Year in Review | Best of 2012

Happy New Year! 

This is part two of my 'Year in Review' series.  Yesterday I wrote about my Top 12 Beauty Products of 2012 and today I'll be talking you through each month and all the things that happened to me.  So without further adieu...

JANUARY

While for many, January is a horrible month, for my family it was a really happy one.  On Wednesday 25th January my Sister-in-law gave birth to William Alexander and he's brought so much love and happiness into the family (and quite a few sleepless nights for his Mum and Dad). Without sounding too soppy, it was the best possible start to the new year.

FEBRUARY

My birthday month always brings good memories.  This year was no exception and on my birthday we went out on the town.  The club was packed thanks to Joey Essex and Diags from The Only Way is Essex making an appearance but I can't really remember much else from the night.

MARCH

A busy month at university.  We were creating a magazine in a group as part of our course and it was a lot of hard work which would eventually pay off.

APRIL

April was both a good and a bad month.  Tuesday 4th April brought the end of my favourite TV show in the entire world - One Tree Hill.  On the plus side, I have all the box sets and will continue to watch them for years to come! At the end of the month, I started a social media internship at Phoenix, a designer reseller which meant I was surrounded by Chanel, Louboutin, Mulberry and many more for a whole month.  At lunch time, I often found myself in a small shop called 'At Home' where they sold delicious but humongous  sandwiches.  The shop was also situated about two minutes from Space NK and inevitably, I got the bug.

MAY

With the end of my internship also came the end of second year at university.  I continued freelancing for Phoenix whilst they were between interns.  May is also a big month for birthdays in my family with my brother on the 7th and my youngest niece Alice on the 25th (are you noticing a pattern with birthdays?)

JUNE

On Tuesday 5th June, myself and two of my best friends went on holiday to Spain.  It was the best 10 days of my life, we laughed, tanned, shopped and just had an amazing time.  Definitely what we needed after a stressful few months at university.  Sophia Bush, aka Brooke Davis from One Tree Hill also tweeted me on the 20th June - a pretty cool highlight.

JULY

My second internship of the year was in June at More! Magazine. I spent two weeks working with the fashion team as well as contributing to the magazine which was fun, as I read More! on a weekly basis. It was a lot of hard work, more so the commute than anything else but it was also great experience for my CV.  July also saw the arrival of another baby in the family.  My auntie gave birth to a baby girl who is absolutely adorable.

AUGUST

While I didn't get to go to the actual Olympic park (still kicking myself), I definitely got the Olympic bug.  Luckily, the cycle race came through my hometown so I got to feel the atmosphere without paying a pretty penny for it.  We saw Wiggins, Cavendish and the boys for all of about two seconds as they whizzed past.  

SEPTEMBER

I made an Apple investment in September and bought my iPad, which I've found difficult to put down since.  The first thing I did when I got it was buy Allure magazine, my favourite magazine and one any beauty junkie should read!

OCTOBER

After what felt like a year off, it was time to go back to university for my third and final year (eek).  Of course, October also means Halloween and I celebrated with the girls at a house party. I decided to go as Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter because I don't think I could have passed as Hermione with my bleach blonde hair.  

NOVEMBER

I popped my spa virginity in November as we celebrated one of my best friends 21st birthday by getting pampered. Although I didn't have any money to get a treatment, we had access to a relaxation room with herbal tea and fruit, both steam and sauna rooms as well as a jacuzzi, where we spent the majority of the day.  We finished the day with Mexican food and cocktails.  

DECEMBER

Gossip Girl ended but Christmas softened the blow.  December is one of my favourite months and the lead up to the big day was made more magical now that Alice is old enough to understand and really believes in Santa Claus. On the 10th, the girls and I got together for our very own Christmas day, complete with Secret Santa, Turkey and all the trimmings. 

That's my year in review, thanks for reading my blog this year and here's to another good year! I've got lots to look forward to in 2013 including (hopefully) graduation, seeing Girls Aloud, Williams 1st birthday, my 21st birthday and hopefully I'll be able to leave Tesco for a big girl job (fingers crossed).

How has 2012 been for you?

Cleaning Bug

I don't know about you but sometimes I get this overwhelming feeling that I need a ruddy good clear out.  For the past few weeks I'd gotten increasingly fed up with my dressing table/desk.  As an out and proud beauty fanatic, the products sitting on my desk had accumulated to a stupid amount, half of them I never touched, some of which were years old.  That was until last week when I quite literally cleared it off and started again.  I wish I had thought to take a before photo, just so you could see just what I had to work with.  After a good two or so hours, I'd chucked away a million and one products, leaving the ones I use and love out on display.  The result? 

