Sunday, 17 March 2013

CND Shellac Haul

Hi guys,

I sold some stuff on ebay this weekend so thought I'd treat myself to some more Shellac polishes.
You can click on the picture to enlarge it if you want to see the colours more closely.


From left to right we have:

Cream Puff
Iced Cappuccino
Midnight Swim
Romantique
and the boring...
Top Coat (Large Size)

I only placed the order this morning but I was so excited so I had to share it on here. :)
I've also ordered one of those little nail wheels so that I can show how the colours look on and practice layering the polishes.

If you haven't tried Shellac before, and if you ever get chance to...do it!
You wont look at regular nail varnish the same again.

Have any of you guys had a Shellac manicure before? What colours did you choose?

xxx

OOTN - 16/03/13

Okay, I didn't manage to get any photos of the outfit itself (I found a crappy mirror shot, that I forgot I took) but here's what I wore for a meal out with family.

Dishevelled from the rain.




Topshop dress.

Aldo wedges and Primark opaque black tights.

Faux Leather jacket from Dorothy Perkins.

And my Michael Kors watch and envelope clutch from Accessorize.

This is an old picture above to show you the bag, but I also wore "Bikini So Teeny" nailpolish by Essie.


:)

Crappy post, I'm sorry. 

Love you guys x


Tuesday, 12 March 2013

How to: DIY at home hair dye!

Hi guys, 
So I've been umming and aahing about getting my hair re ombre-d in the hairdressers for the past few months, but today I just decided that, a) it was too expensive and b) I'll probably just change my mind about it once I've had it done.

So I went for the safe option and dyed it dark again. I hadn't dyed my hair for around 6 months and it had gone back to a mousey brown colour which was not the nicest.

I've never been to a salon to dye my hair, I've done it myself for the past 10 ish years, so I thought I'd film a little video showing you how I do it incase you were a bit sceptical about DIY at home dye kits!

It's super easy.


I used Garnier Nutrisse Creme in the shade 4 "Dark Brown" which isn't a million miles away from my natural colour, just a tiny bit darker - but I like the glossiness it gives my hair.



:)

Hope you enjoy. Do you have any tips on at home hair dying? 

x



Sunday, 10 March 2013

Jeffrey Campbell Napoles

I picked myself up some bargain Jeffrey Campbell's today at TKMaxx. 

Wedge trainers - marmite shoes - love them or hate them.

I think they will be quite nice for summer with a funky dress or shorts and a plain tshirt. I don't know yet, but I'm excited to wear them! 

:) 


Happy Mother's Day, by the way! Hope all you mums out there had a lovely day! 

x

Sunday, 3 March 2013

Jamie Oliver's Mega Chocolate Fudge Cake

Today I was having a bad day so decided that the only way that anything was going to get any better was to make something extremely unhealthy and extremely chocolatey. 
And here's the outcome...

Jamie Oliver's Mega Chocolate Fudge Cake


And here's how you make it! 
(I'll write the whole recipe out at the end of the post if you want to try these yourself...and you definitely should.)


Gather your ingredients; dark chocolate, butter, soft brown sugar, self-raising flour, almonds, fudge, cocoa powder, salt and four eggs. I actually forgot to put the salt in, which didn't really matter I don't think because salt's bad for you anyway...she says, adding half a block of butter into the cake mix.


Jamie suggests just blending all the ingredients together in a food processor. I don't have one, so I blitzed the chocolate and almonds into a powder with a gadget of my mum's and then just mixed everything together with our mixer.


Grease a baking tray and pour the mixture into it. Mine didn't pour, even after adding an extra egg and some milk to attempt to thin it out, so I just spatula'd it into the tray and flattened it out.
Add blocks of fudge and push down into the mix, as well as sprinkling some on top.


Put in a pre-heated oven (160°C / 320°F / Gas Mark 2) for 18-20 minutes.
Mine took about 23 minutes as my mixture was piled quite thick. Depending on the size/depth of your baking tray, check accordingly.
Stab a knife in the middle and check that only a little bit of cake mixture comes out on the blade. If there's a lot of drippy cake mix, put it back in the oven for another few minutes. If there is a little/no cake mix, then it's done!


Cut into chunks and admire. Eat with plenty of ice cream.


I also tried out another Jamie recipe from his 15 Minute Meals book and it was bloody awful so I'm not even going to tell you how to do that one... Looked nice but tasted vile.


