Tag: 25 days of Blogmas

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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Blogmas 2019 Day Eighteen: Affordable Christmas decorations 🎅🏻

If you want to do Christmas on a budget, because let’s be honest, although we love the frills it’s all about the quality time, kindness and love that we share with our friends and family. Those are the things we remember.

But, that being said, I bloody love the decs! So heres a way to go full Christmas without breaking the bank, and we have Wilko to thank for it with their beautiful but incredibly reasonable Christmas decoration ranges.

I literally couldn’t choose between the cute tree decorations in this range (as it fits our Red, Gold & Green).

They would also make lovely gifts.

Alpine range

Polar Bear, £3

Wooden star tree, £3

Green metal tree, £2

Packs of 3 baubles, £4

Gingerbread biscuit car decoration, £1

Tree star topper, £2

Packs of plain coloured baubles, from £1

They have loads of different ones in different variety packs and sizes.

Sacks, £6 Stockings, £4

Pom Pom Garland, £1

Pom Pom Garland with bells, £6

Large bells silver and red, £1

I love this collection and it is one of a few that they have.

This one fits in perfectly with our red/gold/green theme.

They also have a icy collection that is lots of whites, silvers and blues, as well as a gold collection and a rose gold collection.

I have bought a few things from the alpine collection (I couldn’t resist!!) I also picked up a couple of the polar bears as I thought these were super cute and would be quite generic for any tree.

I’ve personalised these, with the year, to go into a few hampers that I’ve put together for family members.

ONE WEEK UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!

Ho Ho Ho

Roseanne 🎅🏻

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Blogmas 2019 Day Seventeen: Mini Mince Pies.

Hi guys!

I thought it was time for another recipe as I’ve only done one so far this festive blogmas season.

Check that out: Pretzel Reindeer treats

Plus, the mince pie obsession has well and truly returned.

So, I thought I would have a go at making my own mini ones. These are Perfect for a little treat.

These are super easy and super quick!

What you will need:

•Jar of mince meat

•Shortcrust ready roll pastry (Chilled)•Small circle cutter•Small star cutter•Low cal spray•Baking tray•Parchment paper

Optional Extra:

Caramel

What you will need to do:

•Line your baking tray with the parchment paper.

•Pre heat your oven to 180° C

•Lay out your pastry and cut into two.

•Use half of the pastry to cut out your circle bases and half with stars for the tops.

•Place the circles into the baking tray with a little space between them.

•Spoon a generous amount of mince meat into the centre of each circle.

•Optional: Top the mince meat with your extra flavouring (Terry’s choc orange segment or blob of caramel)

•Lift up the edges of the circles a little so that when they cook the mince meat doesnt all pour out.

•Top with one of your cut out pastry stars.

•Spray with your low cal spray/egg wash/milk. Anything that will give it that lovely golden brown finish.

• Pop into the oven until they are golden brown.

•Enjoy warm or cold.

The cool thing is I made these for my husband to take to work as part of his bake off competition and we won!! Whoop whoop 🙌🏻🙌🏻 Bake off winners.

So, they are definatly worth a try.

Let me know if you have a go at making these or if you make any other Christmassy treats.

8 days until Christmas 🎄

Ho Ho Ho

Roseanne 🎅🏻

by Categories: Celebrations, christmas, food, UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Blogmas 2019 Day Sixteen: Christmas stocking gift guide: For adults 🎅🏻

I’m sorry, I don’t care what anybody says, you are NEVER too old for a stocking.

So, if you are making one for your older children/partner or even yourself! Then hopefully these ideas are helpful.

I did a childrens edition earlier on on Blogmas, this year so I will leave that here .

I will also leave below the link to my stocking guide from last years Blogmas. That one is a more general guide to stockings and my top 5 categories to include, instead of specific gift ideas.

Stocking guide

Let’s get started!

Edible items

A Chocolate orange, all supermarkets
Try and look out for when they are on offer.

I think are currently half price in Tesco.

