12 days of Christmas: Day 6, Charity of the Year

Hello! Hope you all had a fabulous day yesterday. Now that Christmas is over, the focus is all on the New Year celebrations: reflecting on the year that is almost over and looking forward for what's to come. While I reflect on my 2015 and think of my New Years resolutions, I'd like to tell you about my 'Charity of the Year.

While I was on my family holiday in Lanzarote this year, a cat followed us back to the villa almost every night. During the first few days, there were several debates over whether she (we assumed she was a girl) was a stray: she was extremely affectionate and even followed us inside and sat on our laps! One morning, as my dad was giving her a cuddle on the garden, a van pulled up. A man jumped out and passed my dad a pouch of wet cat food over the garden wall. That was all. 

After that night, we began to see small shelters - the perfect size for a cat - dotted around the island. The man-made shelters contained cushions and blankets for comfort and a bowl of dry cat food. Next to every one of these small homes, written on a rock was 'Freddy's Cat House'. To begin with we thought Freddy was one hell of a lucky cat! After some research, we discovered there was a stray cat crisis on the island and a gentleman named Freddy had built these homes himself to help the animals. Not only did he build the shelters, he took the sick cats home and nursed them back to health. He also took the young ones to be neutered to improve the stray cat crisis and to avoid young pregnancy. We assume that the gentleman that gave us the pouch of wet food over the wall was helping Freddy. 

Without a car, or a driver's license, Freddy walks all over the island to build these homes and feed the stray cats across a variety of resorts. On his website, Freddy asks for help as he could not carry large amounts of cat food round the island. Because the crisis is so big, he can not recover the issue alone. He asks that people fill the shelters he built with dry cat food - and explained that wet cat food can go off quickly if it is not eaten and make the cats sick. There is the option for holiday makers to foster a cat during your stay and even the possibility to give one of the cats a new home and Freddy's Cat House will pay for the flight!

Towards the end of the holiday, almost every night we saw an elderly gentleman 'taking his cats for a walk'. The cats had no leash but stayed almost glued to the man's feet and every so often he would stop, pull out a handful of cat treats and fuss them. We recognised the him - It was Freddy!

photo source: freddyscathouse.weebly.com

Read more about Freddy's Cat House here: http://freddyscathouse.weebly.com/
Like his page on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/freddyelgatolanzarote/videos?fref=photo

12 days of Christmas: Day 3, Favourite Christmas Products

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE EVE! Confession: I'm awful at Christmas shopping. Don't get me wrong, I love to spoil all my friends and family on Christmas Day... but I like spoiling myself too. Every-time I go to purchase a Christmas gift, I come out with presents for me (oops). But with all the amazing Christmas products I'm about to show you, who can blame me? It may only be 16 hours before Santa's sleigh leaves the cockpit but I'm sure you still have a few last bits to get... and while you're there, why not pick up some of these Christmas treats - go on, you deserve it.

For the lips:

photo source: www.vita.no

www.pinkpeonies.co.za

                        

I simply couldn't pick one item for my favourite Christmas Lips product so there are two slightly different products. The first is from Maybelline - In 2013, L'Oreal, the owner of Maybelline stopped ALL animal testing so you can purchase this product with the knowledge no animals were harmed in the production process (I'll put a link with the Company's Animal Testing Statement at the bottom).

This is the first year I have tried Maybelline's Christmas Baby Lips - I guess you could say it was fate as the store had sold out of my usual 'flavour' (the Mint One). This one is called Sweet Apple and smells like hot apple cider but BETTER. It has a slight reddy tint to it which makes you look like Snow White which I love. As it's a Christmas product, the packaging is slightly different to the others with cute mittens wrapped around the tube and draped towards the front which adds to the Christmassy feel of the product. 

The second Christmas lip product which I love just as much is Santa's Lip Scrub from Lush. If you haven't used lip scrubs before then you should! It's a great way to eliminate dry lips caused by the bitter cold weather. This one smells like Cola which takes me back to the Coca-Cola Lorry tours at Christmas time and it has edible hearts in the centre. LUSH. I leave this product next to my bed and apply a layer just before I go to sleep each night so it can work it's magic for a long period of time. Another cruelty-free product!  

