Motel, a shop I’ve long held a soft spot for. Perhaps because their flagship store happens to be on one of my favourite shopping streets in Bristol, or maybe because, quite simply they are awesome with their bold colours and stand out prints. Either way I was pretty excited when the latest lookbook landed in my inbox…my favourites (available, or coming soon to the website) are…

The sheer (I’m still obsessed!), the colour, the prints! The slightly less bodycon shapes and longer lengths…I am so in love. It’s not often I fall so head over heels for new season.

And there is more! Londoners…get yourselves along to this!

Anyone else a Motel fan?

xxx

Once upon a time, way back in May (seriously, it feels like a lifetime ago) I posted about Nature Valley’s Gardens to Go Competition

The winners have now been selected (if anyone wants the full winner’s list, please let me know) and tomorrow, July 13th these gardens will be made up for real and dropped in secret locations around London on Wednesday 13^th July. There will be 5 secret locations around London, with 10 gardens dropped off per place. The gardens are there for anyone who wants them, so you can take them home to keep!

The Treasure Hunt will be taking place all across Twitter (@NatureValleyUK) during the day on Wednesday the 13^th where clues, pictures and lots of other fun will be tweeted out.  To highlight the Gardens To Go Treasure hunt, The wonderful outdoor artist Anna Garfourth is creating some great Tube Map signs out of foliage. You can check out some of Anna’s incredible work here and I’ll totally be posting her amazing sounding creations after the event.

I can’t make the event personally (see, I told you I should have taken this week off) but I’d love to know if any of you guys make it there, and whether you grab a garden for yourselves! I’ll be at work all day so won’t be able to tweet many of the clues, but make sure your following Nature Valley and do me proud!

The response to the widget on my blog, for the free bars was amazing. I hope you all enjoyed your delicious treats!

A taster of what’s to come from Anna. She is seriously incredible!

Ok, so there seems to be a theme to my Snacking Saturday reviews lately. I am a fully fledged popcorn addict. Another new to me brand is Peter Popples Popcorn (I challenge you to say that five times fast!). I’d seen buzz around these guys on various sites around the net over recent weeks and got in touch to find out more and where I could get my hands on their products, a few days later a taster pack was on my doorstep and I got stuck in. It seriously lasted me just over 24 hours. It was that good.

The packaging for the popcorn is so simple but really, really cute! The bags seem on the small side but actually contain a pretty decent snack portion and each contain around 80 calories (hence why I ate them two at a time!)
I loved the unique range of flavours, although I did wonder how on earth a couple of them could possibly work! The flavours in the Peter Popple range are;

– Golden Syrup; this was probably my most highly anticipated flavour. It wasn’t quite what I expected…the taste of the syrup wasn’t as sweet as I had hoped, and for the first few bites I wasn’t sure if I actually liked it. Being the trooper I am, I carried on and really found myself enjoying the pack. I really don’t know how to explain this…oddly addictive I think!

– Cheddar Cheese; I know, I am a disgrace to the human race but I do.not.like. cheddar. However, I did really REALLY like this popcorn, so if you are a cheese lover you will love it, and cheese haters (if there are any others out there) don’t be put off. You may disown me now, but I did dip a couple of pieces of this in marmite. Too damn good.

– Salt and Vinegar; I thought this would be more salty than it was. I am a salt fiend but I found the almost sweet tang on the vinegar really good against the popcorn and the salt came as more of an undertone. Another one of those addictive flavours. It’s probably just as well it doesn’t come in a bigger bag (purely for portion control purposes).

– Fruit Chutney; the flavour I was most anxious to try and what initially drew me to the brand. So bizarre, it instantly sounded good to my head. And it was. I cannot elaborate. There are not enough words in the English language as to how good this was, you really do just need to trust me and try it for yourself.

My only complaint about the range was that some of the popcorn wasn’t as fresh tasting as it could have been. This seemed randomly mixed throughout the bags though, and I wonder if it’s more due to the distribution of the flavour and what I tasted as stale was just a bit under-seasoned. It certainly didn’t put me off polishing off the lot (and yes, I did use my fingers to get out the tiny escaped bits of flavouring!)

All the flavours and ingredients in the popcorn are natural, making a truly guilt free treat! Currently available to buy online and I believe they are expanding to selected retailers too. Keep your eyes peeled guys. Peter Popple is a genius, I hope the flavour range becomes expanded..I want more!

Have I turned anyone else in to a popcorn maniac lately? Have you tried Peter Popple?

What kind of products/features would you like to see on Snacking Saturday? I’m keen to keep this section running (like it or not!) so any feedback is welcomed. This girl LOVES to snack.

xxx

I’m not going mad (I promise), I know that today isn’t Saturday, but I’m going out after work today and I’m not sure what time tomorrow I’ll be back, so you get my review a day early…lucky devils!

This week’s snack is very much a luxury product…courtesy of Joe & Seph’s gourmet popcorn.
The brains behind this operation were kind enough to send me a couple of flavours to try, after I expressed an interest in just how up-market popcorn could get.

The popcorn came beautifully packaged inside a box. Whilst seeming simple, the plastic pouches managed to look sophisticated thanks to the attractive labelling, and served their purpose perfectly at keeping the popcorn fresh.

I was sent the Salty Caramel and the Smooth Caramel, Pepper and Chilli to try.

The Salty Caramel was my favourite (but I am biased, I’m not really a spicy fan). Buttery and rich…perfectly fresh, the salt cut through what could have otherwise been an over-powering, sickly sweet sensation.
The popcorn was still crisp, as opposed to the soggy effect you can get when it’s sat around too long…you’d have been hard pushed to tell it had been popped over a week ago (by the time I got round to munching). This stuff was addictive. My hand kept travelling to the pouch for more.

I tried a piece of the Smooth Caramel, Pepper and Chilli then passed it on to my Dad to try, knowing he could give a better verdict. Again it was noted how fresh the popcorn was. His only complaint was that he couldn’t detect the pepper, but the chilli and caramel complemented each other suprisingly well, and again, it was an addictive nibble to have.

Joe & Seph also produce an exciting range of savoury popcorn, including the intriguing Goats Cheese and Black Pepper.

Would I buy these again?

Sure, if money was no object. At £4 for an average of 90grams of popcorn these really are on the higher end of the snacking scale. Fortunately for Joe & Seph the quality mixed with innovative flavours mean I can see them doing well, and the fact they sell gift jars and tins to mix and match the perfect flavour combinations mean I can not only see myself purchasing for me, but also as a gift for my foodie friends…
but only as a very special treat.

So there we go…this isn’t an every day snacking Saturday (Friday), but I thoroughly enjoyed my first foray in to luxury snacking.

What would your dream flavour be?

xxx