February Favourites

Finally getting around to writing this... February may have one extra day but time seems to have completely escaped me.  

Brave Enough - Cheryl Strayed : I really love quote books just now, and after reading Wild I really wanted Cheryl Strayed's Brave enough, full of thoughtful, smart quotes that will leave you inspired. 

Strong Looks Better Naked - Khloe Kardashian : I am really trying to change my lifestyle, eating habits, and excersise plans. Khloe Kardashians "Strong Looks Better Naked" shows that even she has had her struggles and explains how she got on the right path. With recipes and advice, plus pictures of Khloe that are so incredibly gorgeous they will leave you inspired. 

Toni &Guy Nourish Reconstruction Mask : Nourished hair means better colour... wait thats L'Oreal. Toni&Guy's reconstruction mask leaves my hair feeling silky smooth and just so much more full of life and it smells AH-MAZING!

Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water : A great cleanser which is a much cheaper substitute to what I had been using and comes in a bigger bottle so last a good length of time. A gals got to clean her face properly and this stops me from reaching for those pesky face wipes. 

Urban Decay Matte Revolution Stark Naked : This was love at first swatch... Nudes are my life currently and this one is utter perfection. It glides on easily and though matte leaves my lips feeling moisturised.  

#MusicMonday: Overreactivist - Wakey Wakey

This weeks Music Monday goes to an artist I have followed for what feels like forever. Its been just over 5 years since I first got to see Mike Grubbs of Wakey Wakey live. And since then I’ve been privileged enough to meet him, see the magic that is a live show many more times and watch his music evolve. 

"Overreactisvist" is the latest album from Wakey Wakey, released on Friday 26th of February, I watched so many people tweet about there love for this album before I finally found a moment to listen to it for myself. I was so hopeful for this album, I love "Salvation" I did… but I like the stripped version.  

So the original album though lyrically amazing was a little underwhelming… though at the time of release we had, had nothing since “Almost Everything I wish I’d said the last time I saw you..” which is a fantastic album and I urge all of you to go listen to it. So on Salvations original reason I was initially really complimentary about it, we’d be waiting for it forever and it was great… just when stripped it was so much more.

At first listen "Overreactivist" is the album Wakey Wakey fans deserve, it doesn’t matter if you are the Original listener, the One Tree Hill discoverer, or saw him live and fell in love. This album is for all of us. There's a song that will take you back and make you realise why you listen to this music and that moment will be brilliant. 

The passion you get at a live Wakey Wakey show pours out in each track. Each song beautifully arranged and lyrically compelling. Grubbs has always been a beautiful writer making you feel the emotion of the song whither its in his voice or in the way it is constructed. 

All in all I’m happy to hear new material from Wakey Wakey. I think I will always be interested in what Grubbs puts out. As my second live concert at 15 I feel emotionally invested in his career. I'm even happier when I genuinely enjoy the music. This album has so many tracks that I already love.

So go check out Overreactivist and have a listen to my personal favourites; Heartbroke, Adam and Eve, Homeless Poets, Still Life and C'est La Vie.

All the Links 

Itunes 

Twitter 

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Youtube 

Gift Ideas for Mother day

When it comes to Mothers day I look at it as a pamper pack. Giving my lovely mother a box of stuff that she can use to help make herself beautiful throughout the day. Its normally a combination of a few higher priced items and high street stuff.

With less than a week to go here are just a few ideas for you to treat your mother. 

1. Wine - A bottle of there fave to sip at whilst they have a long bath or are just chilling on the sofa. 

2.  Perfume - A bottle of an old favourite or a new scent that they've had there eye on. It's always lovely to receive some lovely scents.

3.Nail Varnish - Get some nice spring colours to add to their collection.

4. Lip balm - Practical but perfect as Winter draws to a close a lady still needs to keep care of her lips

5.  Chocolate - Sod the diet, give them a box of there favourites, Lindt are special occasion only in our house

6. Bath Bomb - This is something I include in most Mother day packs, as you can't go wrong with a lovely bath bomb, and it gives me time to over indulge when I go into Lush.

