Weekly Love: Week 86

1. I hope that you all had an amazing Christmas! Mine was lovely and restful at home with my parents, eating a lot opening presents, watching films and getting excited about the  Downton Abbey Christmas Special (the ending totally made my Christmas!)
2. On Thursday night I threw a dinner party for some of my old school friends. I've missed them all so much while I've been in London, so it was lovely to have a nice dinner and I'm so glad I managed to pull off a 3 course meal for 10 people! It's funny, at boarding school your used to seeing your friends almost all day every day, but I think we've only had a couple of meals together since July. Highlights included drinking a bottle of Vodka that had been in the liquor cabinet and was in fact older than we were. (I'll do a proper post with photos and notes on everything I cooked soon!)

• There is a Tumblr of fashion ad campaigns with Pokemon photoshopped into them. As a former Pokemon geek, I can not explain how much this excites me!
• Natalie's recipe for Latkes with Apple Chutney have been making my mouth water - I can't wait to try them! 
• I absolutely adore Jessica's food blog, How Sweet It Is and her poem about her kitchen disasters of 2011 made me laugh so much! 
• Garance's article on the differences between going out in the evening in Paris and in New York really is fascinating. 
• I think Emily's Potato and Caviar pockets are the perfect New Years Eve canapé - and they are so easy absolutely anyone could make them!
• I have so much love for Susie's round up of 2011 - the way she's put it together is really sweet! 
• I really need to make some of these glitter lyrics for the wall in my flat!
• Kat has written a brilliant post on how to stay inspired when creating your blog content.
• Anyone considering using a daily deal type website like Groupon should read Becky's brilliant blog post about them. 
• New York has the best festive shop window displays. 
• I absolutely adore Selin's blog, The Tuesday Girl and her insightful and thought provoking posts on everything life related. I totally feel her pain with this piece on shop changing rooms - personally, I refuse to try anything on in my local Topshop as the curtains don't close properly on the cubicles! 

3. As I've had some nice quite time at home away from uni I've been spending a lot of time catching up on my reading. Lots of the books I've been enjoying have been review copies I need to write about for Judging Covers, but I've also been getting through some of my own massive stack. I used to get through a book a day a few years ago, and now I'd be lucky to get through one non academic book a month. I think I am going to make it one of my New Years resolutions to try and get back into my reading again!
4. On New Years Day, you're really missing out if you don't watch Sherlock. Benedict Cumberbatch is one of my favourite actors, and I think he makes THE best Sherlock Holmes - I've been waiting for this to return all year! Steven Moffat is also one of the best writers on British television.

5. Thanks to my lovely haul of Christmas presents I have finally got to try Yves Saint Laurent's Touche Éclat highlighter, and I am already totally in love with it! I also reviewed it over at The Glossy Guide. 

Current Location: Canterbury, Kent

Currently Reading: The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory

Currently Watching: BBC's Great Expectations


What have you been enjoying this week? What was the highlight of your Christmas?