Things To Do To Get You In The Festive Mood

So, if you're not in the festive mood by now... where have you been? It is two days until the big day! It's our favourite time of year and the lead up is always the best part about Christmas. Plus all the food, yum! So, we have gathered a list that we think will help you feel festive and ready for Christmas.

First idea is a cosy night in! Preferably with some cosy blankets and fairy lights! Then
once you are all cosy make sure you've got a festive snack! The supermarkets are all stocked up with festive treats and food that only comes out this time of year! A firm favourite is Quality Streets, especially the chocolate orange creams. Then choose your hot beverage, we have both been loving galaxy white hot chocolate from the nestle coffee machine! It is so creamy and tastes so nice. Finally get yourself stuck into a Christmas Tv special, you can't beat the Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special.


If you'd like to go out then during the day many cities/ towns are hosting christmas markets! Make sure you wrap up warm as it is starting to become a lot more chilly. This is a great way to get festive and get any last minute gift ideas. They often play Christmas songs and sell mulled wine and it's so christmasy.

Alongside the christmas markets you can visit pop up ice rinks. These usually occur around christmas with big christmas trees in the middle and it all looks so festive. If you have the gift of being able to maintain your balance then you will 100% enjoy going to the ice rink! To make it more memorable, invite some loved ones or some friends and create some memories.

Hopefully, if you wasn't feeling festive before reading this blog post, you do now! These are just a few ideas and you may have some more! If you do we would love to know them so we can get ourselves even more festive! Tweet us or even leave a comment down below! Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post and we wish you a Merry Christmas and may 2019 bring you happiness and good health! We won't be posting on our blog until mid-January, so make sure to come back!

Thank You,

Jade & Lydia 

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What Christmas Means To Me

We are in the final days of the countdown to Christmas, there are only 5 days to go, how exciting?! I am feeling very festive, especially as its so close to the big day! Christmas is in my opinion the best time of year. All the festivities and its just so perfect, so to celebrate the remaining 5 days, I will tell you about what Christmas means to me!

Christmas is a time for friends and family. For me, it is especially about family, my grandparents live down in London, and I only get to see them a couple of times a year, but because the rest of the family live down that way I don't get to see them that often. Christmas is the main time we all come together to see each other again and have a family gathering at my grandma and grandads. My aunts, my uncle and all my cousins, its so nice to catch up with them properly! We are actually having our family gathering this weekend, which will be really nice!

Another thing that makes Christmas so special is seeing everyone so festive. I absolutely love going round with all the Christmas decorations and seeing everyone getting ready for Christmas. As well as seeing all the families together and the kids ready for Santa, it makes me miss being a kid, but I still love the Christmas season.

One thing I do love about Christmas is that its the only time of year me, my mum, my dad and my brother all gather together and spend quality time, as my brother has moved away from home. Christmas Day is the best, where we all sit down and watch a Christmas film or the Queens Speech tucking into a box of chocolates. I absolutely love doing this, its so cosy and festive, and makes me love Christmas more as I spend quality time with my family!

Christmas is a special time of year for most people, the most special part for me is catching up with the whole family. What does Christmas mean to you?

Thank You,

Lydia 

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Christmas Pudding Cupcakes

There is something special about baking at christmas and as you will all know Lydia and I love to bake together. So, when we saw this cupcake recipe we knew we had to try it out. We did change the recipe to be chocolate orange favour though. I mean as you can see we did have a bit of a fail. However, I can confirm my Grandad did say they tasted really good and were one of the best bakes we'd ever made! It's the inside that counts, maybe Mary Berry might not approver but we do! Yum!

















Ingredients: 

• 150 g self-raising flour
• 30 g cocoa powder
• 175 g caster sugar
• 175 g soft margarine 
• 3 large eggs
• 3 tsp orange extract
• 75 g milk chocolate 
• ½ tbsp milk
• 12 cupcake cases
• 4 Ounces white chocolate 
• 1/2 cup of double cream
• Rasberries 
• Leaf

Method: 

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190C - Gas mark 5
2. Put your cupcake cases into a muffin tin.

3. Grate the milk chocolate 

4. Put all of the ingredients into a large bowl (self-raising flour, cocoa powder, caster sugar, large eggs, soft margarine,orange extract,milk and the grated chocolate) mix on a low speed until fully combined.
5. Divide the mixture evenly between the 12 cupcake cases
6. Put the tin into the oven and cook the cupcakes for 20-25 minutes. After 20 minutes put a skewer in the middle and check if it comes out clean. If it does they’re done, if not pop them back in for a couple more minutes and check again.

7. Once cooked, remove the cupcakes from the oven and leave them to cool in the tins for a few minutes.
8. Remove the cupcakes from their tin and pop them onto a wire rack to cool completely, removing the cases. 

