Wrap Skorts

Wrap Skorts? Surely the coolest bit of Fashion I've seen in a very long time. These are a must have this summer! They have a huge selection of colours, even Florals! My favourite, Now your all wondering why didn't i get a floral pair of Wrap skorts, don't you worry i will be. I just  fancied something different and being a complete plain Jane that i am im sucker for any black and white clothing so these are definitely abit of me.

Black and white are perfect colours and can be matched  with most colours, also skorts can be worn all year round with some tights like me. I do love being warm especially when weather isn't as warm as everyone seems to think, or am i just really cold blooded?... Probably.

I purchased these beauties from New look... (sigh) Not again your all thinking, i can't help it i want the whole shop, its there fault not mine.

Amazing price of just £17:99 :)

Wrap Skorts are in all the shops at the moment, grab yourself a pair and join in with this amazing new trend in fashion! Can't wait to see the summer Fashion this year, if its anything like this its going to be insane.

Keep posted for my summer must haves this year, also take a peak at my pinterest, i will be making a board of all my favourite wrap skorts.

Daytime baking

                    Having a bit of extra time on my hands lately, there's nothing more i enjoy then baking a nice cake and watching other people eat them all in minutes, hence why i only have 2 cakes in my photo, they don't last very long in my household. Thats got to a be a good thing right?



I have to admit they are rather delicious, getting the measurement of the ingredients right is essential in any cake making, something i usually struggle with, don't worry your not alone. You have to get cake baking down to an art for it to be good, practice makes perfect :)

These are my Scales i use for all my baking and cooking in the kitchen, you can get these from most household stores, my one is from Wilkinson, they do a great selection of kitchen essentials and baking equipment.
They have a huge range of different colours, if your not a big lover of pink.


Before i started, i took a quick trip to sainsburys just to grab some ingredients i would need, spending quite a bit of time down the baking isle as you can imagine, i came across these.

How Cute are these? can just see them neatly placed on some tasty iced cup cakes at only a £1 each i couldn't resist.

Browsing through some of my cake books, i have quite few just gifts over the years I'm rather spoilt for choice most of the time. But i fancied baking something nice and simple, certainly something all you can follow very easily.

Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

These cupcakes don't take alot of ingredients, very affordable and so easy to make.

Ingredients

7tbsp Soft Margarine

3 and half oz caster sugar

2 Large Eggs

3 and half oz self-raising flour

3 and a half oz chocolate chips

Equipment

Mixing Bowl

Muffin Cases

Baking tray

Scales

Electric Whisk

Pre-heat your oven to 190oc/375of

Placing the muffin cases on to baking tray

Put the Margarine, sugar, eggs and flour into a mixing bowl and using an electric whisk, beat together until just smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips, spoon the mixture into the paper cases.

Bake for no more then 20-25 minutes or until well risen and a golden brown appearance, carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool.

Simple easy instructions and some fantastic cup cakes in less then an hour, take my advice these look and taste exceptional.

Keep posted for more fantastic easy baking recipes, i also plan to fill my recipe book soon with some fantastic evening meals and delicious cup cakes just like these perfect Jumbo chocolate chip cupcakes.

Anything Floral goes.

So i recently joined pinterest, which i have become completely hooked too and have a new found love for florals, well saying that it all started at Christmas this year when i decided i wanted a patchwork vintage floral throw over for my bed. So Pinterest has just shown me how pretty and extraordinary some of these floral designs really are. I'll admit im obsessed!

This Blanket hardly leaves my side when im home, i sleep in it more then my duvet, by far my favourite Christmas present last year, this will more then likely be on my sofa when i move into my new place as well.

Feel free to click on my pinterest button and have a browse at my amazing mad about florals board, also my Vintage board i have put together is pretty insane.

