Festive Sugar Cookie Recipe

With the festive season comes some pretty cracking Christmas food; turkey, mince pies with bandy sauce and, of course, festive cookies.

I've been feeling a little depressed lately, so I decide to try and cheer myself up a bit by baking, and so I thought I'd share recipe with you guys. I plugged in my Les Miserables soundtrack and off I went.

I began with my ingredients: 100g of butter, 100g caster sugar, 1 egg, 275g plain flour and 1tsp vanilla extract, and by preheating my oven to 190 degrees C.

Next, I put the sugar and butter into a big bowl and mixed them together until they were fully combined.

I then added in the egg and the vanilla extract bit by bit, again making sure it was fully mixed together.

Sifting in the flour came next, again bit by bit, I used a spatula to combine the mixture until it became too thick to use the mix and so I got my hands messy and made the mixture into the dough ball.

I coated my work surface with flour and rolled the dough out until it was 1cm thick and used my aptly Christmas-y cookie cutters to create little snowmen, angels and gingerbread men, before placing them onto a baking tray lined with grease-proof paper and popping them in the oven for around ten minutes.

After they had finished baking, I set them onto a tray to cool. You guys could probably do a better job than me at getting an even bake because mine sucks.

Finally is the most fun part: decorating! Obviously, you can decorate yours a lot better than I've decorated mine, but with limited supplies and time mine's what I like to call 'Ode To Toddler'. 

That was such a fun little activity to do and it takes less than an hour in total depending on how fussy you're being with your decorating.

N x

Christmas Decorations

The first weekend in December always marks the putting up of all the Christmas decorations in my house and it has been for as long as I can remember. However it's not always the most pleasant experience.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the festive feel to the house when the tree is up and it's surrounded by presents, and the illuminated Frosty is standing guard beside the front door, but the actual erection of everything is something I'd really rather avoid. The annoying shouting at stubborn fairy lights and the 'No! There's already a bauble on that branch! Put it in that bald patch over there!' I could do without.

But when everything is lit up and the fallen pine needles have been tided away it's a sight to behold.

This is the second, less elegant of our two trees she's still an absolute beauty. We always laugh every year when we put the little cape around the bottom of the tree because it's what my brother used when he was playing a king in the nativity nearly 10 years ago.

Frosty here has been handed down from my great-grandmother to my mum and he is my favourite decoration that we put up every year. He's so old, but so darn cute!

This is our main tree that stands in our living room. This is the one where all our gifts for our friends and family will stay, and it looks fabulous with the gold colour scheme Mum has going on.

We also have two of these little holly string wreath things that line our mantles. I think it gives such a warm and snug feeling to the house, especially when couples with a lit fire and some dancing flames.

Now it has to be said that these aren't all of our decorations, as we have a few little odd bits scattered here and there throughout the house, but these guys are my absolute favourites.

Favourite Christmas Movies

For me, there's nothing better than sitting in on a cold winter's night, snuggled into a warm duvet or sitting in front of the fire with a hot chocolate with a Christmas movie on the telly.

There are so many festive movies out there for all of the family, and so I'm here to give you all a run down of my 6 favourite Christmas movies that I watch every year without fail.

6.  Home Alone

'Home Alone' is one of the best Christmas movies out there, in my opinion. It's such a feel-good, comedic film that always reminds you of the true meaning of Christmas (and how cute Macaulay Culkin was as a child)

5. The Nightmare Before Christmas

Nothing bridges the transition from Hallowe'en to Christmas the 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'. This is always one of the first movies I watch every Christmas season (and by Christmas season I mean early November) to get me into the festive spirit, and who doesn't love a little bit of Tim Burton?

4. The Grinch

I know 'The Grinch' is probably somewhere at the top of many people's festive favourites list, and for good reason. It's perfection.

3. The Polar Express

You know Christmas is just around the corner when 'The Polar Express' is shown. It actually terrifies me when I realise that this film is over 10 years old, because I still remember going to see it in the cinema, but it still seems so new when compared with the others on my list. I especially love the little ticket punching bit; it's my favourite part of the whole movie!

2. Elf

You're insane if you don't watch 'Elf' at Christmas. There may be something medically wrong with you and I think you need to go and get it checked out. How can you not love 'Elf'?

