Instagram feed / Christmas presents!

I'm back from my Christmas blogging break and hope you all had a wonderful time. Christmas Day here was lovely and I was so lucky to receive some beautiful presents this year. Of course though, I was more grateful to have spent it with my favourite people and will go down as the best Christmas in a long time.

It doesn't seem right not to share with you some of my lovely gifts though!

Chanel Coco Madamemoiselle perfume / Thomas Sabo ring / Cameo Rose dress / George blazer / butterfly snood / chocolates / carved elephant / Charbonel and Walker Jamacan Rum Truffles / books / diary / Thomas Sabo perfume / emerald earrings / Next gift card / Coach watch (future post) and more not included here. 

I feel so blessed this year, each present was beautiful and thoughtful and more importantly, the whole day was relaxing and enjoyable.

Amy-Louise

xx 

Silver & Gold - Fridays Fancies / Some Things I'm Loving

Jumper - Kelly Brook for New Look £27.99 / Faux leather leggings - Mango £24.99 /  Boots - Kurt Geiger 'Saxon' £150.00 / Watch - Coach 'Madison' £249 / Earrings - Accesorize £12.99

I've never been one for mixing silver and gold, somebody once told me that wearing the two together was bad luck. The superstitious part of me took over and it's just been a difficult thing to let go of! However, lately I've found myself drawn to mixing it up and although technically this jumper is grey, the silver fleck and jewel embellishment didn't detract me from mixing it up with the gold accessories.  This Christmas Day I want to be comfy, cosy and warm. Comfort being the ultimate goal, due to the fibro pain I get and also the fact that I am cooking dinner and therefore will be running between the kitchen, visiting family and opening pressies all day (yep all day - we like to spread the present giving out throughout the day). I still wanted a bit of glitz though and think it is the perfect outfit to combine all the elements. 

In other news my favourite drink has definitely become a Starbucks soy peppermint hot chocolate. I think I may have a problem! I'm seriously putting on weight from over indulgence and it's not even Christmas week yet!  I think I need to detox this weekend but I have a night with the girls tonight, my works party tomorrow and lots of baking still to do. I don't think it's going to happen! 

What do you think? Should silver and gold be mixed? will you be sporting casual glam or going all out this Christmas Day? 

Amy-Louise

xx 

Linking up with Long Distance Loving, Lauren Elizabeth, What Katie Did, Style Elixir

Bittersweet tears

This week is going to be bittersweet. I'm getting so excited for Christmas this year, but it is also time to say goodbye to my dear friend Tyler, who is moving back to North Carolina after studying law here in Cardiff for four years.  I'm still struggling to come to terms with it as I thought we had him in the UK until the end of summer term next year, but alas, he must leave early.  Every time I think of tomorrow, tears fill my eyes and I have to stop thinking about it. 

Tyler and I met in autumn 2009 when he came to Cardiff for his Erasmus semester.  He was sat in front of me and had been given the task of asking questions after I had given a presentation.  Tyler isn't really a fan of modern social history and given that my presentation was on women's history he pretty much had planned to grill me before it started! After class I questioned his accent (thinking he was from North Carolina as I have a close friend there) and it only turned out that he was the exact same place! He returned to Cardiff the following year to start a law degree and over the last four years he has become part of my family.  Not only have we become close, but I have become close wit his family who have visited him in Cardiff.  When we  visited Florida last year, Tyler's mom made the nine hour drive down to holiday with us and shared Megan's birthday with us in July when they returned to attend his graduation.  

He has been there with me through through the highs and lows of the last four years and is one of the most important people that I give credit to giving me the courage and confidence in my faith.  I will now be at a loss on a Wednesday afternoon, which has been our regular lunch date once I've finished work.  We started preparing officially for his departure on Thanksgiving, where Tyler cooked for us all at his apartment.   Last Wednesday saw our finally Wednesday lunch / coffee meet up and on Thursday evening I cooked a traditional British roast pork dinner (complete with apple sauce), which was accompanied by my new favourite, Carolina Coast Spiced Rum, coke and cards! 

We spent the afternoon on Sunday at his apartment reminiscing over the last few years and today I headed down to the Bay to drop of his and his mom's birthday and Christmas gifts, help finish his packing (to be fair, I only sat on his case so that it closed!), then headed out for our final lunch.

 There was no choice to be made about over which restaurant to eat at, we head straight to Las Iguanas for food and 2-4-1 cocktails. We ordered our usual - burritos, honey peri-peri chicken and Cuba Libres. It was a beautiful day down the Bay, the sun was out and it was so warm through the window it actually felt like summer. 

To say that I'm going to miss my (adopted) little bro is a huge understatement, but I'm so incredibly proud of all he has achieved here in Cardiff and know that he is going home to a fine future in law, and I'm looking forward to the next installment of his journey.  This is most definitely "I'll be seeing you" and not "goodbye", as amidst the tears that are rolling down my cheeks now we've said goodbye, I'm looking forward to planning trips to visit him and his family. Most definitely for Thanksgiving one year as he cooks a mean turkey, plus somebody has to be responsible for making sure he does not lose that British twang he now has to his accent!! Apparently, the girls back home are going to love it! 

Amy-Louise

xx

Linking up with Shanna 

And in a flash it's gone...

This weekend was an attempt to finish of the Christmas shopping. The Coca-Cola truck was in Cardiff, which there was much excitement over and town seemed even more festive. Whilst I failed in finishing the shopping in its entirety, today I think I'm pretty much there! I've also managed to pick up my version of a Christmas jumper, with this Kelly Brook for New Look sparkly number (£27.99) which is so soft and cosy I had to try it out yesterday, even though I had planned on saving it to wear Christmas Day. I'm also loving these Nike blazers (£70, JD Sports), which I'm hoping will make an appearance under my Christmas tree.

