What I got for Christmas + my Christmas cupcakes !

First of all, I want to wish you a happy new year ! May 2014 bring you joy, health and happiness :)

And I know it's a bit late, but I thought it would be nice to show you the things I got for Christmas. And at the end of this post, I'll feature some pictures of the Christmas cupcakes I made for my family gathering on Christmas Eve - everybody liked them and I'm quite proud so I wanted to share that too.

Let's start with the presents ! I really love them all, as I chose them myself - yep there was no surprise of any kind with those, but I was asked to choose and so I did. I'm so excited about all this, I always feel like a

child when I open my Christmas presents !

The first one I want to talk about is the one I coveted the most and for the longest time. My own Deathly Hallows necklace ! All Harry Potter fans will know what this is, and understand why I am so excited about it. This symbol represents the three objects that, when you possess them all, make you the Master of Death : the Cloak of Invisibility (the triangle), the Resurrection Stone (the circle), and the Elder Wand (the line in the middle).

I won't go in details about the whole story, but to me this symbol is one of the strongest signs we have in the Harry Potter fandom and universe, and I'm so so happy I now have this amazing necklace. 

I'm a little afraid to wear it honestly, I don't want to damage it - but I'll definitely do it anyway, it looks so cool !

Next is a perfume. I'm almost running out of the Flower by Kenzo I've been using for months (this is my signature scent I guess, one of my favourite perfumes ever), and my mother kindly suggested to buy me a new one for Christmas. I wanted to change and not buy the Kenzo again, and I went for the Dalhia Noir by Givenchy.

I remember smelling it when it first came on stores, and I immediately loved it. It is very different from the scents I go for usually. I couldn't describe it, but I feel like it is a more "mature" feminine scent, a bit stronger too than what I'm used to. So I decided to go for it ! It came in a little set with a nice box to keep it in.

To stay in the beauty theme, I got the Sugarlicious kit by Benefit. I've always wanted to try Benefit products, since everybody likes them and says the quality is really good. This kit is composed of the Sugarbomb blush, the High Beam highlighter, the Benetint for lips and cheeks and the Ultra Plush Sugarbomb gloss, all in sample size. I'm not going to talk too much about this since I want to do a complete review, but I can safely say that this kit is amazing and that I love every product in it !

That's all for the actual presents ! I mainly got money from my family, which is greatly appreciated because sales are starting tomorrow in France :P

And now, my Christmas cupcakes !

I really wanted to cook something for my family this year, because I always eat a lot but I don't really help to cook at all, which is a bit unfair to my nice aunties who spend their afternoon in the kitchen.

I found this wonderful cupcakes decoration kit in New Look, it is sooo cute ! 

It is composed of 24 little cases with cute Christmas patterns on it (I looove the reindeer !), and 24 toppers of four different styles : Santas, glittery stars, penguins and reindeer.

So I made vanilla-coconut cupcakes and used these items to make them look Christmassy. 

And here is what they looked like in the end :

And here is a close-up look :

I'm really glad with how they turned out, especially on the top. I wanted the topping to look like snow, and I just added the little gold sugar because it was nice haha. I don't think I need to write the recipe here, I basically just took one from the Internet and changed it a bit eventually. 

This part of my post doesn't have any relevance at all haha, but I just wanted to show this to you :)

And as this post is long enough already, I'm just gonna wish you a happy new year again, and I'll see you next time !

Lots of love,

Julia xx

DIY jewellery storage

Hello !

This article will be another DIY ! I'm usually not a handy person, but it seems that a strange DIY spirit has appeared in me lately. That's a good thing though !

And today's DIY is a jewellery storage - or in fact some jewellery storage, as there are several pieces.

I don't have enough space in my room to have a proper jewellery hanger, like a tree where you can put the necklaces or bracelets on the branches. I have to keep all my jewellery in a box... but everything was tangled in there, as you may imagine ! So I decided to make little paper pockets to put every single piece of jewellery (how many times will I be writing this word today ?) I have.

I used my precious Cath Kidston dupe paper, a pair of scissors, a pencil, a ruler, adhesive tape and glue, and finally a punched pocket.

The first thing to do is to cut a rectangle in the paper ; it has to be quite big because you'll have to fold it in two.

So you cut your piece of paper, and then you fold it in two, but you have to leave a space of about 1cm on the side of your paper.

Then you cut about 1cm at the bottom of the paper, and another 1cm at the top. The bottom bit will be folded to close the paper. On the top bit, you take the bigger side of the paper and cut the sides like the top of an envelope : it will be the bit that closes and opens the pocket to put your jewellery.

After you've done that, you take the bigger side of the paper, and you cut a square in the middle of it. You should have something like this :

 

You take your punched pocket and cut a square of the size of the square you have in your paper, and put it on the "inside" part of your paper (with the adhesive paper, the glue won't work). Finally, you stick the side and the bottom parts of the paper, and that's all !

The final result looks like that :

 

It is not the neatest thing you could find but I still think it's okay and very cute to put your stuff in.

I made several of these, of different sizes, to put my necklaces, bracelets and earrings.

So let's make a before/after of my jewellery box : 

• Before :

Messy !!

• After :

That's better !

Well you can see that everything is not in a pocket yet ; that's because I ran out of my pretty paper and I'm waiting until I buy some more to finish. I'll be making other pockets when I have new paper !

I'm really happy with this storage, because it makes it more easy to pick up some jewellery out of the box - when everything was just thrown in there I had to search for things and take everything out to pick one piece, and that bothered me a lot. Now it won't happen anymore !

Julia xx

Wishlist : March '13

Hello !

