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 🙂
24 days until Christmas – Let the countdown begin.
October is here and that can mean only one thing!!
Halloween 🎃
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 😅🤣
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.
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: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
February
Title: Remarkably Bright Creatures
Author: Shelby Van Pelt
Genre: Mystery
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
March
Title: Noone Saw A Thing
Author: Andrea Mara
Genre: Thriller
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
April
Title: Glutton
Author: Ed Gamble
Genre: Memoir
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
May
Title: Tattooist of Auschwitz
Author: Heather Morris
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
&
Title: The Inmate
Author: Freida McFadden
Genre: Thriller
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
June
Title: The Housemaid Series1.
1. The Housemaid
2. The Housemaid’s secret
3. The Housemaid is watching
Author: Freida McFadden
Genre: Thriller
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
July
Title: The Dead Zone
Author: Stephen King
Genre: Science Fiction Thriller
Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
&
Title: The Twins of Auschwitz
Author: Eva Mozes Kor
Genre: Historical, Autobiographical
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
August
Title: The Wilds
Author: Sarah Pearse
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
&
Title: The Perfect Son
Author: Freida McFadden
Genre: Thriller
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
September
Title: Behind Closed Doorz
Author: B A Paris
Genre: Thriller
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
What’s been the best book that you’ve read so far this year?
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 £20 each, bargain!)
Me, my twin sister and her family, my husband, and a couple of our friends went to the Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour in Watford. This place is BRILLIANT, a must for any Harry Potter fans, I love visiting there. They had the ‘Return to Azkaban’ event on celebrating 20 years of the 3rd film – it was an awesome day out, and great to see some new parts of the tour.We celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary on the 11th of June. Tim bought me some beautiful flowers, and we went out for a lovely meal at one of our favourite Italian restaurants. To celebrate our 8th Wedding Anniversary me and my husband spent a touristy day out together in London. We started off the day at the Tower of London, we then had a boat rode on the Thames, followed by the London Eye, sightseeing, and a comedy show in the evening. It was a brilliant and super fun day out. For Fathers Day, we went to Felixstowe for a day in the sunshine. We had a nice walk along the prom and a go on the ferris wheel with Dad.We enjoyed dinner at ours, a nice sunset walk and games with my mother in law.We celebrated my Dad’s 70th birthday with a family meal, with the cake I made for dessert… followed by a day on the Mid Norfolk railway 🛤
A few weeks ago it was mine and my twin sisters’ 33rd birthday – woohoo! It actually fell on a Sunday which was the day we were actually born.
Here is how we spent our birthday weekend…
Saturday
We started off the Saturday with a delicious lunch at Revs. The sun was shining big time.
Me & Sarah (along with my husband Tim) met our friend Dan there.
Me & Sarah shared some delicious picky bits. The tater tots with garlic & chilli butter were INSANE. I was really impressed with all of the food and I’d love to go back.
We also had a bit of fun taking some photos in the photobooth ✌🏼
Once Tim and Dan had gone home me and Sarah went to Boom Battle Bar. We had a round of Mini Golf and did a spot of basketball on the machines. We each had a frozen cocktail each to round off the afternoon.
We picked up some smaller picky bits on our way home from town and ate those before having a nap (because, sun ☀️) and then went to the cinema. We watched ‘Fall Guy’ (with Tim too!) It was really good.
Sunday
Sunday was our actual birthday, so we decided to meet up for a nice brunch and do our usual present exchange together. We went to this lovely brunch spot along the waterfront – again, the sun was shining beautifully (we got very lucky with the weather!!)
Delicious!
Once we had eaten, our respective families got together at our Mum and Dad’s to open our presents from them.
Me & Sarah also got a little spontaneous birthday present for ourselves (pic below) 🙃
In the evening we enjoyed a nice family meal together with our older Sister, Mum, Dad, Brother in laws, Nephews, and Niece.
Here’s to year 34! Let’s see what it will bring 🎈⭐️
An absolutely unbelievable weekend, one we’ll never forget.
I can’t wait for the football season to start up again!
Our Birthday!
We had a fun birthday weekend celebrating together. We grabbed lunch and spent the day hanging out together on Saturday. Delicious picky bits at Revs in the sunshine, mini golf, cocktails, and the cinema.
On our birthday, on the Sunday we had a delicious brunch together, exchanged our presents, spent time with family and had a birthday meal with cake to round off the weekend.
Oh… and we may have got a matching tattoo on our birthday as well 👀
We enjoyed a bottomless brunch in the sunshine 🌞 followed by some fun and games at a local bar, including interactive darts & karaoke.
A lovely family holiday to Norfolk.
We stayed in a lovely air bnb cottage in Norfolk. We went along with my mother in law, brother in law, my husbands Auntie, Cousin, and Grandad. We had a lovely time chilling out, cooking together, exploring nearby towns and Norwich City, walks (weather permitting), and we even hired a boat, which was a highlight!
& I saw some bats, which was epic.
Going to see Take That live!
I will always love seeing Take That live! No one does it better. I can’t believe that this was the 7th time I’ve seen them love!!
Another fun month! And we are almost halfway through the year!!! Madness.
I thought I would share some cool little bookish things that I recently bought.
They are just some fun, useful little bits that are perfect if you are a bookworm like me!
Let’s take a look!
A cute ‘Welcome to the library’ sign to go by the reading corner.A reading light that sits across the page of your book.Fun little reading lists to keep a track of the books you’ve read and your rating for each one.A coin that says ‘One more chapter’ on one side and ‘Go to bed’ on the otherside. I’m pretty sure it’s weightless to the ‘One more chapter side’ 🤣Some cute little book inspired stickers.
