Christmas 2014

How is Christmas pretty much over for another year already? Rather than having a few different posts like last year on Christmas I thought I'd do a big Christmassy round up all in one post for you. The above pictures are from Lincoln Christmas market which I visited earlier this month with one of my friends, it was such a nice weekend and the market had so many cute gifts (and of course some lovely mulled wine) it really got me into the Christmas spirit.

Christmas day was wonderful as always and my brother took a turn to make Christmas dinner for the first time and it was pretty amazing too! Below are some of the Christmas presents I received, all of which I am very grateful for and I can't wait to start using them.

I noticed a lot of people talking about the post-Christmas walks they went on on boxing day this year, although we didn't get chance to go on one on boxing day, we did go for a walk yesterday instead. It was very cold but so worth it after being able to take some photographs of some of the beautiful swans and ducks we saw.

I hope you all had a fab Christmas and wish you all a very happy new year!

Abigail x

Fifteen Festive Favourites

1. Festive food - pigs in blankets

2. Favourite reindeer - dasher

3. Favourite day of Christmas (as in the song) - five golden rings

4. Christmas song - last Christmas

5. Christmas present - I can't decide!

6. Christmas film - elf

7. Christmas cracker toys - The fortune telling fish

8. Favourite Christmas cracker joke - What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus? - claustrophobic!

9. Favourite Christmas decoration - remote controlled skateboarding Santa!

10. Favourite Christmas candle scent - mulled wine and cinnamon apple

11. Favourite Christmas TV advert - John Lewis - those penguins!

12. Favourite Christmas tradition - putting the Christmas presents around the tree, is that a tradition?

13. Favourite place to spend Christmas - home, never had to spend it anywhere else

14. Favourite Christmas fact - Santa use to wear a green suit

15. Favourite snowman accessory - His top hat

And I tag anyone reading this who's feeling festive and wants to take part!

Abigail x

How to: Make your own Gift-tags

This post, as you may be able to tell from the title, is a little different to anything I've done on here before. As Christmas has now passed and all of the decorations have been put away, something I like to do (along with my family) is to 're-cycle' the Christmas cards and turn them into gift-tags for the next Christmas. I know this post  might not be appropriate to some of you right now as Christmas was a few weeks ago now and most of you have probably thrown out or put away or whatever you usually do to your cards. But, you could use this idea not only for Christmas but birthdays or whatever other occasion too!

The gift-tags I made this year.

How?

There aren't any 'rules' on how to do this, you could use you own ideas but this is how I make them...

                                                   What you'll need:
                                                  Cards
                                                 Ribbon
                                               Hole puncher
                                                 Stapler
                                 Fancy craft scissors (or plain scissors)

How-to:

1. Simply pick out from your selection of cards the ones which you want to use. Some cards which are scenic or are too large you probably won't want to use, unless you want to make really big tags.
2. Cut out the part you want to use as the gift-tag whether it's a robin, snow man, Santa, etc. I use craft scissors which leave a nice frilly cut around the edge of the gift-tag but you can use any type of scissors that you want.
3. Next you'll need to use a hole puncher and make a hole in the top/side of each one.
4. For this next part I use ribbons which you usually use to decorate presents with. You don't have to use these you could use other types of ribbons, lace, string or whatever you want.
5. And the last step is to staple the end of the ribbon and there you have your finished gift-tags!

Let me know what you think of this type of posts and if you'd like to see more random (or fashion/hair/beauty) how-to's.

I hope you liked it!

Abigail x

What I got for Christmas

Here's a little post to show you all some of the things which I got for Christmas. I am so grateful for everything I got from my family and friends, as I said in my last post I was lucky enough to get the Canon powershot camera which I asked for and I've taken all of these pictures with it...

Cath Kidston Rose Collection

           Angel Necklace                                                Christmas hand cream

Katy Perry Purr perfume

Rabbit Cushion

Pug Cushion

Katy Perry Killer Queen perfume gift set

                 2014 diary                                                Grace Cole hand wash and hand lotion

Abigail x

Christmas and Boxing Day

Hello Everyone!

