The Christmas Cheer is Near

Hi Everyone,

It's that time of year again: Christmas!
In all honesty it's my favourite time of year. The all around atmosphere of love and joy, the sitting in front of a warm fire drinking hot chocolate, or even those long walks in the snow with a loved one, it can't get better than that! Of course I also love the shopping aspect of it, and walking along Oxford Street with the gorgeous Christmas lights blinking and glistening against the crisp winter air - just gorgeous!

This year, I'll be spending Christmas with my sister, in my gorgeous, new, central London home (yes, I am moving in 2 weeks and am VERY excited about this)!

When I was younger and spent Christmas with the family, we used to celebrate it on the 24th of December, and we would have 3 days of food feasts, and another feast on New Year's Eve! I really want to make this year's Christmas similar to those, so any good Christmas recipes would be very much appreciated.

In terms of gifts, I'm always at a bit of a loss at what to get the boyfriend. The last present I got him (for our 2-year anniversary) was an expensive pen pouch, which he wasn't very happy with (much to my anger).

So for Christmas, it's got to be something practical, yet not overly expensive. Anyone have any good ideas?

In terms of Christmas presents for women, here are a few things she might like:

Although I'm sure your wife doesn't hate the Christmas jumper you seem to love getting her every year, she would most definitely prefer something like this gorgeous Tiffany & Co. bracelet:

Your sister probably likes the usual fashion jewellery that you tend to get her every year, but I'm sure she'd love you for this amazing French Connection dress, which is perfect for a New Year's Party:

And then of course, there's your mother, who I'm sure loves those bath products you seem to give her for every special occasion, but would absolutely adore you for buying this stunning pair of Swarovski Earrings for her:

For other Christmas present ideas, have a look at sites like Buy a Gift. In turn, if you've got any good ideas, I always appreciate the help!

Hoping you're all going to enjoy the festive season!

As Always, Stay Tuned!

- A

Venice - The City of Romance

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the third and final part of my 3-part holiday post! This one is all about Venice, the city of romance!

Now I love a bit of romance (as most girls do), and I must say, if there is ever a place for romance, Venice is definitely it!

Unfortunately, we had a bit of a hiccup when we first arrived. We had spent all night on an overnight train from Rome to Venice (arriving at around 5am), including a snoring, rowdy old man who constantly went in and out of the cabin and turned on the lights, and screamed down the phone at around 3am.
Once we arrived in Venice (in the dark), we went to the hotel and found that it was shut, and not opening until 7am!!! We rang the bell and got a sleepy, angry owner on the line, telling us to come back at 7. So with heavy suitcases in hand, we set off down the road to find an open cafe. Two hours of eating pastries and drinking delicious coffee later, I was exhausted and could only think of a comfortable bed! So we headed back to the hotel to check in and sleep, only to find that, yes, we were able to check in but no, the room was not available until 2pm!!! I'm sure you can understand my aggravation, and they did not even offer a shower for us to freshen up. We left out suitcases there, and set off to wonder around the city.

The city is like a bit of a maze, so it's easy to get lost. But everywhere you go, there are lots of shops selling the famous Murano glass (made on Murano island), gorgeous masquerade ball masks, and lots of other quirky little things.
Once 2pm finally came around, we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep for about 4 hours!
The good thing of being up at around 7am, was the fact that we were able to see the gorgeous sunrise above the little streets and canals of Venice. The bad side? We were falling asleep on a bench, somewhere in the middle of Venice, watching a duck trying to steal a bin!

Overall, there are 5 other islands to see, but we only went to three of them - Murano, Burano, and Lido.
Murano was amazing, we went to see one of the many glass factories (and I have to say, I feel sorry for the people working there. Outside it was already 30 degrees C, inside it must have been so much worse!!). We watched two men making a gorgeous glass vase, and after a short while decided to have a little wonder around the island. Murano is much smaller than Venice itself, but the amount of shops selling Murano glass are multiplied by about 10.

