Carrot cake muffins

I've only made these once before, and in all honesty, Sally did most of the work, but overall I think they turned out pretty well. I used a standard carrot cake muffin recipe from a great little book called "1 mix, 50 muffins" and topped it with cream cheese frosting and a piece of walnut.

1 mix, 50 muffins available from Amazon here.

Photo taken and edited by me, using Photobucket.

Sorry that this is the first post in well over a week, and it's incredibly short. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to post the recipe, or if anyone would even be interested! But me and Hannah are both now on study leave, so we should be able to post more often over the next few months, before we are thrown into A Levels and will have no time whatsoever!

I hope this lasts

What I'm wearing:
Trilby hat - €10 - Disneyland Paris
Boyfriend's T-Shirt - H&M
Shorts - £22 - Next
Bracelets - Here, there and everywhere


Yesterday was the start of a heatwave that will hopefully last long enough for me to wear at least some of my summery clothes - such as the red checked shorts pictured.
I bought the trilby hat two years ago on a school trip to Disneyland Paris, I've worn it during every burst of hot weather since and it's been on just about everybody's head at some point or another. The annoying thing about people trying on my hat is that they pluck it from my head and then laugh at my hat hair. I wear the hat because I am having a bad hair day and cannot be bothered to sort it out!


The title refers to the weather, just incase you were wondering. 
Although I have vampire-like skin and burn like Hell, I love hot weather and lounging in the sun - even if I have to reapply SPF40 every ten minutes!

Inadvertent following of the sugar skull trend

What I'm wearing:

• Skull vest - £8 - New Look
• Cardigan - £30 - Dorothy Perkins
• Bag - £38 - Cath Kidston
• Tights - £1 - Primark
• Shorts - £30 - Soul Cal at Republic

I bought this top literally months ago with a New Look gift card I received as a Christmas present, and never realised that the pictures actually make up the image of a skull! This is especially relevant as Hannah (of Doubleyou fame) has recently written a post about the skull and ribcage trend which you can read here.

I only realised the top resembles a skull when I looked in my mum's full-length mirror and now I feel completely blind for not noticing it earlier! 

I'll admit that it's a rare flash of pink in my wardrobe. Being a ginger, pink doesn't suit my colouring whatsoever and therefore I barely ever wear it, even that vest has a white background to balance out the pink. It's not that I dislike pink as a colour, because I don't, it just doesn't suit me and therefore when I'm clothes shopping I simply tend to overlook pink items in favour of blue, green or black - my favourite colours to wear.

I wore the outfit to go to Pizza Hut with Alex, celebrating 9 months together.

We ordered from the Happy Hour menu - which is really good value! I got an 11" thin pepperoni pizza, unlimited 7UP, unlimited trips to the salad bar and two pieces of garlic bread - all for just £6! Bargain.

Embracing the freedom

Yesterday was the first official day of study leave (I don't count the weekend as study leave, I always get those off) and so me and Hannah (of Doubleyou fame) went in to town, not for any particular reason, just to embrace the freedom.
This is why I enjoy posting my looks on here as well as Lookbook, I can tell you a little bit more about them. I know there's a box on Lookbook for that stuff, but I always feel that box is more for a comment or tagline, rather than the life story that seems to be included with these blog posts.
I was 'good' in town, meaning that I didn't buy any new clothes which I'm sure my mum is thrilled about. I did however, buy:


This is Music by The Verve



Florence + The Machine 'Ceremonials' Maxi Poster



Company Magazine



Owl Earrings (so cute!) 


Not the most extravagant of purchases, but purchases non the less.


As I said on Lookbook, I must apologise for the wet patch on my jumper (isn't it a cute jumper though?) I spilt yoghurt down myself and had to wipe it off - I'd completely forgotten about it until I put the pictures on my computer!

Skeleton/Sugar Skull Trend

I have to say that this is one of my favourite things that has been 'in trend' for a while, it's amazing! Okay so, maybe it's not for everyone (I can't imagine my grandma or little cousin sporting a rib cage t - shirt), but I'm definitely on board!

