Tuesday 31 January 2012

Victoria Beckham - Harvey Nics

Victoria Beckham has just launched her new fashion line at Harvey Nichols called wait for it.... "Victoria" hmmm. I wonder how long it took them to think of the name probably all of one minute.
Don't get me wrong I really like Victoria Beckham but I can't help feeling disheartened at this line. Especially as she is known for being a stylish fashionista i expected this to be apparent in her own designs.

Here are the dresses....


The idea behind this line was to create some simple shift dresses that are a bit more fun.
Unfortunately, the dresses don't really appeal to me, the colour (or lack of) seems a bit unimaginative and the styles don't even look very flattering on the mannequins. For £395 I would be expecting alot more that's for sure!
I have just scoured her full range of dresses and that's 5 minutes of my life i'll never get back. I wanted to find one dress that I liked, just one!

Most of them are very plain and the ones with a bit more design to them look like pyjamas.

Spinster Cat Lady-Esque

One For Your Gran?


Woooo Sleepover-chic!




Success a dress I like


Monday 30 January 2012

(Squeals) Glossy Box is Here!

My first ever Glossy Box has arrived today, will to do a proper write up tomorrow when i've had the chance to test all the products but here's a sneaky peek... so pretty!



What I've Been Making Today

Today I have been working on some new little girls headbands in pink and black using using cotton and lace fabric with polka dot prints.

Here are some pics, as always would love to know what you think?







Make Chocolate Eclairs With Me

One of my favourite bakery treats is a chocolate eclair, it has everything you need from a cake.
If you haven't yet attempted to make your own chocolate eclairs it's really not as difficult as you might think you don't even need a fancy tray. This is the recipe I have always used. You can also use this recipe to make profiteroles on grease proof paper instead.

I have just discovered that tesco do their own version of high cocoa choc perfect for cooking. They also do an 85% one and their just 99p for 100g. 



Here's how mine turned out, can I tempt you?




 The Recipe 

Ingredients you will need:

For the choux pastry
  • 125ml Water
  • 50g Butter
  • 60g Plain flour
  • Eggs, beaten
For the filling
  • 300ml Double cream
  • 3drops Vanilla extract
  • 2tsp Caster sugar
For the icing
  • 50g Dark chocolate, chopped
  • 1 tsp Butter
  • 2 tbsp Water
  • 85g Icing Sugar

1. For the choux pastry, pour the water into a medium saucepan and add the butter. Place the pan over a medium heat, and as soon as the butter melts, turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Shoot in all the flour in one go and take the pan off the heat.

2. Stir briskly until the flour has blended in with the liquid and the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and makes a soft ball. It's best not to overbeat at this stage otherwise you'll end up with heavy pastry. Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6.

3. Leave the mixture to cool slightly, and when it's warm to the touch, start beating in the eggs, a tablespoon at a time. Beat well between each addition - the more air you can incorporate, the lighter the pastry. It's a good idea to use an electric mixer. When you've added both eggs, the pastry should take on a glossy sheen and have a soft, almost dropping consistency.

4. Spoon the paste into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain nozzle and pipe finger lengths, about 5cm long onto a lightly oiled and floured baking tray. Leave about 3cm space between each eclair, as they need space to puff up in the oven. Just before baking, sprinkle over a few drops of cold water (this helps ensure a good rise in the oven).

5. Bake the eclairs for about 20 minutes before turning down the heat to 190C/gas 5 for another 10 minutes. They should be golden brown and well-risen. Remove from the oven and pierce each éclair with a trussing needle or the point of a sharp knife, so that the steam can escape without making the pastry soggy. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

6. Whip the cream with the vanilla and sugar, and spoon into a clean piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle. Widen the hole made by the trussing needle and insert the piping nozzle. Pipe the cream into the éclairs and place in the fridge to firm up while you make the icing.

7. Tip the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and add the butter and water. Place over a saucepan of simmering water and stir until melted. Add the sieved icing sugar, a little at a time. With a palette knife, smooth the icing over the top of each éclair and leave on one side until set.

8. If you don't fancy piping the choux pastry, you can spoon rough heaps onto a baking sheet instead and make profiteroles instead.


Sunday 29 January 2012

Sunday Shenanigans

Batiste dry shampoo was made for Sunday's as was Ikea shopping trips and this is what I did today. No other place makes me feel more like part of a herd than following the people that are following the other people that are following the little arrows all the way around.
I needed to buy a desk to attach on to my Ikea Expedit which are AMAZING for storage if you haven't already seen them here's mine looking very foreign to me beause it's tidy and things have been put back where they should be for once! 

Funny moment of the day I was sorting out my new acrylic word charms and my 2 yr old was looking at one and I said what does that say Lilly expecting her to say I don't know or make something random up and instead she suprised me with "it says blah blah blah blah blah" lovely! lol.