We also managed to fit in a visit to pick up the final pieces for my dining room, I can't wait to show you around once it's all set up.  I did manage to smash almost my entire dinner plate collection yesterday morning (don't ask, let's just say I hadn't had the shower or cup of tea that is required in the morning to wake me up!), so an emergency trip to Home Sense was required for a new set! After delivering some presents to relatives, the rest of the evening was spent cuddled up to this handsome little fella. Not a bad finish to the weekend. The weekend as usual was busy and went far too quickly, I can't believe that in just over week Christmas will be here and the new year is just around the corner.

Amy-Louise

xx

Linking up with LeeAnn

Hi Five for Friday / some things I'm loving

I'm loving how festive things are becoming around here, which will probably seriously be reflected here!

This weeks installment of festive films have included, The Holiday, Nativity and Nativity 2.  We love Nativity and could watch it time and time again, but I don't think Nativity 2 will have the same effect.  It was funny and Megan loved it but for me the first one will always be my favourite! Need I say more about The Holiday? I absolutely adore this film and loved sharing it with Megan for the first time, cuddled up in bed with tea and cake.

Home made mince pies, fruit soaked in brandy, still warm from the oven and sprinkled with icing sugar and cinnamon. I don't think there's anything better at Christmas!

Our Christmas tree - I'm a little obsessed I think. It's the first real tree I've had since I lived with my parents and it's just so pretty.

Caerphilly Castle at Christmas. Such a beautiful place and with Medieval markets and Santa,  it just can't be missed.

Neutrogena anti aging hand cream has been a life saver this last week or so. All these festivities have resulted in being outside and awful lot, leaving my hands, dry, tight and sore.  This little miracle has not left my side and instantly soothes my hands.

What festive fun have you got planned this weekend? I'm heading late night shopping this evening, I'm sure with a soy peppermint hot chocolate popping up somewhere along the way! Then will be baking more mince pies and visiting friends.

Have a great weekend whatever you're doing.

Amy-Louise

xx

Linking up with Lauren Elizabeth and What Katie Did

Getting festive

This weekend we got really festive! I started out on Friday by heading to the launch of a new gallery that a friend of mine is involved with. It was an intimate gathering and great to finally preview something I had been hearing about for a good while.  I'll be posting about it later in the week, but it was also an opportunity to catch up with some old school friends that I hadn't seen since 2000! I moved on from there to a cocktail lounge down the road where my friend was hosting his sports management company's Christmas party.  It was also the companies first birthday, so lots of celebrating to be done! It was invite only mad to be honest was nice to be somewhere out of the hustle and bustle of the celebrations in the main bars in Cardiff. If you ever want an evening where the cocktails are divine, reasonably priced and in a stylish yet friendly environment, I'd thoroughly recommend Lab22.

Saturday morning was spent in work, but I finished after lunch and headed home to choose our Christmas tree and decorate the house. After battling getting the tree to fit and glitzing up the house, we decided it was only fitting to go out to dinner and forget about the mess all the packaging caused until later. We rounded off the weekend with a visit to the medieval Christmas markets and a visit to Santa at Caerphilly Castle, the largest castle in Wales. 

Letters have been sent to Santa with a reply eagerly awaited!

Have you trimmed up yet? Megan thinks we were one of the last to do so!

Amy-Louise

xx

linking up with Sami, LeeAnn and Totally Posted Tuesday

Incoherent

When I'm not working this week you'll find me lying in my bed 'resting' again, possibly off my face on prescribed medication! After doing so well with my intensive physiotherapy I've hit a setback.  The cold I have had for the past couple of weeks has passed and turned into trachietis and my fibro medication has left me with a painful and miserable bout of gastritis.  So now, I have an additional two lots of medication aswell as changing my fibro meds which has left me out of it. On the plus though, I finally got a nights sleep! I just haven't been able to wake up all day, hence the late post!

On that note, the photo above was not taken today, but serves as a reminder to myself that I'm not always looking like I've been dragged through a hedge or drugged up to the eyeballs. Not a good look ladies! I have two events to attend Friday evening however, an art gallery launch and a sports management PR event, so fingers crossed I'll be able to string a sentence together by then and will have some decent outfit posts ready! 

Hope you're all having a better week, we're over the hill and on the countdown to the weekend now! 

Amy-Louise

xx

Linking up with Shanna

A weekend about town

I have so much catching up to do on this little space! Two weekends in fact! Today I'll start with last weekend even though it seems like such a long time ago.

We started the weekend by hitting up Cardiff's Winter Wonderland, the first of two visits that weekend! On our way in we sported the Tardis on top of Cardiff Castle, celebrating the week long Dr Who celebrations for its 50th anniversary.  I'm not a fan, unlike my sister and her boys but it was pretty awesome to see on top of our fantastic castle in the middle of the city centre.  After a few Christmassy rides we headed for a Starbucks and home for some lunch before my sister and I headed back into town for ribs, cocktails, gossip and the Stereophonics.  It was one of the best nights ever and fantastic to share it with my sister as we hardly ever get to go out just the two of us.  Kelly Jones still has it (I can't honestly imagine how he would lose it. Ever!) and kept us happy by standing in front of us for a fair amount of the concert. It was like being seventeen all over again at Morfa.  After it was over we enjoyed a walk through town, with all the Christmas lights making our city prettier then ever and an excited sister spotting the Tardis now all lit up! Such a fab night out, we both even got asked for ID entering a bar and undercharged for the taxi home - what could be better than that??

Amy-Louise

xx

Linking up with Sami and LeeAnn