After Murano came Burano, the island of colourful houses and lace! I have never seen such a pretty place to live, the colours of houses varied from bright blue, to green, to pink and red! The island is probably the smallest amongst this group, and it probably only takes about 10 minutes to walk from one end to the other. It has a pretty main square, where all the restaurants are. We decided to have lunch here, which was a bit of a fiasco. The amount of waiters standing outside and trying to get you to their restaurant is slightly overwhelming. We finally decided on a place and, after about 15 minutes of waiting to actually be served, decided to walk off and go to a different restaurant. Maybe they shouldn't try to get people in, but focus on the ones that are already there!
After lunch, we had a look around the shops. Here, the abundance of lace shops was pretty amazing. I really wanted to buy a nice, thin, pink scarf, but they are (obviously) very expensive, and I decided not to.

Once we left Burano, we headed to Lido. Lido is one of the bigger islands, and we had been told that the island has a beach!! We walked from one end of the island to the other (the width, not the length!) and found the beach. Unfortunately, by the time we got there it was about 6 O'clock, and getting rather cold. I tried to sunbathe, but it was pretty much impossible at that time.
I did, however, gather a few small seashells, to remind me of the island  - they are currently sitting on my windowsill.

The islands took up one whole day of being in Venice, the other was spent visiting St. Marks Square, and all the sights around the square. We didn't end up going up to Campanille, as it started raining quite badly when we were in the queue outside. Maybe next time!

All in all, the holiday (despite a few minor hiccups), was super fun, but pretty exhausting.
Beach holiday next, please!

As Always, Stay Tuned!

- A

Rome Wasn't Built in a Day, But it was Visited in Two!

Hi Everyone,

So it's been over 2 weeks (!!) since I last posted, and I am well aware of the fact that I promised a three part post about what I did on my holiday in September. Therefore, I'd like to apologise for my delay with this post, but here is the second part to my holiday shenanigans:

The fifth day of our holiday, it was time to go to the airport (at 5am I might add) to fly to Rome. We got there at around 12pm, and it was gorgeous! The weather was so hot, and as we were driving towards the city on one of the airport shuttles, I instantly fell in love with the gorgeous houses sprinkled all over the little towns of Italy.

As soon as we got to the hotel, we checked in straight away. The room we had was the best of all three rooms we stayed in. It was fairly big, had a good, big shower, and was nice and quiet, away from the hustle and bustle from the street. The hotel itself was just a two minute walk from Termini Station, which is where we had to get our night train from on our way to Venice two days later. There were lots of restaurants around, and quite a few sights were within walking distance.

Unlike Paris, Rome was a lot smaller, and we were able to walk to different places pretty quickly, meaning we didn't use the public transport too much, which I thought was a little confusing anyway.

My favourite part of Rome? I know it's cheesy but, once it turned 7pm, you would see lots of brides and grooms taking their wedding photos at places like the Colosseum, which was pretty amazing. I'm a typical girl in the sense that I was looking at all of their wedding dresses, imagining myself in them.

The food in Rome was pretty good too, being Italian, I was pretty happy. I do have to say though, that Italians seem to eat a lot for dinner. Their menus included three courses, the courses each being huge, like a full plate of pasta for first course, and a big steak with veg. and chips for the second course. I must have gained a good 5 Kilos whilst I was there.

The other thing which was slightly annoying in Rome (and Venice too, as a matter of fact), was the amount of people selling fake designer bags and sunglasses and wallets on the streets. They did like to hassle you, and try to get you to buy one of their bags saying they were just like the real thing (when in reality they didn't look anything like the real thing).

When we went to the Vatican, I was almost not allowed into St. Peter's Basilica, because they are so strict with dress codes. A woman is not allowed to show her upper legs, her shoulders, her midriff,  or have a top which is too low cut. I understand it of course, with the Basilica being so religious, but I had covered my upper legs, and quickly put on a cardigan. So after a short 2 minute discussion with one of the security guards, I was okay to proceed.

