Merry Christmas everyone | New years resolutions.

Hello, readers! I'm going to keep this post short and sweet, as a) I'm not supposed to be on the computer and b) I need want to get back to my Christmas prezzies! I'm just typing you all out a massive MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope you got wonderful gifts and enjoyed your Christmas dinner-I certainly did! I got some wonderful gifts for Christmas, which I'm really excited about using-An adult colouring book titled Secret Paris, two pairs of new shoes - silver gladiator sandals and black ballet flats-a beautiful new blue dress, and a few more lovely presents!

Because it's nearly 2016 (squuuueee!) I've also put together my new years resolutions. I know it's a little early, but I've already had my new years resolutions in my head since, like, July! In the previous years, I've always had a rule to keep it to three, mainly so that it'll be easier for me to try and follow through with them (and it makes it harder to put down 'give up chocolate'!). So, here they are!

1. Try and blog more often, and include more photographs in blog posts.
2. Try to make new friends next year at my high school, and try to keep them! (Often, in the past, I've been through lots of different friendship groups).
3. Make sure to stay on top of everything-Schoolwork, blog, life, friendships and everything else!

And, yeah! I will try and follow through with all of these, and I hope that I'll stick with them! Have a great new year and hopefully you've already had an amazing Christmas (that you all deserve for being super awesome)! Have fun!

El xx

Christmas Collab with Girl Abroad | Mince Pies!

Hello, readers! Today Alice from Girl Abroad is going to be guest posting here! I am massively excited, as this is the first collab or guest post I've done! Thanks to Alice for the post, and let's get this show on the road!

Hey everyone! It's Alice from Girl Abroad here. I'm very excited that today I will be doing a guest post on El's blog about Christmas food! When she suggested that we could write about Christmas food, I was over the moon - I love food AND Christmas, so it was the perfect combination. I've never done a post anything vaguely related to food either! Be sure to head over to my blog to check out her recipe for Black Forest Trifle - yum! Enjoy x

Mince Pies

Probably, if you're from outside of the UK, you haven't tried mince pies or maybe never heard of them! Correct me if I'm wrong - you're country may have their own version I'm yet to discover! Despite the name, mince pies are totally great for vegetarians! I think it goes something like that they used to contain minced meat, but they don't anymore. They're mini pies made out of melt in your mouth pastry, filled with sweet festive goodies, like caramelised orange peel, dried fruit and spices and is definitely very Christmassy!

Ingredients

- 225g cold butter, diced

- 350g plain flour

- 100g golden caster sugar

- 280g mincemeat

- 1 small egg

- Icing sugar to dust

1. To make the pastry, rub the butter into the flour with your fingers.

2. Next, add to that, the caster sugar and a pinch of salt.

3. Make the pastry into a round ball, and then knead it briefly. You can now use the dough immediately, or chill for later.

4. Preheat your oven to 200C / Gas 6 / fan 180C. Prepare by lining 18 holes of a muffin tin (you'll probably need two muffin tins for 18 holes).

5. Press  a small, walnut sized ball of pastry into each hole of the tin, and spoon equal portions of mincemeat into each.

6. Then use the remaining pastry to make round "lids" with your hands.

7. Top the pies with the lids by gently pressing it down to seal. 

8. Beat 1 small egg, and brush it over the mince pies, later this will create a golden crust.

9. Bake for 20 minutes, leaving 5 minutes to cool before dusting with icing sugar.

10. Devour these scrumptious pies!

I hope you enjoyed my guest post on El's blog - and don't forget to check our her post on my blog!

Girl Abroad

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50 facts about me tag!

Howza, everyone! (Sorry about the Aussie slang, but I felt like saying something other than 'hello, everyone!") Today I'm going to be doing the Fifty Facts About Me tag. I'd like to thank Rosie for letting me steal the idea off her letting me use the idea... Anyway, let's get this show on the road!

