Christmas mix.

For day seven of Blogmas I thought it was finally time to share a Christmas playlist! I have Opinions about Christmas music (Stay Another Day is not a Christmas song!) and I wanted this playlist to only be the best of the best so I've narrowed it down to just over an hour and a half of absolute premium (in my humble opinion) Christmas tunes. It's a pretty eclectic mix of classic songs, new songs, and songs you might never have heard before so there should definitely be something for everyone!

What do you think of my choices? Did I miss out your favourite Christmas song? Let me know what your favourites are in the comments! I am always here for talking about Christmas music.

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Festive fashion.

Over recent years I've started getting more into dressing for the festive season and for today's Blogmas post I thought I'd share my growing collection of Christmassy fashion pieces with you!

I bought this Christmas pudding hat from Primark a few years ago but I have seen similar hats this year at ASDA and Marks and Spencer (in fact I've been eyeing up the ones in Marks and Spencer myself...) so there are plenty around if you want to pick one up yourself! I've got a lot of wear out of this over the past few years since I bought it but I have to admit it has been usurped slightly by the new hat I got a couple of weeks ago. 

This glorious hat might just be my favourite out of everything here and of course I had to gif it so that you could see it in all its true glory. You can still get this at ASDA for just £6, which I'm sure you'll agree is a total bargain. And yes, it does have a switch in the back so you can turn the lights off if you don't always want to be lit up like a Christmas tree. Although I don't know why you wouldn't, honestly.

This cute little earring set is from the Avon catalogue and I am totally looking forward to spending the next month with snowflakes and snowmen in my ears!

You might recognise this beautiful bag from the banner I've had at the bottom of all my Blogmas posts so far this month. I had my eye on this Skinnydip/ASOS exclusive bag for a while and totally jumped on it the second I got my Black Friday discount code from ASOS. Unfortunately it's sold out now but Skinnydip do have a couple of other adorable Christmas bags on their website.

And last but not least are my lovely cosy Christmas jumpers. These are both from ASDA and they're both super warm and lovely. The snowman jumper is from last year but again it has been slightly usurped by my love for the new Christmassy fair isle jumper, which I will probably be living in for the next month.

Do you think I have enough Christmas themed accessories? I'm not sure.

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My new favourite boots.

Yes. Yes this is an entire post dedicated to one pair of boots. But I mean, look at them! They're so sparkly. I'm obsessed. I haven't actually had an opportunity to wear them out yet but I may have taken a few little strides around the house in them...

They make me feel like a glam rock god, which is really all I ever want from life, and they're only £21 on the New Look website at the moment too! They're also available in a black glitter instead of silver but come on, what is better than silver glittery shoes? Nothing. And I should know because this is my third pair.

I have already found that I'll need to wear them with tights or jeans because the glitter on the edges at the top of the boots rubs into my legs a bit but I don't think I'm likely to be going bare-legged again for quite a few months anyway and I pretty much live in my Toms in the warmer months of the year, so that's definitely not a problem! I am going to wear these bad boys until they literally fall apart.

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The Eden Project's Enchanted Rainforest.

Last Sunday evening my parents, my friend Jess, and I headed down to The Eden Project to take a look at their Enchanted Rainforest. Jess actually works at The Eden Project so it was like having our own little guided tour but I definitely recommend going even if you don't have your own Jessifer to tour you around. These pictures totally don't do justice to how cool it is to see snow falling down in the rainforest biome and all of the beautiful little touches they've put into the Enchanted Rainforest, but that's not going to stop me from trying.

A little shot of my outfit in my parents' full length mirror from before we left for The Eden Project and a bonus shot of my feet, which were still covered in faux snow for some time after we left the rainforest biome. As you can see, I was already full steam ahead on channeling that Christmas spirit with my outfit. What you can't see is that my Christmas tree hat actually lights up like a Christmas tree. Ho ho ho.

Before we headed into the Enchanted Rainforest we stopped off at The Eden Project ice rink for a delicious hot chocolate and to wait for it to get a little darker outside so that we could fully appreciate the vibe of the Enchanted Rainforest.

