Blogmas Day Seven: My Christmas tbr list 📚

Hi guys 👋🏼

As a self confessed book lover I thought I would share my Christmas tbr (to be read) list…. I thought it might offer a little inspiration if you are looking for something good to read this festive season.

Let’s have a look…


(Synopsis are from Amazon)

‘Carmen has always worked in her local department store. So, when the gorgeous old building closes its doors for good, she is more than a little lost.

When her sister, Sofia, mentions an opportunity in Edinburgh – a cute little bookshop, the spare room in her house – Carmen is reluctant, she was never very good at accepting help. But, short on options, she soon finds herself pulling into the snowy city just a month before Christmas.

What Sofia didn’t say is that the shop is on its last legs and that if Carmen can’t help turn things around before Christmas, the owner will be forced to sell. Privately, Sofia is sure it will take more than a miracle to save the store, but maybe this Christmas, Carmen might surprise them all… ‘


‘She’s snowed in with the family. The only problem? They’re not her family.

A family gathering
This Christmas the Miller siblings have one goal – to avoid their family’s well-meaning questions. Ross, Alice and Clemmie have secrets that they don’t intend to share, and they are relying on each other to deflect attention.

An uninvited guest
Lucy Clarke is facing a Christmas alone, and the prospect of losing her job – unless she can win a major piece of business from Ross Miller. She’ll deliver her proposal to his family home in the Scottish Highlands and then leave. After all, she wouldn’t want to intrude on the Miller’s perfect family Christmas.

A Christmas to remember
When Lucy appears on the Miller’s snow-covered doorstep, she is mistaken for Ross’s girlfriend. But by the time the confusion is cleared up, a storm has hit and Lucy is stuck. As everyone settles in for a snowed-in Christmas, tensions bubble to the surface and suddenly Lucy finds herself facing a big family fallout with a family that isn’t hers… ‘


‘Elderly widow Sabine knows this will be her last Christmas in her beloved home, Mitras Castle. Determined to make it just like the ones she remembers from her childhood, she employs Dido Jones of Heavenly Houseparties to help with the big day.

Dido is enchanted by the castle as soon as she steps through the imposing front door. And as Christmas day approaches, her feeling of connection to the old house runs deeper than she first thought.

But when the snow begins to fall and Sabine’s family arrive at the house – including Dido’s teenage crush Xan – tensions rise around the castle’s future and long-buried mysteries begin to unravel…

As past secrets come to light, can this still be a magical Christmas to remember?’


‘Maggie hasn’t told this story in years. More than two decades ago, she fell in love. She was sixteen and far from home, waiting to give her baby up for adoption. Bryce showed Maggie how to take photographs and he didn’t judge her for the way her belly swelled under her jumper. They had the perfect first kiss. Theirs was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of love.

Now, as Maggie sits by the Christmas tree in her gallery telling her story, surrounded by the photographs that made her famous – the photographs Bryce never saw – her new gallery assistant asks her a question. If she had one wish, what would she wish for this Christmas?

Maggie always thought she knew the answer to that question. But before she can say ‘I’d go back to that winter with Bryce’, she stops herself. It is all she has ever wanted but suddenly here, on this dark night under the twinkling stars, there is something else she wants. She wants to find her baby.’


‘It was supposed to be Christy Sullivan’s perfect Christmas escape – a dream trip to Lapland with her family and best friend, Alix. But facing a make-or-break marriage crisis, Christy desperately needs time alone with her husband, Seb. Her solution? Alix, along with Seb’s oldest friend, Zac, can take Christy’s daughter on the planned Lapland trip, and they will all reunite there for Christmas Day. After all, what are friends for?

There’s nothing Alix won’t do for Christy, but Christy’s plan to save Christmas is testing their friendship. Especially as Alix and Zac have a difficult history of their own.

As long-held secrets unravel, and unexpected romance shines under the Northern Lights, can Christy and Alix find the courage to fight for the relationships they really want? And could this Christmas escape save the precious gift of each other’s friendship? ‘


‘The first fall of snow can be fatal…
A year has passed since DI James Walker cracked his biggest case yet, and he’s hoping for peace and quiet this festive season.

But across the fells, a local farmer returns home on Christmas Eve to find footsteps in the fresh snow that lead down to his unused basement – and no footsteps leading away. Days later, his body is found, alongside those of his wife and daughter.

Without a neighbour for miles, there are no witnesses and little evidence. And the crime scene has strange echoes of another terrible murder committed at the farmhouse, twenty years earlier…

James knows that to catch this killer, he needs to solve a case that has long since gone cold…’


‘When Paige turns up unannounced at Wynthorpe Hall, she discovers the place she knew when she was growing up has changed beyond all recognition. She’s only planning to stay for a short time, but is quickly pulled into local life.
 
One night while driving home after delivering library books and shopping to residents she stumbles across an isolated cottage and meets Albert, its elderly and rather grumpy owner. She quickly realises there’s more to Albert than meets the eye and the same can be said for the other man she can’t seem to help running into, handsome but brooding Brodie.
 
