Category: Life

World Book Day 📚

As a child I always loved reading, but steadily, over the years it has grown to be my most favourite of hobbies.

And there is most definitly one book that I can attribute alot of that joy to…

As J.K Rowling so eloquently put it; ‘I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.’

Never has a story, characters, A LOCATION (because we all wanna be at Hogwarts, let’s be real) captured my imagine like the ones in Harry Potter.

…It’s the comfort of something you know so well… a constant, magical source of enjoyment, imagination, comfort and belonging that sometimes you can only get from immersing yourself in a wonderful story.

So, thanks J.K 👍🏻

& just remember; ‘The stories we love best do live in us forever, so whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.’ ⚡❤📚

So, if you havn’t recently, pick up a good book, go to your local library, start that one you’ve been meaning to for a while, read that childrens book they’ve asked you to read 100 times because you never know, it might just change your/their life… and if it doesnt you’ll still have a lovely time in the process.

Until next time,

Roseanne ⚡

by Categories: books, harry potter, LifeTags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The Body Shop Skincare 🧖🏼‍♀️

Something that I’ve wanted to address this year is my skincare.

I haven’t been very good at keeping on top of it, especially during the last half of 2019! But, I have finally got around to rectifying that.

I popped into The Body Shop as I have heard really good things about their skincare, I’m a big fan of the brand anyway, so I thought I would give them a try.

My skin has been quite dry recently so I was looking for something to add moisture, I was instantly drawn to their Vitamin E range.

With a bit of help (& thanks to a well timed 3 for 2 deal) I grabbed some bits from this and their Drops of Youth ranges.

Let’s take a look…

These are the two staples that I was looking for, a cream cleanser and a toner. Having these, at least, is a good shot at skincare (& your usual moisturiser of course)

As I said, I went for the Vitamin E range as this is great for adding moisture to your skin. Especially at this time of year, my skin is in much need of it.

I love that freshly cleansed feel with the added refreshment of a cold toner. It’s such a good feeling at the start of a new day and at the end of a long one!

& knowing you are adding moisture and comfort to your skin is great.

That’s why I also picked this up from that range…

This is their Vitamin E ‘Sink-in moisture sleeping mask’

This gives you an intense hydration boost to your skin, at night, which is when your skin needs that moisture and can take it in really well.

I must mention that this range is good for all skin types which is great 👍🏻

From their ‘Drops of youth’s’ range I picked up…

The ‘Youth liquid peel’ & ‘Youth Eye concentrate’.

The peel is very satisfying, as soon as you rub it onto your skin it starts to peel away the dead skin. It leaves your skin feeling super fresh.

The eye concentrate has a metal rollerball applicator which is so refreshing for under/around the eyes. It’s great if you wake up with puffy/sore eyes in the morning.

The final item that I got, as a little extra, since it was 3 for 2 (be rude not to) was their Himalayan charcoal purifying clay wash.

This is a lovely face wash that cleanses and purifies your skin. It also unclogs pores.

It leaves your skin feeling really clear, bright and much smoother.

This is a nice treat, to use every now and then, alongside the other products I picked up.

I am really enjoying using all of these products so far and I’m hoping my skin will thank me for it too… my skin is already feeling softer and my pores smoother.

Have you used any of these products?

What do you think?

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

by Categories: beauty, Life, skincare, UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Chocolate orange cupcakes!

Hey guys 👋🏻

So I haven’t done a recipe post for a while and what better way to start off a new year of baking than with these delights…

….chocolate orange cupcakes.I’ve used a BBC Good Food recipe because they always work out well for me.I slightly modified the recipe to make then orange as the recipe was for just plain chocolate cupcakes.Let’s take a look at the recipe. I’ll leave a link here and then you can see on the recipe below how I modified it.

•100g Plain Flour

•20g Cocoa Powder

•140g Caster Sugar

•1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

•40g Inslated Butter

•120ml milk

•1 egg

•Orange Extract

To decorate:

•Chocolate buttercream flavoured with melted chocolate orange or the orange extract.

