OOTD | Leopard print boots

Coat - Zara

Jeans - Primark

Jumper - Topshop

Boots - Next

This is officially the first outfit post of the year! I havent actually purchased many new clothes recently as I've been saving up for some travels this year. However, I will never say no to a new pair of shoes, especially if they are in the sale! I absolutely love Next shoes but rarely buy any as they are so expensive, I had spotted this pair of boots a while back and was shocked to see them in the sale from £75 down to £35, so naturally they had to be mine! They look amazing styled with monochrome outfits and with burgundy/oxblood coloured items. They are definitely a new favourite to my ever growing collection of shoes, having said that I think it's also about time that I moved out as my second temporary wardrobe to hold my excess amount of clothes collapsed over the weekend, as it was so full.. I think it might be time for a clothing cull!

I hope you all had a great weekend! What do you think of this outfit? Do you like leopard print? Whats been your best sale buy?

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Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015!

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Happy New Year everyone!!! I just want to start off by saying I hope everyone had a lovely evening celebrating bringing in the New Year (a few sore heads today I expect?!) and I want to say a huge thank you to all of my past, current, and present readers of my blog. My blog has improved so much over the last year with the chance to take lots of amazing opportunities and I wouldn't have had the chance without you lovely lot, so thank you to each and every one of you! I did a very similar post to this last year which you can read here if you want to see what my goals were for 2014!

I think it's nice to just round up whats happened in this year and to be grateful for the good and bad, and to go into a brand New Year with some new aspirations. 2014 has been a brilliant year for me. I graduated from university with a first which I'm still pretty shocked about, I moved back home, went on some lovely holidays and I am now working full time - maybe something I don't want to do for the rest of my life but I'm lucky to have found something, there are far and few decent jobs in Plymouth for a graduate! On the blog front it's really been a fantastic year, my page views have considerably increased over the past few months, as has my readership, my highlights had to be attending both LFW's in February and September which I will be eternally grateful for, I maybe didn't attend the biggest shows but it's something that I will always remember. I also got to attend a few local blogger meets where I have got to meet the loveliest bloggers, some which I speak to daily, the blogging community does the world of good to me and it's so nice knowing that someone is only ever a tweet away! The people really do make blogging the most enjoyable and nicest hobby out there.

I have had a great year and I'm a very positive person in general but as some of you might be aware I've had a really bad year for my health unfortunately. January started off badly with me ending up in hospital with my never ending stomach problems, in March I established it was just IBS which I posted about here. Since then I've not spoken about how I've been at all but the last few months I've unfortunately been really unwell, it's been so hard to keep going whilst juggling a full time job and a blog, I honestly don't know how I have. We are almost at a final diagnosis now of a stomach condition called gastroparesis, I don't feel like talking about it openly on my blog now but I'm just hoping for a much better, healthier year and to find some way to cope with this chronic illness and to get back my life which has very much been put on hold for the past year. But enough with the negativity huh?! However, I did want to keep you all in the loop with things but now we can move on to my main resolutions!

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 Some people think it's a rubbish idea and that every year it's the same 'new year, new me' but I personally think goals/aspirations and having something to work towards is the best way to stay positive and focused and to see how far you've come throughout the year! Here are a few of my resolutions which I have split into two main categories:

Blogging:

1. Continue to post regularly 3-4 times a week

2. For my blog to continue to grow

3. To try and attend at least one blog chat a week

4.To read and comment on more blogs

5. To attend another blogger event

6. Get press accredited for LFW in February

Life:

1. To land myself a graduate job

2. Travel more

3. To get better and get my life back!

4. To say YES more!

5. To join a gym when I'm better

6. To move away from Plymouth

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Last year I vowed to keep a jar of all my happy memories of 2014 and it really was one of the best decisions and it was the easiest and quickest thing to do! I got myself a jar and did it up nicely and every time something good happened I wrote it on a piece of paper and put it into my jar. It really helped to keep me going through all my bad days and to know that even though you might have a bad day, there is something good in every day, however small. The jar is full to the brim now and it was SO nice to look back over all the good things in my year, I would definitely recommend anyone to do this for 2015!

Thank you for reading, and again I want to wish all my readers, friends and family the happiest and healthiest year yet, I cant wait to see what this year has in store!

What are your New Years Resolutions? What was your highlight of 2014? Will you keep a happy memories jar for 2015?

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Soap & Glory The Next Big Thing - now only £30!

Soap & Glory is without a doubt one of my favourite beauty ranges, we all know that every year boots have the best half price sales on all their gift sets from Boxing day onwards. But it's a well known fact that the biggest Soap & Glory set always drops down to half price a couple of days before Christmas. I didn't receive one for Christmas but got plenty of other beauty goodies so I wasn't that fussed. When I went into boots on Saturday I had no idea there would be any of The Next Big Thing set left as they usually sell out immediately. I was SO happy to get my hands on this amazing set, it's RRP is £60 which is still great value for money but seriously £30 is like giving the thing away when the individual sizes cost around £10 each, the set is worth over £75 so you're really grabbing yourself  a bargain with this one. 

