Birthday haul!

I turned 17 yesterday (21st) and despite not having the best of days (it mainly consisted of biology revision and sitting in my room alone with a massive plate of chocolate cake!), I did get a few lovely things from my parents this year that I thought I'd share with you lovely people! 

 1. My Mad Fat Diary by Rae Earl - I've been watching the Channel 4 programme of this book and absolutely fell in love with it, and the book is meant to be just as amazing!

2. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green - I've never read any of John Green's books but have so many good things about his writing. This one is meant to be really sad, but brilliant. 

3. Miranda Hart Is It Just Me? - I looooveee Miranda, I just know that while I'm reading this book I'll have Miranda's hilarious voice in my back of my mind reading along with me :D 

 This set of drawers is originally made for keeping bolts and screws and general DIY 'things' in, but I thought it would be the perfect place to store all my necklaces! I used to hang them on this old metal Christmas tree, but they would get tangled really easily, so I think having each necklace or just a few necklaces in separate compartments, it will keep things a lot neater and save me ten minutes in the morning trying to untangle one! 

 1. My parents know how much I looove Charbonnel et Walker chocolates so I'm so happy they've got me another flavour to try (I'm determined to collect a box for every flavour before I die :)). I've tried one of these already and if I'm honest, they're not my favourite flavour, but they're still quite nice! 

2. I love candles and glitter, so this one is just perfect for me :)

 My lovely younger brother bought me the Les Miserables soundtrack! Ever since I watched the film, I've been humming along the tunes, so now I'm glad to have a backing track accompany me (and drown out my awful singing!) 

 I've been massively into getting-fit-and-healthy recently and have taken up running and zumba, so to get me started, my mother got me these lovely neon orange and grey Nikes. 

 Very Classy by Derek Blasberg - I think this has got to be one of my favourite presents! This book is bascially an instruction manual for 'how to be a lady and not a tramp'. It's hilarious and full of articles and pictures, I love it. 

 Another 2 books to add to my ever-growing collection of ones I still need to read! I love the Pretty Little Liar series and unfortunately we don't have Sky and I'm not keen on trying to find the episodes illegally online, so I've had to stick to reading the books, but they're so well-written and gripping, I read the first 5 so quickly! 

I've been looking for a pair of disco pants for so so long, and all of the pairs I've tried on (namely American Apparel ones, Topshop ones and River Island ones) have looked so unflattering and didn't fit right on me. I almost gave up until I saw this lovely pair in Primark (of all the places!) and found that they fit almost perfectly. The waist is a bit too big, but the legs fit well so I don't mind. 

My mum also got me this lovely pink bag from Primark when I fell in love with it a couple of weeks ago. I think there's such a retro feel to it, I love it! 

I also recieved a surprising amount of money from both my grandmothers and parents, and the most exciting part!! - an iPhone in a couple of weeks! 

I'm unbelievably grateful to my family for this wonderful collection of gifts and feel so cherished. 

I've got my AS Level mocks coming up in a couple of days which I'm dreading, so I was hoping my birthday would be a good excuse for a well-needed break from my work. But unfortunately, after way too much procrastination in the last few days, I felt too guilty to ignore the pile of revision notes I still had to learn, so I sat at my desk for a couple of hours and flicked through my biology notes. 
My parents had left for work before I had woken up in the morning and my mother came home for an hour in the afternoon but dashed out again to meet my dad at his work. They had to go to a dinner to 'celebrate' the anniversary of one of their friend's death's. They didn't get back until about 11:30, so I pretty much celebrated my birthday on my own in my room :P 
My good friend/neighbour bought me a hot chocolate from Costa as a birthday treat though, which was nice :) 

I'm hoping next week goes okay!
I'm really sorry I haven't been very active on this blog, I've just been overwhelmed with work recently but hopefully by March I should have a lot more spare time. 

Lots of love, 

Ellay xxx 

My favourite jewellery!

