Christmas 2013!

So it's that time of year again! I thought I would answer some questions to do with Christmas that I've found on various tags around the internet. As I'm finally off uni and have no work to be doing, I am EXTREMELY bored and trying to find ways of filling my time. I hope this helps.

1) Favourite Christmas movie

 

I think everyone loves a bit of Elf! I am a massive Zooey Deschanel fan as well so this film has to come out this time of year! 
Slightly embarrassingly, Nativity is such a brilliant British Christmas film! I'm surprised not more people have heard of it because it's absolutely hilarious, a great family film with really catchy songs in.

2) Where do you usually spend Christmas?
My mum's side of the family have a really lovely big house in the countryside in Cambridgeshire so we spend Christmas there with my Grandparents, Auntie + Uncle, Cousins as well as my parents and sister. It's fab!

3) What's your favourite Christmas song?
This is a difficult question. I love all the popular songs, especially anything by Michael Buble. However, Silent Night or Stille Nacht has quite a significant meaning for me personally, as I am part German. I love all the meanings behind it from the first world war, and to me it really symbolises peace and family.

4) Do you open any presents on Christmas Eve?Absolutely not! This is forbidden.

5) What Christmas traditions are you most looking forward to this year?
I love sitting round a massive table with the whole family eating Christmas dinner and just chatting. I love enjoying eachothers company without technology and work distracting or stressing us out. 

6) Is your Christmas tree real or fake?Fake unfortunately. I think our house would feel way more Christmassy with a real one, but for some reason we just never have :(

7) What is your favourite Christmas food?
A full-on roast dinner is fine by me. Although, my sister bakes an amazing chocolate log.

8) What's the best Christmas gift you've ever received?
This is a difficult one to answer but I do remember being given this really old (but huge) doll's house which has been passed down my family for a few generations. I can't remember if this was a Christmas or birthday gift, but I remember being absolutely thrilled when I received it!

9) What would be your dream place to visit during the Christmas holidays?
I think it would be wrong to be anywhere other than home! 

10) When did you find out that Father Christmas wasn't real?
I actually have no idea! I guess I must have just worked it out for myself. But as I have a younger sister I carried on pretending he was real for a long time!

11) What makes Christmas special to you?Just being with family and not having to worry about university or money or work. It's like for just one day a year all the stresses disappear and you can have a fantastic day, no matter what's going on in your life. 

Let me know your answers to these questions... I love hearing about other people's family traditions!
I hope everyone has a fabulous Christmas! 

My winter playlist

Now I know that a lot of these songs are incredibly old, I am very bad with keeping up with what's popular in music - I blame that on essay writing! 

First of all, Katy Perry's new album Prism is incredible! I am slightly biased in that I will love anything that Katy sings. But even so, this new music is so beautiful and different from her usual stuff - so I recommend people to listen even if you're not a fan of her usual "candy pop". Spiritual was co-written by John Mayer and it's such a stunning song, very Lana-esque. And Choose your Battles is also one of my favourites on the album - both of these are very solemn and wintery. I love!

I'm so excited for Catching Fire to come out, and Atlas has that magic Coldplay touch. Similarly, Strong has been around for ages but I love the lead singer in London Grammar, her voice is stunning. Again, these are relaxing songs; I think the lack of excitement in my life is rubbing off on my music tastes.

Royals is another one that has been around for a while and my Australian friend has been going on about her for ages! It's such a different song, which I love having at the top of the charts, it's good to see a change. 

I was a bit apprehensive about Bonfire Heart because I thought James Blunt had well and truly had his time. But it's a lovely song and I really like it; it makes me feel all cosy and warm.

I've been a big fan of Vampire Weekend and Kings of Leon for a long time now and I find myself always playing Unbelievers and Supersoaker; they're just feel-good, catchy songs.

I am completely ashamed to say I love R U Crazy. I love how it starts off all jazzy and then it goes to Conor's usual RnB. It's completely not my sort of music that I actually enjoy it.

Again, I've been a fan of Two door cinema club for years and Imagine Dragons for about a year, and I keep finding myself turn back to these songs, they just don't get old. 

And finally, this years John Lewis advert song! A few weeks ago I was playing one of the really old Singstar games for a laugh with my housemates. Somewhere only we know came on and I remembered how much I loved Keane and it was fabulous because we all knew all the words. So I downloaded the song straight away and have been listening to it all month. Then when I watched the Christmas John Lewis advert and realised Lily Allen had covered it, I fell in love with it even more! I am so keen for Keane!

So yes, I'm absolutely loving this little selection of songs this winter. What are your favourites?

Becky

Spotless Skin - Foundation!

In the light of my horrendously bad skin, I have decided to write a new "skin series" every week, to update you on my journey to spotless skin!

