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 This set of drawers is originally made for keeping bolts and screws and general DIY 'things' in, but I thought it would be the perfect place to store all my necklaces!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 

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

Christmas time!

December is probably my favourite month of the year. There is this constant anticipation for the 25^th, lots of planning, decorations everywhere, and cheesy Christmas music blaring out of the speakers in every shop. It’s so festive and everyone’s generally in a much happier mood as well, which is a bonus :) 

Friday was the last day of term at school for me and it was completely holiday-orientated, it was great! We started off with a whole-school music competition, lots of different groups performing songs and ballads. Typically, my team, or ‘house’ as we call them, came last, but ‘it’s not the winning that matters, it’s the taking part!’ but I didn’t take part… so that mantra doesn’t apply. Then we had our annual Christmas pantomime done by the lower sixth (my year), which I again did not take part in, but I was secretly jealous of the amazing costumes and hairstyles involved!

Then I went out for a lovely lunch with four of my friends and we enjoyed some final jokes and banter before going our separate ways for a few weeks, travelling off to different parts of the world and doing different things.

I’ve been disappointed in myself this year though. Normally the excitement has started building up and the decorations are all over the walls and furniture by the end of November, but the tinsel box hasn’t been touched, nor have many cards been sent off and the Santa hat remains stuffed at the back of the cupboard. 

But despite my un-festive spirit this year, there are many, many things that I’m looking forward to doing now that it’s the Christmas holidays…

Christmas movie marathons

A bunch of mates, mugs of hot chocolate, blankets and a stack of Christmas-related movies – the majority of what I’ll be doing this holiday!
Movies in my pile include (and I’m all for cartoons and kiddy ones)…

♛The Polar Express

♛Elf

♛Love Actually

♛Shrek The Halls (so brilliant…)

♛Fred Claus

♛Home Alone

Wrapping up

Fashion-wise, winter is my favourite month. It’s all about the layers, the hats and scarves and gloves, the jumpers, the snuggly boots. I love wrapping up all cosy and warm and looking like I’ve stepped out of the house in half of my wardrobe.

Snow

I absolutely adore snow; I could spend all day in it if it wasn’t so cold :P And obviously, there’s only a possibility of waking up to a white blanket of the stuff in the dead of winter. A snowy Christmas day, for me, is like a dream come true. There’s just so many magical and fairytale qualities to snow, it’s just amazing and I think it really completes the ‘Christmas experience’.

My dog loves snow!

Christmas songs

A Christmas playlist full of cheesy, oldie songs is an important ingredient to the perfect Christmas.

Some of my favourite are…
♛  Fairytale of New York – The Pogues

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jbdgZidu8
♛ White Christmas – Michael Bublé

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OsgqpnuizY

♛  Shake Up Christmas – Train

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-8VCL4uSUc
♛  Christmas Lights – Coldplay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1rYmzQ8C9Q
♛   All I Want For Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXQViqx6GMY

The food

I think most people can agree that the food around Christmas time is some of the best all year! I honestly look forward to the turkey, crispy roast potatoes, stuffing, ‘pigs in a blanket’, mulled wine, Christmas pudding and trifle for months! My family and I rarely eat meals together, so it’s a rare treat to have my parents, brother, grandmother and uncle huddled round the table in front of the fire with our little paper crowns on, pulling crackers and digging in to some delicious nosh.

The decorations

Who doesn’t love having their house covered in tinsel and paper chains, with a massive green tree in their front room? I also love going past houses covered in those pretty blue and white fairy lights with wreathes hanging on the doors and lit-up Father Christmas and Snowman faces in the windows!

And of course… the presents!

The exchanging of gifts on the 25^th is the perfect end to the Christmas period. As nice as it is receiving them, it’s also just as satisfying seeing someone’s face light up in joy when they open the present that you bought for them!

What do you enjoy about Christmas?

Lots of love and hugs,

Ellay xxx

(all photos are mine, taken last winter)