Festive Photo Diary

With the new year bells set to ring in just over 24 hours I thought I would take the opportunity to share a bunch of festive snaps from my iPhone before Christmas becomes a distant memory of 2015. I can't believe we have only one day left of this year but before completely moving on from all things red, sparkly and good enough to eat (quite literally), I thought I would share just a few of my favourite photo moments from my best month of the year!  

 1. I was invited along to a winter skincare workshop at Kiehls on the 1st of December to hear all about their hero products and best sellers. We left with this lovely goody bag to try out a few of their products which included the cutest mini candy cane I ever did see.

1. Decorating our Christmas tree - of course, a Christmas jumper and festive tea was essential. 

2. Festive choc chip cookies - if you want to know how I baked these check out this blog post. 

3. Enjoying some wine after successfully decorating our first Christmas tree together. It's so pretty and I don't think I can face taking it down in the new year! 

4. Some festive nail painting. I always need a little sparkle on my nails in December.

1. Work Christmas party outfit. I picked up this two piece from Missguided in the sale for a bargain £16. The shape was really flattering and despite being bodycon it was incredibly comfy #bonus!

1. A quick flatlay of my outfit. Shoes are Public Desire and handbag is from Love FRMS. The handbag is a bang on copy of the velvet Chanel handbag and I'm in love! 

2. One of my favourite nights of the festive season - visiting the Christmas markets and people watching at George Square. If you're needing to get into the festive spirit this is by far the best way to do it and is a must every year for me!

3. Enjoying breakfast with Santa. 

4. My holiday nails - matt burgundy with plenty of sparkle. Two weeks on and I've not lost one single diamanté - very impressed!

1. This year's Christmas wrapping. I lurrrrve brown paper with ribbon and accessories, I think it's just so chic and pretty! 

1. Another festive night on the town going for dinner followed by cocktails in Anchor Line. I really like Anchor Line - the interior reminds me of a New York bar or something so if you wanna transport yourself to the big apple head there. 

2. Prosecco, prosecco and more prosecco. 

3. A last minute Primark purchase. This dress was only £7! It's super cosy and was perfect for our annual ice-skating trip to George Square on Christmas Eve. 

4. George Square at Christmas is my absolute favourite!

 1. A lovely gift just in time for Christmas from Kiehls. They've collaborated with Tinie Tempah to bring a limited edition bottle of their ultra facial cream to support MTV's Staying Alive Foundation. For each bottle sold, they will be donating £2 to support the foundation against aids. It's a great cause and the product is also fantastic.

1. Every year my sister and I get matching PJs to wear on Christmas Eve. Silky PJs are our fave and this set from Boohoo was perfect! Plus my adorable little brother showing off his new Christmas PJs. 

2 & 3. Enjoying a brisk walk in the sunshine in Edinburgh. Sunny days have been few and far between this winter so I grabbed the chance for a ten minute walk outside!

4. Christmas Day OOTD. I wore a black Primark velvet skirt with a cropped black Topshop vest with a little fur shawl for added Christmas glamour.  

1. And finally, a festive night in with my girlfriends called for some pretty prosecco cocktails. I found this recipe on Pinterest and it was definitely a hit. Just prosecco a dash of cranberry juice, a few raspberries and mint leaves and you're done. Think I'll be re-making these to ring in the bells tomorrow!

I hope you liked my Christmas photo diary. I'm so gutted Christmas is over for another year but I guess that's the beauty of it and what makes it so special every year. Thankfully I have some pretty exciting plans for the new year to avoid those pesky January blues. After a short week back at work I'll be jetting off to Dubai and Thailand for two weeks of sun, sand and sea with my bestie! Only 10 days to go!!

Happy New Year when it comes!

XoXo

Last minute DIY Christmas cards

If there's ever a time to get creative it's Christmas. I always love to give the gift of something homemade and think Christmas cards are an easy and fail safe option. The last time I made my own Christmas cards was back when I was at Uni, about four year ago, so I thought it was time I gave it another go.

I love everything that sparkles at Christmas and so I opted for simple glitter designs on brown paper cards. The cards are so simple to make and so far they've really impressed my friends and family. I picked up the glitter, glue and brown paper card/envelopes from The Range. That store is just heaven to me. I honestly think I could spend a full day in there. Gorgeous pieces with a very affordable price tag = my kinda shop.

After a little Pinterest search I had my design ideas set. I hope you like the cards and hopefully they inspire you to get creative before Christmas! Can't believe we're now in single digits!! Say what?!?

 

   

I'm on my last working day of the year... eek! And what better way to kick off the festive holidays than going to see Elf at the Loch Lomond drive-in cinema. I've got my Christmas jumper and festive blanket at the ready!

XoXo

Christmas gift for the cookie lover

Anyone that knows me knows that cookies are high on the list of things that make me happy. If I'm craving something sweet, give me a cookie. If I'm having a bad day, give me a cookie. If you want to be my friend, give me a cookie and we'll be friends for life. So yeah, cookies are pretty great in my eyes, so I thought I would bake some for the festive season. These little festive cookies make the perfect gift and the fact that they're home-made makes for extra brownie points.

For me, when it comes to gifts it's all in the presentation so I decided to wrap these delicious gooey cookies in a little red ribbon and voila, a Christmas treat your friends will love you for.

