Top Ten Tuesday: Romance Freebie | Favourite OTP’s

In the spirit of all things Valentine’s day and romance, Jana has thrown us a romance freebie. Sometimes, I really can’t be doing with a freebie week, and find it quite difficult to settle on a topic, but this time, I’ve embraced it whole-heartedly (heart ❤ geddit!). I was thinking of romance books, and just how much I don’t love a novel when the central theme is a romantic pairing, so I abandoned all notions of writing a list of my favourite romance stories, and decided to think about my favourite pairings.

For all of you who don’t know what Top Ten Tuesday is, or don’t know how to get involved, click here. The lovely folks at Broke and Bookish teamed together to create this awesome weekly prompt, which is now hosted by the wonderful Jana @ The Artsy Reader Girl. Quite simply, you list the top ten of the topic prompt.

Advertisement

Festive Favourites

A Very Merry Christmas. I hope Santa has been kind to you, and that your day has been full of festive fun, family, and happiness.

As it’s Christmas, and no-one wants a heavy post, I thought I’d put together a festive favourite post, full of all the little things I like about Christmas, from movies to songs, traditions to food.

Movies

Not all of the movies that are in this list are strictly Christmas films, but they are movies that I enjoy watching over the Christmas period:

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

I love Harry Potter, and the castle in the snow combined with the heartwarming scenes of Harry and Ron opening Christmas presents in the common room make this a Christmas must!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

There is a whole section of this film set on Christmas Eve, in the snow, at Godric’s Hollow. It’s so pretty and lovely.

Die Hard

The best Christmas movie. Simple.

The Christmas Prince

I watched this a week or so ago, and it is glorious in the best way. I then made my friend watch it less than a week later.

 

Food

Let’s be honest with each other, one of the best things about Christmas is the food. It’s just awesome.

Pigs in Blankets

I love bacon, and I like sausages, so this is just a heavenly package on a plate

Bacon and Mushroom Stuffing

The family stuffing recipe made predominantly from bacon, mushrooms and onions, is the best stuffing recipe in the world.

Leftover Christmas Lunch Sandwiches

The above stuffing on fresh bread with turkey. Yum Yum.

Advent Calendars

Nothing quite prepares you for Christmas than eating a chocolate hidden behind a small numbered door. I usually have a Dairy Milk one, but this year, I have a No.7 Make Up one and a Malteasers one with a pun behind each door too.

Songs

We all love it when Christmas songs play on the radio, and when a festive playlist accompanies the wrapping of presents. Here are some of my favourites:

Merry Christmas Everyone | Shakin’ Stevens

Fairytale of New York | Kirstie McColl and The Pogues

I Believe in Father Christmas | Greg Lake

Christmas Wrapping | The Waitresses

TV Episodes

I am a serial TV watcher, and love a great TV episode. There are some that I have watched over and over again, and there are some that aren’t as good, but here is a couple of the best:

The Best Chrismukkah Ever | The O.C (S1 E13)

The O.C. is possibly my favourite TV show ever, and this is just the greatest holiday that Seth Cohen (and I actually think just Adam Brody) gets excited about. The moment Ryan hangs his stocking on the mantle piece is so cute!

Forgiveness and Stuff | Gilmore Girls (S1 E10)

I think this is the first time I really really invested my time in Gilmore Girls and just loved it.

The One With The Holiday Armadillo | Friends (S7 E10)

I mean, a Friends Classic. Who doesn’t love a Holiday Armadillo and Santa with a belly like a bowl full of jelly.

Queen of Sheba | The Royale Family (2006 Christmas Special)

This was clever, emotional, and funny, such a underrated Christmas special.

Traditions

We all have little traditions that our families observe that we enjoy. To be honest, our family don’t have that many that still go on now as we’re adults, but there are still a couple that I enjoy.

Two Christmas Trees

Dad has a real tree in the front room. Mum has an artificial tree in the dining room. It’s just how we roll.

