My Christmas Playlist 2018 | Blogmas 2018 | Day 7

*IIIIITS CHRIIIISTMAAAAASSSSSSS*

In case you haven't caught the jist of it by now, I bloody love Christmas. I'm talking Christmas music in summer kind of love. Yeah, I am that person. 

With that being said, for todays Blogmas, I've decided to share my ultimate Christmas playlist. I made this playlist a little while back and I just add to it as and when I please. So, I feel that by this point we have a pretty good selection. We have some absolute classics with Mariah Carey and Wham!, as well as throwing in some more modern jingles with Sia and Ariana Grande. And what would Christmas be without a bit of beautiful Buble (I can't figure out how to get the accent on the 'e' so just pretend I spelt that right)? 

While I absolutely adore basically every Christmas song, I feel like my favourite changes all the time. While basically any Buble song is always in my top 10, my current fave is actually a slightly less traditional song (or at least from my experience) by Train called 'Shake Up Christmas'. I beleive I first came across it in a Coca Cola adveert one year and everytime I hear it, it just makes me so happy. I love it! I'm also loving Sia's 'Santa's Coming For Us' this year, which just makes me want to dance around my room. With regards to classics, my favourite this year is 'Merry Christmas Everyone' by Shakin' Stevens- What a song?! 

In conclusion, I love them all and Chirstmas is the best!!!

What songs are you loving this year? 

Here is my playlist on Spotify which you can follow and listen to if you fancy!

So on that note I will love you and leave you.

I hope you are having a lovely day and I will speak to you tomorrow,

Christmas Formal - Uni Life | Blogmas 2018 | Day 6

T- 19 sleeps until Christmas my friends!

Being the true Christmas fairy I am, I have been trying to get involved in as many Christmas events as possible this year and really soak up all the festivities. Every year I read about all the amazing festivities that take place and just wish that I could go to them all! This year, my uni Christmas Formal was on the list.

In all honesty, I wasn't sure what to expect when I heard of the formal, and so I went into the whole thing a little blind. Yet I can happily say that I was pleasantly surprised! We all got to dress up nice (including a very bad decision of heels with a fractured foot), do our hair and makeup all pretty and go and eat a gorgeous meal surrounded by live music. I loved it!

The meal was, of course, Christmas inspired and included breaded camembert (*drools thinking about how good it was*), a Christmas dinner and a chocolate truffle tart. It was the definition of a perfect meal. We also had Christmas crackers (complete with hats and bad jokes), wine (which I sadly ignored due to the joys of being ill) and a lovely singer performing through the evening. 

All in all, with lovely company, it was a lovely night and I can successfully check it off my festive events list. What shall I do next?

So that is all for today. I was planning on a little longer post with photos but in all honesty, I completely forgot to take any photographs at all (I do this all the time and always kick myself for it!). I hope you've enjoyed the post anyway and got a teeny little insight into my Uni life.

On that note, I hope you have a lovely day and I will speak to you tomorrow,

Top 5 Advent Calendars 2018 | Blogmas 2018 | Day 5

I always think that the Christmas period in itself is often actually often better than Christmas day. While I love Christmas day, its the whole festive period that makes my little Christmassy heart flutter. The music, the lights, carol services, secret Santas and of course the Christmas countdown. Being the chocoholic that I am, I always go for a chocolate advent calendar. Not only are they delicious but they don't break the bank. However, with that being said, I still love to fantasize about all the amazing non-chocolate advent calenders. Yes, they are usually quite expensive, but I think they are just so cool! So here are my top 5 advent calendars that I would totally buy if money were no object, along with my chocolate one of course!

1. 12 Days of Gin

This last summer, I really discovered my love for Gin. I can't even tell you what it is, but I just love it. While I think gin is a perfect summery drink, I think you can easily mix it up to make it more festive, and what better excuse than an advent calendar! With 12 different gins, I could live out my gin tasting fantasies. Or, you could save them up for Christmas day and get a little merry with your friends... in the spirit of Christmas of course!

