Currently Loving

This owl mug. I love how it's simple in terms of colour, but detailed in terms of shape! I've seen owl mugs in multiple shops, such as Paperchase and Wilkinson, but this particular one is from BHS (£3). I prefer this one to the others I've seen, and like that the top part goes out a little. The one from Wilkinson goes in, and would be more difficult to drink out of!

Reed diffusers. I'm not allowed to have candles or oil burners while I'm living under my dad's roof, but love home fragrance products, so I've really been liking reed diffusers as alternatives. The ones above are from Primark, and cost just £3 each. The Juicy Blueberry & Blossom scent is beautiful, and the Vanilla & Coconut Creme one isn't bad, either! They're incredibly subtle, and work better in small rooms, but I'm still happy with them. I have the blueberry one near the entrance of my room, and Primark's £1 vanilla one near my bed. I can definitely smell them when I close my door and then walk back in later in the day. 

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Dexter! I'd been wanting a new series to watch, so decided to start Dexter on New Year's Eve. I'm now on series 3, and really enjoying it. I love crime dramas, though, so it's no surprise!

What have you been loving?

Shopping!

This is my 6th haul this month! You can see why I'm going on a spending ban in February. To be fair, there's been a lot of sales this month, and it was my birthday. So, here's my most recent purchases! I'll start with the duvet set. I bought a similar one at the end of December and love it so much. Like that one, this was also in the sale, and then I had a 25% off code on top of that. I ended up paying £27 instead of £45. £27 is still more than I normally spend on a duvet set, but I loveee it. The squares on this one are all different sizes, and the patterns are different. The reverse is equally as beautiful.

Next is the purple, pink and orange floral fleece throw from Primark, which was only £6. It's so pretty! I can have up to 5 cats and a dog on my bed, so need a throw to keep my duvet covers clean.

I then bought a couple pairs of Super Cosy tights for £3.50 each. I love Primark tights, but I've never tried their Super Cosy ones, which are always raved about. They feel so nice, so I can't wait to wear them. I also bought some pig socks for £2. I love my novelty socks! In terms of animals on your toes, I now have pigs, cows, sheep, foxes and bumble bees.

I then bought a bra from New Look for £11.99. I fell in love with it straight away. The camera doesn't pick it up, but it's blue with purple lace, so it looks almost duo chrome. I also have this style of bra in green and yellow, and really like them.

When cleansing my face, I either use my fingers or a pair of exfoliating gloves. I didn't have anything in between. So, I bought the Botanics Facial Brush from Boots for £6. It feels soft for a facial brush, which is just what I wanted. I used to have a small one from The Body Shop, but it was far too rough for everyday use.

Finally, I bought a bottle of Original Source Spearmint shower gel for £1 from Savers. Original Source has gone up in price in a lot of shops, so I'm glad it's still a pound in Savers. I have about 10 bottles of shower gel stocked up in my drawer, so I shouldn't have bought this, but it smells so nice! I love the scent of spearmint. Some mint scents can be overwhelming, but this is perfect.

That's it. No more shopping for me for a month! I do have an MUA order on its way though which I placed last week, so look out for that. I also have a birthday present post coming up and a few reviews!

Christmas Sale Purchases and More

I went shopping today! I felt like I hadn't been in ages, but it was probably just a few weeks. It was so quiet it town, considering the Christmas sales started yesterday. In fact, it was quieter than it normally is throughout the year! There was no one in Lush and there were no queues in Primark - Shocker! I'm always quite level headed when it comes to shopping, and the Christmas sales are no different. I feel so guilty at the thought of wasting money (so I try to justify everything haha). Quite a few of the items you see below are for birthdays, Mother's Day, even next Christmas! Here we go...

 

Of course Lush was on the agenda. They didn't have any of the Christmas bath bombs though, so I'm not sure what's going on there. They had loads of everything else. Anyway, I bought my first bottle of Snow Fairy shower gel for £3.12 (the prices I'm giving are after the 50% discount), 2 Magic Wand bubble bars which were around £2.50 each (these are for birthdays!), a Rocket bubble bar for £2.50ish (which smells like Parma Violets! I wish I bought another one now), a Santa's Sack bubble bar for £2.09ish and a 200g chunk of Mr Punch soap for £3.75. Once I got home, the Mr Punch soap smelt different to me, so I'm going to try and swap or sell it. 

I then went to The Body Shop. I think this was the first time I've bought stuff in store. I normally buy online because of all the amazing discount codes. I was buying my mum a bottle of the Vineyard Peach shower gel, which was half price at £2, and once I smelt it, I had to buy a bottle for myself. It smells delicious! The Ice Blue shampoo, Cranberry shower gel and Cranberry hand cream were also down to £2 and I bought them for my dad for his birthday. The Cranberry products... oh my. They smell good enough to eat. I may have to keep them!

 

I'm always underwhelmed by Boots' Christmas sale. I know people love it for the Soap & Glory products, but I've never tried or been interested in them. I do love Boots Extracts though, and thought this mango gift set was a bargain at just £5. One Christmas present for 2013 down ;)

 

I can't go shopping without visiting Primark. These two items were not in the sale, but they were cheap anyway. The large cosmetics bag was £4 and the slippers were £3. I also bought a pair of ugly moccasin slippers because I knew they were going to be super comfy. They also have a rubber sole, meaning they won't get disgustingly dirty on the bottom!

 

I spent a small fortune in H&M. I don't regret it though because they're items I always wear. The pink, mint green and yellow garments are cardigans and were £9.99 each. I think I have every colour of their cardigans now! The lilac garment is a lightweight jumper and was £14.99, which is pricey for what it is, but I bought it in the heat of the moment! The teal and black tops are scoop necked and long sleeved, and cost £7.99 each. Again, I have a variety of colours of these and wear them most days. The quality of them is amazing and they last so well.