Chocolate coins, Wilko, 50p

Chocolate Santas, £1

Personalised toblerone, prezzybox £12.99

Available in milk and white.

Or any of their favourite chocolates or sweets.

Games

Dobble, Amazon,15.99 or Original Dobble, £8.99

Mini Poker set, Primark £4

Assorted Christmas quiz card games, Amazon from £3.99

Retro pocket games with LCD screen, Prezzybox £14.99

Books

Either a nice Christmassy book or a book you think they could get stuck into in the New Year.

I love reading an I think a book is a perfect gift, and fits well in a stocking.

Adult colouring books, Waterstones from £7.99

Give the gift of calm! These are perfect for taking a few moments to yourself.

100 books scratch off poster, Prezzybox £11.99

This is s really cool idea and great if you find it hard to choose a book!

A4 Notebooks, Paperchase from £8

They have loads of super cute notebooks in Paperchase. It is absolute stationary heaven so it is definatly a shop worth looking at if you are making a stocking for a stationary lover.

They come in loads of different sizes too, A4, A5 & A6.

Notebooks, Wilko from £3 depending on the size.

They do some really cute designs as well as lots of different sizes of notebook, to choose from.

They also do plain jotter style notebooks for £3 which you could customise for the person you are giving it to, or even print of a picture and pop that on the front to personalise it.

Magnets, Paperchase £3

I love these super sassy, super relatable adult magnets.They sum up adulthood perfectly.

Postcards, Paperchase 80p each

These are so cool. I love popping in there to see what different ones they have. These are perfect as ‘mini prints’ to gift someone. You could even frame one or two, or just pop a few that you think they would like into an envelope.

Pamper products

Face/hair/eye masks, Primark

They do absolutely loads of different masks to help hydrate, cleanse and freshen up your skin.

These are super cheap and work really well (I’ve used them myself!) They make a great stocking filler and everyone deserves a little pamper every now and then!

Lush Festive bath bombs, from £3.95

They have got some amazing bath bombs in their festive Christmas collection this year.

I love a bath and these festive treats would make a great addition to a stocking.

The festive ones are super cute too. My personal fave so far is the ‘Not so secret Santa’ bath bomb.

Its a snowball with santa arms and legs sticking out like he has been caught by a rolling snowball. It smells amazing, sweet with notes of citrus and sherbet. Plus, its one of the more reasonably priced ones at £3.95.

Bath Bombs, Wilko £1

The Body Shop, from £6

The Body Shop have some really cool pamper bits available in store and online. They even have a ‘stocking fillers’ section which has some great sets from little hand creams with a nail files, their ‘Delights bags’ where you get 3 or 4 little bits and their body butters too. I’ll leave a link because its definatly worth checking out.

The Body Shop ‘Stocking Fillers’

Lynx Gift sets, Amazon £9

Superdry Trio of scents, Superdrug £10

Beard buddy shaving apron, Online from £9.99

I’ve bought one of these for my husband (exciting haha) but needed! Very handy for all that beard maintenance.

Initial wash bag, Matalan £4

Accessories

Statement earrings, Primark from £2

These are lovely and are really reasonably priced too. Great for a stocking to add to your Christmas day outfit.

Funky socks, River Island £3

‘Festive Feast’ beard baubles, Rover Island £8

These are a bit of a silly one, but I’m sure they would be a good laugh for any bearded family members this Christmas!

Scarves, Dorothy Perkins £15.40

Gadgets

Wireless touch speaker, Prezzybox £17.99

Pink wireless fast charger, Primark £12

(Available in other colours)

Wireless earpod headphones, Matalan £30

Other

Christmas candle 3 pack, Primark £5

Various Christmas decorations inc Disney/Dr Seuss/Harry Potter, Primark from £3

Pjs! Matalan, from £12.50

Because who doesn’t love new pjs?! Especially at Christmas. Plus, something cosy is a vital part of any stocking.

