This is some kind of exquisite torture for me as I’m currently having a massive clear out at home and trying to save up for some big events happening later this year….BUT look how pretty!!!
Tags: asos, Irregular Choice, miu miu, Rosamosario, sandals, shoes
…on my walls at the moment is lots and lots of artwork by the awesome Niagara
Tags: art, Black Opium, Bloody Mary, Niagara, Opium Dolls
I love Japanese culture, Tokyo is in my top 5 of holidays I must take! At the moment I can’t afford these mysterious things called holidays so for now it’s just on one of my many lists of things I must do.
In the meantime I am going to get my Japanese fix at Hyper Japan 2012
Hyper Japan is the UK’s biggest J-Culture event with stands and shops selling and promoting all things Japanese, both traditional and contemporary!
Theres Japanese Holiday Tours and food, including Sake Tasting and the Sushi Awards 2012 are part of the event, films (including a showcase of Third Window films), books, comics, music, including performances by actress and J-Pop singer Natsuko Aso
There is also going to be stalls selling Vintage Kimonos, Modern Street Fashion, Gifts and Home wares. I think this will be my favorite part of the show and I’m sure to spend a silly amount of money!
I can’t wait to see all the Harajuku and Lolita girls all dressed up! They put so much effort and detail into what they wear it’s so impressive, whislt on the subject of dressing up there will also be Cosplay events taking place over the Hyper Japan weekend. Cosplay is short for Costume Play, it’s a hobby where people make and wear costumes based on their favourite Anime, Manga, Film or Video Game Characters and there are competitions for the best costumes!
To get me even more excited and in the mood for some Japanese fun I’m going to watch the achingly cute but equally very strange J-Pop music video Pon Pon Pon by Kyary Pamyu Pamyu
Tags: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, J-Pop, Japan, Japanese, Cosplay, Hyper Japan 2012, Harajuku, Lolita, Anime, Manga, Third Window Films, Vintage Kimono, Kimono, Sake, Sushi, Sushi Awards 2012, Natsuko Aso
My darling little brother bought me a cake stand and Leon’s third cook book “Baking & Puddings”...I think he was dropping a massive hint that I should be baking more…so here goes the first attempt at a recipe from my new cookery book.
I love breakfast, it’s pretty much my favourite meal so I thought I’d start with attempting to make my own Granola. I’ve followed the method of the Leon recipe “Our Favourite Granola” but I’ve amended the Ingredients slightly to suit my tastes and you can do the same if you want to try it for yourself!
Ingredients (Makes around 1.6kg)
600g Rolled Oats
50g Sesame Seeds
60g Pumpkin Seeds
60g Sunflower Seeds
50ml Maple Syrup
100ml Sunflower Oil
250ml Runny Honey
50g Dark Brown Sugar
50ml Water
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
A Grating of Fresh Nutmeg
A Pinch of Sea Salt
100g Sultanas
100g Sliced Dried Apricots
50g Dried Cranberries
50g Sliced Dates (I found in Co-op some delish Organic Deglet Nour dates by “Natural Selection”)
50g Dried Figs
Method:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 150c and line a couple of baking trays with greaseproof paper. *TIP* If you screw the greaseproof up in a ball and spread it out again it will make it much more easy to handle and fit into any shaped and depth baking tin or tray.
2. Mix the oats and seeds together in a large bowl and leave to one side. In a saucepan mix together the maple syrup, honey, oil, water and sugar; put this over a not too high heat and whisk well until everything is nicely melted and combined together. *TIP* Before measuring out the sticky honey and syrup, measure the oil out first in a jug. You’ll find the sticky stuff sticks much less with a slight coating of oil in the measuring vessel.
3. Take the mixture from the heat and add the nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla and stir well and pour into the dry oaty mix, stirring well to make sure everything is nicely covered. Spoon the mixture into the baking trays and spread out evenly, pop in the oven for 1 hour
4. Take the trays out of the oven and turn the mixture over and break it up into chunks with a spoon or spatula, ensure its spread out evenly. Turn the oven down to 140c and bake the granola for another 35ish minutes. Take out of the oven and leave to cool before stirring in the dried fruits.
I just had to add a picture of the fruit, they look like jewels or something…yummy chewy breakfast jewels!
Keep it stored in an airtight container and it should last for a few weeks at least! It’s super yummy with milk and yoghurt with some fresh fruit!
Tags: baking, Baking & Puddings, Granola, Leon, Leon Book 3
If you remember a little while ago I was in full throttle mode to find a new handbag… an Epic Quest I decided to call it. Well this quest has come to an end, at least for the time being as I spied one of the bags I had on the shortlist in the Irregular Choice sale. There are a still a load of bargains to be had in their sale which is still on!
Ta daaaa! My Red Miaow Shopper! YAY! I love, love LOVE it! It has some amazing teal green velvety lining too! EEEEP!
Tags: Cat Bag, Irregular Choice, irregular choice sale, miaow shopper, sale
I have a had a request or two asking for me to post my marble cake recipe I used to make the Iceberg Cake so here goes! I love Marble cakes they remind me of being a kid and baking them with one of my Granny’s, there is always an air of mystery about them too because until you actually cut a slice out of it you don’t know what it’s going to look like!
This recipe is for a monochrome, chocolate & vanilla marble cake, but you can use any food colourings you want, if you want to make it with three or four colours just split up the batter accordingly and chuck in your food colouring!
Ingredients :
225g softened butter plus extra for greasing
225g caster sugar
225g self-raising flour
4 eggs
3tbsp milk
1tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp cocoa powder (i like using Green & Blacks or good old Bournville) or a few drops of food colouring if you want a multi coloured cake
Method:
If you have a go at this recipe i’d love to see a picture of your marbled cake!
