Lush Christmas Favourites 2014 !

Rehus-Beal-Ledeats !             #It'sSnowingInMyBubble

Everyone. Loves. Lush . That's pretty much a proven fact ! I spend the majority of my year waiting, not so patiently for their amazing Christmas range so that I can stock up on a years supply of gorgeous scents in a million different shapes and sizes, I'm getting excited just thinking about it ! So Today I thought I'd show you my top 5 lush Christmassy products ... not in order though because getting it down to five was difficult enough ;) 

1) First Snow ! - £4.75

Gorgeous citrus scents in a powder to make your body sparkle like a fairy ! What part of that isn't completely awesome ?! Oh and it has essential oils in as well, so you can feel as soft a fairy as well ;) 


2) Snowcake - £3.40

Marzipan scented soap ! MARZIPAN !!!! My favourite food ever .... in a soap ! WITH GLITTER ! Annnndddd breathe aha :) How could you not be excited though ? This is  my all time favourites soap <3 I was sold from the word marzipan <3 It also lathers up really well and leaves your skin soft and smelling divine !

3) Hot Toddy - £3.95

You know my love for the Yankee candles 'Christmas Memories' Scent with all it's cinnimonny, spicy, orangy christmassness ? ... Well this shower gel is that, but in a soap ! Need I say any more? :)

4) Snowman Kit - £5.00

Do you wanna build a snowwwwmaaaannnnnn ? This is the cutest thing I have seen in a long time <3 I loved lushes 'fun' range when it came out, especially the vanilla one but this is so so so so cool ! You could buy this as a gift for absolutely anyone ! ... like me for example ;) I want ! I want ! I want ! It includes all the different colours ( Orange, Black and White ) that you'd need, and you can mould them together to make your very own snowman :D Lush's coolest Idea by far ! 

5) Shoot For the Stars - £3.50

I couldn't really do a lush post without having at least one bath bomb now could I ? The first soap that me and my sister fell in love with at lush was 'Honey I washed the kids' which has a very light caramel scent with sweet wild orange oils in , and now they've put that scent into exploding, multi-coloured bath bomb !!!! With Sparkles ! 

What's your favourite lush product ? Let me know in the comments! :) 

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 

Today's Merry Christmas is in African, On the west coast of Africa, in Liberia, most homes have an oil palm for a Christmas tree, which is decorated with bells <3

Much Love, Love Much-ly 
DontBurstMyBubbleXx

DIY Disaster ...

Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom ! 

I'm late on blogs and behind yet again... I catch up on three missed days and then just do the same thing again ! .... I fully accept that I'm an idiot ;) I came to my final conclusion of the extremity of exactly how much of an idiot I am, when I attempted to make this weeks DIY decoration... it was a really good, fool proof Idea where you wrapped glue soaked string around a balloon and sprinkled glitter on to make a bauble when you popped the balloon :) It went really well , right until the end where I learnt that if you glue string to a balloon and pop the balloon ... well it's pretty damn obviously the string will stay stuck to the balloon and not magically transform into a bauble ... well you'd think it was obvious ;)  On the brightside, if this DIY was fool proof then at least we can be certain that I am in fact no fool ! ... I think I must be some rare breed of lunatic that escaped from a zoo somewhere as a child ;)  But Here is my failed attempt and more pretty string decorations ... I might hang it on the tree and see if my mum pretends she likes it to save my feelings aha :) 

Today's Merry Christmas in Russian and in Russia The role of Father Christmas was played by Dedushka Moroz or Grandfather Christmas. Babushka is another traditional Christmas figure who distributes presents to children. The word ''Babushka'' is translated to English as a grand-mother!

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 

DontBurstMyBubbleXx

Tag Time ! :D

Hyvaa Joulua !                     #It'sSnowingInMyBubble! 

When I think of tags, I still automatically think of running round a playground and insisting that if someone in dens hand was touching mine then I was also quite obviously in den ... I wasn't the most intellectual of 7 year olds aha :) So today I've been tagged by a wonderful blogger with an even more wonderful blog name " Never Grow Up " at "goodmorningbelle.blogspot.co.uk" ... Two Disney references to two of my favourite Disney films before I even start reading ... how would I not love this blog ? :) If you find some time then you should definitely check this blog out because there really are some great posts :) Anyway, she tagged me to do the Christmas Tag which might sound familiar to you because I did one back in September ( you know what they say, the early bird gets the nicest flavoured gummy worms ;) ) But I noticed that on this one quite a few of the questions are different so I decided to answer any questions that are different and maybe even add a few of my own for the people I tag to do in theirs :) So here we go !