•Chocolate orange segments

•Sprinkles

I hope you enjoyed this little recipe. Chocolate orange seems to be everywhere atm (I’m not complaining) so theres plenty of chocolate orange adornments to choose from.

I added sprinkles too because why not!!

I would usually use a piping bag but mine broke last time so I glhas to just spatula it on, so not quite a professional finish but so yummy.

Let me know if you give them a go .

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

by Categories: food, Life, UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

My reading challenge 2019: The final chapter 🎉📚

Hi guys 👋🏻

As you can see by the title, the final chapter of my 2019 reading challenge is here.

I cant believe its done! I am SO glad I managed to keep it up for the year and it has defonalty encouraged me to keep reading and making time for one of my favourite hobbies.

Here is my December read:

• The Christmas WishList by Heidi Swain

(It was a busy month!!)

And let’s take a look at all the books I’ve read this year for my challenge:

•Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian

•The face behind the mask: The Annie Graham series by Helen Phifer

• The Good Sisters by Helen Phifer

•Eve of Man by Giovanna & Tom Fletcher

•Dark House: The DCI Harwin series Book One) by Helen Phifer.

•The face behind the mask: The Annie Graham series (Book 6) by Helen Phifer.

•Dying breath: The DCI Harwin series (Book Two) by Helen Phifer.

•The couple next door by Shari Laperna.

•Summer at the Little Duck Pond cafe By Rosie Green

•Tell me I’m wrong By Adam Croft

•Spring at the little duck pond cafe (Book one) by Rosie Green

•Friend Request by Laura Marshall

•Poppy’s recipe for life by Heidi Swain

•The house across the street By Lesley Pearse

•All that she can see by Carrie Hope Fletcher

•The Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena

•Give me the child by Mel McGrath

•The Prison Doctor by Dr Amanda Brown

•Every breath by Nicholas Sparks

•The guilty party by Mel McGrath

•The beach wedding by Dorothy Koomson

•Full house by Maeve Binchy

•Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult

•Harry Potter and the Philosphers Stone (Audio book)

•The big little festival by Kellie Hailes

•The Husbands secret by Liane Moriarty

•A Christmas gift by Sue Moorcroft

•T’was the Nightshift before Christmas by Adam Kay

•A wedding in December by Sarah Morgan

•The Christmas Wishlist by Heidi Swain

[I’ve popped some of my faves in bold.]

So, what’s next years challenge??

I am going to continue making sure I enjoy, what is my favourite hobby, reading but I’m going to change the challenge up a bit.

Next year the challenge will be quarterly, I will read as many books as I can in each quarter, updating you every three months with what I’ve read and any I am planning on reading in the next quarter.

Here are some of the books I have collected/seen that I would like to start the year reading…

• The family upstairs by Lisa Jewell

• The Secret Seaside E0scape by Heidi Swain

• Last Christmas by Greg Wise

• The Christmas Sisters by Sarah Morgan

• The girl in the grave: The Beth Adam series Book 1 by Helen Phifer

• The girls in the lake: The Beth Adam’s series Book 2 by Helen Phifer

• The garden of lost and found by Harriet Evans

• The Little village Christmas by Sue Moorcroft

• Dying breath: The Lucy Harwin series Book 2 by Helen Phifer

• Last Light: The Lucy Harwin series Book 3 by Helen Phifer

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling

•Ps I Love You by Cecilia Ahern

• Postscript by Cecilia Ahern

• The Secret Santa by Trish Harnetiaux

Any recommendations are welcome!

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

by Categories: books, Life, UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Blogmas 2019 Day Twenty Five: Christmas Eve pt 2 🎄

Let me just start by saying Merry Christmas! I hope you all have the best christmas day with your loved ones. Eat, drink, be merry and care free.

Christmas eve pt 2

The evening

Here is the second half of our Christmas Eve adventures.

