Wish List #2

// Cutie Pie Birdie Rucksack // Stripy Rucksack // Spotty Knit Rucksack // 

// Bright Aztec Rucksack // ECRU Contrast Rucksack // Raspberry Buckle Backpack //

I think you can tell what I'm lusting after right now, a cute backpack! I have a floral one from Matalan last year, but I want to add to that collection, a girl can never have too many bags right? These bags would be perfect for Summer, but the knitted one I could use right now.

I need a new main bag, as the zip has long since been broken which I was fine with, until I lost my purse! I am SO lucky that someone who works for the bus department found it and brought it back to me! I'd been having a bad week and I had thought it was lost for god since I phoned them twice and they didn't get back to me. I was in work when he came out of his way (usually you go there) to give it to me, and my brother didn't even tell me when I got home and talked to me, he just left me a message on facebook! lol. I found out hours later yesterday and I hope he was very thankful to that man and not just like "Oh okay". But yes I am lucky, this is the third time I've lost my purse and someones either handed it in somewhere or given it to me, I really am pushing my luck. However once, I did lose a mini purse on a night out, so I lost £30 and had to replace my drivers license >.< I really need to be more careful.

Anyway, what things are you all wishing for?

Valentines Love Owl

This a a very belated post about Valentines but I'm still going to go ahead with it, sorry! For Valentines day me and my boyfriend agreed to make home made presents for each other and stay in since we both don't have that much money, and our one year anniversary was only a few days later, which the same applied for. I decided I'd make him an owl, which is the one above, named lumpy, since, well, he is rather lumpy! I tried to pick manly colours but still make him look cute. He was very wonky too, and I need to practice using my sewing machine some more and buy lots more fabrics! I used felt and he was pretty easy to make if a little rough looking. I also sprayed him with the perfume my boyfriend got me for Christmas which I also sprayed all over his card! I was going to make him some cupcakes or something, but he's being healthy so hasn't really tried anything I've baked :(

This is the card I made him, which does look better in person, but yeah I need to be more neat with this too! I really like owls, so now he does too, but he likes the cheesy owl lines so I'm happy. I went over his after he finished uni and he'd put candles everywhere, a singe rose by my seat, and made me a meal and said we could watch whatever chick flick he'd said no to before, but we ended up watching High Fidelity in the end on NetFlix which was a weird choice about breakups haha. He also made me a bracelet and got me a mini photograph for me purse and little chocolate love bugs :D

For our anniversary I made him another owl card saying "Owl love you to the moon and back" and I painted it with watercolours for a change, and I painted a small canvas and a photoframe for him. The photo I put in it was the exact same photo he'd picked for the card he made me, n'aww. It's just a random photo from a gig that we both liked but hadn't said to each other so I liked that. He also hand picked love hearts with messages on them, got me matchsticks and wrote me a story, which I found very sweet and funny. We also went out to watch a film, which was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, another random choice! But I'd wanted to see it, its very good and WILL make you cry, or say you have something in your eye!

All in all I'm a very happy girl and even if we have loads of money next year I think I want to carry on with the little homemade things, and buy nice things for him for Christmas and his birthday!

Oh yeah I've changed the layout of my blog and hope you all like it, I felt like something new and almost changed blogs! But I made a decision to keep this blog, and I can always revamp my content and delete older entries for a fresh start if I want to. Hopefully I'll get better at this blogging marlaky and blog more!

Adventures in Baking

I've recently started baking, which is a huge thing for me. I am terrified of the kitchen! Or well, doing things without supervision, and yes I am 21 years old and decided this needed to change! When I moved out for uni (just one year) I only knew like two dishes, but I usually microwaved things, or cooked with my flatmate who would help me, shocking I know. I've managed to learn a few dishes off by heart now that I can do by myself, but not that many. I've baked things by myself before, but not from scratch until this month! My boyfriends drama society was having a bake sale and I wanted to bake things for it. 