A rather neat and tidy space.  I can even fit my MacBook Pro nicely, meaning I can work comfortably in my room if I so wish.  I thought I'd show you what I currently have on my dresser.  

This is now what I like to call my 'goody basket', because, well, it has some goodies in it.  To the right we have the Lush products I've been using (yes, that is a TOWIE DVD next to it too...), including I Love Juicy shampoo, American Cream conditioner, Snow Fairy shower gel and my Magic Wand.  To the left we have all my Liz Earle skincare products (which conveniently ran out today, meaning I will need to pop in and pick some more up sharpish) as well as my Sigma F80, tweezers and some cotton pads.  

Before I cleared off my dresser, I had at least 8 perfumes taking up a lot of space.  I have narrowed it down to two, but don't worry I haven't thrown the others away, just stored them elsewhere.  Stella was one of my bargain sale buys and my new everyday fragrance, whilst Chloe is and always will be my (cliche coming up) signature scent. The bottle perched on top is on it's last legs, but luckily I received another bottle for Christmas.  In between the goody basket and my perfumes is the Porefessional Pretty set and two Alamay lip balms which were sent to me very kindly by the companies PR (review coming soon).  

Here's all my barnet products.  Hairspray, volumising mousse etc.  At the front we have my Tangle Teezer, MoroccanOil and Macadamia Healing Oil.  Next to these products is my iPod dock, which I want to move, but quite sure where yet.  

So that's my much tidier dressing table/desk.  Do you ever get a cleaning bug?

Small but Pricey

I haven't been able to shop as much over the last few months as I once did, and perhaps that was a blessing in disguise.  Whilst riding the bus to work one morning my iPod began to play up.  I dismissed this, thinking it wasn't used to being depended on so much during a commute.  How wrong was I.  My four year old iPod gave up the ghost on me, he wouldn't change a song for five minutes at a time and he certainly wouldn't let me change the volume (which at times made me look to be a mental thrash lover, when really that isn't the case).  One of the only perks of being a part timer at Tesco is the 10% discount which comes in mighty handy when you need a new iPod.  I managed to get a new iPod Touch for around £200.  I kinda feel like I'm slowly turning into a 'Mactard', last year it was the Macbook, this year the iPod Touch and next year I will be changing from Blackberry to iPhone...

On Wednesday my best friend will turn 21 which calls from drunken fun and a lot of dancing.  It also gives me an excuse to buy a new outfit (not that I ever really need an excuse).  I decided to go for something different than a dress, which is what I usually go for.  I found that all the party dresses looked the same where ever you go.  

£38.00; 18 AND EAST

I have a thing for chiffon shirts, like I do floral patterns.  When I was on shoot with the 18 AND EAST girls, I fell in love with the bird print cut out shoulder shirt, which I mentioned here.  I thought the bird print was a little too day time and after seeing this colour thought it would be perfect for a night out.

I'm planning on wearing this with a black shiny leggings and killer heels and accessorising with this necklace.

£12.50; Topshop

I've also bought a plain black spaghetti strap tee from Asos to wear underneath the shirt, which was only dispatched yesterday, so i'll be keeping my fingers crossed that it gets here by Wednesday.  

What do you like to wear on a night out?

What's in the Chiltern?

I've seen a few of these blogs around and decided to add to it - I think it speaks a lot for your personality what you covet in your handbag.  

Meet Chiltern - I adore her, she's a classy bird.  The charm on the bag is additional, my best friend bought it for me. 

It has three sections which each has a zipped pocket.  I don't really use the zipped pockets, except for a mirror (which i've forgotten to photograph - ooops)

So in my bag you'll find:

- Clutch purse from Accessorize

- Cath Kidston train pass holder

- iPod Classic 80GB (headphones were in my Macbook)

- Revlon handbag sized hairbrush

- Soap and glory 'Hand Food'

- Vaseline tub in Cocoa 

- Moleskine notepad and pen

- Benefit Boi-Ing in no.1

- MAC satin lipstick in Myth (depends on make up i'm wearing)

- Clinique High Impact mascara

- Limited Edition Ray Ban Wayfarers 

Case closed.  

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So other than this I just wanted to share the new Chanel 'Mademoiselle' Handbag campaign with Gossip Girls notorious bad girl Blake Lively.  I  cooed over these pictures for a good five minutes, she looks incredible, as do the bags.  Well done Lagerfeld.  Enjoy my pretties!

*Thanks to We Can Pretend for the pictures.