PRETTY CHRISTMAS BOXES

 So this is a little later than I planned to put this post up but, in all honesty these boxes are so quick and easy to make there's still plenty of time to do them ready for Christmas.
I saw them on someone's vlog last year, loved the idea and just had to do them.

These are the boxes I made finished and hidden in the spare room to stop any sneaky peeks before Christmas.

These are the items you'll need to do the style I chose, a box the size you require, brown paper, ribbon of your choice, glitter pens, scissors and sellotape.

Take the flaps off and make sure the bottom of the box is strong enough to take the weight of your presents.

Cover in brown paper making sure all the edges are taped securely on the inside of the box.

Put on the ribbon securing at the back.

Decorate however you want, I am certainly no artist but it was a lot of fun to draw christmassy pictures with the glitter pens, and I'm sure that people will appreciate it more because I have put the time and effort into making them look personal.

Another cute idea would be letting your children decorate the boxes for you.

So that's it the very quick and easy way to give people presents in a more personal and pretty way than just simply buying a gift bag, if anyone does make these I'd love to see how they decorated theirs.

I'm hoping to get another post up in the next 2 days which will be a bakeware haul then I have December Glossybox review and new cosmetics review to do as well before new year.

So until next time have a good week and don't forget to check out my facebook page and give it a like link is in my bio.

PACKING UP AND MOVING ON

As I've gone on about we are moving house but finally that is happening tomorrow, there is literally hundreds of boxes, bags and crates holding everything we have built up as a family over the last four and a half years.

On one hand I am super excited on the other I am still nervous about moving out of our beautiful village but in my heart I know this is the best move for our family.

So I will be back in a couple of weeks when hopefully there are a few less of these and a lot more full shelves and cupboards.

We don't have internet until the second week of November so I may do a couple of blogs following our move in my first week back.

Until then I'll leave you with this ridiculously cute picture of my girlie who packed herself to send to her grandparents house, she's so bloody adorable!!!

BYE BYE PORT SUNLIGHT

I was talking to my friend before about blogging and suddenly realised I'd neglected mine the last couple of weeks.
The only excuse I have is our house is nearly completely packed up and ready to move this weekend so scary!!!
The scariest part of moving hit me before, I was on my way home from work and I realised after 32 years of living in the same village I would be spending my last week there now, it sounds silly but my little village has such an amazing history it makes you proud to be a Sunlighter and makes you care so much about it, this village was my playground as a child, the place I learnt to ride my bike, where I went to school, it has the church 3 generations of my family have married in, I got married here, my daughter now goes the village school and I work here as well.
I literally know every corner, road, bump and tree in this village, I have waded through the boating lake, watched film crews who find it as fascinating as the hundreds of visitors and now it will no longer be home.
My hubster has only lived here for a few years so is fine moving on but I feel a part of me will always be in this beautiful corner of the Wirral. 
So now I'm gonna pack the last few bits and get ready to go to the inlaws for a couple of days then on to the new place, as soon as we have internet I'll be back with pics and hopefully a more cheerful view on my new town until then bye bye Port Sunlight it's been an amazing 32 years!!

(this is just a small taster of how beautiful my village is)

ANOTHER LITTLE HOME HAUL

So I went shopping and bought yet more home prettiness, I'm so excited to move now and start setting everything up in our new house until then I'm going to bore you with random selections of my purchases.

PAPERCHASE

I have a love of most things from Paperchase their stationary is gorgeous also you can find so many pretty house bits as well, the owl photo frame was £12, the cup was £7 and will be perfect for my morning tea since I'll be living a lot further from work than I do now. The padlock shaped keyring was £6 and is for my new house keys, and the 3-way pad was £4 and will be living on my new desk when I get it, one of my weaknesses in life is pretty stationary!!

DUNHELM

Another weakness is pretty storage these boxes that look like books will look gorgeous on a floating shelf above my desk and for 99p each I couldn't not get them, the storage tin was £1.99 and the tray is for my hubsters desk and that was only £1.99.

I love Dunhelm they have so many nice bitty bits for such a good price.

PRIMARK

Following on with my discovery of the amazing homeware department in Primark I had to pay the Liverpool store a visit when I was last over there it is massive and filled with so many things I wanted, I'm definitely going back over in the next couple of weeks to pick up some more things, the big star light was £10 and is led so really bright, the pack of 15 star lights was £6 and the round lights were £6 from the velvet ghost range, also from that range I got the hanging hook for £4, I love Gabriella's range and I'm desperately trying to find the cat cushions she's bought out.

The big frame was £5 I'm currently pressing the flowers my hubby got me for my birthday if they go right I'm going to put them in there as a cute keepsake so a photo of that may follow next week.

These Christmas candles are also from Primark and the photo really doesn't do them justice, they were £4 each and both smell gorgeous also I love that the little charms around them can be used as tree decorations. I'm like a child at Christmas so I'm made up to start buying a few thing for it now.

So there it is my second mini home haul hope you are enjoying these and don't find them boring, no doubt another one will be coming soon we're hoping to find out a moving date in the next couple of weeks and then I can really get into house moving mode until then I have to be satisfied with buying bits and looking at paint colours.

MINI HOME HAUL

As I've spoken about a few times now I'm moving house woohoo!!!  so you can now expect many house haul blogs and photos of the new place being done up.

The house we're moving to has much bigger rooms than we have now so I need to fill large spaces with a small budget so everything will be pretty inexpensive to buy.

