Tied up in ribbons.

I've been spending a lot of time lately doing this very thing, wrapping present upon present upon present. It's okay though, because it's actually one of my favourite things to do. I find it weirdly therapeutic, and I love the satisfaction of a neatly wrapped pile underneath the tree. I've blogged about how to fake being good at wrapping before - mostly it's all to do with adding a shedload of ribbon. More ribbon. RIBBON FOR EVERYONE.

This is one of the few gifts I can show on this blog, as I know my niece doesn't read it! I got this little kit from Dotcomgiftshop, and I'm sure we'll sneak away and make it up on Boxing Day whilst everyone is cooing over her new baby brother, Noah (oh, you'd better believe some pictures of that cutie are coming soon).

Dress - River Island 

I'm loving my hair in these pictures - am I allowed to say that? Screw it, I just did. I was on my way out as I was doing my wrapping, and grabbed time to try out my new Babyliss Wave Envy stylers, gifted to me by Argos. They're sort of like big crimpers, but the effect is more subtle and beachy. On a very, very good day, my natural hair goes a little like this, so when I got rained on later in the day, my waves stayed intact. Super! They're so easy to use, I'm loving them. Argos sell a great range of hair straighteners too, as well as lots of other superb Babyliss products.

It was the best, best, BEST night, though. Not only did I get to celebrate Sha's birthday (rather less penguiny than last year, but there were significantly more cocktails) but my old, old friend Jo came back from a year and a half of travelling, meaning bone-crushing bear hugs and lots of catching up. I've known Jo almost my entire life, so when she stayed over on Saturday night and we were still chatting away at 1am, it brought back memories of sleepovers and midnight feasts and repeated warnings from my mother to go to sleep. It was the BEST.