MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hey loves,

Christmas is almost over in the Bootle household which is upsetting but we do have more family coming over so second Christmas is on its way!

Today has been wonderful! I woke up at 9am and had to get up open Santa's sack which was a combination of chocolates and stationary and even Tuna... yes, Santa has a very wild imagination but I'm in love with tuna so it's okay :D

So after opening presents with my brother and Dad I began to get ready for work :( I had work at 11:00 till 6pm which was a majority of my day so I left when it was light and I came back when it was dark! If you guys want to have his special holiday season then don't get a job in the hospitality industry haha. We had 230 or so people have their Christmas lunch with us today and we were split into teams, me and Phoebe were an incredible team... just saying :) When we finished we were so out of that door it was insane! So I came home, got ready for dinner and had my Christmas dinner which my family so patiently waited for me to have :) After, we did the usual opening of the remaining presents and watched Home Alon Lost in New York which is personally a favourite of mine this time of year! We also watched Bear Grylls and Stephen Fry go on an adventure and Doctor Who on Bbc iplayer :) I fell asleep as it was quite a long day for me and I am now currently watching tv and eating.

Here are a few of the pictures I took on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day :)

I have had a wonderful time with my family and work family today and I hope you guys have also! The Lord has blessed me with so much and I am so grateful, this year has been tough at times but there's been nothing that God didn't bring me through! So Happy Birthday to our Saviour Jesus Christ :)

God bless 

All my love,

My life in this moment.

Hey loves,

I want us to have a real 10 minutes right now, I might start a series of posts on this where I lay 10 minutes of what I'm feeling like in this stage of my life and it's going to be truthful and not only an inspiration for myself but hopefully for that someone who is feeling the same as I. So here we go, as a Christian I've learnt to put everything in God's hands but it's not easy. Recently I have been struggling so much, I can go days without acknowledging God and disobeying His word and it leaves me feeling empty, lonely and hopeless. I felt like there was something wrong with me, seeds of doubt sprouted up from roots I didn't even realise were in me. In all honesty He has still kept me on a piece of string attached to him, I'm still hanging on and I don't even know how but it always brings me to the realisation that He will never give up on me. I find it so very hard to get my head around that and at times it doesn't always make sense and I fall more than a baby learning to walk for the first time and I feel disgusted with myself and it feels like, at times I've reached the end of myself. But despite it all, God has imprinted His love into my heart so much so that at the end of crying rivers and lakes of sadness and frustration and anger towards Him, I still find myself giving it all to Him and trusting in Him. Saying that despite my trials Lord, I will worship You and I will love You. 

For me, I'm such an overanalyst, literally I overthink way too much that it kind of gets dangerous and before I know it my mind is in a whirlwind of everything I think has happened and on the other side is the truth but I'm so caught up, that I can't even see it and I'm so adamant to ignore it. 

Being a Christian is such a narrow path, for me especially this past year I've had to learn and comprehend a lot more knowledge and understanding of the world and God than I ever have before, I know more this year than I ever have in past years and it all became a real bit of a build up. But God has dealt so much in my heart this past year from; deliverance to just plain old lessons. He's convicted me, wrapped me in His love and taught me to discern. I'm still on this incredible journey with Him and I know that it won't all be daisies and tulips, which, in our fleshly way of thinking you'd think, 'if you know it's not going to be a nice ride why go on with it?' Because Jesus thought I was worth it when He died on the cross to redeem me from my fallen self. That is the motivation that I have on this journey with Jesus. He has impacted me so much so that I cannot forget Him, I cannot shake Him from my frame of thinking, I cannot survive a day without Him, I cannot survive being away from Him and I especially cannot imagine being separated from Him for Eternity. 

And to finish I found this on Tumblr, it broke me down and brought me to the reality that as Christians we are all on this journey of being on a process towards perfection until the day our Saviour returns until now we must continue to encourage eachother and help eachother and most of all be there and pray for eachother.

God bless,

All my love!

“

There are days or weeks or even months when I read the Bible and there are no grand epiphanies.

There are whole seasons of Sundays when I sing praise and feel nothing.

There are times of prayer where the silence kills me.

There are great Christian books and podcasts that I eat up which don’t budge my spiritual life.

There are too many times when I doubt the very existence of God and the sending of His Son. It can all feel like a crazy lie.

I’m probably being too honest — but I’ve found that I’m not the only one who feels this way.

It’s in those times that I ask myself, “Am I out of love with God somehow? Am I losing my faith here? How do I get back to where I used to be?”