Here are some highstreet pieces that conform!

Number 1; This isn't necessarily 'clothing' but it's from Topshop and probably the coolest thing I've ever seen! It's a skeleton belly bar at £8.50! Silver, 6.5cm, kinda makes me want mine pierced! So cool! 

Number 2; New Look, £7.99, comes in yellow and pink aswell, a sugar skull t - shirt, I think this is cool for the price it is and you could tuck it in to some shorts or a skirt or wear it with jeans, versatile is the wor

Number 3; Skeleton Open Shoulder Tee, Topshop, just £14.00, and very tempting, I really think this will be in my wardrobe as soon as I can fund it, I love it!


















Number 4; Black Skull Embellished Tank  Top from River Island, £20.00, but really pretty, I think it's lovely!




Number 5;  Rib Cage Floral Tunic, Topshop, £20.00, a little more girly than the others! It's open back and quite long, I think it's lovely!

Number 6; look at it! Moto Premium Skull Jacket, Topshop, £180.00 admittedly, but oh my goodness, this is so amazing, I'll never be able to afford it, but I'm going to have a good go at making something similar! I wish I could have it, boo!


















Number 7; Skull Cross Drops these are so nice, I'm going to get my ears pierced just so I can have them, they come in turquoise too, from Topshop, at £6.50, and the skull is semi precious stone I believe!

























Number 8; Rib Cage Vest from H&M, £7.99, comes in black, white and purple, something I definitely want!


Number 9; This skull ring is from Boohoo.com, and is £5.00, I think it's a really nice colour and is a more subtle option!



Number 10; Skeleton tights! I've always wanted some, and since they are considered a 'party costume' you can get them for really cheap prices! For example, from play.com for £3!






Number 11; There's so much cute bone jewellery at Topshop! For example, these Bone Ear Tunnels and Mini Bones Ring for £7.50 each and Bones Necklace for £25.00!



I hope you liked these, cos I think they're amazing! I think this is my first blogpost that may be relatively useful! Congratulations to me!

Curious Goods

In our local town, there's a shop filled with curious goods, ironically named - Curious Goods.

We think it is an unappreciated and underrated shop.

So here we are, trying to advertise it to you six followers, we can make a difference!

Here are some weird little things available, that are cheap enough to buy whether you need/want them or not.

 

Number 1 - a bottle of £1.75 fairy dust, who knows, it might even work.

Number 2 - The Lucky Cat £6.99 - The Maneki Neko (招き猫^?, literally "Beckoning Cat"; also known as Welcoming Cat, Lucky Cat, Money cat, or Fortune Cat) is a common Japanese sculpture, often made of ceramic, which is believed to bring good luck to the owner.

Number 3 - Incense Sticks - 15 for £2! Can't go wrong.

Number 4 - a bottle of Dragon's Blood, £6.99, just to say you have some, I'm sure it's in some way useful too!

Number 5 - Book Of Shadows - £9.99 - 'this is a lovely book for recording magical spells, recipes, dreams, observations, lessons etc and will become a wonderful book of knowlede over time'.

Number 6 - Cast iron cauldron - £15 - Perfect for brewing potions, herbal remedies or tea.

Number 7 - Green Man Goblet - £7 - I'd love to have my orange juice out of that in the morning! (No bits though - urgh)

Number 8 - Astrology for Beginners book - £7 - Good place to start.

Number 9 - Lightning Stone - £4 - Made from actual lightning when it strikes stone - rare, apparently.

Number 10 - Massive Dream Catcher - £12 - Keep bad dreams away!

Why would you not want this stuff?! Pointless - maybe, amazing - definitely! We just think it's awesome! Another useful and practical blogpost, what would you do without us?

