Sunday 20 December 2015

Cosy Christmas Time

How is it possible that Christmas is less than a week away? While I have (for once) finished shopping, shipping, crafting and wrapping all the presents in plenty of time, it seems this time of the year gets no less stressful. Working in retail may have something to do with this — while I knew this time of year was particularly busy in shops, I never expected the level of exhaustion that hits you when you get home from work. Needless to say, first thing I do when I get in through the door is change into my PJs. Cold weather and dark evenings have always made me partial to a cosy night in, but this year particularly so.

Luckily, Fat Face got in touch and asked me if I wanted to discuss some of my cosy Christmas plans and traditions, featuring, you guessed it, PJs. Yes please. You can check out their women's sleepwear range here, it's definitely worth a peek!

So, what are my plans and traditions around this time of the year?


Traditionally, back home in Finland, we would only decorate the tree on the morning of Christmas Eve, but this year I was happy to go along with the British way of things and get our tree fairly early in December. I love the twinkle of the lights in a dark room, the smell of a real tree (an absolute must for me, no matter how many needles I need to hoover up!) and choosing the decorations. The latter was particularly exciting this year, as it's the first time I've been able to get a tree of my own (shared with the boyfriend, obviously) and decide on the decorations.


I burn candles all year long, but especially now that it's dark and cold. Extra points for Christmas scents and wooden wicks.

And of course, as you can see on the foreground, another Christmas essential is Quality Street!


Green triangles are where its at. Quality Street was always something of a special treat back home when I was younger, since it's a fairly expensive (being an import) and only available during Christmas, and it has kept its status as the Christmas chocolate in my head.


Cosy evenings in will generally also involve books. Of course, in my case books are an all year round thing, but it's particularly during Christmas when I feel I can curl up on the sofa for hours and hours, and lose myself without feeling like I'm procrastinating.


Any time spent indoors (or out, to be honest) should also involve tea, or hot chocolate. I tend to buy a fair few festive teas around this time of year and love to warm up with a cinnamon-scented brew multiple times a day.


Look at these slippers! Don't they just look like the cosiest and warmest thing in existence? Because they are. They might look a little over the top without being covered by the bottoms of the PJs (i.e. absolutely humongous on my feet), but I absolutely love them. My toes are always freezing no matter what I wear, but these actually do a good job of keeping my feet nice and toasty.

A word of praise for Fat Face sleepwear; the level of detail is amazing, and the fabric of their bottoms is lovely and thick, which is a massive bonus for someone like me, who is always cold. Plus, they make perfect gifts — I've bought their PJ bottoms as gifts before and they've been very well received! For those of you who are still needing to make some last minute Christmas purchases, do have a look at the Fat Face gift guide they've put together over here! You can order until 4pm on the 23rd for Christmas Eve delivery, which is pretty impressive!

I'm wearing Herringbone Check Lounge Pants in Nightshade*, Lurex Yarn T-shirt in Fresh Snow* and Shauna Sheepskin Moccasins*

What are your plans around Christmas? Have you finished shopping and currently enjoying some well-deserved rest, or are you more of a last minute shopper?


Feature in collaboration with Fat Face. No financial compensation was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own.

Wednesday 9 December 2015

Still Alive!

I had great intentions for today, which included ambitions about writing up two(!) blog posts to accompany the images I've had waiting for about a month. Sadly, I woke up at 2.41am last night and spent the following hours in agony, lying on our bathroom floor with a blanket and a pillow. In other words, not feeling creative at all right now.

Though I'm slightly more recovered now, I'm left utterly exhausted. What a time to be ill! It's the busiest week of the season at work for me as well, so I'm slightly dreading both the possibility of going to work (a single temp left alone to deal with the workload that requires two staff members running at full-speed all day can definitely lead to a disaster) and the possibility that I might not be able to go tomorrow either (because I know I am needed and will have to deal with the backlog when I get back).

Our first Christmas tree, which we decorated last night!
I'm going to be spending the rest of the evening wrapped in a blanket, wrapping up the remaining Christmas gifts for my UK friends and extended family (Finland bunch has now been sent off!). I'm quite sad about not being able to go home for Christmas, as working in retail means I can have very minimal time off during this period. However, I'm loving the opportunity to do all the pre-Christmas things like tree decorating, gift shopping and wrapping, baking and planning with Nick at our first home together. We've also booked tickets to go to Finland at the end of January, so I'll hopefully get to enjoy all the wintery things I love from home, in addition to seeing my friends and family there.

Snowy Finland from last year
There's some exciting content coming up, when I have the energy and time to create it — watch this space! I'm determined to document the creation of my gingerbread house this year, among other things.