Walking In A Winter Wonderland

Another lifestyle post today, I promise some beauty ones soon when I get around to taking photo's of the products!

On Saturday 7th December I took a trip to Hyde Park's 'Winter Wonderland' with a group of a friend. 

Getting on the train at 10:19, we travelled to Horsham (where we had to change, silly trains!) and got on a slightly longer train journey which would take us into London Victoria.

I was very excited to go to London!

1. I love London!

and

2. It was the first time I've ever been with my friends, by ourselves.

It was so much fun!

We did the whole, 'look its the London Eye' and behaved suitably tourist like that many people would have believed we have never been to London before!

I think it was the fact that we were doing it all together which made us a bit overexcited.

From London Victoria we took the tube (a very squished one) to Green Park, and took a 10 minutes walk to Winter Wonderland.

It was much prettier than I had expected.

The Christmas market went on for ages, the area was bustling with people buying Christmas items, and the sweet smell of mulled wine and hot chocolate filled the air. 

For me (a very small person) it is often not fun being in a crowded situation, but although I was in the centre London and I did think I'd lost my friends a couple of time, I didn't really panic and actually really enjoyed the crowded atmosphere.

We went to the Ice Skating at 2:30 to start our session at 2:45, although the skates were uncomfortable, by the time I had got on the ice I forgot about most of it and just had fun skating around on the ice (and I didn't fall over!)

The ice rink was so pretty. There was a net of fairly lights hanging above and Christmas music playing in the bandstand in the centre, and as it got dusky everything just got more fun as the lights finally had an effect.

I must say the lights at Winter Wonderland are amazing!

It was a fun day and I came away with a few Christmas purchases (I'm not ashamed).

First of all I bought two cute Christmas candles which come in a little jar (one has snowmen on and one has santa), who add to my Christmas decorations on my mantlepiece, along with my glass Christmas tree decoration which I have blogged about in a previous post here. Finally I bought some delicious fudge!

It was such a fun day out and I would definitely recommend it to anyone thinking about going!

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Lauren

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25 Days Of Blogging | Days 9,10 and 11!

Hello!

I'm back again with another combined post, hooray!

Us Last Christmas!

Day 9: Easiest Person To Buy For?

This one is definitely simple, my sister. We're only 3 years apart and she's so similar to me, I can buy her anything from books to makeup and she'll love it because we just have the same taste in everything! I'm very lucky because of this as this means that whatever I get her I usually like and can also use too (hehe!)

Day 10: Favourite Holiday Scent

I don't really change my scent up that much, boring! I like to use Taylor Swift Wonderstruck most of the time, and I guess it could be Christmassy?!

Day 11: Favourite Christmas Tradition

My family doesn't really have specific traditions, but the things we do we repeat every year so I guess they could be called traditions! One thing we do which I really enjoy is that in the morning/after lunch my Mum's family come round (or we go to them sometimes!) and then in the evening my Dad's family come around. I really enjoy this as it means that it mixes up the whole day by seeing new people, and it also spreads out the presents hehe!

Thankyou for sticking with me when I'm so bad with these posts, I will be trying really, really hard to commit myself to these posts but I have a lot of mocks at college coming up so I will be focusing on them. I can't wait until the 20th when I break up from college and can properly get in the Christmas mood!

Lauren 

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25 Days Of Blogging | Days 6,7 and 8!

Hello!

A bit of a combined post today as I really am trying to catch up on what I've missed, this time of year is just so busy!

Day 6: Your Favourite Tree Ornament/ Christmas Ornament

As I may have mentioned in a previous post I went to Winter Wonderland at the weekend, and my favourite ornament at the moment is actually one which I bought there! It is made of glass, with even little ornaments hanging off of the glass christmas tree. It may be small but its certainly very cute and looks nice in the living room at the moment!

Day 7: Your Most Memorable Christmas

I think my most memorable Christmas was probably when both pairs of my Grandparents visited. It was so important to me at the time to have them all there and seeing them all at such a special time was amazing.

Day 8: Post A Picture Of Christmas Decor

There you go! That is a bauble on my Christmas tree!
It has a red and gold theme this year and I really like it.

Sorry these are short posts but I'm just trying to get through the days I keep missing!

Lauren 

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25 Days Of Blogging | Day 6: Your Favourite Tree Ornament/ Favourite Christmas Ornament

Hello!

I thought I'd do this cover note for now, but I'm actually planning on doing this blog post tomorrow when I am able to take a photo of my Christmas ornaments as now its dark and the lighting for the photographs would be DREADFUL. 

I also changed the title slightly as we have repetitive tree decorations of all the same baubles, so we don't really have any individual tree ornaments for me to prefer?!

So for that reason I am going to choose my favourite christmas ornament/ decoration.

If I am not able to take the photo tomorrow I will definitely slot it in somewhere by simply editing this post so they all stay in order.

If you have been reading '25 Days Of Blogging' please let me know in the comments!

Also, tomorrow I am going to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park so I will snap a few pictures on my phone and add an extra blog post here, as it is very exciting and I am going ice skating!

See you tomorrow, bye!

Lauren

x

25 Days Of Blogging | Day 5: Best Gift You've Ever Received

Hello!

I'm certainly stuck on writing about this topic, as I have received so many beautiful and amazing things over the years that I really do not know what to chose.

I don't think I can pick one gift because everything means something different to me, and some things which used to be the height of my desire would now not phase me. I guess what I'm saying is that the animal crossing set I asked for when I was 8 would not really be of any use to me now.

