#BEDM 18: #100HappyDays 61-67

Sunday 18 May 2014

It's that time again y'all! The time of week where I share my #100HappyDays photos...


Day 61: I got Tim and my brother to put up my newly arrived dressing table, which I promise you will get a shot of soon!


Day 62: I was enjoying some Assassin's Creed Black Flag, this game is seriously awesome, and the Xbox One graphics are simply beautiful, my iPhone doesn't do it justice...


Day 63: I tried a new flavour of cider, Cloudberry. Do cloudberries even exist?


Day 64: I had been craving a scone for a long time, and I found these Cherry ones on offer in Tesco, I simply couldn't resist...


Day 65: Trying yet another new cider that was on offer in Tesco! This one is one of my new favourites...


Day 66: Tim and I revisited the place that first met about a year ago... How time flies...


Day 67: I made my first roast, pork belly, and it was seriously tasty! It wasn't perfect, but it was 100% cooked by me, and I was pretty proud!

Let me know in the comments what you've been getting up to this week!

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#BEDM 17: Favourite Decade

Sunday 18 May 2014

Having only been alive through two decades, it's pretty hard for me to decide what my favourite is... Yeah I could got through the entirety of history and pick a favourite, but how can I honestly say it's my favourite if I haven't lived it... Instead I have decided to split this question into sections, and pick decades that I wish I could have lived in....

Style

For this category it has to be the 1950's! Big puffy dresses in bright colours and patterns, and curly hair. It's literally how I wish I could dress now...

Music


Call me tasteless... but my favourite decade for music was the 90's! I was born in the 90's and grooved along to some of THE BEST cheesey pop when I was a child.. To this day whenever I hear the word 90's party I am totally there...

Film


This one spans from the 50's to the 70's... I would literally give my left arm to have been around during the rise of the Hammer horror movies! To have been in Hollywood when Vincent Price was at his height! I would have died...

So there you have it folks, there is a little insight into some of the decades that I enjoy! Let me know in the comments what your favourite is!


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#BEDM 16: Schwartz Flavour Shots: Spanish Paella

Friday 16 May 2014


Ever since I first tried the Flavour shots I have wanted to write about them, they are too good not to share, and I know that after reading this you will all rush out to grab some! 

The best thing about these flavour shots, is they all come with their own recipe inside! For this recipe you will need...


  • 1 Schwartz Spanish Paella Flavour Shot
  • 1 Onion, diced
  • 100g Chorizo, sliced or diced
  • 450g Chicken breast diced
  • 325g Paella or rissotto rice
  • 1 Litre of Water
  • 1 Red Pepper, diced (Tim and I prefer sweet peppers)
  • 100g Frozen peas


Firstly you have to stir the flavour shot and then spoon into the frying pan over a medium heat. The mix of spices already contains oil, so you don't need to add any.


Next you have to fry the onion and chorizo in the frying pan until they have been softened and brown lightly.


Then you need to add the chicken and fry it for 2-3 minutes, or until it's browned on all sides.


Then add the risotto rice and fry for a further minute, until it is covered in the spices, and is mixed thoroughly with the chicken, chorizo and onion.


Add the pepper and peas to the pan, stirring thoroughly to mix them. Once done, add the water to the pan and then bring to the boil whilst stirring regularly. Once boiling, turn down the heat, and then simmer for 20-25 minutes.


Once completed the paella should look something like this. You can serve it with a nice salad, or you can just serve it as is, which is what I tend to do, as it is so filling...

Let me know in the comments if you have enjoyed today's post, and whether you would like to see recipe posts in the future!
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#BEDM 15: Blog Chat

Thursday 15 May 2014

I'm here today to have a chat about my blogging experiences! I have only been writing this blog for a year and a bit now, so I wouldn't say I am yet a seasoned blogger just yet. However I have had my fair share of awesome blogging experiences, and I thought I would share them with you.


First off, back in the day when I wrote my Nail blog, I met the wonderful, Kerrie of Pish, Posh, and Polish, and we became fast friends! We met up a good few times since our first meeting, and we talk fairly often. One of the best experiences I have shared with Kerrie, is a Benefit Makeover, which I of course wrote about here.

Secondly, I got to go to an Amazing halloween party that was organised by my Favourite blogger, Becky Bedbug! I was actually luck enough to meet Becky before the party, and we went for a cheeky dinner, however I was lucky enough to meet SO MANY amazing girls for the Halloween Party... you can read my post on it here. However I also made a vlog for the party, which you can view below.