But I keep reading my Bible. I keep singing on Sundays. I keep praying. I soak in books and sermons. I serve. I enjoy the company of mature Christians. I enjoy the fellowship of the broken.

And you know what? Sometimes the clouds part and God comes through and His love squeezes my heart and I fall to my knees remembering how good He is. Then I read Scripture and can’t stop weeping and I turn on Christian songs in my car full blast and sing loud enough to scare the traffic. I serve with shaking hands and get convicted by those sermons and soak in God’s goodness all over again.

So I've learned over time: I wasn't really out of love with God. I’m just a fragile human being who changes as much as the weather. I was setting a ridiculous standard for myself that can’t be defined by self-pressuring parameters. I was tricked by the enemy into judging my flesh. My faith is based on His grace and not my feelings. And I think I need to relax.

”

— J.S. from this post (via jspark3000)

♥ The Christmas Tag!

Hey loves, I have decided to do the Christmas Tag for today's blog post because I haven't yet done it and Christmas is fast approaching!

So I hope you enjoy this tag :D

1. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE HOLIDAY FILM?

I've just recently posted a list of my favourite Christmas films but if I had to choose just one I would probably have to choose The Polar Express!

2. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS COLOUR?

My favourite Christmas colour has to be Red! It's my go-to lipstick and outfit choice for this season and I love having Red nails :)

3. DO YOU OPEN YOUR PRESENTS CHRISTMAS EVE OR MORNING?

We usually unwrap one present in the morning before Christmas Lunch and then after we've finished lunch we open the presents!

4. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE WINTER FRAGRANCE?

My favourite winter fragrance is Miss Dior Cherie's perfume, it's a very sweet fragrance that I have been searching ages for a dupe of :)

5. FAVORITE CHRISTMAS SMELL?

If we're talking Candle Scents I've been loving this Pumpkin Pie scent and anything spicy or cinnamon-related :)

6. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE HOLIDAY DRINK?

My favourite holiday drink is from Costa and it's a Gingerbread Cream Latte!

7. CANDY CANE OR GINGERBREAD MEN?

Gingerbread Men all the way, they are my favourite type of biscuit. I made some the other day and I came to the conclusion that I should just left it to the baker's.

8. FAVORITE CHRISTMAS SONG?

My favourite Christmas song is Joy to the World. That'll always guarantee me clapping along to it plus it really celebrates Jesus' birth - the reason for the season♥

9. HAVE YOU EVER MADE A SNOWMAN?

I have made many snowmen, I love it, especially decorating it.

10. WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU ABOUT THE HOLIDAYS?

The most important thing about the holidays is being thankful to God that He gave us everything that surrounds us, He's saved us from so much it's unreal. Also family is important, for some family's it's the only time they get together so spend as much time with your family as you can :) 

Hope you guys enjoyed this post!

A Very Christmassy Girly Reunion :)

Hey loves,

I have another more personal post to show you guys today and it's simply due to the fact that I feel like I should share a little more of my life to that of fashion and beauty. 

So around two days ago me and 9 other friends met up after them all coming back from University and had a meal at this cafe called Wholesome Cafe, they had opened up the restaurant just for us which I thought was incredibly dedicated and we literally were so grateful and blessed to have them do that for us - we received such special treatment and everything was perfect!

I ordered a Soup of the Day which was Pea soup topped with cheese and 2 chunky slices of buttered bread. It was beautimous. 

For main I ordered a Turkey and Cranberry pie with vegetables surrounding it. It was so good, I had never had a pie like that before, the crust was so crisp and the insides blended so well together I might have to get my Dad to find out the recipe it was that incredible!

Price-wise it was so cheap! 3 courses for £12.50 :L 

As you can tell my friends are beautiful and their fashion-sense en pointe. I love them to death and seriously was so happy to see them all, we'd all been to secondary school with eachother so we've known eachother for a really long time and we hope that continues!

Me and Rach took a lot of selfies haha...

I hope you enjoyed this quick life post, 

I'm sure I will be posting more with the Christmas holidays coming up! 

God bless,

All my love,

Lipsticks for the Festive Season!

Hey loves, 

I have seen a lot of people wearing the famous red lipstick look this festive season and I'm quite the avid red lipstick collector. It's so strange a few years ago I literally would be way to nervous to try such a bold lip colour with the fear of it smudging on my teeth or worse - my chin. Anyway, after building a bridge I decided to branch out and actually my first ever MAC purchase is pictured here and it has literally lasted me 2 years and can probably go for at least, minimum another two years!

