2015 MEMORIES

Taking inspiration from my lovely friend Laura from Style and Sushi, I thought I would share some of my favourite memories from the duration of the past year! 2015 has been such a great year and I cannot wait for 2016 and the opportunity to make more memories. I share a lot of what I get up to on Instagram, follow me there if you want to keep up with my adventures over the next year.

 I started 2015 off In my favourite place, London watching the fireworks

 A couple of days after I met up with Ellie and finally met Laura after waiting for the longest time to finally meet!

 I went to Paris with my friend for her birthday for a couple of days

 Celebratory drinks after finishing a project that I had been working on as a marketing intern for six months!

 A day trip to Brighton with my now-boyfriend, Adam

 My family went on a mini city break to Rome for a couple of days, we managed to jam so much in to the time we spent there and I would love to go back

 I took Mum to London on her birthday, we went out for lunch and to Kew gardens and had such a lovely day

 A rather spontaneous family trip to Bournemouth where we spent the day mostly taking photos

 Adam and I went to Florence and Pisa as our first holiday together

 A random selection of photos from my Interrail trip, where I spent five weeks travelling around Europe. YOu can read more about it in my full Interrail blog post

 A really delicious BBQ that I had with Adam and some of his friends

 A first IKEA trip with many more to come over the months that followed!

 Adam and I managed to perfect our chicken ramen recipe that we now make on such a regular basis

 Before heading out to a lovely evening of dinner and drinks

 One of my favourite days from this year, we went to Arundel and spent the day playing crazy golf, rowing on the lake and having a pub lunch

 I went to London with my Aunt and Grandma for a proper 'girls day' of shopping and going to the Cowshed spa in Selfridges, before being met for a Hyde Park picnic in the evening by my Dad and sister

 Seaside BBQ with my family followed by beach games

 A room full of connected trampolines, what more could you want?!

 The first day of university!!

 One of my favourite nights from Fresher's week

 Discovering that my university has its' own woods and that they are actually very photogenic!

 Halloween at univeristy with two of my favourite people!

When Adam came to visit me at university and we took a trip to Morecambe

 Another great university night out

 The post Dominoes 'I now can't move and I need a nap' feeling

 My university had a massive power cut due to the flooding and term ended a week early - a perfect opportunity to visit the Manchester Christmas markets with my Aunty!

 Adam and I took my sister to Brighton for a day of shopping, eating and ice skating

 Christmas Day walk by the William Morris Gallery

 A day out in Southsea with mum

THE PONCHO

Poncho: Topshop
Shirt: Vintage M&S
Jeans: Dr Denim
Boots: Russell and Bromley
Lipstick: Charlotte Tilbury 'Glastonberry'

This was my Christmas Day outfit and I thought I would share a few snaps that my family took for me on the annual Christmas Day walk. I did get a few weird looks as my Dad and Sister were using three Canon DSLRs between them and the whole setup looked slightly over the top... the things we do for blogging eh!

This is only the second time I have worn my poncho due to living up in Lancaster for the past three months and not really being able to leave my flat without practically wearing thermals! I really hope I get the opportunity to wear it much more over the Christmas holidays when I am in the South, as well as the lead up to Spring - I know it would look so nice with my over the knee boots from Russell and Bromley that I feature regularly on islaay.com!

THE PERFECT HOLIDAY GIFT

After getting my first Daniel Wellington watch in around February time I have worn it every single day and it has definitely turned me into a watch wearing person that feels lost when I don't wear it! A watch from Daniel Wellington is the ideal christmas gift for one of those slightly more awkward people that you don't know what to buy for. Daniel Wellington uses simple but classic designs that won't date over time, making them worth the investment. They come beautifully packaged in the cream and brown box that is perfect for storing it in and will be lovely to unwrap when it comes to Christmas Day.

This is the Classic St Mawes with the rose gold face and mahogany brown strap style, however they sell a wide range of different textures and colours of straps to suit a lot of tastes, as well as doing watches for both men and women. The straps are interchangeable, meaning that they can always buy additional straps to accompany the watch face and build up a collection over time.

If you were considering this as a christmas present idea for someone, you can use the discount code DWislaay to save 15% on your order until the 15th January!

This watch was sent to me by Daniel Wellington

to feature in a blog post, however I am not being

paid to feature it and I am not affiliated with them.