I practiced making a few things first, which I had crappy cupcake holders and no proper cupcake/muffin tray, they looked ugly but were yummy. I then bought some pretty cupcake holders and double lined then for the above attempt which are melt in the middle chocolate cupcakes. They are heavenly! They were like mini cakes since they were quite large, I only made four. They were best warm, since the next day the chocolate had hardened in the middle so was a bit awkward to make. They're really simple, make your mixture, spoon half of it in, then put a dark chocolate chunk in the middle and cover up with the rest of the mixture and bake, and voila! 

For the bake sale I went to Hobby Craft (and spent a lot of money on things), and bought a cupcake/muffin baking tray which is awesome! I made chocolate chip cupcakes, with butter icing and added various sprinkles on top. I really like the fun cupcake holders, they went really quickly for the bit I was there. The drama society were raising money for charity and the play they were putting on. I made these, the above and a bunch of other things from a cupcake book I got from the works for like £2, they are really simple and easy to do.

I also bought a cake pop making kit from Hobby Craft too. I've wanted to make them for ages! If you haven't heard of them before, they are an American thing where you bake a cake and mush it all up to make cake pops and stick them on a stick and add melted chocolate. I followed A Beautiful Mess's guide to making cake pops. Since I was short on time I stuck them in the freezer, but next time I won't do that as I found them too hard sometimes, and they would crack and fall into the melted chocolate boo. In Hobby Craft they had the melted chocolate Elsie suggests, but were quite expensive so I may look online next time. I probably won't buy the kit again unless I'm giving them to someone again. I didn't try them cold, but people liked them so that makes me happy!

Anyway that's a little bit of what I've been up to. It's amazing how easy it is for me when I tell myself I can do something, since normally I'd always ask for help before I even needed it which I need to stop doing in life. I just want to bake all the time now!

It's just not been my week

Or fortnight really. I've been ill for the past two weeks and now I'm only just getting better, stupid colds are stupid, but this week has really taken the mickey. I had a parking ticket from somewhere I thought was safe to park, then my car broke down and will cost over £100 to fix (even with a friend helping, a garage would be in the hundreds!) and then I lost my purse on the bus. Fun times yo!

I broke down on the way home from work, and I was actually down the road from my house, which was both good and bad. The good thing was, I was close to home for my brother to come help me and not stuck alone. My car just stopped (turns out its the belt thingie?) and then my hazards stopped working on a main road in the dark, which was scary! Luckily it was a Sunday night so it wasn't extremely busy, and we pushed the car round the corner to the end of my really long uphill road which we left till we had reinforcements. However since I was within a mile of my home, my breakdown cover did not apply! I've paid over £60 for nothing! It doesn't count! And I was on the phone for ages telling this English guy all these welsh road names since he couldn't find the location of my car which was just down the road from my address which he had on his database thing! Stressful.

I realised I lost my purse a day late when I tried to pay off my parking ticket, and I think I lost it on the bus or in the bus station yesterday as that's when I last used it, and I had to use the bus since my car has broken down! Bad things really do happen in threes, don't they? I've cancelled my cards, and phoned the bus people but they'll get back to me tomorrow if they happen to find it. If they don't find it, then this week will cost me £200 odd for the parking ticket, bus tickets, fixing the car and replacing my driving licence for the second time! I'm glad I've not bought anything for myself this month apart from the basics. I hope they find it, since I have lost it a few times and its always been found *fingers crossed*. I really need to be more careful I know. I was also meant to be going out for someones birthday tonight but I have no car, no money and no ID.

Anyway, just a little post of my bad luck, and I've not been posting because I've been ill and not really doing anything. I need to catch up on sooo many blogs and have a few posts in mind, so hopefully I'll get round to that sometime this week.

The Valentines Glossy Box (#3)

It's a little late, but here is my review of my January Glossy Box. Again, like the others, I LOVE it, it might just be my favourite! I hope each month I love each box as I've done with the last three. Anyway, since this was the Glossy Box we'd be getting before Valentines day, it made sense for it to be the Valentine edition! It's hot pink and filled with lovely goodies as usual and a special Valentines day treat. I know I'm not the best with reviews but I did really like this box and I think its worth the money to get every month.

