This Week’s Nails – Moustaches and Bow Ties

Today was my last day with my class and after a training day tomorrow, I have a week off work to look forward to…heaven! I am praying for some sun as I would love to spend some of that week out in the garden but I have plenty of DIY projects to keep me going inside the house too!

This will be my last post for a few days as Ian and I are off to London for a weekend with our besties but I did promise to share a swatch of my new OPI nail varnish that arrived in my Birchbox delivery this month.

The annoying thing about OPI is that they don’t label their mini bottles so I am not entirely sure what shade this is! I can only describe it as a pale pastel pink. It is slightly frosted with a shimmery finish and like all OPI nail varnishes it is an excellent quality formula to work with.

It was actually fine with one coat but I added a second one just to even out the colour.

As I expected, once this shade was on my nails I decided it wasn’t for me (and has now been passed on to my Mum!) but rather than waste a manicure, I turned to my nail stickers.

There was no real skill in this week’s nail art but I wanted to share this rather whimsical combination of a moustache and bow tie effect.

It is subtle but still eye-catching and weirdly it makes me not dislike the shade so much!

Have a great Bank Holiday weekend and I will be back in a few days xxx

Baking Review – Betty Crocker Cake Mix Part 3

The final post in this three-part series on cake mixes involved baking some muffins!

A box of Blueberry Muffin Mix was turned into Blueberry and Coconut Muffins with the addition of some desiccated coconut to give another flavour and texture.

The first thing to surprise me was the tin of blueberries I found insidethe box. For some reason, I thought it would include a packet of dried blueberries ready to rehydrate in water or something along those lines but instead there was a tin of lovely little berries in a sweet syrup.

Like the other two boxes, this mix was no different in terms of ease to make and the batter looked and smelled lovely as I spooned it into the cupcake cases.

Unfortunately, the paper baking cases I received in this box were really squashed so I binned them and used some of my silicone cases instead to bake the cupcakes.

These rose really well in the oven and were lovely and golden brown when I took them out.

The little blueberries were lovely and sweet to eat and the coconut flavour was subtle yet it complemented the vanilla-based cupcake.

So that brings me to the end of my Betty Crocker project and I have to say that I really enjoyed all three cake mixes!

Beforehand I was slightly snobby about using these mixes, feeling as though it was almost cheating, but it was refreshing to see that it was still really easy to personalise and put your own twist on the different cakes.

Overall, I think these cake mixes do serve a purpose. It seems as though it is very hard to get them wrong so they are handy to have in the cupboard if you are an inexperienced baker or you want a quick and easy cake made within minutes!

Given my cookbook addiction, I will of course continue to try out new recipes from scratch and tweak my own recipes too. There is something very relaxing and satisfying about starting right at the very beginning of a cake recipe, measuring out and creaming butter and sugar, finishing in a lovely cake…with the occasional baking disaster every now and again to keep you on your toes!

Baking Review – Betty Crocker Cake Mix Part 2

This week I have decided to write a few posts reviewing some Betty Crocker cake mixes I have tried recently and today I am moving onto some cupcakes!

I love anything toffee or caramel flavoured so I had to try this box out. However, I had a feeling that the caramel cupcakes plus caramel icing may prove to be slightly too sickly so I adapted this to make salted caramel cupcakes! Yes, I realise this only means adding a bit of salt but it made all the difference and almost intensifies the caramel flavour by reducing the tooth-aching sweetness.

As expected, these were super easy to make and I had no issues with the cake or icing mix. I decided to leave the cupcakes alone and added a pinch of sea salt to the icing. My advice is to do this bit by bit because you can always add more salt but it is very difficult to un-salt icing!

Included within the box were these lovely marble-effect chocolate buttons and I also added some white chocolate stars I had in my baking cupboard.

The only negative about this baking kit was the fact that the cupcake cases came out of the box rather squashed and misshapen. This affected the shape of some of the cupcakes slightly so I think if I bought these again I would probably use my own paper or silicone cases. On the plus side though, I did love the red and white polka dot cases they provided – usually its plain old white!

These cupcakes looked great and were lovely with a cup of tea but they were very sweet and herein lies one of the problems with buying ready-mixed packets – you have no control over the amount of sugar being added…although it probably didn’t help that I drizzled dulce de leche over the cakes too!

