Janay Brazier

I finally found the time to fit in seeing this film. I love the Star Wars movies and so I was very excited about this one.

The trailers for this film made it look just as amazing as The Force Awakens, even though it's set during a different time to a different kind of storyline.

Before you read on, I will say that I wasn't as impressed by the film as I thought I would be.

I have wanted to see this film since I first watched the trailer. Anything that looks sad and has Will Smith in it is usually a winner.

For a start, along with Will Smith, the cast is brilliant. I love Helen Mirren and Kate Winslet, but the whole cast were truly perfect. It's nice to see a film with real people in real-life situations that connect and touch people.

I loved the setting of New York City at Christmastime. It was such a happy place, but with such a sad storyline. The basic story - without giving it all away - is that Will Smith's character, Howard, has completely shut down after his young daughter passed away and he writes letters to love, time and death.

I got given this colouring book early so that I could colour some of them in before Christmas. I also took it to New York with me and did some at the airport while we were waiting to board. Here are a couple of pages that I've already done.




Clay got me this beautiful, hand-printed scarf. It wasn't to take to New York (it was too cold for a thin scarf like this one) but I can wear it when the weather isn't quite so frosty and think of NYC.

So, I realise that I'm incredibly behind on films and reviews! It was so busy during December, with the run-up to Christmas, the end of term at school and going away on our honeymoon to New York. It all just got a bit too much and when we did have a spare couple of hours for a film, we chose to watch one at home so that we could get some other bits done at the same time.

It was such a shame that we missed the opening night for Rogue One and then we missed the first night of Passengers because we were flying to New York the very next day.

Now that we're back in England we've scheduled in a few dates for films, trying to get through them as quickly as possible before new ones come out at the start of 2017 (I will be doing a wrap-up post of my top ten films of 2016 very soon, followed by a post telling you about the films that I'm excited to see next year!)

But right now we're talking about Passengers...

I'm a huge fan of Chris Pratt (not just because of Marvel) and Jennifer Lawrence is amazing, so I knew this was going to be a good one just by having the two of them together.

Hi everyone,

I'm spending Christmas in New York City, so I have written this quick post ahead of time. I just wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas, and I hope you all have the most wonderful time with those closest to you.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported me this year with my blog. There will be a few changes in the new year, which I will tell you about at a later date when I'm a bit less busy and a bit more organised.

Happy holiday to you all!

Lots of Christmas love and mistletoe kisses,

This is something that I've been meaning to share for a long time now, but it always gets pushed back when other, more current topics for blog posts come up. Finally, I've gotten around to posting it for you.

My favourite thing to bake around Christmastime are these eggnog cupcakes. I love eggnog, and although it is something that is traditionally American I still love it and have introduced it to many people here in the UK. I started off buying these little individual cartons of eggnog from the supermarket but then they were discontinued so I found various recipes online to make my own, and eventually settled on the one I use within this cupcake recipe.

A note before you get started: It has been recommended that you refrigerate the eggnog overnight before using it in cupcakes, this is to allow it to thicken up.

Also, you don't have to make the cupcakes, you could just use the eggnog recipe and enjoy it as a drink - warm eggnog is my choice for the holiday season.

As many of you reading this will probably already know, I took part in the first WHSmith Zoella Book Club during the summer and fell in love with it. I've always been a big reader but I enjoyed this book club so, so much. Zoe Sugg chose eight books that she loved and shared them with us. I joined in with their Twitter events, bought and read every book and wrote blog posts about them. So, imagine my excitement when Zoe announced that should would be doing another round of the book club through autumn/winter, into February 2017.

I was very kindly sent the whole new collection of eight books and I did an unboxing post in October (here). I noted in that blog post that I was going to keep the layout of my posts the same as last time, talking about the first four books at the halfway point and then talking about the other four books at the end. However, this time I got the amazing opportunity to ask the authors questions about their books, so rather than me talking about the books and reviewing them with my own thoughts, I'm going to post interview-style, with the questions I asked the authors and their responses. Then, at the end of the whole book club, I will review all eight books and rank them just like I did before.



If you're wondering what all of the post-it page markers are in all of the books, they're notes on parts I like or ideas for questions I could ask the authors.

So, let's get into the interviews:

We ate churros and walked past The Globe Theatre, before circling back across the Millennium Bridge and heading for Covent Garden.

Covent Garden is always beautiful at Christmas time, with lots of lights and a big tree. The first tree we spotted was this stunning, colourful one outside The Ivy.

After the amazing response to my Get Ready With Me: My Weekday Morning Routine a while back I thought I'd share my weekend morning routine. 

I meant to post this weeks ago but things were so busy that I didn't get the chance to put it up, but here it is.

Some people are probably thinking 'why do you need two different morning routines?' or 'who has a morning routine for the weekend?', but I like to keep things routined so that I don't waste my weekends and it's also to show the different things I do at the weekend and what I make more time for.

I don't stick to this completely every single weekend, this is just a rough guide of how I would spend a typical weekend. Also, the timings I've put on here are also a very rough guide because if I have more time then I'll do some of these things for a bit longer, or if I have somewhere to be some of these items will be cut out, so don't think that I'm that regimented in my morning as this makes out.

So, here is my typical weekend morning routine...



08:00 - Wake up: I try to get up earlier on a Saturday, I will normally have a bit more of a lay in on a Sunday if I don't have anywhere to be. It's nice to get some extra time in bed but I also don't like to feel like I've lost half of my weekend by sleeping in late. Also, it's easier to get up at the weekend for me when I know I can take a bit more time and not rush around for work.



