Happy New Year!

I hope you all have a happy new year and enjoy whatever it is you're doing tonight.

I'm home alone, catching up on Gossip Girl and about to make myself black bean tofu stir fry.

In 2012 I'm planning to blog on a more regular basis.

To kick things off here is the last necklace post of 2011.

Topshop.

I got this at Topshop in the sale for about £3. Bargain!


Enjoy x

Vegan Christmas dinner.

I have my proper Christmas dinner with my parents at home on Boxing day after an eventful morning raiding the sales.
This year we had our dinner at tea time and were lucky enough to have Tofurky, which I bought from the Whole Foods Market, during a recent day trip to London.
As it was Christmas we went all out and made vegan bread sauce and vegan Yorkshire's. Safe to say it was the best meal EVER.

The best money I have ever spent.

SO GOOD.

Pre condiments and gravy.

With condiments and gravy.

Safe to say that I will now be spending the rest of my life trying to recreate this meal. Every year I'm going to nip to London before Christmas and stock up on this beauty. Worth every penny. If only Tofurky was sold in the North East!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!
Hope you all had a lovely day. Though I'd share with you what I've been up to.

Christmas necklace from Thriftola.

Owl 'engagement' ring off Jenny.

Christmas vegan cupcakes by Ms Cupcake, clockwise from top left; triple choc, oh christmint tree (mine), mince pie and apple spice.

Christmas presents - aka spoilt.

Can't wait for my Jake film fest :D

I asked for a Heart Rate Monitor to get serious with my training in the New Year. My dad also gave me a sprouting kit (that he's clearly going to steal from me!)

For Christmas dinner we go up to my Aunty Mary's house (aka YM). Me and my Dad had a jokey bet on to see who could get YM to swear first. I won as she was showing me her joke Christmas present which was a lump of poo. I kept asking her what it was and she said "s**t" hehe. Its always so nice to see everyone, but this year we got to briefly see Aunty Barbara! She's a fan of the blog and usually gets me a necklace so look at what it was :O

Yey!

After YM's we go through to see my dad's cousin and his family in Durham. John Lavery (JL) always gets us jokey calenders, mine are usually "hunks" or something which he finds hilarious and I never use. This year I got this calender:

I think I will use this, bit of a novelty! Thanks JL!

Hope you all had a great time and hope Santa was kind!
I must go to sleep now as I'm one of those sados who goes to the Metro Centre early for the sales.
xxx

I (eye) left my heart in London town.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm getting the train to London. As most of you probably know I went to uni there and LOVE it. A lot of my friends are still there (though many have jet-setted all over the world!) so it will be nice to catch up with them.
I'm going to be staying with Lucy and Harry, my old housemates and lovely good friends. So excited to see them again. Mega excited to watch breaking dawn with Luce (even though we've both already seen it haha).

One of the main reasons I'm going is so I can attend Animal Aid's Christmas Without Cruelty Fayre. I have been going to it for years now! Last year I met Heather Mills (again) and she was lovely and signed her cookbook for my dad's Christmas present.
This year I'm going to do what I always do, stock up on extra yummy vegan treats (esp Ms. Cupcake cakes! It will also be lovely to catch up with her!)

I'm also going to be doing a spot of shopping. Shopping in London is awful at the best of times, but Christmas time is probably the worst. I'll manage though as 2 seconds after stepping foot onto Kings Cross I switch to 'London mode' and become an expert weaver.

I'll obviously not be posting over the weekend (as if I post every day anyways!) but I thought I would leave you a little peak at the necklace I will be sporting. I bought this a couple of months ago now, but it's yet to have it's debut!

Open eye.

Closed eye.

I love this necklace! It's from Topshop and is so quirky and fun. Definitely and 'eye-catcher' (see what I did there?)

Anyway I better get some sleep, got to get up early tomorrow to pack! Ooops!
x

Advent.

Well it's the first of December, which means Advent, which means ADVENT CALENDERS!

As a vegan it used to be hard to find a good advent calender that I didn't have to put sweets/chocolate in myself. Of course today Sainsburys takes care of that for us and sells this advent calender from Celtic for a pretty reasonable £2.49 (or it might have been £2.69?)

Its such lovely chocolate! I had one last year too. My dad also has one :)


Have you got an advent calender this year? x

Nail Art: Christmas Nails.