Our tradition, and one of my absolute favourites, is our Christmas lights tour of our home town.

We have usual hot spots that we visit each year but I also like to keep an eye out, in the few weeks leading up to Christmas, for any other lights that would be good to drive by.

My twin sister Sarah usually comes but she wasnt able to this time as she was working so my husband drove us, mum, and my two nephews around.

Once we had seen our share of lights we headed back to the boys house and gave them their Christmas eve boxes.

Once they had munched on some chocolate, it was time for Christmas PJs, setting up for Santa C and a festive bedtime story.

I got my two nephews and niece matching Christmas pjs, the same print but the boys were blue and Evie’s were pink.

They were lovely, and only £7 each from Asda.

I got them all a size up so they can have them for next year too.

All ready for Santa! 💙🎅🏻

Once the boys had listened to ‘The Night Before Christmas’ story and gone to sleep we settled down to have our Nachos and watch some Christmas tv.

We watched ‘Father Christmas’ and the Christmas Eve episode of Eastenders ready for tomorrow.

It was nice to chill after a fun but busy day!

& of course when I got home I had to get ready for Santa myself…

That’s it for another year of Blogmas, it goes by quicker every year!!

25 days, 25 festive posts, Done.

🎁🎄 Merry Christmas! 🎄🎁

Ho Ho Ho

Roseanne 🎅🏻

by Categories: Celebrations, christmas, LifeTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Blogmas 2019 Day Twenty Four: Christmas Eve pt 1 ☃️

This is where Christmas really starts. I definatly count this as one of the big ‘Christmas days’ inc Christmas day ans boxing day and any subsequent family Christmas days after these few days.

The day started off by having a Christmas Eve brunch with my sister and my niece Evie-Mae.

After brunch we had a look through Evies Christmas eve box…

(Blogmas 2019 Day 19: Christmas Eve Boxes )

Inside Evies box was a ‘Make your own Christmas Wreath’ kit.


Evie even created her own ‘Christmas Rhino’ to go on her wreath (you had to be there!)

It was good fun 😊

After all that craft we needed a treat… we tucked into some chocolate coins whilst watching Christmas Hey Duggee.

Yum yum, don’t tell Mummy!

Later on we made some cookies for Santa!

I think Santa is really going to enjoy them.

A lovely fun, festive start to Christmas Eve with my favourite little girly 💜

Now I have some baking and food prep to get started!

& its Christmas eve part 2 with my nephews.

I hope you are enjoying your Christmas eve! Don’t stress.

Ho Ho Ho

Roseanne 🎅🏻

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Blogmas 2019 Day Twenty Three: Christmas film night 📽🎄

It’s Christmas Eve Eve Everybody!

Last night we had a festive film night at my twin sisters house, perfect for getting you into the festive spirit. Plus, as you may have seen from my previous Blogmas post that I did a couple of days ago, I’ve made a list of the christmas films I want to get in before the end of the holiday season.

Christmas film list

We watched Elf first…

‘The film centres on Buddy, a human who was adopted and raised by Santa’s elves. He learns about this ans heads to New York City to meet his biological father while also spreading Christmas cheer in a world of cynics.’

Then we watched Home Alone…

‘The story follows eight year old Kevin McCallister who is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to Paris for their Christmas vacation. Kevin initially relishes being home alone, but soon he has two burglars to contend with.’

I’ve never actually watched this film properly, and all the way through so people were very insistent that I did this year. I did enjoy, it was an easy to watch film and Kevin is very sweet.

I wouldn’t say it’s one of my absolute faves but I would definatly watch it each year.

And of course, when you are watching christmas films, you need snacks!

I brought along I chocs from my Christmas stash…

After the films we played a game of Articulate. It’s a great game for the family and it’s a laugh too!

You’ll suprise yourself with some of the ridiculous things you say under pressure.

When I got home I finished all of my wrapping so I can fully enjoy the next few pre Christmas days!

2 days to go!

