I've NEVER been a Christmas person. It hasn't been a holiday worth celebrating and enjoying, but for the past few years I've allowed myself to get into it a little bit. I don't know if it was just determination to hate the entire holidays (well, I still believe it has lost all its value as an opportunity to spend time with your family) but being surrounded by people who actually enjoy it and get all excited when they get to decorate their houses and get a tree must've rubbed off on me a little.

And the fact that my other half is quite into it has definitely affected it all. Now that we have our own flat, he's really been looking forward to having our very own tree and decorations. We actually went to B&Q a few weeks ago just to get decorations and lights ready, even though we only got the tree a few nights ago.



I must admit, it gives the flat a special atmosphere. I think I will miss it when it's gone! Our Christmas plans are quite open still, I'm working over the holidays apart from Christmas day so I believe we will just get together with the family and relax.

The one thing that always gives me a bit of stress is the whole deal with presents. I'm really not a present person (I always tell people not to get me anything, but they never listen!) so I rarely buy presents for anyone unless I actually see something that feels like the perfect thing to give. I don't want to buy stuff just for the sake of it, it completely goes against my values. 



I'm actually really pleased with the lights I got for the windows. They look good enough to keep on the wall all year round really, they're not exactly screaming "Christmas" all over the place. :)

Now that I'm back to being a redhead, I've done so much research about how to keep my colour last. The few boxes of Garnier Olia I bought washed straight off, so I had to result to buying "specialist" hair colour from Special Effects. It was a very messy process and the colour has stained my finger nails, arms and neck, but oh my the end result is stunning! It's just the perfect mixture of pink and red, couldn't get such a pretty result with high street colours! And the one bottle I got will last me for ages, I only used about a 1/4 of it this time (mixed into some conditioner). Special Effects is a vegetarian colour brand, they use no peroxide or other nasty chemicals so it's perfectly fine to leave the colour in for several hours. Some people have said that they actually wrap it all up in cling film and a towel and have it in their hair overnight! My hair feels really healthy despite the colour being very harsh, couldn't get the same feeling with normal hair colours.

I think I've found the colour I've been searching for all these years! ♥