As it's fast approaching Mothers Day (March 10th) I thought i'd put together a little gift inspiration - I'm going back home to see my mumma, which will of course be the best present EVER (haha!) but turning up with a couple of these wrapped all pretty would be the icing on the cake!
After visiting the Columbia Road flower market, I'm inspired to create my own bouquet but I have to say, The Flower Studio have such gorgeous arrangements, I might just have to order the one I have my eye on!
Last night I made these little (or should I say larger than normal) beauties - pink vanilla macarons filled with seedless raspberry jam, white chocolate butter cream and fresh raspberries. Fresh raspberries, in my opinion, make the world of difference as it cuts through the sweetness, plus I could eat them by the bucket load!
Macarons can be a little bit hit and miss, but i've now found a combination of recipes that make one perfect and simpler end result! Would anyone like a tutorial on this? And for the first time, here's the options: either a photo OR a video tutorial?
Well, a) because it's the weekend... but I'm also excited for another couple of reasons:
Firstly, our new kitchen is almost complete! I'll post some pictures of the transformation but it's still very much wet paint and dust. My God, i'm so over DUST! I can smell it, taste it and once you've cleaned, that stuff still rains down.
The main culprit for this is our kitchen table. I saw the utterly gorgeous Victoria from lilyloveslola makeover her similar table, I loved it, so though i'd give our not so sexy orange pine the same treatment.
Check me out being a total pro with my dust mask! Let me just point out, before I picked up a packet of those I was using a tea towel which DOES NOT WORK. More fool me, I was coughing like a good'un. I also looked like some sort of desert quad biker. Minus the desert and the quad bike.
All i'll say is, while I am loving the results, I never want to have to sand another thing for as long as I live. It's such hard work even with an electric sander, and then there's the painting... (Give me a couple of weeks and i'll want to do the same thing on something else, I never learn!) All that's left is 3 chairs to second coat and a trip to B&Q shortly to buy some wax for the table top. Phew.
Secondly... and I am INSANELY excited by this one, after spending hours/days on writing a business plan, getting David to try and explain cash flow forecasts to me and usually adding up numbers about 10 times, I had a meeting on Thursday to secure investment in my new venture Haus of Glue - and I got it!!!
Haus of Glue is something i've been wanting to do for a while and I cannot tell you how happy I am to be able to get started on it! I don't want to reveal to much yet but it does involve craft, baking and wrapping and i'm at the initial stage of what hopefully will be a much bigger picture.
For anyone interested, I applied through the government scheme Start-Up Loans which amazingly helps people aged between 18-30 in the UK develop their business ideas and make them reality. You also get a business mentor for a year too, I cannot recommend it enough so if you have an idea, go for it! You can find out more information HERE. If you have any questions about it, do feel free to drop me an email and i'll try my best to share my experience with you.
I've also decided to bite the bullet and buy a new camera, my old one has died and I just can't keep taking photos on my iPhone, i'm looking at the Nikon D5100 (if anyone has thoughts on this please drop me a comment and let me know what you think) and it means I can FINALLY make proper YouTube tutorials. Can't do much about my mockney'cockney'farmer voice though... haha.
So that's a little catch up with me for now - anyone got exciting plans for the weekend?
I've seen so many pins floating around about Chex Mix (which we don't have in the UK) and after watching one of my favourite YouTubers Sparklyblonde1 make some party mix yesterday, I knew I had to see what it was like.
I used original Shreddies, peanut M&Ms and salted pretzels in mine (I love salty and sweet together) covered it in melted peanut butter, butter and white chocolate and waited half an hour for it to cool down. Lord have mercy, this was SO good! Slightly calorific but it was a Friday night after all...
Mine doesn't look half as pretty as hers - Why oh why can't we have holiday colour sweets over here! I also couldn't even find Smarties sold in separate tubes in Morissons but hey ho, it still tasted out of this world!
If anyone knows a better UK equivalent of Chex Mix do let me know in the comments!
While we're on the subject of L O V E - here's the current object of my affection...
Oh YEAH BABY a brand new oven! Our old one had no numbers on meaning, every time you baked you had to play 'lets guess the temperature'. It also had no working light inside so it was baking in the dark at about 300 degrees.
We're currently in the process of having a new kitchen fitted so the house is covered in dust, units and general mess. Me and David are in the office with the kettle and a toaster, classy!
Once everything is in and clean, i'm going to make macarons! I've already bought a new baking sheet for it! I'll be sure to let you all have a peak once it's done and if you'd like a macaron tutorial... you'll be in luck!!