I think one of the things which sticks in my head was a charm bracelet my Grandma got for me a couple of Christmases ago. It is silver, and she got me 5 charms to go with it also.

Another thing I remember as a good gift was the year I got an iPod touch for Christmas. It was 1st generation, pretty good at the time! I can remember playing on it all day and it was so entertaining as it was the first iPod or technological thing that I had really ever had. 

I think my Dad put Taylor Swift 'Love Story' on it, as well as the music video, and I think I listened for it for the whole day straight just because I looked super cool with my headphones and I finally felt that I had something which was individual to me and I could do on my own.

I guess what I'm saying is that you can never define the best gift you've ever received. For me, the best gifts I've had hold memories in them which I can recall and write down here.

What seemed so good at the time because of its worth is actually more important because of what it means now!

Whoops I got deep.

Oh well!

I'll see you all in a minute with my last post for today, my fingers are getting exhausted!

Lauren 

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25 Days Of Blogging | Day 4: Favourite Christmas Song

Hello again!

Today's topic is my favourite Christmas song, but how can I possibly choose! They're all so good, and I believe that Christmas music is probably one of my favourite features of the Christmas period!

As I have to kind of select one (I'm being restrictive on my festive tune affection) I'm going to choose the one that I've been singing a lot recently already this year, which is Christmas (Baby please come home) by Mariah Carey.

I know she isn't the original recorder of the song, but her version is definitely my favourite.

It's repetitive, catchy, upbeat and basically everything you can want from a Christmas song, as everyone can sing along and join in as the chorus progresses.

This blogging is definitely getting me excited for Christmas and all the lovely tunes which get overplayed the closer you get!

Lauren

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25 Days Of Blogging | Day 3: When/how did you learn that Santa wasn't real?

Hello!

Today's topic is quite a short one to discuss. 

I don't ever think there was one moment where my parents turned around to me and said 'Santa is not real', and I kind of liked this way. I think they just left it for me to mature and experience the views of others, and they waited for when I was ready to kind of joke with them about it and then they knew. 

I kind of appreciate the fact that there wasn't just suddenly one day when their could of been a possibility that I did still believe in him, as I think that that would have been a lot harsher on me, and discovering it my own way was a good idea.

But secretly I'm still hoping that one day he does turn out to be real, I think the idea stays with us so long that all we can do is believe and have fun with the idea!

I'm trying to cram 3 blog posts into one night tonight by the way, so I'm sorry if they are a bit shorter as I'm kind of rushing to get them done as I've been having a chilled/relaxed/christmassy evening.

ONLY 2 WEEKS LEFT OF COLLEGE!

Bye for now!

Lauren 

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25 Days Of Blogging | Day 2: Your 2013 Christmas Wish List

Hello!

Todays topic is 'Your 2013 Christmas Wish List', so I thought I would write about a couple of gifts I would like to receive at Christmas, and then also write a post closer to Christmas about a couple of gift ideas that I think are good to buy other!

My Wish list (excuse the product images)

Urban Decay NAKED Palette, £30

I have never really experimented with eyeshadow before (I only own a few) so I thought asking for a really simple palette like this would allow me to experiment with eyeshadow before maybe starting to build up my own MAC palette etc.

Petite Biker Jacket, £45

I have been after a leather jacket for a long time, and when I saw this one in Topshop I fell in love. Plus, its been reduced from £58, what more could I want?

Daisy Spot Tunic Dress, £42

I think this dress would look really nice paired with the denim jacket above. I've fallen in love for it and its one of the things I want the most. I love the pattern and the fact that its very monotone but also has colours from the daisies. I like to wear dresses with jackets and tights rather than jeans because it feels more girly and I just like that! 

Lorde, Pure Heroine, £8.99

I have listened to this album countless times on spotify and would just love to 

own it. I'm not quite sure what it is about her music but I just find it really catchy and it just sounds perfect.

So that's just a couple of things that come off the top of my head. Being an obsessed book reader half of my Christmas list consists of books which I am really interested to read, so I am thinking of doing a seperate post to talk about them.

Thankyou for reading, bye!

Lauren

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25 Days Of Blogging | Day 1: Your Favourite Christmas Movie

Hello!

Today's topic is 'Your Favourite Christmas Movie', and I've got two to share with you.

The Polar Express: 

The Polar Express, is the kind of film which you can watch at any age just because of how cute it is. It is basically the story of a train which takes children to the North Pole on Christmas Eve to watch Santa take off to deliver the presents, and what mischief they get into! The thing I really like about it is the fact that the film is a cartoon but very realistic, and everything just seems to be so visual that the film doesn't feel too childlike. It gets me in the Christmas spirit so its something I like to watch a lot in the Christmas season, especially around the time when you've broken up from school/college and you can finally focus on becoming completely excited!

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation:

This is a classic Christmas comedy which I can guarantee most people will love. It was initially released in 1989 so some of the fashions are a bit dodgy, but its still funny every year I watch it and I love to sit down and watch it with friends/family, as you can all laugh at it together!  The story is basically about a family who are celebrating Christmas, but obviously lots of stuff goes wrong and some bits really do make me laugh!

So thats it for my Favourite Christmas Movie post, Day 1 of '25 Days Of Blogging', a challenge I'm doing which you can read about in my previous post here. Join in, and tag me in your posts on twitter ( @laurenjanegeall) so I can read them! I'd love to hear some suggestions!

See you soon with Day 2 because I'm trying to catch up for the fact I started 4 days late!

Bye!

Lauren

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