Tried and Tested: Christmas Lollies

Zoella's Christmas Lollies

So, I saw Zoe's 'Quick and Easy DIY Christmas Treats' video and these totally caught my eye. I had to have a go! In fact, I specifically remember getting very excited watching these being made and vowing to my friend that I needed these in my life! So here is my attempt...

The more observant of you may have noticed that I'm using milk chocolate, whereas the original video was with white, but what can I say, I just prefer milk chocolate. And instead of using red and green sprinkles, I've used popping candy. POPPING CANDY! (I win.) 

Not going to lie, I struggled at first to find some lolly sticks. They don't regularly appear on my weekly shopping list so I had no idea. But I eventually found a pack of 50 for £2.50 in Cooks, which I didn't think was too bad.

The most difficult part of the whole thing is getting the right consistency with the melted chocolate. My chocolate was still a bit too runny really which is why it's leaked out under the candy canes so I would definitely leave it to thicken for longer than you think it will need before you start to spoon it into the candy came hearts.

(I have no apologies for the Peppa Pig mug!) 

 

So there they are. I think it would definitely take a few practice runs before these look neat and tidy but all in all an exciting little project. Well done Zoe! 

View Zoella's original video here: http://youtu.be/O5YCcyIRXog

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

This is just a quick one. It's been an exciting year and this is 'A Little Space for Elphie's' first Christmas. Thank you to everyone who has even had a quick look at just one post, your support has been amazing.

So from my family to yours, Merry Christmas, have a lovely day, don't get too drunk and have an amazing 2015!

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight! x

Hello Dolly Box

First off, no I'm not going to burst into song (although it is tempting). And secondly, I'm so excited to finally have my little paws on this cutie! 

When I first saw Kate's (DollyBowBow's) video about releasing a brand new seasonal subscription box of jewellery, I decided that this was something that I needed in my life. I've waited a while for this amazing little box to be delivered as they all get shipped out at the same time, but I can tell you that it has been so worth the wait.

When I opened up the plain black box, I thought it was lovely to see a little card from Kate with a few words about why she's picked the pieces inside. And, I'm not going to lie, the little card actually made me feel quite inspired. 

Then inside there are 5 pieces in total, 4 little understated pieces in really sweet tiny bags and a large statement necklace. Totally fabulous, especially since the box only cost me around £30 (including P&P). 

My favourite has to be the little silver bow earrings. They are just really sweet little dainty bows (of course) and are so easy to wear.

For the rose gold lovers out there, Kate has actually included TWO rose gold pieces. The first is a ring and the second a really delicate little bracelet. 

I love the ring I think it looks so good. My only issue is that as it's one size fits all (either as a proper ring or a midi ring)  struggling to know where to put it. Because I have tiny hands it's too big to wear as a midi ring, but the finger that it then feels most comfortable on is a finger that I already wear a particular ring on. But that's just me being fussy.

I've not tried on the little bracelet, which is quite a nice matching piece to the ring, but I'm sure it will be a definite staple addition to an outfit when going out with family.

There's also a necklace on a silver chain with three cute little triangles, one silver, one gold and one rose gold, which is really sweet. In fact, I don't think I've seen anything like it before really. Again another beautiful piece.

And last but not least...the statement necklace! I got very excited when I saw this gold, white and diamanté necklace, in fact I put it on straight away. It's massive but not overly heavy and looks really good with my green evening gown that I've been wearing for a Christmas cabaret performance. 

I don't know about anyone else, but I can't wait for her to bring out the Spring box just so I can have another one. 

Will you be trying out a dolly box? 

Christmas Glad Rags

Christmas is an amazing time. It's this time of year that even a social recluse like me has parties to go to. And having parties to go to isn't always a walk in the park...what the hell do I wear?

My Christmas go to party outfits at the moment consist of monochrome, maybe adding a flash of colour, and a statement piece of sparkle! 

I love dressing up in winter because it always feels so much more formal, whereas when you put on a maxi dress in the summer to go to a wedding or party, I don't know about you, but I still don't fully feel dressed up. 

