brighten up your winter

So it's still winter in the UK. It's the time of year when the months start to drag, it feels like it's been cold forever and all you long for is a bit of sun! Now, I don't mind the cold as much but I am definitely fed up with the grey dull days.

On that note, today's post is all about bright and happy winter clothing - so you can keep warm and feel like it's summer all at once. Who says you can only wear bright colours in summer?

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Just realized 3 of these are from Mango..they obviously have a good jumper selection.


What bright colours do you like to wear at this time of year?

Review: Loreal Volume Million Lashes Excess Mascara

Today's face #1

I went for pretty minimal make up today. I do usually wear slightly heavier eye make up but I wanted a change and I think this eyeshadow by Vivo from Tesco is a pretty colour. I'm still not sure how I feel about the Wake Me Up foundation by Rimmel. Some days I really like it and I do find myself wearing it a lot because it applies really easily. On the other hand I'm not entirely sure about the colour match and it can look a bit sparkly in bright light! The concealer, however, is lovely and a really nice brightening formula for under the eyes. I used my trusty Mac Eyebrow Pencil in Spiked and have gone back to my Loreal Telescopic mascara which gives great length. I finished it off with this Blush by Elf in the colour Glow, it's a really pretty pink/coral colour with gold shimmer so it doubles as a highlight. Finally I just went with this nude gloss by MUA on the lips

I'm loving...candles

I'm a little bit obsessed with candles and home fragrance at the moment and I'm always on the look out for something to make my home smell nice. In winter especially, when it gets dark and cold outside, it is great to be able to curl up with a book or watch TV with some lovely smelling candles burning in the background. I have found a few new things in the past couple of weeks that I wanted to share with you.

Firstly this Mimosa candle that I found in HomeSense for £4.99! It smells lovely and really fills the room as well which is great (bear in mind I have quite small rooms). It also burns very evenly and doesn't leave a big hole in the middle of the candle (which really annoys me). I think this was an absolute bargain and generally think HomeSense is a great place to find candles.

Next is this candle from Muji. I have been eyeing up these Muji candles for a while as they are super affordable at only £3.50. This one smells quite different to any other candle I have had in the past - as the name would suggest its a woody smell and is great for this time of year, especially if you aren't into really sweet winter scents. It says the burn time of this is 18 hours but I think it may last longer than this, as I have already burnt it for a good few hours and it has hardly gone down at all.

Lastly is my oil burner, which I don't actually burn oil in, but Yankee Candle Wax Tarts. I love this because I can pick and chose different smells and it really makes the whole house smell yummy. I bought ten wax tarts of my choice on Ebay for £9.99 and have been enjoying them all so far. At the moment I am burning a mixture of Warm Spice and Spiced Orange which make a great combo. I just break a bit of each tart off, put it in the oil dish, light a  candle below and when they melt together they create a lovely smell!

What candles or home fragrance are you loving at the moment? Any recommendations? Let me know in the comments.

lazy sunday

Back to work tomorrow after 2 weeks off for Christmas. I've had a pretty chilled day today and have been spending my evening so far browsing blogs and pinterest while listening to some relaxing music. I thought I would share some of my favourite "pins" and if you want you can view my boards here.

all images via pinterest.com

I know this is very picture heavy but sometimes I found it really relaxing just to browse through nice images so I hope you enjoy looking at my selection :)

Hope you all have a lovely week

Happy New Year!

I'm sitting writing this post feeling a little bit worse for wear after my friends new year's eve party last night. I've been sleeping most of the day so I decided it was about time to do something productive! A lot of things changed for me in 2012. I graduated from University, I moved in with my boyfriend and I started a new job. All these things combined meant that I have been a bit lax on the blogging front! I want 2013 the year that I really start blogging more regularly and about things that I really want to blog about. I'm not sure exactly what direction my blog will take but I'm excited to start being more creative and connecting (hopefully) to more people.

I never really set proper resolutions for the new year but really felt that 2013 is the year for a few things to change. So I'm going to share them on here and hopefully that will help me stick to them.

Source: weheartit.com

1. Blog more

I touched on this above but I really want to start making the most of this blog. I think sometimes I can over think things and start worrying that no one will be interested in what I want to write about, but this year I want to worry less about that start sharing things that I want to share. I want to include more photography, lifestyle, food, books and so on.

Source: weheartit.com

2. Start Yoga

Now I normally say to myself at the beginning of January that I will do more exercise but never manage to keep it up (surprise, surprise). This year I thought I would make it a bit more specific and say I would start doing Yoga. I'm not your natural exercise junkie but I enjoy doing yoga and think it could be something that I can really get into. I have been enjoying following YouTube videos and have put together a playlist with some of my favourites here. I'm not sure whether I'm going to join a class but it's something I'm definitely considering. I'm incredibly inflexible and have a job that involves sitting at a desk for a lot of the time so I'm hoping yoga could really help my posture etc.

Source: weheartit.com

3. Take more photos.

I used to be really into photography as a hobby however it all kind of stopped a bit since I started University but I would really like to start again. I'm not any kind of expert but it's just something I enjoy. That's all to say on that one really - it's pretty self explanatory!

And that is all of my new year's resolutions. I didn't want to make too many because I knew I wouldn't be able to keep them.

What are your resolutions if you made them? Any tips on how I can keep mine?

Hope you all have a great 2013!