So, that’s my little (hopefully) helpful stocking filler gift guide for adults! I’ve tried to cater to both men and women.

I know the struggle of trying to think of interesting bits for a man’s stocking!!

Thanks for reading 😊

9 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS !!!!!!!!!

Ho Ho Ho

Roseanne 🎅🏻

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Blogmas 2019 Day Fifteen: Visiting Winter Wonderland ❄

I’m in London all weekend so I thought I would share all of my festive activities with you guys.

Today, after staying up in London with one of my Uni friends (See yesterdays post for what I got up to in London yesterday ~ Blogmas Day 14 we met up with another of our uni friends and went to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park.

I’ve been a couple of times before but not for at least two or three years, so it was nice to get the opportunity to go again and see what’s changed and have a nice festive day out.

At Winter Wonderland it is free to get in and have a look around.

There are lots of stalls, food places, craft, hot chocolate, snacks, beer and rides to go on (at extra cost)

But, if you want to, before you go you can book onto some of their other experiences that they have on offer, such as Ice skating, a big wheel, ice bar with ice sculptures and shows such as the circus.

When I have been with friends previously we have booked onto the ice bar, some of the shows and the big wheel.

This time, as we have kiddies with us too, we thought it would be nice to just have a look around, instead of booking the big things.

It’s a lovely festive day out so it’s nice that you dont necessarily have to pay extra for all the other things, but you can if you want to.

I’m not sure whether you can book on the day, it might just depend on availability.

Let’s take a look….

Such a fun, festive day out!

10 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!!

Ho Ho Ho

Roseanne 🎅🏻

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Blogmas 2019 Day Fourteen: Festive FriendsFest ☂️

Festive Friendsfest

Today was such a fun day out with some of my work friends. We booked it a while ago but it seems to have come round so quickly!!

We went to Friendfest, the festive version in London, near Brick Lane.

I absolutely LOVE Friends and have previously been to the original Friends Fest with my sisters in Milton Keynes, in the summer.

Check that out here

I didn’t know what to expect from the festive version, maybe just a few Christmas decorations, but it didn’t disappoint.

The enchnacements and extras from the original one were really cool so it really didn’t matter that 3 of the 4 of us had been to the original Friends fest.

Let’s take a look…

Rachel & Monica’s Apartment

Chandler & Joey’s apartment

Central Perk

Recreating Festive scenes

‘I’m the Holiday Armadillo!!’

Food

We didn’t eat at Friendsfest last time so it was good to try some bits.

They had a very festive chocolate orange hot chocolate on offer, it was amazing. It had whipped cream and mini choc orange segments on top!! So good.

We got Joey’s pizza for lunch which was super delicious (& I had the Joey special!!!) Because it was too good to just get one piece.

It was so much fun!

The festive extras were brilliant and it really got us all into the festive spirit.

Feelin’ super christmassy now.

11 days until Christmas 🎄

Ho Ho Ho

Roseanne 🎅🏻

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Blogmas 2019 Day Thirteen: Festive make up picks 💄

At this time of year its Christmas parties galore, so I thought that I would put together a few of my make up favourites for the festive period.

Highlighter

This is my favourite make up item. Highlighter is perfect to add a seasonal sparkle and its so pretty!!!

A couple that I use, for going out, as they are super sparkly and a little glittery (a bit much for everyday) are:

Barry m liquid chrome highlighter drops liquid fortune

Barry M Liquid chrome

Revolution liquid highlighter liquid champagne

Revolution liquid highlighter

Face

One of my ultimate favourite products is Charlotte Tillbury’s HollyWood Flawless filter

This product is great for all occasions. It’s very light and just brightens the skin and gives you a lovely glow.

Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Flawless filter

Eyes

A smoky eye with a little black dress can be awesome for a work do, especially with a statement lip.

But if like me, you like a bit of sparkle (and you suck at creating ‘Smoky eyes’!!) then I’d go for a gold eye look.

I actually use one of my favourite highlighters all across the lid for a quick eye shadow.

