I know, I know... it's only the 3rd of October BUT seeing as the shops have already started to put out their Christmas stock, I thought it wasn't too premature to start thinking about Halloween! (And buy a couple of things already!)
I think my love of Halloween stems from being a 90s child watching Hocus Pocus and I know I say it every year, but I wish the UK would embrace it a little more like America. I'm hoping that this year in London, a few people might knock on the door and I won't get a repeat of last year, getting a grand total of O N E trick or treater!
Over the next couple of weeks, i'll be putting up some of my own tutorials, but here's some great starter ideas I found on Pinterest. I totally want to bust a pair of the witches shoes!
Have you got any plans for Halloween? What decorations will you be making? I made a Halloween wreath last year which i'll be dusting off and putting up again too! You can see that HERE!
Goûters rigolos is by Aline Caron of My Little Fabric. It might be in French but I could spend all day drooling over the cute pictures! It's available on Amazon for the bargain price of £5.86! Would be rude not to buy it really....
The time finally came when I couldn't put off the "stool makeover" any longer. I think my housemate would have gone mad. (Thanks Gwinne for putting up with this beautiful piece being stuck by the back door for weeks! Haha!)
The photos should be self explanatory, I hope they are as I really didn't have a clue what I was doing and just sort of... winged it.
Obviously the first thing was to paint the pre sanded stool, easy.
From here on, I had no idea how to execute said stool makeover. Most normal people would have googled, I just decided I could figure it out as I went along. This is a flaw of mine that I always intend on changing but never do. I have the complete inability to plan before doing. Some call that inpatient. Mwwahaa.
The first bit was easy, using some card I drew around the top of the stool and cut out two templates to pin onto the foam.
The next action can only be described as hacking the living day lights out of the foam. As you can see, it looks a complete and utter mess but it did end up in a seat shape. Just. Luckily once covered in fabric you couldn't see my bodged job! I'm not sure scissors were the right thing to use but alas, I used them anyway!
Check out my new staple gun! I feel proper badass with this! I need more things to staple in my life!
Again, I didn't find out how to cover the cushion correctly, I just turned the stool over, pulled the fabric tight and started shooting staples in it. It worked so small victory for the unprepared! Finally using some fabric glue, I stuck on some mini pom pom trim around the edge.
And this is the final result! It's not perfect but I love it! Proof that someone else's rubbish, with a little bit of effort, can make a nice (and free!) addition to your house!
Cost: Stool F R E E! Fabric £3.20 (for 1 fat quarter so lots extra) Pom Poms £0.99 Foam £6.50 Staple Gun £8.99 (investment, i'll use this again!)
Total = £19.68
*I already had left over paint from my chest of drawers and the fabric glue so I haven't added these into my total.
Bonjour! I am back from the most amazing weekend in Paris, I am quite sad about this and I feel like the British weather is making me day dream even more about being back in the sunny Latin Quarter with a cake!
Obviously for the couple of days I was away I strayed off the Jenny Craig healthy eating path (I'm back on my last week now) but I actually didn't eat as much as I though I would! I spent so much time walking and getting around the city that unbelievably, food was an after thought.
I thought i'd share some photos I took, if you follow me on instagram you will have already seen these but if not, here's the highlights! (Photo heavy!)
Let's start with the good stuff! Gérard Mulot was a 5 minute walk away from our hotel and the choice of cakes was quite overwhelming! Everything, and I mean E V E R Y T H I N G looked so good! Honestly, these cakes are the best thing I have ever eaten. I could have spent all day just looking at the cakes and macarons. It's definitely inspired me to dust off the mixer and get creating! If you're in Paris, I highly recommend paying it a visit!
In just a couple of days we managed to cover a lot of ground! Paris is actually quite easy to navigate your way around (thanks to the map on my iPhone!) and the Metro is also easy to use. We went to the Eiffel Tower in the day and night, went up the Arc de Triomphe (Climbed all 248 steps for a spectacular view! Best €9 spent!) and stopped off at the Louvre.
