Wednesday Wish List

This week I've been coveting...

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Just when I thought I couldn't love Lindy Bop more, they go and release a collection of city and destination print dresses and skirts. They had me at the New York prints, and pulled me in deeper with London, San Francisco, Japan, Alaska, and the City Lights. They're all so beautiful, and perfect for travelling the world without the expensive travel costs! 

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The new Lindy Bop skirts are equally gorgeous. Those prints are to die for.

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I'm rather smitten with these perfect swing dresses from Lady Vintage. The cupcake print looks dreamy on the new teal fabric.

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And the polka dot Ursula pencil dresses from the Lady Voluptuous collection are so classic.

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I adore Sugar and Vice's Christmas jewellery. The designs are all gorgeous, and would be perfect with all kinds of festive outfits.

George at ASDA Christmas Tree Bag

This Christmas tree novelty cross-body bag from George at ASDA is adorable, and a real bargain at just £10.

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Black Heart Creatives have a stunning range of Christmas jewellery at the moment, including several more I haven't featured. I'm especially loving all of the red and white Scandinavian designs; aren't they beautiful?

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Dolly and Dotty also have some awesome dresses at the mo. The gorgeous Elizabeth sweet heart neckline swing dresses would be perfect for the Christmas party, and the bird print Mary dress would be ideal for every day.

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And last but not least, these novelty bags from LYDC are ridiculously cute. I think the rainbow clutch is my favourite.

For more of the fashion pieces on my wish list, check out my style wish list boards on Pinterest.

What's on your wish list this week?

101 THINGS TO DO THIS CHRISTMAS

With less than a week to go 'til the 1st of December and just a month until Christmas Day, there's no denying it: Christmas is on its way! It's almost time to trim the tree, deck those halls, and get well and truly hammered at the office Christmas party. Yay!

I don't know about you, but I can't wait for the festive season to begin, and fully intend to soak up as much festive cheer as possible from now until the end of the year. If you're planning to do the same but are short on ideas for what to do this Christmas, don't worry; I've got you covered. I've put together a new list of 101 things to do this Christmas to give you guys a few ideas, that will hopefully help get you in to the festive spirit in no time at all. You'll find something for all ages on the list, but you don't need to have children to be able to enjoy them; almost everything is suitable for adults, too!

1.  Make playlists of your favourite Christmas tunes to soundtrack all of your festive activities.

2. Go shopping for a Christmas tree.

3. Decorate the Christmas tree and put up your Christmas decorations, while listening to festive tunes.

4. Buy or make a wreath for your front door.

5. Bake and decorate Christmas cookies.

6. Go for a drive to spot Christmas lights.

7. Buy at least one new decoration.

8. Go late night Christmas shopping.

9. Go out for a turkey roast dinner (or veggie equivalent) with the family.

10. Have at least one Christmas movie marathon.

11. Create a 'festive photo booth' for your Christmas gatherings and parties, with a fun colourful back drop, novelty festive props, and a camera on a tripod, and get everybody to pose for silly photos.

12. Attend your town's turning-on-of-the-lights event.

13. Go our for a Christmas-themed afternoon tea.

14. Hang stockings over the fire place. 

15. See The Nutcracker at the theatre.

16. Make a Christmas decoration.

17. Visit a Christmas shop, and / or browse the Christmas department of a garden centre or department store.

18. Take a tour bus around a big city after dark, when the Christmas lights have been turned on.

19. Make a Christmas cake and / or Christmas pudding.

20. Sew a Christmas cross stitch picture.

21. Knit or crochet something festive, such as a cosy granny square blanket in Christmas colours, a Christmas stocking, or a festive soft toy.

22. Go to a Christmas party and let your hair down. Get as drunk as you dare.

23. Donate food, blankets, warm clothes, toys, pet food, and other essentials to food banks, shelters, animal rescue centres, charities, and hospitals.

24. Camp out underneath the Christmas tree.

25. Sit down and write your Christmas cards. Make your own if you're feeling creative.

26. Go ice skating.

27. Go out for hot chocolate.

28. Buy mulled wine and hot roasted chestnuts from a street vendor.

29. Watch a festive movie at the cinema.

30. Make your own Christmas crackers. (You can make them from scratch or buy kits from craft shops like Hobbycraft).

31. Have a carpet picnic in your living room with lots of delicious Christmas foods.

32, Do a random act of kindness for a stranger.

