My last favourites post for 2017, I can’t believe I have written one of these every month for a whole year. When I did my first one in January I didn’t really believe that I would be able to commit to doing it every month. I thought I wouldn’t have enough to write about but it’s been easier than I thought so I’ve decided to do it again in 2018.
December is my absolute favourite month of the year; it’s festive, everyone is looking forward to Christmas, we get to decorate our homes and eat chocolate for breakfast (if we so choose) and what’s not to love about that. Living down south we very rarely get any proper snow (maybe once every 10 years) and I was totally jealous of everyone’s snow pictures a few weeks ago but December is still very cold and Christmassy regardless.
So, without further ado, my last favourites for 2017…
A new hair colour
I’ve had the same hair colour for a few years, my natural red with blonde and gold highlights. I loved it, it suited me, I booked in to have my roots done before Christmas; then I went on Pinterest.
Any one else do this? I can’t be the only one who starts searching for hair styles and colours in the days before an appointment. I found a picture on Pinterest and it changed everything for me, I was 100% convinced it was what I need to have done at my appointment. I showed my stylist the photo and she brought it to life for me.
I am in love with the new colour, I’ve worn my hair down more since having it cut and coloured than I think I have in about 3 years. This might sound like a weird thing to say but, I feel like my hair colour has made me feel more on trend. Does that make sense? I don’t feel like a mum who’s so out of touch with style that she doesn’t have a clue what’s in or out, I feel like a 29 year old who’s still relevant. Maybe it’s weird but it’s made me feel good about myself and that’s all I want from a hair cut and colour.
Here’s my before photo:
Here’s the after photo:
Christmas
Oh I bloody love Christmas, so much so that I wrote a whole blog post about this year’s festivities so I won’t go into too much here other than to say that Christmas with a toddler is both incredible and exhausting in equal measures.
It was so wonderful to see Amelia so excited this year, to watch her tear into gifts and play with her new toys. Even a week on she’s still playing with them and none have been discarded to the bottom of the toy basket just yet.
Christmas food is always a winner for me and boy did I enjoy some serious over indulgence throughout December, so much so that by the time Christmas Day rolled around I just couldn’t eat any more rubbish food. I enjoyed every mouthful of my Christmas dinner and cake for pudding but that was about it.
There’s something about the start of a new year that makes me so excited to start a new diary/planner. I love sitting down to copy over my important dates and write in all the exciting events we have planned for the year.
I bought a new planner this year by a company called Eccolo who personally I’ve never heard of but I found this one in T K Maxx and I loved it. It has everything I want from a planner; good space to write my plans and the most pretty dusty pink and gold dots. I love it!
Family time
Having time off over Christmas has been so lovely but man it has gone so fast. I’m so grateful not to have to go into work over Christmas this year but any time spent at home just goes too fast. This year we have spent a lot of time with my parents, for them it is a chance to see Amelia and play with her and watch her grow.
She loves seeing her grandparents and she just plays constantly for hours, until she is so worn out that she sleeps for hours afterwards. A mama’s dream right!
Just seeing her little face light up when they come in the room and even when she sees them on FaceTime she gets so excited and comes straight over to the phone to look at them and talk to them.
I wasn’t sure whether to include this one or not because the shop owners have just announced that they will be closing down in January, but then I thought that this bracelet is still one of my favourite things from December so I should still include it. Plus, if you like the look of it and want one for yourself, be quick before they close and check out their upcoming closing down sale… I know I will.
I have been lusting after these bracelets since Amelia was born, I first discovered them as breast feeding bracelets designed to help you keep track of which side you last fed your baby. At the time they didn’t ship to the UK but now…
I saw the Black Friday sale announcement on Instagram and I was all over it, now was my chance to get my hands on one of these beautiful bracelets and at a sale price. Although I ordered it in November it was shipped from Canada so didn’t arrive until early December (although it came much quicker than the estimated 6 weeks delivery time I was given).
It’s so pretty, it’s stretchy so you don’t have to adjust it or untie it to swap wrists if you do want to use it for feeding and the designs are so simple and pretty they’re all you really need to wear.
I am in love and I’m so glad I finally got one, a year after first discovering the brand.
That’s all for my favourites this month, I didn’t want to just do a list of the gifts I got for Christmas because although they’re all my favourites, Christmas (and December) is more than just getting new stuff and gifts. My favourite part of Christmas is family and Amelia’s little face being so excited.
Here’s to 2018 and 12 more entries of monthly favourites…
Rachel xx
No Comments