Manchester Christmas Markets 2016

On Wednesday my mum, my grandma and I went shopping at the Manchester Christmas Markets, I had a really lovely day so I thought I would share it with you.

The day began with a browse around Primark because you can't go shopping without nipping into Primark. We all picked up a few bits, I will show you one of them later on in the post.
After we had finished in Primark we went for our first hot chocolate of the day in Costa. I had a Black Forest Hot Chocolate with a Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffin. My mum and my grandma had normal hot chocolates with marshmallows, a yule log muffin and a slice of carrot cake.

We then ventured into the Christmas Markets for our first shopping burst. We stuck to the main strip of market stalls at first. I bought a couple of things that I will show you at the end of the post. We also popped into the Arndale Centre and looked at all off the cute Christmas presents in the shops. We spent hours hunting around the markets and other shops to find a nutcracker for my grandma, sadly we were unsuccessful so I had to order one for her from Amazon instead.
When we got tired of walking around we decided to go for some lunch. We went to Frankie and Benny's in the Printworks (which is a really cool building, check it out if you ever get the chance). We had garlic bread, chicken strips and stuffed potato skins to start, I then had a carbonara with chips which was a little strange but very yummy.

Finally we headed back to the Christmas Markets to sample the hot drinks that they had there. I had an Amaretto Hot Chocolate which I had been excited for the whole day, amaretto is my favourite drink. My grandma had an Irish Cream Hot Chocolate and my mum had a plain hot chocolate as she was driving. I also had some of the mini Dutch pancakes with nutella on which were amazing!

I picked up quite a few things from the day so I thought I would show you them now.

The Christmas tree in the box is not actually from a market stall but as it is Christmas related I felt like I should include it. The tree is from Primark and was bought for me by my mum, the tree cost £5 and can be found in the home section.
The big white reindeer? teddy was bought by my grandma, she bought us each a present (my mum got a snowman). These cost £10 and were bought from the large stall on Albert Square.
The small Santa teddy was given to me for free at the same stall by one of the staff, presumably because we spent £30 but he didn't say anything he just put it in my hand.
The bottle of  Grumpy Git Amber Ale cost £4.50 and is a Christmas present for my step dad so hopefully he doesn't read this and spoil it.
The dream catcher cost £7 and I bought this because I don't have one in my room at the moment and I have been having a lot of bad dreams recently. I hope that having the dream catcher will help me out but also I just find them to be quite pretty. They had smaller sizes of these also.
Finally, I took the cup that I got my hot chocolate in home with me. I'm not 100% sure if you're supposed to take them but I really wanted a souvenir to remember the day and no one stopped me from walking out with it so I guess that it's alright?
I hope you enjoyed this post. I really enjoy writing these types of posts because not only do they allow me to share bits of my life with you but also they act as a little memory box for me,
As always if you enjoyed a follow would be greatly appreciated!

-Chloe

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My Autumn/Winter Essentials

The cold seasons are by far my favourite time of year. I love not feeling guilty for staying in cosy clothes all day, or choosing to spend the day with Netflix and a hot drink. The crisp mornings and the cold that I have been trying to get rid of are what inspired me to write this post, this will be part one and part two will come when winter settles in.

The best part of my day is coming home, taking off my shoes and putting on a pair of the Cosy Socks from Primark (mostly). Every time I go shopping I add a few more to my collection. They are £1.70 for a pack of two so I just cant resist picking more up when I see new styles. Although Primark's are probably not the warmest they are still pretty darn comfy and you just feel ten times cosier when you have a pair on. 

My mum picked up these Cadbury Instant Hot Chocolates from b&m for 99p. In the packet you get 7 little cups which have the chocolate mix at the bottom already, all you have to do is add the hot water and voila. Personally I prefer to tip the mix into a normal mug rather than using the plastic cups but that's up to you. I found these quite convenient to have and will definitely be getting some more next time I go shopping. 

About a week ago I took a trip into Primark and spent way too much money. I went early in the morning and I pretty much had the shop to myself, so I went a little crazy. I picked up some of their turtle/polo neck jumpers, (by some I mean I got one in every colour I could find) the jumpers are not too heavy which means that when the sun decides to show itself it doesn't get too hot but the style of the jumper keeps you warm when the cold wind hits. I picked up 6 of the jumpers, some are a ribbed texture and others are just plain knitted jumpers. They range between £6 to £8 each which is a bargain considering how soft they are. I did however realise when taking the photo that it some lights you can see through the jumpers but its nothing too drastic.

This one is a little bit random but a winter morning essential for me would have to be Tesco Easy Oats (or any cheap instant oats). I'm actually sat eating a bowl of this porridge right now as I'm writing this post. For 99p you get 10 sachets of oats, I choose to mix a little bit of honey into my porridge to add some extra flavour, some times I even add some banana if I'm feeling fancy but usually I'm a little too lazy to do this in the morning. There are also some other flavours of this porridge that I am eager to try.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. As always a follow would be greatly appreciated. Lots of love.

-Chloe

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