Little things.

Over the last week I seem to have collected a few rather lovely new things; some a bit trivial but sometimes it's those small things that can put the biggest smile on your face.

 My love for pound shops cemented by the discovery of Hello Kitty toothpaste.

 New additions to the Fruitella family.

 After my wish list the other day, find-me-a-gift spoilt me rotten by sending the nail polish I was craving as well as some other gorgeous treats. They clearly knew me well, a cupcake coin purse? This site is heaven for all your gift shopping needs!

 I FINALLY got lucky with a local charity shop and found this Get Cutie skirt in my size for £2.99! I made the lady un-dress the window display so I could have it. Looks like I've finally found a local gem of a shop, I saw some other pretties in their too, and not at extortionate prices!

 Payday treat came in the form of an orange quilted jacket; complete with leather arm patches from ASOS, making the most of the free next day delivery. Bring on the Autumn chills! I fit in well with the local farmers now.

I'm on operation weight gain. The discovery of FAB ice cream pots will help nicely. Delicious, and only £1 in Tesco (you bet I have a freezer full). Not a fab fan? The smarties and rolo varieties are also winners!


What little things, or big things have superficially made you smile this week? Has anything else wonderful happened? I enjoyed a family based few days when my brother and his gorgeous girlfriend came to stay. They are up in Essex now, getting tattooed...which is making me crave a new one, badly!


xxx

Giveaway! Win a Manicure with wish.co.uk

Wish.co.uk is the ultimate destination for experience days, offering everything from fast and furious driving and flying days to relaxing spa day gifts.

Every order comes with free, fast delivery, a gift box and you can shop safe in the knowledge that they guarantee the best price (or you get double the difference
back).

Visit Wish.co.uk to see for yourself.


And, because I firmly believe that my followers deserve a bit of a pamper session, I'm giving away an Expert Manicure to one of you!

Indulge in a spot of pampering and treat your hands and nails to an expert manicure. On arrival, your beauty therapist will discuss your desired nail look, followed by a therapeutic and revitalising hand massage. Your nails will then be filed, shaped and painted with a colour of your choice.

To Enter:

- Be a blog follower; either gfc or bloglovin' or twitter (just state how in your comment)
- Leave a comment on this post telling me your favourite nail polish colour, and any nail art tips or tricks you might have (purely because I am hopeless!)

- Giveaway open to UK followers only. Open for ONE WEEK, entries must be in by 2pm Saturday 6th August.
- Please leave an e-mail address so I can contact you if you win, I'll also pass on your e-mail to the lovely Laura at Wish.co.uk to arrange your prize.

There are various locations for this experience, although I don't have specific salons...

Cheshire, West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire (North) Hampshire,
Greater London, Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire (South
East) Dorset, Berkshire, Avon, Oxfordshire (South West)
Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire (Midlands) Lothian (Scotland) Llandudno
(Wales)

Good Luck xxx

Snacking Saturday; because I'm a child at heart

When I was a child, chocolate cereals were reserved for treats. Now I'm a grown up, I can eat them as often as I like...and trust me, that's often! I have a bit of an obsession with sweet cereals; golden grahams, sugar puffs, cocoa pops, lucky charms if I can afford to pay the crazy import prices...

Browsing around online, as you do, I cam across Mornflake and their range of cereals; what really drew me in was their current competition to win a walk on part in Shrek the Musical (I do love that green Ogre) so I sent a quick e-mail to find out more and received a swift response asking me to pick a cereal to sample to review for Snacking Saturday!

I could have gone for something virtuous like oatbran, muesli or porridge (porridge being my staple breakfast) but as soon as I set eyes on the Chocolatey squares I knew they had to be mine.

(that's only about half of what I put in my bowl!)


Despite being a cereal aimed at children, and being chocolate based, this wasn't too sweet nor sickly. I've been working my way through a box as snacks, rather than breakfast and find it perfect for picking at when I'm at work or sitting at my desk.
You'll find the cereal available in supermarkets (currently Morrisons and Sainsburys and fingers crossed for Asda and Tesco soon) if you want to try it for yourself (I recommend you do!) Next on my list is the Chocolatey Checkers and the Golden Syrup Oats. This sweet tooth is insatiable!

Have you tried this cereal?
Are you a fellow sugar fiend?
What, if anything would you like to see on Snacking Saturday in the future?