Saving and finding something Floral, i have to look hard into the future and tell myself what is more important, kitchen appliances? sofa? or a load of floral things, that look extremely pretty but not very practical. Weather it being a blanket, Cushions or even these perfects little plimsolls for the summer. They had these in 3 different floral designs, i wanted them all! (life's not fair) but i chose these perfect little black ones. Only £4!! So i cant be too hard on myself again, no doubt I'll be going back pay day to get another pair.

These nice little, very comfy plimsolls are from Shoe Zone, with a pair of leggings or some crop trousers with a nice simple top this would make a lovely outfit for the summer. Or if we're lucky enough to get ourselves a proper summer, you could even wear these with a pair of denim shorts or a nice dress, these will certainly add colour to any plain outfit.

No doubt this summers is going to be over taken by Fantastic pastel colours and the amazing floral designs, I'm seeing more and more of them in the shops, its going to be extremely hard for me not to spend a absolute fortune, but surely i can spend just a little bit of well earned cash on things that look this great! Keep posted for my must have florals this summer at unbelievable affordable prices.

Happy Mothers Day :)

It that time of year again that we get to spoil that special person that brought us into this world :)
Mothers Day, my mother is the most important person in the world to me, she's my best friend and inspiration. She made me into the person i am today and for that i will be forever grateful, she told me "The world is my oyster and to follow all my dreams and never be afraid to love too much" <3

We done mother's day a bit differently this year, in all honesty probably my fault for being terribly un-organised, sorrry mum! Leaving it too late to book a table in a nice restaurant, so a quick trip to Sainsburys seemed to save the day picking up a nice French stick, ham, salad, scotch eggs and not to forget mum's favourite chicken flavour sensations. It was a complete success when she said she didn't want to go out anyway and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Presssie's :)
Its like Christmas day, obviously not as big but i still get just as excited about mum opening her presents. Treated my madge to a lovely new handbag for all her little nights out (she has more of a social life them me)




This beautiful little bag is from New Look (again, slight obsession) at another great price of £9.99, it has a lovely modern touch to it but just nice simple bag. Perfect for my mum.

She was given the fantastic lifetime trip to New York last year courtesy of my 'rich' twin sister (not so rich any more ha) Anything New York she adores so when i spotted this awesome New York necklace i knew it was the ultimate present for her. This stunning piece of Jewellery was hiding in the new look sales and only cost me as little as £2.50!!

Mothers Day wouldnt be mothers day without our rock Nana. This is a very personal subject for me at the moment so i'm not going to go too much into it, watching someone you love dearly being take over by dementia is most certainly the hardest thing in the world (got that horrid lump in my throat.. deep breathe Zoe) But i would like to one day, write a blog post about my experience and help others cope with such a traumatic time in their lives and my personal experience of copying and dealing with losing someone that's very much still there.


Hope everyone had a Fantastic day and spoilt your mums rotten :) Enjoy every moment with the ones you love!

A perfect Sunday

    I've been one poorly soul this week, suffering from a sinus infection I'm proud to say i made it through my working week! So as you can imagine i was far too excited about my relaxing Sunday afternoon.






A perfect way to start was a great DVD to watch, so after much speculation, myself and my twin sister decided on the holiday :) Us both being romantics at heart and thoroughly enjoying a good old love story, deep down we all know its just one big fairytale, Kate winslet and Cameron Diaz are two of my favourite actress, Jack Black bringing humour into the film, oh and Jude Law is rather dishy. Have a watch its the perfect Sunday afternoon film.




I have a very short attention span when it comes to films, i cant just sit there, i like to do other things weather its making my nails look fancy, or writing in my beloved Journal.


With the Summer vastly approaching (where is this year going?) i tend to go through a phase of nail varnishes, choosing the darker colours in Winter and as we come into summer i adore all the pastel colours. I recently purchased 2 beautiful pastel Nail varnishes from Rimmel.

The Rimmel 60 seconds pink pastel, quick drying and leaves a sophisticated matte look. Although i do recommend applying a base coat and a few coats to get it to its real potential.