There's Jess looking away from the camera after I asked her to so that I could pretend this was an artistic candid shot.

We also met some lovely reindeers who are hanging out at The Eden Project for the festive season!

Then, when the sun finally went down, we headed into the Enchanted Rainforest.

I won't give away too much about what you'll find in the Enchanted Rainforest because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who is planning on going down there this year! I will tell you however that the story involves time travellers and there are a few different places of performance and interaction. One of the most beautiful parts was this walkway. The idea is that you should write down the name of someone you'll miss this Christmas on a label and tie the label onto one of these ropes, so the whole thing is covered in names. Which I think is pretty lovely.

We also got to make snowflakes out of pipe cleaners and hang them on some of the plants. Dad reckoned my snowflake looked more like a spider web. 

He's probably right.

If you're in Cornwall over the festive period I highly recommend the Enchanted Rainforest. We all really enjoyed it and it definitely got me kickstarted into the festive mood (not that I need much help with that...) You can find more information about dates and times for the Enchanted Rainforest on The Eden Project's website.

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Banana muffins.

For some reason we always end up with brown bananas hanging around in the fruit bowl at the end of every week. Luckily banana bread is delicious and easy to make but I've made it so many times I can practically do it without looking at the recipe now, and honestly it's getting a little bit boring. Not the eating of it necessarily, that will probably never get boring, but making the same thing all the time? That part is getting boring. So I thought I'd try something a little different this week and try out a recipe for banana muffins instead.

They don't look quite like the kind of muffins you'd buy in a store but given this is the first time I've ever made muffins, I'm pretty pleased with them!

Recipe found here.

Ingredients

• 200g (7 oz) plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 150g (5 oz) caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 75g (2 1/2 oz) butter, melted

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C and line muffin tin(s) with 12 muffin cases.
• Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and salt into a bowl together, then set aside.
• Combine the mashed bananas, sugar, egg, and melted butter together in a large mixing bowl, then fold in the flour mixture and mix until smooth.
• Spoon the mixture evenly into your muffin cases.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the muffins spring back when lightly tapped.

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GGRP: Would I Lie To You.

Can you believe we're actually into the home stretch now? Only four more books and I will have finally completed this insane project! I wasn't totally sure I would get it done before the end of the year like I originally wanted to but luckily I am also currently trying to come up with ideas for Blogmas, so you lucky lot are going to get a new GGRP post every week this December and this thing should finish right on time! So, let's get on with it.

Synopsis

It's still summer vacation time, but now almost everyone is in The Hamptons. Nate is still working on his coach's roof, or he is until the coach's wife hits on him and he decides its time to bail. Blair and Serena's summer as Bailey Winter's new muses isn't going how they expected so they both run away with Nate too. Serena has a birthday party and Nate finally tells Blair that he loves her. Of course Serena then leaves a letter in Nate's car professing her love for him and then Blair and Nate leave without her the next morning. I think we can all guess who finds that letter.

Vanessa is still working as a nanny and the family have brought her to The Hamptons with them to look after the kids. Dan is still working at the Strand and decides to throw a literary salon with a new coworker, Greg. The salon essentially turns into an orgy, Dan and Greg kiss, and Dan decides this means he's definitely gay now. Because that's how that works.

Familiar scenes

An older woman hitting on Nate.

What's different?

Nate deciding not to sleep with the older woman.

Fanciest fancy party

Definitely Bailey Winter's pool party at his Hamptons house with its almost entirely male guest list and expensive white cushions. Blair and Serena throw drinks over a couple of models and the night ends with Bailey crying about drinks stains on his cushions and asking Vanessa to move in and be his new new muse.

Most conniving scheme

Bailey Winter hires these two models who are almost clones of Blair and Serena to follow them around and copy everything they do. Blair and Serena don't particularly get on with the clones and, knowing that the clones are supposed to copy what they do, they decide to start walking around butt-naked, in the hopes that the clones will copy that too and embarrass themselves. It works.

