I feel honoured

An award!
I feel honoured to have been given a "Versatile Blogger" award from Anne over at Heart and Soul. Anne was one of the first readers of my blog and has stuck with me all the way! (so far!?) She's always ready with a lovely comment and it's so nice that she considered me worthy, so, thank you very much Anne, I will enjoy my little moment!

One of the really great things about this award is that I get to pass it on to other bloggers, so check below to see if you're one of them!

Here are the rules of acceptance!

1. Thank the person that nominated you, and give them a shout out on your blog with a link to theirs.
2. Share 7 random facts about yourself.
3. Send on the award to 15 other bloggers whose blog you love and appreciate and then let them know they won the award.

7 random facts about me:

1. I love donkeys and would like to own one someday.
2. I have a BA (Hons) degree in Textile Design.
3. I am a prolific list writer.
4. My first name begins with J.
5. I'm a fully qualified florist and used to own my own flower shop.
6. I was born in Manchester but live in Cheshire. Manchester is my spiritual home!
7. I have 73 lipsticks!! (shocking!)

I pass on this lovely award to:

a rosie outlook
Rosie is funky, cool and crafty! She lives the "good life" making everything from sloe gin to fudge and she has a beautiful Schnoodle puppy called Bodhi.

Belle du Brighton
Everything from fashion to food and beauty. Lot's of pictures of interesting trips!

Blanche and Lola
The lovely Amy makes her own jewellery to sell and writes a cute little blog about anything crafty.

Dottie K
Great blog with good product reviews and lovely pictures!

dressjunkie
Fantastic chatty posts featuring "outfit of the day" Arlene has a dry wit and always makes me laugh (in a good way!) Oh, and she has amazing legs! (Biatch!)

From Gem with Love
Photographer extraordinaire! Gem is very generous with her knowledge of taking pictures and has a down to earth approach to her blogging covering loads of different subjects. And I'm "well jel" of her hair!
  

It seems pretty obvious.
Niina writes about her life in her native Sweden. Very interesting posts about her culture and lovely pictures.

kate louise
I always come away from Kates blog with a smile on my face. She has such a great sense of humour which she draws on to to blog about lifes ups and downs!

Loveaudrey
Franky is a glamourous domestic goddess! She writes beautifully and  I love, love, love her weekend summaries. She's also just married and I defy you not to cry at her AMAZING wedding pictures featured on her blog.

maisyetc.
I love the way Maisy writes, her personality always comes through in her posts which are about anything from fashion to lifestyle. Really good pictures too.

milk bubble tea
A really pretty girl with a really pretty blog! Becky does the most beautiful outfit pictures and writes reviews on beauty products along with lifestyle posts.

Pretty Green Tea
Daisy writes interesting posts about her life, technology, fashion, photography and lots of other subjects! She is a fellow Instagram addict!

Sailboat
Jennie's blog is such a lovely place to spend some time. Sailboat features some beautiful pictures and always makes me feel relaxed. Jennie also makes very pretty jewellery.

Sugar For My Honey
There's always a yummy recipe on Fiona's blog mixed in with lovely pictures from her native Wales.
Another "crafty" blogger Fiona makes her own teacup candles.

Temporary:Secretary Blog
Sarah is a real sweetheart, she sells the most amazing jewellery and works really hard on her business and blog. Great photos of daily outfits and fashion related posts and check out the amazing Oscar, the cutest cat in the World!!

All of the above lovely ladies have amazing blogs, well worth checking out. They each dedicate a lot of time to writing wonderful and interesting posts and making their blogs a nice place to be!

Words on Wednesday

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These are a few of my favourite things

Mondays
Mondays aren't always the best day of the week, but I try to keep a positive attitude by thinking about my favourite things, you know, the little things that keep us going when times are stressful or a bit dull.

I'm not talking about expensive holidays or designer handbags here, (although that would be nice!) I'm talking about the more simple things in life, the things that we look forward to that might bring a smile to our faces when we think about them. The everyday rituals that are often taken for granted.

Here are a few of my favourite things for when it's not all "sunshine and rainbows!"

•Never underestimate the power of a cup of tea! Totally British. Always available in a crisis, I swear if there was a nuclear war, us British would still be wheeling out the teapots. Cures everything from broken hearts to impending death!

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•A shower. I've never really been one for baths, I prefer a shower. A quick shower every morning using some citrusy, scented wash, wakes me up. In the evening or weekends I spend a bit longer luxuriating in the rushing, waterfall of water. It really is like rinsing your cares away down the plug hole!

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•Now this one is sheer pleasure but, can also be a nemesis. Chocolate. Sometimes only chocolate will do. It's comforting and soothing but if over done after a bad day it can lead us to feel worse! Approach with caution. Buy a small amount rather than a trolley full, freeze it, so it takes longer to eat and melts tantalisingly in your mouth(!) Above all though, enjoy it!

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•Sometimes you simply need to escape. Maybe a walk to enjoy some fresh air or spending time with friends to take your mind off things. For me the ultimate escape is a good book. A book takes you away into a totally new world to spend time with new people and to experience new places  all without moving your arse from your comfy chair! Bliss.

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Well, there you have it. Nothing revolutionary but it's often the little things that get us through the day :D Happy Monday! x

Words on Wednesday

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Recent purchases: Jumpers and Big hair!

High street sales? No thanks!
January sales don't really do it for me. I try, but I just don't like them. It's too crowded and there's stuff all over the floor and bikinis(!) are shoved on the rails from last season and, well, you've seen it for yourselves and it's not pretty. However, I do like shopping. (I am female after all!) and the perfect compromise for me is shopping on line. Here are some of my purchases so far this month.