For Bath-time:

photo source: www.crazyblondegal.com

www.bodyshop.co.uk

Again this is the first year I have used Dashing Santa (I think it's new for Christmas 2015) but another that I will be stocking up on! Dashing Santa looks a little more vintage compared to his fellow Santa bath bomb friends and I love that! He turns your bath a coral colour and actually smells more like Summer than Winter with his citrussy highlights -  but when you're freezing cold it's nice to have a hot bath and think of Summer.

For a post-bath wind down and keeping up with the fruity theme, this Glazed Apple Body Butter from the Body Shop is a great way to end bath-time. I always feel like a total goddess after applying body butter after a long hot bath and this Christmassy moisturiser is no exception. It smells like a juicy apple that's just been sliced but it's very strong... which makes the scent last for hours! Similar to the Maybelline Lip Moisturiser, the packaging has a more festive feel compared to other Body Shop butters with sparkles decorating the Body Shop logo around the image. The texture of this product is one of a softer feel compared to other scents and the colour is a pale green - just like an Apple. I've purchased this product every year since it was introduced in 2013 and I won't be stopping any time                                                     soon!

For the comfort drinks:

photo source: www.whittard.co.uk 

This is the one product on the list that I haven't purchased this year ...but more about that in tomorrow's post! This is Whittard of Chelsea's White Hot Chocolate - in other words, it is heaven. Although it isn't entirely a Christmas product, as a luxury brand and at the rate I drink it at, I can't afford this all year round so I save it for the festivities. I don't think I have to tell you how it tastes or what it looks like but I will tell you it's totally worth the money! On the other hand, for a cheaper alternative - or just to sample it before you splurge, Costa Coffee have introduced White Hot Chocolate to their Christmas menu this year and it taste very similar so you can try before you buy. 

Hope you've enjoyed reading about my favourite festive products. What are yours?

See you tomorrow for the 4th day of Christmas - it's all about my Christmas traditions.

Ciao for now xo

NOTE: I didn't take my own pictures of the product as they have been used and look a little gross compared to other pictures on the Internet.

Aside from a number of other brands, L'Oreal' own Maybelline and Body Shop which are featured in this post - for their stance on animal testing click here:

http://www.lorealusa.com/corporate-social-responsibility/loreal-answers/the-question-of-animal-testing.aspx

PETA: The Great Vegan Bake Off - Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookie Jars

Peta are running the Great Vegan Bake Off for the third consecutive year and after succeeding in making my own recipe for Orange and Cranberry crinkle cookies (see this month's posts) I decided to try it again to demonstrate my support for the radical animal rights charity! 

As an avid chocolate lover, plain chocolate was the first thing I could think of when pondering vegan foods and after finding Lindt Coconut Excellence on the chocolate aisle, I decided to base my recipe around the little bar of lusciousness. To further emphasise the coconut flavour, I added coconut oil as a substitute for butter - I even made my own flour by putting oats in a food processor my parents received for their wedding 25 years ago (can you believe it still works???)

I chose to make the cookie jars individually as in a rush of excitement I bought (non-oven-proof) glass jars... oops! So to check that the glass wouldn't explode in the heat, I made them one by one. If you want to try them for yourself, the recipe below provides ingredients per jar so if you want to make one for an evening snack you can... or if you want to make 50 for a party you can just multipy the measurements by 50.

Ingredients (to make one jar):
1 tsp. baking powder
3 tbsp. caster sugar
45g ground almonds
85g oats
2 tbsp. coconut oil
40g lindt excellence dark chocolate coconut squares

Method:
1. Mix together the baking powder, caster sugar and ground almonds.

2. Weigh the oats and pour them into a food processor to grind into a flour consistency and add it to the mixture.

3. Stir in the coconut oil to make into a sticky dough and add the chocolate.

4. Put the mixture into oven-proof jars or make into teaspoon size cookies (optional).

5. Bake in the oven at 160 C for 20 minutes. Eat up!