As today was the last day of November, I decided to practise my Christmas nails.
I used Nails Inc "Edinburgh Gate" which I got as part of my free gift when I spent over £40 on their Gossip Girl collection ;)

What do you think? :)

Weekend crack (picture heavy)

This has been a busy weekend.

On Saturday I went to a blogger meet up in Newcastle called "Girls Day Out Part 2"; which was organised by the lovely Katie from Lady from a tramp blog.
The event was held at the Grey Street Hotel in Newcastle. I didn't take any photos, so if you want to see some go and check out Emma's blog :)

I couldn't stay until the end of the event as I had to rush home to eat my tea and rush back to town to see Hanson play at the O2 Academy.
I went along as my friend was dying to see them and bought my ticket for my birthday present. To be honest I wasn't really bothered about going and wasn't looking forward to it. The only song I could remember was "Mmmbop" which although was a favourite of mine in childhood I was convinced they'd not play it.
I have to hold my hands up and admit that I was wrong as they were REALLY good! They played a few songs which I remembered, including Penny & Me. I was excited by that as my good friend Rob has just had a little girl called Penny.
The did play Mmmbop, as Zac said "I hear someone on X Factor has sang this song, so now we have to play it to do it justice". Thanks Janet!
It was great.
For their encore they sang two of their Christmas songs, which was a lovely way to end the show.
Even though I'm not a child anymore I always find it weird when child stars are adults. I also found it a bit weird that they're all married and all have children. It sort of makes me feel like I'm wasting my life! Ooops!

Anyway, here are a selection of the decent photos I took (the majority of the pics were rubbish, I swear my camera is starting to go).

Sunday saw some great sports news and some heartbreaking sports news. (I'm a sports fan, soz).
I'll start with the sad.
I was shocked and deeply saddened to find out the news that Gary Speed had died. He was a great footballer and an amazing man and will be truly missed by us all. His career was amazing, enjoying times at Leeds, Everton, Newcastle (my club) and Bolton. He was the most capped player for Wales' international team and was doing a good job as their manager.
Earlier in the week I was upset to hear the tragic news that Angie Dowds (RIP!), from the Biggest Loser had sadly taken her own life. To hear about Gary Speed's suicide in the same week, especially the day after seeing him on Football Focus, is just heartbreaking. It just goes to show that you never know what people are thinking and that appearances can be very deceptive.
If anyone is feeling lonely/depressed/alone/anything bad, I urge you to talk to someone and try to get help.

R.I.P.

The good sports news of the day (unless you're Jo-Wilfred Tsonga of course) is that Roger Federer won the ATP World Tour Finals 2011. It was a great match. Federer is probably the best sportsman EVER. Today was his 100th final and winning not only meant he has 6 ATP Championships under his belt (2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010 & 2011; more than any other player), he also collected his 70th title. SEVENTY. Which other athlete, in whatever sport, can claim such unbelievable results?!

At 30, many professional athletes seem to be showing signs of age and start losing their form. Not Federer. He has now moved up to number 3, and could potentially reclaim the top ranking by summer.
I actually love him, not only is he such an amazing player, he is also seems to be such a lovely man.


Anyway, I better stop boring you lot with my love of sports and go to bed. I have my first assessment for sign language tomorrow. Argh! Wish me luck!
x

I shot the Sheriff, but I did not shoot the Deputy.

Last week I was given a Topshop discount card (20%) off my mam that she got in the free Style magazine. I broke my "no spend ban" (as if I ever stick!) to go and buy some Topshop treats.
I got a navy dress with white polka dots, a black & white bag and this necklace which I cannot stop wearing.

Topshop £8.50.

I love it. LOVE.
There was also the same necklace which said "Deputy". I'm really tempted to buy it for my friend Hayley for Christmas to wear on our nights out. We've co-ordinated necklaces on nights out before, but its always been Hayley borrowing mine.
I can't find either on the Topshop website, so hopefully it will still be in store!
x

Belated Birthday.

This is a (very) belated birthday blog post! Ooops!

I turned the ripe old age of 25 on the 4th November, and it was amazing.
I started off the celebrations on Thursday 3rd November by going to see Britney Spears at Newcastle Arena. I'd love to say I saw her live, but I don't think I can as she mimed! It was still amazing though!

