Tanya’s Christmas: Get inspired! Blogmas day 3 πŸŽ„

Hi guys!

To get prepared this Christmas I picked up Tanya Burr’s new book ‘Tanya’s Christmas’ Its full of recipes, gifting, gift wrapping, party, make up and just general christmas prep ideas to get those festive juices flowing.

I love this book, its so lovely to look through and so handy at this hectic time of year. Its an ultimate Christmas guide and its made me feel really festive and EXCITED for December and the big day in particular.

Tanya is one of my favourite Youtubers so I was really pleased when she released this book. I have chosen some of my favourite pieces from the book to share with you guys. Alot of them are baking ideas that I want to make in the lead up to Christmas and for Christmas day.

I hope you enjoy this little insight into the book, and who knows it might give you some Christmassy ideas too.

Lets take a look!

Make!

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I love the idea of making your own decorations and this arrangement by Tanya is so simple, yet so effective!

Its using natural resources such as dried oranges (beaut smell!!) pine cones and cinnamon sticks. A lovely fragrant display that you can arrange any way that you wish. I would probably swap out the cinnamon sticks as I’m not a fan of this scent, the beauty of this simple idea is that you can put your own twist on it and make it to match your theme. I like the idea of using pine branches and holly, as well as gold sprayed pine cones.

Bake!

Lets be frank, food is one of the best parts of Christmas so, I have picked out a few of the recipes in the book.

The first couple of recipes are ones that I want to make in the lead up to Christmas.

On the left is a tear and share Chocolate orange cookie. Chocolate orange is my ultimate fave and I love a Terry’s chocolate orange at Christmas, so instantly I was drawn to this. I will be making this in the lead up to Christmas because its going to be delicious and baking always gets me in a warm and cosy mood.

In the middle picture are rice crispy Christmas puddings. I want to have a go at making these with my Nephew Noah as I think these will be really fun to make together (& I’m sure his little bro Casey will help us taste test them along the way)

On the right are Smores biscuits. I want to make these for me, my husband, sister, brother in law and nephews to enjoy on Christmas eve! Super cosy.

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I’ve also chosen the ‘Chocolate brownie traybake with salted caramel ice cream’ to make for mine and Tim’s Christmas dinner dessert. Neither of us like the traditional Christmas pud so I always make us something chocolatey and indulgent and this is perfect.

Celebrate!

I love the section in the book with her Christmas traditions as well as Tanya’s viewers traditions too. These are really interesting to read, its cool to see how people spend their day and how their traditions differ from country to country.

This section is also great for those of you who want to add some new traditions to your Christmas routine and need some inspiration!

Some of our Christmas traditions include:

  • Christmas Lights
  • Christmas eve boxes
  • Stockings
  • Panto
  • Family word and board games

I won’t go into these too much as I have a post in the pipeline that focuses on these a bit more. I love traditions and they are very important to me, especially at this time of the year when I think it is really important to spend time with your loved ones and enjoy the simple pleasures and comfort that traditions can bring.

For those of you who love Christmas like I do, you will really enjoy this beautiful book. I grabbed mine from Amazon and I’ll leave the link below for you!

Tanya’s Christmas – Amazon Β£8

22 days to go!

Until next time,

Roseanne πŸ™‚

 

A very Harry Potter Christmas: Blogmas day 9 β˜‡

Hi guys!

So, this is very exciting!! Well I think so anyway haha. For any of my fellow Harry Potter fans out there, this ones for you…

I have seen many photos over the years (thanks Pinterest) of Harry Potter Christmas trees, and with an extra tree in our flat this year, well it seemed rude not to give it a go finally.

I’ve got plenty of Harry Potter memorabilia to create such a masterpiece and so I set about decorating my most magical Christmas tree yet.

I already had lights and fittingly (excluding the pink ) they are red, green, yellow and blue lights, the same colours as the four Hogwarts houses.

I used two Hogwarts ties that I had as tinsel, A red and gold Gryffindor one and a blue and silver Ravenclaw one. The Ravenclaw one is actually my sister Sarah’s, so if your reading this, thanks for your contribution haha.

As I said, I used lots of different bits of my Harry Potter memerobilia to decorate the main body of the tree and it was really fun adding all my little Harry Potter trinkets onto the tree, from baubles to characters, pictures and more.

The tree topper, like many Ive seen online had to be my sorting hat that I got from the Warner Bros studio tour, it brings it all together really well.

