KawaiiBox December 2014 Unboxing and Review

I received my December KawaiiBox today and I'm feeling the festiveness again. I'm always so excited to receive this box of goodies through the post.  This is hands down my favourite ever subscription box and this month was amazing. The cute little notecard adds a personal touch and the pink tissue paper starts off the girliness. 

The Kawaiibox costs $18.90 a month and takes around two weeks to arrive from Singapore.

How adorable is this Kawaii Christmas tree?

After lifting off the pink tissue paper this is the colourful sight that met my eyes. It's packed full of Kawaii items and includes Christmassy pieces too.

First up are the Christmassy items. I love the Christmas glitter puff stickers as they are adorable. The reindeer square is an envelope which is so cute I just need to kiss it. The Santa is a fold out card with different expressions on his face and the festive pencils and erasers have just tipped me over the festive cuteness edge. I will still be using these in March time.

How adorable is this little yellow side crown headband? I will be wearing this as I love the princess look! I also received two packs of iridescent sequins which will be fab for nail art or decorating.

I love the colours used on this little bag so much and it feels sooooo unbelievably soft.

Hearts are another of my favourites and I love this notebook which has different colours inside it.

 

This little donut squishy is addictively squashy. I can't stop squishing it! 

The blue bunny is uber cute and the little pink bow makes it even more adorable.

I love treats and these ones are pandas and are chocolate filled wafers. Yummy!

Finally I received some Hello Kitty nail scissors complete with a polka dot bow.

Best box ever!

Happy New Year :)

Love Laura xoxo

Laura's Life #2

Hello everyone!

It's the last day of 2014. I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas ( If you celebrate it) and have a fabulous New Year.

Watching:

I've been watching quite a lot of films over the festive season including Home Alone to make us feel all festive. I love the church scene with the dramatic music. I also watched Noah which is fantastic and the new X Men film last night which is amazing too. Before Christmas we were watching the comedy series Trollied which is based in a supermarket. It's really easy to watch and perfect for chilling at night for a giggle.

Reading: 

I've been feeling super nostalgic and have been buying some old childhood favourites such as Enid Blyton's Enchanted Forest collection, Naughty Amelia Jane and old annuals too. I love being transported back in time. My mum bought me a Milly Molly Mandy book for my Birthday last year and that's probably what started it off. I also started reading J.K Rowling's Cuckoo's Calling book too which I've hot half way through.

Making: 

I've been making a mess with all my new presents as I still haven't put most of them away.

Listening: 

I love, love, love Meghan Trainor's songs. I need her album. I also love her dress sense too. My mum and dad said that when they saw her in her video, she was the same as me!

I also adore Paloma Faith. Her voice is amazing live.

Day-dreaming:

 About holidays and weddings.

Buying: 

All of these shoes that you see below. They were an absolute bargain and I didn't have many flat dolly shoes left at all. I used to have so many but they all seemed to die at the same time and went to dustbin heaven. The quality street-like ones below were only £3 each, the lilac were £4 and the holographic which is my all time favourite colour EVER were £5. I also got new underwear from the New Look sale which are fabulous, a lilac top from Matalan for £4 oh and the Soap and Glory Boots Christmas special just before Christmas too. Happy Christmas to meeeeeeeee.

Walking:

Through the forest and football fields in my wellies with the boys to burn off their energy. They run as fast as they can and then when I get them home, they fall fast asleep!

Appreciating:

 The beautiful, thoughtful gifts that people have given to  me for Christmas.

Trying out: 

New nail polish for New Years Eve tonight and my new black play suit.

Preparing: 

For my fiances Birthday at the end of January and my New Years outfit for tonight.

Wearing:

Onesies to snuggle up into, fluffy jumpers, deer Primark Christmas jumper which is the most cutest one I have even seen in my life. New dresses and tights!

Looking forward to: 

Seeing Wicked in Edinburgh which was a Christmas present from my fiances parents' for Christmas. I'm over the moon. I love witches, the Wizard of Oz and musicals so I cannot wait for this.

Tidying:

I constantly tidy up after my pets as they make such a mess daily the rascals. 

Cooking:

I made a chicken roast on Monday night which was delicious. My mum made the most amazing Christmas dinner ever. It had turkey, stuffing, stewed apples, sausages in a ginger and garlic marinade, carrots, roast potatoes and cauliflower cheese. Oh and sausages wrapped in bacon with lashes of thick gravy.

Drinking:

My favourite festive drinks are a Buck's fizz on Christmas day and this has now become a tradition. I love Malibu and Coke, sweet cocktails, Kopparberg strawberry and lime and Crabbies Rhubarb & raspberry.