1. What do you like to do on your Christmas Break ?             Shop, write Christmas themed hopeful notes and snuggle up under my duvet next to the fire with my boyfriend whilst watching back to back Doctor who :)                                                      
2. Candy Canes or Gingerbread men ?                                             I love decorating gingerbread men and playing with the icing pens, experimenting with all sorts of Christmas designs.. but I hate the taste of gingerbread .. and candy canes are just so Christmassy and gorgeous and pepperminty and smiley :) If I was an elf, I'd live of candy canes <3                                                   
3. Have you ever built a snowman ?                                               IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE A SNOWWWWMMAAAAAN ^.^ #TooMuchFrozen ... just kidding, there's no such thing as too much frozen ( Not that my boyfriend would agree with that though ;) )                                                                                                                   
4. White or coloured fairy lights ?                                                   If it's sparkly and pretty, I couldn't care less what colour it is ! :D But if I had to chose, then the white ones because they go with everything :)                                                                             
5. What one part of this Christmas are you looking forward to this year ?                                                                                   Picking my sister up from the airport when she comes home for Christmas because we don't see each other enough and need to annoy our boyfriends together with romantic comedy's and Disney films :)                                          
6. Can you name all the Original Santa's reindeer from the night before Christmas ?                                                              Ummm Donder, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Blitzen, Dasher, Dancer ? ... I think ... but I think the Blitzen one is spelt wrong :) I'll look up the answer to this once I've written this post and write them in the comments so you have the answers :)                   
7. Did you do a school nativity when you were younger ? If so, who did you play ?                                                                        I played the innkeepers wife, which I think we can all agree was a very important role . Second only to the lobsters in the nativity play in the film Love Actually ;)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
8. What present do you remember wanting really badly as a child and did you get it ?                                                               There was a polar bear called Shimmer I think in the Barbie movie, Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus ( Does anyone else remember the original princesssy Barbie films that were really good ? because I loved those films ! ) and I wanted the toy of this polar bear so bad because it lit up and shivered and made funny little noises !... All the things that attract me to presents today actually aha :) I remember my sister buying it me as my present and I was delighted :) 

I hope you've enjoyed this tag :) I'm tagging anyone that wants to do it and 'PretendingToArt' who is currently doing a wonderful Blogmas series :) 

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 

Today's merry Christmas is in Finnish and in Finland everyone heads out to the sauna bath after their light Christmas eve lunch !

Much love, Love much-ly, 

Don'tBurstMyBubbleXx

Dreamy Decorations DIY :)

God Jul !                          #It'sSnowingInMyBubble!                
My memories of Christmas as a young child consist of many things ... and quite a lot of mince pies ;) But mostly I remember every year, going to the local garden centre to pick out a Christmas tree and bringing it home to decorate it the red and gold colour scheme my sister loved ... whilst i got confused as to why my neon pink, coloured in, paper cut out angel decoration didn't match and how it always ended up back in the decorations box when I left the room ! Thinking back .. I can see my sisters point ;) Tonight Me and my boyfriend faced the terrible task of untangling the fairy lights and then the much less terrible task of decorating the tree together :) I love picking out baubles for the tree and deciding where they'll go ! I mean it's choosing pretty, sparkly things and dangling them from something beautiful and a lit up ... what's not to love ? But I'll talk more about that tomorrow :) Tonight I wanted to show you how I made a cute and fairly easy even if it was slightly fiddly , decoration for the tree which according to Pinterest is Swedish ! 

Swedish Tree Decorations ! 

What you'll need : 

( You will probably be able to find all this around the house somewhere so if you boxed a few up then they might make lovely little gifts for someone at very little cost ! ) 

• White String ( I used bunting string that I found around the house but I'm sure you can get it pretty cheap in Poundland ) 
• PVA Glue ( I used clear glitter paint for the 99p store because that way it already had the sparkles in but looking back it would've held it's structure better with glue ) 
• White/Silver glitter ( 99p Store again ) 
• Scissors 

                                                                            
Firstly, work out what word you want to make ( I made love )  and roughly try and make the shape with your string to see how much you need, add an extra 15cm too the length and then cut the string! 