This Journal knows my thoughts and feelings more then anyone else in the world, this is where i can sit down and throw all them thoughts in my brain on to a piece of paper and feel better. My other half is so intrigued and dying to gets his hand on it, might have to get a lock and key. When life gets you down, its almost like having a someone to talk too. I have wrote one since i was 13 years old, its going to be fantastic reading back at all of them. So whenever your feeling that little bit rubbish about life, this is the perfect way to vent your feelings, so many of my friends have benefited from writing a journal and say how great it is.








I have a very exciting year ahead of me, myself and my boyfriend have decided to move out and set up home together, I'm extremely excited and cant wait to find our perfect home. I keep thinking of things i may need and started buying little bits. I have a "small" okay a huge obsession for notebooks, i have so many and i cant stop buying them. So when i saw this cute recipe book i could not resist, honestly I've never had to cook a meal in my life i have a fantastic mother who does all that for me (i better get practising) so this recipe books seems the first step to learning. The pages inside are blank, so between myself and my other half picking our favourite
food and getting myself on the internet and creating some great meals seems the ideal start.

You will never hear me say im bored, there is always something to do in my little world. keep posted for more posts on how to cure that Sunday boredom and enjoy them in the best ways possible.

Keeping your skin healthy with Nivea

I am one of the lucky ones that rarely struggles with outbursts of bad skin, the rare occasions are usually caused by stress. But there are many causes of bad skin, here are some of those.

1. Change in stress levels, stress is the biggest cause of bad skin and effects us Humans in many ways.
2. Changing skin care products, try sticking to the same skin products.
3. Change of diet, i myself have recently changed my diet, cutting out white bread, chocolate and Crisps has had a huge effect on my skin and body.

What is your skin?

Dry skin- when your skin is exposed to cold weather or dry air especially in the colder months, using moisturise is the perfect way to keep your skin hydrated and smooth. Nivea produces some excellent products i use all year round.

Combination Skin- can be a mixture of normal skin and oily skin, people that have combination skin may benefit for different types of skin products.

Oily Skin- This type of skin can change by time of year or weather, exposure to heat and humidity can cause oily skin.

Nivea body rich moisturiser is my essential moisturiser in the winter and all year round, long lasting with Almond oil it instantly softens your skin. For the best results apply this all over the body daily and reapply on dry skin areas.

Another great moisturiser from nivea is the Body lotion Express Hydration (white bottle in Photo above) this moisturised is designed for normal skin with ultra fast adsorbing formula and a long lasting feel, enriched with sea minerals this moisturiser is again perfect for all year round.

I suffer from very sensitive skin, change in skin care products, shower gels or even make up wipes can cause my skin to spiral out of control. Especially make-up wipes a few years ago now, i suffered from a severe allergic reaction from wipes and have refused to use them since.

 So my evening regime, is cleaning my make up off with water and apply the nivea refreshing facial wash gel, i do this before bed and when i wake up, containing Vitamin E this Facial wash cleanses and hydrates your skin and leaves your skin feeling refreshed and looking healthy. Its extremely simple to apply, wet your face and massage the nivea gel wash in small upward circles avoiding the eye, rinse off with Lukewarm water.

Another great nivea facial product is the Double effect eye make-up remover, this is perfect for getting eye-liners and mascaras off at the end of the day. The oil phase efficiently removes even waterproof mascara especially formulated for sensitive skin and no rubbing required.

The nivea 2 in 1 Cleanser and toner is also ideal for daily use, this cleanser and toner deeply cleanses, tones and moistures for a fresh skin feeling and contains Vitamin E. This cleanser can also be used as a make-up remover and removes daily impurities.

Nivea also do a great range of hand lotions, creams and lip balms.

My favourite hand cream out of them all is the smooth moisturising hand cream i can apply this to me hands up to five times a day maybe more in the colder months. The other two nivea hand creams are just as good, the age defying has Q10 and visibly reduces the appearances of fine lines and wrinkles. This hand cream also contains UVA/UVB  filters that help prevent sun induced age spots developing. The Express hydration hand cream is similar to the body lotion quick adsorbing and contains sea minerals. 