Tomorrow is the final part of this mini-review and I will try to collate my thoughts on these ready-made cake mixes. Meanwhile, my parents are staying with us and my Dad has made his famous ribs, pulled pork and rice for dinner so I am having a night off the diet to indulge! x

Baking Review – Betty Crocker Cake Mix Part 1

When we go food shopping, one of my favourite aisles in the supermarket is the home baking aisle. I love looking at all the different cake toppers and ingredients and planning what delight to bake next.

I’m forever buying recipe books, particularly baking ones, and trying out new recipes but it can sometimes be a bit of a faff getting all the ingredients together and sometimes buying everything separately can add up to quite a bit (Madagascan vanilla pods and rose extract anyone?!) so when I saw boxes of Betty Crocker cake mix reduced to less than 50p each I decided to give them a whirl and experiment with a few different cakes.

I wanted to see if these pre-mixed ingredients would give you the same quality finish as other recipes but I also wanted to put my own twist on each of the boxes I bought. I pushed aside my baking snobbery and popped a few products in my trolley.

I can totally see the appeal of these mixes – they are cheap, someone has done the weighing for you and if you aren’t a very confident baker then they can be a great way to get started.

However, there is another side of me that thinks you are essentially just paying someone to weigh a bit of flour and sugar out for you, which you can easily do yourself, and secondly you aren’t completely in control of what is being added to your food.

Anyway, back to the shopping…I purchased:

Chocolate Swirl Cake Mix

Caramel Cupcake Mix

And Blueberry Muffin Mix

I have decided to break these posts up into a little three part series and today I will be talking about the Chocolate Swirl Cake Mix.

I was going for lunch at a friend’s house last month and offered to bring a pudding so adapted this mix to make a chocolate orange swirl cake.

The instructions on the box were really easy to follow and all the packets inside were clearly labelled. The only additions I made were the zest and juice of an orange to give the cake a bit of citrus bite.

Just before baking in the oven, you had to separate the batter and add cocoa to one third then dollop this chocolate flavoured mixture on top of the plain stuff and swirl it through using a knife.

This looked so pretty that I couldn’t wait to see it when it was cooked!

Et voila…

The marble pattern looked fantastic and it smelled amazing as it was baking.

Here is a picture as we cut into it and we served it warm with a drizzle of single cream.

I have to say I was really impressed with this cake. The swirly pattern made quite a statement when it was on a plate and the cake itself was lovely and moist. I think the orange flavour really added to the cake mix, as I imagine it may have been a bit plain and stodgy without it, but that’s just my guess.

So far, Cake Mix 1 – Baking Snobbery 0!

Tomorrow, onto the cupcakes…

A Day in the Life #1

Today I thought I would try out something I have seen several other bloggers do which is to share their day using photographs taken on the hour, for every hour they are awake. I quite like gaining a little insight into other people’s lives in this way so yesterday I snapped away on my iphone throughout the day. I tried to be very honest with my pictures, rather than picking styled scenes or doing something unnatural when my hourly alarm beeped!

I picked a fairly typical Saturday which included a lie-in, some pottering, some shopping and a meal with friends which descended into tequila-fuelled fun! Unfortunately my phone ran out of battery half-way through the evening so several red faces have been saved…

10am: I woke up a little before 10 and read a couple of chapters of Atonement in bed with a cup of tea brought to me by Ian!

11am: Time to get up and get clean! These are my current favourite bathroom products. The TIGI range is brilliant for anyone with curly hair and I love almost anything in the Soap and Glory Range. I am also loving Superdrug’s Pink Grapefruit and Tea Tree Facial Wash. It isn’t a high-end brand but the smell is amazing and its fabulous first thing in the morning to wake you up.

Midday: The excitement of opening and testing out my monthly Birchbox delivery and a bit of blogging.

1pm: Lunch followed by the difficult decision of tea or coffee whilst I measured up our kitchen walls ready for new tiles. Cue balancing dangerously on kitchen surfaces and praying the measurements are correct!

2pm: Popping out in sandals with the sun on our faces.

3pm: New tiles and grout…watch this space for our Kitchen Makeover!

4pm: Soundtrack to our drive and one of my favourite bands

5pm: A spot of baking – Blueberry and Coconut Muffins to take over to my friend’s house later.

6pm: The field at the end of our road – I love where we live! We headed over to Bristol for a curry with friends.

7pm: Poppadum Mountain

8pm: I love BYOB restaurants!

9pm: Feeling immensely stuffed, we wandered to the pub for a few drinks

10pm: The beginning of the end…Tequila shots!