Next tie a loop in the end of your string so it's a big enough loop to hang off your tree and cut off any excess string from the loop :) 

Now simply soaked your string in glue/ glitter paint and arrange the string to form the letters of your word on some cling film or a plastic bag .. It can be a lil bit fiddly so id do it when you're in a really patient mood aha :) But it's definitely worth the gorgeous results :) 

All that's left now is too leave it to dry for between 24 and 48 hours ( I assume it would be fine after 24 ) and then peel the word off you cling film or plastic bag very slowly and gently, before showing off your stunning creation to everybody by giving it prize place at the front of your tree :) 

Let me know in the comments when you think the right time to put up and decorate your tree is and if you would like to see any more DIY Christmas decorations ! 

Today's Merry Christmas is in Swedish ! In Sweden, families sometimes have a straw goat to guard the Christmas tree ! So I guess your lovely handmade decorations would be safe there at least, having their own personal goat guard and all ;) 

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 

I hope you've enjoyed the first week of blogmas ! 

Much love, Love Muchly 
DontBurstMyBubbleXx 

Christmas Pins !!!

Buone Feste Natalizie             #It'sSnowingInMyBubble 

I was delighted this morning to find two panda highlighters in my advent calender , it was almost enough to encourage me to start Re revision ! ... Almost ;) So recently I've re-discovered my love for Pinterest, the Procrastination Central for anyone, anywhere ! Whenever I'm in doubt, boredom, in need of a laugh or creative inspiration, that little search bar of possibility magically transforms into a gateway to my haven of fandoms, handmade gifts and everything in between ! 

Pinterest is my all time favourite place to search for DIY gift ideas and cute room decor, especially at christmas ... all year round :) So today I thought I'd share my top ten christmassy pins for this year :) Comment your favourites ! 

This little jar is so sweet and easy, I love the idea of using tip ex for this effect! I'm definitely going to make this perhaps even as a gift and and some glitter to the tipex before it dries :) This would me cute with a tea light in ! 

Meringue Christmas trees ! Such an awesome and clever idea :) Would be great flavoured with peppermint to use as your contribution to a Christmas buffet !   

I Love this idea as a stocking filler for kids and adults a like ! Could be a funny but inexpensive present for work mates :) If you used green Tic Tacs you could say Grinch poop instead ;)

Made with just Hershey's Kisses, a Jar and a bit of ribbon , this is a simple present that can be made in minutes ! Perfect as a little extra for your someone special , I'm going to make this as soon as possible :) 

3 marshmallows  on 1 lolly pop stick lavished in tempting white chocolate and decorated with chocolate icing for the arms, eyes and mouth's as well as an adorable little orange icing nose ! I'm desperate to try this <3 Soooo much cuteness !!! 

This , would really make your Christmas dinner amazing before you even brought the Turkey out ! I'm not sure how difficult this would be but the instructions are step by step so who knows ! I might manage it :) Either way, I'm sure as hell going to try ! 

 

WHOFLAKES !!! Christmas simply isn't Christmas without the Doctor Who Christmas Special , so I couldn't leave my favourite snowflakes out could I ? These snowflakes take both of my favourite things and stick them into one, all in the Christmas spirit ! What's not to love ? :) 

One word, Clever . An upside down gingerbread man to make an easy but effective reindeer ! Awwwww <3 

EVERYBODY, loves a lolly pop :D 

Super sweet idea for a garland ! It would be really cute to make these out of strands of your wrapping paper or gift bags :) 

Which is your favourite DIY ? :) If you want to see more of my pins, you can follow me on pinterest here

For today's Merry Christmas is in Italian, The Christmas season in Italy goes for three weeks, starting 8 days before Christmas known as the Novena. During this period, children go from house to house reciting Christmas poems and singing ! This sounds awesome, I love carol singing :) 

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 

DontBurstMyBubbleXx 

Easy Gifts For Difficult People DIY #1 ( Hot Chocolate !! )

Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto             
#It'sSnowingInMyBubble 

I Know this post should;ve been up yesterday which was the 5th, but I have a good excuse I promise ! :) I went to see War of The Worlds at the LG arena ... and Carrie Hope Fletcher was in it and oh my gosh, it was so so wonderful :D But it was one am when I got home so I imagine anything I wrote in that sleepy a state probably could of had me put me into an insanity asylum ! ;) But I will talk more about War of the Worlds, in Sundays post :) 

So today I wanted to talk to you about the start of a new mini series I'm going to do over my Blogmas 'It'sSnowingInMyBubble' Month called " Easy Gifts for Difficult People " . Now, we all know those people who we really want to get a cool, cute gift that they will like, enjoy and actually use ... but they're impossible to buy for and they're usually male so you can't buy them jewellery or you just have no clue what they'd want. In this series I'm going to show you some easy gifts to make or buy that would be adored by anyone and even if you don't know one of these unintentionally awkward people then perhaps make a few bits and bobs up, ready, just in case someone unexpected gives you a gift :) Today I made a hot chocolate in a Jar kit ... with a cute twist ;) 