The packaging is amazing of the box itself, you really don't expect any less from Soap & Glory! The box is designed by Hattie Stewart and it has a lovely leather handle to carry it with and I will definitely be using it as a storage box afterwards!

I love the little pink draw string cloth bag all the products come inside, another handy little bag to store more beauty products in...

The best is yet to come..

 The amazing set contains a whopping ten full size products including:

Hand dream super cream 100ml £7

Orangeasm body wash 500ml £6.50

Butter yourself moisture lotion 500ml £10

Heel Genius foot cream 125ml £5.50

Sugar crush body scrub 300ml £8

Whipped clean shower butter 250ml £7

The righteous butter body butter 300ml £10

Off your face 3 in 1 daily purifying cloths 25 x cloths £4.50

Sexy mother pucker lip lacquer in charm offensive 7ml £7

Thick & fast super volume mascara 10ml £10

I've linked all the above items from the box and out of curiosity I added up all of the products which comes to a staggering £75.50 making this discounted box more than worth the money, it's almost too good to be true, its like there's 'no such thing as a free lunch', but on this occasion there really is an exception to the rule!

As I said before I absolutely adore Soap & Glory but there are a fair few products in the box that I've not tried before so I'm super excited to test them out, I'm sure you'll be seeing some of these pop up in favourite posts over the next few months. I would already recommend the righteous butter to anyone because it smells sooo good, its super nourishing too and stays put on your skin all day. The breakfast scrub is also amazing, I've not tried the sugar crush scrub out so I will definitely have to compare these two at some point. The 500ml size bottles last forever so it's safe to say this little lot will last me until when next years box comes out eek!

 This set is unfortunately sold out online but if you didn't find one under you tree at Christmas head to your local Boots now as my store in Plymouth had loads left but they are sure to sell out fast at the ridiculous price of £30! You would be mad not to miss out of this little stash if you are a soap & Glory fan too!
Did you get this set for Christmas or pick it up for yourself? Would you like this set? Do you like Soap & Glory products as much as me? Whats your favourite Soap & Glory product?

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What I got for Christmas!

Weeks were spent in anticipation for Christmas day which as always the big day flashed before our eyes! I had the best Christmas and was lucky enough to get Boxing day off work too at the last minute which I was eternally grateful for as I landed myself a horrible cold which was probably overdue seeing as I hadn't had one in 2 years!! Anyway, I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas too? I feel incredibly lucky for the lovely presents I received from my family and James, and like I did last year I thought I would share with you what I got! I love having a good nosey at what other bloggers got for Christmas too so please link me up below if you've also shared your presents! I'll let the presents do the talking in this post, enjoy!

 Santa came...

 Paddington Bear and Paddington bear pjs from Primark - I am obsessed! 

 Lush probably makes me the happiest girl in the world, delicious smelling rose jam shower gel, candy mountain bubble bar and a gift voucher to buy some more beautifully smelling bath bombs!

 Boots extracts body butters and A FROSTED FLAKES LIP BALM!! So the blog Christmas wishlists were successful after all hehe!

Lee Stafford nourishing shampoo and deep nourishing hair treatment. Lush charity post body lotion and macadamia dry styling hair oil - this is such great stuff, I swore by it when I was working in the states for hydrating my sun damaged hair! Beauty products make me way too happy..

 Hair towel wraps and a frog shower cap!

 H&M boots! I pretty much searched 30 H&M stores in the UK for these, finally found these in London, they are soooo gorgeous and well worth the wait!!

EEEK! Best present that I could have asked for from James, a virgin experience which includes a view from the shard and a Thames sightseeing cruise. Sooo excited to get to do this together in the New Year!

 Elf DVD and vue cinema voucher!

 Hot water bottle and socks - so cosy!

 Mini purse from accessorize and OPI the Muppets polishes!

 Carte Blanche snow globe - so pretty!

This is legit the cosiest, fluffiest and warmest dressing gown that I have ever owned, it's like being hugged by a massive marshmallow, it's heavenly!

Bamboo tights - they last for soo long! Happy Jackson lunch boxes, yey! I finally have the full set and they are sooo cute, great incentive to eat healthier snacks in the new year.

The most boring present award goes to...haha only joking although my mum said this before I opened it, but it's an essential as I work so early in the mornings that I can get a much faster getaway with this baby!

So that's another Christmas been and gone, another one that I am truly thankful for and grateful for spending a lovely time with my family! Now roll on New Years, Christmas day and boxing day might be over but let the indulging of festive foods continue to the New year hehe! Hope you are all having a lovely, relaxing weekend!
Please link me up below if you've done a similar post, I love a good nosey :) What did you get for Christmas? What do you think of my presents? Did you find any of these under your tree?

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