Body Shop nail polish

My friend Sarah bought me two Body Shop nail polishes for Christmas, and a couple of weeks ago was the first chance I had to use one. This shade is, I think, 620 Got The Blues and is available along with a whole host of other delicious colours from here.

In the sun this polish is pure blue, but in the shade it's got a lot of lilac in it. I like it either way though!

Book Reviews for January

I've decided that I'm going to do a monthly round up of what I've read each month. I am concentrating on reading more books this year - last year I only managed 40some which just isn't enough for me. I would like to get to 52 this year. We shall see!

I'm on Goodreads here, feel free to add me and recommend stuff to me! I read in many genres - I love Young Adult as that's my MA specialism, I like crime writing, I like literary fiction, and I like plain easy reads, especially about women and their lives. I like non fiction about people's real lives, too.

I have so many books - in fact one day I might do a post about my bookshelves. I say MY because nearly all our books are mine - Lee doesn't read much. He likes Stephen King and non-fiction, but that's about it. I also have a Kindle with TONS of books on it that I've collected for free over the 3 years that I've had it. I swap between the Kindle and a paper book and have no preference for either - I love them both, for different reasons.

I've kept a list of books read for a few years now, but this year I'm adding whether it's an ebook or a paper book or from the library. I'm adding the date that I finished. I rarely tandem read, so mostly it will show how quickly I've read a book. I'm excited to see what the year brings!

Here's what I've read this month:



1) This is a Dan Brown-esque novel about the Romanov family, saying that Alexei and Anastasia survived the massacre at Yekaterinburg, and that in the present, Russia is trying to elect a new Tsar, and an American lawyer must rush to unravel the truth. I like conspiracy novels like this so I enjoyed it.
2) I read Animal Farm when I was a teenager but hadn't read it since then. I devoured this (it is short) and enjoyed the reread.
3) This was an anthology of new women writers and was a mix of poetry and prose. I really enjoyed all of the stories and a lot of the poetry, and I like to support new writers.



4) I loved the Ramona books when I was small and recently bought them on eBay for less than £10. They're so funny, and clever. I recommend them for small children
5) This has been all over Young adult forums and I got it on Kindle to see what the hype was about. It was interesting. It broke all the rules of YA fiction! I did like it, but with reservations
6) I don't read many classics but I liked this one, it was an interesting story.



7) I got this for free on Kindle and it was a nice enough story. I liked the main character and the setting. We need more boys in YA, so I liked it for that
8) Again I read this when I was small and loved it. I found it while tidying recently and read it. It's one of the better Blytons, I think.
9) I bought this in a charity shop a couple of years ago and picked it up on a mooch around my bookshelves. I've read The Outcast by Sadie Jones and enjoyed it, but this is very different in style. A lot of people hated it - I didn't, but it is a very odd book.

What have you been reading this month?

What I Wore January 24th

On Saturday January 24th Lee and I had a lazy morning, had showers, and then we went out. Our first stop was Frankie & Bennys for lunch, which was delicious, and then we headed to B&Q to order our new kitchen. We had one priced up in November, but over Christmas I changed my mind on both the cupboard doors and the worktops. The assistant in B&Q was very helpful though, and we ordered it.

Then we went to Curry's where we bought me a tablet! It's an Asus MeMoPad, and it is PURPLE. By coincidence my laptop is an Asus too (it is PINK). I'm not too au fait with it yet, but I love it already.

Anyway here's what I wore to go out in. I got this dress in the Asos sale in around October. It's an unusual dress, and the fabric is unusual too, but I do like it. I paired it with this cropped jumper from New Look that I've had for years.

What My Mum Wore New Year's Eve

While I spent New Year with Lee, my aunt, uncle, cousin and grandma, my mum and stepdad went to York for the night. My mum wore this outfit during the day. The jumper is from Red Herring at Debenhams and she got it in the sales after Christmas. It's cute, isn't it?

New Year holiday

At New Year Lee and I went away with my aunt, uncle, one of my cousins, and my grandma. We had a cottage in the Derbyshire Dales and although they went for a whole week, Lee and I just went for four nights. We cooked two nights and we just had a really nice relaxing time. In fact lots of the time was spent like this:

Lee and my aunt concentrating on a jigsaw while I read.

This photo was taken just before we ate one night. I am not sure why my cousin is pulling that face!

You can't see my dress very well here so I'll take a better photo later, but it's from Asos and it's really lovely. 

Birthday post 2

These photos are from Sunday evening, when we had cake and wine (while I was in my nightie, I must point out), and from Monday where on our way home we went to a little town called Helmsley that I love. In the evening I went to Las Iguanas in Meadowhall with Lolly, Sarah, and Philippa, and Lee.

I do like to make my birthday last, what can I say?!

Cake and wine at 10pm on Sunday

There was a lake with lots of ducks in Thornton-le-Dale and on Monday morning we went to feed them. Some were so tame we could feed them from our hands!

This was the hot chocolate I had in Cafe Crema in Helmsley

And here's Sarah and I in Las Iguanas (photo by Lolly)

Here's Lolly and Philippa looking gorgeous

And here's the free cocktail I had! I must have signed up to Las Iguanas last year or something, and I got sent a voucher for a free main course. When we arrived, I got the main course AND a free cocktail! I was spoilt and it was delicious.

Birthday post 1

You've already seen what we did on the Saturday of my birthday weekend, so I thought I'd show photos from the rest of the time. We went to Scarborough on the Sunday. Scarborough is one of my favourite places so I was looking forward to going. We parked right on the seafront in south bay given that it was winter! There were still quite a few people around though.

Scarborough sea front, photo by my stepdad

The red tiled building is Ask, where we ate lunch (it was yummy)

We went into the amusement arcade and played pool a bunch of times, played on lots of the machines, and generally had fun 

This is the strawberry ice cream milkshake I had in the Harbour Bar

And here's Scarborough beach in all its cold glory!