What I Got For Christmas 2014

I know I'm a few days late with this one but I told myself I wasn't going to post my very own What I Got For Christmas post but then reading through everyone elses I changed my mind. It's a post that I love reading, there's no other reason but I'm nosey so I hope you all having a snoop at mine as I love all of my presents, a lot! I also want to post a disclaimer that I'm not bragging at all with these, I've a small family and group of friends and half of these I wasn't expecting to be given so I'm extremely grateful and still in shock if I'm honest. 

It wouldn't be Christmas without a massive tub of chocolate, its just tradition and this year I was kindly given Celebrations, pity it isn't as full as this anymore. I hold my hands up, chocolate is a weakness. Also one of my friends bought me this Festive Friends Gift Box* from Lush for Secret Santa which smells incredible and I'm so grateful. It's filled to the brim with Christmas bath bombs and honestly I don't even want to open it - it just looks that pretty....

I've been moaning for the past two months that I haven't a clue what time it is work and sneakily checking my phone when I can wasn't cutting it so I was given a watch which is an absolute life saver. Its so dinky and the face is really simplistic so I love it. I just need a brown one and I'm set. It feels amazing not having to rely on technology again!

I rarely ask for jewellery because frankly I'm quite scared of losing the usually expensive pieces but this year I thought I'd chance my arm and ask for a Pandora ring* as my big present I guess and Santa not only bought me one but two so I was absolutely flabbergasted on Christmas morning - if only you could have seen my face! Both of them are incredibly beautiful and I love them to pieces. 

These were a few presents from my friends, I'm always keeping on about how amazing Soap & Glory smells but I hadn't tried anything from the Sugar Crush range yet so my friend took it upon herself to buy me some, verdict - it smells amazing too. Also I like buying Topshop Christmas socks and makeup bits and pieces for my friends each year so they decided to repay the favour and bought me lip products which look so dark but are actually brown and berry - bang on trend and fluffy socks, which you can never have enough of! 

Every year I get a few DVD's* because I rarely get round to buying myself them through the year, Boots always seems to call first so I was given a few, TFIOS was a must and then the second Spiderman which if you've seen the ending is equally as heartbreaking and of course anything with Zac Efron is superb so that too. Also some lovely smelling Ted Baker* bits which came in the cutest box ever. 

Another big surprise was my TV*, I had one when I was younger but it was took off me so to speak to replace one downstairs as I didn't use it all that much but nowadays I need one so they bought me a lovely white one to match all of my furniture and the quality is amazing. I've already tested out several dvd's, you can see what I did over Christmas lol! 

Lastly chocolate, chocolate and yet more chocolate. Please don't judge, I have a serious problem and yes I did get several selection boxes at the age of twenty oops but in my defence they're still amazing as they were when I was six/seven, except now I receive hot chocolate and cute mugs as well. 

I also received a few CD's such as One Direction, Taylor Swift and The Script because they're all incredible and a few other small things such as hand creams and small beauty sets but thats most of it. As I said I'm incredibly happy and grateful to everyone and I'm not bragging in the slightest but I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Santa brought you everything that you asked for, of if you're too old for it, your parents. I can't wait to start blogging regularly again and if you have any similar posts to this please leave me a link in the comments, I love reading them!

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo 

P.s what did Santa bring? 

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Weekly Ramble #8

The Sunday after Christmas, in fact the week after Christmas isn't really that great - everyones a bit down that the big day has came and gone so quickly.... then they pick themselves up and put on a cheerful front for the new year. This years pretty much the same. I've worked a lot of the week so honestly I just want to jump into hibernation and sleep until Spring, if only!  

This was just a quick snap from Christmas Day, I tried to crop out the presents because I really don't like the whole showing off with hundreds of presents look that some people do - it's just not me but this is a lovely photo of one of our main trees and the surrounding decorations. I absolutely love this time of year, everythings so cosy! I also finished wrapping my friends presents and gave them out too!