Stay tuned for a giveaway this weekend too!


xxx

Dressing

Oh, hello Friday (and PAY DAY!). How can a day come round so slowly, and yet so quickly?

Sunshine makes me break out my favourite dresses!

1: Daisy dress, New Look sale, shoes Shellys. Tights, necessary to keep dress ok for work (they are also temp regulation ones, so I didn't melt, win win). I also wore this out for dinner last night to make the most of my Brother and his lovely Girlfriend being home for the weekend.


2. Technically I haven't worn this yet, I was going to wear it yesterday morning, and then, after half an hour decided to save it for after work/lunch at my grandparents today. Maxi dress, Esprit sale (half price, then a further 20% off!), shoes will probably be wedges of some kind.


What are you up to this weekend? It's a real family based one here. Hopefully made better by gorgeous, glorious sunshine!

I also have a giveaway lined up, and the return of Snacking Saturday!


xxx

An Explanation

In case anyone ever wondered why my blogs get posted so early in the day, especially on my days/mornings off...

He's not as sweet and innocent as he looks.

Perfect Pearls/Adding to my Wish List

I'm a classic girl at heart, and obsessed with bracelets (when I remember to wear them) so I am cheating somewhat and adding to my Wednesday Wishlist by featuring these gorgeous pearl pearl bracelet

First pictured is the Baroque Bracelet in silver and grey. I'd love to wear this stacked between brightly coloured enamel bangles, or on it's own for a sophisticated touch.

The next two are the Betty Bee style, the rose coloured I would team for every day wear, couple with tanned arms (er, or a paler shade of ghost, in my case!) and the silver version I would reserve for evening wear.

I'm not sure how to explain what attracted me to these, they certainly aren't my usual cheap and cheerful fix. If I were feeling brave I'd customise the extender chains, or links between the pearls with completmenting charms and beads to modernise them a bit, although my inner granny (I've always been attracted to pearl jewellery since a young age) is telling me just to leave them be and wear them as they are meant to be worn. They make me think of black and white movies; stars with Audrey Hepburn type grace; something I don't think I'll ever posess, I have all the grace of a baby elephant.


Do you own any pearls? Are you a fan?
How do you style yours? Or am I quite simply old before my time?

Wish List Wednesday

 This outfit, the entire thing. From ASOS.

 And these awesome shoes, also from ASOS because who doesn't want pink creeper brogues in their life?

To finish with, I'll take the MEMEME Summer Nail Collection from their amazing new look summer range, via findmeagift.
MEMEME is a beauty brand I've never paid much attention too until I got an e-mail saying they'd had a re-vamp and there was a new summer collection out. Take a look at these beauties! Back.On.My.Radar.


What's on your wish list?

Why isn't it pay day yet?

Today I'm Wearing

One day back at work, followed by my day off...not bad. Not bad at all!

Keeping it casual today with a denim dress, £7, New Look sale. Winner.
It's been a while since I busted out some patterned tights, so floral it is. And converse. I love my converse.

 

One day I'm going to work out my damn camera settings properly!

xxx

A Brief History of ASOS

I know that a lot of you are as addicted to ASOS as I am, so thought I'd share this infographic from the lovely Daisy, brains behind DiscountCoder.com, who have featured on the blog many a time before!



A Brief History of Asos Infographic created by a discount codes website with lots of Asos deals.


(NOT a sponsored post, Daisy sent me the infographic and I decided to share it because I'm a bit of a geek and it fascinated me)

Floral Fabulous

I grew up with the Joe Browns catalogue. I have many a memory of sitting in the 6th form common room flicking through the pages and adding items to my Christmas list.

I admit, as time progressed, I kind of forgot about their existence. I stopped getting leaflets in the post and with so many retailers to choose from their website wasn't the first that sprang to mind when shopping online.

It was a surprise when they got in touch last week, asking if I'd like to take a look and pick a dress to feature on my blog. All those memories came flooding back, and although no longer my typical style I found myself coveting many a thing...I think it's the quirky cuts and slightly off-beat nature that won me over; just like it always used to.
(Not to mention they have a mega sale on right now, too).

Naturally I headed straight for the floral dresses.

I love my new dress! It's more...I don't know...I can't think of the right word. It's not the first thing I would pick in a shop, and yet something drew me to it. The colours, the shape, the fact it's cut and fits like a dream. The perfect "day off but don't want to wear jeans" kind of dress....baggy jeans induced comfort included.


