What I Wore New Year's Eve

On New Year's Eve we went to my mum's for the evening, just the four of us. We had curry and played some games and then watched Jools Holland in time for the midnight countdown. It was chilled out but really nice.

I pulled this dress out of the wardrobe, it's really old Scarlett & Jo although I'm not sure I've worn it before. I think I got it from Laura? I'm not sure! It's a tad on the small size for me I think, but it looks fine so I just wore it anyway.

I also, once again, put some make up on. I realised this lipstick matched the dress perfectly so I kept my eyes simple and put lots of layers of this on. It's yet again a Models Own one, one of the minty ones in a tube with a wand applicator. I love it.

Before we went out, trying to get a decent picture of the lipstick but I ended up looking so moody!

The dress, it has chiffon sleeves and a waist belt. I think I have the same style in grey with white spots.

Sitting at my mum's later in the evening

What I Wore December 28th

I went to Manchester on December 28th to meet up with three of the girls I'm still in touch with from 6th form college. We do this every Christmas and it's always a lot of fun. This year we met up in Manchester where Amy lives, we went to the Tea Hive in Chorlton which I've never been to before but I've heard good things about it. I parked easily nearby and waited for my friends.

I had an apple juice and a vegetarian breakfast. It was a muffin with garlic mushrooms, smashed avocado, grilled halloumi, and a poached off, with hollandaise sauce on top. It was fantastic! I then had a hot chocolate and a piece of cake. The cafe has plenty of veggie and vegan options.

And here's what I wore: this Asos dress from a few years ago with this gorgeous green pattern on it. It's been ages since I wore this so it was nice to dig it out!

Boxing Day with the Family

On Boxing Day we went to my grandma's, where my aunt, uncle and cousins were, to swap presents and have food and stuff. It was a lovely day - we had salmon and bread for lunch and then Christmas dinner mark two. We swapped presents - I got a lovely yarn bowl from my aunt and uncle - and relaxed and chatted. Really lovely - we don't see each other often enough.

Christmas dinner the second, this time featuring cauliflower cheese

I don't really like gin but my mum has this orange one which is nice with lemonade

Wearing my Sprinkle of Glitter skirt and a top from Yours

Me and my gorgeous cousin Peter - I try to get a photo like this every time I see him <3

What I Wore Christmas Day

I had ordered this dress at the same time I ordered the one I wore for my aunt's party, and decided I would keep it for Christmas. My mum finds our house cold so we keep the heating on quite a lot when she's here, so I knew I wouldn't need a very thick dress. I liked the summery feel of this dress. I bought the cream cardigan on eBay for a few quid, but I didn't like it very much so my mum ended up taking it. The dress is from Simply Be/Label Be.

The dress is a nice stretchy fabric with somewhat of a sheen to it, and I found this really comfortable and easy to wear.

A Few Pictures from Christmas

Like I said, we were at our house for Christmas, for only the second time since we moved in here in 2004! My stepdad has never spent Christmas here! It was nice, really lovely to be in my own home instead of at my mum's. Lee made Christmas dinner with a little help from the rest of us. We actually cooked the turkey on Christmas Eve which was much better. We'd ordered a turkey crown but Asda ran out so gave us a turkey instead.

We had cheese and crackers and pate and salmon and stuff to start with, then a full turkey dinner with bread sauce, stuffing, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, pigs in blankets, parsnips, carrots. I love Christmas dinner! Then I made lemon cheesecake for dessert.

I got some lovely presents including two bottles of champagne, a Build a Bear kitten, books, a couple of scented candles. Really nice things! I haven't tried the champagne yet, but I did get another bottle for my birthday! It's a total indulgence because I really like champagne but would rarely if ever buy it for myself. I've also never had a Build a Bear - they didn't have any shops round here when I was young, but I've been thinking for years that I should treat myself to one, so when my mum and I went Christmas shopping I asked for one so we went in to build her. It was a lot of fun!

As you can see she's dressed as Rey from Star Wars. She smells of bubblegum! I liked her whiskers and the colour of her

The table all set. The stockings have little gifts in them, I did them this year although my mum and I take it in turns. I love my wine glasses, they're for "best" so I don't use them often

These are my best plates, too. They were wedding presents

Dinner!

One bottle from my mum and one from Lee

And these are all the books I got! Lee bought me the top one, my friend Laura bought me the middle two, and my friend Sarah bought me the bottom one, which I've already read :)

What I Wore December 24th

On Christmas Eve we were still in Durham. Lee's mam made hot beef sandwiches and we gave the kids their Christmas presents and stuff. I always love these days before Christmas in Durham, they're so busy and full of people.

I took this picture of Lee and his brothers, it's not often they're all in the same place so I snapped a picture. Unfortunately Andrew has his eyes closed...!

Debz had reminded me that I own this pink skirt from H&M. It's similar to the Sprinkle of Glitter one, but is plain, and pinker. I decided to pair it with this top from Yours that I bought recently, I've posted it before.I liked this outfit, I thought it was very festive. I took this photo when we got back home. My mum and stepdad were at ours for Christmas so they arrived about 6pm and we all had tea together.

My stepdad struggles with stairs so we said my mum and he could have our bedroom and we would sleep upstairs in the attic. Ivy was very confused! She slept on my head and woke us up at 5am because she was cold, so we put the space heater on. Do you like my festive bedding?

What I Wore December 23rd

Two days before Christmas Lee and I made our annual trip to Durham to see Lee's family. We had arranged to go out with all his immediate family - two of his three brothers, two sisters, his mam and stepdad, dad and stepmam, and all the siblings' families and so on. I think there were twenty of us all together! Oh yes our friend Paul came too, we usually invite him as he's just part of the family now. We had lunch in a pub near the city centre, it was okay, the pudding was a disappointment for me. But never mind, it was nice to see everyone.

Afterwards we went back to Lee's mam's house and swapped presents with her, Lee's stepdad, and one of his brothers. Lee's mam had bought me my Leuchtterm notebook that I mentioned in my last post, and another diary that I'm using as my datebook. We bought Lee's stepdad an 80s quiz game so we played that, which was fun.

We went to Lee's dad's to see him for a bit before bed.

I actually remembered to take some make up with me so I put some on just before we went to the pub. Did I say I discovered a bunch of lipsticks from Models Own that I'd forgotten about? This red one is one of them - it's a matte one with a wand so really easy to apply. I used a lipliner too because it really helps to keep lipstick in place. This stuff is weird - it tastes and smells minty! It looks good though, right?

I wore this Scarlett & Jo skirt which always looks great and which is warm enough for the winter. On our way out of the door in the morning I plucked this gorgeous raspberry jumper out of the drawer. It's from Joe Browns and I love it, it's a bit weird but I'm glad I've pulled it out again.

I kept my eyes really simple with just a bit of gold eyeshadow, to show off the lips more

You can argue that the raspberry jumper doesn't go with the blues and greens of the skirt but.... I don't care

Navy t-shirt on top!