2. English Tea Shop

Another drink related advent that I love the idea of, is a tea advent! (Could I get any more British?) I love tea so much and think this would be a super fun and slightly healthier alternative to a chocolate calendar. I think this one is really reasonably priced and a lot of the teas are special festive flavours. I just love the idea of opening my advent, brewing a hot cuppa and snuggling down with a fluffy blanket to watch elf... what a dream!

3. Playmobil Royal Iceskating Trip

I was obsessed with Playmobil as a child. My sisters and I would always get a new pack on holiday and it was quite possibly the most exciting thing ever for my little 7-year-old self. Well, turns out I never grew up (totally overrated anyway) because I would die for this advent calendar. I think these Playmobil advents are just so fun and I love the idea of setting up a little festive scene bit by bit until Christmas. I also really love ice skating and so this one is extra adorable to me.

4. Build your own retro camera

As a photographer who loves cutesy decor, this is so perfect. I don't think you actually build a working camera but you end up with this amazing retro camera that would look amazing on the shelf next to a gorgeous plant. I also think this is a super fun and practical take on an advent calendar. While it is a little more time consuming than popping out a quick chocolate before you head out the door, I think this would force you to just stop and spend a couple minuted focusing on building the next piece, which I think would do wonders in helping you relax in what some people find a very stressful time of year. 

5. 7 days of sockmas 
I have heard so many people saying that socks are a bad gift, but I have to disagree. I love new socks and you know what is better than new socks? New Christmas socks! While this is only a 7-day advent, I think this would be fab for the final week before Christmas. Just picture waking up, opening your advent and putting on your new pair of super cute Christmas socks. Immediately you're in a good mood! I feel like this is maybe a more unusual advent, but considering its only 7 days, you could just add it as a little bonus to make the final week of countdown extra exciting!

So there we have my top 5 advents. Don't they all just sound amazing? In a dream world, I would have them all. I'd wake up, put on my new socks, grab a cuppa with a chocolate, add a Playmobil piece to the scene, hop off for the day feeling super happy just knowing that when I get back I can spend a minute building my camera then grabbing a cheeky gin with my dinner. Pretty perfect right? 

What do you think? What kind of advent do you prefer? 

Hope you have a lovely day and I speak to you tomorrow,

Sick tips for Uni. | Blogmas 2018 | Day 4

Everybody has at least one area of their life that has been or are lacking. I had a great childhood. My parents support and love me endlessly. My siblings are my ride or dies and I have a good few solid friends who know me better than I know myself. Now that's not to say everything is perfect, but I have been pretty lucky with regards to all that. My downfall is my health, particularly in the last 3 or 4 years. Things are definitely better than before but my health still brings a lot of struggle into my life. (I'm actually working on a health update at the moment so keep your eyes peeled for that post if you're interested in my health journey!) With that said, todays post is dedicated to my top tips and tricks on how to deal with being sick while at Uni (or school or work or basically just life haha).

*Future Holly interjection*
I wrote this yesterday and I think I may be psychic because I woke up SO SICK! So as I sit here in bed with my pouding head as I try not to puke, I guess its time to follow my own advice! Anyway, back to past Holly...

Uni is essentially a germ pool where you spend 20% of your time getting sick, 60% of your time being unwell and the other 20% feeling like you're just about to come out the other end of it before we go right back to square one. Unless I have suddenly lost my ability to do maths, thats 100% of your time feeling under the weather. Now my extremely scientific and accurate results here are purely based of my experience of 1st semester and with my poor excuse of an immune system, it may no be applicable to everyone. That being said, the general concensous seems to be that you get sick alot at uni and unfortunately you don't get a say in the matter. So, as a very professional and experienced sick person, here are my sick tips for Uni... see what I did there... sick tips. Such comedy gold.