A random photo from through the week of some of my beauty bits and pieces, I had a good old sort out for the New Year and all that so I have plenty of room to start again or treat myself to newer things. Also how adorable is that little panda?

It was all about that red lip and highlighter glow throughout the party season - absolutely fool proof and I've been loving using these two lip products to death, practically.

 Its all a bit of a downer really, Christmas being over but this week was filled with plenty of festivities in the run up to it, I had every Christmas movie under the sun playing and I'm pretty sure my brother wanted to hit me at some point for it oops! And although I may have left some last minute present buying (by that I mean Monday and Tuesday) it all worked out on the day and now I need to sleep for a long long time. I've also managed to eat my body weight in chocolate so I'd say thats another success and my Christmas playlist & movies have been hidden away for another year!

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo
P.s what have you been up to this week?

Christmas Time!

I just want to say a massive Merry Christmas to all of my blog followers and anybody else who may be reading! This is a bit of a short post mainly because today is all about spending time with my family & relaxing, as it should be and I've only just got round to having some down time of my own and typing this up, at half ten at night sorry everyone. I'm also quite shocked how fast today has flown in (and thats saying a lot when you've been up since 8am - thats like the crack of dawn on the holidays) but its been amazing nonetheless.

I think because I've been working crazy hours in the run up to Christmas and I really have had to juggle everything about instead of leisurely buying presents for everyone I've learnt to appreciate Christmas even more, if that makes sense? Yesterday it felt so weird to be working on Christmas Eve instead of watching Christmas movies and visiting friends/family and tomorrow I'll be working Boxing Day - not before a sneaky early morning trip to the sales, I couldn't not take advantage of those so today was my proper day off and it meant I was more appreciative. 

A typical morning in our house on Christmas is waking up (usually at a ridiculous time) although its getting later as we get older, no 6am starts anymore and unwrapping all of our presents in front of the tree which I absolutely love doing - it makes it all the more fun ripping the paper off, I know some people don't get their presents wrapped but I personally prefer it! After presents its all about the food, both breakfast and starting the lunch and playing/looking at everything that we've got in more detail I guess and thanking everyone :) Once the foods on its time to settle down and watch some good old Christmas movies or Christmas tv until lunch time which usually works out at mid afternoon. 

By 4pm everyones off for a nap, its just that time in the day when everything catches up on you and you need a little energy boost for the rest of the day and the Christmas tv programmes like Doctor Who, Coronation Street and Strictly Come Dancing - I told you my tv habits are like I'm like sixty five at heart, not always a bad thing I guess. In amongst all of the tv watching and the odd board game or two, I consume as much chocolate as physically possible, I hope I'm not the only one! This year I actually made everyone play Cluedo this year, its a tradition that everyone disappears whenever I get it out but this year they didn't and I surprisingly won the game, what can I say I love being a detective?

So maybe this post wasn't as short as I thought it would be but I'm definitely tired and I've to get up early for work and shopping tomorrow so I'm sure I'll be out for the count by half eleven... I'm getting old but I just wanted to say a huge Merry Christmas to you all :) I hope you's all had a wonderful day with your friends and family, you stuffed your faces and Santa brought you everything that you wanted! 

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo 

P.s whats your Christmas Day like? 

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Blogmas Day 21: Weekly Ramble #8

Recently the days are just coming and going in the blink of an eye, it's officially Christmas Eve in three days and I'm beyond excited (not for working on Christmas Eve) but the whole holiday in general - its probably my favourite time of year! This weeks been all systems go and it feels like I haven't had a moment to myself, not the best way to spend the week before Christmas but I suppose I'd rather be a busy bee than doing nothing. 

I travelled up to University for a couple of days in a row which meant 5am starts and long days where I was going straight to work and staying there until 10pm - safe to say I was falling asleep standing up and I didn't think that was possible but at least my placements all sorted and I'm ready to go in the new year. 