For today's post, I thought I'd show you a couple of my favourite jewellery pieces! I don't tend to wear many accessories (usually because I just forget to put them on!) but I do have my collection of favourites...

This is my most worn necklace. I got it about six years ago at a zoo in South Africa - coincidentally, the shop I was buying it from was right opposite the elephant 'pen'! I love elephants/ellay-phants so much :) 

I love this little charm - the arms and legs move around and I find myself constantly flicking them whenever I wear it! :) I got it at a Christmas fair in central London about two years ago.

This is an assortment of my favourite string bracelets. The blue one is from a tiny shop in Mauritius that I bought this summer, the one at the top with the little key charm attached is from a stall in Camden Town, and the ying-yang-sign one in the right-hand corner is also from Camden.

This necklace is just adorable! As you can see, it's a little bubble-shaped glass jar of 'sweets'. I saw it in a cute trinket shop in France. The chain is quite long as well which I prefer (short chains can really irritate my neck!) 

I rarely wear rings as I don't think they really look right on my hands, but this bow one is so cute and subtle! I really like the charcoal, metallic colour as well, it goes really well with the sort of clothes I wear. I think I got it in a sale at Boots a year or so ago.

There's a slightly strange story behind the accumulation of this charm. I was on holiday with my family in America (I think) when I was quite young and we were visiting a big play-park for kids. There was a game 'stall' that involved digging through a sandpit, looking for the charms and trinkets that were buried in it and I happened to dig up this fish! I attached a really long, silver chain to it.  

I don't wear earrings very often, but this is probably my favourite pair at the moment - a cute set of gold dolphins. I used to have a pair of tiny horseshoes that I wore all the time and loved to death, but I lost one of them in the shower (hate when that happens!)

*all photos taken by me*

So as you can see, I tend to go for subtle, 'conservative' pieces rather than ones that make a statement, but I'm gradually pushing myself into buying more bold and unique bits of jewellery to add more colour or interest to my outfits! 

Lots and lot of love,

Ellay xxx

Christmas Time!

Hello lovely people,

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas/holiday with lots of happiness and celebration!

I thought I'd share with you little snippets from my great day! 

My brother and I were up at the crack-of-dawn (well... 9:30am) ready to open our presents! After an hour or so, we drove down to my granny's, who lives about an hour away from us and opened yet more presents and had an AMAZING Christmas lunch :D

Then we spent the afternoon watching movies and playing with our gifts.

Overall, it was a brilliant day and I thought I'd show you some of the snaps...

 My lovely doggy snuggled on my brother's lap in the car

 That was good grub... (the turkey's hidden!)

 Chocolate tart... heaven.

And the presents...

I'm honestly so so cherished to have such an amazing family. 

 Chiffon top from New Look, black velvet shorts from Topshop

 Some art books I've been desperate for, Submarine (one of my all time favourite movies!) and The Perks of Being A Wallflower book (another of my absolute favourite movies - I had to get the book to go with it)

 Some beauty gifts! 

Soap&Glory products, Umberto Giannini hair products (came in a gorgeous wash bag), bath fizzers, Moroccan oil shampoo and conditioner and some Lush goodies

 2 sets of 'Sneezums' earrings from my lovely Grandma and an ear cuff from Topshop

 bareMinerals primer and eyeshadows in Rapture, Tiger's Eye and Cream Soda, and 'Studio' smokey eye make up set

 Fairy Dust candle (www.lily-flame.co.uk) that smells incredible, and Taylor Swift's Wonderstruck perfume and handcream that I've been lusting after for so long

 Some amazing food!!! Is it bad that I've already eaten half of the sea salt caramels, marshmallows and Terry's chocolate orange? Oops :D

And my shoes from www.boohoo.com! My mum gave me them early for a dinner I went to at the beginning of December and they're so comfortable! 

I also got a couple of other goodies and some money and vouchers. I'm so grateful for all the wonderful gifts I recieved, I've been so lucky!

I'd love to know what you all got for Christmas! 

Lots of love,

Ellay xxx