Luckily for some, that is where my photo diary ends until we got home at 2am!

I hope you enjoyed today’s post. I thought it would be interesting to document my day in this way and I liked the way it forced me to be creative on the spot and find a shot to sum up what I was doing at the time.

I have a couple of baking posts coming up this week where I am testing out some different ready-made cake mixes. Not great for the diet but I enjoyed tasting the results and trying to put my twist on the recipes!

Right, its Sunday which means our Sunday Roast is in the oven (a joint of gammon this week) so I am off to help Ian in the kitchen! x

Beauty Review – May Birchbox

This month’s Birchbox promises to get you ‘Red Carpet Ready’ and is packed full of items to help you get ready for that big day whether it is a night out, a wedding or your holiday.

As always, this beauty box was packaged in the pretty pink drawstring bag and here was my first look at the contents:

The first thing I picked up was this tin of tea leaves. The smell from this little pot was amazing, full of citrus notes and I really like the fact that this monthly delivery has such a good variety of products apart from beauty ones. The tin is really pretty and contains a blend of mate, green tea and lemongrass. I don’t usually drink loose tea leaves but this healthy tea claims it will rid your body of toxins, boost your energy and lower stress levels so I will give it a go!

  

Next is a tube of Elemental Herbology’s Cell Plumping Facial Moisturiser. This is a lovely thick formula and is rose-scented which is my favourite smell! I have only used this twice but it left my skin feeling incredibly smooth.

I love trying out new body creams so I was pleased to see a tub of B/Attitude’s Body Soufflé in my bag. This has a lovely delicate, baby-powder smell and although it feels slightly greasy upon application, it is soon absorbed into the skin. This little pot is a perfect travel size so I may save it for my holiday this summer.

Next is a product by the tanning experts Make Believe.

I received a Luminizing Skin Highlighter which can be used on cheeks and eyelids to give a lovely summery glow. This has a pretty golden sheen to it and I can see myself using this a lot when I have more of a tan.

 

As one of the ‘Beauty Extras’, I received two sachets of Doctor Duve Anti-Aging and Firming Eye Cream. I am not a huge fan of sachet samples as I find you never really have enough to truly review the product, but retailing at £115 a tub, I can’t see myself purchasing this any time soon anyway!

Finally, an OPI nail varnish. I love this brand so was happy to see a mini bottle in this month’s haul. I have to say that this wouldn’t be my first choice colour but I plan on giving it a go later today so expect to see this shade on my nails this week!

Overall, another great delivery from Birchbox with a good variety of brands and products which has persuaded me to keep  up my subscription with them after a three month trial.

We are moving on to our next DIY project this weekend with plans to re-tile the kitchen so are off to B&Q for samples in a bit then popping over to Bristol for a curry with my best friend to talk Vegas and wedding plans!

Have a great weekend x

This Week’s Nails – Half Moon Manicure

This week I wanted to recreate a vintage-style manicure that is really popular nowadays. I love this half-moon effect that began to gain popularity in the 1930s and it has become somewhat of a signature look for Dita Von Teese.

I wish I had a steady enough hand to achieve this effect with a thin paintbrush but I have to use a little cheat in the form of my nail tip stickers. I was pleased to see that not only could these be used for that French manicure tip but also over your cuticles to achieve this half-moon effect.

There are no rules or limits on your colour combination but I think you need to choose a really good quality and well-pigmented shade for the little half-moons. Firstly, so you only need to do one layer and secondly so that you don’t have a big bump on your nail bed where one shade ends and the next one starts!

I decided to try out another shade from my recent MUA haul and chose this pretty mint green shade. I’m still not convinced by the formula of these polishes. The first layer seemed to look dreadful!

However, I am finding that a second layer seems to provide sufficient coverage and the formula seems to settle over the nail quite well. This shade was quite chalky and slightly matte in its finish so I would definitely use a top coat with this.

When this base coat was completely dry, I positioned my curved nail sticker

Painted on my colour (a bright pink by ELF)

I allowed a few seconds for it to sort of set then peeled off the sticker whilst the polish was still wet.

I like this colour combination as it feels quite summery…some would argue it is completely inappropriate given the fact we have had rain, wind and even snow here this week!!!

A quick layer of topcoat seals this look and gives it a nice shine.

Now this effect is in my repertoire, I am looking forward to experimenting with different colour combinations and will share any winners on here!