We took a walk up to Notre-Dame and wanted to go in but the queue was so long we would have wasted a good chunk of time standing around, so we hopped on the Metro and went to have a look at the Moulin Rouge. After seeing the film, the real thing was a little bit lack luster! Still nice to say i've seen it!
Here's a top tip for you, one we were given before leaving but chose to ignore... When in Paris DO NOT stop off at cafes for a couple of colas unless you want to part with €14. I'm not sure why, but fizzy drinks are a premium in Paris and we found out the hard way!
We actually stumbled on the lock bridge while walking somewhere, it's very cute! Also the flower shops in Paris are just the most beautiful places ever! I love how they put roses into little tins, I'm going to make myself a Paris inspired arrangement this week!
Yep... more food! Such a child but hugely amused by a packet of Haribo Floppy!
Then finally it was time to leave our lovely hotel and head back to London :-(
These photos wouldn't be complete without some vanity shots so here's me and Sean's 'Look we're in Paris!' selection!
Sean knew how much I wanted to go to Paris so this was my present from him for my 30th birthday back in July. Paris was everything I hoped it would be and Sean, thank you for such a memorable, fun and amazing time! You are the best friend a girl could wish for! (He'll read that and want to puke haha!) Can't wait for the next adventure to the Harry Potter Studio tour in the next couple of weeks! I'm already looking at when I can go back to Paris again! I was enjoying myself so much, I didn't even go into Sephora! And on a final note, i'm off to paint my found on the street stool as my fabric supplies arrived while I was away and I can finish it off this week! I'll of course blog the process!
Day 7 finally arrived meaning i'm one week down on Jenny Craig! I'm trying to get things into perspective and just get on with it, but i'm finding it hard knowing that my trip to Paris is rapidly upon me and the word D I E T is just not going to be part of my Parisian vocabulaire!
Breakfast: Chocolate coated wholewheat flakes Lunch: Winter Vegetable soup + 1/3 of a cup of low fat cheese Snack: Lightly salted potato bites and some rhubarb yoghurt (Not the whole pot!) Dinner: Chilli with steamed vegetables
No complaints on this day of food. None. Yep. Fall. Over.
We had a visitor to the garden in the shape of Cyril squirrel! He was making some rather suspicious bird like noises! Totally cute though!
Mr Pepper has gone in the bin. I'm not sure i'm ready to talk about it. If anyone know's where I can get something similar do let me know. My heart is as broken as his head :-(
And finally Sean posted a Julia Child quote on my Facebook which pretty much sums up my feelings about food! It made me happy!
I was tagged by the beautiful Victoria from Lily loves Lola to do the 11 questions tag so here's my attempt! I can't believe how hard it is thinking of 11 random facts about yourself! I asked David for some inspiration, but his contribution was 1. I'm a d*** hahah! Helpful! Anyway, here's my attempt!
The Rules:
- Each person tagged must post 11 random facts about themselves - They must answer the 11 questions posted by the previous blogger - They must create 11 more questions to ask the bloggers they tag - They must tag 11 blogs with less than 200 followers (Mine are mainly over 200!) - The bloggers must be informed that they have been tagged
11 Random facts about me:
1. When I was little, I was terrified of waking up and seeing Santa! My mum told me that after I fell asleep on Christmas Eve, the Elves would sprinkle magic sleeping dust on me so I wouldn't wake up until after Santa had been! Phew!
2. I'm a bone marrow donor. There isn't really a back story as to why, I just decided that if by registering, I could make a difference to someone surviving any type of blood cancer like leukemia, why wouldn't I want to be a donor? So I sent off my spit sample and i'm now on the list should I ever be a match for someone, anywhere in the world!
3. I live around the corner from the BEST Caribbean takeaway and if I could eat macaroni cheese with curry chicken and rice & peas every day I would.