1. I was born in Australia.
2. I have travelled a lot with my parents. A few of the cities that I've been to are London, Paris, Madrid, Bangkok, Broome, Darwin and Cork (Rosie, if you're reading this, it's every bit as good as it sounds!)
3. I have red hair that comes to my shoulders. I hate my hair but am planning to get a pixie cut over the holidays.
4. I am literally the first ever tanned redhead. Seriously, who's heard of a TANNED redhead?
5. My favourite flavours of ice cream is honeycomb, english toffee and apple sorbet.
6. My lucky number is 5.
7. I currently am listening to the rage top twenty. I think the song playing at the moment is called 'Love you till the day I die?'.  I wouldn't know-I never do know the names of songs unless it's my favourite singer.
8. Speaking of favourite singers, my favourite are: Jimi Hendrix, AC/DC, KISS, Stevie Wonder, Jess Glynne and Sia. A very odd list indeed, hmmm?
9. I love reading. Literally. You can never drag me out of books.
10. My favourite books of all time are The Wrong Boy by Suzy Zail, and The Flywheel by Erin Gough.
11. I love Christmas. But normally it doesn't feel like it should be Christmas so it kinda spoils the whole experience. Not this year, though!
12. I'm very insecure about myself. I don't tell my friends so they often jokingly tease me about my looks... It doesn't help.
13. I love to draw Zentangles... I prefer it to adult colouring books, although I like them both.
14. I have a younger brother called Christien, although everyone calls him Chriso.
15. I chose my first blog name, My Random Life, because I thought that this blog would end up being an online journal. However, I changed it to The Ramblings Of Moi because it suited my blog more-after all, this is me just rambling on!
16. I have never really had a favourite colour. I would change my mind every other day when I was younger, so now I just love every one.
17. I adore writing, and have tried many different things with it (COUGH *Nanowrimo* COUGH).
18. I love the shop Typo. It has the most gorgeous notebooks I've ever seen and IT'S JUST SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!
19. My favourite school subject is English and Inquiry.
20. Once again, I don't have a favourite animal. I love them all, although I do like Hedgehogs.
21. I do have a favourite blog! Girl Abroad!
22. I LOVE playing soccer, and am continuing with it in high school.
23. I also like the sports cricket, softball and I don't mind netball.
24. My least favourite sports are basketball and swimming.
25. I have asthma, but have never had any major attacks.
26. My favourite movies are Amelie, (which I was named after!!!) The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Mrs Doubtfire.
27. My favourite Christmas movie is Miracle on 34th Street.
28. I love the smell of baking brownies.
29. I really like to cook, but I haven't cooked in a while because of sheer exhaustion.
30. I have just finished primary school! Woop!
31. I change my blog background quite often, because I don't like keeping the same background for too long. It just looks a bit boring, to me. So that is why every time you click on this blog you'll get a different background!
32. I am not really a minimalist-I own too many books for that!
33. #TeamPeeta.
34. #Fourtris4ever
35. I am finding it hard to come up with so many facts.
36. When I'm older, I want to be a writer, journalist or a human rights lawyer (I thank Atticus Finch for that one!)
37. I just found my lost Myki card. Weird.
38. A movie that my family watches every year is A Miracle on 34th Street, but this year we watched the original. SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE NEW ONE.
39. My favourite actor/ comedian is Robin Williams. Such a cool bloke.
40. I hate Summer. I might live right down the bottom of Australia, but believe me, the sun doesn't hold up for a second..
41. The high school I'll be attending is right next to the Botanic gardens, which means we get to go over there almost every day.
42. I like to read the Herald Sun. It's an Australian newspaper.
43. I nearly died when I was told that I wasn't allowed to go to the AC/DC concert.
44. I'm still recovering.
45. I hate maths. Literally, is there anything more boring?
46. I am writing this in bed.
47. I am currently reading the book Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver-I'm only two pages in though.
48. This is a REALLY HARD challenge, people!
49. Is it just me, or do Haliee Steinfeld and Vanessa Hutchins look alike?
50. My brothers old teacher is now teaching class 1D. Lol.

And there you have it! For my nominations, I nominate:

Euginia A-Genie in a book

Megan- Megans Mega Blog

Hope you enjoy doing it, girlies! And since I stole borrowed this idea, you guys can too, if you want to! Hope you have fun doing it!

El xx

Nanowrimo... How did it all end up?

El xx.

Well, to say the least, I didn't do 50,000 words. I didn't think even at the start that I was going to be able to complete it, if I'm honest. But I buried it under all the motivational quotes: "You're a brilliant author/Of course 30 days is enough time to write that much/Why are you even worried anyway?"

Of course, 50,000 words is a bit too much for a 12 year old. I don't know how I didn't realise that beforehand, but I'm now paying the ultimate price for that one because my friends are all teasing me about how I thought that it wasn't a lot. Trust my very bad maths skills to make me the laughing stock of the school.

But I am proud of how much I achieved-By the end of it all, I had 20,000 words! Even though I didn't hit the target, that's 20,000 words that I now have. As Jodi Picoult said, "you can edit a bad page, but you can't edit a blank one." Well, I've now got 57 pages (at the latest count; and I'm only halfway through) to edit. Booyeah!

I would like to thank you guys, though. Rosie, Hannah and Beth in particular. Your comments made me keep on going, and they inspired me. I might be a little biased, but I think I've got the best readers here at TROM. So I hope you lot feel happy tonight-After all, you all helped me to write 20,000 words!

El xx

I don't support kids doing this kinda thing, but this gif sums up how I feel perfectly!