Everything in today's haul came from either Primark or Asda, I honestly never knew how good Primark's homeware was until a few weeks ago now I can not wait to get over to the big Liverpool store next week.

As you know I'm very new to the whole blogging thing and in all honesty I'm just very proud of the fact I actually managed to put photos on here since my laptop has decided to change how you upload photo's(sigh) so here's the items closer up with prices

 

PRIMARK

 I'm a little in love with this throw, the colours are gorgeous and it is so ridiculously soft, it will look amazing in my new lounge and for the bargain price of £5 it's a cheap way to brighten up a room.

 PRIMARK

Candles are my weakness one of my favorite things is to sit in candlelight and just chill, the pink glass candles were £2 each, the tin was £1.50 and the owl was £2.50.

The pink ones are for my study and I think the owl is going to be for the dining room.

PRIMARK

Again these are feeding my candle addiction and they both smell amazing plus I'm sure they were only £2 each!! these will be going in the living room.

PRIMARK

These lolly lights are so cute  and absolutely perfect for something I'm working on for mini me's room, they were on sale for £3 which is amazing, I'm really looking forward to seeing them lit up when I've finished what I'm planning.

ASDA

Again feeding my candle love, this set of 6 mini Yankee candles was only £6, the owl oil burner was also £6 and the utensil holder was £3!!

So there it is my first of many home blogs, any tips on how to make the most of a large space or good places to go for affordable homeware let me know!!

PAYDAY PURCHACES

Every payday I make sure I go out and get a couple of bits just for me as I'm trying to update my look at the moment it has been a lot of make-up and hair products recently so I thought I would review them for you.
My thoughts on these items are just that, mine it doesn't mean everything I say is right it's just my own experience.


                                                 THE REVIEW


REVLON LIP BUTTER(£7.99)
                               

I'd read quite a few reviews on this and had only seen good things so I decided to give it a go, it's a good price and comes in a variety of colours I went for Pink Lemonade. I've got to say I absolutely loved this product, it went on so easily, was very moisturising, you could have it as a subtle shade or build up a bolder colour if wanted. 

It lasted well when eating and drinking and it left my lips feeling so soft even when it had worn off, I will definitely be buying more of these next pay day.

   RIMMEL SOFT KOHL(£2.99)

I've always been a brown eye liner kinda gal so in the interests of shaking things up I decided to go crazy and get this kohl pencil in Stormy which is a lovely grey colour, it went on easily even to a make-up novice such as myself and it lasted really well.

Again this can be used as a subtle sweep of colour or more layers can be used to make it more dramatic.

COLLECTION SPEED BLUSH (£2.99, on sale from £3.99)

I'm not a big blusher person but I do think it looks nice when you have slightly tanned skin in summer so thought I would give this a go, I got the colour Tickled Pink, it was easy to apply and gave a good subtle colour which is exactly what I wanted it's not very long lasting and I honestly don't think I would rush to buy this again.

NATURAL COLLECTION  SOLO EYES COLOUR POTS (£1.99 each)

I got these in the colours Heather and Barley, they weren't highly pigmented at all you had to add a few layers to get an effect and I also found they creased quite quickly. Given the price they might be good for a young girls starter make-up kit especially since they had a lot of choices of colour but I don't think I would repeat purchase for myself.

SANCTUARY SPA THERMAL SATCHETS (£4.50 for 2)

This is my favorite facemask and usually I use the bottle of this but they didn't have any this time, this mask leaves my skin feeling soft and smooth. It may be pricier than some other masks but I feel it's completely worth it!!

BARRY M NAIL PAINT (£4.99)

Again I love Barry M nail polishes and have a large collection of them, the one I bought this time is in the colour Raspberry, usually I would say this is a perfect colour for autumn but with the weather the way it is at the minute it was perfect for my wintery cosy feeling I've been having recently. I always find them to be long long lasting and definitely don't chip easily.

All the prices were right at the time of publishing this but are obviously subject to change and different shops may change differently, hope you enjoyed my first review and I'll be back in 2 weeks with my Glossy Box review.

MY FIRST THOUGHTS

                                       

For years I have been a woman that has hidden from cameras and mirrors and sunken further into the comfort of my baggy black clothes, now thanks to a good friend sending me the link to a curvy vlogger I realised I should be proud of my size and the beauty that comes just simply from being happy and healthy and more importantly I deserved to finally like being me.

Suddenly I wanted and felt I deserved a wardrobe filled with loads of bright colourful clothes for too long I have shied away from brighter tighter fitting clothes for fear of people looking at me and judging, now I'm looking forward to people noticing me hopefully for the right reasons.

Because clothes were never of interest to me I have spent years learning how to look after my skin and have now got regime to be proud of, hair care is another thing I have always loved and learning new hair styles, however make-up was a thing to be hidden from in-case it made people look at me, so that is another very scary new area for me to explore.

This blog will follow my journey to becoming the woman I want to be, I may not have anyone read it but I'm going to use it as my modern day "dear diary" and put down my thoughts, feelings, fears and hopefully purchases down here to look back on in a when my goals have been met!!

Be patient with me as I build my confidence up and use you as an unseen sounding board I've had a lot of years of hiding but hopefully i can break through and find my true self again and enjoy the process of finding the new and improved me.

If you like what you read here please check out my Facebook page and give it a like and share, I'm new to all this but dreaming big(with added pink sparkles).