4. I wanted to be an archaeologist when I was at school and I wish I had pursued this as a career. I'd love to go back in time and live in the 1500s and I find anything to do with history fascinating! I recently watched a TV show about Mud Larks (people who go and look for "treasure" along the Thames) and I want IN on that!
5. I've written a couple of short Children's stories and I would love to get them illustrated one day!
6. I have a very accurate sixth sense!
7. I've worn fake tan religiously since I was 17! I get mistaken for a lot of difference ethnicities but my natural skin colour is VERY white! This is one of the only photos taken in the last 13 years where I was untanned! I am a slave to the bottle!
8. I would love to spend 6 months of the year living in the UK and the other 6 months living somewhere in New England.
9. Since moving back to London, i've compiled a list of places I want to go and eat in! It's rapidly growing but top of the 'to do' list is Burger & Lobster! Mmmmm!!
10. I get a bit obsessive with customizing my laptop desktop... I will spend hours making sure everything matches and if I change the background, I have to make sure all the icons reflect it :-s
11. Before my dad intervened and suggested Lisa or Lucy, my mum wanted to call me Gretchen!
Victoria's questions: 1. If you had a magic wand and could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I would hands down wave that magic wand and give myself a new nose! I've wanted a 'nose job' for as long as I can remember although, as I've got older I have accepted it a lot more than I used to! I just know how much it would change my face (i've given myself photoshop nose jobs before!) and I even know the surgeon I want! I'd say my 'before' nose is similar to Blake Lively so that's the sort of result I would want! (But I mean, *if* I had a magic wand, I could just morph into her right?!)
2. If you could transport yourself into any tv show, past or present, which one would you choose?
E A S Y The Vampire Diaries! I'd elbow Elena right out the way and spend my days with Stefan and Damon fighting over me! It would be a hard life!
Too far?
3. Do you make New Years Resolutions and keep them?
Nope! I don't make New Years resolutions!
4. What do you do to relax?
Bake, make things, read (currently reading Bloodlines #1) but in general, for me to find anything relaxing, it usually involves something creative that I can enjoy and entertain myself with for a good few hours.
5. Pool or beach?
As I don't like hot weather, it would have to be an indoor a pool, preferably with some snowy mountains outside the window!
6. Earliest childhood memory?
My earliest memory that I know isn't from a photograph, is from when I was around 4 and I remember being in my nan's kitchen in a pair of red tap shoes! I'm actually surprised I can't remember anything before then?! Maybe meeting the Care Bears pre dates the tap shoes, I'm not sure! (And yes, you read right, I met the Care Bears!)
7. Favourite Christmas movie?
Was actually on last night! The Holiday! I don't even know how many times i've watched it, but I always feel like i'm seeing it for the first time! It never gets old! Christmas and love! Winning combo!
8. If you could only listen to one song for the rest of time, what would it be and why?
Randomly, Enya - Anywhere Is! It just makes me happy! Ironically I want it played at my funeral too! Cheery! Haha! But I love her voice and how epic is sounds, it just reminds me of life!
9. Favourite pizza topping?
Pepperoni with jalapeños!
10. Do you have a pet/pets? We know the answer to this! Yes! I have a dog called Sweep and a cat called Puff! They live back at my parents and I miss them SO much!! They totally love each other!
11. What is your most treasured possession? Material possession wise, it has to be my laptop but I don't think I would run into a burning house to save it!
And here are the questions for my 11 tagged bloggers!
1. What was the last picture you took on your phone? 2. If you could spend a day with any celebrity, who would it be and why? 3. What's your favorite film, TV show and book? 4. If you were on death row, what would you pick as your last meal? 5. If someone gave you £100 right now, what would you spend it on? 6. What place do you most want to visit? 7. What song reflects how you feel right now? 8. Do you have any pet hates? 9. What makes you laugh? 10. What was the last embarrassing thing to happen to you? 11. What's your weirdest quirk?
