Christmas Day is over, wrapping paper is in the recycling bin, I've eaten my own body weight in festive treats - make that twice my own body weight - and I've barely been out of my pyjamas for longer than a shower and a family meal. But what a wonderful day it was!
I wanted something special on my nails for Christmas Day so you can imagine my glee when I found this duo in H&M a few weeks before.
That's it! It's Christmas Eve meaning 'Blogmas' is coming to an end and despite missing one day - I really have come down with the most dreadful cold/flu thing over the past week so trying to create and write a post for yesterday was pretty much impossible! - I am proud that I managed to do so many consecutive days and I have loved every minute of it! As long as Amy's Corner stays running - which I hope it does! - then I will definitely be doing it again at the end of 2015 and who knows, maybe I'll even give Vlogmas a go!
As it's the last 'Blogmas' post for 2014, I didn't want to do write about anything specific today. Instead, I just wanted to wish all you wonderful readers a very merry Christmas and I hope it's full of yummy food, delicious drinks, presents galore and lots of laughter, love and fun.
I'll be back on Sunday with a 'Nails of the Week: Christmas Day Edition' post, followed by my 'Capture December Photo Challenge' next Thursday, so I hope to see you then :)
Around this time of year, I find myself meeting up with friends and family in one country pub after another for that crucial before-Christmas-catchup; eating copious amounts of roast dinners and drinking fine wine whilst chatting the night away. And I love it. Pub food can be some of the best around, therefore, today's post is going to be about two rather delicious meals I have had during the festive season thus far, so that if you're ever in the area, you'll be able to give them a whirl.
Apologies for the lateness in this going up but I have been so ill over, and since, the weekend that it's been difficult to do anything at all! Alas! I've finally managed to drag myself from my bed long enough to post this.
When Christmas comes around, my nails certainly feel the festive vibe and this week has been a gold one with Nails Inc. 'Westminster Abbey'.
Following on from my 'Signature Scent' post back on 'Blogmas' Day 10 (why does that feel like it was month's ago?!), I have a new addition to my fragrance favourites.
I have a confession to make. I maaay have bought another eye shadow palette. Well, technically, it was free and well worth the order but I'll come on to that in a moment.
The tree is up and decorated, Christmas tunes are playing in the background, fairy lights are twinkling at the end of my bed and I'm enjoying a huge mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows as I type; could it feel any more festive?!
At the end of November, I finally found myself in a Space NK store, after what felt like an age of wanting to, with the view to pick up a NARS Lip Pencil. I ended up walking out with one of their Christmas offerings, the Digital World Set, which contains five - maybe a couple more than originally thought but mission accomplished, right?!
Alert Santa! Alert the Elves! Christmas sparkle has officially arrived on Amy's Corner with this week's nail varnish duo: Sally Hansen 'Nightwatch' and Essie Glitter 'Set in Stones'.
We're half way through 'Blogmas' now and I've been loving it (I hope you have too!). I thought I'd do a slightly different post today and share some things that I loved about Christmas when I was younger - I definitely went to a little place called Nostalgia Lane whilst writing those - and some things I love about Christmas now.
One of my favourite festive tipples has got to be Mulled Wine. I have fond memories of this tasty drink going back to when I used to help my Mum make it for our Bonfire Night parties on our free-range chicken nursery - obviously I wasn't drinking it as a kid but the smell was something to cherish. Those memories have been carried with me in to adulthood and now Mulled Wine screams winter, Christmas and all things associated.
We all have that one perfume/fragrance/spray that is the daily go-to scent that simply suits you and when a family member, friend or colleague catches a whiff, they instantly think of you. This also means you usually end up getting a bottle or two at Christmas or on birthdays, much to your delight. For me, this special scent is Paul Smith 'Extreme for Women'.
Another review now and it's being posted during 'Blogmas' as my thoughts on the colour were along the lines of "snowflake fairy pink", but I'll let you be the judge of that.
Kicking off the festive nail season is Rimmel's Salon Pro by Kate 'Bewitch'. Looking at the photo above, you may be thinking "that's not very festive Amy" but bear with me and I shall explain.
As much as I enjoy wearing makeup and what not, the process of taking it off in the evening is one I truly cherish. There's something incredibly joyful and comforting about removing your 'face' after a busy day, just before getting in to your PJs and heading to bed. With that said, here's my nightly routine.
It's time for the monthly favourites post and November had some very wintery-themed items; all non-beauty I might add (safe to say I was shocked too!).
Now I know this technically isn't Christmas-related, however, I did state that these 'Blogmas' posts would also have winter-esque themes and a chilly day out comes under that, doesn't it??
November saw myself, my Mum, her other half (Nick), my Auntie Lesley and her two cute dogs (Sox and Bessie) head to the Forest of Dean to do a treasure trail and I have to admit, it was so much fun!
One of my favourite things to do over the festive season is to visit a Christmas market and every year, I usually find an oh-so-lucky soul (or two) to drag with me for an evening of merriment, shopping and festive cheer around Worcester's Victorian Christmas Fayre.
After eventually finding out what 'Blogmas' is (blogging every day until the 25th), I have decided to give it a go! And what better way to kick it off than to do the Christmas Tag.
After a trip to London fell through last weekend, I decided to continue with the plan to visit Space NK and to finally purchase some items that had been on my "wish list" for a long a very long time. So instead of going to London, I found myself face to face with the store in Cheltenham. I haven't a clue how I hadn't stepped in to this glorious shop before and when I did, I was in awe.
I've been receiving these since earlier in the year and every month they offer up an incredible box, which is usually full to the brim with awesome products. There is only the occasional disappointment but that tends to happen because of personal taste in colour. Surprise, surprise; November's box was no different.
