Festive Gift Nails

Festive nails are the bestest nails. That statement is 100% factual and definitely not up for debate. I had a go at painting a bow on my signature nail as if it's a wrapped present and for my first attempt I'm quite impressed. My nails will get more festive as the month continues but for now I think this is pretty.

I used the 'Teal' by Barry M, white Models Own nail art pen and just your bog standard silver glitter polish to add a little sparkle - N.B. all festive nails must feature some glitter.. it's like the rules of feminism.

Aside from the 5 hours of uni today, this is the most productive thing I've done. My evening has been spent catching up with last night's Made in Chelsea and watching tonight's I'm a Celeb. I'm definitely Team Kian.

Have you been watching it? Who do you want to win?

Lucy ox

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Everyday I'm crumblin'

Comfort food is undoubtably a favourite at this time of year and what's better than an apple crumble for dessert.

Ingredients:

• 3 Cooking apples
• 75g Butter
• 100g Sugar
• 150g Plain flour
• 1tsp Cinnamon 

Mix the sugar, flour and cinnamon in bowl then add the butter. I find it easier to chop the butter into smallish cubes.

Use your fingers to gently rub all the ingredients together, making sure you do so evenly until it resembles a fine crumb like texture with no big lumps of butter.

Next, peel and core the apples before cutting them into cubes.

Saute the apples in a frying pan with a teaspoon of sugar. Stir occasionally until the apple cubes start to soften.

Transfer to an oven proof dish and sprinkle on your crumble topping.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180ºC for 30 minutes or until it turns a lovely golden brown.

What are your favourite comfort bakes for winter?

Lucy ox

Happy December!

'Tis the season to be jolly fa la la la la..

So I'm a little bit excited that it's December. This month will see my final assignment submission of 2013, some festive trips with friends, manic alcohol and food consumption, buying gifts for my favourite people, and of course going home to my friends and family. I haven't seen my Mum since September so as you can imagine I can't wait to give her a big old Christmas cuddle! 

To celebrate the start of this festive season, I thought I'd browse the web to bring you the most bestest, most cheesiest, most festive jumpers I could find. I currently own three festive jumpers and two festive t-shirts.. yup! I'm quite the expert. Here's what I found..

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Unlike last year where Primark reigned supreme, almost every shop on the highstreet and interweb has offered up their serving to the festive plate of Christmas jumpers.

I'm particularly impressed with Topshop's present jumper. It's a more sophisticated style, one that my Mum would love and who doesn't love sequins at this time of year?! The same can be said for River Island's bauble jumper, although at £50 I think it's one to buy in the pre-Christmas sales.

The iconic coca-cola truck is a safe bet as far as festive wear goes. Good news is that Primark have many similar as well as a T-shirt version which I was gifted a few weeks ago by my lovely Mamma. 

New Look's pastel Christmas tree jumper has a secret.. it lights up! Yep! You thought you'd seen it all then BAM! Amazing! Along with Miss Selfridge's 'I want it all' jumper, I'd say these are the most subtle and sweet options out there. Definitely one for the girly girls. 

Which are your favourite? Have you bought one this year yet? I'm loving the Mickey bauble jumper which is actually from Topman. Love it!

Happy December :)

Love, Lucy ox 

Monthly Playlist: November

I must confess, I've listened to a limited amount of music this month. My time's been filled up with uni work and deadlines and taking time to chill out and browse Spotify has been considered somewhat of a luxury. I have however been listening to the radio most afternoons and that's where I've discovered most music this month.

I think it's fair to say that Lily Allen's comeback has kicked ass! I've been a fan of her music since the MySpace days and my goodness am I happy she's back. 

I kept hearing a song I really liked on the radio but never knew who the artist was. Eventually i googled the lyrics and was surprised to learn it was James Blunt. Don't get me wrong, his hits Beautiful and Goodbye my lover used to be regulars on the iPod but I'd kind of forgotten his musical existence (oops). Bonfire Heart is really good though and if you haven't given it a listen because you didn't like his old stuff then I recommend you do.

