Festive Literary Classics: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

I'm not much of a reader and I know of only a handful of actual Christmas stories, but A Christmas Carol always sticks in my mind as the king of Christmas tales.

I was first introduced to this wonderful story by my favourite people in the whole wide world, The Muppets. The Muppets Christmas Carol is a family 'must watch' for Christmas Eve and both me and my brother know every single word (even the timing of Tiny Tim's coughs). 

What I love about the story, moving back to the original and away from the colourful singing puppets, is that it keeps you hooked. Not only does it fill you with festive spirit, but it's well written and the characters are full and fleshed out. 

Scrooge is a character you love to hate and by the end of the story, the man you once wanted to curl up and die, you now want to repent and have a very merry Christmas. 

If you want to get your hands on this Christmas classic, you can download Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol in the Amazon Kindle app for FREE! No excuses! Go give it a read and prepare to feel all the Christmas cheer. 

What's your favourite Christmas story? Is The Muppets Christmas Carol on your yearly watch list? 

August Favourites

You may or may not have noticed a brand new widget on my sidebar, I've added a little slideshow so that you guys can see my monthly favourites all month round!

This month I have a varied collection of favourites ranging from beauty to music. A lot of the makeup I've been loving this month is the same as last month, so instead I thought I'd make this a bit more random. 

This month I've been testing out the new foundation from YSL, the Fusion Ink foundation. I wasn't expecting to love this satin finish foundation as much as I do. Not only does it blend like a dream but it gives you a flawless finish and lasts all day! This has quickly become my favourite foundation for my oilier summer skin. 

Next I have a few skincare items that have been keeping my skin in top condition. The first is the Origins Gin Zing Eye Cream, something that I have an on-and-off again relationship with. I've been feeling very tired lately and this little guy has been helping me wake up my baggy eyes in the morning. It makes my eyes feel fresh and takes away that heavy under eye feeling. Then we have the Lush Grease Lightning Spot Treatment. My face really hated me this month and I had a lot of breakouts. Applying this at night helped take the redness away from angry spots and with constant use, it helped erase all traces of horrible blemishes. 

Another skincare product I've been loving is a small jar of the Lavender Face and Body Moisturiser from Primer Spa Shop. I got this in my goodie bag from the Manchester Bloggers Meet, I was a little worried about the inclusion of lavender as my skin has had reactions to it in the past. However I need not have worried, it is actually amazing at making my skin look plumped and healthy and I've had no reactions what so ever.  

A bit of a strange favourite to include but it needed to be in here, the Sure Compressed Deodorant. We've had a fairly warm summer so I've been on the hunt to find a deodorant to keep me dry as well as smelling fresh. The Sure Linen Dry has really helped keep me dry all day, especially when I've been running around in work. 

Finally, my two random favourites. The Troye Sivan EP TRYXE, an awesome electro pop album with some genuinely amazing tracks on to chill you out and the Complete Fairy Tales by The Brothers Grimm. Like I say in my video, this is not a fairy tale book for children, there's a lot of violence and there's a few bits that are laugh out loud ridiculous. 

What products have you been loving during August? Any music, books or beauty products you want to recommend? 

Appreciating The Classics

It's no secret that I'm a bit naff when it comes to reading books. I have 'The Book Thief' lying on my bedside table as I type, just gathering dust with the bookmark wedged between the pages. Despite the fact that I fail at reading, there are those classics that I love and can dip into at any time. 

New fiction is all well and good, but sometimes it's good to sit back and read some classic stories, fairy tales, myths and legends. These stories are classics for a reason and with so many books being churned out everyday, it is important we never forget how truly great they are. 

I've always been in love with fantasy stories, they are the ultimate form of escapism for me, so I didn't hesitate to borrow The Mammoth Book Of Celtic Myths and Legends from my sister. This book has various stories from various parts of the UK, ranging from Ireland to Cornwall. British history is full of these fantastical stories and I love that they are a part of our culture. As this book is filled with lots of short stories, you can whip it out at any point, pick a tale and read it in the space of 30 minutes, perfect for my very short attention span. 

The same goes for The Complete Fairy Tales of Brothers Grimm. There are some seriously weird and dark fairy tales that have been overlooked because they are not suitable for all ages and I love reading them. Again, these stories are quick to read and easy to fit into a busy day and if you love the TV show Once Upon a Time as much as I do, this is the essential book to have. 

Finally, we have the king of all literature, Mr Shakespeare. These plays and sonnets are nowhere near as easy to read, but they are classics, the basis for many popular screenplays, books and theatre productions. You can buy Shakespeares plays written in modern English these days, but let's be honest, where's the fun in that! Yes, the language is a little difficult to understand, but the beauty is you can get the gyst of what is happening and it is still an interesting story to read, now that's talent.

Which classic stories can you not get enough of? Do you read enough classic literature or do you stick with the modern stuff?  

The Sunday Post: My First Blogger Meetup!

Some of the girls at the meetup// A cheeky mocktail, yum!// I made the mistake of downloading the Sims 3// A bit of at home Costa love// Very slowly getting there with my web design course// A view of Manchester// Playing with Afterlight's new app features// I found the best thing ever invented// The most overrated book known to man// I got my business cards through, who wants one? ;P// Moving on to a new book, hope this one is better// 

It's been a pretty eventful week this week and also a pretty boring one. My first mistake was giving in to the huge Origin sale (the games website not the skincare brand) and ended up downloading the Sims 3. Well, there goes my life, I forgot how many hours you can dwindle away playing with imaginary families. 

I also finished the most hyped up book ever, The Fault In Our Stars, boy was I disappointed. I'm sorry if you love this book but it is definitely not as amazing and heartwarming as everyone makes it out to be. It's not clever it's pretentious, the characters are annoying and I just didn't connect with their relationship. I'm not going to rant about it but it does make me angry that I read this thinking it was going to be an epic love story and it was just another teen romance book, someone stop me on my angry tirade. 

Moving on from disappointments to more happier times, this week I had my first ever blogger meetup! It was hosted by the lovely Holly from Holly Goes Lightly at The Whim Wham Cafe, who was super friendly and put together a really informal and friendly gathering. My anxiety has been at an all time high this week so I was a tiny bit worried that I would freak myself out and end up not going, but I pushed through and got on that busy train to Manchester. I am really glad I did, I wanted to do something where I would get to meet new people, what with all my Uni friends being scattered all over the country. I do wish I'd gotten more pictures so that I could write up a proper blog post, but I was so busy trying to not have a Godzilla sized panic attack I didn't really think it through. Do not fear though, I'm going to another event at the end of July so I'll make sure I take my camera.

Other than that I haven't been up to much, just job hunting and doing my web design course on Treehouse. I thought I may as well use my unemployed time to learn a new skill and HTML is always a handy tool for a blogger to have. 

Let me know if you have been to any blogger events this year or if you have any planned! Its pretty normal to be absolutely terrified of meeting new people but it is honestly worth pushing through the fear.      

Check out the blogs of some of the girls I met at the meetup!

The Wolf In The City// Holly Goes Lightly// Happy Little Places// Miss Pond// Smile At Style// Cat Girl Blogs// The Quick Red Fox//