Over the weekend we ventured out to a family Christmas party, think a big log burner, party games, Christmas food and decorations...basically, Pinterest. But it was a beautiful little night. I put together my little black and white patterned skort from Miss Selfridge (which I actually bought way back in the summer!) with a plain black New Look cami and my favourite Primark statement necklace. Teamed with opaque black tights, my black platform boots, and a bright pink lip, it was a lovely smart casual little outfit.  In fact, I may even resurrect it for Christmas Day.  

The Christmas Tag

I have totally never done one of these before. This one has been floating around for a while and I've seen lots of different people's posts on it, so I decided to get into the festive spirit and answer it for myself.

1. What's your favourite Christmas film?

You're probably going to think that this is a really stupid answer, because I could have said something like 'Love Actually' or 'The Holiday' (both amazing!) but instead I'm going to choose...Die Hard. Yes, it's a film about terrorism and violence, and also features Bruce Willis running around with no shoes on. But I can't help but get that warm Christmassy feeling in my tummy when I hear 'Let it Snow' start playing at the end. Best. Film. Ever.

2. Do you open your presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning? 

Christmas morning. Every time. No exception.

3. Do you have a favourite Christmas memory? 

Yes, I do. I actually have a photograph that sums it up perfectly. It's my Nana's Christmas parties on Christmas Day. She always used to put together a big buffet and the whole family used to come together and exchange presents, my auntie does it now as my Nana is no longer with us. But the photograph I have shows Nana getting all protective over her homemade trifle. 

4. Favourite festive food?

Oh hell yes! Lebkuchen is the best thing in the world, possibly ever! But actually on Christmas Day, my favourite part of my Christmas dinner has to be piggies in blankets. They are those little sausages wrapped in bacon. We always make too many, and I'm not going to lie, that's totally not a problem for me because it just means more for me.

5. Favourite Christmas gift? 

I love my teapot! My mum bought me a little black teapot last Christmas, I mostly use it as a cheaper alternative to a Dr Nelson's vocal steamer, however it's also very useful for tea too. 

I have to say though, an early entry this year may actually take first place. My boyfriend has bought me a memory mattress topper for my bed and it's the comfiest thing in the world! 

6. Favourite Christmas scent?

I don't have a specific Christmas perfume, I just wear the same thing all year round. But although not a perfume, my favourite smell for Christmas is the smell of cinnamon. To be precise the smell of Lush's Melting Snowman Bath Melt which is filled with cinnamon leaf extract, and is my favourite festive smell. So it sort of counts.

7. Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions? 

I spend every other Christmas Eve with each set of parents, so I spend one year with my mum, one with my dad, and so on and so forth. If I'm with my dad for Christmas then we go out for a curry on Christmas Eve every year without fail. If I'm with my mum, then we have Iceland party food and watch a film together before going to bed.

8. What tips your Christmas tree?

A big wire snowflake that I bought last year, I have no idea where I got it from but it's too heavy for the top of my tree so always flops to one side.

9. As a kid what was the one gift that you always asked for but never received? 

I can't think of anything that I didn't get at some point. And that's not because I'm spoiled, it's just because I've never really asked for anything insanely large or expensive. I remember asking for a mobile phone when I was about 10 and being met with A LOT of resistance, but I got one a year later when I was a bit older. 

10. What is the best part of Christmas for you?

If I pick one thing, it has to be seeing my niece's faces on Christmas morning when I drop their presents off because the magic is still completely there for them. I never want them to stop believing in Santa. 

Christmas in Covent Garden

As you can probably already tell by the title (duh) and the photos, I went to London yesterday. Travelling with friends from college, I headed down to Covent Garden for a class at The Royal Ballet School and to sit in and watch one of the second year lessons there. Honestly I've never seen anything like it, the dancers that we saw were only 17 and 18 and it's some of the best dancing I've ever seen. Like, really. 

After we'd finished at the ballet school we got chance to freely roam London, so I thought I'd share with you a few pictures.

The enormous Christmas tree at Covent Garden. It was enormous. I have a picture of me standing in front of it, I'm only 5ft but in comparison you can see just how massive it is.

I loved the giant baubles over the market. It was all very festive. And what is it with Covent Garden and making all of the decorations 30 billion times their normal size? 

Found a big reindeer...not much else to say there...

