Category Archives: review

Self.Styled- the book that dares to be different

08th November 2016
I’ve been really lucky lately when it comes to books and have been sent some rather excellent ones to review. The one I am featuring on the blog today is no exception, as soon as the email about “Self.Styled” landed in my inbox I was intrigued and eagerly anticipating the arrival of a copy through my letterbox.

The book is a celebration of freedom of expression, diversity and individuality shown through personal style. Each person featured in the book was asked to select two outfits- one to represent their take on day wear and the other for night wear and this is shown by author Anthony Lycett through dual portrait photographs and well written content that makes for a thoroughly enjoyable and inspiring read. I really liked how all of the photographs have been taken against a neutral background so the individual style does all of the talking.

I didn’t want to give too much away by photographing the book, it’s one of those that you really can’t fully appreciate unless you read it yourself. I highly recommend getting hold of a copy for yourself if you enjoy fashion and expressing yourself through how you dress. It’s the culmination of a project that started back in 2008 and features people from all backgrounds and walks of life- it covers such a wide range of themes such as gender and body shape as well as personal taste and it really does have to be seen to believed.

Self.Styled will be on sale from November the 17th with an RRP of £20. Let me know if you get hold of a copy and what you think!

Posted in books, inspiration, review

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Baking with Macabella

04th November 2016
It probably hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice that baking is one of my hobbies and one of the only upsides of having been off of work for so long now is that I’ve been able to indulge my love of whipping up cakes and cookies for my friends and family. Over the last few months I’ve tried many a new recipe or ingredient and when Macabella got in touch asking if I’d like to try out their amazing sounding chocolate and macadamia spread and come up with some recipes using it I was ready for the challenge. I’ve actually been itching to try this spread since seeing my good friend Amy’s review of the crunchy variety so there was definitely excitement in the air when my goodies arrived.
Nestled in a swanky gold box were four jars of Macabella spread- two velvet ones and two of the crunch variety. After having a good old think about things I decided on baking two recipes using the products- one cookie and one cake.
For the cookies I used my tried and tested Rolo cookie cup recipe and followed the instructions up until the point where the biscuits came out of the oven. At that point instead of pressing rolos in to the still hot cookies I poked holes (using the end of a clean makeup brush for want of a better tool) and allowed the biscuits to cool slightly. I briefly considered using my thumb to make the indents but quickly dismissed that idea once I realised how stupid it would be to poke my own skin in to a red hot cookie! Whilst still warm I took teaspoons full of Macabella crunch and placed it inside the holes I had created…I found softening the spread for 15 seconds in the microwave made it easier to work with. As you can see, the end result is a lovely soft baked cookie that oozes chocolate-y macadamia goodness when you bite or cut in to it. These proved a massive hit with my Dad and his colleagues and took under an hour from start to finish to make.
For the cake I tried a new to me recipe that I modified by swapping the 100g of nutella for 100g of velvety smooth Macabella. This cake uses the all in one method so is really quick and simple to do and results in a wonderfully light but decadent sponge.

I filled the cake using the rest of a jar of Macabella crunch (make sure you do it whilst the cake is still warm) then topped it with Macabella velvet and a pot of chocolate curls. So simple and yet so effective and the true testament to what a wonderful cake you get when you use Macabella is how fast it disappeared when I dropped it in to work!

Neither of these recipes are complicated, nor do they take a long time to whip up and both were ultimately enhanced by the use of Macabella spreads and there is already demand for more!

Have you tried Macabella spread before? Either as a spread or in baking? What baked goods would you use it for? I strongly suggest you hot foot it to your nearest Sainsburys (the only UK stockist) and get some of this goodness for yourselves and get experimenting. Visit the Macabella website for more about the spread and for more recipe ideas.

