Blogmas 2014 - Day 10

1. What is your favourite Christmas Movie/s? 
i really can't pick a favorite, but i do LOVE 'Home Alone', 'National Lampoons Christmas Vacation' and 'Love Actually'. There are lots of good ones on Netflix too, i love to have on in the background for feeling extra festive 

2. Do you open your presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?
Always Christmas Morning ! Always will :) this year i gave M an early christmas present (an Xbox game his bro has that he was desperate to play) & it just feels so weird that he has it already ? Hahaha i'm pretty set on this rule, we always open them together with a coffee / hot chocolate :) 

3. Do you have a favourite Christmas memory?
I remember one year all my family were over, it got really late so my brother, sister & i went to bed, that year we had just got a swimming pool & i remember falling asleep feeling so happy and excited, listening to my parents / aunties & uncles enjoying a midnight swim, laughing and having fun. Then i woke up with a stocking full of little pressies on the end of my bed :) 

4. Favourite festive food?
Roast potatoes, tandoori chicken with extra coriander my inlaws make, christmas custard, salted caramel pretzel bark...oh my gosh i LOVE festive food !  

5. Favourite Christmas gift?

The most special gift i've ever received was a mural / artwork that M painted for me last year 

6. Favourite Christmas scent?
'White Christmas' candle by Glass house and 'Spiced Red Pear' by Circa Home YUMMM

7. Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions?
We spend it with M's family, eating and playing boardgames. It's the best night ! I have a particular tradition in mind i want to start once we have a little person in the house, but that is a long way off :) 

8. What tops your tree?
A gold star from the emporium known as Ikea 

9. As a kid what was the one (crazy, wild, extravagant) gift you always asked for but never received?
A swim from the roof in my bedroom. Dad said yes, Mum said no :( turns out there weren't any roof beams in the right places so i couldn't have had one anyway lol random 

10. What's the best part about Christmas for you?
Giving gifts, eating too much, having DnM's with my cousins, looking at lights, spending time with people :) 

Blogmas 2014 - Day 3

Hello again :) 

Today we finally set up our tree ! 

Each year we get a fresh one, usually i forget to water it but this year i was on my A-Game ! Well i was until the dogs started drinking from the water holder haha 

Here it is...

It looks pretty impressive at night too ! 

The best bit about it is just having it in the room, like instant decor, kinda wish i could leave it up year round, that and the scent :) 

We went for black, gold and white ornaments as most years we have purple and gold (for the super laker fan in the house) 

I love it ! It officially feels like Christmas here 

xx

Blogmas 2014 - Day 2

Today i remembered one of my Christmas favourites from the last few years !

Well from like the last 20 years, haha

The humble chocolate advent calendar

Things have certainly changed since i was a youngin' because in my childhood advent calendar i always got a teeny tiny piece of chocolate that you had to either pop out or jimmy out with a (blunt) knife. This year M surprised me with a Freddo advent calendar :) I had completely forgotten about getting one but he hadn't & not only did he get me one he got me the BEST one !

This calendar is a little more special than the average, M made some customisations before giving it to me.

Each day has a fortune M has written for what he thinks the day will bring ! It sounds corny but he's written them really well !

How cute is that, it's the best thing to look forward to of a morning

Only 23 sleeps until Christmas

Introducing Blogmas 2014

Well Hello,
Happy December, well December 2nd hahaha

I for one am a massive, massive Christmas nerd !
Really i love Christmas,  the whole spirit of the season just gets me so excited for life haha

This year i've decided to do Blogmas ! Have you heard of it ?
Basically it's blogging once a day, right up until Christmas Eve :)
There are no strict rules, except to blog daily ! You can write about anything that is relevant to you that day, most posts seem to focus around preparing for Christmas but it's completely up to you !

I originally came across the idea from My Pale Skin 

I really want to take this as an opportunity to to revive my blog & mix in a whole lot of Christmas cheer !! My blog is missing a bit of personality & i want you guys to get to know me better 

I cant wait to get into it, i'm planning to post each evening so i can post about the whole day ! 

So if there is anything in particular you'd like to see, please let me know below 

p.s i'm currently a day behind, my internet keeps dropping out :( this evening i'm planning to have my day 2 post up :) 

Christmas Recap - 2013

Ta-da ! 

This is my haul from Christmas day !!