Inside there was a card explaining about a romantic trip to Paris that could be won, which I entered *fingers crossed) and I thought it was cute that instead of their usual sticker they used a heart, aww.

The contents of the box! A bit messy since I did have a rummage through before I took a picture. 

We have from left to right:-

Davines Authentic Formulas Moisturizing Balm - This is my favourite from this months box, it is so soft! I like that its multipurpose, so I can use it on my hair, face and body. When this runs out I will definitely buy it.

Davines Authentic Formulas Cleansing Nectar - This okay, I like how it reminds me of honey to look at, even though I don't really like honey, I know, weird!

Murad Hybrids Skin Perfecting Primer, Dewy - This is my second favourite, I've been using it under powder and it helps make my skin feel smoother and despite looking a bit dark, it blends in so it should suit all skin tones.

FAB Gentle Body Wash - I've received the face cleanser in a past box which I liked so its nice to have a body version. I like to use the same products for my face and body if I can.

Eyeko Skinny Eyeliner - I've wanted to try Eyeko products for awhile but haven't gotten around to it yet. The quality is good, but the colour is too light for me so I'll probably rehome it to a friend who will actually use it.

and a little sweet that says glossybox on it and a heart, nom!

Nom nom nom Graze Box

Well, I've seen this everywhere lately and decided to jump on the bandwagon and try it out myself a few weeks ago! If you haven't heard of a graze box before then here is a horrible little synopsis from me. Roughly twice a week they send out a little box for £3.79 (including p&p) filled with four boxes of healthy snacks. Now the box is small enough to fit through your letter box so the snacks aren't huge, however they are healthy and fun! By fun I mean I like getting things in the post, and like the way its packaged, because I am weird, yes.

Anyway back to the review! I have a code for you to use to get your first box for free 2W95XVYD (I'll post it on the side somewhere too) for you to try. If you don't like it you can always cancel your subscription before you have to pay for your next box. You also get your fifth box for free! My fifth ones coming up next I think :D. You also get send your own code to give out to people, and every time someone uses that it takes off one pound off your next box, or you can donate it. As you can see above, that's what is inside the  graze box. With your first box you get a cute little hello booklet and you get a leaflet telling you all about the food you've received that month plus little vouchers to hand out to your friends with the code on.

If you go online you choose between a nibble box and a nutrition one (I picked nibble) and you can pick out what things you'd like to try, or not try. There are five options, bin, try, like, love and send soon. Two of my send soon options came in my first box, which above were the marble bread and the apple & cinnamon flapjack. They were both gorgeous, I practically inhaled the bread after I took this picture, and I never thought that the flapjack would taste so good, nom! The banana split was okay, but I'm not a huge fan of caramelised bananas, like in banoffee pie I always leave them out. Very nori-ish was nice but a bit too spicy for me, but I am a weakling when it comes to "spicy" stuff, like really weak! But they were nice to have every now and then. Oh yeah you also get a little napkin as well underneath all that which I thought was sweet, and they have pretty pictures of nature on the inside bottom and top of the box.

Here's my second box just because I took a picture of it, I haven't of my other boxes yet. The sticky lemon dippy was really nice, as you can tell I like the least healthy options of the box the best! But I hadn't tried sultanas in years so it was nice to retry them and find I like them. Part of me doing this graze box thing is to push the boundaries on what I eat since I am extremely fussy and not that healthy. The fiery seeds were too hot so I gave them to my friend, the herb garden was nice as well. Yin and yang I shared with my friend, and liked the dark chocolate (obviously) and raisins but I'm not really an almond girl. So there's my little review on graze boxes. I like them, but with the others its a bit hit or miss with me, I love half the box, and so-so with the other half, just because I am so fussy, but it is fun trying out things I wouldn't otherwise have. I suggest you try them out, I made my brother, and my friend, and you can always cancel it at any time. If you don't use a code you get your box for half price, but you may as well use my code 2W95XVYD and get your first box for free. Hope you enjoy it!