Saturday morning parcels make me happy!

Wash that man right out of your hair
First up I bought a Redken smooth down shampoo and conditioner gift set £17.00 (£25 if bought separately) from Feel Unique.com,  I like nice hair products and there's so much choice on this website at discounted prices and free delivery, which is always an added bonus. Delivery only took a few days too, another plus for me.

I find that spending a little bit more on hair products is more economical in the long run, rather than buying lots of high street items. I probably only buy shampoo, conditioner and a treatment product 2-3 times a year now, because the quality is better, I use less!

So far I like this product (I've used it twice) but, I don't like it quite as much as the Redken all soft range which really does make my hair much softer!

The products are presented in a really useful tin too!

Happy hair!

Spots and stripes 
Against my better judgement and some advice from Twitter friends, I went ahead and made an on line order from H&M. I'd heard the odd snippet here and there that they're not the best at customer service but luckily on this occasion it all turned out well! Phew!

I placed my order on Thursday 5th January and received it on Saturday 14th January. Not the speediest of deliveries, fair enough, but it got here with no problems.

I bought two light weight jumpers, one spotty, one striped! It's gone a bit too cold to wear them at the moment because they are quite thin, but they are great for layering over long sleeve tops or polo neck jumpers etc. I already had the stripey jumper so I knew they fitted me okay and that they washed okay too. (Yes! I am your mother!! It's very important that an item washes well!!!)
Though these weren't sale items I still think they are a good price at £9.99 each.

 see them on the website here.

Cute stripes and spots!

Bargain!
Of all my recent purchases, I am most proud of this one!
I was reading Fiona's blog over at Sugar for my Honey and was immediately taken by a nail varnish she had. At first I though it was the much coveted OPI Rainbow Connection priced at about £10.00.  When I started reading I realised it was in fact a "dupe" called Carnival by Technic, that she'd bought here.

The best bit was the price... £1.25. And I can tell you it's really, really nice, I love it! Thanks Fiona (This is why I love blogging so much!!)

Carnival by Technic

Big Hair!!
The adverts for this hair styler were all over the television at Christmas and I "ummed" and "ahhed" about it and then promptly forgot about it! I'm not sure why it reappeared in my conscience again, but I found myself searching on line for the best price.

I found it by way of Currys website for £29.99 which is very good considering it's priced everywhere else at £45. Unfortunately, Currys don't deliver this particular item and it wasn't in stock at my local store, so back to the search. I finally settled on good old Amazon where it cost me £34.99 but with free delivery I felt that was okay. I ordered it on Friday 13th January and it arrived this morning Monday 16th   now that is the kind of service I like!

See a demo here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js6uOXI3QLw

If you actually read all of this, without nodding off, then well done and thank you very much!

Have you got any recent purchases to share? Any bargains you've found recently, on line or otherwise?
Please share! xx

Words on Wednesday

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Retail therapy: January blues

• I love these "taxi" shoes from Topshop. Blue and black is apparently the combination to wear for the interim to Spring.
• Coloured tights always cheer me up on dark, cold January mornings. I think these H&M ones would look great with the shoes to keep your toes warm until the weather picks up!
• The much copied skull scarf in navy blue from Miss Selfridges
• Grab these mitten gloves quick, reduced from £10.00!
• £8.50 is all it takes to treat yourself to a little cheery set of bangles.
• Nail Rock wraps are my favourite as they require no heat. This blue set, with little gold stars couldn't fail to make you happy in the greyest of months.

What do you do to keep away the January blues ?! xx

In Conclusion: December

Christmas
Most of December was taken up with Christmas, thinking about it, planning it and then enjoying it!
I know I'm late to the party with this one, as a lot of bloggers posted over Christmas week, but nonetheless, here are a few festive pictures!

Resolutions

I don't make New Years resolutions any more. I used to make all the traditional ones every year, only to break them again by February or before! It always seemed to be about giving something up and to be honest there isn't much for me to actually give up!!

I don't drink alcohol, (no need to cut down then!) I'm not overweight (no need to diet!) I hate exercise, (join a gym? Forget it!!) and I gave up smoking 2 years ago. I tried to give up smoking soooooo many times on January 1st and it never worked. After Christmas we can all feel a bit low, so to punish ourselves with unrealistic goals seems counter productive to actually achieving anything. When I eventually cracked the smoking it was in February, at a time that felt right to me. So, no resolutions from me!

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Even though I'm not a fan of making January even more difficult by way of unrealistic goals, it's been refreshing to read some other bloggers ideas for "resolutions" which seem to be much more about trying new things or taking up new hobbies or traveling to new places, rather than giving things up. Take a look at these if you're in need of some inspiration: 

Time after Tea

a rosie outlook

Apartment 34

And, some good advice here on Sarahs Scribbles!

Books, Films & TV & Music

For Christmas my husband and I always get plenty of books and films as gifts and this year was no different. You might notice a book in the Christmas pictures above, "The Night Circus" as recommended on Twitter by @HollyYM. I can't wait to get stuck into it. Also lined up to entertain us on these cold January nights Russell Kane's debut, stand up comedy, dvd and Dynamo-Magician Impossible on dvd also. 

I recorded so many things on TV over Christmas that I'm still catching up. Highlights so far have been "Sherlock." A-mazing!! Also, I enjoyed Poirot "The Clocks" and "Great Expectations" was excellent too!

Very excited for these two albums to be released, I've got them on pre-order. Lana Del Ray- Born to Die and Emeli Sande- Our Version of Events.

And finally.....

• A Thrifty Mrs •  Belle du Brighton • Bones and Lipstick (found through Sailboat)

Words on Wednesday

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Words on Wednesday

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