What I've Been Loving Lately #2

Last year I did a post rounding up all of the things that I'd been loving at the time and I thought making another one would be a good way to ease myself back into blogging. I have quite a lot of posts in the works coming up this month (as you'll read about below!) but this acted as a way to catch up generally.


1: Gilmore Girls
Whole post coming separately, but will contain spoilers. If you haven't watched it before, just do it. You won't regret it! Basically I watched all of Gilmore Girls in October and the revival on the day it came out and I just loved it all so much that I'm tempted to start from the beginning again already...

2: Nando's 
Until I started my job, I really didn't get the appeal of Nando's and honestly thought it was a waste of money for chicken and chips, but somehow in the past year I've actually become a bit of a Nando's fan girl. I get cravings for it. I bought the sauces so I could make it at home. What have I become?! I usually get the grilled chicken burger in Mango and Lime but then cover it in the Garlic sauce at the table, with either chips or spicy rice depending on what I'm feeling - in case you were wondering. That being said, I am quite tempted by the Peri-Berry burger that's out at the moment for Christmas.

3: Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish
I used to get Birchboxes about a year ago and honestly, I tended to put all of the samples I received in a box on a shelf and proceeded to forget about them. But whilst I've been away at uni, my mum has moved our bedrooms around so when I went home for a weekend, all of my stuff was arranged differently and I noticed the samples box and found a sample of Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish in there. As it used to be a such a cult favourite in the online beauty community, I couldn't resist trying it and I've been in love with it ever since! My skin feels so soft and smooth after using it and it smells so soothing, perfect for using just before bed. However I would say I'm not sure it's the best for removing mascara (potentially just because I don't really like putting it around my eyes too much...) so I tend to use a micellar water to remove my make up first, and then use this to cleanse with after.

4: Instrumental Music
Again, you're getting a bit of a preview for an upcoming post here, but I recently went to see Ludovico Einaudi perform live in Cardiff, so basically November has been all things instrumental to get me in the mood for it! One of my best friends at uni is really into instrumental music so I've tended to just have his playlists on repeat constantly. It did mean I ended up listening to scores from The Hobbit and Pirates of the Caribbean whilst trying to revise the other day though... Just a bit distracting! I think Hans Zimmer's soundtrack for The Holiday has been one of my favourites recently, potentially just because it's getting close to Christmas though.

5: Chocolate Orange
Speaking of Christmas, an absolute staple food group for me at this time of year is Chocolate Oranges. Personally, I'm not a major fan of chocolate orange flavoured things, so the Costa Orange Hot Chocolate is a no go for me really, I think the syrup is just too sweet and artificial tasting. I was so hyped for the McDonald's Chocolate Orange McFlurry to come out (we went on the day they were released only to find out our McD's didn't have any ice cream that day?! Honestly, the Lower Bristol Road McDonald's in Birmingham is just awful) but after trying it, I had to make sure the syrup was thoroughly mixed into the ice cream before I started to enjoy it. The chocolate pieces on top, of course, were brilliant though. I guess I'll just be sticking with the good old fashioned orange segments this year, which is more than enough for me to be honest!

6: Knee-High Boots
I'm not quite sure when I bought my brown knee-high boots from Next, but I can show you pictures from my trip to Paris in February 2012 where I was wearing them, so they've been around for a while to say the least. I wear them quite a bit when I'm at home in the countryside as they're quite a good alternative to wellies when they're not quite necessary, but never thought of bringing them up to uni with me until I forgot to take any spare shoes home with me one weekend and ended up living in these boots, and falling in love with them. I've decided that because they don't really go with anything I wear, that means they can go with everything I wear, so I've had them on pretty much every day since! It's considerably colder in Birmingham than back home, so it's nice to have a sturdy pair of boots that keep my legs warm and are fairly waterproof too.

7: Jam Wagon Wheels
I'm going to try and keep this vague but I needed to buy a friend a selection of sweet treats as part of a gift and ended up with some spare Wagon Wheels in the process. I don't think I've had a wagon wheel in years - for those of you who aren't aware, a wagon wheel is a chocolate biscuit with some jam on, covered in a layer of marshmallow and then the whole thing is dipped in chocolate. Basically about as unhealthy as a snack can be, but absolutely delicious. Although I think they've definitely shrunk since I used to have them in my lunchbox when I was a kid?

8: Christmas Shopping
Buying presents for people is one of my favourite things to do and I may have gone a little bit overboard this year so far. If anyone would be interested in reading a post about what I've got specific members of my family/friends for Christmas then let me know, as I'd love to explain why I got x person y present, as there's always some weird, intricate backstory to my gifts! I do think I need to tone it down a bit now, as my budget for Christmas has seemed to have doubled while I've been buying presents, but my finances certainly haven't... Oops! Oh well, it'll all be worth it when I get to give the presents out to loved ones over the next few weeks.