I was pretty spoilt by Santa :) 

So lucky

From left to right:
- Miller & Moore Bath & Body set
- Tiffany blue jewellery box (from Forever New)
- Ornate rocking horse ornament
- Lux body wash & cleansing puff
- 'Hello May' wedding magazine
- Cute little hang up tea-towel
- Icing nozzle kit
(perfect for the macarons i plan to make for our engagement party favors)
- Lindt milk chocolate balls
- Cadbury fingers *drools*
- 2x little bottles of 'Yellow'
- Dachshund book ends
- 'Meow' by Katy Perry (gift set)
- A bunch of avon creams, soaps & lip products
- Body Shop 'Born Lippy' in raspberry

Such an eclectic mix of present ! My family are too nice :)
I also got money for my parents & gorgeous canvas made by M which i havent shown

This Christmas i bought M a Wet 'n' Wild Season Pass as his main present, i also got him a bunch of smaller items to go with is (boardies, deodorant, shower speaker etc) 

I couldn't really work out a cute way to wrap & present a piece of paper, like the season pass, so instead i made his gifts into a treasure hunt ! I wrapped all the gifts with a clue & placed them around out house  :) He really enjoyed finding them all, at first i was a but worried he would think it was lame, but i think it went down really well 

Presents before they were wrapped ! 

My parents christmas tree, with loads of presents & our family dog Beba

 Nugget & Jelly trying to scab some Christmas dinner off Grandma 

How's your self image ?

Ok so this post will be a little different to what i normally talk about

This post will be about self image

For the past month i have felt a bit 'down & out' i can't exactly pin point what it is that makes me feel like this but i know for sure i need to change it

Last night we had a family 'pre christmas' dinner as my brother in law & his girlfriend are going to the states for the holidays, it was so much fun...until it was time for photos

I can't tell you how much i HATE having photos of myself taken, i just never look good ! I know the photos wont turn out nice so i resist having them taken SO hard, which in turn makes me that annoying 'oh, i don't do photos' kind of girl ! Errrgh. I managed to have some taken but i havent even looked at them (& not sure i will), the feeling of such negativity towards myself put a dampener on my night

This morning i woke up & i realised i NEED to change this way of thinking, i need to give myself a reason to like myself, it sounds so conceited but if i don't i worry i'll become self destructive.

So this is where i'm reaching out...how do you get a positive self image ? What do you do to maintain it ? 

XO Lauren 

"... and the world we live in will be either better or worse, depending on whether we become better or worse. And that's where the power of love comes in. Because when we love, we  always strive to become better than we are."

Pin It !

I've started Pinterest !! If you have one too, or would like to follow my pins, please do :) 

I'm still filling up my boards & loving it, at the moment i'm on 9 ! 

There are so many cool things on here (some kinda random, and some really icky recipes) 

But so much fun ! If you dont have one yet, get one !! 

I am really looking forward to being more inspired from it & like adding ideas to my wardrobe

xx

Ikea

The other weekend we went to the new Ikea store at Tempe (Sydney).

We were mainly looking for some livingroom furniture, in chocolate brown

The new store is soooo huge, so 'shiny' & so new

I went with M, my parents & my sister

Everyone goes nuts for the meatballs there, i love them too but am a vegetarian so i had chips & gravy instead (very vegetarian) After eating, we began searching !

Have you ever noticed how many pregnant people there are at Ikea ?

It's so cute, because the children's range is super fun !

Anyway we tested out alot of couches & tried to visualise them in our new house, in the end we bought 4 items from the Hemnes collection

Hemnes TV Stand

Hemnes Tv Stand (with a Tv on it, our Tv is way cuter)

Hemnes Coffee Table

Hemnes Bookcase

We also bought a matching shelf, but there weren't any picture on the website...so try to visualise hehehe now i'm so excited to build all the furniture and style it with our own personal touches, like books, photos, trinkets & candles.

Some of the other things we bought were glass christmas ornaments, snowflake glasses, an ironing board & some straws

It's very easy to wander around in Ikea & pick up a trolley load of 'must haves', there were a few things i forgot to get (i.e. latte glasses, salad bowls & lighting strips) luckily when we were shopping at Ikea, they had a free giftcard promotion, so i have an excuse to go back for all the things i forgot and probably more

So excited for more homewares !! i wonder, is this what's called nesting ?

Hmmmmm

Inspiration from Nigella

I love Nigella

I LOVE Nigella

I REALLY LOVE Nigella

She is gorgeous and makes great food, looking so happy doing it !!

My parents bought me 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' last christmas

So this year I plan on making her 'Christmas Morning Muffin's' on, well, Christmas morning !

Hopefully it'll become one of my Christmas traditions...