Life: Christmas at Chez HollieInWanderlust

Life: Christmas at Chez HollieInWanderlust

Tuesday 22 December 2015

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I head back up north to Lancashire this afternoon to spend Christmas with my family, so this weekend I had my own little Christmas weekend with my boyfriend. I thought I’d blog a little about it about it, which is a little bit of an odd one for us as I’ve never really got my boyfriend involved with my blogging, and the idea of having to wait to take pictures of the food before he was allowed to eat it didn’t go down particularly well with him… 

I decided to decorate our living room a little bit and make a makeshift tablecloth out of left-over wrapping paper. I laid out all of Paul's presents, lit candles and turned on the Christmas tree lights. I live with some other students so obviously we haven't gone overboard with Christmas - we have a tiny little 3 foot tree which my flatmates decorated with tinsel and baubles.  

Pizza making went very well and we had two delicious pizzas to devour. We spent the rest of the evening opening presents, watching movies and listening to the records we'd gifted to each other on my brand new record player. 

All in all, we had an amazing day and evening together. We spent yesterday together as well, and I cooked us a "proper" Christmas dinner of Roast Gammon and all the trimmings, but I got in such a fizzle about cooking everything from scratch that I completely forgot to take pictures. We went all out with the veg, potatoes, meat and of course we had the Christmas tradition of pigs in blankets! I was rewarded by not having to do the washing up, which was obviously greatly appreciated! The rest of our evening was spent watching "The Santa Clause" and then a binge session of "How to Get Away With Murder" which has quickly become our new thing! 

I hope everyone has an amazing Christmas and that your build-up to the festivities has been exciting and full of love! 

Life: December Goals

Life: December Goals

Monday 7 December 2015

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Can anyone believe that it’s already December? I’m SUPER busy at the moment with final deadlines, celebrating with my boyfriend and getting my Christmas shopping all finished but I’m hoping to have the chance to complete a few of my monthly goals this month! They are… 

1. Get all of my work, revision and assignments finished and the ones which are due after the holidays started so I can have a few days off over the festive period! It’ll be nice to sit down between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day and not feel too guilty about enjoying myself instead of working. 

2. Start to blog more regularly again. Uni has really got the better of me over the last few weeks and the last thing I want to do when I’m home after a day of working is sit down and write even more. I’m getting back into it a little bit at the moment so I’m hoping to post a little bit more consistently this month. 

3. Reach 800 twitter followers! This one’s a little bit of a silly one because I don’t really concern myself with figures and statistics but I would like to have a few more followers and get my writing out there a little bit more. I really love working with brands so I feel like more exposure will allow me more opportunities to do this.

4. Make a full Christmas dinner all by myself! I’ve cooked roasts before obviously but I’ve never had the responsibility of cooking a turkey so that’ll be a bit of a challenge for me. I’m excited for pigs in blankets as well, of course! 

5. Complete my Goodreads challenge. This one’s looking ridiculously unlikely at the moment as I’m so behind on my reading but I’m hoping a few days of solid reading over the holidays will push me over the finish line. Wish me luck! 

What are your targets for the month ahead? Let me know down in the comments! 

Wishlist: New House (Soppy) Homeware

Wishlist: New House (Soppy) Homeware

Wednesday 2 December 2015

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Anyone who reads this blog, my twitter or knows me in real life will know that I’m in my 4th and final year of university at the moment and also that I’ve just been accepted onto my PGCE in Primary Education (yay me!) I’m 22 now and while I know I’m not exactly decrepit and falling apart, I’ve decided it’s about time I stopped living like a student and so in June I’m planning on moving into my first real house, and assuming everything goes to plan and we don’t murder each other in the next few months, my boyfriend will be joining me in the move. 

Like any good student, I’m using any spare time I have (aka I’m procrastinating) searching for the perfect house and, more recently, the perfect accessories to really make it the home that we want to live in. I was recently introduced to the absolute JOY that is not on the high street by a friend of mine and while scouring it for Christmas present ideas, I discovered that they have a home section. I thought I’d put together a little NOTHS homeware wishlist to keep track of the lovely things I’ve seen and also share them with you guys, if you’re in a similar position (or else if you just like homeware!) 

I’ve always been a fan of fairy lights but my previous student houses haven’t allowed them or else the room’s been completely massive and they just wouldn’t have looked right. I really want to get some cute little ones to put on the wall behind my bed to just brighten the place up and make everything just a little bit more cosy! These ones are £22, super cute and delicate looking and exactly what I’m looking for. 

I am a candle hoarder, always have been and always will be. I LOVE personalised gifts (as you can probably tell already from this wishlist) and these personalised initial candles are adorable (and scented!!!) I was planning on buying one with my own initial and the OH’s initial as well because I’m a secret romantic (or else a saddo, you decide!) but knowing me I’ll probably start spelling words out before long. 

Continuing in my cutesy romantic theme, I love the “love is all you need” heart shaped light. It’s adorable, I absolutely love the song and it would look so cute in my future lounge. I’m not sure how well this one will go down with the OH but we will have to see whether I can work my magic there… 

My boyfriend and I support different football teams and while they’re not actually rivals in any sense of the word, things do get a little bit heated on the very rare occasions where they actually play each other. I saw this print and fell in love with it immediately because it combines our love of football with adorable decoration and allows both of our teams to be coloured in. I just think it completely suits our personalities and this one is definitely something I’ll be buying as soon as I have the money spare. A little bit more pricey than the others but definitely a very personal gift.

I think the next one is a little bit self-explanatory to be honest, because we all know who the real boss in a relationship is. 

My final item on my wishlist is soppy again - I think I’m going to just have to name this post accordingly, aren’t I!? You can choose which letters you have and the colour of the heart which I think is absolutely adorable. I think this is probably a little bit too much sop for me but I thought it was too cute not to include really! 

Where else should I be looking for houseware and cute little accessories for my new home? Let me know in the comments or else tweet me @holinwanderlust !