I worked, a lot. I've been busy in work as you can imagine its packed due to everyone leaving their Christmas presents shopping to the last minute, I'm hoping it'll calm down soon. I met up with my friends to exchange Christmas presents and cards - something I love doing, I love seeing everyones reactions! Also went for dinner in Frankie & Bennys with my friend and visited the Christmas Market for the very last time, I say visited it was more like I stuffed my face with as much food as I could, chocolate marshmallow waffles, mulled wine, potatoes and paella - the lot and they were all incredible! 

I've also been trying to fix my posting schedule out so for the next day or two there might be more than one or two posts - just keep an eye out :) Hope you've all had a good week! 

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo 

P.s whats everyone been up to?

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Soap & Glory: The Next Big Thing

Every year I'm late to the party and just miss out on the massive Soap & Glory bundle, I never know when it's going to be on sale or else it just flies off the shelves (literally) far too quickly for my liking and this year I was putting my foot down and buying it for myself. I'd seen a few blog posts recently about it coming up soon (by mid December, now I was starting to panic), I'd been religiously checking the Boots website and luckily yesterday I received the wonderful email telling me it would be available from today onwards. 

The online version of the next big thing

The in store version of the next big thing

There are two variations of the Soap & Glory: The Next Big Thing set this year, one for those buying the gift online and another for those bought in store, they're both designed by London fashion designer Hattie Stewart and I love both of the designs equally. I think I might prefer the instore version just a smidge more but I'll probably end up ordering the online version for handiness. Both boxes contain the same amount of products, a whopping ten products are included in these, such as body wash, body scrub, hand cream, one of their lipglosses, mascara and body butter. 

I haven't tried too much from Soap & Glory but the things that I have tried I've absolutely loved - I think the signature scent plays a part in this and the fact that they're pretty great products too! Each of these products included are full sized, not just minis which is really impressive (probably heavy too) with a massive value of £76 however for this week and being one of Boots most popular star gifts, the gift sets only priced at £29 which is incredible value! For someone who hasn't tried that much from S&G like myself it's ideal as you get to fall in love with test out so many products at once. 

I'm definitely going to be making an order later on this morning, I just need to get my hands on it and I would advise you to make an order as soon as possible. These gifts sets due to their amazing value really do fly off the shelves and mums go crazy and buy three / four at a time, not thinking about how they're going to transport them home but I guess they want a bargain, same as everyone else.... all in all, I think I need it. 

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo 

P.s what do you think of the S&G bundle this year? Is anyone getting it? 

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Blogmas Day 8 - Benefit Cheeky Sweet Spot

Christmas time is time for plenty of new beauty releases and this little gem definitely caught my eye right away. I have to hold my hands up already and say that I don't actually own that much from Benefit although I'd always eyed up their beautifully boxed blushes, I think it was just too hard to choose just one so when I saw their limited edition Christmas blush palette containing six of their eight blushes, I knew I had to get it and it hasn't disappointed at all!

It's beautifully packaged, I'm obsessed with the whole gingerbread house theme and the festive print inside as well just ticks all the boxes for me. The box o' blushes comes with five blushes, one majorly hyped up, maybe even cult status bronzer, a highlighter and a blush brush - all very handy to have in one. I think it'll be a toss up between Dandelion and Coralista as my favourite two, I'm all for subtle blushers although the rest are equally as gorgeous.

It's a tin case which houses the blushers but I actually prefer this as it means its easy to clean and it'll be a lot more durable than their ordinary packaging over time. I honestly can't wait to use this and well I don't think I'll have to purchase a Benefit blush for a long time after, it'll keep me going until next year at least! The blushers and bronzer are more or less the same size as the full sized boxed blushers which usually retail around £23 each so you can imagine my excitement at getting six, a highlighter and a brush all for £29.50, definitely bargain of the year! I also managed to get this in my local Boots as well so I got plenty of Advantage Card points too - always a positive!