33. Host a Secret Santa.

34. Spend a whole day in your onesies watching Christmas movies, under cosy warm blankets with hot chocolate and delicious treats.

35. Offer your help and company to elderly, sick, injured, or vulnerable neighbours / people in your community. (You could offer to do their supermarket shopping or take them to the supermarket when you're heading off to do your own, clear snow or ice from their paths and driveway, invite them round for dinner, send over a home cooked meal, or most importantly, spend time with them). Nobody should be alone at Christmas.

36. Go see a musical at the theatre.

37. Make paper snowflakes.

38. Hang paper chains.

39. Make / customise your own Christmas jumper. Or buy one, if you prefer.

40. Read a festive-themed novel or two, such as Little Women, or A Christmas Carol, and read festive stories to your kids every night.

41. Watch some classic Christmas TV specials. (You can't beat The Vicar of Dibley's Christmas Lunch Incident, and the Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special!)

42. Go for a Christmas Day / Boxing Day walk.

43. Put together a shoe box parcel for somebody in need, or for our hard-working soldiers deployed over seas.

44. Have a go at making your own Christmas drinks like snowballs, egg nog, mulled wine, and sloe gin.

45. Make popcorn and cranberry garlands to string up on the tree.

46. Watch a nativity.

47. Try a seasonal coffee or hot chocolate.

48. Take family photos around the Christmas tree.

49. Make some Christmas art.

50. Put together a Christmas Eve box of things to enjoy as you count down the last waking hours 'til Christmas morning.

51. Recreate an old family photo taken at Christmas time.

52. Learn a piece of festive music on an instrument.

53. Make your own mince pies.

54. Take a walk to spot Christmas lights.

55. Wrap Christmas presents as beautifully and creatively as you can.

56. Visit a palace, manor house, castle, or stately home decorated for Christmas.

57. Watch a new-to-you Christmas movie.

58. Go foraging for foliage to use as natural decorations. Spray paint some of them silver or gold.

59. Take a trip to experience Christmas in another part of the world.

60. Relax and unwind with a Christmas colouring book.

61. Have a go at some festive creative writing.

62. Blog about your Christmas; what you get up to, what you most enjoy about Christmas, how your home is decorated for Christmas, your Christmas traditions, etc.

63. Have a board-game day.

64. Kiss someone special under the mistletoe.

65. Make a gingerbread house.

66. Have a go at making Christmas presents for everybody this year.

67. Decorate the outside of your house like the Blackpool Illuminations and donate any money you make to charity.

68. Go to a Christmas market- the European ones are always amazing.

69. Take a sleigh or horse-drawn carriage ride.

70. Make or buy an advent calendar.

71. Light an advent candle or festive-scented candles every night.

72. Listen to a choir or brass band playing carols.

73. Have a go at some festive nail art.

74. Take a relaxing bubble bath with a Lush Christmas bath bomb or festive scented bubble bath, and candles.

75. Go to a Christmas craft fair.

76. Perfect the world's best turkey roast dinner with all the trimmings.

77. Start a new Christmas tradition.

78. Try a Christmas tradition from another country.

79. Throw a Christmas party or get together.

80. Make hand-embroidered festive hoop art, using festive fabric, embroidery hoops, beads, glittery threads, sleigh bells, and whatever festive embellishments you can think of.

81. Attend a festive church service.

82. Sing carols / go carol-singing.

83. Bake a yule log.

84. Visit a major attraction like Disney World or The Wizarding World of Harry Potter while they're in full blown Christmas mode.

85. Go to a pantomime.

86. Do some festive art journaling / scrap-booking.

87. Go to a Christingle service.

88. Buy new Christmas PJs to wear on Christmas Eve.

89. Take your kids to Santa's grotto.

90. Go visit some reindeer.

91. Have a Christmas jumper day.

92. Bake Christmas cupcakes and ice them creatively.

93. Open one present each on Christmas Eve.

94. Buy a hot drink or hot meal for a homeless person, and / or give generously to rough sleepers you pass on the street.

95. Dress up as Santa / The Holiday Armadillo and pay a surprise visit to the kids in your family. It will make their Christmas magical.

96. Try traditional Christmas foods from a different part of the world.

97. Go out for Christmas drinks with friends.

98. Go Christmas shopping somewhere pretty you've never been before.

99. Spend a day making foodie gifts for your friends and family.

100. If it snows, which it never does at Christmas time in Oxfordshire, build a snowman, go sledding, go for a walk, make snow angels, have a snowball fight, and / or make an igloo.

