Yankee Candle Event | Blogtober Day 4

As I mentioned in my 'things to look forward to' post, I attended an event at my local Yankee Candle shop for the launch of their Christmas collection. Christmas scents are my favourite kind of smells so I was definitely on board and very excited. When we arrived, the place was packed out and they had little goodies on a table for people to eat and were going round offering glasses of wine which was lovely. I did manage to pick up a few things so I thought I would share them with you. 

First of all, my favourite candle of all time - Christmas Eve. To me, this scent is just the typical Christmassy scent and is amazing. Instead of attempting to describe the scents to you myself, I am going to insert the description of the candles from the Yankee Candle website. 

"Traditional Christmas scents of a warm hearth, sugared plums, and candied fruits."

Secondly, I grabbed another large candle in the scent Christmas Cookie. This to me smells of cake and cookies and all good things like that - even if I don't see the Christmassy side to this candle, the picture and name of the candle is good enough! 

"Buttery rich, vanilla scented, holiday sugar cookies."

I then fell in love with another scent in the shop called Merry Marshmallow, however the lady in the shop said that that particular scent was being discontinued and all they had left was the end! Gutted! They had none of the jar candles in this scent, just the votive sized ones - so I thought it felt necessary to purchase four. 

As the scent has been discontinued, it is no longer listed on the Yankee website for a scent description - but trust me, it smells amazing. 

I then purchased an advent calendar which I am really excited about! I have only ever had the traditional chocolate advent calendars and dreamt about the beauty ones last year as I have got more and more into beauty, but when I saw the Yankee advent calendars I couldn't leave the shop without taking one with me! I went for the house shaped one and it contains the scents; Candy Cane Lane, Christmas Garland, Christmas Cookie, Sugared Apple, Christmas Memories, Spiced Orange, Snowflake Cookie and Christmas Eve. I now can't wait for December first to get started! (too early, Emma, too early).

Lastly, they were giving out little goody bags containing some Yankee treats and I just thought I would share the treats that I got in mine!!

Love Em x

Disney Countdown | Blogtober Day 3

As you may have already guessed by some of the posts I have already posted on my blog, I am Disney obsessed and not ashamed to admit it. Despite being 21 years old, since the first time I visited Orlando, Florida to go to Disney at the age of 7, I have always wanted to go back when it came to booking my next holiday. I have been to Florida 5 times so far and am beyond excited that I am going back for a 6th time with one of my best friends in June 2015!

My friend has never been before so is very excited and I am just bursting to get back to Florida. We have our tickets booked to visit all the Disney, Universal and SeaWorld parks - including Discovery Cove that I have never been to, but always wanted to.

We are, of course, going to start our holiday with the best park (in my opinion) Magic Kingdom. This park is just full of magic from the minute you arrive to the minute you leave. Everything is just amazing and the castle is truly breathtaking. As a big Little Mermaid fan, I am eager to get on the Journey of the Little Mermaid ride - new since I last visited the park! 

Considering we booked our holiday at the very beginning of April (over a year ahead of when we leave) time has been going pretty fast! However we do have a rather large wait ahead of us to go!

Have you ever been to Florida or visited any of the parks?

Love Em x

Things to look forward to | Blogtober Day 2

I'm not really the kind of person who gets excited over Halloween when October comes along, however this year I'm really looking forward to this month. Autumn and winter are my favourite seasons and definitely my favourite time of the year and I just feel as though I have a lot to look forward to at the moment. 

Firstly, I live in a village and it is quite small so when an empty shop started getting refurbished and turned into a Yankee Candle shop, I was probably a tad too excited. I have already had two candles from there already but have been invited to a loyal customer event already where they are launching their Christmas collection, which means first dibs on the Christmas stock - this could be dangerous. 

I also started a job in a local bakery when I came home from university for the summer. I go to university in Liverpool and as much as I love being a uni, nothing can beat being at home. But a students' money will only stretch so far equalling in my bakery job. It has literally been the best part time job I have ever had and the people I work with are amazing. I don't ever dread going to work and always have a laugh with the girls I work with, however I leave on Friday to go back to uni... slightly gutted although my last day does involve Halloween fancy dress to promote the new products! 

