Blogmas Day 7 || My Favourite Autumn/Winter Photos

This isn't going to be my most Christmas-y post of my Blogmas but I suppose you could class it being seasonal!

Anyway, in this post I will share with you some of my favourite photos I have taken throughout the past couple of months.  I absolutely love taking photographs and capturing a moment or a beautiful scene, and because of my love for photos I have a ton saved on my laptop so I thought maybe putting some of my favourites on my blog would be a good idea to look back on.

bike rides with Emma

morning runs

Cardiff and Bristol University weekend with Mum

Liverpool Uni Open Day

bonfire night at Emma's

Radio 1 Teen Awards

Christmas tree shopping

Even though none of these have anyone I know in the actual photo, a lot of them have so many happy memories attached to them :)

Sorry for this not being that Christmas-y but I hope you enjoyed it anyway and I will see you tomorrow for Day 8!

Georgie
xx

Blogmas Day 6 || Christmas Tree Farm, Reindeer and The Cinema

O' Christmas Tree, O' Christmas Tree

This is always in my top five favourite days in the run up to Christmas (maybe that should be a post!)

OOTD // a good old baggy Christmas jumper with leggings

This morning mum, dad and I went to the same Christmas Tree Farm we always go to, to pick out our tree.  This year it started to rain so it wasn't as festive as it could have been but it was still a whole lot of fun.

they had goats there with their own three story house this year!

the two reindeer I see every year

In the afternoon we decorated our Christmas tree and the rest of our house to Christmas songs like we always do.  I love decorating everything all Christmas-y, it makes me feel a lot more festive :D

In the evening myself and a few friends went to see Mocking Jay Part 2 because we have been bugging to go since it came out over two weeks ago but we couldn't find any time to go.  It was seriously amazing!  If you still haven't watched Part 2 or any of The Hunger Games movies then you are definitely missing out.  Even my friends who aren't that into action adventure movies love them, so don't write them off!

I hope you had as good as day as I have, let me know what you did or if you have any exciting plans this December in the comments and I will see you tomorrow with another Blogmas post :D

Georgie
xx

Blogmas Day 5 || The Winterlicious Tag

Yesterday, Harel on her blog posted The Winterlicious Tag which I thought would be a fun post for me to have a go at as well.  Make sure you check her's out too!

1. Favourite Winter Nail Polish?

Black!  My nails tend to always be painted black especially during winter!


2. Favourite Winter Lip Product?

Berry lips are amazing at winter and Christmas time, my favourite berry lipstick I own is by Rimmel London in the shade 30


3. Most Worn Winter Clothing Piece?

Batwing roller neck jumper // I have been wearing this a lot at the moment!  It isn't too thick at all so I can't particularly wear it when I know I am going to be outside a lot but this is always my 'go-to' top this season!

4. Most Worn Winter Accessories?
Checked Blanket Scarves // If you know me I always bring out my blanket scarves around this time of year because they are so big and cosy! Obviously since I like checked and plaid patterns I have a navy blue and dark green plaid one and a black and red one!

5. Favourite Winter Scent/Candles?

Yankee Candle
Christmas Garland, Christmas Memories and Snowflake Cookie

Marks & Spencer's
Mandarin, Clove and Cinnamon scent in a candle or room spray

6.Favourite Winter Beverage?

costa's salted caramel cappuccino!

Salted Caramel Cappucino and Gingerbread Latte, both from Costa

7. All Time Favourite Christmas Movie?
I have so many favourite Christmas movies so I cannot just pick one.  However, two of my all time favourites are Home Alone and Elf.

8. Favourite Holiday Song?
Another hard question but at the moment I am loving Mistletoe and Wine by Cliff Richard, Step Into Christmas by Elton John and Last Christmas by Wham! Here are the other Christmas songs I am loving this year :D

9. Favourite Holiday Food/Treat?

Homemade Chocolate Roulade

10. Favourite Christmas Decoration This Year?

Mum and I just bought a new bauble type decoration for our Christmas Tree a couple of weeks ago and it is a glass Ballerina.  This is my favourite this year because it is beautiful and we got my Ballet teacher one for Christmas because she is retiring and I have been taught ballet by her for the past 13 years!

11.  What's on Top of your Wish List This Year?
A new phone, I have asked for an iPhone 6 because my contract runs out but I am not expecting much else really!

12.  What are your plans for the Holidays this year?

Chill, watch movies, go on walks, eat a lot and do all the traditional Christmas stuff my family do!

