Blogmas Day 21 - Christmas Party Snack Ideas

Last night I had my annual Christmas party where I had my friends round for some nice food and our Secret Santa gift exchange. Although it wasn't really secret since we all said who we had bought our present for and then opened them. I never usually open any presents until Christmas, apart from one from my nanny which is usually pyjamas for us to wear on Christmas Eve.

I love making snacks so here are a few photographs of the food we had (I love food photographs). I don't know if this is something people in America eat, or if this is just a British thing, but I actually love cheese and pickled onions on cocktail sticks. So good!

Then we had some lovely cranberry and white chocolate cheese with crackers. Also very delicious, and I do love some nice cheese at Christmas time.

Some carrot batons and a dip selection of Asda. There was also bread sticks and Doritos to dip as well.

If you follow Bethany (Macbarbie07) on YouTube then you may recognise these from her videos last year. She got salted pretzels and melted Hershey's Kisses on top of them, and then topped them off with an M&M. The combination of salty and sweet makes them absolutely delicious. Unfortunately, I left them under the grill slightly too long and the chocolate burnt a bit, I was not amused. Apparently they still tasted just as good though. I also couldn't get Hershey's Kisses anywhere so I had to just use some squares of chocolate. I highly recommend trying these if you haven't already, even as just a snack for yourself.

If you know me, then you'll know I love to bake, and no party is complete without me making some cupcakes. To get into the festive spirit I made some candy cane peppermint cupcakes. I'll not go into too much detail about these though as I plan on putting the recipe for how to make them up in the next few days. I also didn't have enough icing to put on the amount I usually do which made me quite sad, but they worked out okay! Apparently I wasn't having such a good baking day.

Some hot food was also made as you can see from the table. We had some mini pepperoni pizzas for the meat eaters, and also some cheese ones. Then there was loaded potato skins with cheese and onion, cheese and tomato, and cheese and jalapeno. Then there was also egg fried rice, and some cheese bites.

Please, please let me know what type of snacks you make if you're having friends over, or just when you feel like making something nice. I love getting new ideas, and snacks are my favourite!

Blogmas Day 10 - Lush North Pole Soap Review

A little Lush review for you all today, a nice seasonal one. I purchased this soap about a month ago and have been using it along with my Avon shower gel which I mentioned in my November favourites post. I love Lush at Christmas time because they always get such nice products in so I was pleased to try out a new soap as  they're usually my favourite thing!

There are two different types of North Pole soap, a white one and a pink one. I had a sniff at both in the shop and I have to say, I couldn't really smell anything from the pink one. I don't know if it was just me and maybe my nose was blocked from having the cold nearly all month, but it just smelt like soap to me! Is it just me, or did anyone else find this too? I went with the white one anyway because it had a lovely mint smell to it.

Pros :

• Minty, clean smell. Like peppermint!
• Creamy texture which feels like it's really making you clean
• Long lasting

Cons :

• No smell to the pink version

Has anyone tried any of the Lush seasonal soaps? Which was your favourite?

Lush - The Hair Doctor review

The Hair Doctor

Around 3/4 weeks ago I made a few purchases from Lush, and one of them was called The Hair Doctor. I have quite dry hair from dying and bleaching it for so many years so I'm always on the look out for hair products that will make my hair softer and in better condition. Everytime I get paid I like to go and make some purchases at Lush and I always look online and write a list first of what I want to buy. I checked out all the hair treatments they had available and this seemed to be the best one (and also a pretty good price). I decided to finally use it tonight for the first time, and I was very glad I did. It was also about to expire so I was lucky I checked it! When I was in the shop the girl told me to treat it as a dairy product because of the ingredients that were in it and to keep it in the fridge and that this was why it had an expiry date. The instructions on the tub said to put it on to dry hair and leave for 20 minutes. I had planned on using only about half the tub, but since I wouldnt be able to use it after today I ended up using the whole thing. As soon as I put it on my head I could smell the mint scent coming through straight away. It's a really nice smell and it's still there now after washing my hair. It took about 10 minutes to put it on my whole head and it's really heavy on your head when you've finished. After around 20 minutes I went up to wash it off. It's really thick and takes a while to wash out of your hair, and you have to use shampoo and conditioner afterwards as normal. I used the Karma shampoo bar from Lush and then the Glad Hair Day conditioner from Soap & Glory and I think they all worked well together. After washing it out of my hair and drying it my hair feels super clean. I think using it got rid of all the product build up that seemed to be in my hair and my hair feels much lighter. The peppermint in it is also supposed to be very good for your scalp if it's itchy. This isn't a problem I ever have, but I feel like my scalp feels really healthy after using it. As for helping with dry hair, I don't think it has on the ends, but it made my hair feel very smooth, and got rid of some of the frizz which means I could probably get away with not straightening it if I wanted to, since that's the only reason I straighten my hair.

Pros -

• Inexpensive (compared to other ones in Lush)
• Nice peppermint scent that lingers
• Clears up product build up
• Gives that squeaky clean feeling

Cons -

• Didn't quite do what I wanted, which was softer ends, but it did make the top of my hair nice and soft.

All in all, a good product, and for £6.50 a tub, I think it was worth it, and I know that I could get two uses out of it if I wanted to. I'll be buying it again on my next pay day :)

Also, don't forget to save your tubs from Lush. Bring back 5 and they give you a free fresh face mask!