08:10 - Make a coffee: The first thing I like to do is go downstairs and make myself a small coffee to start my day. I like my flavoured coffees at the weekend, for a treat. Lately, my drink of choice has been a chai latte, but I also like a vanilla or gingerbread latte.

Here are my favourites for the month of November:


This Maybelline Color Sensational matte lipstick in 'Divine Wine' just screams autumn/winter. I haven't tried many dark lipsticks before, a classic red lip around Christmas is as brave as I get, but I was sent this lipstick by Maybelline and I fell in love with it the second I put it on. I've worn it almost every weekend since I was brave enough to try it out. Buy it here.


I saw Maybelline has brought out a seasonal selection of Baby Lips lip balms, but imagine my excitement when I saw they did one in 'Pumpkin Spice'. It has a lovely hint of colour, perfect for autumn, and it smells amazing. If you're a fan of anything pumpkin or cinnamon, you need to try this. I believe there are three different ones, but the pumpkin spice one is exclusive to Superdrug. Buy it here.

I may live in the UK but we still like to celebrate Thanksgiving. To be honest, I think everyone should have a day like this where we can be thankful and grateful for what we have in life because it doesn't just have to be an American holiday.

I thought I'd share a few photos of my thanksgiving decor, mainly my table setting for the dinner than I'm cooking for some of my family. These pictures are all from when I first set it up, so there's no food or family photos on here. 



I have used some of the cute, little pumpkins that I picked up at the pumpkin patch last month as decorations. I mixed them in with some brown, glittery leaves and sparkly acorns that I bought from a garden centre in their Christmas decoration department. They're more autumnal than Christmassy I thought, and they've been on my bookcase for the last month as fall decor, in amongst my books and photo frames.



This is pretty much the whole table set up for dinner, minus plates, food and cutlery. The pumpkins in the middle were ones left over from our wedding (that blog post is coming!) and as our living room is a dusty blue colour - like the vase at the end of the table - I thought the blue pumpkin would look quite nice as part of it too.



Here's our menu for dinner, all cooked by me except for the mashed potatoes that my Mum whipped up for me because I was at work all day and she was helping me out. Thank you, Mum!



I put similar cards to the ones above out on the table two years ago for guests to fill in. You just write down a few things that you're grateful for. I found mine, and the menu further up, through Pinterest here and here.


The little pumpkin-shaped fairy lights, wrapped around my vase and candle jars, are from Primark. They're so cute and have just come off of my bookcase to go on the table. I'll be putting more Christmassy lights of the bookshelf soon so this is the pumpkin lights last showing for the year. The napkins are from IKEA's autumn/winter collection and the heart chalkboard place markers were from The Range, but they were purchased a while back.



Finally, how cute are these thanksgiving cupcakes that my mum made?! They're so adorable and they have cream cheese frosting - my favourite! I've already eaten one!



Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating today, and let us all think of the things we are most thankful and grateful for, and blessed to have in our lives.






Mmmm... pumpkin pie!

I was lucky enough to get the chance to see this film at a special screening at my local Cineworld before it was officially released. I was so happy to have the chance to see a film earlier than planned, but on the night I was so tired and had been constantly busy all day with work, a club, a Zoella Book Club night with WHSmith, plus a few other bits and pieces, that I almost said I wasn't going to go. I cannot tell you how happy I am that I dragged myself into that movie theatre.

It's finally here! JK Rowling's creations have been brought to live again, with new witches and wizards and a whole host of new magical creatures.

This is another film I've been excited for all year, so we went along on opening night with the hope that it wouldn't disappoint. As a big fan of Harry Potter and the wizarding world he is based in, I wanted it to be just as amazing and mesmerising as the last  eight movies.

I was a little late with getting to the cinema to see this as I thought this came out later in the month than it actually did. That's the last time I ask Clay to check to cinema times to see what new movies are out (because the answer was 'none', apparently!) So I went along to my local Cineworld this week to watch this movie with my Auntie, who hadn't heard of it but as soon as she saw the trailer she was pretty excited to see it.

So in we went with our eggnog lattes to watch this film based on a best-selling novel (thank goodness for the new Starbucks that just opened up in our cinema, and bless the person who let's Cineworld Unlimited card members get 10% off).

It's no secret that I love Victoria's Secret, and I especially love their annual fashion show. It has always been held in New York, but a couple of years ago they moved it to London for the first time ever, and now the VS Angels are heading to Paris.



The most anticipated part of the show is normally the Fantasy Bra and who will be wearing it. This year the bra is being worn by the beautiful Jasmine and I think it's stunning. I've heard a lot of people say it's not the nicest Fantasy Bra - which I agree with because my favourite was in 2013 - but I think it's amazing. Congratulations Jasmine!

I'd only seen the trailer for this movie a couple of times and I didn't know exactly what to expect from it. Would it be like War of the Worlds where there's aliens trying to kill and harvest everyone? Obviously I wasn't expecting E.T or anything similar, but I wasn't sure what it was going to be like. It seemed very mysterious and different from the rest, just from the trailer.

I've been asked a lot of questions about books and reading over the last few weeks, so I've decided to put some of the questions together in a blog post to share my answers.

Who is your favourite author?
This is a pretty easy one for me. It has to be Cecelia Ahern. I've adored her writing since I first picked up her debut novel, PS I Love You, and I've bought every single book she has released ever since. I love all of the novels but my favourites would have to be How To Fall In Love, Where Rainbows End (known as Love, Rosie by some) and her newest book Lyrebird, which I've just finished.