I got my s*** together and stuck to my day 6 menu plan. I wasn't all that keen on the tuna pasta salad, mainly because it reminded me of cat food that comes with added extras cats really don't want. It tasted fine, this was purely my own brain at work! The positive is I felt full up and kept the food rage under wraps! For now...
I have my first weight check tomorrow and a call from my advisor so i'm not sure what she's going to make of my sneaky fish and chip lunch and latte! Oh AND that salad....
Thank you for the comments of support durning my melt down! It helps to know that you've been there too!
I've been trying to avoid Pinterest as much as possible because other wise i'd spend all day driving myself mad looking at food I want to cook, but I did notice this little nail tutorial so i'm off to heart up my nails with a toothpick!
Welcome to my food consumption on day 5 on Jenny Craig!
Breakfast: Muesli with raisins & hazelnuts
Lunch: Salad with potato, rosemary and croutons
Snack: White chocolate cereal bar
Dinner: Chicken Provençal with durum wheat
Breakfast started off OK, just OK mind.
Then we moved on to lunch. Oh, what can I say about this!! I have another pet hate... yep... another... instant mash. The texture and taste makes me cringe so you can imagine how excited I was to find a pot of 'just add water' potatoes were on the lunch menu.
God it was bad. It was wet and sloppy, over powered by the rosemary with little surprise bits of crunch. My food rage started to build up from this point onwards, right now, we were on a 5.
Because I didn't enjoy lunch, I had a Jenny Craig snack bar. There is nothing to dislike about this! But by now I was starting to think about not looking forward to dinner and the food rage moved up to a 6.
If you're anything like me, and I know most people will not be as crazy loco when it comes to food and taste, if you haven't enjoyed something, you don't feel satisfied. Not feeling satisfied leads to hunger. When faced with hunger, do you want this...?
Or does your mind start wandering to... this?
I'm sorry for what i'm about to say.... but fresh fruit just isn't going to cut it.
Everyone seemed to be tweeting and facebooking about roast dinner which pushed me to an 8.5 on the food rage scale and after I heated up dinner (minus the vegetables again to try and extract some taste) and it tasting like every other dinner from the last 5 days, I hit the 10. Full. Force. 10.
This is pretty much my face sitting at the dinner table. I kid you not.
What then proceeded was a bit of a meltdown mainly involving me shouting about wanting a Toffee crisp, saying how a life of repetitive flavor was torture and my idea of hell on earth.
Now I know this is a very dramatic reaction to have but, in all seriousness, I didn't realise just HOW much my mood is effected by what I eat. I absolutely love flavor. I love the process of cooking and enjoying what i've made. Turns out, if you take away these two elements, I become a monster.
Jenny Craig really isn't that bad, but for me, it's becoming a struggle already. I'm not saying I want to run out and have a McDonalds every day (Ok... IF it wasn't bad to do this, I might give it a go) but knowing your dinner will be ready in 2 minutes and gone in about the same time (and i've been eating slowly to make it last) is just not the same as preparing something yourself and really being involved in the whole process.
I. LOVE. FOOD.
I think i'm going to have to learn to like exercise.
Sorry to both David & Sean for the evil that was unleashed from me last night.
The show must go on. Steamed vegetables anyone? Mmmmm.
L x
PS. It is worth noting that the Chicken Provençal with durum wheat was the best tasting dinner so far.
Lunch: Chicken & bacon cob salad from Balans with a sparking water
Dinner: Beef Goulash with potatoes
Yesterday started off so well! For breakfast I had Jenny Craig's porridge with raspberry, which I wouldn't have ever picked for myself. It was really nice! Go Jenny! Go Jenny!
Me and David decided to walk over to Westfield Stratford as I had a dress I needed to take back and some how I managed to end up with a pair of "leather" panelled leggings from Topshop and also a new pair of boots & a thin jumper-esqe t-shirt both from Urban Outfitters.