Then we went off on a bit of theatre spotting. And naturally I just had to have some very stagey, shamelessly touristy photos outside. We took pictures outside 'The Woman in Black' (see the horribly twirly one at the top), 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', 'Mamma Mia' and 'The Lion King'. 

As soon as I saw this I had to get a picture! I saw one of Tanya Burr's vlogmas videos over the weekend, where she was in Covent Garden and she mentioned seeing the Santa, sleigh and reindeer completely made out of Lego, so naturally, I had to go and have a nosey. And yep, I can confirm, it's definitely made of Lego. Amazing! 

As it was starting to go dark, we found ourselves on the South bank looking over the Thames and just happened to see some very famous landmarks. I was stood next to Big Ben when got to four o'clock, and for someone who has never even actually seen Big Ben before, I was obviously very excited. 

Totally just thought that everyone would enjoy a picture of my Porn Star Martini from a bar just outside Waterloo. 

Not going to lie, it was a very festive but very tiring day (note to self: platform boots are not a good idea for wandering round in). None the less, an utterly fabulous day! 

The Tree is Up!

I'm one of those people who turn from Scrooge on the 30th November to Buddy the elf at midnight on December 1st. This means that I don't listen to Christmas music, write any Christmas cards, open any Christmas cards or put my tree up until then. It sort of all happens very quickly within a few hours then.

But this year has been a bit all over the place really, I've been listening to Christmas songs for a good few weeks already (because I'm rehearsing for a Christmas Cabaret and I just couldn't resist) but I've only just put my tree up. The tree that normally goes up on December 1st every year, has had to wait for December 5th instead.

It's this time of year that I realise that my bedroom is saturated with crap that I sort of don't need but I'm not going to throw away because I might need it one day. Putting the tree up means that I have to jiggle about 20 years worth of collected possessions into a best fit so I have some room. So after a bit of a jiggle I had space up in my corner for my little friend. Bang on some Christmas songs, and we were ready to go!

Yes. My tree is pink. I first saw this little tree while out shopping with two of my really good friends, Kath and Joe. After they dropped me at home when we'd finished our shopping, they went back and bought the tree that I had been admiring. BEST FRIENDS EVER! I think all in all it cost them £10 so it wasn't an expensive tree but I love it so much regardless. 

To decorate I picked up some white and coloured LED lights (that operate with a battery pack instead of being plugged in) from wilkos a few years ago, along with the little white, silver and grey baubles. I bought the snowflake that goes on top last year but I have no idea where from. Alls that I can say is that, this little pink tree is proof that you don't have to spend much for a bit of festive tree action for a small room. I think if you add it all together the tree and decorations come to about £20ish and I just keep pulling them out year by year.

I always remember that we'd decorate the tree at home when I was little on a Saturday evening a few weeks before Christmas. Mum would put some Christmas songs on and we'd have a chilled evening decorating the tree. My mum always told me that you have to put whatever is on the top of the tree on last, I don't remember why but I stick to it every year, I guess that's the final finishing touch. 

Christmas baths and festive squirrels

DECEMBER IS HERE!! Crikey it's gone fast. It doesn't seem two minutes since we were celebrating my 20th birthday and now we're planning parties and nights out to celebrate 'the most wonderful time of the year'. 

So today, being the first day and all, I tried to ease myself into the Christmas spirit.

This morning I woke up to, for the first time in 20 years, no advent Calendar!! 

However a cheeky trip to the super market meant that me and my sister now have a Hello Kitty one and A Mr Man and Little Miss one respectively. Winner! 

Over the weekend I treated myself to my first ever Christmas jumper. Yes, I know, it's shameful. But after seeing the Christmas jumper FleurDeForce had on in one of her Christmas videos, I had to track that jumper down. So...after a rummage around in primark, I am the proud owner of a pink spotty festive squirrel Christmas jumper! HURRAH! While I was there I also grabbed a pair of really soft knitted gingerbread man leggings. I then, shamelessly, insisted on wearing them both together around the house. Of course. See the evidence below.

I've also been far too over-excited by lots of Christmas baths. Of course I'm referring to the Christmas range from Lush. There's only a few that I haven't tried from their ballistics, bubble bars and melts selection and I have to say that some of my favourites are the Golden Wonder, Melting Snowman and Star Light Star Bright (the silver star that covers you in glitter as soon as you touch it). I'm also super looking forward to using this little guy (see below) because he's the cutest thing in the world and smells like the Olive Branch shower gel. I just haven't used him yet because he's far too cute.

