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

Getting fit the fun way

At the beginning of the year I set myself a challenge (or new years resolution if you will) to have fun with fitness. After joining a gym at the beginning of 2014 to get fit for my sisters wedding I wanted to experiment with exercise and find something that didn't leave me clock watching my entire workout.

First up was hot yoga. Feeling inspired by all the yogis on my Instagram feed I signed up for a 30 day trial at Bikram Yoga in Glasgow's West End. Even though I wanted to love the class there was a little incident that left me wary.  Let's just say that half way through the very sweaty 90 minute class the room went dark, my face went white and I was told to 'SIT DOWN'.... lol. So, after my first near-fainting experience I really felt myself holding back and to be honest just not enjoying the class as much as I hoped.

Next up is one of my greatest loves - dancing. I managed to find an amazing teacher called Yasmin (fabulous name if I do say so myself :P) who teaches a contemporary / hip hop style class on a Monday night. Every week there is a new routine and I always LOVE her choreography. Me and the bestie also tried out her heels class - I couldn't believe how hard this was! After watching this amazing French trio effortlessly strutting it out to Beyonce I didn't think it would be too difficult but oh how wrong I was - dancing in heels is a lot harder than you would think! I've not been to Yasmin's class in a few months but I'm hoping to go back in the next few weeks.

Last week, I was invited along to Air Space to try out one of the Freestyle Fitness classes - I had no idea these even existed! Having only been to the trampoline centre once before I was more than excited to bounce my way to fitness and well, just have fun! After going over a quick five minute safety briefing we were directed out onto one of the courts (I think this was one of the dodgeball areas). The class was broken up with a 10 minute warm-up (off trampoline), 40 minutes of circuit style exercises (on trampoline) and a 10 minute cool down (off trampoline). For me, bouncing about on a trampoline is fun in itself so each exercise had me smiling (or laughing) from ear to ear. We had a guy named Liam as our instructor and he was amazing! He really pushed everyone but more importantly, he made sure we were having fun. To top it off, the centre had their own DJ who blasted out a superb mix.  If there is one thing that keeps me going it is some upbeat, loud, music.

Jill and I had the best time at the class and we're already scheduling in our next visit. Freestyle Fitness costs £10 which I think is a little pricey for a fitness class however we were given a loyalty card which entitles you to a free class on your fifth visit. So, really if you think about it, the class only costs £8 per session which I'm more than happy to pay.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, each class burns between 500-1000 calories....BONUS!

XoXo