7. A face Mask - I'm a little obsessed about including face masks, and I really want to try and get my mum a collagen one this year. But any face mask works a treat and allows them to really relax.

Hope you and your Mothers have a fab Mothers Day and remember to treat her like the queen she is. 

Michael Kors perfume fragrance
£63 - nordstrom.com

Ling anti aging mask
£35 - ahalife.com

Eos lip treatment
selfridges.com

Essie nail polish
£5.96 - dermstore.com

Essie nail polish
£5.96 - dermstore.com

Beauty product
£4.88 - lushusa.com

Riedel black wine glasses
£110 - lanecrawford.com

Disorganised Stress

At the beginning of this week it looked as though I’d have an abundance of time. So I began to disassemble my room. So when I put it back together again, it no longer look as though I was a secret hoarder… of course the moment I decide to act on anything things no longer go to plan. So now my room looks as though a hurricane as flown through it and I really have no proper time to tackle the task at hand.  

Because of this and the fact that I am also sorting through three years of footage and making sure everything has a place so that I can find everything with ease. It means that writing a blog or filming for my vlog have just fallen to the waste side. 

Making me feel incredibly unorganised and uneasy.  I am happy to be able to pick up shifts at work and make some extra pennies. But I had so many things to work upon this week and because progress is now coming at a much slower rate I feel like I’ve just abandoned everything and nothing will ever be finished. Even though the truth probably is that this time next week It will all be fine and dandy. I’m filled with slight panic currently and thats the emotion my brain if focused on. 

Being impatient often works to a disadvantage when having to do things like these. I thought I’d be finished by today but instead I have barely started, I’m trying to wrap my head that everything will be done and will be fine, but instead I create new tasks… one thing at a time… deep breath… here we go… Hopefully shall have a much more regular post schedule soon. 

#MusicMonday : Mr Brightside - The Killers

Had such a throwback with tunes at my friends 21st and this brought everyone up onto the dance floor screaming our lungs out to those lyrics. Along with this fave Killer classic so many other oldies popped up so you may see them in future Music Mondays, for the nostalgia in us all.

Gluten Free Cupcakes

Continuing from Wednesdays Post where I wrote about my Gluten Free Red Velvet Cupcakes, today I will be posting a recipe for just plain Gluten Free Cupcakes.  From the Weekends Celebrations these were my favourite, they were lovely and light and all together just really tasty (Most of my family preferred Red Velvet, but both sets of cakes went down a treat and all 24 cakes had vanished by the end of the day)

The Mixture

• 125g Butter 
• 125g Caster Sugar
• 125g Glut Free Self-Raising Flour 
• 2 medium eggs 
• 3 tablespoons of Milk 
• 2 teaspoons of Vanilla Extract 

The ButterCream 

• 140g butter 
• 280g Icing Sugar 
• 2 Tablespoons of Milk

My method of baking is very relaxed with the Mixture I sift the dry ingredients first, soften the butter, then add the rest of the wet ingredients and then mix well.

For the buttercream I sifted the Icing sugar softened the Butter and added the Milk last.

Gluten Free Red Velvet Cupcakes

I honestly adore baking there is something so therapeutic about baking, a feeling so utterly different to cooking a meal which I always get a little stressed about.

My Gran turned 70 (and my Uncle turned 40) over the weekend so I made two batches of gluten free cupcakes (Will post about the other ones later) I was a little apprehensive about Gluten Free Baking as most recipes online asked for several more ingredients than the simple ones that I had went for. Which made me worry that they were not going to taste right at all.

But these Gluten Free Red Velvet ones went down a treat and had easily vanished throughout the day.


 The Mixture

• 140g Unsalted Butter 
• 165g Caster Sugar 
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 3 Eggs 
• 175g Gluten Free Plain Flour 
• 2 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder
• 125ml Milk
• Red Food Colouring 
• 1 Teaspoon Gluten Free Baking Powder

The Cream Cheese Frosting

• 300g Icing Sugar 
• 50g Unsalted Butter
• 125g Cream Cheese 

My Method of baking is very much just throw everything together and hope for the best. I put all the dry ingredients together first, sifting everything first just to be sure.  I soften the butter before adding (Because it makes everything easier) add anymore wet ingredients and leave the milk for last. I added the food colouring after everything was mixed. You can use as much or as little as you want.  But I still haven't perfected the whole making a red velvet cake red yet.  