I also have made a sneaky purchase of the Lush Kitchen, which if you didn't know is Lush's exclusive online range, these are always super limited edition and they make brand new completely different products every week. But once they are gone, that's it. So I picked up a bottle of Ponche (which I fell in love with last year) and some Hot Toddy bubble bars because cinnamon is my favourite Christmas smell and these bad boys are packed with it. 

Making Mondays Better

Argh, Mondays...if Monday was a person I would punch them in the face. Seriously. Just saying. 

It's most people's worst day of the week and usually the thing we normal folk dread more than any other (apart from maybe karaoke, that's pretty scary stuff). Today my Monday was a real mixed bag. It was an early start, which doesn't bother me because I'm one of those really annoying morning people, but when I got outside I did need to de-ice my car. Not the best way to start the day. We then had Christmas decorations at college (including a big inflatable Santa WINNER!) which is fab but...too soon. I had a lovely pasta tea and a really chilled night in with candles and stuff. So although I've not felt particularly fab today (oh hormones, why do you hate me?), I'm just trying to think of the little things, because at the end of the day, they are the bits that make rubbish days so much better. 

So here's my list for today. 

•We had a good sing song at college first thing this morning, surrounded by Christmas decorations. 

•I managed to maintain a relatively healthy lunch. Yes!

•My friend, Dave, volunteered to teach me to play a new instrument because apparently 'it's really easy'.

•I had a bit of time at home to myself with my cute little Sanctuary tea lights and the dogs while I caught up on Geordie Shore and watched a bit of Don't Tell the Bride. 

•I had a good chin wag with one of my best friends in the whole entire world over facebook after not seeing her in a few months.

It's only a short list and they are only tiny things, but all of them have made today a better Monday. Of course this is not the only good things that happened today, but I just want you to focus on even the tiniest things to make a bad- or even an average- day into a better day.

Have a better day everyone x

Current Best Friends

Wow. I have been...absolutely none existent over the past few weeks. I say it all of the time that I'm not going to take a break from blogging and then I go completely AWOL...I apologise.

Over the past few weeks though, I have had a couple of new friendships that have made me pretty happy, I'm not going to lie. Now I'm not talking human person to person friendships, I'm talking about my current relationships with inanimate objects, of course! So I guess this post takes a similar route as a monthly favourites post. Except this isn't monthly...I'll stop waffling and just get on with it.

•Cosy Bootie Slippers

I have waited and waited for autumn/winter to come along so I could live in a pair of these bad boys. I've been wandering round in a pair of ballet pump style slipper through the warmer months and I can honestly say that it's just not the same! I was so glad to get this cute pair for my birthday back in October, and they are so warm and comfy. 

•My Kindle

This is a really new one for me. I've never quite understood the hype on kindles or tablets or anything like that, but when my fella offered me his old kindle (he's just bought the brand new model) I said yes mostly out of curiosity. And it was definitely a good idea. I can put brand new books on it in a matter of minutes and then carry the equivalent of a library full round with me wherever I go without the use of a wheelbarrow. How did I ever get by without one before? I know this is going to make long train journeys so much easier to bare and will be fantastic to take on our holiday come summertime.

•Lebkuchen

These are my favourite Christmas food. We always become the best of friends around this time of year, and although I have to say that it's always a very short friendship (they get eaten VERY quickly) it's forever going to be a lasting friendship. These little spicy chocolate covered gingerbread cakey things are easily the most festive thing you can put in your mouth (minds out of the gutter please). Delicious!

•Eggs

Probably the strangest thing I could ever talk about...Eggs. Yes, you heard it right, eggs. I'm obsessed, I've never been an egg person but at the moment I just can't get enough of them! And no, I'm not pregnant! I've been really enjoying an omelette a few times a week, as a quick breakfast or lunch and in a really short space of time, I've noticed a difference. For one, my nails are so much stronger than they've been in a long time and secondly, my hair just feels so much better, I don't know if maybe that's the protein or not, but whatever is going on, it's working...

