Happy Easter!

I've been spoilt with Easter treats this weekend and received chocolate eggs, lindt goodies and a joules baking set which I can't wait to use. The baking set has some cupcake cases, wraps and toppers, a biscuit cutter, flour shaker and a spatula which is useful as i've misplaced my old one, and came with a nice striped tin to store it all in.

I was also given a bag of ferrero hazelnut eggs which were so yummy that they didn't last long enough to make it in the picture!

Easter Cupcakes ♥

I can't believe how cold it still is! Earlier today I bought some more nice fabric which I'm hoping to make in to a tablet cover soon, but it was too cold to stay in town for long so i've been keeping busy indoors for the rest of the day and made some bird's nest cupcakes for easter. I bought this cute easter cupcake kit from poundland a couple of weeks ago

and used some of the cupcake cases today. I've already received a couple of Easter gifts so i'm envisaging a chocolate overload this weekend!

Primark Haul (Part 2)

I've been a busy bee the past week raiding my local Primark store, and below are the rest of the things I picked up.
 

This pretty black and white floral dress is from the new season range and cost £13. It's the same style as the red dress I blogged about in my earlier Primark Haul post here, but I think they're really versatile and so comfortable.

These beige and black ballet pumps were on sale for £3 down from £6. I already have a similar navy pair and find that they're great with jeans or black tights and again they're very comfortable for walking around in.

These trainers were also on sale for £3. I've been looking for some trainers for a while and really liked this pair from New Look but I can't find them in my local store.

And finally this pair of men's chinos were on sale for just £1 from the original £12 price tag. That's probably enough shopping for me for a little while :)

Travel ideas

The continuing cold snap has left me dreaming of warmer climates and got me thinking about where I'd like to travel this year. I'm not very well travelled but would love to explore more of Europe, having only been to France so far. So i've been reading travel blogs and asking for recommendations to help me put together a plan. Although I would like to visit the scandinavian fjords, the seychelles and the great barrier reef, I think I should start a little closer to home and see what the continent has to offer (and save up a slightly bigger holiday fund in the mean time!)  So, here are the 3 places I'd most like to visit this year:

1. Cologne
    I've wanted to visit Germany for quite a few years, and think Cologne might be the best place to start exploring. With its famous Cathedral, its position along the Rheine, a popular shopping district and the home of the Lindt Chocolate factory, it seems to have something for everyone. It is also home to world-famous Christmas markets during the festive season and is accessible from London by Eurostar in just a few hours. At the moment i'm torn between visiting during the summer months and sightseeing in warmer weather or booking a visit to the highly recommended Christmas markets in December which i've always wanted to visit.

Cologne

2. Italy
    Another place I've wanted to visit for a while, but i'm still undecided on which particular part i'd like to go to. I think Milan or Venice would probably be top of my list, especially as I love visiting the South of France and Milan is only a couple of hours away, so would make a nice overnight trip. I still need to do more research as I am also intrigued by Turin, another popular destination with its impressive museums, shopping and chocolatiers, as well as the idyllic little towns nestled on Italy's coast

Turin

3. Austria
    With grand palaces, beautiful scenery and sparkling blue lakes, Austria is on the list too. The quaint Viennese cafe's, impressive Schonbrunn Palace and numerous city parks suggest that there is plenty to see and do. I have read several recommendations of Austria's sachertorte dessert too, a must if you have a sweet tooth like i do!

I'll be looking through my travel guides this weekend for more inspiration, but in the mean time I shall go and turn the heating up and make a hot chocolate!

From Primark tea-towel to pretty cushion for £2!

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about a gorgeous tea-towel I had bought from Primark here, and on Tuesday I finally got around to turning it into something pretty. I really loved the fresh floral and bird print, and having just bought a sewing machine I decided to try it out and make a cushion for my chair.
 

I was aiming to be as economical as possible with my little project, and the total cost to make the cushion cover was just £2. The tea towel cost £1.20 from Primark and is a thin cotton material which worked really well on my sewing machine. I headed to my local market haberdashery stall for a 12" zip in a co-ordinating pale blue colour where I paid only 80p. (I had previously looked in a craft shop and a high-street haberdashery and the prices for a basic zip were as high as £4.00, so I'd recommend looking for independent retailers and market stalls for the best prices).