Rome is also the best place to see the Roman ruins (of course), and my boyfriend and I spent about 3 hours of one day walking around all of the ancient ruins. As I was looking at different things, I was imagining what it must have been like to live in Rome in those days. We tend to take a lot of things for granted with it being the digital age and so on, but people in those days must have had quite a few difficulties with various things.
I do think the history in Rome is really cool and interesting, as (in my opinion) it is one of the most historic and cultured cities in the world.

Anyway, that is all I've got to say about my time in Rome. For a first time visit, it was pretty amazing.

The last part of my 3-part post will come soon (I promise to write it before the end of next week!!), and will be about: Venice - the City of Romance.

As Always, Stay Tuned.

- A

Oh la blah - Disappointing Paris!

Hi everyone,

It has been quite a while since I've last written a post, so the plan is to write a 3-part post over the next few days about my holiday adventures from the beginning of this month!

First up: Oh la blah - Disappointing Paris!

So my boyfriend asked me a few months ago, what three places I'd like to visit most in Europe. My answer: Paris, Venice and Rome.

The outcome of this discussion was, that he booked a 10 day holiday weekend for us to go and visit all of those places. First up was Paris.

Now, my expectations of Paris were huge, especially since everyone says that it's 'One of the most romantic cities on earth'!

Upon arriving, we ended up in a rather rough area of the city. Picture army people walking around with machine guns, full grown men walking around kicking bins over out of anger, and a whole lot of alcoholics sitting on benches, drinking and gawking at anything that had legs. And that wasn't even the worst of it: the Metro had a constant smell of wee about it, which was rather unpleasant after a romantic dinner in the nice part of town.

Don't get me wrong, there were also a few nice moments in the city, like a boat tour on the river, climbing up the Eifel Tower, and seeing it glitter and sparkle every hour, on the hour, as it was lit up with shining lights. But was this my favourite place on the holiday? No!

The city has put me off of French food, one particular restaurant served something which resembled a mix between chicken, and pressed organs, but was actually meant to be fish - I still feel sick thinking about it now!
In another particular restaurant, the waiter was actually trying to tell us that a corking bottle of wine was, in fact, not corking at all but that the 2009 wine was just quite old...
On the bright side, I have quite a few funny stories to look back on, after stripping away the aggravation, aching feet (from hours upon hours of walking around the city, going sightseeing and more), and the smell of wee!

Other things that happened in Paris? I met my boyfriends cousin, who took us to some dodgy looking (and smelling!!) "underground" bar. The bar was covered in graffiti inside and out, but the cocktails (although strong) were pretty good.
I had breakfast on the Champs Elysees (which I've always wanted to do), I saw and climbed up the Eifel Tower, I went up the Arc de Triomphe, went to see Notre Dame cathedral, and saw various amazing views of Paris by day and night!

All in all, even though I didn't love Paris, it's still worth a visit and definitely an interesting experience.

Next on the 3-part post: Rome Wasn't Built in a Day - But Visited in Two!

As Always, Stay Tuned!

- A

Social Media - help appreciated!

Hi Everyone,

So it's been just over a week since I've last posted, and the heat wave still hasn't let up - amazing!
It did rain a little bit earlier, but that's pretty much it.

In terms of what I've been up to, honestly? Not much! I've been writing my first chapter for Life Throws a Curveball (check it out!), and otherwise I've been working lots. The annoyingly stressful client at work is currently reviewing our work, meaning I've got a bit of time to relax - a little like the calm before the storm!

On to the main part of this post:

So I've been trying out various types of social media to promote this blog - I've used everything but Facebook to get some more traffic in, and whilst I've gotten it up to quite a few page visits, the number of unique visitors is (apparently) only around 54 for this month.

What do you guys suggest I do - should I make an anonymous Facebook profile and start promoting it there too? Are there any blogging communities you could recommend which work well?