This isn't the best post I have written but I wanted to do the tag and the post I was planning to write for today's Blogmas fell through! I tag anyone who wants to give it ago and I hope you enjoyed the post anyway :)

I hope you had a good Saturday and 5th day of Blogmas and I will see you tomorrow with an extremely Christmas-y post :)

Georgie

xx

Blogmas Day 4 || Family Christmas Traditions

Yesterday I wrote my Blogmas post about English Christmas Traditions so today's post will be about my family's Christmas traditions, I hope you enjoy :)

1. Christmas Eve Walk and Pub Lunch

Every Christmas Eve that I can remember we have always gone for lunch at a pub with my Mum's side of the family.  It used to be with all her cousins and my second cousins at my Great Uncle's Pub but they moved further away and so now we go to my Aunt's local pub.  We always walk from her house to the pub because it is short and the walk is really picturesque when you walk around the lake.

This tradition of ours just always makes me feel a lot more festive than I already was because I know Christmas is just around the corner! 

2.  Christmas Eve Evening

Every Christmas Eve evening Mum, Dad, Jamie (my brother) and I have always watched Christmas movies.  It used to always be, without fail, The Snowman and then we added Father Christmas to the line up as they are only 30 minutes or so long.  Now we are older we also watch some Christmas TV show specials on top of it.  

3.  Christmas Tree Farm

Every year we always have a real Christmas Tree so that always means we get to go Christmas Tree shopping.  Usually we go the first weekend of December and we get to walk around the festive Christmas Tree Farm which also have reindeer!  It is one of my favourite days during December and I couldn't ever have a fake tree!

4. Chocolate

We always have a nice chocolate selection box to share on Christmas Eve, usually a massive Throntons one.  But throughout December the shops always sell the massive boxes of Quality Streets, Celebrations, Heroes and Roses, which I always associate with Christmas.  We tend to get through about about two a year because we hand them out to people who come round, as well as me stuffing my face with them!

5. Pillow Cases
Most people have stockings or have their presents in their rooms, but because we didn't have stockings we use pillow cases.  I don't know if other families use them as well, or if we are just a little weird, but we have always used an old pillow case for our presents.  We put them in the same room where the Christmas Tree is so it is nice a festive when we open the presents in the morning!

This post made me feel extremely festive and Christmas-y whilst writing it! Let me know if you have any family traditions you do at Christmas in the comments.  I hope you all had a great day and I will see you tomorrow with another Blogmas post :D

Does anyone else remember this Christmas YouTube video from last year?

Georgie
xx

Blogmas Day 3 || English Christmas Traditions

So as you may already know there are quite a few Christmas Traditions we have here in England/the UK, so I decided to share some of them.

disclaimer // the photos I have used are not mine I found them on google images
disclaimer #2 // I am not saying these 'traditions' originated from England, they are just widely used and done at Christmas time

1. Christmas Crackers

Now I didn't realise this was pretty much exclusively from the UK until one of the YouTubers I watched (I can't remember who it is now) for Vlogmas a couple years ago mentioned Christmas crackers and people from other countries had no idea what they were.

Christmas crackers are the most exciting yet disappointing things to do around Christmas.  Everyone pretty much has them on Christmas day, I would say people normally do them just before the Christmas dinner/lunch.

Basically all you do is get someone to pull one end and the you pull the other until it breaks and make a BANG and whoever has the larger side 'wins' and sees what their 'gift' is inside.  This is the disappointing part as they are usually useless tacky items; there is also a really bad joke and a coloured paper hat inside.

2. Mince Pies

Now most people who don't know what mince pies are, usually think there is actual mince meat inside but it is actually a sweet pie filled with a dried fruit mixture. I don't mind mince pies that much but I do think I try to make myself like them to be honest!

3. Christmas Presents

I know a lot of European countries open their Christmas presents on Christmas Eve or open at least one on Christmas Eve.  When I found that out I was so surprised because we all have to wait till actual Christmas Day to open our Christmas presents.

4.  Carols and Christingles

I'm not sure if other countries do this as well, or if it originated in England/Britain, but I know this is an English/British Tradition.  In December especially the closer to Christmas you get, there are carol and christingle services.  In my primary school in the last two years we got to do a christingle service.

A christingle is basically an orange with four tooth picks stuck in that have dried fruit on them (we would use jelly sweets), with a candle on top and a red ribbon around the orange.  Within the christingle service carols are sang and the story of Jesus' birth is told.

