Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree...

One week to go until Christmas Day! I thought I'd celebrate this by featuring some of the best Christmas trees I've seen while I've been out and about this year.

I love a good Christmas tree! I like real trees, synthetic trees, trees with plain lights, trees with coloured lights, trees with loads of decorations and minimally decorated trees. I can't wait until next year when Neil and I have our own house to decorate, but this year I'm just admiring other people's lovely trees from afar.

I couldn't pick a favourite out of the trees below, so these photos are in no particular order. Enjoy!

I absolutely love this elegant Christmas tree at Cardiff International Pool

Silvery white tree in Cardiff's Queen's Arcade

Lovely tree in the Metropole Hotel, Llandrindod Wells

Beautifully simple tree outside Neil's house

Tacky but fantastic effort from Asda!

Colourful tree in Shot in the Dark

McArthur Glen's massive Christmas tree!

Have you found your favourite Christmas tree yet? 7 days to go!

A busy weekend!

Last weekend was a bit hectic, so obviously I had to blog about it. I love using my blog to document various events and photos, even if they might seem mundane to other people. Isn't that what a lifestyle blog should be all about?

It all started with an awards ceremony at the Vale Resort on Friday night. A campaign led by my organisation had been shortlisted for a Welsh Housing Award... we won! It was a lovely evening (with amazing chocolates) and it gave me a chance to wear my beautiful new dress. I love the lacy detail... this might be my new favourite dress.

This dress is from Tesco, believe it or not!

Neil and I went to McArthur Glen in Bridgend on Saturday afternoon to do some Christmas shopping. I was absolutely determined to finish my Christmas shopping this weekend, and I always get some great bargains in McArthur Glen. It didn't disappoint, and I even managed to spend some money on myself... two pairs of jeans for £37 in Gap. Gap jeans are the only jeans which fit me properly as they actually cater for short people, so I was very happy with this bargain. They were originally supposed to be £39.99 each! I really wanted to post a few photographs of the presents I bought for other people, but I'm not risking it in case they happen to stumble upon my blog. That would be highly unfortunate.

Beautiful Christmas tree in McArthur Glen

We obviously had to pop in to Sidoli's for a break...

After finishing our shopping, we drove to pick Liz up from the bus station then went back to my flat to watch the rugby. I'm not going to comment on the result! We then went to Tenkaichi and ate a LOT of food, then went back to the flat to watch Black Books and play Scrabble. I won... I never win anything two nights in a row. Another lovely evening was had by all. 

On Sunday morning, I drove to Cribbs Causeway with Liz to meet Amy, another university friend. Our Christmas shopping trip to Cribbs has become an annual tradition and it's always a good chance to catch up on all the news and to blitz the last few bits of Christmas shopping. I loved the Christmas decorations in the shopping centre... 22 days to go!

Very similar to the decorations in Cardiff's St David's 2 shopping centre

Palm trees and Christmas trees... why not?

Pretty decorations in John Lewis

No visit to Cribbs is complete without a visit to Pizza Hut

After a very successful two days of shopping, I've actually finished my Christmas shopping! However, after such a busy weekend of catching up, eating and shopping, I feel as if I need another two days off just to recover. I'm definitely not complaining though, I love productive and sociable weekends. 

What did you get up to last weekend?

Sidoli's ice cream

I've made no secret of the fact that I love ice cream more than most normal people. It's just the best thing ever. Although Joe's Ice Cream and the strawberry ice cream at The Magic Kingdom remain firmly at the top of my list, I have found a new rival! We went to Bridgend's designer outlet a few weeks ago and decided to pop in to Sidoli's for an ice cream. I haven't had Sidoli's ice cream for years as it doesn't have many outlets so I was pretty excited about trying it again. We went for three scoops each (judge away), but the server was very generous so it was more like six scoops!

I went for Raspberry Ripple, vanilla with tiny chocolate pieces (I can't remember the official name...) and toffee fudge. It was like a huge lump of happiness in a tub. Amazing. 

Are there any other Sidoli's fans out there? If you haven't tried it, you need to!

Snow and shopping

A useful tip for you... If you want to visit Bridgend's Designer Outlet (McArthur Glen) when it's quiet, you need to go when South Wales has experienced a bit of snow. We decided to drive there yesterday, and the roads and the outlet itself were beautifully quiet. I actually went there with some specific purchases in mind... a new pair of jeans and a hat. Miraculously, I came away with a new pair of jeans and a hat. That almost never happens to me, especially when it comes to buying jeans. My phobia of buying jeans deserves a whole blog post of its own, so I won't go into that right now. I needed to restrain myself from buying everything in O'Neill seeing as they had a massive sale, but I managed to restrict myself to just buying the hat. £4.95 down from £20... bargain. I'm sure you'll agree.

Ta dahhh! I don't look good in hats, but I don't care. It's cold, and might be even colder when I go to New York.

Even though I'm not the biggest fan of snow, the roads and surrounding areas did look very picturesque. When we got to the outlet, the staff had done a brilliant job of shifting snow in the car park, and in the outlet itself. I was taking photos as if I'd never seen snow before... I blame my new year resolution to take more photographs. Here are some of my favourites:

The A4232! Don't panic, I wasn't actually driving, just photographing incessantly. 

Another bit of the A4232...

Trees outside the outlet. Looks like a Christmas card!

Piles of snow in the car park

Piles of snow in the actual walkways...

MASSIVE pile of snow. I like piles of snow, can you tell? As long as they're not in my way. 

More snow in the car park... I think these photos are interesting, ok?

A summing up of my weekend purchases... aforementioned jeans and hat, as well as some Disney pyjamas from Asda which I didn't really need. 

I am aware that a lot of these posts aren't actually filled with very interesting information (or interesting photos, for that matter). However, I like finding a use for my photos, and I find blogging quite therapeutic, even if I'm just blogging about what I've been up to. So more similar posts to follow... sorry, peeps.