Homemade Advent Calendars

Hey guys!

As it's nearly December everyone is getting their advent calendars sorted whether that be a chocolate one, a beauty one, a nativity scene one or even a toy based one, and so I thought it would be nice to share some ideas about homemade calendars :)

I heard the cutest story the other day about a guy who made his girlfriend an advent calendar of all her favourite things, and then on day 25 she opened her little box and there was an engagement ring inside. Is that not the cutest thing ever? Melted my little romantic heart.

There are so many different ways you can make an advent calendar:

You could buy the little houses with 24 doors like this one from Next:

These are so cute and you can fill each door with something you love. The only issue with these is it that the boxes are quite small, so you'd have to think really hard about what you could fit inside! But if you want to fill them with little chocolates or something like that, they are perfect! 

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I love the idea of getting 24 little presents and wrapping one up for each day, though they can get quite pricey! I had a friend in high school whose grandparents would make her one of these each year and they would wrap up jumpers, shoes, make-up, chocolate, everything, it looked so good! You could buy different beauty products, or your favourite sweets or anything you wanted!

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I was inspired to find a photo of this after my friend Siobhan had her birthday a few weeks ago. She used to live with her boyfriend but they had to move apart for uni and now they only get to see each other at weekends, so for her birthday he got a jar and wrapped up 52 date ideas, one for each weekend until her next birthday. Is that not the cutest thing?! 

You could do something similar for an advent calendar, whether it be for a partner, a child or a friend. You could do so much with it! Something to do or somewhere to go each day until christmas, if you love lego it could be a challenge to build something every day until christmas, if you love photography it could be a challenge to take a photo of something everyday until christmas, for beauty it could be to try a different look each day, so many options! Such a good idea, and it can be as easy or as hard or as fun as you like!

What do you think, would you want to use one of these or would you buy an advent calendar ready made? (I've got a lego one this year, and I could not be more excited haha)

Love Amylou x

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Christmas Jumpers

Hey guys!

So it's the middle of November (ish) and if you haven't already found your christmas jumpers for this year, there are still so many to choose from! I've got 2 so far this year and I can't wait to wear them. I'll be wearing mine from december first all the way until new year no doubt!

As you can never have too many I thought i'd have a little look around and then show you some of my favourites, maybe it will even inspire you to go and look at them! :) All links will be under the photos!

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If you're looking for understated then I think this is a gorgeous one, it's from Marks and Spencers and just has little bows with bells on (the bells aren't loud as I think they're plastic) and it's just really cute!

Personally, I think christmas jumpers should be VERY christmassy. I'm not a fan of subtle christmas jumpers, purely because I just think bright, or garish jumpers just bring out more smiles, and around christmas you should make as many people smile or feel christmassy as possible, because as well as being a wonderful time of year, it's also a very sad and lonely time of year for a lot of people, so spread that christmas cheer!

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I love this jumper, I've actually saved it on Boohoo.com ready for when I next get paid, it's a lot more christmassy than the last, but it's not too much. Plus long jumpers are so much cosier!

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Now this is definitely my kind of christmas jumper. I want this one too! Also from Boohoo, there is no mistaking that this is indeed a christmas jumper and is perfect if you're feeling as festive as I do in December! It has that classic christmas pattern without looking cheap or tacky, and it's another slightly longer jumper. Perfect!

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I actually bought this jumper to wear on Christmas eve this year. My family are heading off to a pub in the village this year on Christmas eve to celebrate with our neighbours and just enjoy being in the christmas spirit! This jumper is from Next and so fluffy and cosy! I got swept up by their whole christmas collection and ended up getting christmas pudding mittens and a hat too! Which are so cute i'll have to link those for you too!

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How adorable, so cosy and the hat is actually wool on the outside but fleece on the inside so it keeps you so warm!

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This one is from Joe Browns at Debenhams and is a little less of a crazy pattern but still very christmassy, and those snowmen are just adorable.

Finally, if you're buying for children, John Lewis has some excellent christmas jumpers, and I couldn't pick my favourite so I'll leave a link HERE to all of their christmas jumpers and put a few pics of a couple below!

I wish they came in my size!!

I was shopping for some childrens and toddlers clothes for christmas presents yesterday, and there are so many shops with adorable outfits to dress your babies/toddlers up like santa or a snowman or elves and honestly I just wanted to buy them all. Adorable. 

