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Hello you gorgeous lot, I thought I'd come and share some of my Christmas snaps with you before the festive season has passed. I had the most wonderful time with all of my family and Boxing Day with our dear friends. Christmas morning in the Brown household was pretty chaotic, what with three young children and the usual mountain of presents to get through. We all got some fabulous gifts and I can't wait to show you mine! There were about 500 photos from the two days, so to have whittled it down to these few collages was some mean feat!
Christmas Day
Christmas day did of course end with us watching all of the hour long soap episodes (Emmerdale, Corrie, Eastenders!), drinking Baileys and eating Pringles. And what Christmas would be complete without Bridget Jones?! We watched 1 on Christmas eve, and 2 on Christmas day. How cute is Indigo's bunny eared blanket?! I got it from H&M.
Boxing Day
Boxing day was also a wonderful day, a lazy morning followed by getting ready in the afternoon to see some of our nearest and dearest at our local village hall, which we usually hire out for Christmas day but mixed it up a bit this year. There was a bit of a funny moment when we realised we'd only brought wine with a cork, and didn't have a corkscrew..! We sorted it out in the end, and ate lots of nice buffet food followed by lots of delicious dessert.
The outfit
Lace top Mango via carboot sale £3.00
Black denim jeggings M&S Collection £7.00 sale
Lois flatforms Carvela Kurt Geiger Christmas gift
Oversized tote bag Luella Birthday gift
Pink gold Gem Aurora earrings Vivienne Westwood £55.00
Dusky pink & black wool biker Maison Scotch via TK Maxx £30.00 sale
I wore this same outfit to Mark's family's Christmas meal on the Sunday before Christmas. I love how easy to wear it is, but it still looks like I made a bit of an effort with the pretty lace top. This Maison Scotch jacket was most definitely my bargain of the year - originally around £200, I found it hidden on a coat sale rail in TK Maxx with a red sticker on the label at just £30. I didn't need another jacket at all, but I tried it on and the splash of colour is so unusual for me that I had to have it. I think the dusky pink is a shade I can get away with against my pale skin. I've had these Vivienne Westwood earrings for a while now, I wasn't sure on the drop at first but now I've really fallen in love with them.
Have you posted a Christmas period OOTD? Or a Christmas present post? Link me in the comments :)
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A little while ago I ordered these butterflies from Beauxoxo with the sole intention of putting them in my little sister's prom hair. They arrived at home for my sister beautifully packaged, and with little sweets too! My sister was absolutely delighted with them, and my mum was impressed too. I chose the glitter butterfly clip in cream, and the pastel feather butterfly clip in pink.
We weren't exactly sure what was going to happen with Willow's hair, all I knew was she wanted it up and curly. Willow has naturally curly hair, but she brushed the curls out so we had a blank canvas. I started by putting the bottom half of her hair into ringlet curls. Our sister-in-law-to-be & friend, Gemma, did a French braid around the front of Willow's hair and braided the end. I'm useless at French braids - thank you Gemma! I decided that with the braided crown, the top half of Willow's hair should be bouffant-styled - plenty of backcombing and hairspray ensued. I pinned the rest of the braid across the bottom of the bouffant, which we all decided looked really pretty. Now, what to do with those curls?! We rolled them and pinned them up, making it up as we went along. On the left side of Willow's hair, where the braid ended, we popped the two butterflies on. Willow was really pleased with the end result - with a bit of luck, a lot of hair grips and hairspray, we got there in the end!
Willow's prom was on Friday night, she had a fabulous time! They've travelled there in style in the army jeep complete with dressed driver (a real army man I believe!). I was having proud sister moments all over the place! Can you believe Willow is just 14? She looks so beautiful and elegant. My favourite photo is probably the very last one here - they were holding hands and walking into prom. I think it was quite an emotional night, as Willow and her best friend Holly are going to different colleges in September. It looks as though they ended it with a bang though, and I know they'll stay great friends.
P.s. I'm sorry I've been a bit quiet on the reading front lately, this laptop is my mum's and I cannot get my head around Windows 8! Roll on tonight when Mark arrives at my mum's house to spend a couple of nights with me - he's bringing my own laptop! I'm having a wonderful time at home, and have more lovely photos to share with you next week.
Willow, mumma bear, Zenobia, Gemma
Willow, mum, Zenobia, me
Willow, mum, me, Gemma
Willow, mum, me, Gemma, Zenobia
Zach, Josh, me, Zenobia, Willow (a rare photo of us older siblings!)
Zach, mum, Josh
Gemma and her brother, Jamie
Jamie and my nephew, McKenzie
Joe as Batman, Phoenix, Indigo, Ty
Maxine, Mark, Lynn, Phil (Molly, Bronwen, Ben behind)
Caitlin (my niece), Jamie and McKenzie
Christmas was as always a lovely, family and friends orientated affair. We spent hours opening presents (as can be seen here), being visited by a family friend Bronwen who brought more presents, and at last my brother Josh and his family coming round. Zach also came later on in the morning to open his presents, as 2012 was the year Zach got his own flat. And, as has been tradition for the last few years, along with some of our friends we gathered at our local hall which we hire out to have dinner together. This year there were less of us than any previous years, but it was still lovely to have everyone in the same place. Mum had bought a bouncy castle for the children a few months ago, so it had it's first use at the hall as you can see! We didn't go for the traditional dinner this year, we instead had lots of cooked/roasted meats, bread rolls, stuffing, gravy and sauces... it was delicious!! Of course, we also had plenty of desserts including homemade ice cream as supplied by Phil. It was lovely to get some of those family photos above, as it's not very often we manage to get everyone in a photo. I think my favourite has to be the one of me with my two brothers and two sisters. Although this isn't all of us (there are 8 of us children in my family!), I don't think we even have a photo of the 5 of us together until now.
I know this is an overdue post, so I am sorry but there were so many photos from Christmas it took ages to decide on some to share :) also, I stupidly left my camera lead at my mum's so until she posts it to me (along with my next course DVD!) I won't be able to upload any new photos. I had my final hospital appointment come through today, for the 28th of this month. Two CT scans, one with contrast dye (I think this means an injection, yuck!). I am looking forward to the end of Feb when I meet with my consultant again, and hopefully get some positive news after all these upcoming tests. I have been doing some painting lately, and I am going to be changing things a little on my blog design soon :)
Has anyone else heard about New Look's Shape Up competition? It's open to all bloggers, and all you have to do is create a fabulous party outfit to suit your body type. There will be a winner for each shape, and each winner will win £100 of New Look vouchers (handy given the season!). I've spent the last couple of hours browsing the site, and finally came out with this :)
This is my outfit for 'Straight up and down' - I was happy to be given some tips by New Look and tried to take them on board! I love the fact that the peplum has made a return this season, and think this dress would help create curves where I'm lacking! The zip detail up the back really adds that finishing touch to this dress, and navy is my favourite alternative on the classic LBD.
I wanted to add some glitz and glam to the dress, but wanted to keep all the accessories nude so that the dress remains center of attention. For this reason I didn't want to add too much jewellery, so this gorgeous vintage style bracelet fits the bill perfectly for a bit of arm candy. The studs on the clutch bag give the outfit a little bit of much-needed edginess! To finish the outfit off I chose this sequin cropped jacket - I think the outfit works well with or without this item, but couldn't resist the extra glitz!!
All items from New Look:
Madam Rage Navy Peplum Sleeveless Dress £30
Only Bronze Izzy Sequin Bolero Jacket £47.99
Oatmeal Platform Court Shoes £19.99
Stone Studded Fold Over Clutch £8 was £15.99
Vintage Pink Teardrop Stretch Bracelet £6.99