I was also very pleased to see that Lush released their Christmas collection today which always gets me very excited and my bank card very nervous. Lush is one of my favourite shops during the autumn/winter months as I love having a bath every day. During the summer I am definitely a shower person, but during the colder months I love a good bath with a bath bomb and bubble bar, especially the spicier, cinnamony smells.

I am then heading back to Liverpool for my last year at university on the Sunday and moving into my very first house. I am so excited to be heading back for my final year - it has gone stupidly fast! I am so scared to be leaving and not being in any education and entering the "real world" of full time work, however studying to work in a primary school makes me very excited to be working with the little children everyday! :)

 Halloween and bonfire night come next and as I said I'm not Halloween's biggest fan (sorry...) but I do love a good bonfire! Getting all wrapped up in winter clothes and layers and heading to a massive fire with your friends or family is just so cosy and exciting watching the firework displays. 

And then before we know it, Christmas will be here! My absolute favourite time of the year! The clothes, layers, scarves, cold days, dark nights, hot chocolate, twinkly lights and everybody being so happy. 

Is there anything that you are looking forward to for the rest of the year?
Love Em x

Blogtober Introduction & 21st Birthday! | Blogtober Day 1

So this year, as I have got more into blogging (I know not perfectly, but I'll get there haha) I thought I would give "blogtober" a try. It's just like "vlogtober" over on YouTube, however I am going post a blog post everyday throughout October. There's going to be a variety of different posts during the month including my every day life, to beauty, to baking! So, I hope you enjoy!

I'm going to start with my 21st birthday which took place in September and show you some of the presents which I was lucky enough to receive from my family and friends. My birthday landed on a Saturday, so on the Friday I went out for Tapas with my parents, my brother and my Nan and had a lovely meal and a few drinks to start the celebrations. My family came round to visit me during the day on the Saturday and to have some champagne with us. I received lots of amazing presents and money from everybody and was really happy with the thoughtful presents they had sent to me. 

When the night was drawing in, I got ready and had a few drinks at home with one of my best friends before going out to meet all the other boys and girls coming out to celebrate with me. I had an absolutely amazing day and night out and my 21st was literally the best birthday I have ever had. Here are some of the presents I was lucky enough to get... along with lots of dollars for my America fund! (249 days but I promise I'm not counting...)

My beautiful Pandora jewellery.. Top L-R: Fairytale book charm from one of my best friends, Chelsea; 21 charm from my Uncle and his girlfriend. Bottom L-R: Heart stack ring from my dog Cocoa (haha! She was saving up for a while..) & tiara ring from my parents. 

Viktor and Rolf Flowerbomb perfume (smells soooo good...)

Big thumbs up to Joey for this one!! 

My gorgeous doggy, Cocoa, giving me my lovely ring :)

Believe it or not, I don't really like cake... hence the individual ones. However this rather did impress me.

 I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of my presents from my 21st and hearing about what I got up to! I hope you stay throughout my blogtober posts!!
Love Em x

Yankee Candle Bliss

Okay, I have a confession to make. I have never really been one for buying candles very often (or at all). I think in my whole life I have had one miniature Yankee Candle from Christmas time (Christmas Eve I think it was called) and that was only at the Christmas just gone. 

HOWEVER, changed person right here, oh yes. I have got a bit more interested in candles lately and I am beyond excited to be visiting Bath and Body Works on my next trip to Florida in June, but there has been a new opening of a Yankee Candle shop in the village I live in... it was near impossible to resist temptation when you could smell it walking past the store. 

I popped into the shop today and couldn't resist walking out with a candle for myself. 

After pulling the lid off of 'Salted Caramel' I just couldn't put this candle back on the shelf. I got the largest size priced at £19.99. It smells absolutely amazing. I'm not the best at describing scents so I am going to use what the Yankee website describes it as:

Sweet surrender is yours with our luscious gourmand confection of burnt sugar, sea salt, and smooth vanilla caramel.

