December life lately

I've been really enjoying doing these posts and I hope they're something I can keep up in the future! There are often so many things I want to talk about that I don't need a whole post for and I've got so much going on that it's much easier to write a long post like this instead of lots of little ones!

What I've been doing
While December was much less hectic than November, it's still been a busy month! I absolutely love Christmas and love the build up more than the actual day, so I had a great time this month.

I went to see Riot Jazz, spent lots  of time with my family and cousins, organised a bake sale at work that raised over £150 and I even made some of my Christmas presents (although I uttered the phrase "NEVER AGAIN!" far too many times!). I took Phil for his first blood donation (and my 9th!) and I realised how much I love codewords.

I dipped my toe into yoga at the start of the month with Yoga with Adriene's 30 days of yoga, but I admit I fell off the wagon later in the month when I returned to running. My fitness routine has been all over the place of late, but I've been enjoying running again, and I've just signed up for my first race of 2017 - the Great Manchester Run half marathon in May. I'm excited to get training again and back to full fitness - I've got my eye on another half marathon PB! 

I also found out today I've ran 813 miles in 2016, so that's pretty good!

Where I've been
Nowhere near as much travel this month as in November, but I did have a trip down to Luton/London for my friend Emily's birthday and it was so great to catch up with my uni friends!
Other than that I've spent quite a bit of the Christmas break back home at my parents' which has been a really nice change!  It's nice to have a bit of a break from routine over Christmas - I've been to see family, went to see Bolton Wanderers with Phil's family on Boxing Day, watched a lot of football, played Scrabble and spent a lot of time in my pyjamas/new Liverpool shirt!

What I've been loving

December 2016 will be forever known as the month that Phil and I got into Hamilton. Hard. As in, listening to the soundtrack all day long at work, walking through the door and Phil's already got it on. It's no exaggeration to say we've been listening to it almost constantly for three weeks. We have it on at home almost all the time, then we have the CD in the car (first CD I've bought in about 10 years!). We sing all the time as it is, and now I've been perfecting my rap. Yep I know we're about a year too late, but I think we've more than made up for it with how obsessed we are.

What I've been eating
Two Christmas dinners, true to mine and Phil's tradition (early Christmas dinner at his parents', then off to mine in the evening for round two - we've totally got this down!). Crispy baked tofu (my favourite dinner when Phil is out!), Buddha bowls, homemade brownies and cheese.

I got 7 new recipe books for Christmas (oh god I counted the other day that I've obtained 22 new recipe books this year...), so I'm excited to work through those! We had a recipe from Jamie's Super food Family Classics last night, and we have guests over on Friday so I'm going to make some dishes from The Greek Vegetarian.

What I've been watching
After the new series of Gilmore Girls came out I decided to start it all from the beginning - I've always dipped in and out of Gilmore Girls - and it's so nice to have my own thing to watch when Phil is out! 
We've also had two mystery films this month - Groundhog Day and The Artist, both of which I loved, and trips to the cinema to see Moana (which we also can't stop singing songs from!) and Rogue One.
Oh and lots of Christmas films.

What I've been working on
I'm a bit rubbish with makeup and one of my unofficial goals for 2017 is to be a bit better at putting stuff on my face. So this month my friend, Laura, recommended L'oreal Infalliable foundation as the best foundation she'd ever tried, so I bought that and the primer and it's fab. I also treated myself to a new contour brush and the Golden Sugar palette by Makeup Revolution on the recommendation of Vix Meldrew and omg I can contour! I love it!

I also got two new MAC lipsticks for Christmas - Mehr and Flat out Fabulous.

I've done absolutely loads of work on my course over Christmas (3+ hours a day when you're off work is not fun) but just found out all the work I thought was due on the 3rd isn't due until the 16th so at least I'm well ahead!

What I got for Christmas
I was spoiled, as usual, this year! From my family I got recipe books, perfume, a tagine pot, and a new watch. 

From Phil's family I got lots of things from our house, and from Phil I got a new Liverpool shirt, a mogwai, a book on Pawnee and an egg slice!

I also spent some of my Christmas money on some bargains in Boux Avenue, two Makeup Revolution palettes and Zootropolis!

What I'm excited for
I kind of hate January and I'm so glad we went away last year to Dublin as the cold and the ice without the promise of Christmas really gets me down! But this is our last month in our flat before the chaos of moving into my parents and then into our house, so I'm excited for a quiet month (hopefully!) and hopefully more news on when we can move into our house!

What I've written
How to be a great present buyer
How I curl my hair in 5 minutes [video]
Everything I've learned from moving in with my boyfriend
Hat with a heart
Lessons from 7 years of blogging
10 things in 2016
You can do anything but not everything
How to live with a meat eater (or how to live with a veggie!)

What other people have written
I loved Rosie's Goodbye 2016 post, especially the parts on ignoring everyone's perfect life on Instagram and doing more of what makes us happy.
I adore Vix Meldrew and her post on making her... ahem, things not to care about in 2017 budget resonated with me a lot. It's partially because of my anxiety, but I care way too much about, well, almost everything. I need this advice for 2017!
And one more from Vix, a post from today about why we shouldn't believe we need to change just because it's a new year.
I already wrote about Amy's post in The Pool on trying to do everything, but if you missed it, definitely give it a read.
I'm not a fan of resolutions, but I adored this piece from Buzzfeed on 21 ways to make your life better in 2017 which focuses on self-care, letting go of stuff that doesn't matter (like not finishing books you don't enjoy) and finding things you love. I really need to remember this!

Hope you have a lovely end of 2o16! I'll be posting my goals for 2017 this week!

Charlotte x