Now people who know me will tell you that I'm a closet Directioner so i was excited to hear Story of My Life this month and obviously I'd been anticipating Midnight Memories for a while now. When I first heard Story of My Life I've gotta admit I was a little disappointed. See the reason I love 1D is their cheesey, up-beat pop tunes that you shouldn't love but do. SOML is completely different with much more of a mature sound. As you'd expect, my love for 'the boys' prevailed and the song has grown on my like a wart on the end of my nose (*DISCLAIMER* I don't have a wart at the end of my nose.. or anywhere for that matter).

What have you been listening to this month? Are you happy Lily's back? 

ox Lucy

Lazy Sunday

If I had my way, every Sunday would be a lazy one, filled with food, music and films.

My ideal Sunday brunch meal is pancakes. My topping of choice? Banana, peanut butter and honey. Lately I've been using this recipe from Sophie Jane and the end result has been perfect pancakes every time.

When I'm relaxing I like to listen to mostly acoustic music and I'm a sucker for acoustic cover versions of song I'd usually boogie on the dance floor to. The way an artist puts their own stamp on somebody else's song but with the familiarity of the tune you love.. perfect. Here's my Lazy Sunday playlist for today

Finally, I like to spend the afternoon watching movies, usually comedies or rom coms. Sunday afternoon is not the time for thrillers or action films, I like to let my brain take a bit of a break. Naturally, at this time of year I'm watching Christmas movies, not your classics like Elf or The Grinch (far too soon) but all those terribly cheesey films channel 5 shows that make you cringe but still give you that festive feeling. I began watching A Boyfriend for Christmas, next up is Noel and then Annie Claus is Coming to Town... yeah, I've not heard of them either.

How are you spending your Sunday? What's your ideal Sunday brunch?

Love Lucy ox

Happy Birthday X Factor: 10 Best Moments

If you're anything like me, you spend your Saturday nights in your cosiest onesie, on the sofa drinking a glass of your favourite tipple. I've never been much of a Strictly fan (apart from the Louis Smith year) so my telebox is always on ITV so I can see Dermot shake his booty, critique the contestants performances and lust over the female judges dresses on the X Factor.

To think I've been doing this most Saturday nights at this time of year for the past decade might seem like a waste of my time but let me tell you, it's made me quite the expert when it comes to those X Factor moments you thought you'd forgotten! Here are my top ten..

10) The time Queen Bey joined Alexandra Burke

9) Harry Styles telling Matt Cardle what he can expect having won the show



8) These two 'best friends' auditioning



7) Leona and Take That, back when Gary enjoyed a pie or two..



6) Olly's dedication to Ferris Bueller



5) When Sharon walked into a door



4) Having a 'Susan Boyle moment' watching Stacey Solomon's audition



3) Cher Lloyd's swag



2) Rylan's infamous reaction at judge's houses



1) Jahmene and Nicole's flawless performance last year despite a microphone malfunction


So there are my top ten, let me know yours and who you're loving this series! Sam Champman is my fave :)

ox Lucy

A/W 13 Wishlist: Tartan

It's pretty difficult not to find yourself bombarded with tartan in most high street shops right now and I've managed to resist temptation until I saw Lucy Watson on last night's Made In Chelsea sporting a gorgeous tartan dress. It got me searching online this evening and here's what i found.

Tartan Dreams by lalala-lucy 

I really love bold Tartan pieces like the leggings, top and coat. They definitely make a statement and scream 'I'm so on trend'. Saying that, if I was to buy only one item from this wish list it would be the pinafore style dress. The subtle colour make it more wearable and it could easily be dressed down for a spot of lunch and shopping or dressed up for an evening at the local bar.

I will most likely be investing in some accent pieces to accessorise outfits. At this time of year a pop of colour in an all black outfit really boosts my mood and so I'll be tracking down a tartan scarf in the coming weeks. I love scarves, you'll come to learn this :) Finally, how cute is the flag style necklace! I can just imagine wearing it with a plain skater dress, cosy tights and ankle boots.

Have you indulged in any tartan purchases this season? If so, I'd love to know what.

Love, Lucy

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Monthly Playlist

Every month I make a Spotify playlist of all the songs I've been regularly listening too. My taste is pretty varied and so it's usually a mixed bag of genres and this month is no exception.