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends, I know I did! (I hope all of you that don't celebrate it had a great time too) Christmas is my favourite time of year and I couldn't have asked for a better one. There are some pictures above from Christmas eve and Christmas day which I thought I'd share with you.

As I was lucky enough to get the camera that I asked for for Christmas I decided to go for a walk close to my home on Boxing Day so I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite photo's I managed to capture with you below...

Abigail x

Christmas Tag

Image available here

1. What is your favourite Christmas song?

I love so many Christmas songs and Michael Buble (who is one of my favourite singers anyway) has to be my favourite artist at Christmas but my favourite classic Christmas song is 'Last Christmas' by Wham!

2. What is your favourite festive drink?

Hot Chocolate on a cold night is one of my faves but I do also like a nice glass of mulled wine too!

3. What is your favourite Christmas film?

I also have a lot of Christmas films I love too so I don't think I could pick just one.. Christmas with the Kranks, the Santa Clause and Elf are a few of my favourite.

4. What is your favourite Christmas outfit?

I don't really have a favourite Christmas outfit but I do like to chill in my pj's with my family whilst we open our presents.

5. What's the best part of Christmas dinner?

Roasts are my favourite meals anyway but I'm a big fan of roast potatoes!

6. What's your favourite thing about Christmas?

Getting to spend time with my family and friends is my favourite part, especially watching TV on Christmas eve and opening all of the presents together on Christmas day.

7. What's your favourite Christmas food?

I'm not a fan of mince pies or Christmas pudding so I'd have to say Chocolate or Christmas dinner!

8. Do you love or loathe wrapping Christmas presents?

I LOVE wrapping up presents, all the nice paper and ribbons make it seem that bit more Christmassy and they look nice under the Christmas tree.

9. What's your best Christmas memory?

One Christmas memory that always seems to stand out to me is finding a present from 'Santa' at the end of my bed at about 4 in the morning and then going into my brother's room where he'd open his and then we'd wake up our parents so very early!

10. What's your favourite part of Christmas day?

Christmas eve/day is just the best time of the year anyway for me but I do enjoy just chilling opening presents and seeing the look on your family's faces when they open something you've bought them, then playing family games, listening to Christmas music and eating an amazing Christmas dinner!

Doing this Christmas tag has made me a lot more excited for Christmas now, let me know if you decide to do this tag too!

Abigail x

Christmas Wishlist

I haven't made a wishlist in a while but rather than making a monthly one I thought it'd be nice to do a Christmas wishlist.. especially now that it's December and Christmas is everywhere you look (I'm not complaining though)

1. AX Paris Dress - £45. This is my favourite dress that I've seen for this season, I can't believe how perfect it is and if (as a student) I had the money for this dress I'd definitely be purchasing it!
2. Newlook Reindeer Jumper - £29.99. What's more cheesy at this time of year than a Christmas Jumper? Well, surely it's one like this that lights up too!
3. Earmuffs - £17 from Accessorize.
4. Penguin Travel Mug - £5.99 from Newlook. This would be great to take to uni on a cold morning filled with hot chocolate.
5. Newlook Tartan Leggings - Tartan is in right now and I really want something tartan to wear seen as the only tartan thing I have at the moment are socks!

What's on your Christmas wishlist?

Abigail x

Autumn/Winter Nails

Here's a quick post for you all of my favourite nail polishes for this season!