Anyone else a Joe Browns fan? Do you have memories of the brand, and will you be giving them a second look now?

What stores hold memories for you?

Happy Monday guys,
back to work for me today!

xxx

P.S. Just had to share my weekend highlight!

Hit vs. Shit

It's been a funny week. A really funny week. My thoughts are with Norway, the friends and family of Amy Winehouse and the family and anyone who knew Kerri; a friend who passed away recently.


Here are some of this week's highlights...

- Seeing my two bestest friends, Becca and Trudi.
- Not having to work and finally catching up with myself.
- Epic, long awaited shopping trip with Trudi, in Bath, one of my favourite places.
- My family. Enough said.
- Being alive.

I am also thankful for Gin in a Tin, new makeup and brightly coloured parcels in the post.

The Shit List this week goes to...

-The weather...gone were my chances of a week in the garden, although this weekend has gone some way to appease that and I am off to the seaside today.
- Having to face up to a few harsh truths.
- The shops being full of the scrag ends of sale stock/Autumn clothes and not much that is suitable for now.
- It's still a week to payday.
- Aforementioned tragedies and the attitudes of people in general.
- Being booted out of bed on a Sunday morning by a cat with serious wind issues AND muddy paws.


Highs/Lows this week?

...don't worry, things WILL get better

xxx

Wearings

Just a couple of outfits from the last couple of days.

The black lace ups are the second pair of Jeffrey Campbells from my Sarenza haul! The are the softest suede I've ever owned and so comfortable. New shoe staple. I want them in blue, too.


Huge thank you to everyone for being so wonderfully supportive. It really, really helps to know there is such a lovely bunch of people out there.

I hope everyone has a great weekend ahead of them; the sun has finally shown it's face here; typically after drizzling all day during my trip to Bath (which proved expensive and yet yielded little on the clothing front, just dregs of sale stock by this point).

xxx


P.S. Snacking Saturday will return next week, as you can probably gather, this week involved Brownies!

Always.

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Nutella Fudge Brownie Bites

Yes, another baking post. There are two reasons for this;
1. Bad news, totally out of the blue has left me somewhat...struggling for inspiration with anything. Twitter followers...just, thank you.

2. It'd be really damn rude of me not to share such a delightfully simple and sinfully delicious recipe.

I present,
Nutella Fudge Brownie Bites


Ingredients:
- 175g Nutella. Buy a 200g jar and you'll have the perfect amount left for guilt free eating off the spoon.

- 5 tablespoons self raising flour.

- 1 egg.

- A good dash of cinnamon, and some chunks of chocolate/dried fruit/chocolate chips etc.

Method:
Beat together the nutella and the egg until smooth. Add in the flour and mix well...the batter will be sticky but not too hard to work with. Add in anything else you fancy (I used chunks of milk chocolate and liberal amounts of cinnamon).

Spoon in to 12 fairy cake cases (you could also do it as a sheet, as bigger bites, or mini bites but will need to adjust cooking times) and bake at 180*c for around 10 minutes. Cooking time is approximate because it depends on how you like your brownies! I like mine not too gooey, but not too cooked either, so 10 minutes was perfect.

Cool (a little) and eat.

I made one mini mini bite for testing as the actual brownies are a request for work (can't get rid of that place even though I'm off!). The brownies will be quite springy when first out of the oven but get that dense, fudgy texture as they cool.

xxx

Practise Run

I'm considering this outfit a trial run for Autumn. My latest Sarenza order arrived yesterday, including some boots I'd chosen to put away for colder times...
One look at the grey skies made me realise there was no way these babies could be hidden away. They were begging to be worn right now...and so there is a silver lining to any situation.

What made the deal even sweeter was that these shoes; Jeffrey Campbell Erikson are just £40 in the sale! Meaning I was able to take full advantage of being an ambassador for Sarenza and buy some sensible shoes for work, too! I think I've become a bit obsessed with JC shoes, actually...and it's not the usual hype about the infamous Litas! I opted for the Miller flats which, with a bit of weather protection spray will be perfect for now and later in the year!

The Sarenza sale has some amazing bargains right now, so if your in the mood for a feet treat, hop along!

xxx

Motel Rocks, Indeed.

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