Baking | Reindeer Biscuits

Good Evening! 

So I decided to do a bit of a different blog post today, one that doesn't involve beauty....I know bizarre right, but I have really been enjoying reading more lifestyle type of blog posts recently like Hannah Maggs, who does beautiful posts about her son Grayson. 
So when I was doing a bit of baking with my daughter the other day I decided to get the lights and camera out and take some pictures. I generally dislike baking with a 3 year old as it's normally messy and what your trying to make usually comes out nothing like you intended! I decided to try and relax and just let her make as much mess as she wanted....and it ended up being a lot of fun and after some slight modifications to the icing when she had gone to bed - they didn't look bad at all!

We just used a standard biscuit recipe as my daughter is extremely fussy and doesn't like gingerbread...or anything that's not plain really! 

Ingredients:

• Flour 300g
• Butter 250g (softened)
• Caster sugar 140g 
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 2 Tsp Vanilla extract

These are so simple to make - 

Mix the butter and the sugar. Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat to combine. Sift in the flour. Get your hands in there and combine it all together. I then put it into the fridge for 30mins or so. 

I didn't want to have to go out and buy Christmas cookie cutters especially for this so I found a clever trick on-line, upside down gingerbread man cookie cutters = reindeer 
heads! 

Favourites | November | 2015

I haven't blogged for quite a while as life has been quite...manic! I thought I would do a little favourites post to get back into blogging!

 1. Soap & Glory | Butter Yourself |£10.00

"Rough Elbows? Bumpy upper arms? Flaky lower legs? Deploy...... Butter Yourself."

I love soap and glory products also I am a bit of a sucker for the quirky packaging! This is a product that I have re-purchased and will continue too. Its a body lotion that you apply whilst your skin is still damp from the shower. I have always suffered from bumpy skin on my upper arms, and this is the only thing I have used that actually gets rid of them. Although I do have to use it all the time as if I don't use it for a few days the bumps come back, this doesn't bother me as it does work, and I have tried numerous products in the past to get rid of them!

L'oreal | Skin Perfection Nourishing Cleansing Wipes |£3.49 

I know that face wipes aren't the best thing to use to remove make-up, but when you have stuff to do in the evening like making packed lunches and watching MIC, you just want to go straight to bed without the hassle of cleansing and toning etc! When I do need a face wipe to take off my make-up these are the ones I grab. I have dry skin and these are fabulous for that, I wake up in the morning and my skin feels so soft that I could have done a full cleanse! They are always on some kind of offer as well like at the moment L'oreal products are 2 for £5 in Superdrug!

Emite Make Up | Diamond Heart Base Primer | Full-Size - €35.00

I received this in my November Glossybox and I love it, it evens my skin tone and really makes my make-up last a lot longer. It helps create a dewy, glowy, healthy skin. 

Urban Decay | Naked 3 Palette |£38.00 

I have fallen in love with this again this month. I go through phases with eye shadows, I got stuck in a rutt with my MAC shadows. I grabbed this to do my eyes at the start of November and have used it everyday since! Urban Decay eye shadows are such a brilliant quality. They apply smoothly, have no fall out and are so easily blend able, everything you'd expect from a high end eye shadow. With it coming up to Christmas I think Urban Decay palettes are a beautiful gift for a make-up lover. They have so many pretty palettes, I was lucky enough to receive the new smoky palette this week for my Birthday and I can already tell that it is going to be in my December favourites! The new Gwen Stefani palette looks incredible also!

Estee Lauder | Double Wear Foundation | £30.00

I am surprised I have gone back to using this. I used to use this all the time but I realised that it was too drying for my already dry skin! The reason I got it was as I ran out of my Nars Sheer Glow and as we don't have a Nars stand in my town and I didn't want to wait for delivery so I went back to Estee Lauder. I have a love hate relationship with this foundation. I love the way it looks on the skin, I love the high coverage and I love the staying power. The only thing I don't like is that if I wear it for a long time I get really dry skin, its the only downside, as much as I love this foundation I will probably go back to Nars when this has run out! 

Homesense | Candles | £5.99

I recently found these candles in Homesense, when I first saw them I thought they were bath and body work candles as they're the same type of holder and have the 3 wicks. I looked on-line and found out they are from Walmart in America. These candles are incredible, they burn evenly and put out a lot of scent. Every time I light Deck The Halls people comment on how my house smells like Christmas! If you happen to see these in TKMAXX or Homesense be sure to grab them (if they have a nice scent!).

Soap & Glory

Hello beautiful people, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I had an amazing one as it is the first year that my daughter has understood what's going on!

Since Christmas I think I have had a bath every night, which is strange for me as I'm more of a shower person. The reason I have found a new love for baths is due to being spoilt with lots of Soap and Glory products. I always forget how much I love the Soap and Glory products, they are amazing, smell incredible and to top it off they aren't ridiculously expensive! I'm also a sucker for the packaging which is very cutesy and humorous.

I highly recommend Soap and Glory for all ages. I have sensitive skin yet Soap and Glory doesn't irritate my skin at all. The products are usually on 3for2 at Boots.

Some Big Christmas Wishes....

A girl can dream, so here are a few of my more expensive and less likely wishes!

christmas by daisymhanson-1 featuring scented candles

Little shopping trip!

I went shopping today and got a few bits I needed/wanted before Christmas.

