hello 2011

Happy New Year, lovely blog readers!

Have you made any New Years resolutions this year?
I've made a few - one of which is to keep up with this blog! I'm very excited to say that, despite being a bit absent from this blog, I've guest posted over at The Novelista Barista - one of my favourite blogs and one that I would definitely recommend you to check out if you haven't already! I've written a list of my new years' resolutions over there, which Jen has kindly posted on her blog for me. What do you think of my resolutions?
Check out my guest post at The Novelista Barista here.

And how were your Christmases and New Years? I've actually had a really great festive season this year - with quite a lot of travelling around the country! I spent Christmas with my family and my maternal grandparents, and then ventured over to Buckinghamshire - a lovely, picturesque county to the north-west of London - to spend a few days with my paternal grandparents, over Boxing Day and 27th December. It was filled with cups of tea, dog walks, snow, cosying up by the fire and jigsaw puzzles, and was perfectly relaxing.
Next up was Brighton for a few days. Any semi-regular reader of this blog will know that Brighton, a town on the South Coast of England, is not only my university town and where I used to live but the town that really holds my heart, and so it was great to go back down there for a couple of days. I visited my friends Alex and Lauren - Alex has a flat down there, and Lauren is living in France but was staying over with Alex for a few days. It was wonderful to be with the girls again, and a lot of catching up, shopping, Desperate Housewives and chocolate and wine consumption ensued!
And I then ventured up to Oxford on 30th December, to see my boyfriend Richard who lives up there. We spent New Year together at one of his friends' parties, and enjoyed being with each other until today - even squeezing in another day trip down to Brighton and a visit to a comedy show down there. Lovely!

Caught up in festivities and days off, I've been away from the blog for a few too many days, but I am back, and in full swing with this blog for 2011, so I hope you'll keep up with my blog this year!

And because I haven't yet shared what I got for Christmas, here's what I got - what do you think? I think I got a great haul this year!

A gorgeous calendar, filled with florals and teacups

A cupcake notecard set

A Cath Kidston sewing set

...and two Cath Kidston mugs
(I am now well on the way to owning the entire contents of the shop)

Some really great books

Gorgeous floral coathangers

And a beautiful leather diary