TK Maxx Christmas Challenge

Can you believe it is December already? This year has seemed to fly! I don't know about y'all but when it comes to Christmas shopping I am not the type of person who has it all done months in advance. I tend to leave it all until the last minute and then freak out and scramble to find everything I need.  Luckily for me my favourite store TK Maxx has you sorted this Christmas season with unique gifts for everyone on your list at up to 60% off!

TK Maxx challenged me again to shop for five people on my list for under £200 and I was more than up to the challenge. To be fair the biggest challenge of all was not buying lots of stuff for myself while I was there!

First I went looking for ideas for my Lassies Who Lunch girlies. These amazingly soft blankets screamed out Lorz to me as she is always going on about how she loves soft  stuff:

 RRP: £49.99 TK Maxx Price: £16.99!

Steph has really been getting into baking lately and is always bringing in cakes for us to try at the office. This cake caddy would be perfect to help her carry around her latest confection creation:

RRP: £14.99 TK Maxx Price: £7.99!

I've said it before and I'll say it again--NotBlondeHusband is notoriously hard to buy for. Luckily for me this amazing designer corduroy blazer with elbow patches caught my eye straight away: 

RRP: £275 TK Maxx Price: £43!

My Sister-in-Law recently came up to visit from London and was complaining that her purse was falling apart so that made her super easy to shop for this year! I loved the ruffle detail on this designer bag and knew the cream colour would match her winter coat:

RRP: £85 TK Maxx Price: £29.99!

Since retiring my Mother-in-Law has told me she doesn't really have any shoes other than high-heeled work shoes or gym shoes. These super cozy sheepskin boots would fill the gap in her wardrobe perfectly especially as it gets colder day by day in Scotland:

RRP: £80 TK Maxx Price: £34.99!

I should have paid £504.98-my total spend was £132.96--

74% off the RRP!

Not bad for 5 presents for 5 different people! I couldn't help myself (I love TK Maxx!) so if any little elves are reading this I found some amazing gift ideas for myself, too!

I've been experimenting with different ways to style my hair so I'd love this Volume and Shine Airstyler or these Sleep in Rollers!

RRP: £49.99 TK Maxx Price: £19.99!

RRP: £24.99 TK Maxx Price: £14.99!

Nearly £75 worth of styling goodies for under £35! That's not too much to ask for right?

TK Maxx really is the place to shop to get something for all your friends and family. Stock is refreshed daily so you’ll always find something new every time you visit; stores receive an average of 10,000 new products a week!

These are my top tips for shopping TK Maxx this Christmas:

·      Have an open mind. Your treasure hunt begins here; have ideas of what types of presents you'd like to find rather than specific items. There is something for everyone.

·      Get organised. Grab a trolley or basket and prepare to load up.

·      Make light work of the rails and follow this formula:

 Department (eg. womenswear).  Category (dresses) and size.

·      Deliveries arrive every day (sometimes more) and no two stores 

are the same, so be prepared to have a new look every time.

·      What you see is what they have. There are no stock rooms, everything comes 

straight from the delivery to the shop floor. 

Remember, when it's gone at TK Maxx, it really is gone. 

Be decisive and sharpen your elbows!

TK Maxx has over 277 stores in the UK and Ireland, you can find your nearest here or shop online!

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Christmas Bacardi Cocktails

 

Christmas is right around the corner. So much of what I associate with Christmas and the holidays revolves around smell and taste: roast turkey, cranberry sauce, mint, cinnamon and spice. So given that there's so much of the feeling of Christmas associated with taste, you'd think it's be easy to make Christmassy cocktails: and you'd be right! However, I wouldn't advise a turkey flavoured one.

I took a trip to our local Morrisons, which was looking suitably festive, with the aim of making two cocktails: a warm one for the cold winter nights and a cold one that could be served with Christmas dinner.

 The first thing I picked up, to be used in both cocktails, was the Bacardi!

So many of the smells and tastes associated with Christmas come from spices, so I headed to the spice aisle next and picked up some cinnamon sticks and some mulled wine spices. If you were feeling particularly adventurous you could try and make your own blend with cloves, cinnamon and dried fruit but if you're like me you'll have no time for that at this time of year and these sachets are just as good and twice as easy.

Some sugar: brown goes best with the hot drink.

Some fruit juices: cranberry and cloudy apple. Sweet and Christmassy.

 And since Christmas is all about being decadent and indulging yourself, some whipped cream.

Since it was a cold night I came straight home and started making the hot cocktail!

Hot Mulled Apple Bacardi (makes 4 servings)

For this I heated up 1 litre of the cloudy apple juice in a pan and, once it started to boil, added one mulled wine sachet, which is pretty much a Christmassy teabag! We like cinammon in this house, so I threw in two cinammon sticks too and the juice and zest of half an orange.

I let the apple juice simmer for a few minutes to infuse and craftily put 50ml of Bacardi into a mug.

Once the sachet and sticks had been in the simmering apple juice for 5 minutes I poured 1/4 of the liquid (roughly 250ml) on top of my Bacardi and gave it a stir.

