute little frankie for my other nephew.

Some fun little cups which I’m sure they’ll get lots of use out of!

I also like to get them something to do or something crafty. These little ‘Paint your own wooden characters’ Halloween themed, of course, are from Asda for 2 (each pack has 2 characters inside!)

And finally…

Some edible goodies!

What’s Halloween without a sugar overload ๐Ÿ˜…๐Ÿคฃ

I picked up the good old classic Freddos from Tesco in a multipack, and the Halloween chocolate lollies are from Aldi.


Fingers crossed, they will enjoy these! Hopefully, this has given you some inspiration if you fancy putting one together, too.

Happy Halloween! ๐ŸŽƒ

Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

Favourite book of the month, 2024 edition

Hi guys ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿป

How is it already October!!!

Spooky season is upon us ๐ŸŽƒ


I thought I would share my favourite book from each month so far this year. There have been so many good ones. And who knows, you might even find some inspiration in my list!

Here goes…


January


Title: The Land of Stories: Worlds Collide

Author: Chris Colfer

Genre: Fantasy (Children’s)

Rating: โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ


February


Title: Remarkably Bright Creatures

Author: Shelby Van Pelt

Genre: Mystery

Rating: โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ


March


Title: Noone Saw A Thing

Author: Andrea Mara

Genre: Thriller

Rating: โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ


April


Title: Glutton

Author: Ed Gamble

Genre: Memoir

Rating: โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ


May


Title: Tattooist of Auschwitz

Author: Heather Morris

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ

&

Title: The Inmate

Author: Freida McFadden

Genre: Thriller

Rating: โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ


June


Title: The Housemaid Series1.

1. The Housemaid

2. The Housemaid’s secret

3. The Housemaid is watching

Author: Freida McFadden

Genre: Thriller

Rating: โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ


July


Title: The Dead Zone

Author: Stephen King

Genre: Science Fiction Thriller

Rating:โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ

&

Title: The Twins of Auschwitz

Author: Eva Mozes Kor

Genre: Historical, Autobiographical

Rating: โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ


August


Title: The Wilds

Author: Sarah Pearse

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Rating: โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ

&

Title: The Perfect Son

Author: Freida McFadden

Genre: Thriller

Rating: โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ


September


Title: Behind Closed Doorz

Author: B A Paris

Genre: Thriller

Rating: โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ


What’s been the best book that you’ve read so far this year?

All recommendations welcome!


Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

July Highlights โœจ๏ธ

Hi guys ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿป

Here are my July Highlights…


Lots of fun cinema trips! A Quiet Place Day One was a highlight for sure!


We celebrated my husbands 33rd birthday!

We had some birthday treats including listening to Rome Historian Mary Beard and A trip to the theatre to watch ‘Come from away’ both of which were brilliant.


We celebrated my nieces 7th birthday! ๐ŸŽˆ๐ŸŽ€๐Ÿ’œ


Lots of book buying this month, which is also a highlight. My reading in general has also been great, and I managed to read 7 again this month!! (I’m sure that won’t last into the busy last part of the year ๐Ÿคฃ)


Fun with my favourite two ๐Ÿ˜


And a bit of pre season watching โœŒ๐Ÿผ๐Ÿšœ


Roll on the Summer Hols โ˜€๏ธ

How was your July?


Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

Book Recommendations ๐Ÿ“š

Hi guys ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿป

Can you believe that we are actually halfway through the year!!?! Madness.

So far this year I have read ..

I’m hoping to get to 52 by the end of the year ๐Ÿคž๐Ÿป

I thought I would chuck a few recommendations out there based on what I’ve read so far.

These are some of the books I have read, and I’ll give them a little rating out of 5 for you.


‘The Housemaid’ by Freida McFadden

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ/5

‘The Housemaids Secret’ by Freida McFadden

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ/5

‘The Housemaid is Watching’ by Freida McFadden

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ/5

‘No One Saw a Thing’ by Andrea Mara

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ.5/5

‘The Holiday Escape’ by Heidi Swain

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ/5

‘The Tattooist of Auschwitz’ by Heather Morris

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ

‘The Inmate’ by Freida McFadden

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ/5

‘The Trap’ by Catherine Ryan Howard

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ.5/5

‘November 9th’ by Colleen Hoover

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ/5

‘None of this is true’by Lisa Jewell
โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ.5/5
‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’by Shelby Van Pelt

โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ.5/5


Have you read any of these?

If you do, let me know! & any recommendations always welcome.

Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚

A London day out โœจ๏ธ

Hi guys ๐Ÿ‘‹๐Ÿป

So at the beginning of June, we spent a weekend celebrating our anniversary! (See previous post) we decided to do something a bit different this year. We usually opt for a night’s stay somewhere, but instead, we planned a ‘touristy’ day out in one of our favourite cities, London.

Here’s what we got up to!


First up – The Tower of London

Next up – A boat on the Thames

Third stop – The London Eye

Next up – Some Sightseeing

Next up – Dinner

Our final stop – A Comedy Club


We had a lovely time! It was quite fun doing lots of touristy things that we hadn’t done before! These are some of the things I’ve wanted to do for ages but never got around to seeing.

These days out in London are great if you can grab a ‘London Day Out’ train ticket too! Much more affordable (only ยฃ20 each, bargain!)


What’s your favourite sight to see in London?

Until Next Time,

Roseanne ๐Ÿ™‚