Here's the whole recipe and steps from Jamie's Ministry of Food Book for the cake.

-------------------------

MEGA CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE

This cake is best made using a food processor, ad you can simply add everything and blitz it up together, but you can easily make it by hand if you buy ground almonds and grate the chocolate into the mix. Like most desserts, this isn't exactly the healthiest thing in the world but it's absolutely gorgeous. Just make sure you enjoy it as it's meant to be enjoyed - a special treat every now and then.

-------------------------

Serves 8

200g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
175g butter, plus extra for greasing
120g soft brown sugar
100g blanched almonds
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
a pinch of salt
4 large eggs, preferably free-range or organic
150g self-raising flour
100g fudge
creme fraiche or vanilla ice cream

-------------------------

TO MAKE YOUR CAKE

Preheat the oven to 160°C / 320°F / Gas Mark 2. Break up the chocolate, put it into a food processor with the butter, sugar, almonds, one tablespoon of the cocoa powder and the salt, and whiz until smooth. Crack your eggs, one at a time, into the food processor and add the flour. Whiz again until smooth.

-------------------------

TO BAKE YOUR CAKE

Get a deep baking dish roughly 25 x 25cm in size. Butter the dish really well and sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of cocoa powder over it. Shake it around a bit so it lightly coats the whole surface of the dish. Pour the cake mixture into the dish, using a spatula to scrape it all out of the processor. Break the fudge into pieces and sprinkle these over the top of the cake mix, pushing any larger pieces down into the mixture. Pop the baking dish into the preheated oven and cook for 18-20 minutes. Take the cake out of the oven and stick a fork into the middle of it. If there's a little bit of cake mixture on the fork when you pull it out, that's okay - you want the cake to still be a little moist inside so that it's nice and squidgy. However, if it seems a bit wobbly, pop it back into the oven for another 3-5 minutes to firm up a bit.

-------------------------

TO SERVE YOUR CAKE

Let your cake cool slightly and serve it warm and gooey. Lovely with a dollop of creme fraiche, a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a bit of double cream.

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

OOTD: 27/02/13

Sorrryyy I haven't posted in a week! I'm back with an outfit post from today, though. I will also be putting up a collective haul soon, which is very exciting :) Well, for me anyway!

The sun was shining today but it was still bitterly cold so I chose to wear my Cookie Monster coat. It's a love it or hate it kind of piece but it keeps me warm so I'm happy.


Faux fur coat - Topshop.
Black top - Topshop.


I'm still awaiting my remote for my camera, so for now I'm still using my phone as the remote, so just pretend I'm texting somebody exciting.


Easy Jeans from American Apparel.




Satchel from The Cambridge Satchel Company.


Jewellery from left to right:
Links of London, Michael Kors, Links of London, Pandora.


My nails matched my bag today. I'm wearing Barry M's Gelly nailpolish in Blueberry.


Studded slippers form Topshop.


Lipstick is Up The Amp by MAC and you can just see my necklace in the bottom picture, which I got from Topshop.


I hope you all had a lovely day.
See you soon!
x



Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Showzam Razzle Dazzle 1920's Ball

Here's a few photos from last weekend when we attended a themed Ball in Blackpool Tower Ballroom.


1920's theme was fun to re-create.


Everything is from Charity Shops aside from my faux fur stole which is from Topshop and D's shoes which are from TKMAXX.

 For my makeup I followed this tutorial by Pixiwoo on YouTube.


And here's how it turned out.
Not the most flattering, but definitely 1920's-esque.
(Excuse my dressing gown!)


We watched the show from the upper tiers which induced a lot of belly flutters as it was so high and so steep.


We got an invitation to another dance for being well dressed.




Here's everyone else's outfits!


And a few from instagram....





xxx


Tuesday, 19 February 2013

OOTD - 17/02/13

Just a quick outfit of the day from the other day. Nothing special, I was simply trying out my new camera remote app which allows me to take a photo with my camera from my iphone.
This is why I have my phone in my hand in every photo, haha.


Camo Jacket from Charity Shop.
Hoody from Primark.


Jeans from Topshop.
Converse trainers.
Bag from Cambridge Satchel Company.


Links of London, Michael Kors, Sam Ubhi, Dorothy Perkins, Pandora.


Simple 5 minute makeup.
Grey top from Topshop.

I had a lovely 'holiday' from work. I wanted to share this photo we took with my camera app in Nandos. Nom nom nom.


Photos from the 1920s ball will be up in my next post. :)
x