What I got for Christmas 2016

Hello lovelies!

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas yesterday filled with lots of joy. I had a lovely day of being with my family, eating and watching various Christmas TV Specials.

I am very lucky and I was spoilt by my lovely family, so I decided to share with you all what I got for Christmas!

Beauty

Vera Wang Princess perfume: I’ve wanted this perfume for over a year now so I was very happy to receive this as a present off my godmother. It’s got a lovely sweet scent and I can’t wait to wear it! I’m not going to say too much about this product as I shall write a review later.

Soap & Glory The Whole Glam Lot gift set: I always enjoy receiving a Soap & Glory gift set, as I’m a massive fan of their products! The Whole Glam Lot set contains 10 full sized products, including makeup, skincare and body care products. This year’s gift set includes my favourite Sugar Crush body wash (the scent reminds me of ice cream floats!).

Ted Baker London gift set: One of my lovely friends gave me this a present. I’ve never owned any Ted Baker beauty products before. However I’ve already fallen in love with the body spray and I can’t wait to try out the other mini products.

White Grace gift set: I received this gift set off another lovely friend for Christmas. I thing I love most about this product is the friend who gave me this product is actually called grace (thanks Grace!). I’ve never tried White Grace products before, but I look forward to trying them out. 

Real Techniques Hollywood Icons Brush and DVD set: I own make up brushes but this is my first Real Techniques brush! They seem to be every bloggers favourite brand of brushes, so I shall be trying mine out and seeing whether they are worth the type. The brush also comes with a DVD which has makeup tutorials on how to do your makeup like famous Hollywood icons, including Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. I can’t wait to try this out as Audrey Hepburn is one of my biggest icons.

Clothes

Unicorn Slippers: I always love having fluffy slippers and this year I got a pair of unicorn slippers. These are my favourite pair of slippers I’ve ever owned because I love unicorns and they are pink (my favourite colour!)

Brown Fur Boots: I needed a new pair of winter boots so I asked for a pair for Christmas. I love brown colour boots and these ones are perfect, especially with the fur (its fake!) trim along the outside.

Fluffy Owl PJ’s: In winter I always get really cold so I always wear fluffy PJ’s and I can never own too many pairs of fluffy PJ’s. Plus what’s Christmas without receiving a pair of fluffy PJ’s? These ones are really cute as they have little owls on them, and they are pink as well.

PJ’s: When it becomes slightly warmer I then progress to long sleeved PJ’s. With growing, I’ve needed a new pair of long sleeved PJ’s. I really like this pair, especially the tartan trouser bottoms!

Books

The Bell Jar: This book has been on my reading list for a while, as I’ve always wanted to read this book! It’s supposed to be a really good book so I can’t wait to read it.

Holding up the universe: After reading All the bright places I was keen to read Jennifer Niven’s latest book. I’ve read the blurb of this book and I don’t think it’s a sequel to All the bright places (however I could be wrong!). However this book seems to follow a similar concept to All the bright places so I look forward to reading it.

The White Rose: The White Rose is the sequel to The Jewel, which I read over a year ago. I loved reading The Jewel, as the story was so interesting, so I can’t wait to begin the sequel.

I also received lots of other small gifts off my family, including what feels like a lifetime supply of chocolate! (although me being me, I’ll be lucky if it lasts a week into the New Year!) and a bracelet off my brother which says Worlds Best Sister!

My lovely blogger friend Alice also did a Christmas Haul on her blog (I really enjoyed reading what Alice got for Christmas!), which you can read all about HERE

What did you receive for Christmas this year?

Restaurant Review: Bryon

Hi honeybunches!

Today I thought I’d do something I’ve never done on my blog… write a review on a restaurant I’ve been to! The restaurant I’m going to be writing about is Byron and I’ve eaten there a total of 5 times now!

The décor of the restaurant always reminds me a bit of an American diner and you can often see from where you’re sitting the chefs cooking the food. In one Byron restaurant we ate at they had pictures of the Byron family and my dad and his finds were in fits of laughter googling them.

Byron is a burger restaurant which does proper hamburgers. When you order your burger you can choose how well cooked you want your burger (I always go for well done as I like my meat to be properly cooked). Byron even does veggie burgers! Depending on the season, they always have a “special burger” which is exclusive to that season (Byron’s current special is the B and A). However they don’t just do burgers, they also do salads and you can have burgers without a bun (AKA a skinny burger). As well as the mains there is also a good selection of sides to choose from.

Every time I’ve been to Byron, I’ve never been disappointed as the food there is always well cooked, tasty and the staff are always really friendly, for example the first time we ate at Byron was when there were 16 of us and we couldn’t fit in the first restaurant so the staff found us a sister restaurant which could seat us all.

Whenever me and my family go to Byron we always order nachos to start, which have sour cream, salsa and guacamole on them and we always enjoy them (my favourite is the sour cream dip, as I love sour cream and nachos!). They don’t just do nachos for starters, they also do buffalo chicken wings and olives. The last time me and my family ate at Byron we also ordered buffalo chicken wings for starters . They had a bit of heat to them but were very tasty to eat!

For the main I always the classic burger (AKA your typical hamburger) and a side of French fries. Whilst the burger I have is fairly simple it is always well cooked and tastes delicious. 

In fact me and my family enjoy eating at Byron so much, my brother received a Byron cookbook for his birthday and he has started to cook meals from the book.