THE TARTAN SCARF

Jacket - Jaeger
Jeans - Dr Denim
Boots - Russell and Bromley
Jumper - Edinburgh Woollen Mill
Scarf - House of Fraser
Watch - Daniel Wellington
Lipstick - Charlotte Tilbury 'Glastonberry'

This type of outfit has become my go to outfit if I'm just popping to the shops, going into town or having a day out. It's very comfy and is easy to mix it up with different oversized jumpers and scarves so it doesn't look like you are wearing the same outfit all day every day despite that being exactly what I do...

If you were thinking of getting yourself a Daniel Wellington watch, use the code DWislaay to save 15% off before the 15th January.

CHRISTMAS WRAPPING

I've gone for a classic theme for my Christmas wrapping this year with simple brown wrapping paper, red and white bakers twine as a ribbon and then a wax seal on my Christmas cards. I bought the brown paper and bakers twine on Amazon and got both for around £7 and then bought my wax seal set on Ali Express. I think the wax seal adds a lot to a simple card and it makes it a lot more special than just the normal Christmas cards.

It is all very simple to do but I feel it will look very festive when it's sat under the Christmas tree!

THE CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE FOR HER

For this year's Christmas gift guide I have collected together a few of my favourite items; all of which I would personally love to receive as a Christmas present! They are all fairly generalised and can be made as affordable or expansive as you like so I hope you get some inspiration to suit your budget!

Here are links to the products I have included, or similar ones if they were no longer available

Simple Bracelet (originally from Whistles however they no longer stock it, however ASOS have quite a few that are similar)

Statement Earrings (mine were originally from Topshop and they no longer sell them but these are similar)

Classic Watch from Daniel Wellington - save 15% on Daniel Wellington with the discount code DWislaay until 15th January

Simple Necklace If you have a slightly larger budget a nice idea would be to get a simple bracelet to match the necklace

Mac Lipstick If they like red lipsticks I would reccommend 'Russian Red', if they are in to nude lipsticks I would recommend 'Mher' and if they are into dark burgundy lipsticks I would recommend 'Dark Side'. If you have slightly more of a budget you could get her a lip liner to match!

Luxury Face Mask This is my favourite face mask of the moment, however you could also have a look at Origins as they have a selection to suit a wide range of skin types

The Daniel Wellington was gifted to me to feature in a blog post, 

however I am not being paid to feature it and all opinions are my own. 

None of the above links are affiliate links.

BRAIN FOOD PORRIDGE - COOKING WITH ISLAY

Banana, Honey, Almond and Cinnamon Porridge

Since starting university and getting into the swing of uni life, I have already quickly found myself fitting the lazy stereotype and often find myself skipping breakfast to have an extra ten minutes in bed (especially important for that 9am I have on my timetable on a Monday morning...) I have a couple of exams coming up in the next two weeks before we break up for Christmas and I know that before those I will definitely need a good breakfast and a big mug of coffee so that I'm not sat there falling asleep!

The ingredients for this are all reasonably affordable, and they're mostly the type of thing that once you have them, you can keep them in your cupboard and use them time and time again. As well as that, it tastes delicious! I've been having it for brunch quite a lot recently and it's really kept me full for the rest of the day.

You will need:

- A banana

- Oats 

- Your choice of milk (I use lactose free but you can use normal/soya/almond or whatever you prefer)

- Almonds

- Honey

- Cinnamon

- If you happen to have any other fresh fruit,seeds or nuts hanging around they will pretty much all taste great on it! I sometimes add flaxseeds/ chia seeds/ pumpkin seeds / sunflower seeds/ blueberries to mine

Simply make the porridge as you would normally; I cook it in the microwave for three minutes with a break half way through to stir it but you can do it in a pan or by using one of the individual serving packets if you find that easier

While the porridge is in the microwave, chop up your almonds and banana (plus anything else you've chosen to use) 

After the three minutes are up just assemble it all together with a drizzle of honey and a sprinkling of cinnamon!

This literally takes five minutes to make and there is only a small amount of washing up to do afterwards. This, as well as there being so many brain food ingredients in it makes it the perfect breakfast! From now on I am going to try my hardest to snooze my alarm one less time in the mornings so that I have time to get up and make this before lectures!