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In the past few months I've finally got around to reading a few books that I've been meaning to read for years now. The book I've most recently enjoyed reading has been One Day which I can't believe took me so long to get around to - the book celebrates its 10th anniversary this year!
This got me thinking, why not create a book bucket list of all the books I truly want to get around to reading at some point. These aren't your average newly released best sellers but books that get discussed and talked about over and over again, standing out from the rest and loved by seemingly everyone.
I've already started making some headway with my own bucket list books so I thought I'd share with you the ones on my list that make give you a few book recommendations or even inspire you to create your own literary bucket list!
The older I get the less I believe in making New year 'resolutions' in the traditional sense. This is mainly because the burnout effect come February of said resolutions is generally all too real for me to believe setting resolutions actually works. We all make such a conscious effort to stick to our resolutions in January that it's the ironic downfall of sustaining them for the following eleven months!
So this January, for the 2nd year, I've decided to set myself positive-focus goals that aim to improve my wellbeing and sense of self-care that I'm much more likely to achieve and enjoy. While these consist of a little reading challenge (find me on Goodreads here!) to even starting a pin collection just for fun, I thought I'd focus on my own beauty-positive goals that I feel could be applied and achieved by anyone for a happier and more confident sense of self in 2019!
Christmas day is soon upon on to so today I thought I'd share with you how I have enjoyed decorating for Christmas this year as I'm one of those annoying people that embrace the festive season with open arms and laps up every second of it! This means Pinterest boards, colour schemes and a full drawer dedicated to gift wrapping supplies!
I didn't always use to be this 'full on' Christmas wise, however over the years I have found it's a new way to embrace the joy of Christmas as decorating provides a cosy and homely atmosphere that really lifts dark evening. Below you will find out how I decorated my dining table this year and see my favourite cosy corner where I display my Chrismas mug collection - yes, that is a thing!
This post is in collaboration with Lifestyle Furniture.
Christmas Decorating
In general I love interior design; from picking up ornaments and homeware to add to my home to designing a new space. So when Christmas comes along one of my main focuses', probably as equally important to present buying, is decorating my home for Christmas.
While normally one of the main events is putting up the tree, this year it's been slightly tricky with a new puppy under our feet! So although I enjoyed decorating the tree with new baubles and deciding on a silver and gold theme this year (it works, trust me!) the focus was more on navigating how to keep unwanted paws off the baubles and from pulling down the entire thing!
So this year my main focus was to create a full-on festive and grown-up Christmas dining room, from looking on Pinterest for Christmas table design ideas to figuring out a colour scheme that wasn't made up of just a single colour.
Choosing a Festive Colour Scheme
From contemporary to rustic and even kitsch there are endless Christmas theme choices. However this year I decided to go for a classic look with a colour scheme of red, green and silver/white. This was all centred around my new dining table from Lifestyle Furniture, who kindly got in touch and offered me a piece of furniture. After nearly 7 years of having a wooden cradle style table with glass top, it was definitely time for an upgrade so I decided on something similar yet much more sophisticated and grown up.
A Grown-up Dining Set
The table I went for, actually with family gatherings and festivities in mind was the beautiful Camden Deluxe Dining Set with Grey Velvet Chairs. I find glass tables really add light and space to an area and are durable and easy to clean. But what I liked the most, other than the gorgeous chairs, was the shape of the table and the thick oak criss-cross legs that look sturdy yet elegant.
So with a beautiful new table, which is definitely the focus of the room, I decided to plan my Christmas table layout around it. First I added height and symmetry with an artificial Christmas tree in the centre which I decorated with small red ribbons and lights to pair my red and green colour scheme together. Then looking to Pinterest for inspiration I decided to actually lay my table, starting with inexpensive metallic red charger plates and layering them up with classic white plates, side plates an bowls and topping with a silver or marble effect bauble!
As you will see below I also really enjoying decorating the backs of the stunning velvet studded chairs as I wanted to draw the eye to the beautiful chrome knockers so I added a decorative Santa key tree decoration to each and finished with hand-tied red ribbon which I think adds a really nice contrast to the dark grey velvet chairs - which feel and look incredible, to be honest!
I also decided to tie in my classic red, green and white theme into the rest of the dining room without it being too much. So I picked up a red berry wreath and hung it with the same red ribbon on a large white mirror in my dining room. I feel this very much ties the entire theme together and while looking wholesome still have an element of clean and contemporary to it!