5.  Christmas Dinner

For our traditional Christmas Dinner the meat is usually Turkey. We then just have a load of veg; brussel sprouts are a tradition even though a lot of people don't like them at all, parsnips, roast potatoes, carrots, turnips etc.  Then you have the extras such as stuffing, gravy, Yorkshire puddings, pigs in blankets and cranberry sauce.

We have a traditional pudding as well which is the traditional Christmas Pudding (inventive name!!) which is full of dried fruit and you cover it in brandy and set it a light before you eat it.  My brother and I don't like it, so for our pudding our Nan always buys us individual chocolate puddings with warm chocolate sauce in the middle (much better if you asked me!)

I hope you enjoyed the third Blogmas post, I am really enjoying posting Christmas-y posts everyday!  What are your countries Christmas traditions?

Georgie
xx

Blogmas Day 2 || Christmas Playlist 2015

One of the most Christmas-y things for me is listening to Christmas songs, so for this Blogmas post I will share you my favourite Christmas Playlist for this year.   Obviously, because it is me, it has a complete mixture of types of Christmas songs from the classic Christmas songs to more recent ones and punk rock-y genres.  All of the songs are linked to the music on YouTube as well.

*they are not in any particular order*

1. Merry Christmas Kiss My Ass // All Time Low

2. Step Into Christmas // Elton John

3. Santa Tell Me // Ariana Grande

4. Last Christmas // Wham!

5. Merry Christmas Everyone {Snow is Falling} // Shakin' Stevens

5. I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday // Wizard

6. Fairytale of New York // The Progues

7. Christmas Wrapping // The Waitresses

8.  Do They Know it's Christmas Time? // Band Aid
{also loved last years one}

9.  Merry Christmas Everybody // Slade

10. Love on Christmas Eve // Tich

11. One More Sleep // Leona Lewis

12. It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas // Michael Buble
13. Mistletoe and Wine // Cliff Richard
14. Santa Baby // Eartha Kitt
15. I Believe in Father Christmas // Greg Lake
16. The Christmas Song // Nat King Cole
17.  Cold December Night // Michael Buble
18.  Yule Shoot Your Eyes Out // Fall Out Boy
19. I Won't be Home for Christmas // Blink-182
20. Stop the Calvary // Jona Lewie
21. Shake Up Christmas - Train
22. All I Want for Christmas is You // Mariah Carey

What are your favourite Christmas songs to listen to? My favourites from this playlist are probably Merry Christmas Kiss my Ass, Step Into Christmas, Christmas Wrapping, Mistletoe and Wine and Stop the Calvary!

Hope you all are having a good day, and I will see you tomorrow for Blogmas Day 3 :)

Georgie
xx

Blogmas Day 1 || First Day of Advent

So it is the 1st December!

This year I decided to attempt Blogmas, last year I made my own December Challenge because I didn't think I could write a post every single day, however this year I will give it a go.  Due to being in Sixth Form for the majority of it, it may be hard but I will try my best :)

I have loads planned to do in the run up to Christmas, like most years, so it should be fun.  My Blogmas will consist of Days In the Life of Me's when I do something Christmas-y, my Christmas Favourites, Christmas Recipes and pretty much anything to do with Christmas!  My blog is going to turn into Santa's grotto for the next 24/5 days!

Some people also post on actual Christmas Day, now I haven't decided whether I am going to or not because I like to have the day with my family.  But I will definitely be posting up till and on the 24th as long as everything goes to plan!

Anyway, lets talk Advent Calenders!

Usually, for the past 5(ish) years, my brother and I - and sometimes my Mum - would get the Throntons Advent Calendar with the extra chocolate at the side and a chocolate name plank at the bottom.  They used to change the theme on the actual advent calendar every year, obviously keeping to Christmas, but for the past couple of years they have kept to The Snowman Movie theme so we wanted a change.

This year for my advent calendar Mum treated me to a....wait for it....Yankee Candle Advent Calendar! When I asked for one we were going to go halves on the money side but one day she came home with it and told me she'd pay all of it! I couldn't be more excited for this as I love candles and I didn't really want a chocolate one this year *gasps!* but my brother got the Lindt one which looks amazing!

Day One -Icicles Yankee Tea Light

What advent calendars do you have, or do you not have one? Let me know in the comments!

I seriously cannot believe that it is already this time of year again and I cannot wait to read everyone's Blogmas posts and watch YouTubers Vlogmas videos!

Happy Blogmas Everyone!!

Georgie
xx