As it has been some years since I last undertook a real sewing project I wanted to make my first project as simple as possible. So I just folded my tea towel in half and cut it, putting one half aside, before measuring the other piece to find 1/4 and cutting it again. I then pinned each half of zip in place to the 1/4 and 3/4 of the fabric having double folded it to create a neat edge and also conceal the zip, and sewed across. Once the zip was in it was as simple as pinning the two halves back together (and facing each other) and sewing, (remembering to the leave the zip open so you can turn it out the right way after...not that I forgot to do this and had to struggle to unzip it...!). Finally I had a look through my sewing box for old bags of sequins that had come with jumpers and found some dark pink sequins and beads that matched the roses perfectly, and sewed a few on by hand.

So here's the finished result!

the front

the back

It took little over an hour to make from start to finish and i'm really pleased with the results. Although the stitching could be neater in places I think it just requires a little practice and it's a great project for beginners. I think the cushion would make a lovely gift so I'm tempted to go back for more tea towels and pick up the other patterns from Primark, as one was a red floral/spotty print, very cath kidston-esque, and the other was a beige cafe/coffee cup print that would look great on a bistro/patio chair, and at only £1.20 each it is far cheaper than buying a metre of material, which were as much as £9.99 at one of the craft stores I visited for some of the nicer prints.

P.S. I used an old cushion to fill the cover but I've found cushions from as little as £2 online after a quick search so even if you don't have an old one to up-cycle, a new one doesn't have to be costly!

Primark Nail Caviar Review

I've been intrigued by the introduction of 'nail caviar' in recent months, but having read mostly negative reviews on the MUA constellations, being put off the price of the original ciate caviar and failing to track down any of Poundland's version, I thought I was destined to give it a miss. That was until I spotted a 3D manicure kit at Primark, no less. Essentially exactly the same as 'nail caviar', the Primark version comes with a nail varnish, a bottle of tiny beads which are a pretty mix of silver, pink and pearl, and a handy funnel.

So the idea is that you paint your nail, then pour over the beads making sure you have a tray underneath to collection them, press them down slightly so they set in the polish, and then pour the left over beads back in the bottle using the funnel. As I was trying the beads out before work I kept it to just one nail per hand having heard that they don't last long, and I used another nail polish which complemented it for the rest of my nails (a No 7 polish in shade 'Milan' which I've previously reviewed).

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to do and how evenly the beads went on considering I was trying to do it quickly. After work one of the nails had lost a few beads but the other still looks perfectly intact, which again I was quite surprised about as my nail polish had chipped and smudged while I was working. Overall I was quite impressed by the Primark kit, and at just £2.50 it is the cheapest nail caviar kit i've seen (with the exception of the elusive Poundland one). The beads probably aren't very practical for everyday wear, but a fun novelty and ideal for evenings out.

Primark Haul and Bargains ♥

I was passing by Primark at the weekend after work and came across a few lovely things that I couldn't resist! I've been trying to keep my new purchases to a minimum as I'm still trying hard to save up, but following a fairly successful free-listing weekend on ebay and the bargain prices I thought a little indulgence wouldn't break the bank! So, here they are:

 This dress is perfect for summer and has such a cute daisy print. It was £15 from the new season range and I think it's ideal for holidays. This was my most expensive purchase so now on to the bargains!

I've wanted these ballet pumps for quite a while but having recently bought another pair of navy flats I decided to save my money instead. So I was quite delighted to find them on sale at just £4 reduced from £8 and didn't hesitate to add them to my basket. They have a mixture of enamel metal flowers and fabric flowers at the front and I will be wearing them with jeans, again i think they'll be good for the summer.

This navy cami was part of their loungewear range and was reduced from £3 to £1, it has a really pretty lace trim and I will probably wear it as a vest top under a cardi as it looks quite similar to a top I have from monsoon and doesn't look overly like lounge wear.

I also picked up a few bargains for the men in my life. This teal jumper had 75% off and was down from £12 to £3.

And finally these two jumpers I picked up for my dad for an unbelievable £1, reduced down from £12. Not a bad haul for £25 :)

Croissants and Homemade Easter Eggs

With snow on the ground outside gardening has been out of the question this weekend, so I decided to spend some time baking instead. In the fridge I had a can of Jus Rol Croissants which I've not tried before and was somewhat sceptical about, but I was pleasantly surprised with the results.