A few weeks ago i saw Babyshambles play live so had to include one of their newest tracks and one of their classics in my playlist. The gig was great, I've seen Pete Doherty live a couple of times but this was the first time I saw him play with Babyshambles. As usual he was unpredictable on stage but his performance was flawless.

Katy Perry's new album has been blurring from my speakers a lot. I'm a massive fan of hers and although I preferred her more up-beat Teenage Dreams album, I'm so excited she's back with new material. I'm keeping my fingers crossed she announces a UK tour soon. 

I heard Hoodie Allen's song Small Town on a YouTube look book and couldn't get it out of my head for days. Although it's not a new release it's new to my ears and I discovering new artists. 

What have you been listening to this past month?

Love Lucy ox

Ten questions to get to know me

Who are you? Why thank you for asking, I'm Lucy, a 23 year old student from the North-West of England living in the Midlands. 

What do you love? I love food, 80s teen movies, 90s sitcoms, well dressed guys with beards, football, english breakfast tea with two sugars, travelling, dalmatians, hedgehogs, live gigs, converse, Autumn/Winter fashion, wild nights out and cosy nights in.

What do you loathe? Bad manners, ignorant people, raw onions and feet.

What things could you not live without? Family, friends, make up, music, cosy socks, TV box sets and my teddy bear (don't pretend you don't have one).

Crazy fact about yourself.. I have different colour eyes. One's blue and one's blue with a bit of yellowish-brown. 

What are you doing right now? Today's my day off from uni so I'm finding different ways to procrastinate, turns out there's lots. I'm also trying so remove the excessive amount of face paint from around my eyes after Halloween last night.

What are you looking forward to in the future? I'm looking forward to ending my time in education and the unknown possibilities it will bring. I'm also looking forward to Christmas cause I need an excuse to eat more biscuits/cheese/chocolate/meat.

What can we expect from your blog? For now I will aim to create a lifestyle blog documenting the recipes I try, music I'm liking, TV shows I'm watching, opinions on topics I'm passionate about and personal 'diary' type posts about the general musings of my life.

What blogs do you like to read? My favourite blog at the minute is Hannah's. I love her style of writing, her honesty and outright hilarity. I'm a big fan of nail art and recently discovered Nailasaurus. If you love nail art then click your way over there, you'll have a blast. Rosalilium satisfies my need for foodie, fashionie and lifestyle posts all in one place. There are lots more blogs I like to read and I'm thinking about writing a post on them in the near future. It seems like a good opportunity to help people find new blogs and to see how my tastes change.

Where can I find you? I tweet here and pin here. I'd love you to come and join me or leave your social media links below so I can have a stalk gander at what you get up to.

I now have a question for you: If you could do anything and knew you wouldn't fail, what would you do? Let me know if you're taking part in BEDN.

Love Lucy ox

Hello and welcome!

I've read blogs for years now and lately each one I stumble upon seems to be very samey samey in terms of content. Lots of bloggers use the same photography style and review the same products and while I'm not doubting the amount of time and effort these bloggers spend on their little spaces on t'internet, or the popularity of such blog posts, I've felt for a while that I wanted more from the blogging world. 

With the demise of Hello Cotton I've also found it pretty tricky to discover new blogs. I find Bloglovin' rather tedious and it only seems to promote already established blogs. Stuck in a rut of what to read for a couple of months now I stumbled upon this quote whilst spending a very productive evening on Pinterest (read procrastinating from uni work).

link

It got those little cogs in my brain turning and so I decided that maybe I should start my own blog. The idea of having an online journal that documents my ever-changing thoughts and opinions with life events of both the exciting and mundane type really excited me. I love looking back at old 'Year Books' from school to see what my favourite song was in 2006 or who was my celeb crush in 2002 and I hope this blog serves me the same purpose.

More than this, I hope to put something a little more personal into the somewhat predictable blogosphere and if you enjoy what I've got to say then that's a massive dollop of icing on top of the three tiered chocolate cake that I hope this blog will be. 

To get me into the swing of things I'm going to take part in Rosalilium's Blog every day in November challenge. So to begin my blogging journey I'll follow up this intro with a 'get to know me' type post. If you're taking part too, be sure to say hi!

Love Lucy ox