 

After my sister and I got back from town, our dad informed us that he was going to Tesco. I couldn't pass up a trip to Tesco. I found these boots for just £15, and they weren't even in the sale. I love them. I really hope they last. My other boots from Tesco didn't last very long, but that's because the soles weren't durable. These soles are rubber and chunky, so finger's crossed!

 

I've also bought a couple things from the online sales, and they're all things I've had my eye on for months. The coat is from New Look and was £35 down from £55. I wanted a more formal coat, so I'm hoping this is nice enough to keep. From Superdrug, I bought the Remington Pearl hair dryer, which was £24.99 down from £38. I rarely blow dry my hair, but I do blow dry my dogs after I've bathed them, and a hair dryer is always useful to have. The one I currently use is really old and I'm always scared it's going to explode because it has sparked a couple of times! I chose the Remington Pearl one because I have the Remington Pearl straighteners and the Remington Pearl conical wand, and love them both. To receive free delivery, you needed to spend over £25, so I added a little chocolate truffle to my basket which cost 29p haha

This bedding was the first thing I bought in the sales. It's from BHS and cost £22.50, down from £45. It's not to everyone's taste and I'll admit that it's quite garish and in your face, but I'm drawn to it! I was looking at it months before the sales, so I think it was meant to be. If the design gets too much for me, I can flip it over and have a simple, floral pattern :) I also found a £5 off code which worked on sale items. To redeem it, you had to spend at least £25, so I also bought a mug.

I would love to see what you've bought in the sales, so link me up!

Miscellaneous Buys (Bedding, beauty, books, socks and more)

This post was meant to be up hours ago, but Blogger informed me that I used all of my photo space up and had to buy more. Loads of bloggers have also received the same message. I think it's such a scam. Blogger/Google know that photos are essential to us, so they want to charge us. I've just switched to Photobucket, and these photos are the test to see if it works. Hopefully, you can see them!

Anyway, over the last month or so, I've been buying all sorts of things. I can't remember everything I've bought though - Below is just the majority of it!

Double duvet set - eBay - £14.95, Duck egg waffle fleece bed throw - BHS - Originally £20

You all know I love my bedding! I have the pink and orange version of the duvet set above and absolutely love it, so wanted to get it in the duck egg blue colour scheme. If you like the look of it, you can buy it here. It also goes well with my new bed throw. The throw ended up costing £14, including delivery, because I used a combination of discount codes. The only problem is, is that I don't want my cats getting it dirty because it's too pretty, but the whole point of having it on my bed is to protect my duvet covers.

Burt's Bees tinted lip balm in Pink Blossom - Super Smoocher - Originally £5.99, Vaseline Rosy Lips tinted lip balm - Superdrug - £2.05, Glow in the dark nail polishes in 13 and 14 - eBay - 99p each

I repurchased Vaseline Rosy Lips because it's probably my most used lip product. Because I love it so much, I wanted to try out another tinted lip balm, so bought the Burt's Bees one. I like it, but not as much as the Vaseline one. The nail polishes are really pretty, and are more opaque than I thought they would be! They have a decent glow to them in the dark too. You can buy them, and a load of other colours, here.

The Scorch Trials - Amazon - £2.80, The Death Cure - Amazon - £2.78, The Fury - Amazon - £5.27

I finished reading The Maze Runner the other day, and quite enjoyed it, so wanted to read the next two books in the trilogy. I also popped The Fury into my basket because it sounded interesting. I said I wouldn't buy any more books for a while because I have assignments to do, but I just couldn't resist!

Sony ICD-PX312 digital voice recorder - Amazon - £33.62, 4GB memory card - eBay - £3.35, 20 Duracell AAA batteries - eBay - £4.29, 12 Duracell AA batteries - eBay - £3.99

The items above are not what you normally see on beauty blogs, but I thought I'd show them because they're useful! The recorder is for my assignments and I'm impressed by it so far. You can buy the memory card here, the Duracell AAA batteries here, and the Duracell AA batteries here.

Marshmallow Fluff 454g - Fizzy Lips (A shop near where I live) - £4.50

After finishing my 200g tub, I wanted the large one. It's certainly large! I can see it lasting ages. It is expensive for a sweet treat, but I treated myself to it because I presented my presentation on Monday.

Deer socks - New Look - £1.99, Bumblebee socks - Accessorize - £3.50, Fox socks - Accessorize - £3.50, Fox phone sock - Accessorize - £4

I love the items above! As well as protecting my phone when in my bag, the fox phone sock will also protect my dictaphone when I need to record data for my assignments.

Briefs and shorts packs - Primark - £2.50-£3 each, Navy patterned underwear - Primark - £1, Grey and lace underwear - Primark - £1.70, Various packs of socks - Primark - £2.50 each

I went a little crazy with underwear and socks today! Underwear and socks are worn every day though, so at least they'll all be used.

Christmas print pyjama bottoms - Primark - £5, Sea green t-shirt - Primark - £3, 100 denier microfibre tights - Primark - £3, Navy plimsolls - Primark - £3 each

I bought two pairs of the plimsolls because they finally had my size in stock! Whenever I'm in need of them, size 7s are out of stock for months.

Owl t-shirt - New Look - £7.99, Dark red knitted snood - New Look - £7.99, Navy striped shorts - New Look - £2.99, Scotty dog briefs - New Look - £2.99

A few weeks ago, I also bought the items above, but they're currently in the wash, so couldn't take photos of them!

And that's the end of my varied haul! Enjoy your evening :)