2014 highlights.

When the craziness of Christmas is over, I love to sit by myself and think about all the things that have happened over the past year. I write down all the significant things, consider how I've changed and plan how I'll try to do things differently over the coming year. It's also a time to think about whether I achieved my goals - more on that at the bottom of this post.

It's become a tradition to share my highlights here on my little corner of the internet (you can have a look at my 2012 and 2013 highlights if you want!) so here are mine from 2014..

my pick of the sales.

• 1 • rose bud underwear £16 £8 • 2 • printed bomber jacket £45.99 £35.99 • 3 • geometric trousers £29.99 £19.99 • 4 • shimmer top £25 £15 • 5 • boucle knit jumper £26 £15 • 6 • floral high neck dress £21 £9 • 7 • PU pleated skirt £55 £30 • 8 • printed dress £25.99 £17.99 • 9 • leather-look skirt £25 £10 • 

Click the numbers to view the items! 

11 alternative new year's eve ideas.

Some people love it, but I'm not into the hustle and bustle of going out on New Year's Eve. In fact, some of the best ones I've had have been when I've stayed in and had very low expectations of the whole thing! This year, I'm heading to one of my best friends' houses for a little party with some lovely people. 

Don't fret if you haven't got anything planned, how about one of these simple ideas...

christmas hopes.

I always find that at Christmas, I end up thinking about the people I've lost. We lost Grandad a few days before Christmas 11 years ago, and earlier this year Granny followed him. It's going to be really strange not having her around on the big day, but I think it's important to try and have a fun time surrounded by all the lovely people we have left. 

With that in mind, these are the things I'm looking forward to this year..

1 week / 3 gigs.

I don't know if you remember my post back in August about planning to go to live music. Well, I somehow managed to organise going to 3 gigs all in the same week! In hindsight, it probably would've been nicer to spread them out a bit, but sometimes you just have to take the opportunity to have some musical fun! 

john lewis christmas decorations.

This year I bought my very first Christmas tree. Look at it! It's so tiny, it's so "being little".. but I needed some bits and bobs to decorate it, as well as a few extras to make the rest of the room look Christmassy. 

card nest + 50% off!

Subscription boxes and the like are familiar to us all now, but a concept I hadn't come across before is what CardNest are doing. Each month, they send you 3 cards that will not be found on the high street, as well as 3 first class stamps. Y'know when it's someone's birthday and you start panicking because you haven't got them a card? That'll never ever happen again.

CardNest's mission is to get us all to start writing to each other again. I love that. 

I know how special I feel when someone posts me a card, so why not spread that joy?

4 things i'm loving.

So, it's December. The time of year that you should be buying lots of gifts for your loved ones... but sometimes you just have to treat yourself too. We deserve it! Here are a few bits and bobs I've recently bought and fallen in love with.

a long way from home.

This time of year can be tough for some people... really tough - we've probably all had a sh*tty Christmas at least once. But being homeless over the festive season must just be the worst. My amazingly generous and talented friend James has put together this exhibition featuring some crazy good artists to raise money & awareness for Crisis - the charity for single homeless people.

He says, "with the festive season approaching and temperatures dropping, it's important to remember those who have nothing. I wanted to use my work and the work of friends to put on a show and raise some money so that even the tiniest difference can be made, and Crisis can keep helping those who are so often ignored."

henry westons mulled cider.

Being from Devon, I always feel a slight pang of guilt whenever I admit that I don't really like cider.. the only cider I can get on board with is the mulled variety, and while making your own is a lovely process (and you can get it juuust how you like it) sometimes you just can't be bothered. So it's nice to have a box or two of this lovely stuff hanging about when you fancy a warm, alcoholic drink on a chilly evening - and boy, it's been chilly lately! 

the body shop giveaway!

tis the season.... to giveaway a couple of lovely things from The Body Shop on my blog! That's how the song goes, right?

christmas caves!

It's official - I feel festive and SUPER excited for Christmas after a little adventure up to Clearwell Caves with Doug & his family at the weekend! 

swindon designer outlet.

The only time I've spent in Swindon has been limited to the train station, so when I was invited along to the Designer Outlet to have a look around and find my perfect Christmas party outfit, I thought I'd give it a chance and see what the old train warehouse had to offer me.

raspberry & chocolate chip muffins.

Soooo it turns out I made a similar kind of thing about a year ago, but these are about a million times better. A couple of people even said they're the best muffins they've ever had...

Read on for the recipe! 

a leap of faith.

"if you never do anything, you never become anyone"

A quote that's been rattling around in my head quite a lot lately. I've always played it safe, ever since my confusing shyness as a little kid. Sometimes though, you need to take risks if you're ever going to get anywhere in life. 

christmas wishlist!