Tanya Burr Cosmetics Highligher (Discontinued)

This colour looks lovely all over the lid.

These little eye shadow pots by Maybelline are also brilliant for creating a shimmery but speedy eye look.

Lips

I love a Christmassy red lip! Especially for a Christmas party.

Most drug stores do a red lip in their collections and they are usually very reasonably priced too.

A red lip that I bought on the highstreet recently and that defied my expectations is by Essence (Wilkinson’s) called ‘Craving you.’

& finally, one of my favourite bits…

Nails

I got my Christmassy nails ready for my work do this evening. I went for gels and had to go sparkly.

I did an undercoat for both of these glitters and then went for red with a gold accent nail.

I love them ❤

What are your beauty faves at Christmas time ?

12 days until Christmas 🎄

Ho Ho Ho

Roseanne 🎅🏻

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Blogmas Day Twelve: Advent Calender update 🎅🏻

So as you may (or may not) have seen from my first Blogmas post of 2019 ~ Blogmas Day One I have the Lego Harry Potter advent calendar (such a child I know, but Lego is awesome and so is Harry Potter SO THERE!!)

I thought I would do a little update on how the Christmas scene is progressing and show you some of the bits you get.

It is really cool.

Behind each window is either a figure or a part to the Hogwarts Winter Christmas Scene.

Let’s take a look!

The scenes coming on well so far…

There is an exterior part and an interior part.

My favourite bit to build so far was the mini Hogwarts express.

It’s so clever how they’ve made all the different bits, especially the snow covered Christmas trees!

I love all the little details, like the food, goblets and candles for the house tables. The house banners are really cool, I’m hoping you get one for each house!

I also really like that Harry and Ron are in their Weasley Christmas jumpers.

What advent calender do you have?

Ho Ho Ho

Roseanne 🎅🏻

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Blogmas 2019 Day Eleven: DIY Christmas wreath workshop

Me and my friend went to a wreath making workshop this year. We did it in November in order to get the most out of our wreaths.

These were made with real fresh foliage and they were really fun to make.

The workshop was only with three others so five of us in total which gave it a nice relaxed atmosphere.

The lady who tan the workshop was lovely and very helpful and attentive.

We even got chocolate cake and cups of tea whilst we were creating our wreaths, always a winner when cakes involved.

You started by preparing your wreaths ring, then you added your large foliage as you desired. We had lots of different ones to choose from (I would love to tell you what they were but I’m no gardener haha) I did recognize the holly of course!

As extras we had pine cones, holly berries, cinnamon sticks, white berries, dried orange and lime slices as well as little Robin’s.

There was also a choice of ribbon to finish off your wreath. I chose the red and gold to match my theme. I love the more traditional Christmas colours.

I thought it was going to be really hard and fiddly, some bits were fiddly but over all I really enjoyed giving it a go and it was nice to get creative and just chill out.

I can be quite creative sometimes and I love making things, it’s one of those hobbies I don’t do enough!! So it was great to make time for it and have a lovely evening with my friend.

Here are some pictures:

14 Days to go until Christmas!!

Ho Ho Ho

Roseanne 🎅🏻

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Blogmas 2019 Day Ten: Visiting a Christmas market ❄

Hi guys!

Last weekend me and the fam all got together to visit a Christmas market.

It was perfect timing as it was the 1st of December, so a great day for a festive outing.

We all got on the train to a nearby town and walked into the centre. It was raining when we arrived, which was annoying, but we didnt let that dampen our spirits.

It had cleared up mostly by the time that we got to the stalls.

It was really fun getting the train as we don’t do it often! The kids loved it and it felt more festive somehow.

The boys had fun on the rides…

There was also a lovely brass band playing Christmas tunes, cute stalls with little handmade bits and bob’s, as well as food too.

😘

It was the perfect weather for a warming hot chocolate and a browse.

A lovely, festive day out 🎅🏻

15 days until Christmas.

Ho Ho Ho

Roseanne 🎅🏻

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