I will go no-where without my Nivea lip Balm, if i don't have it with  me i feel completely lost, entirely sociological no lip balm i instantly start feeling my lips starting to dry up (weird i know)  its an absolute necessity to have in my handbag.  

The Nivea comes in three different types the dark blue one being a daily moisture for your lips (my favourite) the light blue is Hydro care, especially designed to protect your lips from the sun. The pinky lip balm comes with a pearly shine and almost acts as fantastic lip gloss as well as a moisturiser. I have recently discovered the two little tins of lip balm at the front, these are extremely handy to just keep in your pocket the blue being original lip balm and the pink one having a raspberry rose flavour. 

All of nivea products are at an affordable price and can even have exceptional offers on, so keep an eye out in your local stores. These are just some of the products that Nivea produce, as you can see most of these products are for my skin type, dry and sensitive. They do a huge range of products for different skin types, from oily skins to Combination skins. If your looking for a new daily regime of healthy skin these are the perfect products to go for. Keep posted for my more great skin products!

Books, books and more boooks

Here's another instalment of the amazing author Penny Vicenzi, for all of those who read my last Penny Vicenzi blog post and my first ever blog post and thought wow that book sounds incredible. Did you Purchase it? All of Penny Vicenzi books are available on Amazon.co.uk at a low price of just under £4!

So far i own 18 Penny Vicenzi books, most of those purchased from my local Whsmiths store, until i discovered Amazon, stupidly realised i was paying a lot more then i had to.

                                              

                Here are 2 of the books i have recently read.

Just reading the back of these books makes you instantly want to start reading it, you can almost feel yourself getting gripped already. Finishing them is worst, almost like you have been apart of it, lived their lives with them, a sense of loss and i struggle to get into the next one as im still thinking about how good the last book was.

No Angel and Something Dangerous are a 2 series book, i was hooked to these for months. These 2 books so far are the books that have gripped me the most. purely by the way they are written, the depth penny Vicenzi goes into about one Family and as a reader you become a part of it. I greatly suggest if you decide to purchase a Penny Vicenzi book (if you haven't already) pick these two to start. If these books don't show you what a great Author she is nothing will.

     NO ANGEL 

This is where it starts, this is the book you will meet the Lytton Family, the head of the Family Celia Lytton, her husband Oliver Lytton. Taking you as far back to the 1920's, owning the biggest publishing empire in London, the extraordinary story will take you through every aspect of their lives. Celia Lytton a women of pride and respect, the rock of the whole family, to LM Celia's sister-in law and the most respectable author Sebastian Brooke, Celia raising her own Family and reaching a dramatic twist when she takes the heart wrenching decision of taking in a young girl from the slums and making her her own. She must face the consequences of taking Barty from her family and raising her in a well respected modern day home.

SOMETHING DANGEROUS

The amazing spin off to No angel, this books takes you through the Lytton family like never before, Celia's admirable twin daughters Adele and Venita taking the struggling of surviving through the world war 2, Venita experiencing the heartbreak of her husbands being sent to Battle for the country and raising their children alone. The arrival of Isabelle (Izzie) Sebastian and Pandora's little girl, how will Sebastian cope when Pandora doesn't make it through child birth. As Izzy grows from a girl to a young women, her Relationship with Kit takes a drastic turn that neither of them will recover from.

Barty discovers where she really belongs, this is not the Family she believed they were, falling in love with the Families arch enemy and the unexpected arrival of her Daughter Jenna.

Adele, deserting her husband and making it through the huge crowds of people out of France to get home to her family with her 2 young children, will she make it alone?

Love, Loss, war and the realisation of just how important Family are.

These two books are phenomenal and will have you gripped. I hope i haven't given too much away in my description. They are both an exceptional good read, keep posted for more Penny Vicenzi books and many more fantastic Authors.