I'll start by numbering the ones pictured above :)

1. Rimmel London - Lasting Finish Lipstick in 136 Ballistic £4.20

2. Loreal - Color Riche Serum in 502 True Red £8.99

3. MAC - Matte in Ruby Woo £15.00

4.Collection 2000 - Gothic Glam Collection in 3 Revenge - £2.99

5. Rimmel London - Lasting Finish Kate Lipstick 01 £3.95 

2. Loreal - Color Riche Serum in True Red

I have literally had this colour for so long, I found it on sale a while ago it has the slightest tear drop shape pink colour in amongst the beautiful red which I think was a wonderful touch. The packaging is gorgeous - there's something about gold packaging that just makes whatever is inside that little bit more special. This is a very creamy lipstick with a very glossy finish I normally wouldn't wear it so glossy so I would simply use my finger to blend. It probably lasts up to three hours but if you're constantly drinking water or have a dinner to go to I would definitely bring it to touch the colour up which doesn't remain on for so long if you are partaking in these activities.

4.Collection 2000 - Gothic Glam Collection in 3 Revenge

You guys have heard me rant about my love for this lipstick way too many times, my apologies I just feel like it's the most gorgeous plum colour which is similar of that concerning MAC's Rebel, I read a comparison blog post on it the other day. With this colour you are able to play up the intensity so when you first put it on it'll appear a beautiful deep purple but using your finger to seperate the colour creates this raspberry plum colour which is perfect for the Christmas season. This also has a very glossy finish and unfortunately does not last that long but all you need to do is carry it around in your bag :)

1. Rimmel London - Lasting Finish Lipstick in 136 Ballistic

I absolutely love this colour it's like a red wine mixed with plum which gives of the most gorgeous plum colour. What I also love about this product is the fact that it doesn't have a glossy finish despite it being a creamy consistency therefore that is the result of a perfect balance which is just what I love to see in a lipstick. It also lasts a few hours and even the faded colour that reveals itself after a few hours of wear is gorgeous because I find it's disappears evenly which is perfect!

3. MAC - Matte in Ruby Woo

So here it is, my first ever MAC product that I got 2 Christmases ago, best present ever? Yes. Literally it costs so much including postage and packaging for one freaking lipstick but it was totally worth look how long it lasted! The best thing I find about Matte lipsticks is that you can have the best of both worlds if you add lipbalm/vaseline the downside is the fact that it's dry to put on and feels uncomfortably dry during the day which is an awful shame considering the actual matte effect that appears on your lips look beautiful, it's just a shame you can't have the Matte look without the dryness but nonetheless this colour is awesome and one that I find is perfect for any season due to its brightness and versatility.

5. Rimmel London - Lasting Finish Kate Lipstick 01 

This was a present I got from my brother the same Christmas I got my Mac lipstick, what a sweetie (yes I chose it AND wrapped it for myself but the thought is still there) This is probably my most worn lipstick to Ruby Woo one of the first things that struck me about this lipstick is the beautiful packaging I mean the simpleness of Kate's signature against the black look divine. Also the scent OMG just wow I don't really know how to describe it but it smells like those beautiful stores you go into in random towns that sell varieties of beautiful handmade soaps. Yup. That's as best I can describe it. It's like flowers freshly picked. Anyway getting back to the actual lipstick the consistency is creamy and it gives off more of a glossy finish then Rimmel London's Ballistic lipstick, I find that the look is very classic compared to the others which combines that classic feel with gloss making the lips appear very voluptuous. 

Here are the non-lipsticks I used, which I'll still involve here because they pretty much do the exact same job as the others did:

1. Maybelline New York - Coloursensational Lip Liner in 547 Pleasure Me Red - £3.98

2. Max Factor Lipfinity Colour & Gloss in 530 Luminous Petal - £9.99 

1. Maybelline New York - Coloursensational Lip Liner in 547 Pleasure Me Red

Now, I am still very new to the Lip Liner world here, I literally own about 3 of them and I've used them to the point where I'm sharpening them everytime I use it which probably isn't right and also I know what I'm doing wrong... I'm not combining it with a lipstick. My bad. I just find that they can give off an awesome Matte effect that I can instantaneously make moisture with vaseline so really you get, awesome and precise execution of the shape of yours lips and you get to put your desired amount of gloss on. Perfect.

Note to self: must invest in more of these.