Lets take a look…

 

Here is the finished tree…

 

Until next time,

Roseanne πŸ™‚

The start of advent! πŸŽ„ Blogmas Day 2

Hi guys!

Its day two of Blogmas and its an advent update. I have two advent calenders this year, a chocolate one (Cadburys of course!)

…and a beauty advent, Tanya Burr’s ‘Tanya’s treats’ beauty calendar.

Tanya’s beauty advent calendar is 12 days of Christmas so every other day my Blogmas post will focus on what I have got inside the calendar.

20171201_073230I love having a beauty advent and I wasn’t able to get my hands on Tanya’s last year so I was really pleased to get one, I love her beauty range.

The calendar is really nice, I love the rose gold and shiny burgundy colour scheme and cute sweet shop scene.

Lets take a look at day one!

Behind window number one was a lovely red nail polish. I love the packaging of her nail varnishes, the large gold top and gold writing look really sleek.

The colour is ‘Festive Red’ and is a beautiful and bold Christmas red. This is perfect for the festive season.

20171201_204918(Apologies for the state of my nails!!)

I cant wait to open the next door on Sunday!

Until next time,

Roseanne πŸ™‚

Christmas decoration Haul:Blogmas day 1

Hi guys!

Blogmas I’m ready for ya! Day one, lets do this!

This first post is all about the decorations. I absolutely LOVEΒ homeware, adding those little (or big!) items that just make a room perfect, cosy & super pretty.

And what could be better than combining two of your favourite things,,, decorations & Christmas!!

Lets take a look at what I’ve got in my little Festive haul…

First up, we bought a new tree!

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‘Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas treee’

Our current tree is a little worse for wear so we picked a new artificial one from Sainburys for Β£25. It is a 6ft green tree, not too encroaching, just right for our little lounge πŸ™‚

Next up, some decorations for said tree…

 

12 pack of glitter baubles; Mini gold star, shaker baubles.

These were also from Sainbury’s and were Β£6. These are so cute because they are mini and they will look so pretty when they are on the tree, contrasting with the green branches, And who doesn’t love glitter sprinkles?!?

 

 

6 pack of Christmas pudding bell baubles.

These Christmas pudding bells are super cute and look so festive hanging on the tree. I love the rustic feel to them, the little star cut out and their soft jingle. These were also from Sainbury’s and were Β£6.

 

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Green glitter ball

Chunky green, glitter bauble.

This bauble is so pretty. Green is my absolute favourite colour (and not just because its super festive… although it helps haha) but also for the Autumnal feel , especially this shade of green.

Its quite a large bauble and is covered in fine dark green and gold glitter. It is then covered in emerald green sequins too. This is going to look so pretty when it catches the light.

It was also from Sainsbury’s and was Β£1.50.

 

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‘We’re walking in the airrrr’

Flying snowman decoration.

This little guy is adorable and I love how he looks like he is flying through the sky! It kinda reminds me of the classic Christmas film ‘The Snowman’ plus he’s glittery!! winner.

This was Β£2.99 in a local garden centre.

 

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GLITTER!

Bronze/Dark gold glitter maple leaf decoration.

This leaf decoration is quite simple but looks lovely in this bronzy/gold glitter. This is also quite autumnal but with a glittery, festive touch. This was 75p in Asda.

 

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A letter to Santa

Felt Santa Claus letter hanging decoration

This little decoration is so cute, a little letter to Santa! Loving the festive colours too. This was Β£1 from Asda.

Lets move onto lights!

Gold star lights

These little lights are so cute. I love how they look like mini cookie cutters and I love the gold colour too, they give off a lovely warm glow when they are turned on.

 

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Berrytastic!

Festive berry lights

These little lights are so cute. There are three different coloured bulbs, a warm yellow bulb, a iridescent white bulb and a festive, berry red bulb. These look great in our lounge, I Love them.

 

Red X-MAS bulb lights.

These are SO COOL. I love bulb light signs like these, if you’ve been round here for a while you’ll know we had a white ‘R & T’ version at our wedding which I still have in our lounge. I also have a red star in our kitchen from last Christmas, as red is the accent colour in there.

 

I hope that you enjoyed this blog post. Check back for more festivities throughout the month of December.

 

Until next time,

Roseanne

 

 

Blogmas 2017! ITS HAPPENING!!

Hi guys!

This is just a brief post to remind you that I will indeed be embarking on Blogmas again this year.

Yup, that’s a blog a day, everyday throughout the month of December, up until the big day on the 25th.