Exercising:

Power walking Alfie and Teddy and walking up and down the department and stairs at work.

Planning:

I need to book our holidays and our wedding too! <3

What have you been up to lately?

Love Laura xoxo

Kawaii Wonderland December Lucky Bag Unboxing and Review

Lucky bags, Christmas and Kawaii make me happy and as soon as Shell's Lucky bags from Kawaii Wonderland became available, I snapped one up.

Look at how beautiful the gifts have been wrapped . I love the white polka holographic paper and the additions of the adorable unicorn sticker, tinsel and Christmas card. I thought about keeping it for Christmas day and then the thought left my mind and I opened it up ha ha!

 

Inside the Christmas card is the most adorable and miniature gingerbread man I have ever seen in my life. Definitely keeping this little fella! What a lovely touch to write a Christmas card too.

So inside of the wrapping paper I found all of these goodies. Some had been wrapped up further to add more suspense. Already the amount of cuteness had me squealing with glee.

 After further unwrapping the gifts, this is what I found. All of these fabulous Kawaii goodies crammed into the parcel.

First up are the 'other' items. I absolutely adore this ice cream face cloth. I mean look at the packaging. I don't even want to unroll it and use it, it's that sweet!

Look at the toothpaste squeezer. I've never seen one of these before but as soon as I saw it I loved it. This should get every last squeeze of toothpaste out of the tube whilst looking super cute at the same time.

Onto the sweeties. Maoms are one of my favourite sweets as they are delicious. I love the red and white strip candy cane and lollipop too as they add the festive touch.

In the red packet are panda cookies. Which I've not yet eaten and I'm not sure why (Goes off to munch the biscuits!)

Here's what stationery goodies I received:

Look at the adorable Bourbon-like biscuit pen. I like how it's got the little chain attached so I can pop it onto my keys or pass for work.

The 'My Weekly Schedule' will be great to keep me organised as I'm a very visual person. You can add notes on this to see your week at a view and use it as a to-do list or for events or blog posts.

The cast postcard is beautiful and I may just use that as a picture for decoration.

I love Rilakumma and post it notes always come in handy. Look at him sunning himself on his deckchair whilst I've got the heating on and fluffy socks.

A pair of happy and sad pandas. These are cute with their large eyes. Why is the panda sad though?

These fruity stickers have to be my favourite in the whole of the goody bag. Fruits with little faces that are puffy. Love, love, love them. I need to decorate something with these like a craft box!

Finally I received this little notepaper to write on.

I love bits and pieces like this. I'm super happy with the Christmas lucky bag that Shell from Kawaii Wonderland put together :)

Love Laura xoxo

*Nothing to disclose.

Lisa Jane Designs Ltd - Mermaid Sea Bracelets

I love discovering new shops and items, especially when I find things that I adore. 

These picks that I found are from an up and coming business woman named Lisa Jane Designs Ltd. Her website will be launching in early Spring 2015 but I thought I would show you my favourite pick of bracelets before they are launched.  Each piece is made to order or as a bespoke piece.

These remind me of Mermaids which I absolutely love. They have an ethereal sea quality about them and are all hand made with semi - precious stones, hand painted ceramic or glass beads finished with silver or gold plated findings. 

As with Art pieces everyone interprets them differently and you make look at these pieces and think that they mean something personal to you which is what makes bespoke pieces special. I'm not sure on prices as they are not quite ready for the public yet but they have inspired me to get crafty and maybe make a scrapbook of sea art and Mermaids.

I love owning quirky pieces that appeal to my Fairytale and mystical nature. 

I love the sea green and blue beads on this one with the added mix of the diamante bead and silver-shell-like pieces too. 

Lots of sea blue semi precious stones have been used on this one with a mix of sea shell like  beads.

These are not necessarily colours that I choose to opt for but there is something about them being used together that intrigues me. It's like chameleon paint that is eye-catching.

Finally, my favourite pick. Again this reminds me of a Mermaid but also of a fairytale princess. The pink and golds together look stunning and it looks exceptional quality.

Do you like these pieces? Have you seen any other Mermaid-like jewellery pieces?

Love Laura xoxo
* Nothing to disclose :)

Text Santa To Raise Money For Charity with ITV This Christmas

I love Ant and Dec they are hilarious!

 "Text Santa is ITV’s annual charity fundraiser appeal, raising money and awareness for six UK based charities each year.

Our aim is to improve the quality of life for vulnerable people in the UK by inspiring, engaging and empowering the nation to make a difference at Christmas time.