The only downside is that everyone is trying to get their hands on them for Christmas presents because lets face it who wouldn't want a Benefit Christmas set under the tree and they may be sold out in a few places but I know my local Debenhams/Benefit counter had a fair few left so always check in there if you're looking to get your hands on it as well. I'll probably review these once I've used these for a while but for now I'm over the moon with this little gem.

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo
P.s have you tried or asked for any Benefit Christmas sets for Christmas? They're so adorable!

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Weekly Ramble #6

This weeks been a bit of a hectic one, work, work, blogging, work and trying to fit in some shopping, unluckily the shopping has had to be done online but I'm hoping to properly go Christmas shopping this week! I've been absolutely loving Vlogmas & Blogmas this year and so far I've managed (counting today) to post 6 days out of 7 - a complete success! I haven't posted one of these Sunday rambles in a while but I thought I'd update you all on this busy time of year.... 

Took a trip to the Christmas market - it's become a yearly tradition and I love it. Its always so festive and there's such a nice atmosphere - I still haven't braved a kangeroo burger or crocodile dish but who knows there's time still. A nice crepe and paella will do me fine until :)

Ate my own weight in chocolate (its seasonal so it's acceptable) and finally got round to seeing Mockingjay - the film was blooming brilliant and I'm so glad I'd already read the books to find out what happens in part 2, talk about a cliffhanger? If you haven't seen it, you really need to! 

May have slipped and made a huge-ish MAC order which is due to arrive sometime this week, in fairness I needed to finish my quad (so I could ask Santa for a new one) and a few other things just happened to fall in my basket, oh no! 

Finally purchased my Christmas cards for this year and I'm so excited to write out little messages and send them to my friends. I'm also sending cards to my readers, I think I wrote about it a few days back if you're interested but these cards are literally adorable and I love them - the green envelopes are such a nice finishing touch too!

So a busy week and next week will probably be the same if not more but I'm going to keep at Blogmas so keep an eye out for my new posts! I also managed to track down new batteries for my camera so my photos will no longer be of terrible quality, thank goodness! 

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo 

P.s What have you been up to this week? I'm so excited for Christmas already!

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Christmas Gift Guide #1: Stocking Fillers Under a £5

At this time of year I absolutely love reading gift guides and finding inspiration as to what to buy my friends & family, almost as much as I love putting together the presents themselves. Therefore this year I knew I'd have to do a few gift guides of my own for all budgets, this being the first and the most budget friendly! I've seen a lot of gift guides under £10 but I tried to find a few things less than a £5 instead, that extra £5 makes all the difference, so I hope you enjoy and maybe get some inspiration yourself! 

After I'd finished this post I realised just how big this gift guide is but the bigger the better I hope. Christmas is pretty much a time for beauty and bath products with the odd seasonal thing and a bunch of candles, at least in my eyes so it may not suit everyones tastes but it should suit most. The crackers I added as a bit of a novelty, I think I'm going to include one in each of my friends presents this year, mainly because they'll have no clue what they are and its a bit of fun so I thought I'd sneak that one in. 

Candles (and usually cinnamon smelling things) always find their way under the tree, Yankee candles are probably my favourite and I thought this little miniature with the Christmas-sy packaging was adorable. Impulse is something I always used back in school just for a quick spritz and from then on I've been using perfume but if you're just popping to the shops a quick spritz of this can never do no wrong so I'll probably stock up on a few of these and the Ted Baker body spray. Lush is also no stranger at Christmas and I always love picking out a few Christmas bath bombs such as the Santa and Melting Snowman (bit twisted I know, not one for kids) - they have such an amazing range! 

This year Boots are on point and I practically want to buy half of the 3 for 2 gift section, thats where I've found most of these bargains such as the fat face compact mirrors, one for each friend (thats three stocking fillers in one), some tanning mitts because Christmas season is tan&party season and also the products from Bleach London, a cute jelly purse, anything jelly and squishy is a big yes and a glittery photo dome all for under a £5! Also Christmas ornaments/ beauty gifts are becoming popular and I love them! I've included a few from Soap&Glory containing lip balms and lip glosses, a Balmi lip balm bauble, a No7 star containing a surprise nail polish and a Topshop nail pyramid as well which I find so cute. 

