"That's why I feel like an absolute peasant."

Hey! Just thought I would share a little update on what I was up to over the Bank Holiday last weekend.

I actually had a really good one, which felt really nice after the flop of the long weekend back in Leicester a few weeks ago. I managed to get such a good balance - family time,  a date and some time catching up with friends. What more could a little lady want hey! :-)

Saturday

My Gran was visiting Leicester for the Bank Holiday but as I'd only just been back, we decided it would be nice if maybe her and my Mum came to visit me in Wycombe for a day instead. So they both road tripped down south for a really nice day out. We took a little drive over to Marlow and had a great pub lunch and a walk along a very sunny and packed out River Thames.

We spent most of the day laughing at how ridiculously wealthy it was in Buckinghamshire and gawped at mansions across the other side of the river. Oh how the other half live!

I also baked up this amazing cappuccino cake for my special guests!

The recipe is a really simple one off BBC Good Food. I made a bit of an error storing it in the fridge over night because of a lack of a cake tin - but we managed to get a brand new one in Marlow, so looking forward to making some more less chilled ones in future!

 Ingredients:

• 250g pack butter, softened
• 250g light soft brown sugar plus 2-3 tbsp
• 300g self-raising flour
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 50g walnuts, toasted and finely chopped (a food processor is easiest), optional
• 200ml very strong coffee (made fresh or with instant), cooled

Frosting:

• 500g tub mascarpone
• 2 tbsp light soft brown sugar
• cocoa powder or drinking chocolate to decorate

1. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter 2 x 20cm sandwich tins and line the bottoms with greaseproof paper. Beat butter and sugar together with electric beaters until pale and creamy. Add the fl our and eggs in one go and keep beating until evenly mixed. Fold in the walnuts (if using) and half of the coffee. Spoon the mix into the prepared tins and bake for 25-30 mins or until golden and well risen.
2. Leave the cakes in their tins for 5 mins before turning onto a wire rack. Sweeten the remaining coffee with the extra sugar and sprinkle 4 tbsp over the sponges. Leave to cool completely.
3. While the cakes cool, make the frosting. Tip the mascarpone into a large bowl and beat in the sugar and remaining coffee until smooth and creamy. Use about half of the frosting to sandwich the sponges together then, using a palette or cutlery knife, spread the rest of the frosting over the top of the cake. Decorate with a dusting of cocoa powder or drinking chocolate. If you’re making this cake to eat at home, it will keep covered in the fridge for 2-3 days.

Sunday

In September as most people now know, I am taking part in the Shine Walk with my Mum to raise money and awareness for Cancer Research. I won't say much about who, but there have been members of my family who have been through cancer, and are sadly battling with it now. I also have a very close friend who's family are going through this and it actually unfortunately seems to be affecting quite a lot of different friend's families at the moment. I know that research has been a big thing in the case of my friend and it's the reason for lots of other families hope too.

So me and Mum are getting our trainers on and walking the London Marathon through the night! Mum's done this twice before, so I thought I better get training as soon as possible! I started off my Wycombe training with a 4.7 miles walk in just under 70mins, which is a pretty strong effort and speed to kick start it all off.

I'll get a Justgiving page set up nearer the time. But hoping to keep my progress posted on this blog until then :-)


Then later on, I had a really fun evening with Richie cooking in his beautiful flat in Chalfont. It was really nice to get my Delia on - I'm developing a real love for cooking and baking for people!

I cheffed up a Baked Camembert which we tucked into with some beaut olive infused bread (with the help of the bakers at Sains!) Then some mini individual beef wellingtons (not actually that mini oops) served with home made chips and veg. I then cheated for dessert and brought along a few pieces of my mum's famous Rocky Road!

It was nice to have a date that was really relaxed and genuinely fun :-)

Monday

I then polished off a great weekend by having a wonderful lie in then playing out in London on Monday with Matt and Steph over the other side of the road. We had a catch up walking through a very sunny Regent's Park, stopping off for an ice cream along the way. Since when were Calipo ice lollies £2?!

It didn't take long before our cider cravings kicked in and we went in search of the pub garden of Edinboro' Castle. It's quite difficult to find a good pub garden in London but this one was actually quite nice! It wasn't our usual Chelsea hang out - we did feel slightly not Camden enough in dress(!) but it was a really nice afternoon sitting around chatting any enjoying just not being at work.

I heard there's yet another long bank holiday weekend coming up at the end of May, why are they all crammed in at the time of the year?! Looking forward to what I can cram into my next one too.

Bx

A Kate Moss Inspired Wishlist

I'm into following all the fashion blogs and magazines, so it's been pretty difficult to miss the launch of Kate Moss' return to Topshop yesterday evening. I would have loved to go along but a) I can't actually stand Oxford street post 2pm on a Saturday so this would have been a nightmare and b) I live the wrong side of the road to deal with the stupid tube strike.
 

She did a few collections a few years ago which were brilliant, so I was quite excited to see what else Mossy and the Topshop boys were coming up with. Points to Sienna though for looking the best. I love that little ladies style! (...and I've not posted a picture, but look up what Chloe Green wore - points for the worst.)