I decided to organise myself better by making wishlists when I want things. I will not be choosing more than five or six products each time, just so that I don't make it look like an "impossible and expensive things to get" wishlist. 

I selected a few items that I found and liked, and I have the whole month to get them. If I don't, I can always try next month - but I'll include them again in the five/six things I will put in my next list.

So here is my wishlist for March, featuring a lot of New Look stuff !

1. Mat Velvet + foundation, Make Up Forever, 34.50€ (available on the Sephora website)

2. Blue and White Chambray Jacquard Skater Skirt, New Look, 24.99€ (available here)

3. Cameo Rose Shell Pink Crochet Panel Sleeveless Shirt Dress, New Look, 24.33€ (available here)

4. Coalface cleanser, Lush, 8.95€/100g (available here, price in Pounds)

5. Gold Iridescent Triangle Necklace, New Look, 7.99€ (available here)

This is quite a "pink" list, with all this pale colours - except for the Lush face cleanser but nobody will see it obviously !

I'm really excited to try the foundation and the cleanser, which I'm sure I will be talking about after some time using it.

Let's see if I can pick these items before the beginning of April !

Julia xx

Collective Haul

Hello there !

So I was supposed to do a haul last week, but I had issues with my camera so I couldn't take pictures... but everything is solved and my haul is here !

Unfortunately I don't have the price tags anymore, as it's been quite a few weeks since I've done my shopping, sorry for that !

It is quite a big haul because I bought these things during several shopping trips, from the beginning of January until last week.

First I went to New Look, where I bought a few items :

I found this little high-waisted blue skirt, perfect for every day and that you can wear with absolutely everything. It is in a very soft material and the colour looks like light denim, even though it's not. It is very flowy and nice, it will be perfect when the spring comes.

I also got this very pretty shirt. I had been looking for one of these (aka animal-printed) for months ! and when I saw this one there were only two left... and luckily one in my size ! I was so happy. 

It is a very sheer shirt (you definitely have to wear something under it) with little purple owls all over it... how cute ! I'm not a massive fan of the gold buttons but I won't complain, perfection is hard to find, uh ?

 

And here are the little owls :

 

And finally from New Look I got two necklaces, both very simple. The first one is a cross necklace, and the best thing about it is that it is cut in the middle, and the two sides of the cross are in different colours : one is silver and the other is a sort of old bronze gold. 

The other necklace is very very cute ! it is a little rocking horse. It is white and has gold details on it.

Then I went to a French shop called C&A - I don't know if there are shops of this brand in other countries. From there I just got two things. The first is a peach jumper. It has three-quarter length sleeves, and it is very thick - but not warm. I wear it with something underneath, just so that my skin isn't showing through the wholes of the knitting. I love this peach colour, and this item will be great for spring - it's not warm as a winter jumper, but thick enough for when the weather is still a little cold.

And I bought a pair of earrings. I think they are very classy ; light pink with little gems around it. 

The colour isn't really showing on this picture, sorry for that ! 

Next shop : Forever 21 !

You have to know that in France, we only have two F21 shops. That sucks. So last week was the first time that I shopped in there ! It was almost as exciting as going to Disneyland for the first time, haha. But hopefully some shops will be opening soon, and maybe in Paris so that it's easier for me to go... Let's pray !

One of my first items is this little shirt/blouse top. It is sleeveless, white and has amazing lace detail on it. When I saw it, I immediately fell in love. This is exactly my style !

I love everything that looks like old clothing from the early decades - and early centuries too, but clothes from the 19th century aren't much available anymore, are they ?

This shirt has a very vintage look. I'll be wearing it all the time, for sure !

Look closely at the collar... A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Then, in a totally different style, I got a top that I thought would be perfect for this summer (yes we're not even close to spring yet but...) with a pair of denim shorts and little sandals.

Usually, this is not my type of clothes ("American" looking stuff like this one with the eagle, you know what I'm talking about) but I really liked that one... so I got it. 

Just before going to pay, I saw wonderful Disney sweaters... As a huge Disney fan, I had to get one. There were Aladdin sweaters, Snow White sweaters... And Lion King sweaters. Yeah. I took the Lion King one, because it was the best - but I'm still disappointed that they didn't make a Little Mermaid design !

The picture with Simba is great, and again I'll be wearing it with everything - shorts and tights, a skirt and tights, leggings... 

The last top I bought is this grey sleeveless one, with leopards on it - wild, isn't it ?

Animal printed things are my favourite.

And in the jewellery section I only took a set of earrings. They are really cute and related to sailing. 

My next shop is Pull and Bear, where I got only one thing. It is a beige lacy dress, not wearable everyday but that I will wear on evening outs and parties. Again it looks quite "old" and antique (even though the picture does not really show that very well) so it is very me.

Close up picture :

And finally, my last items ! they are beauty products.

The first one is a Mac lipstick - my first Mac lipstick ! it is Dark Side.

I've been wanting a dark lipstick for so long, but couldn't find the right colour. And I saw this one in FayeWonderland's channel (she is an amazing Youtuber, check out her videos !) and it suited her well so I thought I should buy it myself !

And I'm glad I did. The colour is stunning and it stays on the lips for hours and hours.

My last item... or items, because they are the Naked nail polishes by Urban Decay. I have the Naked Palette 1, and love neutral colours like that, on the eyes as much as on the nails. I was so happy to get it ! I'll post an article with swatches when I try all the colours so that you can see them better.

***

So that is my haul done ! As I said it is a big one and I usually don't buy so many things, but it stands for almost two months of shopping so I guess it makes me an excuse, ha !

Thank you for passing by !

Julia xx