Things I am loving lately

I have wanted to link up and join in with the lovely Emma from Life at the Little Wood for a while now and thought there is no better time than starting off with a little festive edition. Each month I will be giving a round up on the things that I have been loving including reading, watching, children activities, fashion and beauty.

I am all over anything Christmassy and am totally guilty of getting over excited a little too early to be acceptable but I am blaming this on the fact that I work in retail and am normally planning Christmas in August and Easter in December, so enjoying the fact that I can choose when to listen to Christmas CDs and not be sick of them by the time December comes around. I am enjoying being off on maternity, making Christmas memories with my 2 littles and starting some of our own family traditions. Next year when I am back at work I imagine I will be a little more bah humbug but for now here is what I am loving.

{Making} With the weather being so awful recently trips outside have been few and far between so I have been entertaining Bella with painting and some crafts but we had so much fun making our very own gingerbread house. Bella got to decorate with sweeties and I was pretty impressed with how many actually made it on to the house. You can find some great ginger bread making kits Here and Here. What is great about the little houses is that once they set they can be kept and brought out each year... Perhaps it is the magpie in me but I remember my mum and I making one when I was young and it coming out many years.

{Decorating}Ok so this heading shouldn't often feature on this post (who am I kidding I felt personally responsible for IKEA announcing their 1/2 year increase in profits) but decorating the house for Christmas and adding an extra little bit of magic and personal touches for the girls has been lovely! Having 2 little girls and the joy of multicoloured plastic toys that comes with them can be hard when trying to also keep your home the style that you like so we decorated the playroom with all the cartoon style santas and singing Christmas trees and have kept our family room tree a little more traditional. I personally love Scandinavian style and whilst completely white and minimal doesn't work in our family home I like to have hints of this through the home. I love these personalised tree decorations with the girls names from Fox and Weave which  are Nordic style bare wood.

{beauty}Recently I have had a few emails and comments on my Instagram on my make up routine which has shocked me and made me wince slightly as with all new mums (can I still call myself that 6months in?) wipes are far too handy. Ok so maybe my Dermalogica skin care has been replaced temporarily by Simple wipes but I think that by using Clarins face oil it has kept my skin healthy and hydrated as well as acting like a brilliant base and giving my make up a slightly luminating look. I normally have oily skin but as with most women at this time of year and with the temperature change it is dehydrated. I used to work for Clarins whilst at university and found from my time there that most cases of problematic skin arise from dehydration even in oily skin and due to hormones most pregnant and post natal ladies will suffer dehydrated skin which is why you may find that your make up doesn't sit the same as it used to (that and the fact your chin can sometimes be used as a replacement teether). Christmas is a fab time to purchase Clarins as the gift sets offer 2 travel size products as well as the full sized cream. I have linked the hydraquench set Here.

{wearing} You know the families that wear matching tartan, get their Christmas pictures taken for Christmas cards and you can't help but cringe at when you see them? Yip a little like that over here except Colin and I didn't join in with the pics. I have been loving tartan and think nothing says Christmas quite like it, it reminds me of when I was a little girl and the beautiful dresses that was worn by Mara Wilson, the little girl in Miracle on 34th Street.

 These little outfits are from Mamas and papas. Annies shirt can be found Here and Bella's dress is sold out but a similar style can be found Here. I have also added little sets that I picked up from Tesco.  These can be found Here and Here.

 I also had to get in on the action and got this top with tartan back from the Black Friday Zara sale which can be found Here

Have a lovely week whatever you are up to and I hope to be back soon sharing some more of what we are enjoying.

Anna xx