Xmas 2013 haul: non beauty products

Hi Everyone!

Hope you had a brilliant Christmas. I had a fantastic day with my family, and I did really really well with my presents!
Usually I ask Santa Claus to bring me money but this year I didn't - because instead of buying myself a treat I end up spending it on something boring like the gas bill. So anyways, I got lots of stuff which I really appreciate and of which I'm sharing with you now. I've split the post into two: one (this one) of my non beauty type products and the other post will be beauty type products. (Also, big up to my brother for all my Ikea goodies which I've already shared with you previously). 

#adventcalendar days 16-24

Hi Guys!

With great sadness - here are my last batch of advent calendar goodies.

Day 16 was a olive oil hair pack and a gorgeous Barry M nail paint in raspberry.

Day 17 were some tooth sticking eclairs - an oldie but a goodie!

Day 18 - I don't know where V got this from but it's a genius make up pencil sharpener. I tried to capture it in the picture - one end is for a normal sized pencil, the other end is for those jumbo pencils, and it has a cover/lid so great for the handbag. (Barry M btw) 

Day 19 was some old school pick and mix. I was eating this at my desk - one moment there were a hundred jelly babies begging for mercy and 3 minutes later I'd eaten them all oops

Day 20 - two of my favourite things - face wipes and chocolate!

Day 21 - my first ever models own nail polish!!! 200% opaque in 2 coats. Even one good coat is good enough to go. This was a contender for Christmas day notd but ended up running late and sticking with a very chipped barry m raspberry (day 16). 

Day 22 - the yummiest biggest chocolate star ever. If I see these on sale I'm going to grab a million.

Day 23 - haven't had a chance to test it out but excited about my latest maybelline colorshow additionin 'power red'. 

My last special advent calendar present - Day 24 - traditional chocolate coins! Who remembers thinking this was real money? Was that just me?

A massive thank you to V for putting this all together. I've been so spoiled, and I'm so grateful. Not just for the actual gifts but also for the time, thought and effort - this has also been much appreciated. 

Xmas lunch at Las Iguanas

Hi Guys,

I went for a christmas lunch the other day at Las Iguanas in Westfield Stratford City.
I ate off the christmas menu - 2 courses for £15 (3 courses would have been £20). I had chicken wings to start, and duck for my main course.

I must say, I wouldn't go back. The service was pretty poor - very slow and non attentive. The food was ok - I definitely wouldn't eat there again out of choice, and wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.

I've eaten at Las Iguanas before and it was better - maybe it was because it was off the christmas menu? But that's no excuse. Really unimpressed. I feel so bad to be so negative - especially about a christmas lunch - but it was a waste of my money and over 2 hours of my time (waiting waiting waiting even though we pre ordered and there were no other customers argghhhh).

Christmas is coming!!!

It's nearly Christmas!

I've got my tree up and only two people left to buy for.
I'm usually much less organised but I'm excited for Christmas this year. 

Christmas tree theme of silver hasn't changed - some baubles had to enter bauble hospital for some superglue treatment. It's hard not to be tempted by new decorations every year but money and storage space means I need to stay commited with what I have. I'm glad I went for a plain theme - makes the yearly repetition easier to bear.

How are your christmas plans going? What is your decoration theme?
Do you go all out or are you minimalistic like moi?

#adventcalendar days 9-15

Hi Guys!

Another week, another fab bunch of advent calendar goodies :)

Day 9 was what I call a 'scrubbie' but what the label called a 'body polisher'. Learn something new everyday!

Really excited about Day 10 - a balmi. Basically a lip balm but it's packaged so cute and the balm itself is nice snd moisturising. This makes a great stocking filler- fun and functional. 

Day 11 is currently cheekily living in my fruit bowl - fruit pastilles lol

Day 12 - nom nom nom merryteasers

Day 13 - my favourite dry shmapoo - a travel sixe mini batiste. I've been meaning to grab myself a mini size to leave at work so this is perfect. 

Day 14 - nom nom nom an assortment of old school pick n mix! 

And that brings us to Day 15 - I can't believe there's only 10 days left until christmas day!
Today I got a pink face cloth and another merryteaser - oooh I better eat it now!