So that's it! There are obviously so many more shops to get jumpers, it was so difficult to find them last year but this year they seem to be everywhere! I love it!

And as if you needed another reason to buy a christmas jumper, the 12th December is Christmas Jumper Day in the UK in aid of Save The Children

So you get to wear your christmas jumpers to work, and help a good cause :) link here if you want to find out more :)

Do you have a christmas jumper already? Do you even get one? Where do you like to get them from?

Love Amylou x

*Disclaimer, I wasn't asked to promote Christmas Jumper Day, I just think it's a really good idea

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Inspired by Art: Designing a Room

Hey guys!

I was recently introduced to Invaluable and their huge range of paintings they have up for auction, and was told about a challenge to design a room around one of their pieces currently for auction.

I love home decor, and I don't get to decorate as much as i'd like so I thought i'd give it a go! (and it gives me an excuse to browse pinterest too!)

I chose The Waterlily Pond With Japanese Bridge, 1899 by Claude Monet. Though the theme of the room could work with any painting of a similar colour scheme :)

(link to specific auction)

Here are a few of the things i'd put in my room!

I love corner sofas, so my room would have to have one! With a matching grey rug, grey chandelier and grey table. On top of the table i'd bring in the colours from the painting with a mint vase and fill it with white flowers, they don't have to be roses, just any white flowers really! Then mint throw pillows and a mint throw blanket!

Corner Sofa - Next

Rug - Polyvore

Throw Pillow - One Kings Lane

Jug - Occa Home

Throw Blanket - Zinc Door

Flowers - Selfridges

Chandelier - Horchow

Table - Sweetpea & Willow

I think it's important that you don't try to bring too many colours into your decor, if you stick to a couple of colours you can get a really clean, bold effect that looks quite elegant. I think a good tip would be, if you're designing a room around a painting, pick maybe two, maximum three colours from that painting and stick to those, even better if you pick one (such as mint) and then just do varying strengths of that one colour with grey or cream.

I actually really want to decorate my room grey and mint after this! When I move into my next house I think this is the colour scheme i'll be going with!

I had so much fun making this post (I love home decor), and it was great to be inspired by a painting to create the room. There are so many great paintings on auction over at Invaluable.com so if you click the link (here) you can take a look at them all!

I hope you find one that you love!

Love Amylou x

*Disclaimer, no compensation was received for this post and all views are entirely my own and do not represent those of Invaluable or any affiliated companies.

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A Walk Down The Trans Pennine River (Trail)

Hey guys!

At work we've taken up a pedometer challenge where in teams of four we want to walk the equivalent of the distance from Barnsley to Dublin which is around 226 miles or 452,000 steps in two weeks. To get into the spirit, a ten mile walk along the Trans Pennine Trail was organised and everyone was invited to come along.

A few of us went along to the walk and it was such a good day, the colours were absolutely beautiful, and it was so nice to be out in the fresh air climbing some hills, even if it did pour down the entire time! Most the trail especially the steeper hills pretty much turned into rivers, but luckily (most of us) brought a few waterproof layers!

My phone battery died about an hour into the walk so I didn't get to take many photos, and really it was raining so hard a lot of them were blurry due to the rain on my phone!

I just thought i'd share some of the photos that I did manage to get! :)

But I had the best time, and I can't wait to do it again! Overall on Saturday (including just general pottering about in the afternoon I did 22,568 steps, so i'm off to a good start! Though I doubt any other day will get anywhere near that!

It's so nice to just be outside and enjoy how beautiful the british countryside is. I've planned to get out walking more in the Lake District when I get back up to uni, I just hope the weather is a bit better next time!

Have you ever done a pedometer challenge, or walked along somewhere similar?

Hope you've all had a wonderful weekend! 

Much Love, Amylou x

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October Favourites

Hey guys!

Even though it's only been a week it feels like so long ago since I blogged! So I thought i'd share with you a few of my favourite things from October! :) It might be a bit of a different favourites post, but this is a lifestyle blog and these are the favourite bits from day to day life in october! (also sorry about the photos they are all from my phone/instagram!)

Favourite Song:

I have been absolutely loving Taylor Swift's new album 1989 and I can't pick between New Romantics and How You Get The Girl. They are so good! Got them on repeat for my drive to work. Such happy songs, with such a good beat to them, they just make me feel happy!