I thought I would start with liquid foundation, as this is where I usually start in my task to cover up my acne. 

Throughout the summer I have been loving the Rimmel Wake Me Up foundation - which has been raved about absolutely everyone! However, as someone with oily skin and now the weather is getting colder, the glowy complexion Wake Me Up gives me just doesn't look right. I also got a rather dark tan this summer; remember that beautiful weather we had in the UK? So that meant that my current bottle of Wake Me Up is way too dark and I'm having to slap on many layers in order for it to look like my own skin. I have a feeling this could be one of the (many) reasons my acne has got so bad recently. 

So I went back to an old favourite, Bourjois Healthy Mix! 

Like Wake Me Up, Healthy Mix does give you the dewy, radiant look that I love! But, I feel it's not quite as shiny and thick on the skin. I know that slapping on foundation can't be good for your skin. But I do think that the moisture this foundation gives me has had a positive effect on my skin (I have been using the oxy pads which has made my skin so dry - more on this in another blog post!). 

I love that Healthy Mix covers up all the flaws, but feels really light on my skin at the same time! I am loving the natural look at the moment so not having to pile on foundation to stop the spots showing through is always good!

So, that's that, I think I have found myself a new favourite foundation! Although I know in the spring I'll go back to Wake Me Up. 

What are your favourites?

Becky

Autumn/Winter wishlist

So Autumn has definitely arrived. It is absolutely freezing at the moment... I'm currently typing this whilst still wearing my coat because I cannot bear taking it off! Yes, we refuse to turn the heating on... typical students.

Here are some items on my current wishlist, hurry up payday!

1) Embroidered Jumper - £34 - Topshop. I just love the floral design on this!

2) Tartan skirt - £14.99 - New Look. Tartan is everywhere at the moment and I think wearing this skirt high-waisted with a white/black shirt is easy to pull off!

3) Mac with black "leather" sleeves - £50 - Miss Selfridge. I love the contrast of the two materials and I think it's a beautiful coat.

4) Oversized smock dress - £15 - Boohoo.com. I own a couple of these dresses from Boohoo already and they are so flattering! I want all the colours.

5) Black heeled boots with gold details - £40 - Boohoo.com. I also have plenty of black boots but these are just too gorgeous!

Becky

Spots, spots, spots!

My skin is bad at the moment and I have no idea why.

I haven't had any particular change in diet or skincare routine so I'm not sure why I've suddenly been breaking out so much recently (I'm putting it down to stress).

So given that my skin is so bad and oily at the moment, I thought I would try some new products to see if it makes any difference and I will be posting reviews of any gems I find on here!

Gone will be the days of my usual "Simple" Cleanse, tone and moisturise routine!

If anyone can recommend me any products then that would be fab!

Becky

(Re)Fresher's week!

For those of you at university, you will know that fresher's week is one of the highlights of the year! A year ago when I first started at Royal Holloway, University of London; I was far too shy and didn't make the most of meeting new people during freshers week. 

So, this summer I decided that I would go all out on these first couple of weeks, so I thought I'd let you all know about my hectic 14 days!

My housemate Sophie and me. 

The first few days were spent drinking (a lot) with my housemates and close friends. There were a lot of events purely for first years on campus so we went to our local pub for a good old catch-up. Some people I hadn't seen since May so it was lovely! Unfortunately after a summer of detoxing from alcohol, my limits had decreased a lot more than expected. I therefore experienced my first two day hangover and it was horrendous. 

 

Pre-drinks with housemates

Pre-drinks for the Rhul Students Union night resumed after a summer off. I loved the make-up and outfit I wore on this night but I didn't get a good enough photo! I wore this gorgeous jungle-pattern (Katy Perry Roar style) peplum top with disco pants and high-heeled Chelsea boots. For my makeup I pushed the boat out a bit and went with a strong eyebrow and plum coloured lipstick!

I also worked. I worked a lot during freshers week. My part-time job at the uni slopping food on people's plates in the canteen needed me to do extra shifts as it was so busy! I ended up working about 50 hours in the two weeks which is just too much when you have lectures to attend and nights out to socialise! (I don't have any photos of myself in my work uniform, and even if I did I wouldn't be posting them on the internet.)

Geogsoc Pub Crawl

I also pub-crawled! The geography society organises brilliant events all year round but the fresher's pub crawl is always so good for socialising and meeting all the newbies! I curled my hair for the first time in years and I really liked it! After trawling round the local pubs, we all ended up going to Liquid Nightclub in Windsor which is always a fabulous night. It has to be said I was very worse for wear the next day!

Hugo, Me, Poppy, Sam and Lucia toga-ing it up!