You simply unwrap the can, and unroll the sheet of pre-marked pastry and cut into triangles. Then simply roll up and twist into a croissant shape and pop in the oven.

The croissants were quite small but light and tasty, and being smaller than the ones you buy in the supermarket is the perfect excuse to indulge in a second!

 After dinner I was at a loose end so I decided to try out the new easter egg moulds I purchased a few days ago from Hobbycraft. They were on sale for £1 and contained 2 sets of small and 2 large easter egg moulds. 

I didn't want to spend too much money on chocolate as it was just a fun little project to fill my evening, so I bought 3 bags of Asda buttons on offer at 3 for £1 (2 milk chocolate and 1 white chocolate) and had plenty to fill the small trays. I also used some heart chocolate shapes I had in my cupboard in the mould and then poured in a little melted chocolate to decorate some of the eggs. 

And here's the finished result! They're a little messy but next time I won't fill the moulds as much. Even so they tasted delicious :)

Squirrel watch!

One of the squirrels was round looking for lunch today, he was being so funny and inquisite that I took a few pictures on my phone:

Cute animals (part II)

A second installment of cute animal pictures follows, just because...<3

Tea Time Treats

I had a spare half an hour this evening so decided to make something yummy for dessert. Fancying something sweet I went for chocolate cupcakes topped with chocolate spread (seeing as its sunday evening and I still have a few items to list on ebay I didn't have the patience to make a proper frosting too!) I've already tried one and they're yummy, but i'm still waiting for everyone else to sample them with a cup of tea later!

Nails of the day...Cupcakes

Rain and cold weather here means I've been stuck indoors most of the day, though I did manage to get a few parsnip seeds sown earlier. So as there are only so many repeats of 'Come Dine With Me' that you can sit through, I decided to have another go at nail art and this time went for a cupcake theme, the results are below!

It took 3 coats of the base (17 Lasting Fix in shade 'Fairy Cakes') to get an opaque colour and it was still a bit patchy then but overall I think they look ok!

TGI Friday

Haven't slept well all week so I'm trying to get some chores done this afternoon so tomorrow can be a duvet and good book day...

And just on a side note of cute animals here are a few more... : D

Nails of the day...très beau!

Today I made my first proper attempt at nail art, and all in all I don't think it was too unsuccessful!
For the base I used a Barry M nail varnish in shade 'Berry', a pretty lilac colour that reminds me of spring time, (which you could easily forget is meant to be nearly here with the high winds and snow flurries we're having today!) For the bow I used a No7 nail colour in 'vivid violet' and placed a little nail gem in the center.

They are still a little messy in the picture as I wanted to take a picture before I had chance to smudge them so didn't remove the excess polish from the edges until after! But overall I'm quite pleased with them : )

A few new purchases...

Retail therapy was calling this week, and with free train tickets I had no excuse not to take a trip out for a few hours of shopping. Unfortunately it was a whistle-stop tour of the shops as I had to get back in time for work in the afternoon, and I only bought two things from Primark and picked up my online order from Next, but I did have a great lunch with my mum at Cafe Rouge, (although a forty minute wait for our order meant we missed out on calling on a few more shops on our way back to the station :( ! ) Anyway here are my two tiny purchases from Primark:

These slippers were just £1 on sale from £3.50 and I love the cute little butterfly buttons on them!

I couldn't resist the gorgeous print on this tea towel and at only £1.20 my mind was made up in an instant! Having got it home I'm now hoping to pick up a couple more as I think it would make a lovely cushion with a few sequin embellishments or an apron with a co-ordinating blue ribbon.

I also picked up a new dress on a quick visit to town yesterday too. I'd been looking for a cosy dress for ages and I found just what I was looking for in Dorothy Perkins, and best of all it was on sale for £12 and I had a £10 gift voucher from the McCain website for just playing a few games!

Before all the rain arrived I also had time to get out in the garden this week and have now sown some early pea, early carrot, sweet pea and spring onion seeds to join my beefsteak tomatoes, pansies and the chilis i'm plantsitting! I've also potted up two lovely climbing roses that i'm hoping to grow on my balcony and have a couple more to plant out in the garden when the rain goes away. I just need to find time to sow some parsnip and cherry tomato seeds now and then I can relax until April!