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Posted in baking, food, recipes, review

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Gift Inspiration: Burt’s Bees and Tangle Teezer

03rd November 2016
When it comes to Christmas shopping one of my favourite things to search for and buy is stocking fillers. Building up the perfect bundle of gifts for a friend or loved one gives me great pleasure and today I am featuring a couple of items that would be just perfect for the beauty lovers I know (including myself) and will hopefully serve as inspiration for anyone else in the midst of their shopping too.
First up I bring you the new and limited edition Ginger Spice Lip Balm from Burt’s Bees* (£3.99). The abundance of gingerbread flavoured products at this time of year fills me with joy, I’m currently addicted to gingerbread men and this lip balm manages to embody the scent of my favourite baked good perfectly whilst delivering the excellent TLC one would expect from a Burt’s Bees product. As with all of their lip products this is 100% natural, super moisturising and contains no parabens, phthalates, SLS or petrolatum (and uses recyclable materials in it’s packaging too). As these are limited edition I fully plan to stock up for the next few months and I strongly suggest that you do too, be it for yourself or as a gift.
Second up are some goodies from Tangle Teezer* who kindly sent over two of their compact styling hairbrushes- the Hello Kitty edition and Lulu Guinness lipstick print one. Tangle Teezer is pretty much the only hair brush brand that I use these days. Having really thick hair with a tendency to curl and then knot these are the only brushes that have managed to de-tangle my locks without wreaking havoc in the process. The compact stylers are perfect for popping in to your handbag for sorting out hair nightmares on the move. I kept the Hello Kitty one for myself and gave Mum the Lulu Guinness one and although I can’t speak for her I can confirm mine has come to my rescue several times already.

I think these would make a lovely gift for a hair/beauty obsessed friend and there are so many colours and designs available that there’s bound to be the perfect colour or print for everyone. The compact stylers cost £12.50 for a plain design and £13.50 for the designer ones.

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*post contains PR samples gifted for blog consideration*.

Posted in beauty, christmas, inspiration, review

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Gift Inspiration: Getting Personal with Snapfish

02nd November 2016
As much as I love shopping, or window shopping for things for myself there is actually nothing that gives me greater pleasure than shopping for other people. Hours can pass me by whilst I browse for the perfect present to show someone how much they mean to me and if I find I can add a personal touch to the gift then that’s even better. Needless to say when Snapfish got in touch offering me site credit to test out their new and improved personalised gifts (perfect for stocking fillers might I add) I couldn’t resist.

As soon as I was given the opportunity I knew exactly how I wanted to spend the credit. These last few months have been rocky to say the least and it is only with the love and support of my family and friends that I’m sat at home writing this post today. I’ve received such amazing support both online and in “real life” but it’s that which came from my Mum, Dad, Granddad and Best Friend that really went above and beyond. They’ve seen me through some of the toughest times in my life and I’ve put them through hell over the years and yet their support has never wavered, not even for a second. It went without saying that I was going to create something special for them, a drop in the ocean for all that they have done for me.

For my best friend I decided to make a table-top photo panel (from £9.99) using one of my favourite ever photos of us taken at a wedding a couple of years ago. After uploading my photo I used one of Snapfish’s new embellishments to add a personal touch- cheesy as it sounds life really is for good friends and adventures and we’ve certainly had a few over the last 19 years of friendship!
For my family I decided that mugs were the way forward, stuffed with sweets (my own little touch) to make for the perfect personalised Christmas gift. Again after uploading my choice of photos I personalised things further using the new embellishment tools, picking simple but true statements for my parents and a lovely quote about grandfathers for my granddad.

I was really happy with the quality of the mugs (and price- only £7.99 each) especially as two of the photos came from my iPhone rather than camera and I had worried that this would be detrimental to the quality. I really like the new creative tools on Snapfish, being able to add quotes and images to further personalise an already special gift really added that little something extra and filling the mugs with the recipients favourite sweets was my own final bit of pizazz.

Have you used Snapfish recently? Who would you most likely to spoil with the personal touch?