Hot Chocolate Kit 

What You'll Need : 

• Marshmallows !! :D ( 99p in the 99p store ) 
• Hot Chocolate Powder ( I used Cadburys and despite the misleading £1.99 label, It was actually only 99p in the 99p Store)
• Edible Food Ink Pens ( I bought mine for £3.00 each In hobby craft, in shades Dusty Pink and Jet Black ) 
• Mason Jars ( 3 for £3.50 in Asda ) 

Firstly, Tip your hot chocolate powder into you mason jar so that it's filled about half way up :) I recommend using a spoon to avoid tipping more of your hot chocolate powder onto your table and bedroom floor than into the jar ... not that I did that .... ;) 

 

Now, pop your Mason Jars to one side and take your Marshmallows and Edible Food Pens and with you black one, draw two little eyes on one of the circle sides of your marshmallow ( I drew mine like little arrows ) 

Next add a little mouth , still in the black :) 

And obviously rosy cheeks are a necessity for the cuteness of any marshmallow ....

Cuteness overload yet ? 

So all we have to do now is follow the same steps for the rest of the marshmallows :) Here's some different Ideas for the faces ;

It's a marshmallow family !! Just like in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Two :) 

Finally, just arrange your marshmallows in your mason Jar and VIOLA ! A sweet gift for anyone :) Perhaps add a ribbon and tie it into a bow, PERFECT ! :) 

I hope you liked this DIY , Let me know in the comments if you have made it, or have any other ideas for this mini series :) If you have a blog at all and have done any recent christmassy DIY posts then comment the links because I would love to have a look ! :) 

Today's Merry Christmas was in Japanese , and although only 1 percent of Japanese people believe in Christ they often still celebrate Christmas and in my opinion in a far more beautiful, valuable and hopeful way :) Among the Christian Japanese Christmas is not a day for the family. They do not have turkey or plum pudding, rather than that the day is spent doing nice things for others especially those who are sick in hospitals <3 

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :)

Mistletoe kisses and fairy Squishes, 

Don'tBurstMyBubbleXx

Five Festive Films :)

Feliz Navidad!                      #It'sSnowingInMyBubble 

Now, Christmas isn't Christmas without dragging every duvet, pillow, blanket, and cat , down the stairs into the living room to cuddle up beside the fire whilst watching your favourite Christmas films and drinking hot chocolates with marshmallows and extra squirty creams .... with sprinkles ! All night long :) So today I thought I'd share with you five of my favourite festive films, Although, not in order because that's wayyyy too hard :) 

The Holiday 

I've mentioned this film before when I did The Christmas Tag but it's the cutest film ever !!! It's full to the brim with christmassy goodness :) This perfect Christmas Romantic Comedy to make you feel all fuzzy and lovely <3 Two women     ( Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz ) swap houses to take a holiday in a different country to get away from their own lives of which have been torn to bits by their men    ( or rather the lack of the ;) ) only to discover friendship, love, happiness and snow once more in a heart warming tale of smiles :) Plus anything with Jack black in is just destined to be perfect ! 

How The Grinch Stole Christmas 

If you've read some of my other posts you might know that I am in love with Dr.Zeus and his words of whimsical wisdom in rhymes and riddles that I have grown so fond of :) So it's no surprise that this fantastic movie adaptation of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is one I have watched and will continue to watch time and time again ! It's a great family film which would warm the green-ist of frozen hearts :) I would tell you what it's about but if you don't already know... then I'm confused so take it from me, watch it and you wont regret it :) 

Love Actually 

I know that a lot of boyfriends get sick of the endless romantic comedies that they're forced to watch over the Christmas but this is one that is actually hilarious and even my boyfriend enjoyed it ! .... before I forced him to watch it seven times aha :) From Prime minister to ten year old's you couldn't think of a love story that isn't provided for ! With an all star cast,  Love actually leaves me crying with both joy, and laughter . A truly wonderful combination for the Christmas season ! 

Nativity !

