January Favourites.

Sorry for my absence as of late! I'm very aware that we're already over a week into February and this is my first post of the month; so much for being a better blogger in 2014! Anyway, my failure aside, the start of the month means a new list of my favourite things from the previous month! I can't see this one being too long, as although I've splashed out with all my Christmas gift cards I haven't really tried anything new. 

So out of the existing things in my life and a few new things these are my favourite things from January:

>My Primark hoodies: One cold and windy Monday in January I went into uni with an ineffective number of layers on. By the time I got to my first lecture I felt like a mobile icicle! Knowing it would be much colder in the evening when I began my commute home I decided that in one of my three hour breaks I would pop into Primark in the shopping centre and purchase a cheap hoodie that I could stick under my leather jacket and keep scrunched up at the bottom of my rucksack when I wasn't wearing it. 

And that is sort of what I did. What actually happened was I couldn't find a dark grey/charcoally hoodie -which was for some reason the specific colour I had in mind- so I found two other colours that I couldn't bring myself to choose between -burgundy and a really nice dark green- and a Ramones t-shirt to wear to the gym that was the same shade of green as one of the hoodies.

All three are super comfortable and that is why they're one of my January favourites. Sorry about the super long back story! 

>My leather jacket: That badboy is still one of my favourite things, especially now I've got three hoodies to pair it with for a bit of extra warmth!

>Juicy Water - Lemons & Limes: I've always wanted to try Juice Water but I've never been able to pick between the flavours they offer. The choice always came down to either Lemons and Limes or Raspberries and Lemons. One day in Tesco I found myself once again trying to decide between the two when my friend came up to me and recommended the Lemons and Limes one. Following her recommendation that's the one I brought and I've been hooked ever since!

>Maybelline Baby Lips - Cherry: During the Christmas holidays my sister brought three of the Baby Lips range with some of her Christmas money. I noticed she left the orange one on the table and me being the odd ball I am picked it up and sniffed it -I find that the smell of a lip balm is a very important deciding factor on whether I like it or not. It smelt amazing! And for that reason alone when I found myself in Superdrug looking to spend my gift card I popped one into my basket.

So there's a quick-ish run through of my January favourites. What were some of your favourite things over the course of January?
-Hannah :)

My Tips For Keeping Cosy This Winter.

I'm currently sat in bed with a stomach ache, longing to feel a little cosier and more comfortable than I do now. And whilst I was dwelling on that thought was round about the time that the idea for this post popped into my head. So I'll cut my rambling introduction short and leave it at: here are my top tips on how to stay nice an cosy this winter!

At home:
1. Hot chocolate/tea/coffee - make whichever of the three you prefer in your favourite mug, get comfy on the sofa and use it as a hand warmer in addition to a satisfying beverage, while watching some quality TV. I would personally recommend The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, MASH or Fraiser. 

2. Hot water bottle - nothing quite tops cuddling up under a blanket or in bed with a nice, warm hot water bottle!

3. Onesie - I think this one is self explanatory. I love lounging around in my black cat kigu!

My all time favourite hot chocolate, my cosy hot water bottle and my cute slipper boots from Sainsbury's.

4. Slipper boots and/or bed socks - All my life I have been a lover of bed socks. They're just so practical in my opinion; and they're really good at keeping my feet -which are almost always cold- nice and toasty. Also, since buying my slipper boots last week I have become a huge fan of the things! They're just perfect. If you don't already own a pair I seriously recommend you invest in some!

5. Soup - Aside from when you're under the weather, winter is the perfect time to stock up on soup. I'm quite boring and tend to stick to chicken soup; although I do occasionally mix it up a bit by swopping to either tomato soup or my nan's home-made chicken noodle soup.
6. Jumpers - I could go on about my love for jumpers all day long! I won't though because I don't want to bore you. But to sum up what could potentially be paragraphs: they're super cosy, super practical and you can never, ever have too many of them!

Out and about:

1. Layers - Last winter I mastered the art of layering. I'd go out with 4-5 layers on and not complain about feeling cold or chilly once. The only thing that I don't like about layering is how many clothes end up going in the wash and how quickly my washing basket fills up. So there's a bit of a downfall to this tip unfortunately.
2. Hats, scarves and gloves - All three are obvious winter must-haves, but I felt they should be included regardless. This winter, when I'm out and about, I will definitely be rocking the burgundy wool look. I have a lovely and thick snood and a cute, little bobble hat, both of which are burgundy and super, super warm. But for a bit of variety I won't be neglecting any of my other woolly hats or my other scarf. I thought I'd leave gloves until last and mention them on there own, as although they're a winter essential I only ever seem to purchase fingerless gloves. Don't get me wrong, they're warm and lovely, but they do leave my finger tips feeling a bit neglected as my current pair don't even have one of those mitten flaps. Companies just seem to make fingerless gloves that I prefer the design or pattern of, as opposed to their normal gloves.