(From left to right)

1. Bourjois Paris - Beige Glamour 27

2. NYC - 002 Full Metal Jacket

3. Rimmel London - 350 Goldspun Coral

4. Rimmel London - 315 Ready, Aim, Paint

5. Miss Sporty - 160 (not sure if this number is for the shade or not, hopefully it is)

6. Ultimate - P10 (another one I'm not 100% sure about)

7. Maybelline New York - Vampire Seduction 145

8. Avon Nailware Pro - Decadence

9. Unknown (this one I think was in a gift set at Christmas but I can't remember the brand)

10. Topshop - Beleza

11. Technic - Celebration

12. Technic - Carnival

13. Miss Sporty - 330 (another miss sporty number)

And here's a closer look at the other side

Abigail x

October Favourites

I've been meaning to write this post for a while now but here it is at last, my October favourites! Here are some of the things that I've been loving in the past month, (how fast are these months passing by?!)

So here it is...

The photography in this post has been done by Saida from http://saidacanephotography.blogspot.co.uk/ (who has a giveaway over on her blog at the minute) so go and check it out!

L'oreal Paris Nude Magique Eau De Teint - £9.99 from Boots, you can also read more about this foundation from my review here.

L'oreal Nutri-Gloss Light Shampoo - £2.99 from Boots and it smells so good!

Clean and Clear Exfoliating Daily Wash - £1.99 from Boots and I love that it's oil free too!

I've been using this air freshener for quite a while now because I love Christmas and it smells so nice! Mulled Wine and Cinnamon apple is the perfect scent to get you in the festive mood, you can get it from shops on the high street such as Wilkinson's and Supermarkets.

Impulse Temptation body spray - £1.99 from Boots. I think has to be one of my favourites from the impulse body sprays. It states that it's 'new' although I remember having this one years and years ago with a slightly different design so maybe they've brought it back (that's if it ever left) because it smells so nice!

Now this little sample is amazing! It's from Lush Cosmetics and I had it sent to me when I'd ordered a face mask from them. It's the 'Let the good times roll' cleanser available here (100g £6.35). I wasn't expecting this at all in its tiny packaging and because it's so small I thought I'd only be getting one use out of it but I was wrong. You only need a tiny bit of this cleanser and it goes a long way, I think I might have to purchase the full size after trying this out, maybe that's why they sneakily sent me it!

Abigail x

What's to come?

Here's a sneak peak of what's coming up on Not Just A Curl. I've been so busy with uni lately that I haven't had time to write any posts but I'll be back very soon!

 

Abigail x

25 things to do before Christmas

Hello Everyone!

Now that it's November I thought it would be an acceptable time to post a '25 things to do before Christmas' post. This is my own personalised list of things that I aim/want to do before the old guy in the red suit comes to visit us.. I probably won't get to do everything that's on this list but I'll sure try!

Sooooo Christmasy - image available here

1. Pass all of my uni work.

2. Finish my CV for my course (it's getting marked over Christmas anyway!).

3. Do some volunteering.

4. Properly start my Christmas Shopping.

5. Watch lots of Christmas films.

6. Get to 60 bloglovin followers.

7. Finally get to 2,000 blogger views.

8. Buy my Christmas cards.

9. Drink some lovely mulled wine.

10. Go to a Christmas market.

11. Do some Christmas baking.

12. To get back into a proper exercise routine and make use of my shake weight again.

13. Have a meal out with my flat mates to decide who has who for 'Secret Santa' this year.

14. Go to a fireworks display (I've never been to one before that isn't in someone's garden).

15. Start to make some contacts with people/companies that could help get me a work placement next year.

16. Make a pre-Christmas dinner with my flat mates before we all go home for Christmas.

17. Go home and help to put up the Christmas decorations and tree.

18. Buy an advent calendar! (I really want the Boots one but a chocolate one is all I'll be able to afford).

19. Go home to celebrate my brother's birthday at the end of November.

20. Start editing some of my work from last year to put in my portfolio.

21. Visit some family when I go home.

22. Take a day out in a city to do some Christmas shopping.

23. Go to a garden center around Christmas (they decorate them so nicely around this time of year and have a lot of gifts and decorations).

24. Go home for Christmas a few days before when I've finished uni for the term!

25. Have a great Christmas with my family and friends from home, celebrating Christmas, my mum's birthday and then after, New Year! *insert excited face here*

Abigail x