Tip 1. Remember that your health ALWAYS COMES FIRST.
Now this comes in at number one becuause it really is the most important one. If there is one thing that I have learnt over the last few years, it is the sheer importance of your health and what happens when you don't make that a priority. Let me tell you, it is not a pretty picture. Health is the centre of everything and poor health can affect every aspect of your life. When my health was at its worse I couldn't attend school, couldn't hold a job, I had to drop all my hobbies besides reading (which even then I couldn't do as much), I felt like I lost my friends, my anxiety got worse, my whole life just came to a crashing halt. Now this is a real extreme example but if you refuse to prioritise your health, there is a real possibility you could be heading to much more serious health issues. If you are sick, your priority is to be healthy again. Above everything, is your health. If you need an extension, ask for it. If your health is coming in between studies, talk to your tutor. Your health is first and any decent Uni should understand that too.

Tip 2. Do the boring healthy things
Yes, I know they are boring. They are dull and time consuming and generally not that enjoyable but there is a reason these things get repeated so often. Up the fruit and vegetable intake. Reduce the sugar intake (and I personally find reducing dairy and gluten help speed up the healing process). Drink tons of water. Take your vitamins/supplements (I personally live by Doterras -contact my mamma for more info- and blame my inconsistancy with them for the decline in my health after months of being my healthiest in years). Get some fresh air. Excersice regularly to help avoid getting sick in the first place. You know these things but somehow we forgot to do them still. Probably because its not fun, but hey you know what else isn't fun? Getting sick. Go eat an apple. (Please, you can get one in the reduced section!)

Tip 3. Manage stress!
Again, this is likely something you have heard before. Stress is bad. But, this is actually something that while I knew, I have really come to understand a little more recently, and actually I am so interested in the physcial responses to stress and just how much it can impact us. There is this fabulous video by SciShow Psych ft. Hank Green which I think summarises it all quite nicely and gives you a great insight into the power of stress - deffo reccomend giving this a cheeky watch if you've got a spare 5 mins. While we all know stress doesn't feel good, there is a good chance that its contributing to why you got sick or even why you're struggling to recover properly. This is something I am working on right now as I am a very highly strung person who is basically anxious like 78% of the time. But, what I have found useful so far is journaling, music, gentle exercise and meditiation. I do these things somewhat sporadically and think I might try a little week long experiment to see how these techniques work in practice, any body interested in that? The point is, these are all things you can incorperate into your life, even as a busy Uni student.

Tip 4. Be a lazy potato
If you are sick, you need to rest. Its annoying and inconvenient but that's just the way it is. 1 day of responsible rest will always beat a week of recovery after refusing to achknowledge your need to rest. Try and attend lectures if you can but there will be other socials. The FOMO at uni is so real but in some ways, that works to your advantage here. There is always so much going on, that is is garunteed you can find something to do once youre well enough. Lie down, sleep and rest.

Apologies if you were hoping for something revolutionary here, but the truth is that with health, there are no short cuts. It takes effort and perserverance and self dicipline but it is so worth it becasue when your'e healthy you can really live your best life.

Do you have any secret health tips? (Please tell me because I need them all)

Hope you have a lovely day and I will speak to you tomorrow,

P.S- Get well soon!

Happy Belated Blogmas! | Blogmas 2018 | Days 1 ,2 and 3

It's officially December my friends and you know what that means...

That's right, it's offically the most wonderful time of the year. 
I LOVE christmas. I always say that with a name like Holly I didn't have much of a choice and I am a self proclaimed Christmas fairy. I am the kind of person who listens to Christmas music on a flight to Spain in Septemeber (true fact) so I guess you could say i'm a die hard Christmas fan. With that in mind I am beyond shocked that in all the years I have had this blog, I have never partook in Blogmas!? Madness. 

Now I know I am already a few days behind but in all honestly, I literally just thought of the idea and I couldn't wait a whole more year! So, I thought, why the heck not!

I have always loved reading and watching blog/vlogmas and so to actually partake this year is so exciting! I know sometimes it can be a struggle with quality vs quantity but as you may know, I am so so terribly inconsistent with posting and I think this would be a great challenge for me. 

I still have Uni for 2 more weeks and so I will still be quite busy. Therefore, I can't garuntee all posts will be super detailed and long (although we all know how much I love to waffle on) but I will be posting something every day up until Christmas.

Want to follow along? Subscribe to the blog (in the right hand column) and get a little email every time I post!

Hope you all have a lovely day and a Holly jolly Christmas,