Today is the first day of the rest of your life

Yesterday was the day that I have been waiting excitedly for since September last year, because as of yesterday, I am on study leave. It doesn't make an awful lot of sense to me, why everyone's making a huge fuss of us leaving when we still have to go in for our exams - I will not consider myself to be fully finished at the school until October when I go to collect my art coursework, because then I will never be obliged to enter that building again. 
I don't like school, I never really have, and I think this surprises some people because I'm such a nerd - I always do my homework and wear my uniform and have never even had a detention, but I still don't like school. I don't like waking up at 6:30am, I don't like being forced to learn things that will be forgotten after the exam, I don't like my 100% polyester blazer (stylish) and I don't like how people that have been in my class for four years still don't know my name. 
Oh dear - that all went a bit grim there, didn't it? 
Me and my friends decided to celebrate study leave with a good old fashioned revision session; just kidding. Amy threw a house party, and after a frequently interrupted four hour "sleep" in my clothes, it's needless to say that I am not looking all too dapper this afternoon. 
I have also decided that I need to download some of The Verve, after listening to someone playing one of their CDs last night - I liked what I heard. Actually, the entire soundtrack to the night was pretty top notch; my iPod seriously needs updating.

ARK Clothing

Whilst browsing the internet this afternoon not doing my Business Studies revision, I was on the look out for a galaxy print skirt and came across a brilliant clothing store called Ark. 
You've probably heard of Ark before, and now I just look a tit because everyone else has been shopping there for about five years, but I found some genuinely great items there today! So here they are:


 £24.99


 £34.99


 £44.99


 £19.99


 £22.99


And ofcourse the very galaxy-print skirt that led me to the site in the first place...


 £14.99


The prices vary a bit because the store stocks various brands - but overall I don't think the pricing is too bad at all!
Sorry we've been a little quiet on the blogging front this week, the A-Z Challenge took it out of me!
But WE GO ON STUDY LEAVE TOMORROW so hopefully between now and September we can blog significantly more!

Skirt inspired by parrot tail

Hey there!

Just a cheeky post because I've got twenty minutes until dinner and my teacher has gone to a meeting so I have the entire Textiles room to myself!
For our exam, we will have to design a textiles product based on the rainforest. I know, who thought that the rainforest would be a good idea for a Textiles exam? But surprisingly, it's working out quite nicely. Today I designed a skirt based on a parrot tail. Incase you can't tell from my bad drawing, it's supposed to be one of those skirts with a tail - you know the ones I mean? All the cool people on Lookbook have one.

I apologise for my scribbles about fabric qualities and batch production, but that's all things that I will have to write about in my exam if I'm going to get a decent grade, which even though I'm not doing Textiles next year, I really want an A so I have to know about that stuff. Admittedly, I asked my teacher for the majority of the answers - I just need to memorise it all when it comes to my exam!

I am aware that it is hardly the most fashionable skirt in the world, that is largely down to the fact than I am not the most fashionable person in the world - but I also had to have lots of components and fabrics and modern materials, so although it's probably not to anyone's taste, hopefully it will get me the marks I want, and that's all that really matters.

I just wanted to share my work with you for some odd reason, I don't really know why, but I hoped you liked it or atleast didn't throw up into a waste paper bin. Nasty.

Life in the Art Room

During an Art exam, I get distracted. I try not to be, I promise myself that I'll be a perfectionist and carry on with my work until the very last second. But that doesn't work, it never does.

I don't even realise that I'm distracted, I'll reach across my table for a sand coloured oil pastel and the flick of a paintbrush will catch my attention. I just sit there, watching the paper slowly come to life, the shadows deepening, the highlights brightening. I look at the painting and wonder which of the exam questions they've chosen, why they've chosen it, how many pages they've done in their sketchbooks...

My questioning gets rudely interrupted, sooner or later... the scrape of a chair, a teacher walking across the room, a pencil being dropped on the floor. It brings me back to the real world, the one where my work hasn't been improved on for the past five minutes because I've been too engrossed in someone else's work.

My mind jerks back to the task in hand, that too big piece of A1 paper... why did I decide to work on that scale, again?