Gingerbread House

(Completely forgot to upload this post! but better late than never ;)

 

During the festive season, there are a lot of things I love to do to make me feel Christmassy!

 

One of them, is to make a gingerbread house from scratch. (It always ends up messy, but making it stand up on it's own this year was a first!)

  

 

 

I start off by making the gingerbread, which I do by using the same recipe as I did for my Halloween Biscuits.When it comes to shaping the dough, I roll it out pretty thin - about 5mm , and use a template from the internet. This Year I Used one from the Tesco Website, which you can find here. I then baked all the sides of the house in the oven for about 20 minutes at 190°. After they had cooled, I decorated them with chocolate buttons and little coloured sweets (which ended up falling off the door of the house, as I managed to drop it on the floor :( ), and I then stuck them together with icing.

 

Hope you enjoyed this post!

 

♥

 

Snowflake Nails

 

Every Year, I like to make my nails festive! I end up changing the design about 5 times throughout December, but for now I decided on snowflakes. ❄

 

 

I recently purchased, Barry M's white nail art pen, which was perfect for creating the snowflakes. And I also just used some glitter over the top to make my nails all sparkly!

 

♥

Winter Wonderland

Last weekend, Me and my two brothers and his girlfriend, went on a 'spur of the moment' trip up to London, to visit Winter Wonderland.

 

(I think my eyes show how excited I was)

 

Despite it being absolutely freeeezing, and not actually going on any of the rides, we had a good time just walking round, and taking in the pretty, sparkly, festiveness that is Winter Wonderland. We also had fresh doughnuts, which were amazinggg! and I think I would actually go all the way back there just to get some more.

 

I had wanted to visit it again later this month, so I could go on some of the rides, but as I'm pretty busy at the moment, and the prices of hotel's are getting more and more expensive as it gets closer to Christmas, I think I will have to wait until next year!

 

If you're in London at all before Christmas, I would definitely recommend a trip here! It's so cute and festive, and helps get you in a Christmassy mood! (It's also free if you don't go on the rides.)

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

♥

 

YouBeauty - Advent Calender

 

A few days before December arrived, this beautiful thing appeared on my door step. 

 

 Being the excited, impatient person I am, I found it difficult waiting each day to open just one door. So by the 6th day, this had happened...

 

 

I know it's a bit late to review this product, as the start of December was a while ago now, and many people would have probably wanted it ready for the countdown. However, I really love it, so I wanted to write about it! (no harm in that, ay!)

 

Although I was hoping for some of the products to be a bit bigger (a few of them are just samples) A good amount of them are really decently sized, and you obviously get your moneys worth. It can still be purchased online here, for just £49.95, which is a great price seeing as the products are worth over £240!

I had previously looked at buying different beauty style advent calendars, but ended up deciding on this one, purely because it has a wider range of products. (Mostly skincare, but also make-up, and bath and shower products).

My favourite products include the Stila Lip glaze, the Himalayan Detox Salts, the Steamcream moisturiser and Dr. Lipp.

I would love to know peoples opinions on other advent calenders!

Thank You for reading!

♥

 

Outfit Of The Day

 

 

 

 It's pretty much winter now here in the UK, so It's getting pretty chilly. I decided to go for a casual warm look, as I was off out for a walk with my boyfriend, before going out for a meal for my brothers birthday.

 

I am obsessed with disco pants at the moment, so I Just paired them with a warm knitted eyelash jumper, burgundy scarf, parka, black ankle boots and socks with cute little bows.

 

Make sure to leave me a comment with a link to your outfit of the day if you have done one! :)

 

Thank-you for reading!

 

♥

Yankee Candle - Christmas Cookie

 Just recently I started a new full time job. Even though this is obviously good in many ways, It also means I have less time to do the things I love doing (like blogging).

 I have decided that each week from now on I am going to try and post at least once. So this week I thought why not write about something I have recently been loving? So here:

 

Christmas Cookie - Yankee Candle

 

 

 As soon as Autumn hits, I Like to get into the Christmas spirit (bit early, I know). So, this year I decided to treat myself to a new festive candle.

 

After spending quite a long time smelling all of the wintery scents, I found my favourite - Christmas Cookie. This is by far one of the best scents ever! It smells so sweet and vanillary, and makes me want to just pick it up and eat it! I have used it LOADS and still have a fair bit to go, which is good. I will definitely be picking up the bigger one next time!

 

 

♥

 

Halloween Gingerbread Biscuits

 

Soooo, the other day I decided to make some Halloween inspired biscuits, and I thought I would share them!

 

Ingredients:

350g (12oz) plain flour

2 teaspoons of ground ginger (you can leave this out if you want plain biscuits)

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

100g (4oz) butter or margarine (sliced into chunks)

175g (6oz) light brown sugar

1 egg

4 tablespoons of golden or maple syrup

 

For the decoration:

200g icing sugar

A few drops of orange food colouring (or red and yellow, mixed)

Writing icing

 

You will also need Halloween shaped cookie cutters (unless you're good at cutting shapes with a knife)

 

1) preheat the oven to 190° and grease a baking tray.

2) Put the flour, ginger, bicarbonate of soda and butter/margarine into a mixing bowl. Rub together with your fingers until it looks like breadcrumbs.

3) Add the sugar to the mixture, and stir. Then break the egg into a bowl and mix it with the syrup.