First up I really wanted a Christmas Red lipstick as I have recently lost my favorite YSL red lipstick. I got one of the Rimmel lipsticks from Kate Moss's range. I purchased it in the colour 01 which is a dark red.

Then I really needed a liquid liner as I have just run out of my Maybelline gel liner. So I decided to try this Master precise liquid liner.

Finally I have been looking for a Christmas jumper everywhere and I found this really cute one with reindeer's on it which I think i am going to wear on Christmas day!

Next Christmas Competition

Jess at Feeling Stylish is hosting a NEXT competition and the prize is £500 worth of gift vouchers. All you have to do is create a Christmas shop window using products from Next.

Here is my NEXT Christmas window - 

  Why don't you have a go at entering this competition. You can find all the details HERE.

Next christmas comp by daisymhanson on Polyvore

Christmas Tag

What is your favourite thing about Christmas?

I Love pretty much everything about Christmas. I love the way all of the family come together - most of my family (Auntie/cousins/grandparents) live about 2 hours so it's lovely to see all of them. I also love getting everyone's presents together and wrapping them, putting the tree up and putting fairy lights everywhere inside my house.

What is your favourite make up look for the festive season?

I love putting on a red lipstick and just simple eyes. The thing I really look forward to at this time of year is getting out my glitter nail polishes and I can't wait to use my Modelsown glitter polishes!

Real tree or fake tree?

For as long as I can remember we have always had a real tree. This is my first Christmas in my own home with my partner and daughter and we have just bought a real tree from a local tree farm!

Giving presents or receiving presents?

Both! I am not going to say I don't enjoy receiving presents because obviously I do but I really enjoy going out and buying presents for my family and I always get excited about them opening them. 

Do you open your Christmas presents morning or evening?

I have always opened my presents in the morning. I used to stay in my sisters bedroom and we would both get up make my mum and step dad a cup of tea and then go and open the presents. We would always open one present at a time and watch each other so that we could see what everyone else got, this way the whole present opening would last for hours. We would also have two small presents each on the Christmas tree and we would open them in the evening. This year I am really looking forward to taking my daughter downstairs and opening her presents, even though she is only 8 months old and she probably won't understand what is going on!

Handmade Christmas cards or bought?

I love handmade cards and my mum always makes them but to be honest I'm to lazy and would rather buy them. 

What is your favourite Christmas film?

I love  Miracle on 34th Street this is my favourite closely followed by Home Alone!

What is your favourite Christmas food?

My favourite Christmas food has to be chocolate money - I always get the Lidl chocolate euros, these are cheap but really yummy!

Hope you all enjoyed this tag and I tag all of you to do this - if you do link it below so I can read yours! 

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Santa Clause is coming to town.......

Hi! I thought I would do a little festive post today and show you a few of my decorations that I have been collecting over the past few weeks. 
As this is my first Christmas in my own house I had no decorations at all and I didn't realise how expensive they can be! Before we went out looking for decorations we had to decide on colours, I wanted Nordic/Scandinavian red and white decorations where as my partner wanted the traditional red/white/green decorations. Thankfully I finally got my own way and we settled on my choice! 

I am super excited about getting a tree. We are going to go out on my Birthday (2nd December) and get one. I will try and get some pictures whilst we are tree shopping and do a little blog to show you all, we are going to a local tree farm to pick the perfect tree! Here are my decorations so far -

 I got some jingle bells from homebase, they had these in all different colours but I got the red/white pack. 

Little fabric houses, I don't know what they have to do with Christmas but I thought they were very cute. I got these from my local Homesense.

These candy canes. I don't think I will have these on my tree but maybe along my fireplace - From Homebase.

Fabric hearts - Homesense

Ceramic mittens - I don't know whether I am going to have these on my tree as they are quite heavy I may try though! - Homesense

Little fabric reindeer - I got this from a local shop called Ginger Fig and this item was made by Heaven Sends LTD. 

 This is also from ginger fig and this one was handmade by the shop owners.

 Also from Ginger fig - unknown brand! (Sorry)

I love this heart with the jingle bells I think it is so cute and I found it in a sale basket for 50p! Bargain! - Ginger Fig

Rustic star - Ginger Fig

 Christmas tree lights from Homebase.

I hope you enjoyed this post and I will post a photo once my tree is complete. I am sorry I don't have the prices but I stupidly took off the price tags! Sorry!

Check out the ginger fig website as they have some really cute items www.gingerfig.co.uk

Me Me Me Nail care gift set

I recently won a MeMeMe facebook giveaway- if you haven't already then go and like the MeMeMe Cosmetics Facebook page as they are always running giveaways!

So anyway my prize was a MeMeMe nail care gift set  I was really excited when I won this as I have tried a few of MeMeMe's polishes and they are really good quality. 
The gift set came with a Nail Buffer, a Nail File, ‘Softly Softly’ Hand & Nail Cream,  ‘Innocent’ and ‘Graceful’ Nail Glosses and ‘Prime & Protect’ base & finishing gloss. 
After using these polishes I have to say they are pretty colours, amazing quality and very long lasting. As I have said in previous post's all of the MeMeMe polishes come with "Maxi-brush technology" I really like this as I find them easier to apply than with usual polish brushes.
Overall I think this gift set is lovely and if you haven't already its well worth checking out the website as they have lots of really cute gift sets which are ideal for Christmas/Birthday presents!

Nail gift set - £19.99
http://www.mememecosmetics.co.uk/