I bloody LOVE Christmas so expect some super festive and fun ideas, craft, recipes, make up, party looks, gifting, food and SO MUCH MORE!!

Its tough but I am so excited to get stuck in and document my festivities, as well as hopefully spreading the festive fun and inspiring you guys to make the best of this time of year, because it really is the most wonderful time of the year.Β 

So watch out December 1st, I’m coming for you!

 

Until next time,

Roseanne πŸ™‚

What I got for Christmas!

I love reading and watching what people got for Christmas do I thought I would make my first blog post of 2017 just that.I’m not trying to brag about what I got, I just wanted to share the things that I kindly received. Also, I havnt included everything, just a selection and what I got in my stocking (because its one of the best bits of Christmas, you know I’m right!!)

So let’s go! 

I’ll start with my stocking as these are the first things I opened…

In my stocking I got some super cute pressies, I got some cosy reindeer slippers, cute polar bear earmuffs, a hand cream that is Vanilla frosting scented (so good!) A sausage dog ruler (that will be going to work with me!) A retro puzzle, chocolate (including my favourite, chocolate orange (yup it’s already gone.) And some yummy tea. A lovely selection, Santa did good πŸ‘Œ 

I was very lucky and got some lovely beauty products this year! I had asked for a few but didn’t know which I was going to end up with so it was still a nice surprise.

From Lush I got the ‘Ballistic’ bath bomb. This smells amazing and is double sided, the yellow side is the powdery texture of a bath bomb and the pink side is waxy. I can’t wait to try it out.

I also got three items from Zoella’s original beauty collection, The hand sanitizer, the ‘Creamy madly dreamy’ body lotion and the ‘Pretty polished’ body scrub. The scent of her original collection is my favourite so I was really excited when she added new items to the range.

From Soap and Glory I got the ‘Deep cleansing milk’ This melts away makeup and is a gorgeous cleanser that smells amazing. I’m using this as part of my skincare routine to remove my make up and it’s lovely.

I was also very lucky to get a few items from Tanya Burr’s Christmas collection.

The beauty holdall is so pretty and perfect for carrying toiletries or make up when travelling or as make up storage. It’s gold with little light pink lips all over it. I also got the ‘Tanya presents’ beauty box which is a lovely light blue box with little black stars and a gold trim. Inside the box you get two nail files with the star pattern, in light green and light pink as well as a ‘Smokey eye’ trio of eyeshadows that are called ‘Luna’, ‘Winter walk’ and ‘Dusk’. You also get her ‘Bambi eyes’ false lashes, a liquid highlighter, a miniature lip gloss in the colour ‘Afternoon tea’ and a mini compact mirror that’s light blue with cute little white dots. Such good value for money (especially as I found it in the sales just before Christmas for Tim) Such a lovely selection of products to try out.

This is one of the gorgeous palettes that she released this Christmas and I love it. This is a fab all round palette with everything you need to create a gorgeous make up look. Included in the palette is a blusher called ‘First kiss’ a highlighter called ‘Champagne shimmer’ four eyeshadows ‘Vanilla sugar’, ‘Toasted teacake’, ‘Hot chocolate and cream’ and ‘Cocoa dust’. The mini matte lipstick is in the shade ‘Martha moo’. I love this palette so much and I was so pleased that Martha moo was the lip shade as this is so hard to come by now. 

I love this present, it’s Sensationails gel starter kit. It comes with two gorgeous gel nail colours, all the equipment you need including a UV lamp, and a nail varnish to gel transformer so that you can  make your nail varnish into gel varnish. This is much cheaper than having gels done at a salon, more convenient and the fact that I can use my existing varnish and turn it into gel is so awesome, all my lovely colours in my collection won’t be wasted.

Some other lovely presents I got are…

These two books are amazing! As you’ll know, if you’ve seen my blog before, I love Harry Potter so I was super excited to see that they had brought out the second book in illustrated form, the pictures are beautiful. This Fantastic beasts book has loads of information on the making of the film, amazing photographs and little extra artefacts to do with the characters (see below)

I love how the book looks like Newts case and opens up on the side like his case!

I also got a VR headset from Tim. My sister got one for her husband in November and I had a go on it, it was really fun. I didn’t realise Tim had remembered me saying how much I enjoyed it but he obviously did! 

This was a lovely surprise and so much fun. I’ve downloaded lots of different apps to use, I love the horror ones even though it’s so realistic!! 😱

Me and Tim got these super cute pillowcases from his Auntie! They are ‘Mr and Mrs’ pillowcases, the ‘Mr’ one has a moustache under the word and the ‘Mrs’ one has some red lips under the word. These are so cute and a lovely present to receive for our first christmas as a married couple.