101. Take heaps of photos and videos of all of the fun memories you make.

And, most importantly, enjoy yourself!

What do you love to do at Christmas time? Is there anything missing from the list that you think should be on there? 

Wednesday Wish List

This week I've been coveting...

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For the 8275th week in a row, Lindy Bop have stolen my heart with dozens of gorgeous new releases. I tried to narrow down my favourites, which proved extremely difficult as they're all amazing, and in the end I couldn't narrow them down to less than these sixteen. Can you blame me? It's probably a good thing money is tight at the moment, or I'd probably end up buying one of each!

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Collectif also have a beautiful selection of clothes this week, and these beauties are just a small selection of my favourites. The vintage Faye brocade velvet rose swing dresses would be perfect for wearing over the festive season.

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And these gorgeous velvet dresses from New Look Curve were made for Christmas parties and gatherings.

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I love this bug print cross-body bag, and flamingo print purse from Skinny Dip.

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I adore this Ludo pin, and Labyrinth necklace from Sugar and Vice. I'm gonna need that pin in my life!

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These pyjama sets from Dorothy Perkins look so cosy. The Gremlin set is adorable.

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I love these Home Alone Christmas jumpers from Boohoo Plus. I have the design on the right in green from a couple of Christmases ago, and it's awesome!

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These pouches, cosmetic bags, and water bottle bag from Tatty Devine are so fun and eye-catching.

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I love the look of all of these pyjamas from ASOS Curve. 4 and 5 are technically joggers, but I'd just wear them for lounging around the house.

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These ASOS velvet cross body bags with pearl chains are lovely, and would be perfect for accessorising your Christmas party outfits if you want to keep your hands free for drinking and hitting the dance floor.

Lady Vintage Japanese Floral Wine Ruby Shawl Dress

And last but not least, I'm rather smitten with this stunning burgundy shawl dress from Lady Vintage. It needs to come live with me!

If you'd like to see more of the fashion pieces on my wish list, check out my style wish list boards on Pinterest.

What's on your wish list this week?

October Road Trip Part Two: Arundel and Arundel Castle

After a fun-filled Saturday in Bournemouth on the 1st of October, we awoke the next morning to flawless blue skies and sunshine beaming through our hotel room window, and knew it was going to be a good day.

We were both a little peckish, so we popped out to the nearest McDonalds for sausage and egg McMuffins, and brought our breakfast back to the hotel room to enjoy in our PJs, before packing up, checking out, and hitting the road once again. This time, to Brighton.

With barely a cloud in the sky, it was a beautiful day for a drive, and while Marie drove, I got to enjoy glimpses of the gorgeous New Forest scenery as we headed east. I haven't visited the forest since a school holiday when I was ten or eleven, and I'd forgotten just how vast and scenic it was. The pine trees and scrub land stretched on for miles, dipping down in to valleys, and climbing back up hills in the distance towards the horizon. It was so beautiful; something I definitely didn't appreciate when I visited it as a kid (I was only interested in the wild ponies), but now I'm really eager to return for a holiday and explore it properly. Hopefully one day I will be able to.

Somewhere along the road, we decided to take a quick detour to Portsmouth, since Marie wanted to pay a quick visit to Gunwharf Quays, and we needed to stop for petrol and supplies anyway. It was strange driving past Marie's old house and all of the familiar places I got so used to visiting or seeing in passing when I stayed with her while her husband was deployed overseas in 2013. It seems like a life time ago now.

We didn't spend long in Portsmouth, but it was lovely driving by all of the places where the sunshine glistened on the water, and getting to dawdle around busy Gunwharf, which is right on a marina, and beside Portsmouth's naval shipyards. My only purchase was some more heat patches for my back, but it was still nice to return to another familiar place. We spotted this really random figurehead on the way back to the car.

A few minutes later, we were back on the road again, sound-tracked by epic eighties tunes, which we both agree make the perfect driving tunes.

An  hour or so later, when we were about twenty miles from Brighton, we were driving off a slip road when I spotted the most incredible looking castle on a hill, just a short distance away on our left. We were both in awe because it looked like something out of a fairytale, so of course, with it being so close, we had to get a closer look.

We turned off the road and the signs informed us we were heading towards Arundel Castle and the historic town of Arundel, neither of which I'd ever heard of before. Apart from the castle, we had no idea what we were about to find, but a few seconds later, we both literally gasped when we laid eyes on the picturesque scenery ahead of us.