It literally smells delicious. I am burning it right now as I am sat writing this blog post and my room smells beautiful already. I think I will definitely be making another trip into the Yankee Candle shop very soon! Candle addict... on it's way!

What is your favourite Yankee Candle scent? 

Love Em x

Disney Parks Tag!

Okay, so I think it's pretty clear by this point that I love all things Disney, so when I saw the Disney Parks Tag, I was all over it. So, here we go...

The park I have chosen to answer the tag on is, of course, Magic Kingdom:



1. How many times have you been to this park?
I'm not too sure how many times I have visited the park exactly. I know I have been to Orlando, Florida 5 times and they have been for two or three weeks at a time, so I'm not sure how many times exactly I visited Magic Kingdom in this time. 



2. What's your favourite land and why?
My favourite land in Magic Kingdom has to be Fantasyland (just over Frontierland slightly!). Fantasyland is just so whimsical and is home to Cinderella's Castle and lots of rides including Winnie the Pooh ride and, one I'm so excited to ride is the Journey of the Little Mermaid which has opened not so long ago. It is also home to the Be Our Guest restaurant and the whole land is just breathtaking. 



3. What's your favourite ride and why?
My favourite ride is in Frontierland and just has to be Splash Mountain. Frontierland is just amazing and brilliantly themed. Splash Mountain is my favourite ride because it is just so cute and it's a log flume as well so is a great way to cool down in the Orlando heat. 



4. What's your favourite show?
It just has to be Wishes. It is an amazing firework display over the Castle in Magic Kingdom and it is so beautiful. I know a lot of people can get quite emotional at this show and it really is amazing to just stand and watch.



5. What is your favourite thing to eat in the park?
Now I am quite a fussy eater, and my favourite thing to eat is probably going to be so boring, but I love just eating the chicken tenders and fries that you can get all around the park as it is just so American (and you can't beat a Mickey's premium ice cream sandwich for pudding!).



6. What do you want to do at the park that you have never done before?
I am so excited because this is actually happening in June 2015, but I am going to Orlando, Florida for 2 weeks with my best friend and we're just going to do everything at Disney because she has never been before so that is what I want to do. I have never been with a friend before so I'm looking forward to it!



7. If you were a cast member, who would you want to be?
It would just have to be Belle! Belle is one of my favourite princesses, alongside Ariel, but I just love her dress and her hair and she is just amazing.



8. What is your favourite story from the park?
It's not so much a story, but it is something we do every time we go to Magic Kingdom and that is taking the ferryboat over Seven Seas Lagoon over to the Magic Kingdom park entrance. It's just a slow little ferry ride over the lagoon and the castle is in view and it just gets the excitement building and is just an amazing moment leading up to the park.



So that was my Disney Parks Tag! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. I am even more excited now.
Love Em x

Etude House & Minnie Mouse Collection

So, you should probably know by now that I love all things beauty and Disney, and when I came across the brand Etude House and saw that they had worked with Disney to create some products, I had to get my hands on some of the collection.

I decided to order one of the blushers and two of the lipsticks. The blusher is beautiful and has an embossed Minnie Mouse face. I'm not too sure on the name of the colour of the blusher, but there is two - a pinky one and a lilac one and I chose the pink one. I think that the packaging of all the products is amazing and the blush is so cute! I can't wait to try it out when I do my full face. 

I also ordered both of the lipsticks, obviously I couldn't just choose one. They are called Minnie Red and Bubble Pink. They are both absolutely stunning colours and the packaging is adorable. They are really creamy and have very good pigmentation. They also feel quite moisturising as well. They are both perfect colours for a Minnie Mouse collection and I think that I will be finding myself reaching for these products a lot! It was my first time trying anything from Etude House and if all of the lipsticks are like the Minnie collection then I will be very interested in trying some more!

Because I live in the UK, I ordered these from eBay. I got the blusher for £9.39 with free delivery. I got the lipsticks for £5.59 each with free delivery also. I received the package in under two weeks as well which was great!

Have you tried anything from the Minnie Mouse collection or Etude House in general?
Hope you liked this post.

Love Em x