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Film Review: Rogue One


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.
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Film Review: Collateral Beauty


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.
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Happy Holidays: What I Got For Christmas 2016


I had a few people asking me if I was going to do another 'What I Got For Christmas' post like I did last year, so here it is:



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.

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Film Review: Passengers


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.

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Happy Holidays: Merry Christmas from NYC!


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,

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Get Organised: Packing My Hand Luggage


I'm off to New York City and I thought I'd share with you the items that I've packed into my carry-on luggage. This is what I would typically take on any flight, but with a few extras as it's a longer flight:

My mobile phone: An obvious item that I'd pack into my hand luggage.


A book: I've actually packed two books by Sarah Morgan for this trip as both books are set in New York. I'm a fast reader and it really helps to pass the time.


A notebook: I like being able to jot things down mid-flight, whether it's planning for when I reach my destination or just jotting down random, little things. This time I was so lucky to receive this beautiful journal as an early Christmas present from Clay, as he remembered that a month or so ago I'd said I wanted to keep a journal of our trip.
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I'm Listening to: My Bedtime Playlist


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.

So, there are two different options I have when it comes to listening to something calming before bed. 

I used to use a website/app called 8tracks, which had an amazing playlist of British actors reading poetry and prose, including Tom Hiddleston, Matthew Macfadyen, David Tennant, Kenneth Branagh, Benedict Cumberbatch and the late-great Alan Rickman. But a little while back they changed to only streaming in the US and Canada, meaning the only way those in the UK and elsewhere in the world could listen to them was through YouTube. I found the links didn't always work on their website so I started finding them individually on YouTube instead.

For the purpose of this blog post, I've added all of the YouTube videos I like to listen to on to one playlist here. It can get a little annoying with the adverts but it's still nice to listen to once you get past that. It's like listening to an audio book, I suppose, but with short poems and book extracts read in amazing British voices.

The second thing I like to listen to is a music playlist. This includes the following songs, instrumentals and classical pieces of music, to name a few:
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My Recipe Box: Christmas Eggnog Cupcakes


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.

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WHSmith Zoella Book Club: Author Interviews (Books 1-4)


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:

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Happy Holidays: Christmas in London


Last weekend I took a trip into the city to have a look at their Christmas lights and have a little look around the shops. It's the ultimate Christmas day out!

We didn't go Winter Wonderland or go ice skating anywhere, but we did all of the other things I like to do around Christmas time.

First, we went to St Paul's and walked around whilst there was a choir singing inside, which was a lovely start to our day. We then walked across the Millennium Bridge (which Clay referred to as 'the one that gets destroyed in Harry Potter') and came to a lovely Christmas market. I was immediately hungry and headed straight to the food section of the market. They had waffles, christmas coffees, eggnog and so much more, but I settled for churros as soon as I saw the Churros Garcia stand. I first tried Churros Garcia in 2014 when they had a stand along the South Bank. They were amazing so I had to get some again. They are cinnamon-sugary goodness!


 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.

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Get Ready With Me: My Weekend Morning Routine


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.

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