•Christmas Cookie Yankee Candle

I'm no stranger to this one. I had some tea lights in this scent last year for Christmas from my boyfriend's parents and it was love at first sniff. You just can't beat the sweet smell that comes off this one. I had this little jar for my birthday and I've used it that much that it's already empty and won't light. Fingers crossed that someone will get me an even bigger jar for Christmas. 

Shopping trip aftermath...

So...yesterday me and my friend, Holly, had a cute little wander round town, did a little bit of shopping, grabbed some lunch, had lots of girly chats and some very nice Christmas Starbucks hot chocolate. All in all a very good day, so I thought I'd show you a few things that I've had new over the past couple of days.

First off, I bought these cuties while I was in Topshop. It was 2 for £9 on all nail varnishes so I had to pick some up. I love Topshop's nail varnishes but I've never actually owned a bottle myself, I always use friend's polishes. I picked up 'War Paint' which is a gorgeous pinky red colour. I hate wearing bright pink on my nails, it just doesn't suit me, but this is different enough to be just right. And then I bought 'Unfold' the matte pastel green colour. I am yet to try matte nail varnishes and the concept still seems a bit strange but I thought I'd give it a go. I went for the pastel green because I'm a massive fan of Tanya Burr's 'fluffy duck' nail colour and this is in a similar ball part. 

Next up, I was in desperate need of a new phone case, so picked this one up in New Look for only £2. It's only a basic plastic iPhone 5 case, but I loved the pink, white and black flower design.

I also popped into Lush to stock up on my all time favourite shampoo 'Daddy-O', a purple shampoo with violet leaf absolute, which is amazing for brightening up blonde hair. I am always in desperate need of this bad boy. And then I picked up 'D'Fluff', a super soft strawberry shaving soap that I've been meaning to try since it came out at the beginning of the year. It smells sweet and soapy and is really mositurising with coconut oil and fair trade cocoa butter, so I'm very excited to try him out.

Now these two weren't actually bought by me, but I thought I'd share them anyway. This gorgeous pink pashmina/scarf and cute little bracelet were actually bought back from Nepal for me, by my step-dad who has just gotten back from climbing to Base Camp at Mount Everest!! Crazy, I know. But he bought me back these little gifts and they are super cute and I adore the scarf, in fact I've already worn it. Thank you!

And last, but certainly not least, is this little guy. This is the cutest phone case in the world ever!! And is a belated birthday present from my boyfriend (he didn't arrive in the post soon enough). I saw these on Etsy about a year ago and have wanted one ever since, so when I got given this yesterday I was very excited! You just pop your phone in his mouth and away you go. He's completely handmade from natural wool (you can these in so many colours) and his eyes and teeth are little beads. Cutest thing ever! (You can find him on www.ethicstyle.etsy.com)

Last minute Halloween Plans

I desperately wanted to do something for Halloween. Apart from the occasional party that I've been invited to in the past, we never do anything for it. We don't even get and trick or treaters, bad times. It's literally just another normal day.

This year was different! Talk about last minute, at 12 o'clock yesterday my best friend invited me out into town, fancy dress, the lot. I hadn't planned for this, and I needed a costume.

 (Insert really annoying, totally shameless picture of my lunch- yes it's lobby, deal with it) 

There are two types of girls on Halloween, the ones who do it properly and the others who dress in 'lingerie and some form of animal ears' (cheeky Mean Girls quote there). I turn out to be the latter. 

Absolutely nothing to do with Halloween, we went on the hunt for leopard print. I ended up in leotard, footless tights, black tutu, leopard print shoes (£9 from Primark, bargain!), studded collar and some sequinned leopard print cat ears that I picked up for a pound. Add some enormous hair, glitter spray, and lots of make-up. And there we are, a cheap and easy, if not slightly slutty, leopard Halloween costume. Sorted.

And there's the cute little shoes for your viewing pleasure. Not the comfiest things in the world, but I can not tell you how long I have wanted a pair of printed shoes. 

Turning Twenteen!

These are scary times. Over the weekend, I turned 20! 20!? I am no longer a teenage mutant ninja turtle. Instead of twenty, we are calling it twenteen or two with a zero, because it sounds so much less daunting. Quite a surprise though was the gorgeous gifts that I had for my birthday. I guess that's one good thing. 

