Around the House December '12

Fancy Christmas Face and Hands: The Big Day...s

I like really love Christmas.

Christmas Eve: went out to see The Hobbit. Definitely wasn't overdressed. Definitely. 

Wore a lilac dress with a cute little perfume bottle print and a long knotted strand of pearls. I'm thinking I really need to keep better track of what make up I wear because this was two days ago and I have no idea, except that the lipstick was Bourjois Sweet Kiss 54 Rouge Glamour. I have an inkling my eyeshadow was two blended shades from my Soap & Glory Tricks of the Shade palette, which I've been meaning to review since I bought it nearly two months ago. I'm a terrible blogger. Le sigh. I also gave myself a Christmas haircut (chopped an inch or two off my "fringe", which had ceased to be a fringe and become just a slightly shorter section of hair. It's back to about cheekbone length now.)

Fancy Christmas Weekend Face and Hands

Friday 21st: fun little last minute shopping trip with my sister. Topshop gold suede look dress, my mama's Accessorize scarf, a ribbon chain necklace, purple cardigan, peachy earrings. I'm wearing a MAC Paint Pot in Bare Study on my eyes. It's glorious. And I didn't have to pay for it, because it was given to me by my lovely friend The Moroccan Shopaholic.

Christmas Cooking: Brown Sugar Meringues with Chocolate and Cranberries

What could be more Christmassy than a party treat which combines brown sugar, chocolate, cranberries and nuts, right!? These sweet, chewy, tiny meringues look super pretty piled on a plate, and you could top them with a whole range of things.

V&A Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950

image via The Guardian

This gorgeous exhibition in the fashion gallery at the V&A contains some stunning dresses, modern and vintage, classic and avant garde, and displays most of them to their very best advantage.

Christmas Cooking: The Cranberry Sauce Has Real Cranberries!

Christmas time means you get to eat everything! And before you can eat everything you get to cook it all! My favourite things.

This cranberry sauce is deep and spiced and orangey and sharp and beautifully red. It's adapted from Delia Smith, but I am a fiddler and a throw-everything-in-er, so I did what I do.

You will need:

300g cranberries
Juice and zest of 1 orange
3-4 tablespoons white wine
75g soft brown sugar (you could also use caster, but I always think soft gives a richer flavour)
1 teaspoon fresh ginger (I used the crushed frozen cubes) or 1/2 tsp ground
1 cinnamon stick, broken in halves
2 or 3 bay leaves
1 whole star anise
3 whole cloves

The One With All The Instagramming: London

Sooo I trundled off to London for the day to see the ballgowns exhibition at the V&A, and here are some pretty pictures! Everything is Instagrammed to death in case I have to give it up in January because they are being jerks. 

One of the galleries at the V&A:

It's Raining Again, I Wore Sparkly Stuff

Saturday I went to visit a friend and dressed up pretty.

F&F Eye crayon in Starry Night - a metallic charcoal chunky pencil that goes on thick and dark and a tiny bit sparkly and lasts all day.

Modcloth An Educated Guest earrings. So sparkly and pretty and vintagey! And they were half price!

Vintage silver, crystal and pearl (look) brooch.

Scarf by Mary Katrantzou at Topshop. This was also half price! £30 instead of £60. Designer collaboration stuff NEVER usually makes it to sale. Win!

Doom and Gloom and Cartoon Jumpers

It's super near the end of the semester and my brain is just constantly doing this now:

So let's have a nice quiet photo and gif filled kind of a post. Here is a bunch of stuff I've been wearing: