Valentines Day!

Happy valentines day to all the lovers out there opposingly happy independence day for all the singletons.

So today I ask myself the question is V day just a commercial vampire sucking like a leech on human natures need to be told they are loved? Is it our own insecurity that makes us embrace this day even when lets be honest we're not really that bothered by it?

I think valentines day is great for new couples that may not have had the time to establish an anniversary date yet. 

Personally I don't have any strong feelings about valentines day either for or against. No you don't NEED to buy something for your partner just because Clinton Cards is telling you it's the right thing to do but why not do it anyway?! 

I think in the fast pace world that we live in life does go by too quickly and there is far too much negativity in the world! Valentines day might be a bit cheesy or corny but it is a nice reminder to actually just stop and take a minute to do something for your loved ones and not because you feel you have to.... but because you want to. 


Chinese and a mooooooooooooovie with my love tonight.... any excuse for a takeaway. Bon appetit! 

Valentines Feature - Day 11 Chocolate Truffles

This is the penultimate post for my 12 days of valentines feature and today I made truffles! Here's how they turned out, can i tempt you? :D

To make 50 truffles you will need the following:

300g or 3 bars of Tesco 74% Cocoa Ivory Coast Plain Chocolate

300ML Double Cream

Truffles are the easiest things EVER to make!

Firstly boil some water in a medium sized pan.

While that's boiling break your chocolate up into tiny pieces and put in a bowl.

When the water's boiled put the bowl on top of the pan so the steam melts the chocolate and the bowl is resting in the water.

Stir the chocolate continuously until it's all melted.

Remove from the heat and start to whisk in the cream bit by bit until the mixture thickens and you have added all your cream. (Tip, if you use an electric whisk it will make the truffles lighter than the usual heavy chocolate truffles)

You have just made your truffle mixture go you, cover and put it in the fridge for an hour.

 

Once the mixture is firm enough to work with take it out of the fridge and using a teaspoon scoop out enough to make a truffle.

You will now use your hands to roll your truffles into ball shapes. You will need cold slightly wet hands to roll the truffles into balls so prepare to get icky sticky!

Once rolled into a ball you can then roll them in anything you want for decoration and flavour. I chose a mixture of cocoa powder, choc sprinkles, desicated coconut, mixed chopped nuts.

Trial and error with these I haven't made truffles in about 10 years so these ended up being giant mutant truffles.

Picture Friday/Valentines Feature Day 10 - Love Is All You Need

For picture friday this week I am going to take you down love avenue and share with you my favourite love picaroonies this week, because love is truly all you need!

Valentines Feature - Day 8

I have mentioned this recently in my picture friday.. super cute easy to make heart envelope.

I for one will be needing to use this, I ordered a personalised card from Funky Pigeon as they keep harrassing me in any given advert opertunity, good reminder though. I was dissapointed to find out the card was addressed to me.. didn't think anything of it, opened it to see what it looked like because it's one of those ones where you add your picture and text etc and they didn't include an envlope with my card!

So for anyone who did the same as me this is perfect and handy to know!

Valentines Feature - Day 7

Sorry in advance for the gushy post! This one is a bit of a personal post not really relating to much but i've been feeling a bit run down and exhausted lately. My amazingly lovely better half totally surprised me today with spontaneous flowers and chocolate and before you ask I know what your all thinking.... no he didn't get valentines day wrong lol.
I jokingly said to him "your a week early you know should have saved it for next week" but he just wanted to cheer me up and make me happy, so cute!
So this one is for all the spontaneous things that mister men do for their ladies in times of need, valentines or not.

My lovely Chrysanthemum flowers in beautiful bright HAPPY HAPPY :D :D colours! 

 

I'll look after these for you mum!

Deliriously Happy!

B.E.A- oooooootiful!

Valentines Feature Day 6 - Date Outfits

For todays 12 days of valentines I have put together some date outfits for all you girlies that might have hot dates planned for the occasion.

First up is an outfit for the day time might be a lunch date, cinema, theme park etc. I love feminine style like this it's stylish but cute at the same time.

Black and white outfits mean you can team it up with accessories for this instance I would probably opt for a pink eyeshadow and pink lips to subtly match the pink bow on the necklace and add a hint of girly colour.

Shoes, H&M - £34.99
Cream, Lace Skater Dress By Rare, Topshop - £46
Moda Button Cardigan, Asda - £12
White Irridesent Heart Ring, Lilly Belle Accessories - £4.99
Pink Bow Gold Mirror Necklace, Lilly Belle Accessories - £7.99

Next outfit is for an evening date, setting the scene here.... meal in a restaurant, going for a drink in a bar, clubbing etc.

