15 minute make-up!

I've been looking through pictures from my Christmas holidays and came across a few of my make-uppy ones which I'm excited to share with you. My sister and I always like to make an extra special effort on Christmas day, but as we both had our boyfriends spending the day with us we didn't want to take the time we usually did of they'd be bored silly!

So here's a look at my speedy Christmas make-up look and how I achieved it. 

How I achieved the look:

For a base of my favourite primer/foundation/concealer combo set I used Arbonne Intelligence CC Cream followed by Arbonne's translucent setting powder and Sleek's blush in Pixie Pink. I sometimes use an extra concealer for complete coverage, but I was time saving and I don't mind a couple of pesky spots :)
For the eyes I used NYX jumbo pencil in Milk for a base, and set it with Illamasqua's eye powder pigment in Breathe (what a beautiful name!), which I also used along the bottom lash line. I then accentuated the sockets with a slight dusting of Urban Decay's Gunmetal from the Naked palette, which I also dragged onto the outer corners of the bottom lash line. I then used Arbonne's liquid liner in Black to create a thin wing along the top lash line, and filled in my eyebrows with Urban Decay's Twice Baked from the Urban palette. My top eyelashes are lightly brushed with Arbonne's Triple Action mascara, but I'm also wearing lash extensions by Eyelure. For the lips I used Arbonne's sun protecting lip moisturiser, and a red lip liner to outline, I then filled in with Rimmel's Kate Collection in 110, and finished off with Arbonne's lipstick in Runway Rouge to brighten the look even more.

So that was my Christmas make-up look, it took me about 15 mins to apply altogether. I hope you enjoyed it!

Treasure Huuunt!

I don't know what else people usually put in Santa Stockings other than presents and potatoes or coal, but for some reason in our house we have a tradition of adding oranges, walnuts and chocolate coins! We've done it for as long as I can remember, and I have some lovely Christmas memories of sitting in front of a cosy fire watching films, with my dad cracking walnuts and sharing out the pieces inside. 

This year, however, I was left to wrap Santa presents for not only my little sister, but for both of our boyfriends as well. Four whole bags of chocolate coins is a lot to ask one person to handle...so I decided rather than eating them all for myself, to sneakily hide them around the house and not tell anybody! Hehe!

They were hidden for about four days before I couldn't contain myself any more, I thought I would pop with anticipation! Every time someone walked past one without realising, I'd flare my nostrils with impatience and my face would erupt into a humongous horrifically hidden grin! It's safe to say, they all knew something was going on. 

It was Adam (my sister's boyfriend) whom I came clean to first, being the tallest person attending our Christmas he managed to spot a few straight away, with my stupid grins and his not so subtle eye darting to find more, it wasn't long until everyone knew. Luckily by then it was Christmas Eve-Eve, so not long to wait until the day, but it was difficult to keep an eye on everyone and make sure they weren't cheating!
Tom (my boyfriend) was the most difficult to restrain, from the moment I said "the coins are hidden" a childlike enthusiasm exploded from within him "TREASURE HUUUUUNT!!!" and he thundered off around the house flinging coats and shoes around to try and find some. I think it's safe to say he's as much of a big kid as I am :P

I had to re-hide quite a few coins which I knew people had found, but we couldn't wait until Christmas day in the end, so Christmas Eve we went through each room in the house and played "hot and cold" to find them all. I found it very frustrating as I wanted to find them all myself, and we were still finding coins we'd missed a couple of days later!

It was such good fun though and I'll definitely be hiding everyone's chocolate coins again next year. Sorry guys!

Christmas day with The Shorts

I thought it was about time I shared my Christmas with you! I know It's all pretty much over now, but I still have a few cards on display in my room and that's a good enough excuse for me. Anyway, on with the story!

We all have our own family Christmas traditions which make Christmas day feel homey. Our family wake up and gather in mum and dad's room with our two cats, where dad then brings in Champagne and Salmon for him and mum (yuk!). Then we get ourselves ready for the day, my sister and I do each other's make-up, and then we all re-meet in the lounge where we open the presents. After a delicious Christmas lunch, we all go out onto the moors or around the neighbourhood to walk off our massive food babies, before coming back home for films and a cosy evening by the open fire. Bliss. 

My sister and I (being 17 and 21 now) are a bit old for believing in Santa, but that still doesn't stop us getting a stocking! My mum used to love making them up for us, she'd collect bits and bobs throughout the year and 'hide' it all on top of her wardrobe, her idea of thinking is that if we couldn't see it looking in, it wasn't there, but we always knew really. One of her favourite traditions is to put oranges, walnuts and chocolate coins in our stockings, but I can remember my sister and I unwrapping our presents as teenagers to find odd things such as a yoyo and a bag of marbles...

These were all my Christmas presents, JUST mine! :O

As much as we love our mum, we decided to take over ourselves and create stockings for each other from then on. We were so excited for Christmas 2013, because it was the first year my sister and I would have our boyfriends over for the day, so we ended up making a stocking each for them too (I say stocking, but they were actually just giant gift bags).

Because of this, we all went a leeetle bit overboard and spoiled each other rotten!

Considering we had the boys over as well we decided to do things a bit differently this year. Tom (my boyfriend) was already here for breakfast, so mum and dad made the three of them salmon and scrambled egg on toast - which Tom has now decided is the best thing ever - and my sister and I had the same..but without the salmon.

Tom enjoying his breakfast :)

We then went out for a drive and a walk before opening the presents, so that we could pick up Claire's boyfriend, Adam, on the way.

All squeezed into the car with Adam

Mum, Claire, Adam, Tom and Dad playing with pebbles by the water front.

Mum, Claire, me and Tom

Tom battling his way through the branches of a fallen tree

The weather took a turn for the worse and we all got a bit wet and muddy, so we decided to head back home to the warmth and discover the delights under the Christmas tree.

I got some fluffy slipper socks :)

Tom got some Arbonne cologne

Adam and Claire got matching flavoured milk straws

   

...and we lost Claire to her new phone for a bit.

 

Our Christmas dinner was so delicious that I was too distracted to take a picture of the food, oops! But here's a "before" of the table all nicely laid out.

Dad well and truly full after his dinner! :P

 In the evening we played some games together, before snuggling up in front of a roaring fire to watch films.

I hope you had a Christmas as lovely as ours, whether you were with family or friends or both. Merry belated Christmas and a Happy New Year!