Being out during the day meant that I wasn't at home to make soup and salad. We always go to Balans because a) the food is amazing and b) the staff are just the best! I decided to have the bacon and chicken cob salad, which, in hindsight, might have not been the best thing I could have picked from the menu. If I would have put a bit more thought into it, I should have told them to at least take off the ranch dressing but... well... I didn't. One thing I will say though, is I couldn't finish it all. I'm not sure if it's because I was only drinking water, or that some how I might have got used to smaller portions of food. Maybe a bit of both but I didn't eat it all despite is tasting delicious!
On the short walk home, I *might* have stopped in Costa for a skinny gingerbread latte. I FAIL AT LIFE! I know my justifications of it being 'skinny' doesn't really count and I totally maxed out my milk intake for the day, but I was SO excited about the too early arrival of Christmas in a cup I couldn't help myself. Let's say that my hand was forced by Santa! Yes! I blame him.
In general, I don't drink fizzy drinks unless they happen to come with alcohol. (I'm not drinking while i'm on Jenny Craig FYI!) I haven't been drinking juice and didn't fancy more water so I ventured into the sugar free drinks section of Sainsburys and got a 7UP sugar free. I thought it was quite nice but I have since decided I didn't like it, there was still that slight fake sugar after taste. Gross.
Finally dinner was a bowl of beef goulash with potatoes. I wasn't very hungry so I didn't bother to add extra vegetables. The first few mouthfuls are always a little bland and it gets better the more you eat. The problem I am having with the dinners, are that they are all blurring into one. There really has been very little taste difference between the soup, chicken tikka masala, pasta bolognese and the goulash. It's not that they don't taste OK, but because I am SO into flavors, the biggest thing for me is a variety of tastes and at present, i'm not experiencing that. I have been known to get quite moody with repetitive flavors of food so God help david who has to live with me! Haha!
I can report that so far today, I have not strayed off the Jenny Craig menu! I am seriously lacking in food discipline!! :-/
Breakfast: Wholewheat yoghurt coated flakes & fruit Lunch: Uh-oh... Fish & Chips... I was at the seaside!! *hangs head in shame* Dinner: Chorizo and mixed bean soup + 1/4 cup of low fat cheese (meant for lunch!)
Today my mum, dad and Sweep came to visit! Mum brought down myself and Sean's Eurostar tickets as we are off to Paris next Friday for the weekend! She gave me a little card written in French with some money to spend in the patisseries! ♥
We then jumped in the car and drove into Southend-on-sea to see my auntie. Sweep enjoyed herself and got a new toy! I know I am biased, but she is SO F***ing CUTE! Love. Of. My. Life.
Me and mum went into town and visited my favorite shop in 'Saaaafend' called Troll. It's complete chaos in there but it sells jewellery from places like Topshop and other high street stores for up to 75% off! I picked up a couple of things and a ring which i'd seen on ASOS recently but forgot to take a photo of!
I also got some new trainers from River Island (Thank you mum!) and Mr Pepper, my new ceramic pepper grinder from TK Maxx! I love him! Best £4.99 ever spent!
Normal JC eating to resume today! Slaps on the wrist all round for the fish & chips. I have been trying to justify it because I didn't eat the batter OR all the chips but it happened and for dinner I just had the soup so lets draw a line under it and move on shall we?!
Good morning! Quick snapshot of day two on Jenny Craig!
Breakfast: Wholewheat yoghurt coated flakes and fruit = YUM x2
Lunch: Salad with beetroot & 1/4 cup of cheese, winter vegetable soup and 1 slice of soya and linseed Vogel bread (best bread ev's!) toasted to make croutons! = YUM (worth a mention that the soup was more like a vegetable stew!)
Snack: Sea salted potato bites = A M A Z I N G
Dinner: Chicken tikka masala with basmati rice & added mixed peppers, broccoli and cauliflower = HMMM... Slightly lacking in flavor as most 'diet' curries tend to be.
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