I also went to a surprise toga party for my friend's 21st! As he's from Italy we thought the Roman theme would be well suited and we hid in his living room to surprise him after he came back from a meal out! He was so shocked but it was a brilliant (sober) night (who'd have thought you could have so much fun without drinking?!?)

As well as all this I worked at the uni open day on Saturday. This involved waking up at 6am to greet early bird visitors arriving at 7.30am. I spent the rest of the day in the geography department answering questions to potential applicants and it was a lot of fun! Thought I'd include a shameless plug... the next Royal Holloway open day will be on Saturday 26th October so come along if you're interested! 

So, all of that along with lectures has meant I've been very behind on blogging recently SORRY! I do hope I'll be able to find a couple of hours every week to keep up-to-date. 

Becky

The Great British Bake Off

I cannot be the only one who is obsessed with this show.

It combines everything that a brilliant TV series should have; hilarious presenters, expert judges, a complete array of contestants, food, Britishness and of course the innuendos. 

I realised how invested I was in this programme last week whilst sobbing to Howard's emotional goodbye to Ali. 

It has become tradition in my university household to have a "Bake off party" every Tuesday evening. It involves a growing number of guests (who are all becoming as obsessed as I am) and everyone must bring a baked good of sorts. We all get so involved and criticise the bakers on a number of things (mainly who wears the best knitwear rather than their baking technique... Ruby wins hands down - although nobody will ever top James from season 3). 

I cannot be the only one who is pleased to see a series that brings so much joy into people's lives (I mean, who doesn't love cake?) take over the TV. I'm so bored of shows such as the X factor who lead people to believe that the only way you can be successful in life is to win a singing competition (which is untrue as I can't remember the name of any previous winner). But GBBO provides light-hearted family entertainment in which you don't have to be young, good-looking or have a sob-story to succeed. It brings people together and has indeed created a baking revolution in Great Britain! I love it!

Anyway, I was thinking of writing a weekly installment of sorts on my thoughts of the programme just shown (as I have a lot of thoughts). But seeing as we have already had four episodes I thought I would give my opinions on the bakers so far...

Ali - I was absolutely gutted when he left last week, although lets be honest his pies weren't great. But he was this years obligatory hot hipster guy (for GBBO newbies; there is always one). He's also a charity worker and seems really kind (I admit I have been stalking his twitter) and who could forget his emotional farewell between Howard and Christine. 

Beca - I'm not sure what to think of her yet. She is this years mumsy baker who created those perfect baby macaroons. Apart from that she hasn't done anything to stand out thus far so she could be a dark horse...

Christine - The Mary Berry wannabe. Again, I'm not entirely sure what I think of her yet. She has won star baker once and her prayers to the "God of Crisp" were answered as she had no soggy bottom; Christine could go far.

Deborah - Oh Debs. She stole Howard's (delicious) custard and he was left with her, quite frankly, horrid custard. One of the greatest - yet controversial - moments in GBBO history. Fabulous.

Frances - In my household she is known as "Bitch-face". None of us like her, for some reason, which is actually quite harsh seeing as she hasn't done anything wrong. She does always go way over the top on the creative side to impress Paul and Mary, though her flavours tend to lack so I don't think she'll last until the end. 

Glenn - when he bakes, he bakes big - a man after my own heart. I think he could go far in this competition, or at least I hope he does because I enjoy watching him crouched next to his oven watching his goods bake. 

Howard - the star of this series so far. He may not be the best baker, but he puts his heart and soul into his cooking (and some incredible artwork). I will also never forget the shot of him in episode one of "When Howard is not baking, he is a keen jogger." in his tiny white shorts. 

Kimberly - I love her. She is so cheerful and does well in every challenge. I think she could be this years' front runner.

Lucy - I remember she was really good in the first episode but completely failed in the second. Remember that bread loaf with the tomato plonked on the top?! 

Mark - I didn't really have any opinions of him as he kind of faded into the background. Probably a good thing he got eliminated then.

Rob - a mushroom foraging fanatic. He was one of the less memorable bakers the first few weeks, however, I am looking forward to his dalek bake tonight which was shown on the episode preview. 

Ruby - another one of this series' stars. I hated her the first episode because she came across like a grumpy teenager. But since she has really grown on me and is probably one of my favourites. She owns fabulous knitwear and my friends and I were convinced her and Ali were flirting!

Toby - Oh Toby. The first victim of Paul and Mary. I really liked him (mainly because he comes from Reading and has a lovely beard). However, he did put salt in his angel food cake instead of sugar which is a schoolboy error. Shame. 

So that is all of this years contestants and my thoughts of them. I was going to write about Paul, Mary, Mel and Sue but they are all Gods and Goddesses and don't need an introduction. 

Anyone else as obsessed as I am?

Becky