How to: Make an awesome dessert in ten easy steps! Rocky Road style!

Nigella Lawson's Rocky Road 

AKA

Neen and Dan's Ultimate Death by Chocolate Dessert!

WARNING: NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED! EAT AT YOUR OWN PERIL!

Here's how to make it in ten easy steps!

Step one: Gather your ingredients!

You need:

(According to Nigella...)

125g of unsalted butter

300g of chocolate

3tbsp of golden syrup

200g of rich tea biscuits

100g of mini marshmallows

(Give or take! we used more chocolate and fewer biscuits. It's not too important! We also added chocolate chips and chocolate balls for decoration.)

To see the original, proper recipe click HERE!

Step two:

Get a heavy bottom saucepan and put it on a low heat with your butter, chocolate and syrup in. Break your chocolate up so it melts faster.

Remember to stir!

Step three: Test the chocolate. It's a must.

Step four: Get a freezer bag and bung your biscuits inside.

Enlist the help of a big strong bloke and a heavy duty rolling pin.

Bash the buggers to smithereens!

Step five: Set aside half of your melted chocolate/syrup/butter mixture for later.

Get your marshmallows and biscuits at the ready...

...and whack them into the mix.

Yum yum! Give it a good stir.

Step six: Place a cheeky bid on ebay.

Step seven: Pour your mixture into a large flat dish.

We added chocolate chips on top.

Pour the mixture that you set aside before on top.

Step eight: Enjoy a healthy snack that your other half lovingly prepared for you.

Step nine: Flatten it all out as best you can with a spatula or the back of a spoon...

...and sprinkle some goodies on top!

We chose more chocolate chips, chocolate balls and marshmallows. (obviously)

Coor blimey!

Step ten: Refrigerate for two hours or until the chocolate has set. Eat and enjoy.

Moment on the lips... lifetime on the hips!

February Favourites

Here are my favourite bits and bobs from the month of February.

1. The Body Shop Raspberry Ripple Bath and Shower Gel.

This smells AABBSOLUTELY ahumazing and a little goes a long way!

2. Organix Renewing Moroccan Argan Oil Shampoo and Conditioner.

I got mine on offer at Boots recently and again this product smells absolutely fantastic. Not sure about the consistency of the product, its a bit gross looking but it seems to do the trick. It's my favourite purely because of the smell though at the moment. I've not used it enough to see whether it does what it claims to do.

3. Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser. I received this as a Christmas gift from my other half's parents. I can honestly say that this cleanser is THE best that I have ever used. It takes every scrap of makeup off, even the ultimately waterproof mascara base that I use (which no other cleanser has even budged without severe scrubbing in the past!) I recommend this fully, 100% and will definitely be repurchasing once I run out.

4. Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Foundation.

I ran out of the regular Healthy Mix Foundation recently and decided to go for this one instead of repurchasing (although, the regular foundation is ace, too). Really nice foundation. Gives reasonable coverage but looks natural. Very buildable, smells nice - not too strong. Long lasting and wears well. No gripes.

5. Stella by Stella McCartney fragrance. I recently ran out of my favourite Calvin Klein Euphoria so have been reaching for this one a lot more. Actually beginning to really enjoy the smell as I wasn't too keen at first but it seems to sit really well on my skin and is long lasting. And the bottle is pretty as hell.

6. Soap and Glory Thick and Fast Mascara. I got this free with this month's Elle magazine and it's actually pretty good. It doesn't beat my ultimate favourite of Benefit Bad Gal Lash, but it's a damn good alternative. I'd recommend going out and buying this Elle (it has Alexa Chung on the front) if you can still get it in your local newsagents. I don't think I'd buy it for full price (£10) but for a freebie in a magazine, it's a great back up for when your current mascara runs out.

7. Bargain Dotting Tools. I bought these from ebay for the grand sum of 99p. They took an age to arrive from Hong Kong but they were super cheap and are letting me play around with different nail designs and I love them.