A pair of my cableknit tights, one of my layered outfits from last week -a vest, a t-shirt and a fairly thick jumper- and my Starbucks flask.

3. Thick cable knit tights - I am developing a little love of thick tights, specifically ones with patterns (i.e. my grey cableknit ones pictured above). They're just super handy when you feel like having a 'feminine day' as I call them; as they allow you to stick on your favourite skirt or dress without your legs turning into icicles once you leave the house.
4. Boots and doubled up socks - I have horrible circulation in my feet and I often find that my toes go numb in the winter while waiting on a train station platform. Only last year did I think to combat this by wearing two pairs of socks, and I'm going to keep up this habit for the rest of my days. What I also really like about this is that if I plan to wear leggings and my black boots, I often put my second pair of socks -either black or dark grey- over my leggings so they just poke out of the top of my boots. I think it's a really nice little detail that adds to any winter outfit.
5. Christmas Starbucks - Although I have found out that as of this year they have stopped selling praline mochas -I won't lie, I was a little heartbroken when I found that out- I will continue to sing the praises of Starbucks' Christmas coffee range and all their coffee in general to be honest.

So that's my quick-ish guide to keeping cosy this winter. I hope you enjoyed all my little ramblings! If you feel like I missed something essential off either of my lists, let me know in the comments below! :)

Future Purchases - Part 2?

The fact that there is a hole in a pair of my black leggings, in a rather inconvenient place, and also the fact that Christmas is slowly approaching, led me to go on the New Look website this evening. It's turned out to be a bit of a financial disaster, as we all secretly knew it would be.

I currently have eight items sat in my shopping basket, that together come to nearly £64 after my student discount. One of those items is a twin pack of black leggings, two more of the items are additional non-black pairs of leggings, two items are Christmas presents for my boyfriend and the remaining three are completely unrelated to the reasons I went on the website and are for me.

I've already brought quick a few clothes this term -I got a bit trigger happy so to speak when taking advantage of my student discount- and don't have enough wardrobe space for the amount of clothes I have already, so realistically I don't need these items -bar the black leggings and Christmas presents. But that doesn't stop me from wanting all of those items.

What I think I will do when my boyfriend -a.k.a. my voice of reason- gets in from work is to show him a selection of the items in my basket -excluded the his ones obviously- and get him to try and reason with me and talk me into removing one or two of the items in order to bring the cost down a bit. Although flicking through my basket I can only see two items that I could see myself removing.

I never realised I was such a shopaholic! Damn student discount and my weakness for nice clothes!

Future Purchases?

More and more these days I am noticing items that I feel a need to purchase. Not a need in the sense that I actually need them for some aspect of my life, but a need as in a burning desire to own these items on my ever growing list.

As I haven't posted in quite some time I thought I'd do a little run down on some of the things that have caught my eye whilst window shopping. I may also explain why I want/need them to try and reason with myself into either buying them or forgetting about them.

First up is a penny board. If you don't know what a penny board is the best way I can describe it is a mini, misshaped skateboard. I've liked the idea of having one since I first heard about them and then today I saw some in a shop window. Naturally I went in. It turns out they're selling the penny boards for £25 each. I was tempted to buy one write there and then but then logic and reasoning decided to kick in. I have no idea if that's a good/reasonable price to pay for one and I don't actually know how frequently I would use a penny board if I had one.

Then we have a number of canvases that have caught my eye -they were in the same shop as the penny boards. My housemates occasionally comment on how our house could do with a bit of decoration on the walls, so this want could actually become a purchase. I mean when they're selling three adequately sized canvases for £20 who could say no? My one concern though it that the shop will disappear before I get around to buying anything from there -if I buy anything from there- as I think it's just one of those random pop-up shops that are around for a few months and then move on somewhere else. I hope it doesn't turn out to be that way, but I think it's pretty likely considering that they don't even have a shop sign.

This is quite a boring one, but I want to invest in a few more vest tops and cami tops, so I can layer up a bit more as the weather gets worse and the temperature plummets. I'm not thinking of anything fancy though. Just your bog standard Primark and New Look ones.

Finally, I've also spotted a pair of adorable slipper-boot-things in Sainsbury's on my last trip there. They are most definitely going to be a future purchase -I'm thinking of going food shopping tomorrow or Wednesday so I'll get them then- because I genuinely believe that I need them. I have bed socks that are super warm and cosy but the bottoms of them get so dirty from walking around the house. In fact my nice blue pair have black-grey bottoms no matter how many times I wash them, and with these slipper-boots I wouldn't have that problem because they have a rubber sole.

Room Tour.

Some books of mine that I thought may come in handy with
regards to evidence and referencing.

This is one of the cute little mugs I decorated. I decided to keep
this productive looking chap to hold my stationery.

One of a few snaps from Slam Dunk South '12.
I gave this to Brandon for our anniversary last year.

A sneak peak into my wardrobe:
Part 1 - Dark & thick winter clothing.

A sneak peak into my wardrobe:
Part 2 - Pyjamas and T-shirts.