Christmas #2 | Christmas tree

I'm one of those Christmas hipster-rebel-people who doesn't like red and gold as decoration.
I mean, I like red and gold as Christmas color, and if I see red and gold I suddenly think about december, but I don't like to choose them as colors for my Christmas tree.
When I lived with my parents, we usually decored our Christmas tree with blue and silver things. Last year we used blue ribbons (my mum did them with some tape and wire) and some plastic white snowmen we find in a chinese shop. It was really pretty, I loved those snowmen. You can also find the photo in my instagram profile.

This year, which is my first year in my new house, I decided to change and decor my Christmas tree with white balls and lights. The reason why I decided to do this is that I dream every year for a white Christmas, but here in Italy it usually doesn't snow in December. If it happens, it happens in January/February.
Since snow is one of those symbols you link with Christmas, but sadly I haven't had the fortune to see a white christmas so far... I decided to reproduce the snow on my tree. And of course I think that a white Christmas tree is really elegant and beautiful: my house has these colored walls (I hate them, I can't wait to paint them in spring), so a colored christmas tree would have been just too much.

My tree is 120 cm tall. I used some balls I found in a supermarket (IKEA didn't have the ones that I wanted, Maisons du Monde was way too expensive, and I didn't find a chinese shop in the neighbourhood): a good part of them is made with blown glass, decoration with white painting and glitters. Then I took some balls made with rope, they're just adorable, and I think I'm gonna buy another couple of them because, even if they're expensive, they look really good in my Christmas tree. In the end, I'm gonna add a rope with pine cones, but first I have to find it or some pine cones to create my own. If you have any suggestion about where I can find something like it, I would be extremely glad to know.

I know it looks a little bit naked, but I didn't know how many balls I needed. Maybe I'm going to buy something else, like my so much desired tape of pine cones.

How do you decor your Christmas tree?
♥

Christmas #1 | Candle holders

Hey!
December is finally here, and that means just one thing... CHRISTMAS!
I love Christmas time, I love lights and cold days and the crowd in the shops, I love Christmas songs and everything about decoring yor own home, I love Christmas jumpers and Christmas food. I honestly wait for this very moment every-single-day.
So, I decided to dedicate all my december posts about it. I will talk about my favourite Christmas recipes, my home decor (since this is one of the thing I am most into in this period), my suggestions for gifts and so on.
I also created a playlist on Spotify with my favourite "old-fashioned" songs about Christmas, you can find it here.

For my first post I decided to share with you some candle holders I found on pinterest that you can easily create on your own.
As you know, I am a big fan of candles, I do have an obsession with them, and of course I love candle holders too. On the other hand, I'm not very good at DIY, I've always wanted to learn and train but I'm seriously too awkward for that.
Now that I live alone and I have an entire home to decor, I wanted to try something easy, and these candle holders seemed easy and fun to do.
I searched "christmas DIY" on pinterest and I found some really interesting ideas.
If you want to create your candle holder, you only will need glue and some jars. Then you can easily find tapes or little pieces of decor (for instance pine cones or pieces of holly and so on) on the internet or in stores like Tiger. After that, it's up to you and your creativity.

I'll leave here my photos.
As you can see, they're extremely easy and cheap to do. You can also create them as a gift for friends or parents.
Hope you'll have fun with your creations!

I suggest you to paint your landscape with a permanent marker. I did this with a black thin cardboard, and when I added glue, some parts became white... So I had to paint it again with a black permanent marker! 

In the end, here is some ideas from pinterest, always cheap and easy to do.

Series Update #3

Since I am a big fan of tv series - and you know it, don't you? - and I've mentioned this sometimes in my blog, I decided to dedicate a new column about my tv series.
You can find my top 5 in 2014 here and my first update here.

Today I'm gonna talk about three new series I began in the last few months. You can be sure I won't put any spoiler in my description, so keep on reading!
You should know that I will talk about old series too, because there's so many masterpieces to see and you can discover them even years after the pilot.

The Astronaut Wives Club
Based on Lily Koppel's book, The Astronaut Wives Club tells about the lives of astronauts' wives in the '60s, with their secrets, worries and fears. The plot is all about them and their feelings during their husband's travels in space. What I like the most about Astronaut Wives Club is the absolute credibility of the characters. They are so true that you'll end with identify with one or more of them.
The book is still unreleased in Italy but I'd like to read it in english. Maybe it could be a good way to train!
Only three episodes were released so far, so you should catch up with it.

Wayward Pines
Based on Blake Crouch's book, it's all about a strange little town called Wayward Pines. The protagonist, Ethan Burke, is a secret service agent, and he arrives there after a totally odd accident: it doesn't take too long to understand that Wayward Pines is not like all the other cities in the world.
I think this show can be described as a mix of Under the Dome and The Stepford Wives. It's not the most beautiful tv series I've ever seen, but it's definitely a good thriller/sci-fi show, so if you like the genre, you probably will like it.

The Good Wife
I didn't know this one until some of my twitter following started to talk about it. They were so excited that I decide to give The Good Wife a chance. I must confess, I'm totally in love with it. I usually don't like legal drama, because I don't like law at all - I don't understand anything. But. This tv series is the best one I saw in a long time - since I watched Breaking Bad, I guess. It's quite old, it began in 2009 so there are 6 seasons to watch, but if you like it, you won't realize that there's so much to watch. I love Alicia Florrick, I want to be like her, she's like perfect to me: from the way she wears her suite, to her mother's sensibility. I must confess I totally identify myself with her, I almost cry in some episodes. I began to be interested in law too, so I guess I'm pretty obsessed with The Good Wife.
A must-see.