Just over a small bridge was a beautiful, historic high street made up of black and white, wooden and red brick Tudor buildings, with the magnificent castle raised up just behind them to the right, surrounded by dozens of lush green trees. It felt like we had driven several hundred years in to the past, but had taken the car-flooded-streets and people in modern day fashion with us. I've never seen anywhere quite like it before. I mean, I live in The Cotswolds where there are gorgeous historic places everywhere you turn but Arundel was something else. It was without a doubt one of the most beautiful places I've seen in my life. It almost looked too magical to be real.

We  didn't have long to spare, but we decided to see if we could get any closer to the castle by car for a better look. We spent a few minutes driving around part of its perimeter, moving slowly because the entire area was swarming with cars, people, and their dogs, but that worked in my favour for snapping photos from the car window, and getting to enjoy the view a while longer. Through arches in the castle walls, I caught glimpses of hoards of visitors walking around, and a river crowded with swans and other water-fowl, but most of what lies inside the castle walls remains a mystery.

The road led us under a thick tunnel of trees, where we were able to see different angles of the castle through the foliage, and noticed that the castle  has it's own real life, water-filled moat! The castle couldn't have been more stereotypical if it tried. I almost expected a knight in metal armour with a lance in hand to appear on horseback, on his way to rescue a fair maiden.

It  took us a few minutes to get through the traffic, find a place to turn around, and head back again, but it wasn't exactly a hardship idling through a copse with a view of an ancient castle! I was dying to get out of the car and explore the entire area- the town, castle, and the copse- on foot, and would have happily spent a year there, but we could only afford those five or ten minutes as we needed to get to Brighton. I'm definitely going to return one day and explore it all properly because it was so beautiful and clearly has so much history to uncover.

I was curious to know a little more about Arundel and its castle, so I did some Googling a few days later, once I was back home. I've learnt that Arundel has traces of early Roman development, but was mainly developed by the Saxons, and for centuries (at least as far back as a thousand years ago!) it was a thriving market town and international port. It's mind-blowing to imagine anywhere having International trade and ports a thousand years ago!

The castle dates back to the 11th century, when it was built by Roger de Montgomery, the Earl of Arundel, with its oldest feature being a 100ft high motte (the artificial mound, which the castle sits on) that was built in 1068. While it's had a lot of restoration over the years, incredibly, many of the castle's original features survive to this day, and it's amazing to think we were looking at a structure that has been standing there for almost an entire millennium, with so many years of history and noble ownership behind it. It made my thirty one years seem like no time at all.

You can read more about the castle and the people it belonged to here, and the town of Arundel here.

And so we reluctantly left Arundel, and headed on for the last leg of our journey to Brighton- but we'll save that story for another day.

Part three of my road trip coming soon.

Have you visited Arundel or Arundel Castle? What's the most interesting place you've stumbled upon during a road trip?

You might also like

October Road Trip Part One: Bournemouth

Wednesday Wish List

Here are a few of the things on my style wish list this week...

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Tatty Devine's collection of Christmas jewellery is so wonderful that I'm considering robbing a bank so I can buy every single piece, and have perfectly accessorised outfits throughout the festive season. (I know the hedgehogs aren't festive, but I had to include them anyway because I love them).

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I adore the new Ruby swing dresses from Lady Vintage. The Peter Pan collars and short sleeves are a cute touch. The only problem is I can't decide which colour I love best.

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These velvet dresses from Dorothy Perkins are gorgeous, and would be perfect for the Christmas party season. (Not that I'll be making it to any parties this year, but I'd still happily wear them at home on Christmas Day).

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Dorothy Perkins also have a great selection of Christmas jumpers right now. These are just a few of my favourites.

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I love these pyjama sets from Dotty P's. I'm tempted to buy the Minnie Mouse set to add to my Christmas Box of lovely things to enjoy on Christmas Eve night. I love new PJs for Christmas morning.

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ASOS's new novelty Christmas earrings are just the right balance of tacky and adorable. I love the Christmas tree and candy cane set.

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And Silly Old Sea Dog's range of Christmas headbands is amazing. They come in so many different Christmas prints, and are an ideal way to add a little Christmas spirit to your festive outfits if you don't want to wear a Christmas jumper or frock. I think my favourites have to be number 5, number 10 and number 11.

If you'd like to see more of the fashion pieces I've been coveting lately, check out my style wish list boards on Pinterest.

What's on your wish list this week?