8. Stacking Jewellery. I've really gotten into stacking my bracelets this month and I've been wanting to do it for ages so I decided to treat myself to a new Pandora bracelet to add to my wrist candy! Love it!

How to: Re-invent your scarves!

I really love wearing scarves with my outfits and have accumulated an array of colours and designs. Since the "Snood" or "Infinity/Endless" scarf has become popular on the highstreet I have been enjoying wearing these much more than the ordinary scarf but I didn't want to banish my pretty rectangle scarves to the back of my wardrobe.

Here's a quick and easy way to re-invent your regular scarves. Transform it from this scarf with unruly fly away ends:

To this flattering and easy to wear snood:

All you need is a scarf of your choice. I find this technique works best with regular rectangular fabric scarves.

Step one is to flatten out your scarf and fold in in half so both ends meet.

Step two. Grab one corner from the top layer of the folded scarf and the corner below it. Tie this in a double knot. Repeat the same process on the other two corners of the scarf.

Step three. Put it on! Easy as that. Grab the knots you have just tied and bring them together. Hang it around your neck, twist and bring it over your head again like a regular snood.

Easy as pie.

If you have a scarf which has a different colour or design on each side then you can add a twist into it before you tie the edges. This way you will be able to wear your scarf and show both sides at the same time. Like so:

Even though you have created two knots in your scarf, you can't see them when worn. Just make sure you place the knots at the nape of the neck and when you twist the second layer of scarf around your neck the knots will be covered up easily.

 So there you have it. From this:

To this...:

...in under a minute.

Hope you guys enjoy and try it out for yourself.

x

Scarves are from all over the highstreet and charity shops.

Striped dress is from Oasis, black cardi from Topshop and shoes are from Dorothy Perkins.

Sneak peek: Animal nails!

:)

O.O.T.D. 27/02/12

Hi peeps. Here's a quick outfit of the day today... or should I say outfit of the morning as I'm now currently sat in my pyjamas again curled up under my blanket.
I went for a quick meeting with a friend to talk about my artwork (or lack of) and perhaps an upcoming exhibition. After that, I went for a quick dash around town to see if the Real Techniques makeup brushes are available in my local Boots yet but alas, they weren't. Which is probably a good thing because I'd be tempted to buy them all.
I also went and cancelled my hair appointment for this week. *sigh* I couldn't make up my mind how I wanted it dyed so I'm just going to go and get a quick trim and perhaps try dying it myself in the future. I didn't want to spend all that money for it to turn out not how I wanted it...however that might be. Another reason I cancelled is because I accidently bought two naughty things yesterday and thought I'd best consider saving the rest of my wage so it actually last more than one week in my bank account haha! I will show you what I bought when they arrive this week sometime!

Anyway, here's what I wore to run my errands. Simple and comfortable.

Faux fur green coat is from Topshop sale.

Slouchy top is from Topshop. Is still available in stores (my store, at least) but its now sold out online.

Skinny jeans from Topshop years ago.

Bag from Cambridge Satchel Company 11"

Shoes by Converse.

Beaded bracelet is a random from BHS or Dorothy Perkins or somewhere.

Leather double wrap bracelet and Buddha charm from Pandora.

Studded braceleet by Sam Ubhi.

Watch by DKNY.

My cupcake nails seem to be holding up well!

Cross earrings from Topshop.

See you soon, guys! x

Ombre hair inspiration

So, I've booked my appointment for Thursday morning to get my hair cut and coloured. I'm hoping I'm going to come out with Ombre hair, but I'm not sure how it will end up since the receptionist behind the counter wrote me down for "highlights" much to my annoyance.

These are a few pictures I'm taking in with me to show them what I'm after. 

I think this first one is my favourite, and closest to my hair colour and length as it is now. Who knows, I'm not even sure how I want it yet so we will have to wait and see.

I found all of these pictures on google images so unfortunately cannot remember all the source links! Slap my wrist.