9. Whilst the cakes are cooling begin to make the drip icing.

10. Put both the white chocolate (grated) and the cream in the microwave for 1 minute.

11. Then leave to stand for 5 minutes then whisk together. 

12. Drip it onto of the cupcakes (turing them upside down).

13. After that place your leaf on top alongside the raspberry! 

Viola!! Done! I hope you enjoyed making these cupcakes and if you did tweet us a picture! I bet they look better than ours! I do think chocolate orange cupcakes are my new thing now! Yummy. Hope you all have a festive few weeks leading up to Christmas!

Thank You,

Jade 

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Secret Santa Gift Ideas

The festive season is upon us, and everyone is getting ready, or are ready for christmas, including presents, whether thats for their partner, children or even their secret Santas. Secret Santa is awesome, its a way of getting someone a thoughtful gift but not spending too much, for example you can set a limit at £10 or £30, no matter the price set, Secret Santa is a really good idea. So we have a couple of ideas of what to get for secret Santa.

So, for the first of the secret Santa gifts we have, socks. This may be a bit boring, but we love getting socks as gifts, you can't beat it! Especially if they are patterned, the socks we have here are very chritmas themed as you can see. These socks are so cute, and perfect for people who love quirky socks! Plus they were only £2.50 each, such a good price for really cute and good quality socks!

The next, is a bit of a boring one but it's still something we like getting too. As you can see by the picture it is chocolates, they are a nice little added extra. These chocolates were on offer so a really good price at £2 so very good for secret Santa. The chocolates are some of our favourite chocolate, as you can see they are Dairy Box by Nestle. So, incase our secret Santa wanted to share them, we love them - haha!

Another gift for a secret Santa is this gift set, this is the main thing people get for Christmas, but its also nice to get stuff that will be used. Can't go wrong with nice little gift set, plus this was only £3.50 which is really well priced for 2 body wash and a shower puff. Also, the price there is still money to buy more with the £10 spending limit.

For the fourth gift, we have for secret Santa is a candle. We absolutely love our candles, and we feel like most other people do! There is nothing better than a good candle. This candle was £5, so well in the budget. The smell is White Pepper & Amber, I think a secret Santa would love this as its got such a lovely smell and anyone would love it especially a candle lover!

There are so many different gifts you can get for under £5, that make great Secret Santa gifts. They are affordable but great gifts, that everyone would appreciate! Whats would you get someone for secret Santa?

Thank You,

Lydia 

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Ways To Make Your Room Festive

It's the festive season, everyone has their Christmas decorations up, from Christmas trees to all the lights outside. And what better way to celebrate than to make your room festive. I personally love making my room all festive and ready for Christmas, seeing as Christmas is the most wonderful time of year after all.

The first way of making your room festive, is for fairy lights. I actually keep fairy lights up all year as I love them, but around this time of year they make me feel very festive and cosy. Plus they light up my room so well as I have mine all around my room!

Another way I decorate my room to make my room festive, is by putting my Christmas duvet on. I bought this last year, and I love it. It was from Asda, and it's so comfy and cosy plus it's christmassy so its a win all round! As you can see the duvet has cars driving around with trees on the top, I'm not sure why I love it so much but its just so cute!

The third thing I do to make my room festive and ready for Christmas is to have blankets. I love a good blanket to put on my bed to add to my room, and for this time of year I use this one because it is so soft and fluffy, plus it makes my room so cosy and being cosy makes me think of Christmas.

When I make my room festive, one thing that really helps is candles. I love burning a good candle, and Christmas are always the best! This one is ......... and it smells amazing! Christmas candles are by far the best candles around. This has to be my favourite Christmas candle scent! Whats your favourite Christmas candle scent?

I absolutely love this time of year, and I love making my room all cosy and festive. These are my top ways of making my room festive, what is a way you make your room festive and ready for Christmas?

Thank You,

Lydia 

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Gift Ideas Under £10

Christmas is the time for giving presents and spending time with your friends and family. If you're like me, then I like to get people a 'main' gift and a few little stocking fillers alongside. So, I thought I would grab a few items that I think would make great stocking fillers and share them with you. PS... these are actual gifts so to my friends and family if you see your gift here, just know I was thinking about you when I bought them!

My first gift under £10 actually breaks the £10 mark but not by much! This Happiness Lush gift set cost £10.95. I think this is a reasonable price because it contains a bath bomb and a bubble bar. They both come in a pre wrapped gift box too. Which I prefer as it saves a lot of time! This gift is perfect for a Lush addict or someone who loves a good pamper and bath time!

The next gift under £10 is socks! I personally think you can't beat receiving a pack of socks for christmas! So, both of these sets are for different people who I know will love them because the theme are suited to the both of them. These were both £3.50 each, so these make a great stocking filler gift.

