Christmas 2014 adventures

I really hope that everyone has had a lovely Christmas, and managed to spend some quality time with their families eating lots of delicious food, sharing presents, and making time to do things together.

My favourite part of Christmas, apart from the food, is buying and wrapping presents. I like to think I'm pretty good at buying gifts, and I really enjoy it even though it sometimes takes me hours, days even, to find that perfect match for my friends or family. I start shopping two months in advance, too, to make sure I get enough time to look...a little over the top I know!

I'll take you through my little but magical Christmas this year (2014) in a few photos below...

I got these vintage-style letter stamps from my friend, and used them to make name tags for every gift.

You can buy them at Asos (£8), Amazon (£9.99) or Hobbycraft (£10) and they are so cheap, but well worth it, especially if you like DIY!

December isn't a bad one at work either - some of my colleagues and I went to Izakaya Flesh & Buns in Covent Garden and I can honestly say it was one of the most amazing meals I've ever had in London. For just £30 we had the taster menu, and ate a variety of Japanese, Chinese and British mini dishes...only to top that with this incredible American-style passion fruit s'more with chocolate biscuits. Heaven!

How could you resist??

I enjoyed taking this little Patricia Field bag out to dinners with me - I thought it was a cute little retro festive accessory to a smart outfit...my replacement for a Christmas jumper this year!

On Christmas Eve, I went to my boyfriend's family and took this snap of his stylish sister in her Fenwick jumper and Bobbl beanie, playing with LEGO!

I then went on to my cousin Maja's house to spend Christmas with my family, starting with a lovely night cap in these vintage glasses!

We woke up to this pile of gifts!

The obligatory Christmas selfie... Kitty hat is an old one from Zara but you can also get them on eBay for just £2.88.

Some of my lovely gifts from family and my boyfriend...I felt very spoilt!

My cousin Maja is an amazing host and always makes food look fun (I don't know how she always does it so quickly!) These were mulled apple drinks with pear cut out stars inside.

We took a day trip to a nearby town called Marlborough, where we walked around the cute little shops and had scones and tea at the Polly Tearooms.

My little 13 year old cousin Sasha made these delicious dough balls from scratch, and we baked a camembert to dip into...you'd probably have guessed that this was all gone within 10 minutes.

For New Year's Eve, I traveled up to Somerset to my friend's beautiful Georgian home, to celebrate 2015 with her little family and another two friends....it was really the perfect New Year's celebration, with the people I love the most.

I got these adorable necklaces for Christmas...The Cherish necklace is from Orelia, the eternity necklaces are from Etsy, and the name necklace is custom made at a Jewellers in Crouch End.

We took a New Year's Day walk to a pretty cool tunnel where they used to test Concords...

Enchanted! I love the English countryside.

I have also been trying out different types of exercise before and after Christmas, including aerial and hot yoga, and will be reporting back in another post soon!