1. The Muppet Christmas Carol

'Christmas Carol' will forever be my favourite holiday story, and the Muppets make everything so much better, so naturally this is my favourite movie. I always seem to save the best until last, and I try so hard every year to leave watching this movie until Christmas Eve because, for me, it finally means that Christmas is here. I'm even getting butterflies from thinking about watching it!

There we have it, my favourite Christmas movies! Feel free to comment below on how you guys feel about any of these movies, and also tell me any that are your favourites that I haven't included on this list!

N x

What's In My Bag : Winter Edition

I've never done a 'What's In My Bag' before but I've always loved reading about them and watching them on YouTube so I thought I'd give it a go!

Starting in the top left corner I have my keys. Always a necessity, especially for school and when I'm working late and I have to creep into the house after my family has fallen asleep.

Next to my keys are some pretty little pens because I'm that person who, when asked, never has a pen (unless I stole the IKEA or Argos pen "accidentally") and I can guarantee that I will lose all of them within a week. If you haven't already guessed I'm a very clumsy person. My dad always tells me that I'd lose my head if it wan't screwed on and he's totally right.

My purse just lives in my bag. I never take it out unless I have to bring it into school, and I'm always petrified of losing it because it basically contains my life. Yeah there's the bank cards and the driving license, but my heart would break if I lost my Nandos and Starbucks cards. That would be the end of me. For those of you wondering, I bought this purse in Primark a few months ago for £6.

Below my keys is my Blistex lipbalm which is an absolute godsend in this frigid winter air. It's the Blistex Intensive Moisture and although it makes your lips tingle for a minute or two, it really does work miracles. It's described on the blurb (is the back of a packet called a blurb? I don't know) as "Shea Butter and Allantoin for a long-lasting moisture and protection, plus a refreshing tingle (??)" Despite that slightly weird description, it works wonders. And of course I got me gum.

Although I wear contact lenses I like to have my glasses close at hand so I'm never blind if one of my contacts lenses goes funny or falls out. Seeing is kind of important for me.

Over at the far right I have my book. Obviously it's not always 'Extraordinary Means' but that's my current bag book at the minute and so I'll keep ya'll updated on what I think of it. I read 'Severed Heads, Broken Hearts' by Robyn Schneider before and loved it, so I have high hopes.

Below my glasses are my makeup staples that I always seem to need when I'm out and about; my lipstick, my eyeliner and my concealer. Both lipstick and eyeliner are by Rimmel with my concealer being the cheap and cheerful Collection, all of which I absolutely love to bits and some how manage to rub of throughout the day.

To the right of my makeup I have my signature scent, the fabulous vanilla body spray by Body Shop. I've previously mentioned this scent in a older post about my Autumn Essentials which I'll leave a link to here so you can go and check it out if you're curious. Needless to say, it's my fave.

Below my makeup are my earphones. No explanation needed.

And finally to the left of my earphones is my planner which is forever moving between my school bag and handbag purely because I need it almost everywhere I go. It has my majorly essential times and dates such as my shifts for work, my driving lesson schedule and my blog post ideas. I think it's super cute and I love it to bits and for anyone wondering, I bought it in Paperchase for around £10. (I'm not 100% sure on the price, but it was definately worth every penny!)

So there we have it! I really enjoyed creating this post and giving you a tour around my bag. As I said before, I love reading these sorts of posts and if you have done anything similar, please leave a comment below so I can check it out and give you a follow!

TTFN

N x

My Letter To Santa (Christmas Wish List)

Dear Santa,

Thank you very much for everything you got me last year...

That's always how my Christmas letters started off every year. I was a cheesy kid.

This year I would like...

... and then I got straight to the point because I always reckoned that Santa had tonnes of letters to get through in a month so I tried to make it short and sweet and straight to the point.

• A Polaroid Camera

I have fallen in love with polariod cameras. Absolutely head-over-heels in love. A few of my friends have them and they always bring them out on special occasions, ready to snap a memory or two to hold forever. That's such a beautiful concept for me to get my head around and I'd love to be able to have that ability for myself. The camera I'm hoping to get is the Fuji Instax Mini 90.

• Socks

Easy.

• Books

I always give my parents Santa a list of books every year that will probably end up doing me until mid March, because I think the gift of a world is the most precious thing you can give someone. Making it onto my list this year is The Lunar Chronicles, The Mara Dyer Trilogy and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone : Illustrated Edition. About 7 books all in all. I can't wait!

N x