Chocolate... I mean it isn't Christmas if you don't get a selection box! I picked this one up because I like the chocolates in it, especially the Malteasres! I am hoping the person I have bought this for shares with me! Joking but that would be quite nice haha!

My final gift idea is dead on the £10 mark and it is a gift from me to me! I picked up this MAC lipstick in mini form. I have never seen these before so I was intrigued, I got the shade 'Twig' it is a gorgeous dark pink shade. Personally I think it is similar to Kylie Jenner Candy K. This is a great stocking filler because it allows the person to try a few shades before committing to the full size product.

I think this is quite a nice selection for gifts under £10. I tried to get quite a variety but also gifts that my friends and family would like. If you have any ideas for stocking filler gifts under £10 then please share down below in the comments or even tweet us!

Thank You,

Jade 

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DIY: Mini Christmas Garland

Hello, It's 2 Peas In A Pod Blog Here,

Hello, everyone, it is Jade here, as you will all know, it is pretty much festive x100 over here at our blog. I mean I am not moaning because I absolutely love Christmas. This year I decided I wanted to get a bit more hands-on and create some decorations of my own. So, I decided to create a mini garland for my bedroom. I have a tiny bedroom so a mini one fitted perfectly. Other than apple spice I think cinnamon and orange is a classic Christmas scent. So I decided to combine the two into a festive garland

So without further ado let's get on with the blog post, 

Tools You Will Need: 
-Oven
-Sharp Knife
-Screw Driver
-Sellotape 
-Scissors
-Teatowel
-Tweezers
-Baking Tray
-Festive Ribbon
-White String
-5 Oranges
-10 Cinnamon Sticks

The first step is to dry out the oranges. I must say the kitchen smelt so cosy when I was doing this step. 

1. Pre-heat your oven to 110C. 

2. Using a sharp knife slice your oranges, I would say on average I got about 6 slices per orange. I just used the easy peelers from Co-Op.

3. With all the slices including the end pieces, place them on a tea towel and cover them with the other half of the tea towel. Once you have done that press firmly on the tea towel to squeeze the juice out of the slices.

4. After that place them onto an oven tray and place them into the oven for about 2-3 hours. Every 30 mins turn each slice over to they are evenly dried out.

5. Once the 2-3 hours are up and the orange slices are fully dried up, then it is time to construct the garland.

6. Grab your string and put sellotape on the end. This is to make it easier to thread through the cinnamon sticks.

7. I began the garland with a cinnamon stick. To create the hole I used a pointed screwdriver.  I pressed the point into the middle of the cinnamon stick firmly so it went through to the other side. I was careful not to break the whole stick.

8. Using the string with the sellotape on the end thread it through, to make it easier to get it from the other side I used tweezers to grab it and pull it through.

9. I then placed one orange peel through the string next to the cinnamon stick. The string should go through the orange peel fairly easily.

10. I then repeated steps 7-9. Although I did 2 orange peels then the next one I did 3. After that, I went back to 1 orange peel. So it would create a pattern of 1,2,3.

11. Once you have finished your garland cut the other end of the string. I then tied the two ends together to create a circle. The garland is one big circle and I hang it on my bedpost. My room smells so good.

12. I then tied 4 festive ribbons in various different places on the circle. I liked that final touch because it made it homely.

Well, that is the end of this blog post. I hope you enjoyed it and if you plan to create your own then I hope you have fun creating it. I am happy with how mine turned out. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post and I hope you all have an amazing Christmas and cherish all the memories. We will not be posting on our blog until the new year, so have an amazing new year and I hope 2018 brings you joy.

Please Share The Pea Pod Love,

Thank You,

Jade Xx

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Christmas Evening Routine

Hello, It's 2 Peas In A Pod Blog Here,

Hello, it is Jade & Lydia here, hope you are all well. Wow, we can't believe it is December and Christmas is just around the corner. We have to say we are very much in the festive mood. Jade went to Winter Wonderland last Sunday and last week we had our annual Christmas sleepover. Also Jade passed her driving test today! Whoop. We then baked them yummy Terry's Chocolate Orange Cookies, if you'd like to read that blog post then click here http://2peasinapodblog2.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/terrys-chocolate-orange-cookies.html#.Wiv-wlKcZE4

Anyways, it's December and the nights turn a lot darker very quick and that is when it is time to get cosy. One way to start this is by turning all the fairy lights on and the Christmas tree on and burn a candle or 2 or maybe 4. Right now in this room, there are 5 Christmas scented candles alight. Whoops!

The next thing on this festive evening is to have a warm bubble bath. Around this time of year, we always tend to use Lush, especially the Christmas range. We have both been loving the 'Christmas Sweater Bath Bomb' it smells so festive omg. The next thing to pair up with is the 'The Magic Of Christmas' bubble wand. This is a spicy scent and the cinnamon stick is so cute. The final one we've been loving is 'Luxury Lush Pud Bath Bomb' this is a classic Christmas bath bomb. This one is best to save for Christmas eve in our opinion.  During the bath feel free to light some candles and put on a face mask. That is just the best.