I remember going to see the first Nativity with my family when it first came out and on the way to the cinema me and my sister sat on the back seat with my mp3 player trying to learn the words to love story by Taylor Swift ... I'm surprised our parents didn't strangle us ... then again, that wouldn't be very christmassy would it now ? If you haven't seen Nativity, then I highly recommend it ! Who couldn't love this laugh out loud take on the traditional school nativity, set in Coventry cathedral, with a death slide AND a donkey ! .... The obvious setting for a group of primary kids clearly ;) 

The Polar Express 

I can't explain what it is I love about this film but there's something about the messages in the tickets at the end that makes me smile uncontrollably and fills me with a desperate urge to go and tell every stranger in the street to have a lovely Christmas... which I feel might get me a few weird looks .. which it really shouldn't but we'll talk about that another time :) There's not a single person I know that doesn't love this film and it's so wonderful I can see why that is :) 

I hope you've liked these mini reviews :) Let me know what your favourite Christmas films are in the comments ! 

Today's 'Merry Christmas' was in Spanish and in Spain Christmas Eve is known as Nochebuena or "the Good Night." It is a time for family members to gather together to rejoice and feast around the Nativity scenes that are present in nearly every home. A traditional Christmas treat is turron, a kind of almond candy.

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 
Cuddles and Candy Canes, 
Don'tBurstMyBubbleXx 

Cinnamon Spice !

Joyeux Noel !                         #it'ssnowinginmybubble!

Ahhhh ! Christmas is getting closer !! :D ... I mean, it's only one day closer but it's still closer all the same :) Today in my Advent calender bags I got some chocolate and a super cute reindeer cookie cutter which i might do a DIY with soon :) 

But for today, I thought I would use the cupcake cases in yesterdays advent calender bag from my sister to make cupcakes , but I wanted them to be Christmassy so I decided to make mincemeat cupcakes with a Cinnamon frosting ... and sprinkles, because everyone loves sprinkles, right ? :) Considering the amount of improvising, recipe changing and mis-measurements of cinnamon that this bake involved ... it turned out surprisingly okay aha :) So I thought I'd share the recipe with you :) If you try it out then please let me know how it goes in the comments how it goes or if there's anything else you'd like to see in blogmas :) 

Mincemeat Cupcakes with Cinnamon Frosting <3 

If you want to see how I made and decorated the Reindeer
 biscuits the comment down below and I'll do another DIY :) 

Ingredients 

For the cakes : 

200g Caster Sugar

200g Self-raising Flour 

200g Margarine 

4 Large Eggs

200g of mincemeat ( I used my mums handmade mincemeat but any from a shop just do ) 

For the Cinnamon Frosting : 

100g Butter 

250g Icing Sugar 

Ground Cinnamon 

Pre-heat the oven to 180 Degrees :) 

Recipe :

1) Weigh out all your ingredients to make sure you have everything and are all ready :) 

2) Put the Caster Sugar, Self-Raising Flour, and Margarine into a bowl, and then crack the eggs on the side of a separate cup or bowl and break the egg into the cup so that any bits of shell can be fished out before they get all mixed up with your wonderful cupcakes :) 

3) Whisk the eggs with a fork until they're light and fluffy. Then stir your eggs in with your flour, margarine and sugar in you get a creamy mixture :) I usually disprove of the all in one method but just this once I thought we could make an allowance because it makes this quick and easy, perfect for little christmassy treats for your friends or to make with someone you love :) 

4) Now it's time to add the mincemeat... and stir :) 

5) Annnnddd Viola ! There's your cake mix :) Now you just need to like your cake tin with some christmassy cupcake cases like these... 

6) Fill each cupcake case up with bout a dessert spoon of cake mixture and pop it in the oven <3 

7) Whilst the cakes are cooking, you can make the frosting :) Weigh out the Icing sugar and sieve in into a bowl and then melt your butter slightly before adding that with your Icing sugar and mixing and then adding cinnamon to taste and mix it all together :) 

8) Take your cupcakes out of the oven when they are risen, golden brown and you springy :) If you put a knife through one it should come out clean :) Once cooked, leave them on a cooling tray before decorating wit cinnamon frosting and sprinkles :) 

9) Discreetly leave the kitchen as your mum arrives home and go to your friends house, leaving your mum a cupcake as a thank you pressie for tidying up your mess :) 

10) ENJOY ! :D

 Did you know, in France In France, a Nativity crib is often used to help decorate the house. French cribs have clay figures in them, not wooden ones. During December, some towns and cities such as Marseilles have fairs that sell Nativity figures. As well as having the normal Nativity figures in them, French scenes also have figures such as a Butcher, a Baker, a Policeman and a Priest.

Stay Strong <3 Stay Smiley :) 

Love and hugs, 
DontBurstMyBubble Xx