If you are ever wanting to eat at a burger restaurant, I would recommend Byron to you! Have you ever eaten at Byron before?

My exercise routine

Hi everyone!

After my first year of 6th form I barley did an exercise and I was constantly unfit, so last summer I made the decision to start running. A year on and I’m slowly becoming more fitter and I’ve now developed an exercise routine, which I try to stick to as best as I can.

Here’s how I exercise:

Running: Last year I started running for the first time and I managed to complete the couch to 5k programme (Read about it HERE: http://petiteseverina.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/completing-couch-to-5k-programme.html). Ever since then I’ve managed to keep up with running. With it being the summer holidays I aim to go running every morning, however this isn’t always possible so I at least try to run 3 times a week. When I run by myself I tend to do a shorter run but on a weekend I usually run with my dad and we do a longer run.

Arm workout’s: I don’t have much physical strength, in fact it’s shocking how much strength I lack! After stumbling across this workout on instagram I’ve found it perfect for me. I always try to do this work out twice a day (again, not always possible). Currently I’m using 1.5kg dumbbells (don’t laugh) and I aim to move up once it gets easier. 

General Workout: As I don’t go to the gym I wanted a workout I could simply do at home and after having a look on the internet I found this one. As the photo shows you, you can do this workout every day and at home. If you want to make it more challenging, increase the number of reps you do each week or add different reps (although I find doing 20 leg lefts at once really challenging!) 

If you want a really simple exercise routine then try out this one, it works for me! You can always change it to suit your personal preferences.

A day out: Thorpe Perrow

Hi!

I hope you all had a brilliant weekend. Yesterday me and my family went on a day out and we went to Thorpe Perrow Arboretum, so I thought I would tell you all about it!

Thorpe Perrow Arboretum

Thorpe Perrow Arboretum is located in the south of Bedale, not far from Ripon (for those of you who don’t know where that is, it’s in the Yorkshire Moors) and it’s a bird of prey and mammal centre! We last visited Thorpe Perrow a few years ago and I really enjoyed visiting here.

Thorpe Perrow has all kinds of different birds and mammals such as: meerkats, wallabies, ferrets, hawks, falcons and owls. They even have some unusable birds such as a pair of kookaburras and a cara cara bird.

Although we didn’t do it this time round, Thorpe Perrow hold flying demonstrations at 1:30pm and 3:30pm. Last time I was lucky enough to take part and I got to hold a lesser buzzard! They also do a “Meet the Owls” at 11:30am where they tell you all about the different owls they have there.

My favourite part of Thorpe Perrow is the mammal section as they have my all-time favourite animal, MEERKATS! I’ve always loved meerkats ever since I was obsessed with Meerkat Manor back in Year 9 (Yes, I was such a nerd!). This time I spotted 5 meerkats and I spent a good 5 minutes watching them and taking lots of photo’s. 

Another mammal I really like are wallabies and I’ve loved them ever since I was little. Thorpe Perrow has a section called Wallaby Woods, were you can see all the wallabies. It was quite a warm day when we went, so they were all tucked up in the shade. 

As well as the bird and mammal centre, Thorpe Perrow also has the gardens (100 acres!), which is basically a woodland walk. It’s very scenic and picturesque!

If you want a day out I would definitely recommend Thorpe Perrow to you, especially if you love birds of prey and mammals!

Looking after coloured hair

Hi!
Looking after your hair once it’s been dyed can be a challenge, especially if it’s been dyed ginger or red. Not only do you need to keep your hair healthy but you need to maintain the colour as well.

With having my hair dyed ginger twice (which I love BTW) I know the struggle of trying to stop the colour from fading.

  

Here are the products I use to maintain the colour and look after my hair when it’s been coloured.

Schwarzkopf colour protect shampoo

I always find that using shampoo specifically for coloured hair helps to stop the colour from fading as quickly. I’ve been using the Schwarzkopf colour protect shampoo and it has done a great job of stopping the colour fading quickly. The shampoo is supposed to stop the colour from fading for at least 10 weeks, whilst I don’t think that this is true it did help me maintain my coloured hair for longer (I’ll say about 6 weeks). As well as helping to maintain the colour, this shampoo also helps my hair to look shiny and it has a really nice smell as well!

L’Oreal colour protect conditioning protect spray

I was given this spray as a present the first time I had my hair dyed ginger. The L’Oreal spray is designed to keep your hair nourished, protect the colour. It can be used to detangle hair and can be used on either dry or wet hair. I tend to use this spray every other night before I wash my hair the next day. I found this spray really light and it doesn’t make my hair feel sticky, it also helped my hair to feel fresher (especially if I hadn’t washed it in a couple of days). This spray has really helped me to maintain the colour of my hair.

For anyone with coloured hair I would defiantly recommend these two products as they’ve really helped me. What products do you use to look after coloured hair?

A boho Mood board

Hi!
   I hope you are all well, if any of you have any upcoming exams then I wish you the best of luck!

Those of you may have read my post on wanting to have a more boho style (POST LINK HERE: http://petiteseverina.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/aspiring-to-be-boho.html)and I still love the carefree vibe that surrounds the style. Today I wanted to do a slightly different post and share with you my boho mood board, which has all my inspiration for living a more boho lifestyle. 

*Disclaimer: I don't own any of these photo's*

I hope you enjoyed my mood board, do you have a mood board for anything?