I love Cath Kidson and I really enjoy the adult colouring books so this is a perfect present for me. The patterns in this are all lovely Cath Kidson patterns. It shows you what they should look like if you want to follow the actual design or you can colour it how you like.

I got a gorgeous photograph of my newest nephew Casey. This one can join the one of Noah that is already on the wall. How cute is the fox costume?! 😍

And finally, I got this gorgeous necklace and earring set from Tim. 
It’s really special as it matches my engagement ring and is my favourite colour (it also happens to be my birthstone!) β™‘

So pretty!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this snippet into what I got for Christmas and I hope that you got some lovely things too. 

Let’s make it a good one!

Until next time, 
Roseanne πŸ™‚

Christmas traditions! The end of Blogmas.

Christmas day is finally here! The day we’ve all been waiting for, I can’t believe blogmas is now over for another year.

I thought since alot of our Christmas traditions take place on Christmas Eve that I would tell you about them today for my final blogmas post.

1. Christmas eve drive to look at Christmas lights 

Every Christmas eve for the last 5 or so years me and Tim have gone on a drive to look at the Christmas lights around our home town. It’s so festive and makes me feel really christmassy because we do it every Christmas eve so you know it’s almost the big day. Mum usually comes too and this year my sister Sarah & nephew Noah joined us too.

2. Christmas eve bags

Every Christmas eve we have little bags with treats in. This year we had chocolate orange segsations, christmas socks, hot chocolate and Christmas hats.

For Noahs bag I added some chocolate straws, a Christmas craft set, Christmas colouring book & crayons.

I didn’t want to leave Casey out so I got him a little Christmas shirt and a toy reindeer. It was so cute everytime the reindeer sang he smiled and hugged it 😍

3. A Christmas film 

You have to watch at least one Christmas film and this Christmas eve we went for Home Alone. It was ok, I quite enjoyed it but I wouldn’t go crazy for it like some people do. I was also having a lot of fun with  Noah so I did miss a bit of the story tbf.

4. Christmas attire Christmas jumpers, all cosy! Hats, earrings, christmas socks, anything Christmassy is perfect to get you in the spirit. 

5. Treats for Santa, Christmas pjs & stockings 

Santa of course needs fuel for his busy night so I left him out a mince pie & a nice cold glass of diet coke. I also left a Carrot for Rudolph. Before bed I had a nice hot shower, put on fresh Christmas pjs (& our Christmas duvet cover) and left my stocking out for Santa! All ready for him to come πŸŽ…

I love Christmas traditions, they are always the best bits of the festive season and make it feel so magical & special.

Its the most magical time of the year! 


In my beauty advent calender today…

I got a full sized eyeshadow palette. This is a really nice one and really useful for mixing and creating different looks. 

I hope you’re all enjoying your Christmas day! That’s it for another Blogmas.

Ho Ho Ho 

Roseanne πŸŽ…

Our annual Christmas party πŸŽ‰ Christmas eve part 2

Yesterday was our annual Christmas party πŸŽ‰ Our friendship group from school have been doing Secret Santa for about 4 or 5 years now as it’s easier (& cheaper) than getting everyone a present and it’s a bit of fun. I always organise it so Me & Tim turned it into a party occasion last year and we thought we’d do the same this year too. 

We got the flat ready & party food cooking once I’d got back from work! 

Christmas crackers!

The games table! I got these cute set of Christmas themed photo booth props from B & M in town for Β£1.99, They are so cute & festive! The werewolf game is a mystery role playing card game for a large group, Tim found this on Amazon for Β£15 and of course classic pub quiz which we picked up from Tesco for Β£2.50! The questions are actually really good as there are lots of cool categories like food, sport, celebrity, science & nature and they aren’t too ridiculously hard which is great for all the family!

We had nibbles, drinks & exchanged presents first! 

I got an awesome Fantastic Beasts colouring book & mystery mini figure which turned out to be Harry Potter, awesome β˜‡

Once we had eaten we continue with our drinks and played the games;

Photo booth fun…

Pub quiz…

Team Brookehill, winners of the 2016 wooden spoon! 

It was a really good night and great to catch up together before Christmas!

I can’t believe it’s Christmas eve and Santa will be here soon.