One thing I do LOVE about Ikea though is their chocolate especially the milk choc hazelnut and at 50p for 100g would be rude not to stock up.
Also came across these gorgeous little heart shaped biscuits an absolute must for the day of saint valentine coming up! I wish I'd bought more of these biscuits they are so delishgamabob dunked in a nice cup of tea!

Ikea Choccie Heart Biscuits, Ikea - 80p
Errrm, the middle chocolate bar might look a little flatter than the other two because it didn't quite survive the journey home, the mug says it all... little piggy!

Ikea 100g Chococlate Bars, Ikea - 50p

GIVEAWAY - Your Very Own Personalised Acrylic Necklace

So you've seen the designs, now do YOU want to know how to win YOUR very own personalised acrylic necklace in my amazing giveaway?

Name necklaces available in baby pink, hot pink, black or white.



Simple, all you have to do is the following 3 steps ......

1) Show some love and follow this blog if you haven't already.
2) Blog about this giveaway or share it via facebook or twitter. Comment with a link to your shout out and you will be entered.
3) Sit back relax and rub a buddah's belly for good luck.  The winning entry will be picked at random on 6/2/2012

If you prefer any of the other designs for example blogger or, tweet etc you are welcome to select this as your giveaway necklace instead of the name.

 
 


I post internationally so anyone can enter.

Giveaway date will be 6/2/2012 so you have until then, go go gadget!

Saturday 28 January 2012

Introducing My New Acrylic Necklace Range :) :) :)

Ok so it's 5 minutes until the clock strikes midnight which just shows how hard I have worked today! I have worked my little bootie off!
It has been a looooong day starting from 8 this morning but I am totally excited, over the moon and proud as punch to introduce to my lovely blog readers my new acrylic necklace range.

I put a lot of careful thought and consideration into these in terms of design and how i wanted them to look, blood sweat and tears! Ok well maybe it wasn't that bad and actually alot of fun, but you get the general idea!

Massive huge universe sized thank you to Mr Lilly Belle who i swear can do absolutely anything with technology and i'm secretly convinced he might even be a robot, he speaks computer that well!

Would absolutely LOVE to know what you guys think so feel free to drop me a comment and tell me your favs. Going to be doing a competiton soon where one lucky reader will be able to win their very own personalised name necklace or chose another design from this collection.

For now these are available to buy from my ebay shop below. 
They will also be available to buy from my official website tomorrow especially for people without an ebay account.
  stores.ebay.co.uk/Lilly-Belle-Accessories

Sorry picture quality isn't great uploaded the resized images so I might have a chance of going to bed before I fall asleep at my computjgnojfd.......... zzzzzzzzzz 
















Friday 27 January 2012

Picture Friday - Snow is coming!

I'm so excited we've finally had reports that snow might very well be coming to the UK sooner than we thought... I was starting to give up hope all together!

Picture Friday this week will be a mixture of my favourite images I have collected during the week.


Beautiful rockability/Minnie mouse style shoes in polka dot print, SO CUTE!

 Oh do you?! .... interesting! ;)

Perfect for valentines day coming up soon, mini heart envelope picture tutorial <3


I love everything about this image from the crisp white sheets to the finely quaffed hair and the delicate silk cami top. You can almost smell the roses yourself, breathlessly romantic! Hands up who wants to be her?



 Sneak Peek of my new personalised necklace range coming very soon. This one I made up as an example and as a little present to me from me, happy present day to meeee!


If I could be blogging from anywhere in the world right now it would be this secret den hideaway bed in this ceiling, amazing!





 

Tannage and the gunk i use :)

So it's Friday which can only mean one thing.. picture Friday :D 
The sun is shining and I've just done my tan which reminded me I need to blog about the tan I use because it is amazeballs!

The trick is with tan to try not to look like you've just dived from a 10 metre diving board into a giant bag of wotsits not a good look. Now you may very well have friends that look like this but that should even more make you want to aspire to be something other than a wotsit. 
Trust me I know I too managed to break through my inner wotsit and opt for a better shade so here goes.

Drum roll........TA DAAAAA!

 Xen Tan Dark Lotion - Around £20 shop around ebay often does it cheaper
Xen Tan Scrub - £10

Most of you will definitely have heard of Xen Tan but incase you have seen it and never tried it and are struggling to find a good tan give it a go! I also use the Xen Tan scrub with mine that basically makes the tan last longer and smells like original source minty shower gel, delish!

Thursday 26 January 2012

Spring Colour Trend, Candy Pop Pastel Colours

Colour trends for this spring are gorgeously soft and girly which is great because who doesn't suit a pastel colour?

Moving away from the abstract colour block trend to the opposite side of the spectrum subtle muted colours are great because you can match make up and accessories accordingly.

It looks as though the strong contender to dress up the mannequins of high street shops around the UK this spring will be pastel tweeds. That's right time to raid your granny's wardrobe because granny is back in town!