I'm Dreaming of a Red, Red Christmas

Last week at uni, was House Christmas. Last year we went traditional, had a delicious turkey crown with equally delicious roast potatoes and vegetables and had a lot of fun! However this year, because we really couldn't be bothered waiting for a turkey to cook and because we thought we'd do something different, as well as having to cater to a vegetarian among us, we decided that we'd all make different dishes, something we think we all make well. One of my housemates, Shannon, we make fun of for all the gourmet-looking dishes she makes and all the expensive food she buys. Granted, its all worth it, because she not only made delicious eggnog, but she also made a mouthwatering spinach and cheese filo pastry pie that I am still dreaming about today. Yes, it was that good!

I made, as you can probably guess, a cake. I made my favourite cake, and had to do so without the help of my trusty mixer :( This included making the icing and having to beat the butter with a very short wooden spoon for about 10 minutes. Let's just say I have muscles now. Anyway I'd wanted to do something a little different with the icing, so I used some food colouring to make the icing inside green and the icing on the outside red! The icing on the inside wasn't as green as I'd wanted it to be but it was still clearly green! I thought red and green because they're typical Christmas colours...right? 

Cue an excessive and probably unnecessary number of pictures of the cake I made along with a picture of the stupendous amount of food that six people had to consume (we failed by the way, we didn't finish it all I promise, there was near enough to half left over!). 

Oh yeah...did I forget to mention that I also made 6 blueberry cupcakes with matching icing to go with the cake? Oh I must have forgotten... ;)

So this was our dinner, minus some chips that were still in the oven. So we had Curry, Lasagne, 3 different Pizzas, Garlic bread and Camembert (YUM), Spinach and Feta filo pastry pie, Mince Pies, Naan bread, chips, Chocolate Cake and Cupcakes (although the cake was eaten the next day cause we were seriously stuffed!) So yeah, we ate a lot of food and waiting for it all to be done was incredibly difficult when I'd only eaten breakfast all day! Oh but it was worth the wait! My stomach has never been that satisfied in my life! Sooooo worth the wait!

Then we had secret santa and one of my best friend's Jack got me and he got me the most thoughtful gift I think I've ever received. I love this book! Inside its got tabs for breakfasts, desserts, dinners, lunches, baking etc where I can write all my favourite recipes and there are even some slips for pictures too! Its just PERFECT!

All in the evening was absolutely perfect and I laughed so much and the people I live with are genuinely some of my favourite people! This first semester has already been so much fun and I can't wait to see what 2014 will bring!

Also last night I watched a really interesting documentary about back up singers called "20 Feet From Stardom" and it was incredible! Other than documentaries narrated by David Attenborough I',m not their biggest fan so this was a very interesting one to watch! You should give it watch if you get the chance! Below is a song by one of the people from the documentary that fits the season nicely!

I probably won't be posting on here until after Christmas and New Years so I hope you have a truly amazing and really enjoyable Christmas and New Year! Here's to 2014!

Peanut Butter Cupcake Time

Yes. You read that title right. Peanut Butter + Cupcakes + wait for it...CHOCOLATE.
You know how I feel about my chocolate guys. This recipe from tramplingrose.com is delicious and was fun to make! Fun fact about these cupcakes: I was in a bad mood which is why I decided to bake them ha!

I don't live in the US so my access to variations of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup candies was limited if not non-existent, so I had to settle for the real deal!

Also sorry for the bad quality pictures, I had to take these in the fridge with very little time because for some reason the consistency of  the icing was quite literally wigging out on me and the pattern the piping had made wasn't staying all that well! But the one below is one of my favourites!

YUMMMYYYY! One of my housemates text me when I was out of the house and said "literally the best cupcakes I've ever had, marry me?" I think that is quite possibly one of the best text messages I have ever received.  Also I think I broke my mixer :( Making a cake on Christmas day is going to be so much muscle building fun! -_-

For a quick second can we just discuss the new Beyonce album? Umm...well, anyway. Listen to it, watch it, enjoy it! I do! Until the whole album hits Spotify, I can't really help you in terms of listening to it, but in the meantime, here's one of my favourites, dedicated to my mixer.

Next up, a showstopper from my House Christmas at Uni! Stay tuned!

Face Time

I'd like to think that I love my skin. I try (often not successfully) to drink a lot of water each day, to make sure that even when I'm very tired after a night out, that I take my make-up off and use my toner and moisturiser afterwards. My skin is fairly sensitive so I need to be even more careful than most, not only about what I put on my skin, but also about what I eat. Here's what I use on a daily/weekly basis to keep it in tip top shape:

On a daily basis I use my toner, face wash, and two moisturisers, one for my body, one for my face. Twice or thrice a week I use my St Ives Invigorating Apricot Scrub. First of all its obviously, invigorating so its created to really scrub your skin and get rid of all the dead skin and dirt, and I really don't want to overwork my skin or make it too thin by scrubbing it too hard too often. Secondly, the instructions of the back of the bottle say so! Now, the Johnson's wipes are very good, but its extortion. Queue my rant: essentially they used to be around £2.50 for 35 wipes. Now they are £3.05 for 25 wipes and slightly altered, but no more appealing packaging. Why greedy Johnson's people why?