I went for red for the evening outfit, red naturally being the colour of love and all things passion. 

I chose two outfits the top one is more of a sultry dress that shows off the figure "hello boobs"! The second outfit below is the same idea bold red dress that is lovely on the figure but a bit more of a cuter look.

Casie Lace Panel Bodycon Dress £20
Alice Bow Front Sleeveless Skater Boohoo.com - £20
Becca Black Suedette Platform Heels Boohoo.com £30

Valentines Feature - Day 5

Todays valentines feature is going to be a gift idea for her and for him for anyone that's stuck for ideas.
Say I love you on an M&M

This one is so cool for chocolate lovers, PERSONALISED M&Ms!!! Prices starting at £28.50 they don't come cheap but these are the gift sets.

One For The Girls £36.50

One For The Fellas £28.50

You can also buy these in little bags but the downside is you have to buy a minimum order of 20 bags so great for wedding favours christenings or party bags. From £2.60

http://www.mymms.co.uk/

Valentines Feature - Day 4

Statement ring - Valentines stylie!

I love statement rings and am constantly on the look out for inspiration to make new and original ideas for statement rings that are still girly and cute without being too overpowering.

This white iridescent heart ring is one of my more girly statement rings from my range, so cute!

Click here to view this ring at my shop

White Heart Statement Ring - £4.99

White Heart Statement Ring - £4.99

12 Days Of Valentines - Day 3

Valentines biscuits why not give these a go and make them for your boyfriend, friend, sister, mum.... whoever. Everyone loves getting something that someone has put time and consideration into.

Today during my trapes out into the white winterland outside I was looking for inspiration for my 12 days of valentines feature and found these cuties.
OK so the total amount I spent on these tools was a bank breaking £3.68! (Not including cost of ingredients).

Kids mini bakeware set - B&N (Amazing shop) £1.99
Multipack of different size heart cutters - Poundland £1
Adorable little heart tin - Hootys 0.69p

These biscuits are so easy and a key recipe to keep in that cupboard for that day when you go to make a cake and you realise no eggs mean no cake. We've all done it! No eggs at all needed for this recipe.

The Ingredients 

500g Butter 

150g Icing Sugar

500g Plain Flour

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

2 Teaspoon Baking Powder

2 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence

Preheat oven to 180 degrees or if you have a hot oven like mine that loves to burn things 170.

Put all the dry ingredients such as the flour, baking Powder, salt and sugar into a food processor. 
Process this briefly to mix these ingredients together slightly.
Add the butter in pieces and process it with on/off bursts of the processor.
Next Add the vanilla extract and process until dough starts forming a ball.
Here's where you can be really creative you can keep the biscuits plain or you can divide up to my different coloured biscuits.
I chose to make plain and red for my valentines theme.
Now simply roll mixture out 1cm thick onto grease proof paper and then use your amazingly expensive cutters to cut out any shapes you desire :)
Place in the oven for 10-12 Mins and your done. 
To make the swirly biscuits just roll out one colour of dough and then the second colour of dough, lay them on top of each other and roll them up. Once you have your biscuit sausage gently cut it up into little biscuits.
Next up is my favourite bit the decorating go crazy sprinkles galore!

12 Days Of Valentines - Day 2

Cute, fun, easy heart nails anyone can do with limited to no special tools.

As you can see from mine they are by no means perfect as always with my nail tutorials but I am not a professional nail technician. So once again to reiterate if I can do these so can you and I love how they've turned out they look great and FUN!

To get this look I used:

2True French Manicure Nail Tip White

2True Black Shade No. 39

2True Lilac/Pink Orchid Shade No. 17

A Cocktail Stick

First apply two thick coats of the white as your base.

Secondly get your cocktail stick and draw little hearts on the finger nails in black gradually getting bigger in size.

Once dry paint in the centre of these little black hearts with pink, red etc.

Finally re-apply the black nail varnish around the pink hearts with the cocktail stick to add more definition and there we have it.

Cute fun valentines nails. 

12 Days Of Valentines Feature - Day 1

I'm going to be doing a 12 days of valentine feature in amongst my usual posts and ramblings.

I want to do this feature to bring out the inner mr lover lover in everyone and encourage people to get creative.

First up for my 12 day feature is introducing my new personalised couples initial valentines necklace.

Would love to know what you think? I found it quite a challenge to try and make a valentines necklace that was different and would mean something a bit more than the usual cheesy ones. Something with a bit more sentimentality to it.

This is available in black and hot pink or black and red.

Click here to view this item in my shop