So, two coats (I bought the biker jacket with some birthday money), a pair of platform boots, some make-up brushes, a tangle teaser, bottle of Malibu, a range of Disney DVDs (because we are all a Disney princess at heart), some candles, the naked 2 palette, a complete works of Shakespeare and plenty of other bits and bobs later, I'm 20.

I had a lovely weekend, Saturday night we had a great alcohol fuelled night of dancing out in town, a pasta lunch on Sunday followed by a night of white wine spritzers and fancy food. I've felt very lucky this weekend, have had a fabulous birthday and with the gorgeous messages and cards that I've received, I've been once again reminded what amazing friends I have around me.

Now that is all over and done with, I am back and totally at your disposal. So hopefully, fingers crossed, my blogging uploads will be a little more frequent. 

Hello Golden Wonder

There are times in life when you just need a good soak in the bath. And most of these times, for me at least, only a Lush bath will suffice!

The Halloween/Bonfire Night/Christmas range this year has been so exciting! I think a little bit of wee came out when I found out about all of the pretty things that may or may not be gracing my bathroom this festive season...

I've been eying up the 'Hot Toddy' shower gel since it came out and I am so happy that my all time favourite 'Melting Snowman' has made an appearance. 

Another returning favourite is the 'Golden Wonder'. I didn't get chance to try this one last year, and to be honest I just brushed it aside as something that wasn't going to be my cup of tea. But...how wrong I was.

I dropped this little (actually it's really big) lime and cognac present into my bath and wonderful things happened. We had glitter, colours, bubbles, an amazing smell and even little gold stars. It was pretty spectacular! I'm now also desperate for a pot of 'Celebrate', the hand and body lotion with the matching scent, because it's just a little bit divine. In fact, if anyone would like to buy me the little gift box that has the Golden Wonder and Celebrate in it, then please do, I will love you forever! 

Although it's something that I would never normally go for, this gorgeous sparkly bath bomb really hit the spot. I would even go as far as saying that it's one of my new favourites! Like, seriously! 

Thrifty bedroom extras...

For the majority of people these are far from exciting, but for me, these are the best thing since sliced bread. 

I hate throwing things away, especially if I can see another use for them. And I'm always looking for cute extras to put in my room, ideally that cost as little as I physically possible. So this sort of became a winning formula.

Take my little cute vintage styled bottle 'vase'. Yep it's just a Fentimans bottle that I saved. But how cute are those bottles? 

I've had those fabric flowers for what seems like forever, they only cost a couple of pounds in the first place, but they were looking a bit sorry for themselves in a spare mug that I had lying around. They just needed something to make them more of a feature.

Cue the bottle. Now they actually make a really nice little display on my desk. And alls it took was to save my bottle from lunch one day. This would look good in any sort of bottle, you could use a wine bottle or maybe you're lucky enough to have one of the retro looking coca-cola bottles. 

The second two, housing my cotton buds and cotton pads are actually old candles. I love jars and things like that to use as storage but I desperately don't want to pay nearly £10 for a jar just to keep cotton wool in. 

So instead, this is just an old Yankee candle. When I had completely finished the candle inside, I just melted the wax that was left, removed it, gave the jar a clean inside with some washing up liquid and then it was ready to house my cotton pads. I just did the exact same with the square shaped glass and ta da I had two new containers.

Removing wax from a glass jar. This part can be a little tricky so I thought I'd tell you what I did. It's really simple, you just have to be patient and careful.

You're going to need a bucket or washing up bowl and some hot water. Alls you simply need to do is float the candle jar in the hot water to melt the wax inside, and then you can pull (or tip) the wax out. 

Here's the part that you need to be careful with. Glass does not like heat. So don't just pour boiling hot water around the glass because it's likely to smash or crack. Instead it can be worth floating the jar in lukewarm water first and then gradually (and I mean gradually) adding hot water. That way the temperature of the water increases really slowly, therefore you are much less likely to break the glass. 

If you're trying this, pretty please be careful. Below is what my jar looked like, once you've got the water hot enough to start to melt the wax then it's just a case of waiting. 

Happy reusing!