Tags: cake, marble, marble cake, marble cake recipe, recipe
My flatmate Ange loves Penguins and it was recently her ahem-30th Birthday…oh no I mean 25th…err anyway I love baking Birthday cakes for people and trying to incorporate as much as I can into them to make them personalised to them. I had bought some achingly cute Penguin shaped candles and settled on attempting to create some kind of Iceberg cake to place them on.
I’ve not baked many shaped cakes in my time, so this was a bit of a challenge. I started by baking a chocolate and vanilla marble cake, in two sandwich tins. I chose marble cake in the hope it would give the appearance of rocks under the snow when it was cut into.
Next I chopped the cakes into angular…rock-ish type shapes and stacked them up in a icebergy way, cementing them together with piped buttercream icing
I then plastered it all over with more buttercream as a sort’ve glue for the icing. For this cake I used ready to roll Royal icing, which I rolled out and “draped” over the cake, moulding it into the rocky cakey crags as I went. This was the trickiest part of the project and I had to work really quickly and luckily only stuck my finger through it once.
Then I trimmed of the excess icing…
Finally I, with Blue icing, iced waves all around the base of the cake and stuck on the penguin candles!
TA DAAAH! Happy Birthday Miss Pink!
oh and the marble cake idea sort’ve worked, when you cut into it, it does look a bit like rocks…a bit
Tags: birthday, iceberg cake, marble cake, penguin, penguin candle
How awesome is this Pearl and Swarovski Crystal Necklace by Tom Binns? Very in my opinion…I love the neon pink safety pins!
I can’t afford £830 for it so I might try and knock a version up myself with some old necklaces and spray painted safety pins
Tags: necklace, pearls, saftey pins, swarovski, swarovski crystals, tom binns
After a 1000 mile round trip I have finally returned to my little East London flat, I wouldn’t quite say I had a restful Christmas Break but it certainly was lovely to see many of my family and friends.
Mine and Johnny’s epic journey started with no journeying at all, we stayed in London for Christmas Day along with my flatmate Angela. We had a tremendous “Wanstead Family Christmas Day”, making sure of course we ate and drank until we could no longer move! On Boxing Day we set off for the cute little village of Bassingham in Lincolnshire where my mother lives, then down to Cornwall for a couple of nights to see the rest of my family. Johnny’s family live in Sittingbourne in Kent, this was our next stop and as we were in the area we went to visit a big group of our friends that live in and around Rochester, ending in a very, very late Pre New Years Eve night out!
Hungover but happy we headed to Lower Halstow where our friends Tim & Amy live, for ACTUAL New Years Eve with a few of our close friends, indulging in several bottles of my specially infused for Christmas, Cinnamon Vodka. Awesome in both White Russians and with Apple Juice! We saw in New Years Eve in a messy but positive style and as tradition dictates a EPIC CHALLENGE FOR 2012 is set, this is a task set that you need to achieve within the year (it has to be creative or of an self-improving nature). My task is to produce a 6 outfit collection with a Retro influence, I’ve already bought myself a new sketchbook and am working on a few rough ideas and it’s only 2 days in! Anyway there will be more about this in the coming weeks and months I have no doubt.
For now here’s a little selection of my Christmas and New Year Photos…. I’ve not got a picture of it yet, but I did get a Slanket (which I am currently wearing) it’s not the most glamorous of garments but sure is snuggly!
Belly pork with all the trimmings for Christmas Lunch
A Present from Johnny - Hendricks and a teacup to drink it from!
A present from Angela - Sailor Jerrys-tastic!
Johnny and Young Stan in the jumpers they got for Christmas
ok ok I get the hint...I need to Bake more in 2012!
in the Nags for Pre NYE drinkies!
Oh Yeah and I bought this for myself from the Collectif sale.....
Tags: baking, bedroom athletics, cake stand, christmas, collectif, hendricks, Hendricks gin, sailor jerrys, slanket
I am already very excited about 2 exhibitions opening in 2012, rather frustratingly they neither open until May!
First up is a new exhibition: Ballgowns – British Glamour since 1950 19 May 2012 – 6 January 2013; from my absolute favoritist Museum ever the V&A , I would live there if I could. They are renovating the Fashion Galleries and to celebrate the completion of it they are exhibiting a selection of fantastic gowns, over 60 dresses from the past 60 years. They will include items by designers like Zandra Rhodes, Jonathan Saunders, Hussein Chalayan, Alexander McQueen, Giles Deacon and Erdem.
Also included are some Royal Gowns such as a Norman Hartnell dress created for Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Princess Diana’s “Elvis Dress” by Catherine Walker, plus a Metallic Leather Dress by Gareth Pugh specially designed for the exhibition. 
Second on my list is: Tracy Emin’s - She Lay Down Deep Beneath the Sea. 26 May 2012 – 23 September 2011 at the Turner Contemporary in Margate. This is Tracy Emin’s first major solo show at the Turner Contemporary and is specially conceived for Margate, her home town and inspiration for many of her great works. The exhibition explores themes of love, sensuality and romanticism. The central themes are continued with a display of works by Emin alongside those of JMW Turner and Auguste Rodin, whose sculpture The Kiss is currently on show at TC. OHHHH hurry up May 2012 get here quick!!
Tags: Ballgowns, Exhibition, Margate, Rodin, TC, the Kiss, Tracy Emin, Turner, Turner COntemporary, V&A, Victoria and Albert Museum
the beat my heart skipped
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