I then added some miscellanous things in like nail files from Topshop, if all else fails you're always going to need one, rings because I'm obsessed at the minute and Christmas socks because its always nice to be warm and cosy yet festive at the same time. The most practical of them all is probably a cute diary for 2015, it may seem like a long way off but it's not and it's always good to start the year off organised. The most important in my eyes though is chocolate, chocolate is a must in every stocking and Terrys Chocolate Orange just screams stocking filler to me! Well I think thats all of them covered and apart from I think two gifts on the list you can find them all for under a £5, what bargains! Let me know what you think! 

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo 

P.s can you think of any gifts under a £5 or which of these have you tried? I still need to start my Christmas shopping and theres three weeks to go! 

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Blogmas Day 4: The Christmas Tag

This wasn't the post I'd prepared for today but as soon as I woke up and saw that the lovely Kenzie from (behindhazeleyes) had tagged me to do the Christmas Tag, I knew I needed to get it up as soon as - it just seemed like such a lovely and very fitting festive tag. It's also got me even more excited for Christmas than before which I didn't think was possible.... 

1. What is your favourite Christmas Movie? 
Is it a cliche if I say Elf? It'll always be my childhood favourite, that and the Polar Express - they're just THAT good, I think the x1000 dvd re-runs in school at Christmas over the years also played a major part in it. My two favourite 'grown up' movies, aka not kids films (even though they're the best) are Love Actually and The Holiday & although they're Christmas movies if I could get away with watching them everyday I so would.

2. Do you open your Christmas Presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?

Christmas day always, I always find it nicer waiting until the big day, usually at an outrageous time and everyone unwrapping their presents around the tree. As I'm getting older my presents are usually more expensive and smaller in size, I'm no longer asking for bikes or anything so its nice to open them all together.

3. Do you have a favourite Christmas memory? 
I don't have a favourite memory as such, I actually enjoy every Christmas and the excitement of the day and spending time doing barely anything in a Christmas jumper and having an excuse to eat your weight in chocolate and watch movies on end although one year it did snow on the day and that was pretty magical, just because I've always wanted a proper white Christmas.

4. What is your favourite festive food? 
Does chocolate count? I love the big tins of quality street, advent calendar(s), after eights, terrys chocolate orange, selection boxes, malteaser reindeers, the lot, I think everyone now understands I have a problem with chocolate. On a serious note though nothing can beat a big traditional Christmas dinner, its like a Sunday roast dinner but better (and thats hard to beat!)

5. What tops your tree? 
We have two trees, one main one and a little one so one tree has an angel and the other tree has a star - so we're mixing it up a little.

6. As a kid, what was the one crazy, wild, extravagant gift you asked for but never received?
I think I asked for a massive treehouse one year, funny thing is we don't have a tree anywhere in our garden and it probably would have taken longer than a night for Santa to build. I'm still holding out for the Christmas I wake up and find One Direction under the tree though, a girl can dream right?

7. Do you prefer a real tree or synthetic? 
Surprisingly we've never had a real tree although I love the smell of them so I'd have to say synthetic.

8. What's your favourite scheme for decorating a tree? 
I don't really have a scheme, lights are put on first, then tinsel, then all the sparkly and glittery ornaments second last before the star or angel, The only scheme I maybe have is a colour scheme, I like the traditional red, gold and green - none of the blue and white cold nonsense.

9. Giving or recieving? 
Always giving. I thinks its all a part of it, I love putting together little gifts that I hope people love and decorating them - decoration is seriously important and time-consuming :)

10. Christmas Day fashion? 
For the better part of the morning Christmas pyjamas are a must, its tradition and then after I'm awake and had breakfast I'll change into either a Christmas jumper (which I still need to buy for this year) or else some fancy-ish clothing I've bought for the day. I think it'll be the jumper this year!

