Hello! On a bid to become more personal with my blog readers this year I have decided to trial out a new monthly series idea with you - A monday monthly summary. This basically entails me sharing with you what I have been up to over the previous month and perhaps, if I have any, any photographs too. Please let me know what you think of this idea and if many of you like this I shall update you all again at the end of February!

January:

New Year: January for me started with my mum,dad,sister and I reigning in the new year in our living room after haven eaten a delicious chinese takeaway. This allowed for some 'de-stress' before the new year rolled in with lots of work for us all.

Revision and Exams: New Years Eve was the last chance to de-stress for me as I had two exams in Janaury - History (Crime and Punishment) and Science (P2a,C2a,B2a). I spent the majority of my christmas break and far too many hours in January devoted to revision which ended up with a very relieved Beth when they both were over. For me, I found science the better of the two however only time will tell before the results arrive.

Parties and Dinners: In January I celebrated both of my Grandads birthdays (both of which share a birthday) by eating lovely food at the local pub and at another, not so local, Chinese Buffet ( have you gathered we love chinese food!?). This allowed for a lovely chance to spend time with family that we often don't get the chance to sit down and have a good chat with. I also went to one of my friends 16th birthday parties which was also great fun with lots of dancing and generally having a good time celebrating not only her birthday but the end of our exams.

Snow: Janaury was also a time for snow! For me, the geek who stayed in revising, I didn't end up going sledging but instead stayed inside toasty in front of our 'fire' whilst watching the snow fall and also noticing the evergrowing icicles on the side of my house. However I did manage to throw a few snowballs and do some 'skating' on the icy car parks close to where I live

House: I don't think I have ever mentioned this before but my house is in the process of being renovated on a rather large scale ( think rebuilding round a house, having to build under a house so it doesn't fall into the ground and extending it too). Well this month the builder has managed to knock out an upstairs wall and rebuilt another in its place, we have had our AGA delivered for our kitchen ( which I am very excited to use in the future) and our kitchen units have arrived. This may seem rather dull to you however if you have had your house renovated before you may, too, have been exited by the many changes that occur during a renovation.

Purchases/New Beauty Additions: This month I came into possession of the infamous Naked 2 palette by a very kind auntie of mine who purchased it from duty free for me ( you can imagine how excited I was for it). When I first tried it out I was very disappointed with it, the pay off was awful in comparison to other (cheaper) eyeshadows in my collection, the shadows creased even with a primer ( which never happens!) and the shadows seemed to fade really quickly. Generally, my opinions of the palette were mostly negative of this palette in January and I questioned all the hype of it. That being said I have been trying to make a conscious effort to play around with this and I think that my feeling might slowly be changing for the better.

This month also saw me purchasing the also-raved-about Revlon Lip Butter and Kissable Balm Stains. Time will tell on what I think of these and whether I think these too are over hyped - look out for a review in the future.

Thats my Janaury folks! What do you think of this post? Did you enjoy reading it? Anything else I should be adding? Please let me know!