Ho Ho Ho

Roseanne 🎅🏻

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Blogmas 2019 Day Twenty Two: A Christmas Panto 🧞‍♂️

Every year me and my husband Tim go to our local theatres Rock N Roll panto.

It’s one of our Christmas traditions and we always look forward to it. We have been going for a few years now.

This year the panto was Aladdin.

It was an absolutely brilliant show, as always!

The set was my favourite so far. As you can see from the above picture, it was really well done. The panto was set in Shanghai and the set was so colourful with lanterns decorating the rest of the theatre.

The show was hilarious, one of the funniest yet! We were seriously laughing out loud alot during the first half.

We usually go earlier in December but it was really cool to go so close to Chrsitmas as it always makes me feel so festive and it was perfect for getting into a Christmassy mood.

It was a great evening together and one of my favourite traditions that we do together 😊

Ho Ho Ho

Roseanne 🎅🏻

by Categories: Celebrations, christmas, LifeTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Blogmas 2019: Day Nineteen Christmas Eve boxes

Hi guys!

So, of course Christmas day is the big day we all countdown to but I love Christmas eve and boxing day too.

Over the years we’ve added traditions to these days as I think they are just as good a day to celebrate as the 25th.

When my nephews, and now my niece too, came along I started a tradition of doing them a Christmas eve box each.

Its just a few little fun things but it really builds the Christmas excitement, the day before, and I like that it’s my little tradition that I do with them ♥️

So, what to put in a Christmas eve box?

In loads of supermarkets and shops in town they are now selling either ready made or empty ‘Christmas eve boxes’.

I like to fill mine myself as my nephews and niece are all different ages and I like to pick things that I know they would like.

I picked up the christmas boxes I’m using last year…

Places like Wilko, Card Factory, B&M,The Works, Tesco, Asda all have their own ones on offer.

What do you put in it?

Here’s what I have gone for this year…

(This is the content of my nieces box, she is two and a half years old, but it’s not particularly girly, my nephews have got pretty much the same.) I will add some extra ideas at the end too.

A Christmassy story.

I love books and I think its so important to get children interested in reading. My Niece loves books so I got her this Christmas classic.

Christmas Arts & crafts

I love popping something fun in, and it gives you something arty to do on Christmas eve, to keep the little ones occupied.

I got my niece this little ‘Make your own wreath set’ she has her own little tree this year that she loves so I thought she would like her own Christmas wreath to hang too.

Chocolate coins

A christmas classic item and a nice little treat.

Some cute little Christmas bath puppets (although they don’t have to just be used in the bath!)

My niece loves a bath so I thought she would enjoy these in general, but also on Christmas eve when she is getting all cosy and ready for bed.

Christmas pjs/new pjs

And on the same cosy theme I got her some new festive pjs to pop on after her bath. I went for these super cute festive ones from Asda. I loved the print and they had ones you could get for different ages to match.

I got my nephews the blue versions so they are all going to be matching, super cute!!!!

A Christmas decoration

I saw these cute little decorations when I was shopping in Wilkinsons (Check out more of their collection here.

I picked up a cheeky elf one for my niece. They also had a santa, a snowman and a reindeer.

Cookies for Santa

I thought that these were a lovely way of adding to the age old tradition of leaving Santa a snack on Christmas eve.

This is a really simple cookie making set and then you get a few festive bits to decorate them.

Again, I thought this would be fun and a great way to get them into the festive spirit and keep then occupied on Christmas eve.

I thought I would also include this as they are super cute and great for kids. I have previously bought these for my nephews but as this is the year my niece will really be having a proper Christmas dinner I thought it was time she had one too!

So cute and super fun!

Other ideas:

•Christmas activity books

•Christmas sticker books

•Cosy socks

•Hot chocolate

•A little Christmas teddy

• A pack of Reindeer food

• A selection box

• A Christmas top or Jumper

•A Christmas card game

•A Christmas plate for Santa

Ho Ho Ho

Roseanne 🎅🏻

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