Ho Ho Ho

Roseanne πŸŽ…

Blogmas day 23: Festive bakingΒ 

This is so wierd, I planned to do my festive baking today at the beginning of the week and I got a notification today on Facebook telling me that day 22 of last year’s Blogmas was festive baking too, how wierd. So looks like Dec 22nd is Blogmas baking day! Although this year I have had to post it on the 23rd as I already had a post ready for today, anyway…

I did plan to do these in more than one post but the time has completely got away from me (seriously where has Blogmas gone?!?) and so I’m doing it all in one mega baking blog post. 

So, what’s on the menu?

  • Mini heart mince pies
  • Chocolate orange cupcakes 
  • Gingerbread men 

    First up, Mince pies! I made these using a Slimming World recipe, you can check that out here

    My little helper!

    I went for a heart on top (less festive than a star I know) as I couldn’t find my small star cutter. These still look lovely and the hearts are quite cute.

    These went down a treat in class, since these were ready and Slimming World friendly I thought I’d take them to my class that day as we were having our Christmas party. They didn’t last long at all.

    Next up, chocolate orange cupcakes!

    These were made using a Mary Berry recipe, Queen of baking who else could be better!! Check out the recipe here 

    I have to admit that I used pre made icing as I didn’t have time (or enough bowls!!) to make this too, thanks Mrs Crocker for saving me πŸ‘

    I used the chocolate orange minis in the grab bags to pop in the middle (a yummy, gooey surprise) and to decorate on top of the cupcakes as these are a better size than the large segments of a full chocolate orange 🍊🍫 That’s just my preference but it worked really well.

    This cupcake set came from TK Maxx and was only Β£4.99. It comes with cupcake cases of two different designs and four different Christmas cupcake toppers. I love this cute little set! It would also make a lovely gift for any baking fans. 

    And finally, gingerbread men!

    I’ve never made these before (& to be honest my sister did most of the prep for these ones anyway) but these are soooo good and they smelt so Christmassy.

    This recipe is again from Queen Mary Bez and I found it on the BBC Good Food site (best site for cooking & baking, failsafe recipes galore!) gingerbread men recipe

    These smelt amazing and taste so yummy. From this recipe they are a tasty mix of a shortbread biscuit with a yummy taste of ginger to them. If you wanted to have a stronger flavoured biscuit I’d recommend adding more ginger and the cinnamon to add that spice. I didn’t add the cinnamon to mine as I hate the stuff, yuk.

    I really liked how these looked when they were done so I didn’t add any decoration to them but you could pipe on detailing or add sweets for buttons and features if you wanted to.

    Noah was such a good little helper and he loved rolling out the doughs and cutting out the gingerbread men (and tasting them at the end too of course)

    A fun, festive and yummy way to spend an afternoon. I can’t wait to have a cuppa at work with a gingerbread man and I’m going to serve the cupcakes at our Christmas party tommorrow!

    In my beauty advent calender today…

    A gorgeous red lipstick! πŸ’‹ I love how many different lipsticks you get with this advent, it’s perfect for starting a lipstick collection & since I only really had liquid lipsticks before this has been great for me. I’ve found a new love for creme lipsticks throughout December! I’ll definatly be wearing them more often now.

    Here’s a swatch…

    You can’t beat a festive red!

    It’s Christmas eve eve, 2 days to go! 😁

    Ho Ho Ho 

    Roseanne πŸŽ…

     

    Christmas eve part 1: Christmas arts & crafts

    Only one day to go!! Im doing Christmas eve in two parts again like last year as theres been lots going on these last few days, super festive! 

    How is it Christmas eve already, this is so mad, where has December gone?!? I’m going to miss all the festive build up, its one of the best bits of Christmas.

    I found an awesome craft set from Wilko in town and had to get it to do with Noah, I knew he would enjoy it. 

    In the set you get 12 ceramic Christmas themed ornaments, mini pots of paint, a paintbrush, 2 tubes of glitter and string to hang them up. What made this set even more amazing is that when I got it it was reduced to half price making it a bargin Β£2.50!! I couldn’t believe it. 

    Full price it would have been Β£5 which is still really good as it’s great fun, brilliant value and these would make adorable homemade Christmas presents too.

    Here’s me and Noah having a go at some crafty arty fun…

    He really enjoyed himself which is the main thing 😊 & Auntie Ro Ro did too hehe.

    Part 2 will be up later! Our annual Christmas partyπŸŽ‰

    In my beauty advent calender today…

    Today was a bother lipstick in a lovely autumnal plum colour.

    Here’s a swatch…

    Ho Ho Ho 

    Roseanne πŸŽ