Christmas Tag

Hi Guys,

It's nearly Christmas so here are my answers to the Christmas Tag:

(from beauty crush's youtube video)

1.Whats Your Favorite Holiday Movie?
I can't pick a favourite, I love all the tacky heart warming movies that come on during Christmas time.

2. Whats Your Favorite Christmas Colour?
My favourite colour to wear is 'christmas green'. I find it so refreshing and warming at the same time.

3. Do You Like To Stay in Your PJs Or Dress Up For Christmas?
Dress up!!! Though it can be a bit uncomfortable after a big dinner lol

4. If You Could Only Buy One Person a Present This Year Who Would It Be?
If I could only buy one present every christmas it would have to be for my 'baby' borther J. I love buying him gifts because he is so unlike me and likes proper presents as opposed to the practical stuff I enjoy. Buying presents for J is the only time post penny palace that I get to go to 'fancy' shops. Even on a budget this year his present was from Sloane Square.

5. Do You Open Your Present Christmas Eve Or Christmas Morning?
Well since I moved out we open our presents after Christmas dinner but when I was younger my dad made us wait until Boxing Day!!!!!

6. Have You Ever Built a Ginger Bread House?
No, but I would love to!

7. What Do You Like To Do On Your Christmas Break?
Nothing. Eat, sleep, watch bad tv, and then eat some more.

8. Any Christmas Wishes?
Peace on Earth. And a Chanel handbag. Maybe the other way round :)

9. Favorite Christmas Smell?
I can't smell so I dont have one. At least I can't smell brussell sprout induced farts hahaha!

10. Favorite Christmas Meal Or Treat?
Christmas food is really special to me. I don't come from a culture that has a Sunday roast so for me Christmas time is the only time I have that type of meal so I love it all; the potatoes, yorkshire pudding, meat, trimmings, even the sprouts! My favourite thing is stuffing. What a wonderful thing! I love cranberry sauce but have to always buy it myself cos noone else in my family has it. And my mum always makes me eat the whole jar so it's not wasted so once a year is good enough for me. FYI I HATE mince pies. Yuck.

And another one...

1) Which holiday do you celebrate?
Erm, all of them?

2) What are you doing for the holidays this year?
See answer 7) above!

3) What's your favorite holiday drink?
I don't have one. Just the usual.

4) Candy cane or Gingerbread men?
Candy cane. I love it! Gingerbread is yummy but more than one man makes me ill.....that's probably true with real men too lol

5) What's your favorite holiday/Christmas song?
Fav Christmas song is Jingle Bells! I hum it constantly. It must be my work friend's least fav song thanks to me!

6) What's the weirdest gift you've ever received?
A gift is a gift, welcomed with opened arms. I probably get a lot of gifts that aren't considered gift type things but that's because I always ask for boring stuff. I heart boring stuff!

7) Have you ever made a snowman?
Attempted to. But East London snow is just not snow man worthy :(

8) What is your favorite winter fragrance?
As in perfume, well I can't smell it properly but JPG was my winter fragrance, and now on a budget it's Victoria Beckhams :)

9) What is at the top of your list this Christmas? (or whichever holiday you celebrate!)
Well, for next year (so everyone can start saving) I want a big fat gold watch. But I might be ok with downgrading from my Rolex lol

10) What is most important to you about the holidays?
Family. And stuffing :)

And of course, all of you are TAGGED!

Christmas Take 1 and 2

Hello everyone!
How is everyone post Christmas 2010? I had 2 Christmases, 1 with my brother and mum (at their house), and another with my mum and dad (at penny palace), as my little brother was flying off to the Philipines.

My outfit theme was green and red. And I wore my antlers too up until bedtime. I wish I could wear antlers or the like all year round!

I was all stressy stressy about the foodage but bless my parents
turned up with everything cooked!!

And the best bit was them doing the washing up and cleaning afterwards!!! They even washed my oven and rearranged the cupboards (which admittedly pissed me off but it's def tidier now)

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas xoxo

Christmas lunch 17th Dec

Had a work christmas lunch on the snowy friday 17th. Was a lovely christmas lunch.

