Winter favourites: Books, movies, TV, beauty, blogs & more

It’s been ages since I’ve done a Favourites post but I’m feeling all festive so I thought I’d do a Winter Favourites round-up today, including my favourite website right now, my favourite blog, some new purchases and and some of the TV shows and movies I’ve been watching over the last few months.

Website: Read it swap it

Let’s start with my favourite website at the moment, which is readitswapit.co.uk. It could probably do with a bit of a makeover but it’s perfectly functional and does what it says on the tin.

If you’ve got some books you’re happy to part with, you can upload them to the site in the hopes that someone wants to give them a new home in exchange for a book of theirs.

You can search through hundreds of books from book swappers across the country and request a swap with one of your books, or wait until someone spots a book of yours they want to swap with and hope they have a book in their available to swap list that takes your fancy.

It’s completely free and all you have to pay for is the postage to send your book, which usually costs around £1.10. I’ve swapped more than 20 books and it’s been fab.

Beauty: Makeup brushes

I managed to avoid buying anything on Black Friday this year because I was too busy writing a live blog about it over on PC Advisor. That is except one little treat in the form of the Lamora Kabuki Makeup Brush set. They were a total bargain, at £12 down from £99! But you can still pick them up for £35 from Amazon and I think they’re worth it.

You get 10 brushes of varying shapes and sizes. So far I have loved using them – there is a brilliant selection choose from when applying your makeup and they’re neatly stored in a pretty cylindrical box.

TV show: How to Get Away With Murder

My favourite TV show at the moment is How to Get Away With Murder. I had a couple of days off and during those days off (which were supposed to be Holiday) I was, typically, super super ill. So instead of being productive like I planned to be I ended up binge watching this show on Netflix while snuggled under a huge duvet on the sofa. It’s intriguing, full of suspense and in some ways mighty frustrating, but I’m loving he mix of characters. Fans of The Mentalist and Pretty Little Liars will like this one.

Blog: The Flower that Blooms

My current favourite blog is The Flower That Blooms. Reasonably new, it’s run by sisters Rachel and Lauren and it has given me endless inspiration since starting my own blog not long after they did. The photography is great and so is the variety of posts.

Click here to visit the brilliant The Flower That Blooms blog.

Movie: Inside Out

Disney Pixar just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it? I completely fell in love with Big Hero Six and then recently, on the plane journey to LA for a work trip, I found myself falling even more in love with Inside Out. What a brilliant movie for both kids and adults. It manages to address the topic of mental health in a subtle but effective way that I’m sure would be truly interesting to study, and I really, really enjoyed it. Absolutely recommended.

Book: Unbecoming by Jenny Downham

One of my favourite books recently is Unbecoming by Jenny Downham. You can read all about it in my review over on Ashleigh Online, in which I said that this is one of my favourite books ever and I have no doubt it’ll be one of yours too.

xxx Ashleigh xxx