Three Books To Get You Feeling Festive | Blogmas Day Two

Happy Holidays Babes! One of my favourite things in the whole wide world is reading. I love snuggling up in bed with a good book and reading until I can't stay awake anymore. I also love Christmas and guys, I know this isn't very ground breaking or surprising, but Christmas themed books are the bomb yo! Seriously though, they always make me feel all warm and fuzzy, which is perfect for when you're all cosy in bed! Here are the three books I'll be reading this Christmas;

➳ Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson & Lauren Myracle

➳ Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachael Cohn & David Levithan 

➳ My True Love Gave to Me by twelve authors whose names I can't be bothered writing, LOL! 

 Dash & Lily's Book of Dares 

I read this at the beginning of the year and it's about a boy named Dash who finds a notebook in his favourite bookshop. Inside is a clue that will eventually lead to a way of contacting the owner. Dash and Lily embark on a series of dares and challenges throughout a Christmas ridden New York City. 

This book is really fun to read and the characters are quite sarcastic and quirky. I loved reading about what New York is like during Christmas and all the different ways people celebrate it. 

Let It Snow

I read this book around Christmas last year and it was so perfect for getting me into the holiday spirit. It tells three separate yet intertwining stories about love on Christmas Eve during a snow storm. The stories are cutsey and romantic and make you feel like getting stuck in a snow storm wouldn't be such a bad thing. 

My True Love Gave To Me

This is the only christmas book I haven't previously read as I didn't last year and wanted to wait until this December to read it. It is a compilation of twelve holiday stories and I'm really excited to read it. 

Let me know in the comments what you'll be reading these holidays, and let me know what you think of these books. xx 

Easy Christmas Hearts ❤ | Blogmas Day One

Hello lovelies, here is my first Blogmas post as promised because IT'S THE FIRST OF DECEMBER! EEEEEK!!! 

So today I'm going to show you how to make these super cute Christmas Hearts, they literally take like ten minutes to make. Okay, so all you need is;

➳  One block of White Chocolate (this should be enough for 12 hearts x)

➳  A handful of dried Cranberries, roughly chopped

➳  A handful of crushed pistachio's

➳ And a heart shaped silicone mould tray (I got mine from Kmart for like $7ish)

All you need to do is melt the chocolate and then put it in either a piping bag or a small jug with a lip. Fill the silicone hearts half way then add a couple of bits of cranberry and pistachio to the hearts. Fill them with more chocolate to just below the top, then add some more cranberries and pistachio bits. Put in the freezer for like an hour, it will take less time than this but putting them in for a full hour just makes sure that they are definitely solid. 

Once the hour is up you can take them out of their moulds and voila! they're ready for eating. 

I think these are perfect to give to your friends or your mum/sister/grandma, just be sure to keep them in the fridge whenever possible so they don't melt! hah!

If you don't have silicone moulds of any shape simply spread the melted chocolate over a baking paper lined tray and top with the cranberries and pistachio's. Once it had hardened, you can then break it up into lots of pieces, don't worry they will still look cool and taste the same. 

If you make any be sure to tag me (@rach_oneill) in your instagrams so I can give it a cheeky like ;) 

Merry Christmas lovelies xx 

Renaming my Blog ✖️

Hey lovelies! So ever since I started my blog back at the beginning of 2014 I didn't really think things through. Most people spend months developing their blogs, creating content and working on what they want their blog's identity to be before they put it online. Well little naive me didn't really think about that. In one day i decided to create a blog and by that night I had it online. That meant I didn't really think through what I wanted my blog title to be and I ended up calling my blog An O'Neill Opinion, a title I wasn't overly thrilled about. Anyway I have decided to rename my blog to just Rachael O'Neill, I mean what says more about me than my name? 

Also Blogmas starts tomorrow!!! WHOOO! Who else is feeling excited about it? I defiantly am. 

SO get ready for a post tomorrow and the next day and the, WELL, you get the picture. 

See you tomorrow! xx 

Blogmas 2015 ✖️

One thing I defiantly struggle with when it comes to blogging is consistency. I am terrible at posting on a consistent basis and spoiler alert but one of my new years resolutions will be to do a post at least once a week. But why should I wait until next year until I try to be a better blogger? This is one of the reasons why I have decided to participate in Blogmas this year.

SO from the 1st to the 25th of December I will be doing a blog post every day! What!? I know right it's insane, but the best challenges are a little crazy if ya know what I mean? So stay tuned and get excited for Christmas cause it's like only one month away! Eeeeeek!