As always though (and recently more so than ever) Topshop seems to be pricing itself out of my wardrobe. I've found it's distancing itself a little bit from it's highstreet neighbours like River Island, Zara and even it's sister store Miss Selfridge and becoming a bit too pricey for what it is.

So I thought for a little fun twist, I would pick out my 3 faves from Kate's Balearic/Tailored/Pjama inspired range and then I've chosen the cheapo alternatives my junior graphic designer salary will realistically allow. Best to be honest.

Item No. 1:

The Tuxedo Jacket.

These are quite fashionable at the moment and I actually really like the shimmer in this. I guess it's been a theme this year with Angelina Jolie already rocking her Tuxedo on the red carpet earlier on in 2014. Cat Deeley also attempted it a little less successfully. Also my black Zara standard blazer from last year has become almost shredded on the inside from over wearing it, so maybe it's time for a Tuxy twist.

ASOS, Miss Selfridge, New Look (not actually that Tuxy, but love a bit of leather detail!)

Item No. 2:

The White Dress.

I've been having a look at white summery dresses recently, so me and Mossy must be on the same wave length with this one. Although the zip down the middle doesn't look great on this one. It really reminds me of this twat:

So here's a few of my wishlist alternatives:

All Missguided (I love that one on the right!)

Finally Item 3:

A Cute Playsuit.

I mainly love this because it reminds me of my Urban Outfitters spotty black playsuit which sadly is no longer with us after one of those thin spaghetti style straps broke. The thing with playsuits is that they're a nightmare to pull off to use the toilet when you're out and about (i.e. drunk) and so thin straps just don't really cut it. Here's my wishlist of more drink friendly versions:

All 'Love' (the range mostly found in Topshop)

Sooo, apologies Moss but until funds get higher or good old Sir Phil cuts his prices a bit for us poorer fashion followers, i'll stick to the cheaper alternatives. I may go in to a Topshop in the next few days to try on and pretend for a few minutes anyway. Who's telling?

Over and out.

Bx

"Who goes out on a Monday?!"

Soooo... I didn't make it to 100 happy days. 

 

 

Let's be honest, nobody is possibly actually happy for 100 days straight anyway. Through those 100 "happy" days, I split up with my boyfriend, had tons of shit from other guys I started seeing, had a bit of a fall out, endless hangovers, more depression over no money, got majorly screwed over by our national driving test company dickheads... I could go on... Happy, happy, happy.

So, I thought enough! I have decided to bring back the good old blog about all times, not just trying to think up any excuse to be vaguely fake happy. Also, as a good friend once told me...

"You're like Adele, you're at your best when you're heartbroken." 

So i'm embracing the good, the bad and the sad. Bitches, I'm back. Also I'm gonna make this blog diary vaguely fashiony - I guess a good description of my actual self. Haha!

________________________________

Over the weekend I accidentally went against all norms and ditched Friday or Saturday planning for Sunday plans and then a Monday date. Who say's Sunday's have to be the depressing anticipation for the working week coming up... and who say's Monday has to be a night in?

On Sunday I went over to Marlow, my favourite haunt for restaurants, pubs and bars around here. I met up with James - a previous date that has turned into a great friend. We inhaled a big Sunday beef roast, complete with yorkshire pudding and polished it all off with Sunday ice cream sundae's - see what I did there?

We also completed the afternoon of binging with mugs of latte in Costa continuing the conversations about all things design, tech and 'appy. The best thing was because it was all in the afternoon, I made it back in time for a Sunday evening film with Phil back in the flat. We watched "The Other Guys." I recommend it for a giggle at Will Ferrell - how that man doesn't laugh at himself during takes is amazing. The singing bit in the pub is hilarious! Also Eva Mendez looks amazing.

For Sunday lunch I wore part 1 of my tshirt haul at H&M.

 

 

 
I'm getting quite into slogan tops at the moment. They seem to be everywhere and they're actually quite funny. I thought this one was quite tongue in cheek as I am probably the least "TRES JOLIE" person at the moment! It's been a building obsession for quite a while now, past spotted favourites have been "Marry Me" and "You're my favourite ex." But here's a few others I've spotted that would also be a nice addition:

Topshop, Forever 21, Pull & Bear

Anyway, on Monday night, I caught up with another former flame! Nick (no not that Nick!) drove over to Wycombe for our bowling match. I was hoping to win 2 tickets to finally go to Harry Potter world, but I spectacularly lost. I blame the preparatory glass of wine before hand. Although I made up for the loss in a few cheeky games of pool too. It was actually a really fun evening and really nice to do something other than dinner or drinks.

For the evening I got into the gaming spirit and threw a nod to this 'sports day' trend that fashion seems to be doing. I quite like the little elements of it without going all basketball tops and that weird fishnet material everywhere.
 

My top was also part of my H&M haul. It's difficult to see from the picture but the black sporty stripes are semi-transparent mesh panels. The Topshop leather-look leggings and heels sealed the outfit quite nicely but then I added these monstrosities...

 

Some more nods to the sports trend I like are:

Missguided and ASOS

But as I remain and will probably always be a massive loser when it comes to anything competitive. I better not dive too far into this one.

Over and out.
B x