I got home to find my birthday bedding on my bed ready for sleep :)

Love Cath Kidston - and love that this is from the children's range which is called "Cath Kids" ha. (If you're wondering that owl is my 'hottie' and I've named it Eglantine after the cute little owl in The Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole)

When I woke up as a 25-year-old I opened my cards etc off my family and then decided to get stuck into my presents off Jenny (and Max). I met Jenny two days before my birthday and was so excited as they were wrapped up so nicely :D

YEY!

 She even made me this brilliant card! So lovely!

I then went volunteering at GVOC (I'm a teaching assistant, helping adults with learning disabilities) and they sang me Happy Birthday :)

I got home to an unidentified parcel. Well, I knew it was off my good friend Lucy (and Harry) as Lucy text me saying she forgot to put the card in. Haha.

There is a lovely owl necklace from Forever 21 and some other great bits and bobs :)

I also had a little parcel and card from my very dear friend Billie who is currently in Berlin (Hi Bill!). It's a lovely hand-made tissue holder in owl fabric :D

I then got ready as I went out for my tea to Jack Sprats in Newcastle with my parents, best friend Hayley and neighbour Yvonne.

I didn't take any photos of the food, so here is a photo of my birthday nails.

The next day was obviously bonfire night. I changed my nails to look like fireworks, but apart from turning out to be a big mess I don't have any photos as my laptop died a few days later so I don't have that pic anymore. Sob.
I had some lovely cakes by Ms. Cupcake. My dad had been to London a couple of weeks prior and came home with 12 cakes (6 for then and 6 to freeze for my birthday weekend). I had a rose cupcake on my birthday, but we ate our way through these on the Saturday.

SO good!

On Saturday night, after spending all day getting ready and still ending up in a rush(!!) me and Hayley went to town to meet some other friends and had a very eventful, but enjoyable night.
Here are some photos.

Me and Jenny in Bar 42. 

Photo of the night is probably this one of me and Lowell (also in Bar 42).

Sorry I haven't posted for a while and then gave a short post, but like I said before my laptop died. Its a bit of a nightmare trying to blog on my slow, small netbook. Also tomorrow I'm going to a blogger meet up and then Hanson (don't ask) so I need to get to sleep!
x

Last post of 24!

Well, this will probably be my last post as a 24 year old! Depressing/exciting!
Tomorrow I will enter my MID-TWENTIES! ARGH! Haha.

I'm changing my nails tonight/tomorrow morning for birthday nails, but at the moment I'm rocking some magnetic nails. What do you think? (ignore the chips, like I say, they'll be gone soon).

Off to Britney Spears tonight!

Bye! x

Gingers!

Hello all!
You might have noticed in a previous post that the lovely online jewellery store Gingers have asked me to be their assistant, helping with the PR and admin side of the business. I won't be getting paid in money for this; I will just be receiving some necklaces which I'm about to share with you.
Before I get into it, I got these necklaces for "free" as in I didn't buy them with my own money. However I obviously earned them (or rather am earning, as I've just got started) due to "working" for Gingers. Having said that, even if I wasn't the assistant, I'd have still bought these items as they're great!

My parcel arrived so neatly this afternoon. Its my birthday tomorrow (wooo!) so at first I didn't know if I should open it. However when I saw the "GINGERS" stamp on the back of the envelop I knew it would be ok :)

Inside was even better, and wrapped so nicely it felt like it was a birthday present. 

HOW CUTE!

:)

First of all I opened the green package, and found this little beauty:

How amazing is this!? So delicate, yet so well made! If you'd like to buy your own Viola necklace it costs a tiny £4 and you can do so here.

Next up is a Robot! This lovely necklace is called Pete. He costs £6. You can buy him, or one of his friends, here.

My necklaces in a group shot :)

Overall I'm really happy with these items. I've never actually had any Gingers jewellery before (a shock/disgrace, I know) but now I'm hooked! The quality is amazing, and the value is mind blowing! These two lovely necklaces would only set you back £10, however most companies would be charging £10+ for just the one item! They're also really fun and quirky items which not many people have, which is always a bonus! They were packaged really well so they wouldn't break in the post; however it has been done in a lively way so even the packaging excites!
The prices are so reasonable it's prefect to treat yourself, or someone you love to a lovely little gift - and would make great stocking fillers for Christmas!
Gingers products are all limited run, so if you like something snap it up quick, you'll not be disappointed!

Overall I'm really happy and excited for more Gingers products/reviews.

What do you think? x