What is Chuck Bass up to?

Not a lot again. There is a scene where he's swimming in Bailey Winter's pool and Sweetie the monkey poops in the pool and Bailey Winter gets even more furious than he was about the cushions. Hopefully there will be more Chuck and less monkey poop in the next book.

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Gift ideas for Fangirls for under £20.

In case you missed it, a couple of weeks ago I posted about gift ideas for Space Girls for under £20! I enjoyed putting that post together so much that I thought I'd have another little go, this time with some gift ideas for the all the Fangirls in your life.

For the Harry Potter fangirls

Harry Potter inspired personalised Hogwarts bookmark (£3.75) from sonicincendio and Fantasy Mini Magnetic Bookmarks (£5.11) from craftedvan, both via etsy

You can never go wrong with a bookmark for a fangirl who loves books. These Harry Potter inspired personalised bookmarks from sonicincedio are super cute and you can even have it personalised with your Fangirl's initial for a special touch. Or if your Fangirl prefers something a little more in the realm of general fantasy, craftedvan has this adorable set of magnetic bookmarks featuring possibly the cutest dragon I have ever seen.

Magic Notebooks (£10 for 3 or £4 for 1) from Literary Emporium

This set of Magic Notebooks from Literary Emporium would be the perfect gift for any Harry Potter Fangirl who is also a writer or maybe just wants to feel a little bit like they're studying Potions with Professor Snape. You can buy the set of all three of these notebooks inspired by Hogwarts classes or buy any one on its own and I think any Harry Potter fan would appreciate these little A5 sized beauties.

For the Sherlock Holmes fangirls

Sherlock brooch (£8) and John brooch (£8) from andsmile studio

I love andsmile studio's illustrations. I have two of their brooches myself and can assure you that they are great quality as well as being super cute! And I'm sure any fan of BBC's Sherlock would enjoy having either one of these brooches pinned to their lapel. (There is also an excellent selection of Wes Anderson themed brooches on the website if Sherlock Holmes isn't your Fangirl's thing.)

Sherlock's Study soy candle (£11.97) from Frostbeard Studio

Okay, so once you take into account the postage for shipping to the UK from this Canadian company, these candles probably edge a little over the £20 mark, but Frostbeard Studio has an amazing selection of candles with scents perfect for any book lover, and what could be better for any Sherlock Holmes fan than a chance to make their bedroom smell like Sherlock's study?

For the Classics fangirls

I Capture the Castle Strong Canvas Shopper (£10.95) and Poe-ka Dots Zipped Pouch (£10.95) from The Literary Gift Company

I have actually posted about this I Capture the Castle bag before, when I bought it for myself a few months ago, and I'm sure any fan of Dodie Smith's beautiful book would love this bag just as much as I do. It's a lot bigger and stronger than a lot of tote bags, so there's plenty of space to fill with books! I also love the look of this Poe-ka Dots pouch, perfect for keeping together all of those pens and sticky note tabs that always end up rolling around in the bottom of literature students' bags (I know. I was one. I still find sticky note tabs in my bags sometimes) and, of course, absolutely perfect for any Poe fan!

For the Ron Swanson fangirls

Ron Swanson earrings (£6.16) from Sleepy Mountain and Ron Swanson brooch (£12) from kateslittlestore, both via etsy

If you know a TV Fangirl then there's a good chance she might be a fan of Parks & Recreation and if she is then it's a sure bet that she is definitely a fan of Ron Swanson. And what Parks & Recreation fan wouldn't want a pair of Ron Swanson stud earrings? None I know. But if your Ron Swanson Fangirl doesn't have pierced ears, or just if she's more the brooch wearing type, this wooden brooch from kateslittlestore will totally fit the bill.

I hope I've given you maybe one or two ideas for gifts for Fangirls in your life? I highly encourage you to go to all of these websites and take a look around because these shops all have a lot of different options for fans of all sorts of things!

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