My favourite blogging experiences, are the ones that I have shared with other bloggers, and I hope to meet more of you in the future!

Let me know in the comments, what your favourite blogging experiences have been!
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#BEDM 14: Home Sweet Home

Thursday 15 May 2014

As you may or may not know, in March of this year I moved in with my boyfriend, Tim. He had been wanting to move out of his parents house for a while, and I had been desperately needing to get out of my house, due to tension between me and my family. So it seemed like the perfect time for us both to gain our independence, but also to take our relationship to the next level... Now I know you are all dying to see where I live... so here it is...


This is the outside of our building, we have a ground floor, 2 bedroom flat, which we are currently renting. We didn't want to jump straight in and buy a place together, because we wanted to make sure that we could actually live together, so renting seemed like the ideal thing.

I would love to show you the inside of our place, but it's just not up to pictures right now... We still have boxes and old furniture to get rid of, and truth be told it's in a little bit of a state right now. Trust me as soon as it is photo ready, there will be a flat tour!

All in all, it's going really well. I've never lived with a boyfriend before, and me and Tim just get on really well. We are always really happy to see each other when we get home from work, and always give each other a big hug. We take it in turns to cook each night, and we each have our own chores to do! We spend our evenings sat side by side, doing our own thing, watching TV together... It's honestly perfect. I don't think we've ever had a proper argument, and if we do have a bit of a go at each other we are quick to apologies and kiss and make up!

If you'd said to me a year ago, that I would be living with my boyfriend, and looking forward to a long future together, I would have laughed in your face. Now I am actually doing it, I cannot believe it, I am so happy.

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#BEDM 13: Fashion, Beauty and Grooming...

Tuesday 13 May 2014

I'm not massively into fashion... I mean I love buying myself new clothes, what girl doesn't, but I don't tend to follow any trends, and I normally chose comfort over style!

That being said, I do enjoy reading fashion blogs, and seeing all my blogger friends put outfits together, and it does make me a tad jealous... I think one of my goals for next year might be to become a little more style concious. I have a style in mind that I would like to follow, I just need to get going on it!

Despite not thinking I'm that stylish, I actually did write an outfit post on this blog... Once upon a time... You can see that here.

As for Beauty, I am much more interested in that! In fact I am thinking of becoming a Makeup artist for film and TV, and have looked up a number of courses that I would love to enrol in, maybe in the near future!

It may surprise a lot of you, to find out that before I started writing this blog, I actually wrote a blog dedicated to nail polish, and nail art, called Rose Tint My Nails. Around the time I started my nail blog, I was becoming seriously obsessed with Nail polish (and still am). From simply reading nail blogs my polish collection grew from 20, to 120... It's still growing now... Unfortunately after starting my lifestyle blog, I simply couldn't keep up with both of them, and my nail blog was axed. There are still some pretty good posts on their that I am fairly proud of so you should definitely go and check them out! I don't paint my nails as often as I used to, and I really want to get back into it. I'm thinking of starting a feature on this blog where I paint my nails at least once a month, would you like to see that?

As for personal beauty, on a day to day basis, I don't tend to wear a lot of makeup, however whenever I get the chance I will sit down an experiment with my giant collection of Eyeshadow palettes... I own so many I think I literally have an addiction... I even talked about it on my Youtube channel...



Ever since watching Youtube Makeup Guru's such as Panacea81, I have been obsessed with eyeshadow looks. I'm not brave enough to wear crazy eyeshadow looks out, but it certainly makes me want to experiment...

I have written a post on a makeup look that I created using one of the palettes featured in the above video, and you can check that out here.

So there you have it, there is a little insight into my relationship with Fashion and Beauty. Please let me know in the comments if you would like to see more fashion and beauty posts from me!
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#BEDM 12: A-Z of Me: C is for Cooking...

Monday 12 May 2014

One of my biggest annoyances of living at home after University, besides never having any time to myself... was that I didn't get to control what I ate. I'd come home from work, and 9/10 times mum would have something already prepared, and usually it was something that I didn't like...

Since moving in with Tim, I have been in FULL control of what I eat, and have been enjoying some lovely home cooked meals. Another great thing about living with Tim is we actually take it in turns to cook... so every other night I can put my feet up and watch the TV whilst he prepares my dinner.