4) Add the egg and syrup into the mixture until it makes a dough.

5) Knead the dough, and roll it out, until it's about 5mm thick. Cut out your shapes, and put in the oven on the baking tray. Bake for about 12-15 minutes

6) When the biscuits have cooled, mix a few drops of the food colouring in with the icing sugar, and add as much water as needed. (You can miss out the food colouring if you've made ghosts).

 

Happy Halloween!

What will you be doing?

♥

 

 

Halloween Make-Up Ideas

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought it was a good time to share some easy to do Halloween make up ideas, using basic products!

 

 

 For this classic skeleton look, you need black eyeliner, black eye shadow, mascara and a bit of white eyeliner for the teeth. This is perfect if you love contouring! I contoured my cheek bones, nose, and all around my face using black eye shadow.

 

 

 This one is a bit simpler. All you need is a black eyeliner, and your favourite mascara and lipstick! You could go all out and go for a dark lip too! I wanted to keep it more neutral on the lips, so more attention is drawn to the eyes, therefore opting for a light pink colour.

 

 

Creepy doll - For this you need to make your eyes look as big as possible! (without covering up the rest of your face.) White eyeliner can help to create this illusion. Then you just need to use a lot of pink blush, for the cheeks, and using a black eyeliner, create the scar type things.. Conceal your lips, and using a bold lipstick create a lip shape smaller than yours!

 

 

 

 The not so scary cat look - probably the easiest and quickest look out of them all! Just create your favourite Smokey eye, put on your 'go to' lipstick, then add a cat's nose using a black eyeliner and a pink lipstick or eye shadow for the middle. simple!

 

I hope you enjoyed this post, and that it gave you some ideas for easy make-up looks, that make it look as though you made an effort, (without really making much effort!)

 

I would love to know what you are going as for Halloween! Let me know in the comments.

 

♥

 

 

 

 

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

In my last blog post I mentioned my most recent favourite recipe, chocolate chip cookie dough brownies! So here it is...

 

  

 

(They taste better than they look ;) Promise!)


For the brownie:
175g (16oz)  Margarine
350g (12oz) Caster sugar
3 eggs
100g (4oz) plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
70g (3oz) cocoa powder
an oblong tin, roughly 20cm x 30cm

1) Heat your oven to 180°C, 350°F, Gas mark 4. and grease the tin.
2) Melt the margarine and mix in the sugar.
3) Beat the eggs and add them to the mixture, along with the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder. Stir until everything is mixed well.
4) Pour the mixture into the tin and smooth with the back of a spoon. Bake for about 40 minutes


For the cookie dough:
150g Margarine
150g Caster sugar
300g flour (any type you like)
splash of milk
as many chocolate chips as you want!

1) Melt the margarine and mix it with the sugar
2) mix in the chocolate chips and flour, and add tablespoons of milk until the mixture turns to a soft dough.
3) After the brownie has cooled, spread the cookie dough mixture onto the brownie, and wolah!

Hope you enjoy!

 ♥

September Favourites

When I decided I wanted to do a post about my favourites for September, I thought I would be writing about beauty products. But as I went to write them down, I struggled. I realised that there haven't been many beauty related products I have really been LOVING this month, So I decided to include some random favourites too!

 

Beauty 

Bourjous Colour Boost - Peach On the Beach 

I have worn this constantly through September and absolutely love it! The colour is so pigmented and goes on really nicely, giving a slight gloss to the lips. Although I see coral as more of a summer colour, I will definitely still be wearing this through the Autumn months.

 

  Bourjous Bronzing Powder

 This is one of the best bronzers I've tried! Since my tan had already mostly faded by September, this was a great way of bronzing up my skin.

 

 Hair 

 Herbal Essences - Bee Strong Range

 This has been my saviour through September and all of summer. The sun, as well as using hair straightners so often, really dryed out and damaged my hair. These products put the moisture back in, and made it look and feel a lot stronger and healthier.


Food

Belvita Breakfast Biscuits - Crunchy oats

For some weird reason, I've never liked any type of cereal, so I find it really difficult finding things to eat for breakfast. This month, my Mum picked up some of these breakfast biscuits, and I have eaten them most days since. I even sometimes put them with fruit and yoghurt, just to make me feel like I'm being healthy haha.
Chocolate Brownie's with Cookie Dough
A few weeks ago, I saw a picture on tumblr of Chocolate brownies with cookie dough on top, and thought, I want that! So I took my favourite brownie recipe, and my favourite cookie recipe, and boom! This is now one of my favourite things ever. (I forgot to take a photo, so I'll put some up soon, along with the recipe!)


Songs
This month I have been listening to two songs on repeat. The first is a song called Great Escape, by an amazing singer, Mike Dignam, who i discovered on Youtube. This song was perfect for summer, and I have listened to it most mornings getting ready. You can listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LhpMXYKemE
The second, is the song Wings, By Birdy. She has such an amazing voice, and It's one of those songs were I feel like the lyrics were written for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBKfy0FwUC8

Fairy Lights

Since it's now autumn/ Fall, I wanted to add a new touch to my room, to make it feel more cosy. I recently brought these fairy lights, from Amazon, and absolutely love them! They are so simple (and were fairly cheap too!) but they instantly make the room feel more cute and festive!

If you have written a post on your monthly favourites, be sure to leave a link in the comments, and I'll go and check it out!

♥