I won't pretend, I do love wearing make-up, although most days I only wear eyeliner and brow pencil because wearing a full face of make up isn't good for anyone's skin and believe or not letting your skin breathe and having some fresh air hit it, is also good for it! Below are a some of my essentials.

I love a nice red lip on a night out and Maybelline's colour is a nice alternative to MAC's Ruby Woo which is worth more than a Nandos! I also love Miss Sporty's nail varnish because the colour's are so rich and they look amazing. They don't necessarily last long but they're not expensive you can buy a lot of them and keep on painting! The red and the cobalt blue are my current favourites! Foundation is a tricky one because I'm not usually the best at matching myself and a lot of my foundation comes out slightly grey, so test it on your face before you buy!

Life is good, its almost Christmas, which means I get to bake incessantly and no one can judge me, plussssss I get to spend time with my family who I love more than anything! Happy times! Cue a good song:

Ps. My new post is up on HerUni.com so check it out here!

5 a day

I know I always give you guys a million and one excuses about how busy I've been but I have good news, things have finally slowed down! The last couple weeks I have almost non-stop rehearsals on top of assignments and that's why I've been a blog hermit (not sure if that analogy actually makes sense)! The thing I had rehearsals for is done (sniff sniff) and now I have a lot more time on my hands (well technically I should be doing a lot of reading but I consider blagging it in seminars a talent that should be regularly practised).

Anyway, excuses and apologies aside, I whipped up (quite literally) something very tasty and in what some circles is considering healthy for you...Carrot Cake!

Considering that this was the first time I'd made carrot cake, and my housemates were very very excited to eat it, I was under a little pressure. Personally, I think as a first try, this cake came out absolutely delicious and so perfectly moist and just perfect in every possible way and the cream cheese frosting came out so nice and light and just...sorry. I am so proud of this cake and how delicious it was!

Queue the excessive number of mouth watering pictures...

Can we just pause for a minute and discuss the perfect golden brown colour of the cake. Also my housemate helped me line my cake tins and she always does it perfectly and I'm not sure how I'm going to survive without her at Christmas :(

Yeah so the cake. That was real good. Recipe was taken from Robin Hood. Not the actual Robin Hood...DUH. Only change I would make to the cake would be to put more icing in the middle. Other than that I am pretty darn proud of my first attempt.

So the cookies below...I've done a second post for HerUni.com! Its not up on the website yet, but it should be soon so keep an eye out!

I'm thinking of doing a post on my budget health & beauty products...how d'you guys feel about that?

Ahh heck, I'll probably do it anyway...and I think I might go and bake another carrot cake too :O

The song below is awesome and I still need to see Despicable Me 2!

White Noise

You know what I really love? CAKE. I know, obvious enough, but you all know exactly which cake I absolutely adore, that chocolate cake! Recently though, as a student, with a rather slender budget, buying all the ingredients to make that cake isn't exactly smart.

So instead I decided to make something different; but not too different, it still had to be chocolate cake...

...with a twist!

This was a delicious and moist (is that a weird word? I keep being told it is...dirty minded friends) cake and the white icing was just, perfection. I took it to one of my rehearsals and everyone loved it, as did my housemates! I received a text from one of my housemates the day after I'd made the cake saying "Omg where did all the cake go!", clearly exasperated at the fact that there was the tiniest slither of cake left on a large plate in the fridge. That people, is the sign of a good cake!

Then...yesterday I went to see some fireworks with my housemates and they were beautiful! Pretend you were there by looking at some pictures haha

I personally really like the way I edited the last picture, I feel super professional now...

Anyway, a cliché song that describes what I've just written about...

Hope you all had fun this weekend!

Happiness

Is it possible to be a what is very close to a perfect state of being? Cause I think I'm pretty much there.
Everything in my life right now isn't necessarily perfect, but I'm the happiest I've been in a long time and I'm pretty happy with that!

I think the busier I get, the happier I get! I've joined a new society, actually started reading the books for my course this year and enjoying two out of three of my modules, and I've started writing for a website...but more about that later!

Here's a snippet of what I've been up to recently...

Just an FYI I do more than just party at uni, I just don't really take pictures when I'm at my society or when I'm working. I find that a wee bit sad...


Anyway so about that website I've started writing for...

I am SO excited about this! As someone who loves writing and has never necessarily had the right platform to showcase it, this is an incredibly opportunity that I am so so grateful for. I've just had my first post published so you can see it here. For now here's sneak preview of what it entails...

Apologies for the lack of regular posting but as I said I've been pretty busy as of late and I don't want to just bung any old thing on here, I want to make sure that I put time and effort into what I post here. So know that even if it takes time, whatever I put up here has had a lot of thought put into it!

I was going to try and think of something philosophical to say about happiness but to be honest its different for every person. Find something you love, do it, be happy! (See what I did there???)

Cue the cliché happy music... 

Currently sitting in bed, watching Blue Bloods, then going to sleep cause I getting up crazy early to go to the library and whack out an essay. Late night blogging is nice and relaxing although the torrential rain outside my window should make for an interesting attempt to get to sleep! Ah well, some William Fitzsimmons should put me to sleep!
Goodnight!