So that is it for today. Have you ever seen any of this tv shows? Have you begun any new tv series recently? Let me know about it, I'm always happy to see more and more tv series.

Obsessions #2 - Lush

For my second Obsessions-post I decided to talk about Lush.
I think you all know it, it's very famous all over the world.
I've always been attracted by its products because they're coloured, scented and funny, but the first time I entered in a Lush shop I was pretty shocked about their prices. It's not the cheapest shop you can find, but on the other hand I can't avoid to buy something everytime I enter in it.

My favourite Lush products are definitely the bubble bars.
I've already talked about them in this post, but I can absolutely tell you that I adore them. I would like to try everyone, even if someone is not smelling so good to me.
Since my favourite one, the Christmas Penguin, was a limited edition, I bought 3 of them online and I'm using them very carefully, I don't want them to finish too quickly.
Next one I'm going to buy is Dorothy: it's not a lmited edition so I haven't bought it yet, but it's on my wishlist.

Another thing I like about Lush is that everytime you buy something, you are given a lot of samples.
When I bought the Christmas Penguin I got four samples.

The first three products on the left are still to use, I don't like the smell of the powder (second one) and the cream (third one), so I don't know if I'm gonna use them. The first one is a shower gel and I like it but I haven't used it because I recently bought a new shower gel I like very much, not from Lush.

The product in the photo on the right is this one. I tried it but I didn't like it, not because it's a bad product but because I don't need a body butter, it makes my skin so much oilier than it usually is - and trust me, my skin is sooo oily! Fortunately, my mum really enjoyed it.

My last Lush purchases were a mask, Cosmetic Warrior (which is very famous I noticed) and a shampoo bar, Seanik. The shop assistant gave me a sample, Rub-Rub-Rub. The mask was for my boyfriend who has a problem with acne, and I really hope it will be useful for him.

After reading some good reviews about the shampoo bars, I decided to try one. I asked the shop assistant one for my oily hair, and she suggested two kind of bars. I decided to take this one because the other one is similar to a shampoo I tried some years ago. It maked my hair so dry that I couldn't even brush it without strapping it. Of course I want a product that makes my hair clean for 2 days, but I don't want to lose all my hair because of that!

I've used Seanik four times so far, and I admit I like it, except for the seaweed, quite annoying in my honest opinion. But it has such a good smell and my hair lasts 36 hours before getting oily again so it's quite a success for me.

Rub-rub-rub is definitely the best sample I was ever given! I used this tonight and I'm already in love. I think I'm going to buy the whole box. My skin is so smooth and scented. It has a wonderful smell, really. 

On my wishlist there are three products by now, and they are Rub-Rub-Rub, Dorothy, which I mentioned before, Cupcake and Tea Tree Waters.

Did you try someone of these products? Did you recommend me them?

Let me know in the comments below. See you soon! ♥

Obsessions #1 - Scented candles

I'm a girl, and just like every girl on this planet, I do have some obsessions. That's why I decided to begin this new section about them. My obsessions change pretty much, yesterday I was obsessed with eye shadows, tomorrow I will be obsessed with something else, but right now my biggest obsession is definitely this one: scented candles.

I must confess I'm not completely a newbie about this, because my mum is obsessed with incense and scented candles too. She likes to light something which leaves a good smell around, especially when dad has cooked something really stinking. Maybe it's genetic or something!
Despite this analogy, we have different tastes about scents: she likes spicy, oriental and aromatic fragrances, whereas I prefer both zesty and sweet scents. I think the fragrances I like the most are orange blossom and vanilla, but I also like cherry, strawberry and citrus.
Candles can also be a beautiful way to decorate your bedroom or the living room: you can find some candle-holders which are matchable with your furniture everywhere. They can easily become one of your best decorative objects.
I saw on pinterest some amazing DIY to create your personal candle or candle-holder, I'm not very good at DIY but I think that the results can be great. Just look at these below.

https://it.pinterest.com/pin/192669690284217280/

http://it.pinterest.com/pin/98586679317309670/

Aren't they beautiful? I'd like so much to have more time in order to do this!

Anyway, I'd like to talk about my favourite scented candles: Yankee Candles and Ikea candles.
Ikea candles are really good and they leave a good smell in the house. You can find a lot of classic scents, such as vanilla (my favourite), cinnamon, green apple and so on. What is worth going to Ikea for are definitely the candle-holder. Recently I bought this one below, and I love the light when the candle is lighting. It's really elegant and classy, but at the same time it's extremely simple, one of those things you can put everywhere in your house.

Yankee candles are a little bit expensive but I think they're the most perfumed at all. I tried a lot of fragrances, ad my personal top 3 is Black Cherry, Clean Cotton and Vanilla and Lime. Black Cherry is like the best fragrance I've ever smelled, intense, sweet and zesty at the same time. Absolutely amazing. Clean cotton is a "warm" fragrance, really good to relax. Vanilla and Lime is the mix of two perfumes I love, and so this is definitely one of my favourite.
These below are the first Yankee Candles I bought, but I give two of them to my boyfriend's sister as a gift and I didn't buy them again so I cannot tell you whether if I like them or not. Champaca Blossom is on my to-buy list.

Lately I bought two Maisons du Monde candles, one is really similar to Clean Cotton, while the other one is called Promenade au March and it's really weird. I liked it as I smelled it, and my boyfriend liked it too so I gave it to him. The scent is not so intense, but if you don't like to have your room permeated with the smell of the candles, you can like them.

Do you like scented candles? What are your favourite ones? 

I hope you enjoyed this post! Bye ♥