61 days til Christmas!

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to share with you all some christmas decorations I got today.

But let me regale you with the back story first....

Once upon a time, Princess Penny moved into Penny Palace. In December she brought a big Christmas tree and proudly put it up. However, due to her lastminute.comness she only had one type of decoration - silver icicles. So this year, Princess Penny was adament that her first christmas tree would not be spending another xmas semi naked. So she raided her local poundstretcher. YAY for poundstretcher :)

The 'look' I'm going for is....erm, tacky. LOL Well, my colour theme is silver, white, touches of black.

So this is what I have so far:

[What would a tacky tree be without...Disco balls! -'mirror baubles' - in regular size (£1.49 for 6),
And mini disco balls (£1.49 for 12)]

[Glittery Reindeer - 99p for a pair]

[More glitter! Stars, 8 for 99p!!]

[No more glitter but something even better - Sequins!! 3 for 99p
They are white but as you can see in the pic,
they have a pink tinge depending on where the light hits]

I'm really excited about Xmas. I am not usually, buti think the xmas decorations has rekindled my xmas spirit. Last xmas was a bit of a fizzle, so hopefully this xmas will be great.
I just spoke to my mum on the phone and as my brother is abroad for xmas she was saying her and my dad might be coming to mine for xmas. Not sure what they will think of my blingtastic tacky decorations. They are more of a red&green traditional theme themselves....

I can't wait to dress my tree. When do you think the earliest time would be acceptable? I guess it would be a good idea to wait for halloween to be over lol

As good as gold...

Carrying on with the present theme, this is what I'm getting (hopefully!) my mummy for Christmas:

It is the After Hours slim compact. RRP £30 and comes filled and it is also refillable (for £13). I want to get this and have the compact engraved.
I've had a look at a few estee lauder counters and the people there don't seem to know anything about these gold compacts (but the service of every counter was beyond awful) so if I am desperate I will order it off the estee lauder website.

Below is the Golden Alligator compact, rrp £35 and I want this!!!!!! Not getting this for mum cos she hates thing's like snakes and alligators and even the pattern would put her off her dinner. Not sure if I will get this for myself because I enjoy buying different powders and so it might be a waste.


I found this bad boy (below) on google images. I wouldn't mind this in my christmas stocking :)

Ho Ho Ho!

Hello, I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas.

My Christmas miracle is that I now have one blog reader YAY!!!!!!! (Hi Stephen *mwah*)

I was planning to do a '20 facts' thing, but i got up to fact 3 and couldn't think of anything....I'll give it another go when my brain cells are less engaged (I am watching Come Dine with Me).

So, how was your Christmas? What does Christmas mean to you? What did you do? Did you get presents?

My Christmas was great. I was a bit worried of how it would go. This is my first Christmas since I moved out of my parents house. Initially we were going to spend Christmas day at my flat but we decided to do it at my parents instead (thank you baby jesus!). So to me, Christmas is about celebrating Jesus' birthday, which in turn means spending time with loved one and being happy. IF happy means turkey and presents then so be it. If it means midnight mass, cool. If it means Wallace and Gromit and someone getting murdered in Albert Square, then thats cool too.

I think what I am trying to say is that Christmas is Christmas. Please abandon this 'festive season' cr*p. "Wishing you and your loved one a Happy Festive Season". PURLEEEEEASE! I am so worried that the killjoy brigade will be successful in killing Christmas. Generally speaking, what is offensive about Christmas? Do you think the pretty lights on Oxford street is offensive? Why no more navity plays? I don't think the navity is about brainwashing, it is at the end of the day a story. And it's fun. Why deprive future generations of the pride and joy of being a donkey or a wise man?!

And I am not saying this as some "Christmas starts with Christ" person. I call myself a buddalic. Buddhist and Catholic. Both dudes say love, don't hate, so i am sure they won't mind too much that I have merged the two. But anyway, point being, say "Merry Christmas" and smile, whatever you beleive, it's not rocket science.

Peace not War. Especially over silly harmless stuff.

Bye! x