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Posted in christmas, gifts, inspiration, review

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My Purrfect Gift Box- the October edition

01st November 2016
Last month I had the super exciting opportunity to review My Purrfect Giftbox (see my post here) and was beyond impressed with both the concept and the execution. When I heard that the next box was going to be baking themed in honour of GBBO I was a little bit gutted as money is so tight for me at the moment I couldn’t justify treating myself to the box no matter how much I wanted to. Someone was clearly smiling down on me though as the wonderful Kim got in touch just before the boxes were sent out asking if I would like one- it took me all of half a second to fire off my excited response!
If you read my last post then you’ll already know this but before I get in to my review I just want to recap what My Purrfect Gift Box is all about:

Firstly you select which size box you would like, there are four sizes available (standard, lite, lite + gifts for kitty and standard + gifts for kitty) and it was the latter box that I was sent. Price wise the standard box + gifts for kitty costs £29.95 on a month to month basis, £86.95 for a three month subscription and £167.95 for a six month subscription. The standard and lite boxes are obviously lower priced with the same kind of discounts for longer term subscriptions. Now, on paper this might seem like quite a pricey option but I think when you see what is actually inside you’ll see that actually you’re getting a bloomin’ bargain!

My hopes were high for the October box based purely on the quality of the last one. As soon as I opened up the October box I knew those expectations had been well and truly smashed…

Firstly (because Mae is impatient and won’t wait for me) I’ll touch upon the gifts for cats- the first item out of the box was some luxury venison slices from The Innocent Cat Company (www.theinnocentcat.co.uk). Mae wasn’t sure about these at first, they have quite a pungent aroma which I think scared her a little, wimp that she is. Once she got past that issue she wolfed some down happily. At £14.95 for 3 x 100g packs these wouldn’t be an every day treat and we’re rationing these carefully but it’s lovely to be able to treat her to something so luxurious and wholesome! Equally popular with my feline friend was the tin of cat food from Applaws, these tins barely get a chance to touch her bowl when we give her one! Last up was a lovely cat nip filled mouse from KraftyKatsUK (find them on Etsy!) complete with baking themed fabric. This is Mae’s new BFF and at £3 each and a whole range of seasonal designs available she might find one or two in her Christmas stocking this year- if she behaves enough to deserve one, looking unlikely!

On to the human goodies and the first thing I opened up was this amazing oven mitt and tea towel from TextilesHomeDecor (on Etsy) which retails at £19.99 inc shipping from Germany. I absolutely love this and have stashed it safely away for when I move out of my parents place sometime next year- I’m 100% going with a cat themed kitchen this time!

Next up were these adorable cookie cutters. I already had some mini sized cat cutters which were good for well, mini treats but these are a really good size and perfect for making cookies and biscuits that you can then have amazing fun decorating, I can’t wait to get baking! If you fancy these for yourself then you can buy them for £10.00 from the My Purrfect Gift Box shop. Also pictured is the sweetest little set of cat themed cupcake cases from TheRandomBaker (on Etsy or available from the My Purrfect Gift Box site) as well as 12 rice paper cat toppers from LabelAmour. These only cost £1.50 and I’ll be using the recipe included in this months box to create some cat themed pumpkin cupcakes in the VERY near future.

And now, saving the best for last, my day was made when I saw these amazing ceramic cat shaped measuring spoons nestled in the box. These have been on my wish list for SO LONG along with measuring cups and are just the cutest kitchen accessory in the world. At the moment this set can be found at www.worldmarket.com and costs £9.99 with shipping from the USA. I’m still not over the joy of receiving these and I’ve been showing them off to anyone and everyone (I am that annoying cat person, sorry!).

As you can probably tell by now I was genuinely blown away by the October My Purrfect Gift Box and although I was sent one free of charge I 100% plan to treat myself and Mae to the occasional box once I’m back at work with a steady income coming in!

Still think My Purrfect Gift Box is expensive? Once you add up the value of all of the gifts included, not to metnion the time and care involved I think you’ll agree it’s a real bargain. A one off box would make an incredible gift for any cat lady- I can’t wait to see future themes.

If you’ve seen anything that’s really caught your eye there is the added bonus of the My Purrfect Gift Box online shop where you can purchase items from past boxes so there is no FOMO.

Let me know if you treat yourself to a box or any of the goodies from the shop- it’s the purrfect pick me up and treat for both yourself and your favourite feline companion.

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Posted in cats, Mae, review

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