All three of them have a secret and a desire to hide away from the world, but with Christmas on the horizon, is that really the best way to celebrate the season?’


Have you read any of these? 📚

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

18 days until Christmas!

Blogmas Day Six: Festive Cinema Trip 🎥

Hi guys 👋🏼

So yesterday me, my husband and my twin sister went to the cinema to see ‘Violent Night’.

It’s a new Christmas film featuring David Harbour (Hopper in ST) as Santa Claus.

Now don’t let the title put you off (because it almost did put me off) I am not a violence fan but it is more action film style violence than anything too uncomfortable. It’s also hilarious.

I really enjoyed the film. I was genuinely suprised at how much I enjoyed it as action is one of my least favourite Genresbut, as I said, it’s so funny with great characters, a good story and enough festive feels to get you into the spirit.

David Harbour is brilliant as Santa, he brings the perfect amounts of festivity, hilarity, menace and sweetness to the role.

I would definitely recommend going to see it as an alternative Christmas film to the conventional rom com ones.

And I would definitely watch it again.


Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

19 days until Christmas

Blogmas Day Five: The tree is up 🎄

Hi guys 👋🏼

So the tree and decorations are finally up!! 🙌🏼 and its starting to feel really festive up in here.

Let’s take a look.

Super festive ✨️


Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

20 days until Christmas

Blogmas Day Four: Christmas Decorations 🎄

Hi guys 👋🏼

The decorations are up! A little later than I would have liked but they are up now.

I especially love getting out our tree decorations, it’s so cool to see them again and all of the ones you’ve picked and the memories from over the years.

I thought I would share with you some of our special/significant decorations that go on our tree.


This is our souvenir decoration from our 2018 Holiday of a lifetime to Orlando, Florida. DisneyWorld was incredible.

From the same holiday, this is our Universal Studios souvenir decoration.

These decorations have been handmade by my Nephews and Niece so these are really special.

This one is a little homage to my childhood, of NEVER being able to find my name on any decoration/magnet/keyring – it was always ‘Rosie’ never ‘Roseanne’.

This pretty ‘Mr & Mrs’ decoration was given to us as a wedding gift, the year that we gor married (2016) so this is a nice momento of that significant year. Plus, the box was cute and had ‘Bestfriends for life, husband and wife’ written on it.

I bought this cute, personalised decoration at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, London, in 2019. I got this as a suprise gift for my husband. It also reminds me of the day out. Me and my Uni friends were celebrating having met 10 years previously.

It was a strange time but also pretty standout in terms of years of our life, so I got these personalised ‘COVID’ decos because you’ve gotta make the best of a bad thing.


Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

21 days until Christmas

Blogmas Day Three: My favourite Christmas Films 🎥

Hi guys 👋🏼

We are on Day Three already! Here are my favourite Christmss films to get you started for December.

It’s the weekend too so what better way to spend a cold (well here in the UK anyway) evening than watching a Christmss film.

So, here are some of my favourites…

Deck the Halls

A traditional, old school, slightly (& by slightly I mean very) tacky Christmas film, I love it.

Elf

I am elf, he is me. My spirit animal in all its festive glory – what’s not to love! It will make the child in you very happy.

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

One of the best Christmas characters ever – the film is hilarious and Jim Carrey plays the Grinch so well. Classic.

Nativity

I just find this hilarious because I am a TA in a primary school and its just pure, British Christmas chaos. Great songs too.

The Snowman

The top classic Christmas film of all time. Is it even Christmas if you don’t watch this film!?!

Last Christmas

A much newer addition but it’s a brilliant story and I LOVE that it’s all based around my favourite Christmas song ‘Last Christmas By Wham!’. It’s a very clever story and Emilia Clarke is brilliant.

Love Actually

This is such an easy to watch Christmas film, with lots going on (I still haven’t forgiven you Alan Rickman!!) Lots of great characters too.


What’s your favourite Christmas film??


Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

22 days until Christmas

Blogmas Day Two: Advent Calendars 📅 🎄

Hi guys! 👋🏼

Blogmas Day Two is here, December is under way! So let’s talk Advent Calendars.

Mines varies from year to year and I am a bit partial to a regular chocolate calendar – that scrunchy metal sound as you pop through the foil to get to the chocolatey goodness is just nostalgic happiness.

As a younger child I did also have a Material Santa Advent Calendar with pockets that my Mum would fill and those kinds are super cute too and perfect for picking exactly what you want in it.


Last year I picked up my own Material Advent Calendar… and its not just any Calendar, no! It’s a Harry Potter one – Amazing.

Epic!

I love the little Hogwarts Letter Pouches with Hedwig at the top, it’s like he is delivering me a little festive treat everyday!

My husband very kindly bought me some Dairy Milk (the elite chocolate) Heroes (the elite tubs of chocolate) to go inside it, so it was nice to come home to see it filled with treats.

And now we have 25 days of waking up and eating chocolate firsr things- what a dream!


What Advent Calendar do you have?


Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

23 Days Until Christmas!

Blogmas 2022 🎅🏻

Hi guys! 👋🏼

It’s that time of year again…

Yep, you guessed it… Blogmas is here!

This is something like my seventh year doing Blogmas and it is definitely a Christmas tradition over here at Roseannes Blog.


For anyone who doesn’t know, Blogmas is 25 festive themed Blog posts, one for every day of December leading up to the big day.

Exciting!!

So without further ado, let Blogmas 2022 begin.

Follow me on Instagram: @roseannesblog

And Twitter:

@RoseannesBlog

For more updates!


Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

24 Days Until Christmas

The 5,4,3,2,1 Book Challenge 📚

I saw this 5,4,3,2,1 challenge on Facebook and I thought it would be fun to give it a go… so here goes!

🌟5 books I love 🌟

  • Harry Potter (all of them!!)
  • To Kill a Mockingbird
  • The Midnight Library
  • Where the Crawdads Sing
  • The Hobbit

🌟4 Auto Buy Authors 🌟

  • Heidi Swain
  • Beth O’Leary
  • TM Logan
  • Giovanna Fletcher

🌟3 Favorite Genres 🌟

  • Thriller
  • Easy Reader (Domestic Fiction)
  • Fantasy

🌟2 places I love to read 🌟

  • In my lounge, in my reading corner.
  • Out and about, in a park/outside, my favourite coffee shop

🌟1 book I promise to read 🌟

  • Lord of The Rings

What would yours be?

Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 ✨️

Hi Guys!

So this weekend me and my husband went to the Stranger Things Experience.

I bought us tickets for Tim’s birthday in July and we have really been looking forward to it since.


We decided to dress up for the experience.

I dressed as Eddie Munson…

And Tim dressed as Dustin Henderson…


The experience was really cool and really well done. It genuinely felt like we took a little trip to Hawkins, Indiana and snuck around the lab.

The actors and everyone involved were really good and very authentic – some of them were a little too good at staying in character.


Once we had finished the experience we were free to go around the merch/eating/drinks area. The themeing was really cool and very well done. They had recreated lots of iconic Stranger Things ‘Sets’ and rooms to make your experience really immersive.

There was the Surfer Boys Pizza Van, Family Video, Scoops Ahoy and they even recreated the iconic living room of the Byers house, fairy lights and all.

As well as these there were smaller themed areas and sets that were themed around Hawkins high and the Roller Rink from Season 4.

I had to do a little Eddie Munson Redemption Photo…. 86′ baby!

There was some cool merch on offer too (although not as much as I thought there would be) and a Hellfire Club themed Merch area which was amazing.

There were lots of cool photo opportunities with sets and props as well as retro photobooths.

Photo bioth snaps

It’s a brilliant experience for any Stranger Things fans and I would definitely recommend it.

The only negative I can think of is that maybe the actual experience could have been a little longer. It’s a 45 minute experience but I think an hour would make it more worth the money.

And prehaps a little more specific merch for some of the main characters like Dustin, Steve and Eddie.

I did pick up some cool bits though, Inc some Hellfire bits and a cool poster for our picture wall.

Eddie & Dustin’s Day Out
My fave!

Like I said, I would definitely recommend it, it was a really fun afternoon out.


Have you been?

Who is your favourite Stranger Things character?


Until Next Time,

Roseanne 🙂

Book Review

Hey guys 👋🏼

Happy October!

Here is another book review from my monthly Book Club meeting.

I haven’t done one of these in a while as our meetings have been a bit different. Our July meeting was a trip to see ‘Where the crawdads sing’ as the book had been read at Book Club previously, and I have read it and loved it.

August/some of September was devoted to out next read, the one I will be talking about – ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest’.

We decided to go for a classic for August as we all expressed a wish to read more of them! So someone chose One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest.

If you have ever read it (or indeed any classics tbf) they are a bit harder to get into so we gave ourselves longer to read it, seeing us through August and most of September, meeting last week.

So, let’s get into it!


One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest

SYNOPSIS

‘In order to escape the prison labour, McMurphy, a Prisoner, fakes insanity and is shifted to the special ward for the mentally unstable. In this ward he must rise up against a cruel nurse, Ratched.’


THEMES

•Stigma and Mental Health

•Power

•Masculinity/Feminity

•Human Dignity


PROS

It’s a classic and it is always nice to add a few of them to your repertoire.

I really enjoyed the characters and found them to be very interesting, likable, endearing and charismatic – for me, they are one of the best bits of the book.

I also really like how thought provoking it is, in its themes and the way it conveys them through plot devices, imagery and the characters themselves.


CONS

It’s quite a slow burner, a slightly arduous start to the story and a story where ultimately not alot happens (considering the book is over 300 pages.)

It is also written in a very confusing way, sort of disjointed with A LOT of dialogue.

Also, the font is tiny. You feel as if you have read alot but haven’t got very far at all.

I also much prefer a book when there are short, clearly defined chapters – this one didn’t which was a shame!


Rating out of 5:

☆☆☆☆☆ (2.5)


Would you recommend it?

Y / N


Have you read this book? What are your thoughts? 💭