The more I am getting in to the beauty world, the more I'm realising that specific seasons call for specific colours and for me, Autumn = berry and burgundy items. This year, I've been becoming more and more comfortable with shades that I would never have been before - great for self-confidence boosting, not so great for my bank when I'm buying new colours!
This Autumn has seen a beautiful berry lipstick enter my collection and I have been wearing it so often that it even appeared in my September Favourites.
Today brings the fifth and final Love Me Beauty box review to this blog. I liked this month's addition but I'll come on to why it's the final one after I've shown you what I received.
Over the past few months, I have been trying to get my hair back its former glory and in order to do so, I have been changing the whole hair-care routine, including washing my locks every other day. This is all good and well, except for the fact that my hair gets greasy rather quickly and by the second day, it feels and looks pretty manky. This then means that dry shampoo has become my hair saviour and I'm constantly on the look out for new ones to test.
After a few weeks of picking out the deep purples - now I have 'Smoke On The Water' stuck in my head... - and dark reds from my nail varnish stash, I decided to go for something a bit brighter this week. Enter: Lollipops Voyage à Paris.
This post is a little late, three weeks late in fact - oops, sorry! I am not wearing it anymore, therefore can't class it as a 'Nails of the Week' and as I don't know when I'll be wearing it again (I have so many polishes to try over the next couple of months), I thought I'd make a post especially for 'Vintage Violet' from Barry M's Nail Paint Collection; an ode to it if you will.
With the view to better my blog and be more organised, I have made the decision to start uploading my 'Nails of the Week' posts on a Sunday, instead of Wednesday. These posts are easier to write but I feel I should be doing them at the end of the week instead of the middle, to give a proper full-week review of them. This will then open up Wednesday for normal posts and Friday will stay the same. Of course, if I have a lot to speak about, there may be a couple of extra days added here and there but to know when these are, you can follow me on Twitter and/or Bloglovin.
This week saw me try out a polish that I received in Love Me Beauty's October box, 'Firewater' from Headline Colors. It is a lovely red-wine shade that catches the eye with it's dark but warming colour. Perfect for winter.
Do you ever pop in to a shop, intending to get one or two items and end up coming out with about ten instead? Yes, I'll hold my hands up and say that this happened to me the other weekend and seeing as I picked up a few nice items, I thought I'd share the aftermath of my shopping trip with you.
Albeit I call myself a beautaholic, I find that I don't actually experiment very often. Don’t smite me down for not doing so, I just find products I like and stick to them. I guess you could say I'm a creature of habit. But after wanting to branch out more on the stuff I'm used to, I decided to do some research over a few months, look at what's praised and what not and mix things up a bit.
This October's 'Favourites' post is going to be a little different as I am going to combine it with details of my outfit, makeup and nails from a Masquerade Ball I went to last week.
I am a lover of sleep and not so much of having to get up early most days, so it'll be no surprise when I say I try to spend as long as is physically possible in the comfy confines of my bed. Why do beds always have to feel so nice in the morning, it's almost impossible to drag myself from it - I can't be the only one?! Anyway, this does mean that I have to have a pretty quick morning routine in order to shower, dress, do my hair and makeup, before heading out to work. Say hello to my everday morning makeup routine; enjoy.
October; the month of Halloween. But instead of celebrating the traditional way - fancy dress, partying and all that jazz - a few of my friends and I headed over to Ragley Hall for the Bonfire & Firework Extravaganza.
As Halloween comes around, horror films start cropping up in cinemas and anyone who enjoys a scary film will know that the cinema-experience is more frightening and bettermuch better than watching at home.
As soon as it came to light that there was going to be a spin-off prequel to 'The Conjuring', I knew it'd be one to see in the cinema. 'The Conjuring' was scary enough from the comforts of my sofa so 'Annabelle' had to be just as frightening, right??
Do you know what I enjoy most about blogging, besides getting to ramble to my heart's content over various topics? The wonderful community that it creates.
I love reading lots of different posts from bloggers all over the world and I value their thoughts and opinions. I appreciate the time they took to write their post and the effort put in to it. I also adore that I get this appreciation back, from new and returning readers. So for that, I would like to say a quick thank you to all my lovely readers, you guys are the best!
OK, so I know I've been a naughty blogger recently but sometimes life just gets...in the way, doesn't it? The last couple of months have been a mix of ups and downs and time seems to have constantly run away from me. But I am starting November with better organisation and high hopes. Let's begin with a post that should have gone up in October: Birchbox's monthly beauty box review.
Despite my ranting in earlier's post, I decided to give Love Me Beauty and their new arrangements another chance and with this month's box, I'm awfully glad I did!
Avid visitors to Amy's Corner will have noticed that there was no Love Me Beauty box review for September. This was because we had a bit of falling out and I have only just received it - talk about snail mail! The postman kindly delivered it, along with my October box, the other day and I have to admit, I wasn't overly excited to be getting it.
It's official. I am full on embracing the darker nail shades this season. This week was no different when I decided to try another colour from the French Connection Collection.
I don't know about you but when the weather starts to turn colder, I find myself wanting to eat nothing but bowl upon bowl of warm soup. This means that when the fall starts, I am instantly drawn to all sorts of vegetables and flavours to create tasty dishes. Now, I'm no culinary expert but last week, I made a curried pumpkin and apple soup and it was b-e-a-uuutiful!
For £1.85, these little tubs of saviour for your lips are ah-may-zing. Hydrating, easily wearable and some are even tinted. 'Paint The Town Red' is no exception.