Here are some of the things we have eaten since moving in together.


Stuffed Mushrooms and a jacket potato, both with cheese and bacon on them!


Creamy Tagliatelle made using a Schwartz flavour pot, which are becoming some of my essential cooking ingredients!


Homemade pepperoni pizza, with curly fries and mayonnaise. Probably not our most healthy meal, but certainly one of the tastiest!


Cottage Pie with salad. This I actually managed to severely burn my mouth on... although it was still tasty!


Grilled mini pizza muffins. I made these for myself one lunchtime, I realised we had all the ingredients, so I just decided to wing it!


Chicken and Chorizo Paella. Yet another Schwartz flavour shot recipe, I was seriously impressed with how well it turned out, so much so that I am making it again this week!


Steak with Red wine, mushroom and bacon sauce, with onion rings, chips and peas. This one was actually made by Tim for our anniversary dinner, and I couldn't believe how much effort he had put in!


Spaghetti Meatballs. Another meal that Tim made for me, but the standout of this dish, was Tim's home made cheesy garlic bread. In fact it is so good that we have eaten in numerous times since then!

So there you have it, there is a little insight into what I have been chowing down on since becoming a domesticated woman! I'm seriously lucky to be able to eat such good food every night, and there is still plenty more to come. 

Let me know if you think I should start writing recipe posts, because I am seriously toying with the idea!

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#BEDM 11: Weekend Wishlist...

Sunday 11 May 2014

It seems to me as though it has been forever since I last did a wishlist post... So I thought it was about time I got back into it.What my wardrobe is really crying out for at the moment is some summer dresses. Most of the ones I own are heavy, which isn't ideal for the sunny weather that is hopefully coming soon, so I hopped on over to the Newlook website and had a nosey through their sale...

1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9

I love every single one of these dresses, I am absolutely gutted that I haven't got enough money to buy all of these, but I can certainly see a few of these slipping their way into my wardrobe!

Are you looking forward to the summer?

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#BEDM 10: #100HappyDays 55-60

Saturday 10 May 2014

I have been seriously slacking on my #100happydays photos, but I simply don't find anything interesting enough happening in my life for me to post every single day, but I post when I can, and I promise I will be better!


Day 55: Tim and I went a little bit crazy in the Hotel Chocolat sale... I even wrote about it here.


Day 56: My favourite sweets ever are these from Lidl... We actually ran out a few weeks ago and everytime I look at our empty sweet bowl it makes me sad...



Day 57: This cute little Easter bunny mum got me had a lovely bow on it, and it was blue! It was almost a shame to eat it...


Day 58: My favourite yogurts were on offer meaning they made their way back into my lunch box. They are always a nice little 'pick me up' at work.


Day 59: Tim allowed me to use some of our GAME credit to buy a couple of Xbox arcade games! Haven't had a chance to sit down and play them yet... but I will!


Day 60: We bought these beautiful flowers in Morrisons to cheer me up when I was feeling a bit run down, and they certainly look lovely in our kitchen!

So there you have it, I can't believe I'm over half way through this challenge! 60 down, 40 to go, it's totally unreal.. I hope you've been enjoying it as much as I have though!
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#BEDM 9: Motivation

Saturday 10 May 2014


I am by nature a creature of procrastination, my motto tends to be, 'Why do today, what you can leave until tomorrow?'. This was a pretty big theme during my time at uni, with me often leaving work to the last minute, and writing essays in a matter of hours, and just turning them in... By some stroke of luck I actually managed to still get a 2.1 with this terrible attitude, but it often makes me wonder, What if?

What if, I had actually spent time on my work, and produced some quality essays, I could have easily walked out of there with a first degree! To be honest, for me, it was probably a lot down to the fact that I struggled emotionally and physically at university. First year a lot of that was down to homesickness, and relationship stress. Second year I was quite ill for the majority of the year, but I was a lot better emotionally, due to having great friends. Third year, was a mixture of being heavily depressed and not being well a lot of the time, which made everything just that little bit harder.

However since leaving Uni, I don't really know what my excuse has been. Nowadays it's less about leaving essays until the last minute, and more about leaving housework until the last minute, and a lot of sitting on my bottom and surfing the internet instead of doing anything productive..