My Cosy Corner
The other area of my dining room I wanted to focus on was a pair of white ladder shelves. I picked these up earlier last year from eBay and while simple they definitely allow me room to enjoy my love of ornaments with tons of displaying room.
As you can see, while predominated white I loosely stuck to my red and green theme displaying my favourite Christmas mugs that contained these colours. I also added what I like to call 'touches of magic' with a beautiful wire lit glass dome lamp and some real wax LED pillar candles that add a little sparkle and glow on an evening.
Keeping with a loose colour scheme here meant all the decorative items although very different in style all work together well - so if you are unsure how to make a corner of your home look good then definitely go with a colour scheme of 2-3 colours and see how well everything comes together.
Christmas Mug Collection
What I love about this little corner of my dining room is how the mixture of stylish pieces works with more kitsch orgaments, especially the cute Christmas mugs and little trees. If you're a fellow lover of Christmas I would strangely highly recommend starting a Christmas mug collection. I started a few years ago now, collecting them both to display and use and over the years I've collected so many that I know will treasure forever!
This also creates a nostalgic element even as an adult! Already when I unwrap my Christmas mug collection to display each year, thoughts of when and where I bought each mug arise. It also lets me indulge in picking up some extra special mugs that I have always wanted - such as the special gilded Anthropologie monogram mug.
With fully decorating my Dining room, especially my gorgeous new table, my home is feeling more festive than ever both and I now can't wait to show it off to friends and family and enjoy my time off over the Christmas period.
To celebrate my new dining table Lifestyle Furniture are giving all Makeup Savvy readers £20 off first orders plus free UK shipping with code 'makeupsavvy' at the checkout here!
Do you decorate beyond the Christmas tree? Let me know!
This will be my last post before Christmas Day so I want to wish you all a happy and safe holiday period, filled with rest, love and happiness.
Fee xo.
For me, the lead up to Christmas is possibly more special than the day itself. Even as an adult I try to encompass the festive feelings and magical joy Christmas can bring to even the most boring of days, by actively seeking and setting time aside for all things festive.
This year I'm working my way through Christmas movies I've yet to watch, more on that later, discovering new festive reads and even starting a Christmas vinyl collection. Take a peek at my ever growing Christmas bookshelf to discover a few treasures and find out my favourite Christmas movie of 2018, below!
Candles lovers certainly don't need any excuse to pick up a nice scent but there's no denying candles and autumn go hand in hand. Which could be why I've managed to acquire four new candles in the past month alone.
For me gone are the days I pick up a magazine as a treat (blame the increase in price yet decrease in written content) rather spending the same amount of money on a new candle to light and enjoy of an evening.
While I burn candles all year round the cosiness of autumn as the nights draw in encourages my love of candles, bringing out old favourites and seeking out new scents. So today I wanted to share with you four home fragrance brands that I've loved for years that suit all budgets.
It's been a while since I put together an eBay edit purely because I don't feel like I need to bombard you will more budget brushes and nail polish bargains.
However with Autumn here I couldn't resist having a look on my favourite budget website for some autumnal themed pieces and if I do say so myself I think I did pretty well, I mean I found a chic Hocus Pocus tee!
Find my top 10 favourite eBay autumn buys below...
For this week's eBay post I decided to go in search of 'on trend' items! Now I'm aware that a lot of people dislike the whole 'millennial' trend but I decided to take inspiration from it here because I personally like the aesthetics of lots of current products right now - from fashion to interiors.
Below you will find a good mix of products from as little as £1.00!
While Pinterest is a fabulous place to waste time procrastinating over what your dream home would look like it's not the most ideal place to shop from. Along with eye-watering prices for homeware pieces, I'm often disappointed most items are US based. So today I thought I'd bring you a bunch of budget-friendly and accessible homeware finds inspired by Pinterest!
Like many, a new year for me means new plans and goals, so what better time to up my stationery game with foiled motivational stickers, a new planner and basically anything that will look pretty on my desk. But with Christmas just behind me I personally don't want to spend too much hence my first eBay Bargains post of the year! Here you will find some fab stationery buys from only 99p!
I don't know about you but Christmas is one of my busiest times of the year and although I love it I require daily downtime to stay on top of it all and enjoy it!
Of course, sticking on a Christmas movie is one way to relax while saying in the spirit of things but for me, I also like to combine my love of reading with this special time of year! This is something that I started a few years ago, seeking out festive reads instead of my go-to thriller genre.