For the Cream cheese frosting I sifted the Icing sugar, softened the butter and added the cream cheese (I used Philadelphia) and Mixed together, be careful not to over mix though it can go too soft and then it doesn't look as nice. 

#MusicMonday: Reckless One - Sunday Lane

It's been a few years since I first heard this song. But I was lacking some serious inspiration for todays song choice there is a few I want to do, But I want to spend longer writing about them and not put out a rushed post like this one.

I'm going to try and use this week to be as organised as I possible can with my Blog. And music Monday is something that I don't want to stop doing, I will talk more about that later in the year and what this series really means. But for now I leave you with a song I have loved since maybe 2012?

You be careful... and I'll be the reckless one.

Much Love!

30 Days Vegan Challenge | Life Change

 On the 10th of January I started a life change, ready to start healthy habits again... for the millionth time. I decided to go vegan, to rid myself of temptation of my deadly sins (cadburys dairy milk and ben and jerry's ice cream) all set to go, I wasn't exactly optimistic about the whole ordeal.

Along the way I had my moments, wavering moments of temptation, but when I saw the results on the scale I knew I was doing amazing, and what was totally best for my body.

Some of the hardest moments is when I had to grab something quick making sure it was ok to eat can be a time consuming task, which is my preparation really works

in your favour if you are going to try a life change such as this.

I found out things about myself along the way, such as; I like kale smoothies (LOVE 'EM INFACT), my willpower is stronger than I ever had thought it could be, I feel so much better in myself and really love the changes. And most importantly I gained a really positive attitude to something that I wasn't overly excited about in the beginning.

I would defiantly do it again as I felt the benefits after the first week, just feeling brighter and more positive in myself than I had before.

#MusicMonday: Beautiful - Carole King

Not the Musical this time but the song.

Does anyone else have a song, that just makes them feel instantly better and more uplifted. For me this is that song. The lyrics really just speak volumes.

Monthly Motivation | Determined

In the summer of last year I was more determined than ever for so many things in my life, to film more, to blog more, to concentrate on my fitness. I felt like never before that I was finally in the correct headspace to do it all.  

By the end of October everything had pretty much fallen to the waste side. And I didn’t even feel that disappointed in myself, its like I had expected myself to just give up. Because thats what I had been good at.  Giving up and not pushing forward. Other things became more important and consumed more time.  

When January begun I vowed to be more organised with my time, to ease myself into everything else. January can be such a pressuring month, so many people start and fail resolutions. I made a a video about taking resolutions in steps. And for me thats what January was, the first step, trying to get myself into healthy routines, into actual routines, so that everything else could come to be.  

By January 10th I was determined to make spin class my main goal of January aiming to go to 3/4 classes a week to “ease” myself back into a fitness routine. I felt so much better for it. And because class is at 9.15am it meant that I was structuring my day better. Healthier habits seemed to follow on.

I was also determined to post more on my Blog, in addition to Music Monday to try and post at least once more a week. Which I seemed to have achieved. 

For feburary I am determined to continue on with what I have started, I don’t want to stop now on the first step. I’m going to add in other first steps to try and accomplish, which includes filming more. And planing more. I can’t wait to see what the next month brings. 

But when your in the right head space and have the right amount of determination you can achieve what you want to. It’s all about those little steps and keeping on the right steps! 

#MusicMonday | Jack of all Trades - Bruce Springsteen

I remember listening to Wrecking Ball on Vinyl for the first time in 2012, this was the first song that really jumped out at me as something amazing. The more I listened to the album the more I loved every song, but this song will always stick out at me. So when "We Take Care of Our Own" ( ultimate anthem) came on my dads shuffle in the car, I was compelled to go listen to the whole album again, and remember why I love this song.

Jack of all Trades is such a lovely slow paced song, with amazing meaning, and Springsteens voice is just everything.

Enjoy x