So from now on, I'm going to try and live by the above quote.. 'I'm gonna make the rest of my life, the best of my life'. From now on, I'm going to do my housework ON TIME, and start planning to use my time a little more productively, including writing blog posts and making Youtube videos!

So watch this space, some great content (hopefully) will be coming your way from now on!
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#BEDM 8: That Time I Saw McBusted...

Friday 9 May 2014


As soon as I heard that Mcfly and Busted were forming a Super group, I have to admit, I fan-girled pretty hard... When I was around 9/10/11ish, Busted were at the top of their game, and I was one of their biggest fans. The thing that really pained me when I was a child was that I never got to see them in concert. I used to watch Saturday morning TV EVERY WEEK, without fail, as they were always giving away tickets to Busted gigs, and I always called up, but never won. I'm not entirely sure why my mum never took me, but it just didn't happen. So imagine my excitement when I heard that they were going to come back in concert! I didn't even hesitate to buy tickets as soon as they were on sale, and all I had to do then, was wait.

On Wednesday that time finally arrived! Although we had standing tickets we had decided ages ago that we weren't going to go up early and wait, mainly because non of us could face the thought of sitting outside in the cold all day again. So we headed to Cardiff around 1pm, and got there for about 3:30pm. With plenty of time to spare, we had a mooch around the St. David's Shopping Centre, which is where I always park when we go to the Motorpoint Arena. We even had time to have a spot of dinner. We couldn't really make our minds up about what we wanted to eat, and so decided just to go to T.G.I Fridays.


Whenever I go to T.G.I Friday's I try a new cocktail. This time I opted for the bubblegum daiquiri, which came with a popping candy rim. This was much more like an alcohol slushie than a cocktail, but was yummy all the same. 


For my main I went for a French Dip burger with Sweet potato fries. The burger came with caramelised onions, swiss cheese, and a really meaty sauce. I was disappointed to find that the onions weren't caramelised, but were actually just fried, so I had to pick them out, other than that it was delicious!


Although I was absolutely stuffed, I couldn't help but have a brownie and popcorn sundae! To be honest I totally struggled to eat it all, but it was worth it!

After eating it was time to go over to the arena before the doors opened. My first stop was over to the Merch stand. I had heard from a friend that they were selling something called an 'OMFG Tin' with chances to win tickets into the OMFG Zone right in front of the stage. As soon as we saw this, me and my sister knew we were going to buy one! Not to mention you get some pretty cool stuff in the tins...


So this is what the tin looks like! I totally forgot to take a picture of the other side, but it's got pictures of all the boys on the other side, and it looks pretty damn cool in general... as does the stuff inside...


These guitar picks with the boys individual autographs on are pretty sweet too! Although I have promised these to Tim, I'm not sure I'll be able to part with them...


As well as the picks, there was a set of drumsticks with Harry's autograph printed on them. I'm not entirely sure what I am going to do with these, but they look pretty good right?


The final thing in the tin is this lovely poster of all the boys. I think the thing I love most about them, is that they are all just friends, and it really shows in this poster, and also in their performance.

All of that set me back a cool £20, but I lied... that wasn't the only thing I got in my tin... As soon as I got it, I opened it and I saw something colourful in the top of the tin...


I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that I had won OMFG Zone Tickets! I actually think my heart stopped beating for a moment... Of course I ran out to my sister and showed her, and let's just say there was a lot of jumping up and down and screaming. Unfortunately us winning these tickets did mean that Tim was on his own for the entire concert, but he was insistent that he didn't mind! To be honest the whole thing felt like a dream, mainly because me and my sister never win anything...


This was our original view, before we went and got our OMFG tin, not too far back to be honest, we were quite lucky...


This was our view from inside the OMFG Zone... we were second row. A lot of the people who were in front of us were the people who had actually paid full price for the OMFG Zone tickets... £150 they were... I didn't envy them...


This is me and my sister looking pretty smug about winning our tickets... I literally was SO EXCITED!

I wasn't disappointed, the concert was amazing, we saw everything perfectly clearly, and it certainly made up for my childhood dream of seeing Busted not being fulfilled until now... They played all the greatest hits from both Busted and Mcfly, all of my favourites, and I sang along to every single one!

I took about a million pictures and I don't really want to put them all up and bore you, but I picked a few of my favourites and made a nice collage so enjoy! Let me know in the comments if you like Mcfly or Busted, and what your favourite song is, I love reading your comments.




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