Christmas Sack

I have a Christmas sack, in which i still like to receive my presents even though I am 26, and every year hope that it will be full. It pretty much was this year.

Making the stuffing

Making the stuffing is a Christmas Eve tradition. And not just making a little bit, enough to go in the turkey and for at least one loaf tin’s worth too! We like stuffing, what can I say!

---

We’ve had an enjoyable day so far, and hope to have an enjoyable evening.

30 before 30

It’s November. Halloween has been and gone, the shops are plastered from wall to wall, floor to ceiling with all things Christmas, and this month, it’s my birthday. If I’m honest, I didn’t accept my 21st birthday very well, or my 22nd, and certainly not my 25th. This year, I am once again face with a slight feeling of getting older with nothing to show for it, so, this year, I am going to try and make it my mission to change that. So, I decided to make a motivational list of things that I want to do between now and my next milestone birthday. Here’s my 30 before 30 list:

New Years Resolution: 1st Quarter Check In

At the end of last year, I decided to compile a list of resolutions for 2017 in the hope of improving various aspects of my life. I set myself some rather large goals, and as I have a tendency to set them and the completely forget what they are, I have decided to check in with my progress over the year. So, now as a quarter of the year has gone, it seems like the perfect time to check my progress for January, February, and March. Just to recap, my New Years Resolutions can be found here.

Strictly Saturdays: The One at the Movies

It’s that time of year again – get out your spray cans, fish out the rhinestones and sequins I know you have stashed away, and grab the wineglasses – Strictly Come Dancing is back! Yep, you read that right, the nation’s favourite Saturday night show is back on TV. And while last night was really good, I do think Strictly makes a Saturday night, and Saturday nights are made for Strictly.

This year, I happen to be living with a good friend who is also a big Strictly fan and fellow blogger. This means only one thing – doubled-up live-blogging… because bitching comments and shameless perving shouldn’t just be reserved for our living room, it should be shared with the…masses?

Here’s how it works:
Each week myself and Emma will be bringing you a tag-team live-blog of Strictly Come Dancing. We will be alternating whose blog it is posted on so if you want to keep up-to-date with our clearly deeply insightful commentaries, then you should make sure you’re following both of our blogs.

Last week, the pressure was turned up and we lost our first dancer, Melvin, The circumstances under which he went were nothing short of ridiculous, and it is safe to say that Anastasia is going to be in for a tough time over the next few weeks!

The 140 character review: Marvel Phase 2

The 140 character review is a short and to the point tweet length review of, well, anything really (but mainly books, movies, live productions, and TV shows). It was born from a desire to review everything I watched, read, and saw, without committing to long length reviews.  To see more, click here.

Today, I have continued with one of my favourite collections: The Marvel Universe. I  decided to split it into 3 sections, Phase 1, Phase 2, and TV series, which will be released over 3 weekends. Last week I reviewed Phase 1, and that is where I pick up from now:

Tag: Films, Films Films

I love a good book. I love imagining stories, and worlds, and characters. But sometimes, it is nice to see other people’s imaginings, and to immerse yourself in a visual world, and that is wear film comes into its own. Everyone loves a good movie, so I thought I would take a small break from the book blogging and do a film tag that I found here.

Top Ten Tuesdays: Top Ten Books I’d Love To See As Movies/TV Shows

I am doing this post early (again) as I am currently visiting the Hobbiton set. I know, I am lucky, you’re jealous. I still wanted to keep up with TTT this week, so here we are.

The 140 character review: The Hiatus

I am quite sure that the few people who read my blog don’t do so for the 140 character review feature. For those of you who might, or for those of you who have ever looked at it, and for myself, I am writing this hiatus notice.

The 140 character film review – Magical, musical, marvel-ous Christmas

TV episodes, mainly of the Neal Caffrey and White Collar variety, have occupied most of our TV/film watching time. Now as we have finished the series completely (sob) I thought I would get round to reviewing the films we watched around his Caffrey-ness and whilst we mourn the loss of him from our screens (literally.)