In terms of Google analytics, how do you embed the code on your blog on blogspot, so that it works best - I've had a bit of trouble getting it to work properly, does anybody have any suggestions?

I'd be really happy if you could help me out here, I really need to know a few more things, especially as I'd like to start promoting my new blog, which I'm hoping to generate a lot of traffic for.

Thanks in advance.

As Always, Stay Tuned!

- A

Summer Daze

Hi Everyone,

So the last few days have been a perfect Summer Daze! Warm mornings, hot days, and gorgeous, summery evenings.

Of course most of my day was spent at the office (oh the joy!), and I was so busy that I didn't manage to leave the office before 7.30 in Wednesday.

My weekend isn't looking any better, as most of last week was spent working on just one client, meaning I have loads of work to catch up on!

Anyway, enough work talk, and on to the more interesting stuff now!

I've decided to try something new, a Book Blog called Life Throws A Curveball. The concept is this:

• The blog will take the shape of an online book, and will be the length of a novel.
• Each post will make up one chapter of this "book".
• Posts will take between a week and a month to come out (depending on how much spare time I've got outside of my full-time job) - I'm hoping, of course, that posts will take closer to a week to come out, to keep everyone interested.
• The story will most likely take the form of a chick flick!

Please do have a look at the blog, and if you like it, spread the word - and don't worry, I won't abandon this blog - I intend to keep posting here at least once a week!

Now, just to quickly round up this post, here are some of my favourite fashion items from this week:

Aqua Kimono Maxi Dress - ASOS

Jimmy Choo - Candy Printed Acrylic Clutch

Alexander McQueen - Unicorn Skull Embroidered Satin Box Clutch

Christian Louboutin - Alti 140 Spiked Patent-Leather Pumps

Alexander McQueen - Skull-Embroidered Suede Pumps

Giuseppe Zanotti - Swarovski Crystal-Embellished Contoured Wedge Pumps

Anyway, That's all from me today - I hope you are all enjoying your Summer Daze as much as I am!

As Always, Stay Tuned!

- A

What would you wear on a date with a celebrity?

Hi Everyone,

I'm dedicating today's post to a hypothetical thought I had this morning, and of course, what's been happening in my life for the past two weeks (sorry for the lack of posting!)

So as I woke up for the third time this morning (at 9am believe it or not!), my boyfriend had gone to work, and I had a particularly random thought.

Hypothetically speaking, if you had a date with a celebrity (say Chase Crawford or Taylor Lautner), what would you wear?

I would wear this:

Paprika Bodycon Dress

But instead of those shoes and that bag, I would wear these:

Love by Moschino Clutch

Christian Louboutin - Yolanda Patent Heels

Now on to you - what would you wear on a date with a celebrity?

Anyway, onto the second part of this post - it's been quite a while since I've posted something, over two weeks as a matter of fact!
Quite a bit has happened so I will just recount the highlights quickly -

• Last Friday I went for a few drinks with my colleagues at the pub accross the road from work, which is always a laugh! I then went home to watch the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, which I have to say was pretty cool!
• Saturday I went to watch the Men's bike race (or a part of it) and in the evening, I to see the Wizard of Oz at the Palladium in London, and had a nice meal with my boyfriend. I quite liked the Wizard of Oz, definitely a classic and a must see (they even have a real dog on stage - a highland terrier - which was pretty cool)!
• On Sunday I went shopping with the boyfriend and just chilled.
• This last week I've just been working away, and the week flew by pretty fast. I'm enjoying work a lot these days, despite some annoying colleagues making a fuss about really unimportant issues in their lives. 
• I finally got my shiny, brand new iPhone 4S (the white one!!), which I'm pretty excited and happy about. 
• This Friday, I went straight home from work to spend some time with my boyfriend, as he went to watch an Olympic football game yesterday, and is working today, meaning I don't get to see him

So that's all from me today.

As Always, Stay Tuned!

- A