Favourite Item of Clothing:

I am in love with this navy and white dress from Love that I found in Topshop a few weeks ago, you can still get it from the Love Website too if you want to have a look at it! It is the comfiest thing ever, and I thought it was pretty flattering which can be hard with bodycon dresses sometimes!

 Favourite Night With Friends:

Halloween. I love halloween and usually I go a bit crazy with the old face paints but this year I toned it down and went as a cat and I had the best night. 

It's not a common thing for me Jo and Lauren to get together, we only get to do it every couple of months and it's always a good night! I won't post my endless photos as I took probably over 100 so I'll just put up two collages I have from the night!

It was such a good night, there were far too many drinks involved, but I don't remember a single moment where I wasn't laughing or at least smiling and it was just so nice to have a night out with everyone! I only manage to get to uni for a couple of days per fortnight but it's always so nice to see everyone! :)

Favourite Night With Family:

My little sister's 18th. Even though her turning 18 makes me feel so old, it was such a lovely celebration to share with her! We all went out for dinner and had the best time. One thing that I really love about my family is that even though we see each other all the time and talk every day, we are always laughing and joking around together and it's such a loving environment to be in!

We went to Marco's in Sheffield, and it was so good! Run by Marco Pierre White it's a New York Italian, and even though it has quite a small menu it has a good variety, and it tastes amazing. I definitely recommend it!

Favourite Food:

For my sister's birthday I made her a rainbow cake, and not to toot my own horn, but I think it turned out pretty good!

Favourite Morning:

I'm not the best morning person, i'd much rather get up and go for a run at about 9am but one morning Lauren got me up and we headed off to the gym at 7am, it was just before the clocks turned back for daylight savings and we got to watch the sunrise as we were there, it was so pretty!

It was really dark when I was walking down to the gym so hard to get a decent photo!

Had to get my obligatory gym trainers photo ;) 

 The sun was still rising as we left the gym and headed up to our offices/meetings! Such pretty colours :)

Didn't share many favourite things, but I thought it would be nice to do a different kind of favourites post this month! No doubt i'll be back to my favourite make-up/home decor for next month!

What was your favorite thing about October?

I think mostly I just loved the weather turning colder and all the snug jumpers coming out! I can't wait for winter walks and cosy fires with hot chocolates! 

All my love, Amylou x

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Hello November

not my photo - (Photo Credit)

Hey guys,

 

 

So I feel like it was only last week I was writing my Hello October post! How quickly has this month gone?! But nevertheless, it is that time again! So I thought i'd share with you a few of the things i'm looking forward to in November.

 

 

It's bonfire night! I love fireworks and bonfires and eating fish and chips with loads of salt and vinegar even though it's so cold you can't feel your hands. Hopefully heading to a bonfire with my friends near home and I can't wait!

 

I'm going to watch the dog racing again :) It's not an all day thing like horse racing, and you don't get to wear a fancy hat, but you do have fun and can have a few drinks with friends!

 

I'll be going out for cocktails for the first time with my little sister and my cousin in Leeds too, so any recommendations of places to go let me know! Excited for it!

 

I also signed up to a 10 mile walk the morning after the night out in Leeds! I'm hoping the fresh air will do me some good! I don't know if I've ever set out to walk ten miles before, but i'm doing it with the same friends that are going to the dogs and we have some pubs planned en route! Which doesn't make it very healthy, but I think there must be over 20 of us going, and so it'll be fun anyway! :)

 

It's Lauren's birthday in November too! I'm looking forward to cocktails and nice dresses and dancing all night even though i'm the world's worst dancer! Seriously, I have like one dance move, and I just do it all night :P but i'm enjoying myself and that's all I care about, so judge all you like lovely strangers watching haha. 

 

Then at the end of November it's December (obviously) so it's time for Christmas decorations and Christmas songs and i'm literally so excited already! Every year in December we head down to

London to do our Christmas shopping and it's always so Christmassy at Covent garden and on regent street, and harrods, I love harrods. I'm already getting too carried away thinking about it all!

 

I think some just general wintery things i'm looking forward to are having hot chocolates with whipped cream and wafer straws at work (bye bye diet, see you in January) and the cosy fires and bubble baths with all the new Christmas lush products, Christmas songs at work (yes they've already started) and wintery walks at uni and home :)

 

What are you most looking forward to in November?

 

Love Amylou x

 

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