11. What's your favourite Christmas song? 
This might quite possibly be the hardest questions ever, I don't have favourites, I just sing along to practically everything Christmas related. I do love Jackson 5's Rockin' Robin though, its just so upbeat and happy.

12. Christmas cards or texts? 
I'm old fashioned and if you've read Tuesdays post (link here) I'm all for Christmas cards over texts anyday - I love sending and receiving them. I do send all of my contacts a Christmas message though as soon as the clock strikes Christmas Day - usually not able to sleep from the excitement of Santa arriving, not long now!

I hope you enjoyed reading and I'm also tagging the following the followers to do this and of course anyone else who wants to (please leave links if you do), I love reading tags :)

Una from lacy floral
Taylor from another fashion fanatic
and Genevieve from vievelle

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo
P.s What's your favourite thing about Christmas?

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Blogmas Day 2: Something a little different

After leaving a sneaky clue at the end of yesterdays post, I'm extremely excited to post today, in fact its probably one of my favourite December's posts to come and its only day two! At this time of year I love giving (and recieving if I'm lucky) Christmas cards and seeing all the different & utterly cute designs on them all. I also love adding my own messages to the card which are usually long but I think it just makes it all the more personal than a 'Mere Merry Christmas' although that's always nice too!

This year I was buying a card for my friend in Hong Kong, sending my first international Christmas card as you will and realised how fun it actually is receiving letters or cards - an art thats forgotten for the use of social media and the internet, sometimes old fashioned is better in this case! As an after thought I did think about blogging and how the community is so friendly over twitter but with all the different timezones its hard to chat to everyone so I thought it would be a nice idea to send Christmas cards to some of my readers (only if they want me to of course, I'm not an oddball). I've seen a few others do this kind of thing and thought it was a wonderful idea.

I'm all for writing letters and learning things about other people and where they live, a real eye opener and all that, in fact I remember having a penpal in primary school or else it was first year of secondary school, from France and it was so interesting but alas it was only for a short period of time, fun as it was. Therefore in the next few days I'm going to write my Christmas cards and cute, probably far too long and waffly messages inside and sending them on the weekend (fingers crossed), just so they arrive in time for the big day - nothing worse than late cards, well except for late birthday cards. So if you fancy recieving or sending Christmas cards you can either leave me a comment letting me know what you think, email me at jennyseverydaylife@hotmail.com or tweet me @JennysEveryday_ :) Hope you liked this post, it was a bit different for me as well!

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo
P.s what do you think about sending things by post instead of social media? Let me know if I'm the only one who prefers harassing the postman for delivered letters

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Blogmas & Daily Blogging

At this time of year theres Christmas posts galore and many youtubers take part in vlogmas, with the blogging equivalent being blogmas and last year I remember reading so many blogging posts and thinking that it would be so fun to do, so this year since its my first Christmas blogging I thought I'd take part and for the next month I'll be daily blogging. I've only tried this once before, the month of June - my birthday month to see if I could do it and it turned out to be a success so I thought I'd try it again, only with the Christmas-sy theme.

Currently I have 60 drafts waiting to be published, (well there was) in fact theres probably way less now that this is posted and a lot of them very Christmassy, can you tell I'm excited? I've decided to schedule a lot of my posts for mid morning so they'll be a set time for everyone to read them (if they fancy it). Also December is a crazy busy month, I've two jobs to balance in which I'm doing as many hours as I possibly can and hopefully I'll begin my placement sometime soon so finding spare time in between all of that will be hard, let alone finding spare time to blog but I'll try my best. I don't want this post to be too rambly, its just simply to let all you lovely readers that I'll be daily blogging in the run up to Christmas and if you do fancy a read, I hope you enjoy them :)

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo
P.s keep an eye out for tomorrows post, its a special one ;)

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