If you are also doing Blogmas this year let me know in the comments and I'll make sure to stalk ya! xx

A day in Annecy

My first thought when I saw the pristine Lake Annecy was 'how is this place even real?'
In case you don't know Annecy is located up on the mountains near the French/Swiss border and everything is so picturesque it's insane. I love London and Paris, but this town was such a nice change from the big cities. The air was fresh and the streets were quite, it was beautiful and didn't feel very touristy. The old town looked like it hadn't changed much in the last two hundred years and the cobbled streets were so much fun to explore.
Unfortunately we only had one night here and I had come down with the flu so I wasn't up for too much exploring, but Sarah and I hired one of the paddle boats and spent some of the afternoon paddling around the crystal clear lake. I was so happy to visit this little town as it had been on my travel bucket list for over a year and it was even more breathtaking in person. All the pinterest stalking in the world can never quite prepare you for the natural beauty of Lake Annecy and its little town xx

Summery Mango and Pomegranate Salad

Whilst most of the world is post-halloween/ pre-thanksgiving, us Australians are enjoying the warmer weather and waiting for christmas to roll around. My favourite fruits are coming into season and I could think of no good reason not to share this healthy, summery salad.

What you'll need x

1/2 a mango

1/2 an avocado 

1/3 a pomegranate

1 chicken thigh or breast

1/2 lemon 

1 tsp thyme 

& baby spinach 

*Serves one 

Put your baby spinach in a bowl. 

Cut up your mango and avocado into small pieces and remove the pomegranate seeds from the pomegranate. Add these to the baby spinach. 

Cut your chicken into small pieces and throw them on a hot frying pan with some olive oil. Turn pieces as needed until cooked.

Squeeze the 1/2 a lemon into a bowl and add the rosemary and chicken. Mix them all together then add the chicken and dressing to the salad. 

This literally takes 10 minutes to make and tastes fresh and delicious. 

Let me know what your favourite summer salads are in the comments below! x 

Be Her Freedom | A stand against slavery

Last Saturday I attended a very special event and that was Launceston's very first Be Her Freedom Ball. You may be wondering 'what does that even mean to Be Her Freedom?' Well the Ball is a fundraising event run by the Be Her's organisation, which stands for the abolishment of sexual slavery. They work in partnership with the A21 Campaign, which is an organisation that stands for abolishing injustice in the 21st century, focusing on the eradication of the modern day slave trade. The Be Her Freedom Ball is held to raise funds for this organisation and to create awareness about the slave trade industry, because sadly many people are unaware that slavery still exists today.

Here are some facts for you x
➳ 27 million people are in bondage across the globe, to put that into perspective Australia has a population of about 23 million.

➳ Only 1-2% of the victims get rescued. That percentage may seem small, and it is, but we need to remember that these numbers and percentages aren't JUST numbers and percentages. They are a representation of individual lives and any and every rescue is to be celebrated.

➳ This statistic is really sad. The average age of human trafficking victims is 12 years old. Especially considering many of these victims are young girls who have been sold into sexual slavery.

I don't know about you but all of this is not okay with me. People should not be owned and the raping of girls, young or old, should not be a profitable business.

As I mentioned before, the ball I attended raises money for the the A21 campaign. This organisation is incredible. They help gather and provide information for the authorities to catch people involved in the slave trade and free the victims. They have a team of lawyers to persecute the perpetrators which ensures they actually end up in prison. A21 also helps with the restoration of the survivors, both physically and emotionally. They also provide education for the survivors so they are better equipped for independent lives.
One thing I love about these organisations is that they don't look at statistics. They look at each individual life and see every rescue, every restoration as a miracle. I believe this is a beautiful attitude to have when tackling an issue of such a daunting size.

I really encourage you to learn more about this issue. I feel like in the blogging world we don't really talk about things like sexual slavery, it's all about feminism and becoming vegan at the moment. Don't get me wrong I think feminism is an extremely important cause I just think we shouldn't focus on just one issue at a time.

If you want to learn more about the Be Her's Organisation head over here.
And if you want to check out the A21 Campaign you can click here.
The A21 Campaign website has some amazing testimonials on it that are definitely worth hearing.

Thank you so much for reading. Awareness is so important for prevention and I encourage you to talk to your friends about it. 

Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. 

Lots of Love,

Rach xx