For my cookies I pretty much followed Tanya Burr's cookie recipe without the cocoa powder. I did have one trial and error though. Let's just say, my perfectly cut star cookies came out the oven looking almost unrecognisable. So a little tip from a dear friend of mine is to cut the cookies once they've been in the oven. That way you can gift cookies in a festive shape that someone might actually recognise..

So for this recipe you will need:

• 200g butter
• 300g caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• 275g self-raising flour
• A big bar of Dairymilk chocolate 
• A big bar of white chocolate Milkybar

To make the cookies:

• Heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius
• Cream together the butter and sugar
• Crack in the egg
• Stir in all the dry ingredients
• Add in all of the chocolate - at first I simply broke the chocolate in squares but I would advise actually cutting this in half again 
• Butter a baking tray
• Spread a thick layer of the cookie mix over the baking tray
• Cook in the oven for 8-10 minutes
• Once cooled slightly use your cookie cutter of choice and get those cookie shapes. Be careful here as you don't want to ruin the shape 

 

As you can see I only ended up using the star cookie cutter as the reindeer was just too small and we lost a few legs on the ones we did try!

I hope this give you a little bit of Christmas baking inspiration!

XoXo

A peek at my Christmas decorations

As I think I've mentioned in about every post for the last month, I'm damn excited for Christmas. So much so, that I dragged The Boy out in early November (yes, early November) to pick up decorations for our tree. With Christmas tunes blaring and fairy lights covering every isle of the store it felt like Christmas could be six days away as opposed to six weeks. Nevertheless, I got right into the festive spirit and went a tad spend crazy on some sparkly decorations - how can a girl resist something so sparkly! We decided to go for a gold and white theme - two of my favourite colours - as I thought it would fit well with the décor in our home.

For the trip, we visited Rouken Glen garden centre after seeing the beautiful decorations my sister picked up from there last year. I really love a tree that gets people talking by mixing it up with lots of shapes, figures and styles. Look how pretty!!!

I'm soo super excited to put our tree up today and finally hang these beauties for all to see. I'm seeing the Michael Buble Christmas album on full, Christmas jumpers making their 2015 debut and arguments over who gets to put the star on the top of the tree. Fingers crossed we actually have enough to cover an entire tree! I would love to know what bauble is your favourite? I'm so indecisive but I think mines is the gold glittery ski boot or the set of doe.

XoXo 

Effortless winter outfit

In the midst of grey skies, constant rain and dropped temperatures, I thought the winter sun was gone for good so you can imagine my surprise to wake up last Sunday to a picture perfect (quite literally on this occasion) winter morning. Despite suffering from a slightly fuzzy head following a day out in Edinburgh on Saturday with the girls, I pulled myself together, slapped on a little make-up, and headed out to get some pics. Finding the opportunity to get outfit pictures in the winter can be near impossible with the darker days/general crappy weather so I simply couldn't miss out.

A dress is an effortless way to look stylish in the winter and I love this one I picked up in Forever 21. The fact that it is burgundy - my fave colour of the season - is just an added bonus. Paired with my knee high leather boots and black duster coat, I was good to go.

Dress - Forever 21

Jacket - New Look

Scarf - Zara

Boots - hand-me-downs from my mother dear

Glasses - Quay Australia

I can't believe we've reached the most festive month of the year - roll on the guilt-free chocolate binge, glittery-outfits and bubbles at every opportunity. I genuinely don't think I've been this excited for Christmas in years. I'm heading out to get the last of my Christmas decorations today ahead of decking the house out this weekend. A new home = lots of exciting new decorations which I plan to share with you all next time!

I'm hoping to squeeze in as many Christmas-y themed posts before the big red guy arrives on the 25th so you have any suggestions of what you would like to see, I'd love to know!

Seasons greetings everyone!

XoXo

Some me time

In my day to day life, I'm surrounded by people at almost every hour of the day. I love being in the company of my loved ones more than anything in this world but occasionally I crave a little alone time - you know, just a wee hour here or there to walk around the house naked... JOKES! Don't worry there's no Rachael Green naked strutting going on at the Ahmad/Reid household.  What I really spend my time doing is painting my nails, listening to music, scrolling Insta and reading a magazine. So when The Boy told me he was going to Liverpool for a few days of work I decided to request a holiday, pack my bags and follow him down south. Woop.

There's nothing better than a new set of PJs to set you off for a weekend of, well lets face it, slobbin! I'm quite picky when it comes to choosing my sleeping attire - they have to first and foremost be comfy AF. This is actually a general rule for everything I wear in life.... sucking in your stomach for nine hours of the day is not my idea of fun. If it ain't comfy I ain't wearing it! Secondly, they need to be pretty - when I'm not looking my best I want something that will act as a good distraction from my shockingly pale face and scruffy hair. Finally, they need to be cheap because who wants to spend lotsa $$$ on something they sleep in.

I've recently become obsessed with silk pyjamas, I personally thing they look so chic on. Plus, you probably wouldn't think it but they're actually really cosy and for a cold blooded soul like myself this is essential. I couldn't believe my eyes when I spied this pair in Primark the other day. Silky, cute pattern and at a bargain price of £9, I was sold.

I've completely fallen in love with Liverpool. I think I can go as far as saying it's my favourite city outside of Glasgow. We're staying at The Hilton at Albert Docks and I would highly recommend staying here if you ever visit the city- it's the perfect location.

It's our last day here and my schedule is wide open so if you have any recommendations of where I should take my little booty today I would love to hear them?


XoXo