We are proud to say that when you make a text, phone or bank donation to Text Santa, it will be split equally between our six charities. 100% of what you donate gets passed to the charities as soon as we receive it. So by March, each year, your money is already helping to make a big difference.

All Text Santa operating costs including staffing and the programme itself are funded directly by ITV as part of our corporate giving, and not from our corporate partners or your contributions.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has got involved to date for their brilliant support and help in raising £15 million for charity."

Text Santa is on ITV this Friday the 19th December.

The six different charities that Text Santa are raising money for are; 

Teenage Cancer Trust

Guide dogs

WellChild

Marie Curie Cancer Care

Alzheimer's Society

Together for Short Lives

There are lots of ways that you can get involved too such as donating in person, by phone ( 0300 123 60 60 ), online or by text .

Lots of different companies have partnered up to help ITV and there is a range of merchandise to buy too which you can check out here.

One of the partners is The Hut and the following merchandise can be purchased on their website.

Holly Glow In The Dark T-shirt //  Rudy Glow In The Dark T-Shirt

Rudy Christmas Knitted Jumper // Holly Christmas Onesie Pink

Women's Snowflake Print Onesie // Ben Mosley Onesie 

Ben Mosley Women's long sleeved T-shirt // Ben Mosley Hoody Grey

Ben Mosley's Art page is here.

Love Laura xoxo



*All images belong to ITV and the The Hut.
Nothing to disclose.
It's been a year today grandad. I carry you in my heart.

My W7 Make Up Advent Calendar - Days 1-12

Happy Saturday everyone.

I am so productive today already. I have completed a lot of to-do things before I have work later on and then a Christmas party to go to straight after!

I was over the moon to have won this W7 advent makeup calendar from W7 themselves. I have witnessed the explosion of the variety of advents that are now available and think that they are a super exciting and brilliant idea. I still have a Milky Bar chocolate one though as you can't beat the original chocolatey ones. Yum!

I really loved the look of the Benefit one ( My favourite make up brand) The Body Shop one and the Yankee Candle one too but I spent my money on Christmas presents for other people instead and couldn't really afford an expensive calendar. So you can imagine I was so excited to have won one of these calendars filled with a different make up treat for each of the 24 days of Christmas.

I've not owned any W7 make up before so what a brilliant way of being introduced to a range of their products all at once.

On the reverse of the Advent calendar it has a spoiler of all of the different treats that you're going to find inside so don't peep if you want it to be a surprise! I'm naughty as I just can't resist. Although having said that I haven't opened the calendar doors unless it's for that specific day.

The calendar opens up like a book and behind each one of the easy to open doors, you find your treat. The numbered days are all in order so they are easy to find.

Here are days 1 and 2.

On the 1st December I opened the door to reveal this gorgeous shade of eyeshadow. I've started to wear more of these bronzey colours as I've got older as they make blue eyes stand out. 

On the 2nd day I received this gold glitter polish which is super Christmassy. I needed two coats of this and was pleased that it lasted a few days.

On the 3rd I received a mini lipstick which applies smoothly and I love the pink shade. I will wear this to work to get my use out of it.

On the 4th day, I received the silver glitter polish which I was pleased with again as it's perfect for this time of year.

The container is quite cheap on this and the lid popped out and fell on the floor. When swatching, the powder feels velvety and required a few swipes to build up the colour.  I will apply this with a quality eyeshadow brush to see if it makes a difference.

I love the shade of this pink lipstick as it's like a Barbie pink candy colour. It applied smoothly and evenly which is great. I'm not keen on the lipstick tube but I suppose it fits into the calendar being a mini.

On the 5th day of Christmas I received this deep pink sparkly glitter polish which is more me. I love glitter polishes as when they start to chip you can just apply more to make it last longer as it just blends in.

On the 6th day, I received this little tube of foundation. After swatching I found that it has a pink undertone and is too dark and bronzey for my skintone. It did however blend really well.

On the 7th day I received this neon pink polish which I love. The colour is so me and what I would buy if I saw it in a shop.

On the 8th day I received this stunning iridescent glitter pot which reminds me of mermaids and I want to bathe in it! I absolutely love this so much.

On the 9th day Of Christmas W7 gave to me this gorgeous pink holographic glitter pot which is just beautiful and uber mermaidy again.

On the 10th day was another hot pink polish which is similar to day 7 but this one is even more neon.

On the 11th day I received this coral lipstick, which again, I love and can't wait to wear.

On the 12th day of Christmas I received a clear lip gloss which I don't really wear but I may add it to a matte lipstick to make it more smooth when applying.

So that's my 12 days of Advent treats with 12 days to go :)

Do you have an Advent calendar this year?

Love Laura xoxo