As I said we like things cinammonny in this house, so as a festive garnish I served with a cinnamon stick in the drink and topped with whipped cream.

Straight away the drink is so warming; firstly it's obviously hot but the warmth you get from the spices could heat you up by itself.

For the cold cocktail I went for a sweet and minty martini: The Candy Cane!

Stick a generous handful of ice in a cocktail shaker (and some in a martini glass to chill it)

Frost the rim of the martini glass by wetting it and turning upside down into a saucer of white sugar.

Add 50ml cranberry juice, 37.5ml Bacardi and 25ml Creme de Menthe Blanc* to the shaker and shake for 7 seconds. (Top trick to shaking cocktails, if you can't be bothered counting you can judge by feeling the side of the shaker, once it's fully mixed the side will get colder as the ice deteriorates.)

Strain into frosted martini glass and serve. It tastes like a candy cane, sweet and pepperminty!

*Creme de menthe blanc isn't necessarily the easiest spirit to find but there are alternatives. Normal creme de menthe would work but the green colouring kind of spoils the look. You could substitute for peppermint vodka. How do you make that?

Pack of these:

In a bottle of this:

Leave over night then strain!

The cocktails are really different but still both Christmassy. I can see the hot mulled apple cocktail being something we could enjoy on cold nights throughout the whole of December and I'm looking forward to trying the Candy Cane on my family at Christmas dinner.

What is your favourite Christmas cocktail?

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What I Wore Wednesday: Work Christmas Party

I've been working since I was 15 years old but in all those years (you decide how many) I've been to exactly 3 work Christmas parties.  I know it doesn't seem fair to me either; one in 2001 when I worked for night club/concert venue in DC (oh the stories I could tell...), one in 2008 when I worked for an alcohol education charity and my third last Friday for my current contract.

We went to Brown's on George Square in Glasgow where the regular Christmas meal suspects were present: turkey, crackers with crowns and games and lots of wine.  I really love the people I work with so it was a great night to just hang out and relax with them.  I wasn't sure what I was going to wear but then when my fellow Lassies mentioned buying new dresses I went into a panic.

I hit up pretty much every stores at Glasgow Fort on the Wednesday night before our night out: HM, New Look, River Island, Next, TopShop, Wallis, Oasis....I even ventured into Quiz. NOTHING. Thursday day I spy a super cute sequin skirt in Marie Claire from Primark so I go and buy it in two colours to coordinate with tops at home. Get home and my super cute skirt looks really frumpy on me. So I raided my closet and after only one possibly viable option decided to take a last ditch trip to my lover: TK Maxx.  I should have known just to go there from the start!

Velvet Hair Bow Headband- ASDA

Black and Red Keyhole Dress- TK Maxx

Black Ankle Boots-New Look

So I had a rotten time trying to get photos but the dress is black on top and deep red with a sort of damask pattern on the bottom. I've never work a keyhole dress before as I wasn't sure if it would suit me. The dress was great standing up but sitting down it was probably a bit more boob-a-rific than anticipated. Luckily the top part of the keyhole meant I didn't look too pornographic--at least I hope that is what it did!

I really wanted a big glittery Crown and Glory hair-bow ala the always fabulously accessorized Miss West End Girl but I couldn't find one in Glasgow to save my life. So I settled for this massive velvet bow headband from the little girl's section at ASDA-- keeping it classy as always.

I'm convinced I look like a demented Lady Gaga in a Christmas crown--what do you think? Does your work have a Christmas party?

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What I Wore Wednesday: Nail Art

One of the things I've gotten back into fashion-wise since starting back in an office is painting my nails. I'm not sure why but plain nails just bum me out and I've convinced myself manicured nails are more professional some how. Sometimes I just go for a plain manicure but I've been getting more and more adventurous with trying out nail art.

I'm nowhere near good enough to try anything too crazy but I have been mixing it up and stepping out of my statement nail or glitter top coat comfort zone.  To be fair there is still a lot of glitter and a plethora of statement nails but I'm trying a few different things, too!

I went to HM to buy something and saw a black nail art pen in that "impulse buy" bin while I was waiting to pay---you know what I mean where everything is just cheap enough that you HAVE to have it? It took three of us probably about 10x each before we figured out how to open up the stupid pen but I was pretty happy at my first attempt at a funky French manicure.

I really wanted to try using masking tape to do some nail art but I'm lazy so I only did it on one nail. I'm actually pretty pleased with how this turned out even if it is a statement nail, nail art hybrid. Masking tape isn't really ideal for nail art though so I'll need to find something else that works better.

Finally I did a caviar manicure statement nail. Again I'm lazy and one nail alone on each hand was hassle enough. I like the idea of a caviar manicure but like I mentioned it wasn't easy and the beads chipped off the edge of my nail overnight and by 3pm the next day I'd picked the rest off. I'm also just not really sure about this colour either.

Have you ever tried nail art? What is your favourite colour or design to wear?

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