Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Lots of festive love and greetings to every single one of you, from my little family to yours. May you enjoy peaceful and joyful times, however you choose to spend it!

 

December Favourites

Favourites are coming in a bit early this month, which is all fine! December as per every other month just flew by. Poof! Gone! I can hardly believe that it's almost 2016! Whaaaaaat?! Here's a few loved things from December.

Lotions and potions galore!

It's not going to come as too much of a surprise that opening the beauty advent calendar has been up there as a real highlight. It was like Christmas every single day! All the yummy delights are currently living in the lid of the box, some I've decided to keep until after Christmas and some I've had a little play with, including a very delightful yoga bath that was all kinds of nice smelling and relaxing. Lotions and potions-tastic!

Free time!

After several very busy weeks being a production assistant for the Christmas show at my theatre group, I finally got my life back on the 15th December. Only to start work - ha! But I cannot even begin to describe how I savoured my free evenings and early nights once it was over again. Never again. If you even hear me mention it, just slap me down, immediately, I won't hold it against you. It was made even better when I started work and they told me I wouldn't have to work between Christmas and New Year due to my awkward start date mid-month. Result!

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

I absolutely adored this book, and it's not often that I say that. Ove was truly a delightful grump and it was all kinds of touching and heart-warming with laugh out loud moments and some eye leakage at the end. I don't know if it took on extra specialness due to being eaten by the dog, he did kindly only eat the front cover and the first 30 pages which left me the rest of the book to finish off (such a generous pup) but taking the extremely battered and chewed copy out in a couple of coffee shops made me chuckle quietly to myself. I would definitely recommend this book. It was absolutely my joint first book of the year. 

I've really lucked out at work and as I wasn't on the rota and had some holiday owing, my new boss said why not just have all of Christmas off. Oh go on then, you twisted my arm! I can't wait for the holidays and seeing Tee and loads of quality sofa time. Whoop woop! Favourites will be back next year, see ya in 2016! 

Hello old friend...

Ahhhhhh, what sweet bliss is this? I have nowhere to be and nothing to do. Hello life, old friend, it's good to see you back.

From here on in, I fully intend to do nothing but curl up in a snuggly ball every evening, watch some crappy TV, listen to some Christmas music, eat all the food, and drink all the red wine.

Cue cheesy relaxation music.

Life is back *kicks feet up on the sofa and sinks into a sleepy pre-Christmas coma*

Working Girl

Tomorrow is the big day - I'm going back to work! Not that I haven't been working for the past few months, but this going to work actually involves putting my face on, attempting to tame the rats nest hair, planning some decent clothes, a car journey, and an actual place of work. Wow! Do you think I'll remember what to do?

It's amazing how quickly your norm becomes your, erm, norm. When I first started working from home I was all weirded out about it, and now I feel the same about going back out to work. What will Bob get up to when I'm out? (don't even answer that question/HIDE EVERYTHING!) Who will our lovely postman wave to when he rocks up to our door with all the post? Will the neighbours even notice I've gone as they pop out for their daily newspaper? All the daily comings and goings that I'm so accustomed to seeing won't be there anymore. I'll miss them...but I'm also looking forward to being back in the world of work. People! Real people, who talk back to you! I hope they're nice!

Wish me luck...

Listen Up! - She and Him Christmas

This album is now on constant rotation in the house of Claire and Dave.

Best Christmas album ever, hands down. But not best single, as that is clearly 'Fairytale of New York' by Kirsty MacColl and The Pogues.  

You're welcome.

Revisit: BUSY! and a shameless plug

Yeah yeah, yada yada, you've been busy, we've heard it all before. Like on repeat for the whole month of November...well this, my friends, is the reason why:

I have had the pleasure (and pain of many endless hours at the theatre) of being the production assistant for this play. I've never ever seen it from this perspective before. Generally I'm backstage crew or serving up beer in the bar, but this time I've seen it from day one. And I can tell you, it's a good'un! It's funny, and sparkly, and action packed. It's a witty whodunit with gun shots and screams a-plenty, as well as a stunning set that has taken us many, many hours to paint, dress, and titivate.

If you're in the area and up for some theatre fun, come along and see it. It will very merrily fill a dreary December evening. But remember to pack your winter woollies, it's chilly willy in our little theatre!

A Thing of Beauty

My name is Claire and I love lotions and potions. I am very easily 'enabled' as the saying goes by the bloggers and YouTube people that I watch who all have access to some delicious lotions and potions that I covet on an almost daily basis. Just ask Tee and Debs about when we were in Brighton and the only thing that I wanted to buy was a Mac 217 brush that cost £18. Yep, I totally did spend that much money on a makeup brush and it is a delight to use every single day. So soft and dreamy...

Let's talk enabling. In this instance it was a couple of YouTubers who put me on to the beauty advent calendar craze. In the opposite sense of this blog tale, I am generally a cheap as chips, 99p advent calendar kind of girl - somehow that cheap chocolate just tastes so good at this time of year. But this year, I decided to add in a beauty calendar to the mix. In terms of expensive, it's really not that up there compared to some of them that come in at hundreds of pounds. Girl ain't got that kind of spare cash. But girl does have a spare £25, well, okay not really but we're talking small change here people!

Step up the Marks and Spencer Beauty Calendar. For a mere £25 there is a box to open up every single day in the lead up to Christmas that contains some form of lotion or potion - oh me, oh my. The whole thing has the value of £200. £200! For a mere £25*. I mean come on, it's almost rude not to! As you can imagine, to say that I am excited is a bit of an understatement. It's basically going to be like Christmas every single day! With a cheapo advent calendar chocolate thrown in too - does life get any better?!

As I in no way consider myself to be a beauty blogger, I won't go to the trouble of listing all the contents. Instead just picture the excited face of this lotions and potions lover as a pretty box is opened each day. And just think of all the goodies I will have to begin the new year - I won't need to go shopping for ages!

My Christmas countdown is on! And I'm pretty sure this will turn up in my monthly favourites because, like, durrrrrr.

*for the record, to get the beauty advent calendar for £25 you had to spend £25. Which was very easily done by purchasing the most expensive body lotion I will ever use at £26. I don't feel the need to defend my purchasing choice, but even at a £51 spend that is still £149 of savings (quickly checks rubbish mental arithmetic skills)