Christmas 2015

I decided this year not to travel home to be with my parents and brother but to stay up north with Phil and his two little boys. Liam is 7 and Max is 2.  It was lovely to just be in our house cooking the dinner and watching the kids open their presents.

A few weeks before christmas we put up the christmas tree here are a few pictures:

Liam and Max both really enjoyed putting the tinsel and decorations on the tree. 

Its great how you can really tell they helped, the baubles are not neatly spread out and hung in size order but it looks fantastic because we did it as a family!

In our house we have a coal fire and leading up to christmas when the nights are cold it is so nice to be able to cosy up with a real fire and watch crappy films and tv.

The weeks leading up to christmas seemed to fly buy and I was busy working lots and lots as well as buying presents for friends and family. 

I had decided I was going to make Phil a scrap book as one of his presents as a memory of all this things we have done together :) 

I managed to find a plain scrapbook which didn't have slots for photos from WHSmiths for £16.99, I wanted a book without slots so I could be creative on how I laid out the photos. I think I am going to do another blog post dedicated just to how I did the scrapbook so look out for that.

My mam had been to visit in the first week of december she delivered all the gifts for me, Phil, Liam and Max. She definitely went over board but we received some really lovely things!

On christmas day me and Phil woke up really early and decided we would go downstairs and open our presents as the kids mam wasn't dropping them off until 10am. It was so nice to be together this year and see each others face when we were opening the gifts. I was well and truly spoilt this year!!

He got me everything I had asked Santa for and more.

Phil did decide to play a trick on me though as I had been really hoping for some UGG boots and when we put all the presents out there wasn't a shoe box shaped one there and I'm not going to lie I was a little gutted. He let me open everything else and I was so grateful for all the lovely things he had got me.. 

And the a few mins later he came back over with another box and this one was shoe boxed shaped and lucky me it was some UGG boots! I was so happy that I cried I know it sad crying over shoes but I had really wanted them.

I also received some great gifts from other family and friends including a hair curler, perfume, ornaments, candles, make up and a beautiful necklace from my friend Jodie it is one of the nicest gifts I've ever received. It is silver with a tiny little bird pendant! Thanks so much everybody!

Phil made me laugh when he was opening his presents as he was sat on the floor with crossed legs like a child, I was really happy to see him smiling because It means me and santa did a good job on his presents too :) 

I think Phil's favourite present was his sunderland shirt, recently he has been going to a lot more matches I though t it only right he has a shirt to wear so he can support his team in style :P

Now on to the main event the kids arrived and were so excited to see if Santa had been! Max wasn't feeling 100% as he had been poorly the night before at his mam's but he was still enjoying opening his presents.

 I really think the boys loved all of their presents, Liam got a huge box of lego from Santa and some more off my mam.  He went straight upstairs to play with it and build some models they are fantastic!

  



Just look at how cute his little house is with the smoke coming out of the chimney, so great he really loves it and is super creative and imaginative when he lets himself be.




Me and Phil had never made a full Christmas dinner by ourselves before and we decided we would do it together so I put the turkey in and Phil prepared the vegetables. Then once it was ready we all sat down to eat our lovely lunch!

After lunch we went and visited Phil's Uncle and Aunt which was really nice and the kids got to play with the other children of the family :)
It was such a great day but as the day went on Max started feeling poorly again so we let him watch one of his new DVDs and cuddle up with his Mickey mouse. Bless him, I think as well as feeling poorly it was all just too much for him.

So over all I loved pretty much the whole day and I am so glad I decided to stay at home with Phil and the kids. I hope you all had great Christmases too and Santa brought you lots of lovely things!

Tarra 

xx

As usual here are some more pictures :

Work Christmas party 2015.

Hello,

So this week was my work Christmas party and I really wanted to get an outfit with a little bit of glitz to it. I search all over and tried on many dresses. Eventually I settled on this one from New Look.


Its hard to see in this picture but the dress has tiny gold sparkles all over it.
I really like the skater style dresses so this one was perfect and I was guaranteed to be comfy and able to dance my socks off :)


The dress is velvet which always reminds me of being a child at Christmas going to see my grandparents as I had a velvet dress then (was all the range in the 90's)

Once I decided on this dress I needed to find a bag to keep all my essential xmas party stuff in. (lipstick, money, id)

I was looking for a nice black clutch with maybe a bit of glitter on. What I came across was not even close but so much more amazing I had to buy it…..



Look at it its so glittery and christmassy and a star!! What more could you ever want!
This bag comes with a gold chain strap to wear over the shoulder and has a push clasp. I paid £14.99 for it and I think that is great.

Along with my dress and bag I wore black tights and my chelsea style boots, I think all together it was a pretty casual look but the hints of glitter gave it that christmas feel.

If you have been following my blog you will know I have been trying to lose some weight.  I have recently received my 1 1/2 stone award which I am really proud of achieving especially around christmas time as usually this would be the time of year I pig out.

I think in my self I am really starting to be able to see
difference not only in my body but in confidence too.

So now onto make up, with it being a christmas party you have to go with shimmery eyes and a red lip.

   

I did keep it pretty simple on the eyes though as the lip is going to be so bold I didn't want to over do it.

I used Urban Decay Half Baked eye shadow all over the lid to create the base.
Then I used Mac Woodwinked in the crease to create definition.


Then all I did was added some liner and mascara and my eyes are ready.








Next for the lips, I used a Rimmel Apocalips in Burning Lava. It is a very bright red but unlike the normal Apocalips this was one of the matte ones which gives great colour pay off but no shine.

I really like the make up look I wore for my christmas party :)


What did you guys wear to your xmas parties?

Thats it for now 

Tarra 

xx

Extra pictures below :P

Rome 2015

Feels like forever since my last post, my blog has definately taken a back seat recently. But I really want to get back on it and start posting more regularly again.

In October me and my boyfriend went to rome for 5 days, it was amazing and we had such a great time, I would like to share some of the pictures from our trip with you.

I booked the trip via Expedia.com, I had never used this site before and was a bit nervous as you are booking flights and hotel separate not as a package. We were flying with Ryanair and I must say the organisation of the airline was fantastic it was so stress free.

When we arrived in Rome it was really easy to get to our hotel taking a shuttle bus to the centre of Rome. The a short distance away from the central station our hotel was situated just of the road side.

I will definitely be using Expedia again as it was super simple and officiant.

I had been to Rome before with my university friends but this was Phil's first visit and he was really excited to explore all the history. And although I had been before I definitely saw a few different things than my first experience, not only that it felt different being with my boyfriend rather than friends.

I think one of my favourite thinks we did was climbing up to the top of St Peters Basilica.
There is a lift that takes you part of the way but even after taking the lift you still have to walk up over 800 steps!!

Not only that as you climb the walls feel like they are caving in on you because the higher up in to the dome you get the small the room is. I felt very sick but once we reached the top and saw the incredible views I felt much better.










I think in total the holiday was probably about £300 a person for 4 days and nights. Using Expedia was great and meant I could get huge discounts on the price the travel agents were offering.


I loved the trip and can't wait to explore more place with Phil. Heres to many more trip away!

Tarra 

xx