So today I thought it would be a nice idea to share my own collection of festive reads and put together a Christmas reading list that not only could you pick and choose from yourself but you could also gift others, especially if you know a fellow Christmas fanatic! Below you will find a good mix of reads, from a book for all ages, something that will prompt nostalgic memories of Christmas as a child, a festive cookbook with a twist and even a short story from author, John Green - who knew he'd written a Christmas tale!
Ahh, it's finally December. Well, I say finally but I think we are all baffled by how fast 2017 has gone. So much has happened yet it seems only yesterday it was the start of the year. Who knows!
For me, December is 'Christmas' as I find the lead up just as good, if not better, as the day itself. The sparkle of Christmas lights both indoor and out, along with feel-good adverts about getting together and giving back adds a lightness to my days. I also feel Christmas is the season where regressing in age is fully acceptable, so I fully intend to be sat by my Christmas tree feeling presents through their wrapping paper while watching Arthur Christmas and eating too many chocolates in the days leading up to the big day. Actually, isn't it funny how we call it 'the big day'?
But what I'm here for other than celebrating the fact it's December is to share with you what you can expect to see on Makeup Savvy over the next month and a little chat about what I will be getting up... because I'm excited!
With a change of season, I've been looking to update my wardrobe so I thought what better time to put together an autumn style wish list post. Plus also share with you what I've bought for the upcoming colder weather thus far.
With the arrival of a new season, I think most beauty & lifestyle bloggers are thinking of how they can update and style up their flat lays.
As I particularly love cosy autumnal images and start to hoard blog props for Autumn, Halloween, Winter and of course Christmas right about now, I thought I'd share some inexpensive items I've picked up recently.
Along with quite a few other blog prop ideas that won't break the bank!
With just over a week until it's officially Autumn I thought a little lifestyle type post was in order to share my love of the impending season.
I've been autumn ready for weeks so I thought I would share some of the enjoyable pastimes I've been getting up to which I find relaxing and perfect for this time of year. From upping my skin care game with glow-enhancing face masks and facial oils to dusting off my slow cooker for a few comforting dishes both savoury and sweet.
Last month I signed up to Netflix (for the billionth time) so I could watch the latest season of Orange is the New Black. And as per usual I went and let it roll around to the next month instead of cancelling it. But for once I'm glad of my laziness as I've been discovering some amazing programmes of late. So much so I wanted to share them!
Fluffy isn't really my thing when it comes to documentaries in particular but I think I'm with most people, especially the ones that have Netflix... it is virtually 80% gripping/hard hitting documentaries after all. So without rambling further here are five absolutely amazing things to watch right now - you can thank me later!
I recently had a series of bad mental health days coinciding with being ill (the worst!). And while I didn't plan this post while I was mid-anxiety it naturally came to me once I sighed relief that I was feeling much more myself.
Bad mental health days can happen to anyone with a long list of possible reasons - in fact, sometimes I'm sure the mind says stuff it, I want to freak out for no particular reason! Whether you know the cause or not, battling mental health symptoms is never pleasant or comfortable. But thankfully for the most part even severe symptoms are temporary and we all can get through them. So today I thought I would share seven tips I've found to make a difference to myself in the hope they help someone else.
Gold Stork Scissors £3.49
Why have normal scissors when you can have stork scissors, right? Perfect for any crafter or desk perfectionist these golden scissors are some truly Pinterest worthy. Super cheap and from a UK seller.
Today I thought I'd talk about something a little different - self-care. Because self-care plays a huge role in my life and has been one of the main ways I've overcome most of my anxiety problems.
But with brighter weather and longer feeling days I've realised it's easy to push self-care aside, living life that bit faster and with a little less thought to what makes for good mental health.
NYX Lid Lingerie Eyeshadow Palette £8.00This has to be the budget eyeshadow palette of Autumn 2017! Six large matte eyeshadow pans of glorious warm neutral shades, perfect for the upcoming crisp weather. This strikes me as a very usable palette with not a single shade I wouldn't use (which is rare!) and something I could create quite a number of makeup looks with. I know I will be buying this before summer is out! You can also find it at ASOS here.
It's pretty rare you will find me wanting to post anything other than beauty talk or the odd lifestyle post here on Makeup Savvy. But on recently picking up the sweetest blush suede bag that was outside of what I normally would go for (generally black and simplistic) something changed.
It's possible it has something to do with how photogenic this petite blush pink suede cross body bag is or the fact it was a bit of a bargain buy that made me want to share it with you!
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