Check that demure look. Or my attempt-at-a-model pose. Maybe I should try looking into the camera next time rather than that, "Oh, look as if there's something going on in the corner to show you're totally not bothered by the camera" look.

2. Max Factor Lipfinity Colour & Gloss in 530 Luminous Petal 

This lip colour & gloss is incredible for an everyday festive season lip colour I find that these plummy pinks suit my skin tone way more than the bright pink lipsticks and this one is perfect, it's a shame that I'm running out but anyway the Lip colour part creates a matte effect but it also comes with the gloss that you can use which is genius and it leaves the lips looking lovely and glossy although you don't want to put too much on just in case it looks like you've been making out with a guy that could not leave his slobber inside his mouth. Sorry, I know. TMI.

Anyway, that is it for my Lipsticks for the Festive Season post guys, 

I really hope you enjoyed it!

God bless, 

All my love,

10 Christmas Films I have really enjoyed watching.

Hey loves,

Forgive me for not posting in a week, some stuff has happened at home and for a while I wasn't able to get to my computer but I decided seeing as it's exactly ONE WEEK TILL CHRISTMAS! WHAAAAAT That's insane where did this year go? Anyway I decided to keep in with the theme of Christmas posts in December and I decided as you can probably guess by the title to write about my favourite Christmas movies!

Enjoy :)

1. The Holiday

I've written about this movie in a previous blog post - My Sweater Weather Tag but it's basically about these two lovely ladies (Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet) who are having guy troubles one lives in America, the other in a serously cute town in England and they swap houses for a while and while each of them have swapped houses they begin to fall in love with Jack Black and Jude Law. CUTEST.MOVIE.EVER. Please watch it guys!

2. 12 Dates of Christmas

This is about a young girl who attempts to win her ex-boyfriend back, she is also set up on a blind date in which she is totally rude too, it's Christmas Eve and because of a twist of fate she has to relive Christmas Eve 12 times! You know that because its an ABC Family movie that it'll work out right! Haha...

3. Disney's - A Christmas Carol

Guys, this film is so visually stunning - it's incredible! I love Jim Carrey and what an awesome job this film has pulled off! It's about the traditional story about Scrooge an old man that hates Christmas and well, people and life in general really Christmas Eve he is visited by three ghosts, four if you count Jacob Marley in which he visits his past, present and future! 

4. The Polar Express

This is also an incredible visually stunning film and is one of those films that really warm you inside, it's perfect!

Basically the lowdown is that on Christmas Eve, a doubting boy boards a magical train that's headed to the North Pole and Santa Claus' home.

Definitely one for Christmas Eve you guys :)

5. Home Alone

If you guys haven't seen this one have you been living under a hole for the past twenty years? This is a childhood favourite of mine I look so forward to watching it with the family every year it's about a boy who gets left home at Christmas by his family, I know. How bad would you feel if you left one of your children at home on their own! That would suck big time. Anyway he is home alone and has to not only fend for himself but keep two robbers away from stealing his family's belongings!

6. Christmas Cupid

I am mostly very proud about the cast choice ( Chad Michael Murray) If you want another cheesy romance movie about Christmas (and him) then watch this movie! It has the similar storyline to that of Scrooge's A Christmas Carol however Sloane, a publicist is visited by three boyfriends! Ashley Benson plays her mentor pretty much and although she is the dead client of Sloane she is still a helping hand! 

7. Holiday in Handcuffs

Yes, that is the beautifulness of Mario Lopez that you see so all the more reason to watch right? If this happened in real life which it most likely wouldn't that is very unethical haha. A struggling artist working as a waitress kidnaps one of her customers to bring home and meet her parents at Christmas. It's awesome and I think I watch it again for the fifth time this month :)

8. How The Grinch Stole Christmas

This movie is about a creature called the Grinch that tries to take the Christmas out of Hooville, pretty good villain but by the help of a younger more fresh faced Taylor Momsen who save the Grinch and Christmas all is made well in Hooville.

9. Elf

A man raised in the elf community with Santa in the North Pole goes to live with his real dad in the city but because of his elf-ways he is hilariously out of place, this is a wonderful wonderful movie with an awesome message!

10. The Santa Claus Movies

These glorious films surround a man that becomes Santa and deals with all things Santa related, I personally think Tim Allen is hilarious as well but these films are perfect for a family christmas gathering around the television.

Hope you enjoyed this post! I understand there are many more I could choose from, if you have any amazing ones that I have missed or haven't seen please comment down below so that I can check them out :)

Merry Christmas you guys!

God bless,

All my love,