What do you do when you're bed-ridden with a bug? Obviously trawl the internet for lovely things that you might like Father Christmas to pop under your Christmas tree, of course!

colour in winter.

When the days and nights get colder, it always feels like the easy option to reach for the black and grey layers.. I'm a sucker for black, and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing - all black outfits can look really classy if they're done right - but sometimes I feel the need to inject a bit of colour into a grey day. 

tgi friday's new menu.

Wanna know something weird? I'd never been to TGI Friday's before a couple of weeks ago. I know, right! So when they invited me down to try their new menu, I jumped at the chance. Plus, it was a good excuse to hang out with three of my favourite Bristol bloggers - Lily, Hayley & SJ.

next ss15.

I love a good Next press day, and the SS15 showcase last week certainly didn't disappoint! I especially loved that they had cookie versions of my favourite piece from the collection, that Ella, Jazz, Kristabel and I munched on while we all had a good catch up! 

dublin.

In case you didn't realise, I've been in super awesome Dublin for the past few days! Here are some of my favourite places that I discovered while I was there. 

appletiser pomegranate cocktails.

Appletiser have just launched a new flavour - apple & pomegranate - and asked me to try it for myself, as well as share a few quick and easy cocktail recipes! I grabbed a few of my favourite ingredients and got shakin'...

split / hvar / zadar.

We left rainy Plitvice behind and were told that once we got to the other side of the mountains, the weather would be totally different. That certainly was no lie! 

#ULDadventure with uniqlo.

What would you do if you had £500 to spend on a UK adventure?

I've been enjoying the possibilities of adventuring in the UK lately, and if you've been thinking the same, this new competition from Uniqlo could be perfect for you...

plitvice lakes national park.

Due to the nightmare we had getting out of Budapest, we were running a bit behind schedule. We had to stay overnight in Zagreb as we got there so late. However, all we saw of it was some rainy dark streets, and the inside of our hostel room, as we were there for less than 12 hours! 

In the morning we hopped on to our coach and headed to Plitvice Lakes National Park. The journey was beautiful - huge mountains in the distance, driving through rolling hills and lots and lots of trees. We even went through a town that had waterfalls coming out from underneath houses (see above!)

#AlproTops

budapest.

the lady is a vamp.

bratislava.

We set off on the next leg of our journey - from Vienna to Bratislava - on a coach with really good wifi, so I could catch up with my friends and fam back home! The journey was beautiful and peaceful, and we saw SO many swallows on the way! 

autumnal tones.

It seems like it's suddenly gone from a nice, mild October, to pretty damn chilly. The bare-leg days are most definitely over, and I'm trying to be a little more brave with my trousers - instead of just sticking to jeans/leggings.

chocolate chocolate teacake.

You might've seen me mention on Twitter/Facebook that it's chocolate week! I thought this would be a good excuse to bake this super rich chocolate loaf that I've been drooling over for a while. The word "chocolate" is in the name twice for a reason..

It has cocoa AND dark chocolate in it!

vienna.

The next stop on our adventure was Vienna. We got up at silly o'clock and caught the very nice & quiet train from Prague. We had a few little sleeps, and watched the beautiful scenery go by - mist, mountains, trees, the sweetest little houses, and lots of sunflower & pumpkin fields.

patuoxun ipad lens kit.

As you're probably totally aware by now, I love Instagram, and a lot of the photos that I take on my iPad end up on there. I like to make my photos prettier with all kinds of filters and things, but I'd never tried any lenses on the little camera, until now..

the language of love.

According to surveys, 82% of people want to hear the words "I love you", but only 30% say it daily. The French are known for expressing their emotions, and La Redoute have recently launched their Language of Love campaign, which includes a heartwarming video of messages of love. Here's my open letter to the person I love most.. 

october mini goals.

It's the return of the mini goals! I've had a few months off from these, which I really needed as I had a lot to deal with & get on with. But now I'm ready to tackle a few things! 

ticking off my bucket list #6

So, September is over.. which means it's definitely time to stop clinging on to summer. I've just got time to squeeze in a final blog post for this little series! 

prague.

As you probably know, Doug and I recently travelled through a few places in eastern Europe. It was my first time travelling, and I thought I'd share with you all the ups & downs, and beautiful scenery. Our first stop was Prague! 

ticking off my bucket list #5

By far, the most meaningful item on my summer bucket list was watching one of my best friends get married.

I was going to blog about this the day after it happened, at the very end of August, but as you know my laptop wasn't working. It has somehow fixed itself though, so I can share a few photos from the beautiful weekend! 

#LittleThings.

We all know it's way too easy to forget about the lovely little things and get bogged down by the big, scary or sad things that happen, and I actually really needed to write this happy list to help cheer myself up. 

emily fruit crisps.

When I heard about Emily Fruit Crisps, I imagined something similar to those dried fruits you can get, but they're so much better than that.