After your bath gets into some festive pyjamas. We both do have matching reindeer pyjamas from Primark. We did take a picture of us both together wearing it but for some reason, we cant find it anywhere. Gutted!!

A nice hot chocolate or a cup of tea is well deserved. It would not be a festive blog post without a cup of tea in a festive mug haha! This is a picture of Jade's Christmas mug from Asda and how conveniently it matches her Christmas bedding from Asda also. The other picture is of Lydia's Christmas bedding too, also from Asda. Also, you can see on the bedpost is a festive orange and cinnamon mini garland.... stay tuned to our blog next week to find out how to create your very own.

Once you are all cosied up in festive pyjamas and festive bedding whilst drinking a hot beverage out of a festive mug then it is time to put on a Christmas movie. If you are already not feeling festive then continue to read this blog post haha! So being the Christmas fanatics we are, we just could not refine it down to 1 favourite film. So we narrowed it down to Elf, Love Actually and Miracle On 34th Street. These are all classic Christmas films that everyone and their mum loves. Also note the Christmas bedding as the background.... What is your favourite Christmas film?

Lastly, you need some snacks to eat whilst watching a movie. So here are a couple of favourites we chose to sit down and watch our films with. So first up we have 'Elf Slices' by Mr Kipling as you can see 2 of them have already been eaten... whoops. These are the festive version of the angle slices, these are apple flavoured and omg they taste so good. The other snack we chose is 'Pringles' the plain version, the red plain version is just the best.

So that is how you have a festive Christmas evening. Hope you all enjoyed this blog post and we did not just puke festiveness all over you. Haha! Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post.

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Thank You,

Jade & Lydia Xx

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Chocolate Log Recipe

Hello It’s 2 Peas In A Pod Blog Here,

Hello and welcome back to our blog, its Jade here. Tonight’s blogmas post is a recipe. You will know by now we love a good Christmas recipe. So what’s better than a chocolate log? It’s a tradition in my family that at Christmas we have a Christmas pudding for the adults and chocolate log for the children. I still class myself as a child as I go for the chocolate log. Each year we buy a chocolate Swiss roll and I make the butter cream icing myself and decorate it myself. However, this year I thought I would make the chocolate log from scratch. So here goes. 

To make this recipe you will need:

·      4 large eggs

·      100g Caster Sugar

·      65g Self- Raising Flour

·      40g Cocoa Powder 

For The Icing:

·      175 grams dark chocolate (chopped)

·      250 grams icing sugar

·      225 grams soft butter

·      1 tablespoon vanilla extract

So firstly you are going to want to preheat the oven to 200ºC / gas mark 6. 

Then lightly grease a 33 × 23 cm Swiss roll tin, and line with non-stick paper or baking paper.

Then whisk the eggs and sugar using an electric hand whisk in a large bowl until the mixture is pale in colour.

Now sift the flour and cocoa powder into the bowl and carefully fold together, using a metal spoon, until all the cocoa and flour are incorporated into the egg mixture. 

Pour the mixture into the lined tin and spread evenly out into the corners. 

Bake in the middle of the preheated oven for eight to 10 minutes until the sponge is springy and baked the whole way through. 

(Wow can you see the steem coming off the cake?) 




Place a piece of baking paper bigger than the Swiss roll on the work surface. Move the cake on to the paper and remove the bottom lining piece of paper.

Trim the edges of the cake with a sharp knife and make a score mark 2.5 cm in along the longer edge. 

Whilst the cake is cooling you will want to create the icing.

 To make the icing, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water. 

Then put the icing sugar into a large bowl and add the butter and hand whisk until smooth. Then add the melted chocolate once it’s cool. Then add the vanilla extract. Whisk it until it is all combined together. 

Then spread some of the icing thinly over the cake. Make sure it isn’t too thick so it doesn’t seep out the edges. Then start rolling from the side that is facing you. Press against the baking paper rather than the cake so it’s easier.

Then with the rest of the icing that you have left spread it over the chocolate log. Grab a fork and make wood like textures across it to make it more authentic. Also do circles at the end of the logs to create the tree rings. Then sift some icing sugar on top to create a fallen snow effect. 

You can add decorations on the top like I have to create a more festive log. 

I hope you have enjoyed this blog post as much as I have had creating it. It is also Christmas Day tomorrow so I hope you have a magical day. Myself and Lydia wish you a Merry Christmas and hope you get some lovely gifts. There is a blogmas blog post going live tomorrow so be sure to check that out. After that there will not be any more blog posts until the following Tuesday. So everything will resume back to normality.

Hope you all have an amazing Christmas.

Please Share The Pea Pod Love,

Thank You,

Jade Xx

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