Salt dough ornaments

Salt dough ornaments bring back so many memories of childhood. My mum would always make a load of dough and let us cut out lots of different shapes, paint them up and put so much glitter on them. They would then take pride of place on the Christmas tree. In fact I'm pretty sure that my mum still has some of them still.

This is such a cheap and easy way to decorate your home this Christmas. It's also perfect for the kids. I know my niece and nephew would love these! But I've made some for tree. I'll post more details about that soon. 

1 cup of plain flour

1/2 cup of salt

1/2 cup of water

(Please note that these are not edible! I imagine they taste foul!) 

Mix all the ingredients together, if you find the mixture too sticky add more flour. If you find the mixture to dry add more water! 

Cut out any shapes you like! Remember to make a small hole in the tops so they can be hung.

You can either leave to air dry (this takes forever around a week!), oven cook them on the lowest heat for 3-5 hours (too long!) or do what I did. Zap them in the microwave for 3 minutes. If they're not done or are still sticky after the 3 minutes, keep microwaving until dry.

Once the shapes are dry you can paint them or leave them natural. Thread a coloured ribbon or thread through the hole and they're ready to hang!

Chunky crouton salad.

As a vegetarian people often find it amusing that I'm not a big fan of salads. There's something daunting about a plate of leaves. I worry they won't fill me up or they'll taste like grass. But recently salads have been my thing! And this one is good. I do have to admit I like to add a good dollop of mayo to mine but a fancy dressing would work equally as well. I like big croutons but Mr told me they were too big (no such thing!). It's purely a personal thing but I like a chunky crouton!

Maybe I've fallen in love with salads due to my new food processor. Appliances Direct kindly asked me if I'd like a product from there website and a food processor has been top of my list for ages. This one is perfect. Appliances Direct postage was so speedy I couldn't believe when it arrived in under 24 hours. Now that's what I call speedy.

Ingredients

Cibatta, cut into large chunks

Iceburg lettuce, chopped

Carrot, grated

Grapes, sliced

New potatoes, sliced

Olive oil,

Seasoning

Place the chunks of cibatta onto a baking tray and thinly coat each one in olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place into the oven at 200ºC/Gas Mark 6 until golden and crispy. Allow to cool.

Place the potatoes into a pan and cover with water. Par-boil the potatoes until just soft, be careful not to allow the potatoes to get to soft as they will turn soggy. Once soft, drain and allow to dry. Heat 1tsp of olive oil in a pan and fry the potatoes until golden and crispy (I like golden and crispy!). Drain onto kitchen roll.

Arrange the lettuce, carrot and grapes onto a plate or serving platter. Add the crispy potatoes and croutons and serve with lashings of mayo.

Miss Geekay

Scrabble ring* - £1.50

Turquoise cross bracelet* - £4.50

I am a little bit addicted to jewellery at the minute. I was asked if I would like to review some pieces from Gillian at Miss Geekay. I picked out a few bits I like and I received these two. Which are ones I really love.

The wooden scrabble ring has already taken it's place in my jewellery box and the bracelet is going to look beautiful layered up with a few others. The turquoise blue is so beautiful!

Every piece of beautiful jewellery on the site is under £5. My kind of prices huh? It comes beautifully wrapped too.

Take a look here! 

Miss Geekay

♥ 

Love My Vouchers

 Now you know me by now I love to save money anyway I can so when I discovered Love My Vouchers I thought I'd share it with you.

Love My Vouchers is a site that gives you discount to lots of amazing sites. They give you discount from everything, fashion to food, beauty to flowers. So if you're planning on spending your pennies, make sure you check out Love My Vouchers before you do. 

This is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own. 

We're going to Jackson . . .

Top - Monki

Skirt - Primark

Cardigan**, Shoes - New Look

Glasses - George at ASDA

Tights - Mama's

Total Outfit Price: £27.49

I have had Jackson by Johnny Cash and June Carter in my head all day. I love the film Walk the Line and we have a Johnny Cash CD in the car so there's no surprise this is in my head.

I got this top in my Monki order, I went a little bit mad and got some really pretty tops from their sale. I brought a beautiful straw boater and pretty summer dress. Now here's waiting for the sun.

I've been trying to get my uni work done today but it's not going great. Oh well another week before it's due.

I also made macarons today and they went well. I can blog a recipe if your interested?

♥

Winter Coat!

Coat - Primark £25

I've struggled this year! Finding a winter coat has been a task. I brought a practical parka from New Look but I wanted a tailored coat.

 After searching pretty much everywhere I ended up in Primark and found this beauty! I'm really impressed with it and all £25 sounds like a lot for Primark it is a coat and you'd be pushed to find a coat cheaper elsewhere!

So this is my coat for winter and I really need it at the moment, it's freezing!

♥

Christmas Gift Idea #1

So here is my first ever Christmas post! I thought I'd share with you one of my families all time favourites, peppermint creams. I found a recipe for some in a Christmas magazine and I loved how they were called kisses so I decided to go with that name instead. I also discovered rosewater kisses too and they are just as good! So here's the super simple recipe that would make a wonderful edible gift and won't cost you the earth!

Ingredients:

1 egg white

340g icing sugar

6-7 drops of peppermint flavouring

1 drop of green food colouring

1 drop of pink food colouring

2 tsp of rosewater

1. Lightly whisk the egg white until frothy.

2. Sift in the icing sugar. Stir thoroughly with a wooden spoon until the mixture is quite stiff.

3. Knead the mixture into a ball with your hands and turn out onto a icing sugar dusted surface.

4. Divide the mixture into two balls.

5. Knead the peppermint flavouring and green food colouring into one ball, and knead the rosewater and pink food colouring into the other. I place the balls in a bowl so I didn't spill the liquid everywhere!

6. Roll the mixture into small balls and squash down slightly. You could always use a cookie cutter and make pretty shapes.

7. Leave to dry overnight and package up ready for Christmas!

The kisses only keep for around 3 days so make them just a few days before Christmas. Also just a health note, be careful who you give them to as they do contain raw egg.

I package mine up in a little box and then wrapped them up in brown paper and sheet music (Google Christmas sheet music and you can find lots!)

And there you go a simple Christmas gift!

♥

Sausage dog print!

Shirt, necklace - Primark

Jacket, jeans, vest, shoes - New Look**

Scarf - Mum's

Total Outfit Price: £53.21

Wow an expensive outfit for me! But it's my jacket it was £30 with my discount so it all adds up.

I met my sister for lunch today and then walked back along a pretty route, I couldn't help but stop and take photo's, I get some random looks sometimes. I feel like I should have a big sign saying I'm a blogger/photography student.

♥

Leopard Print!

Shirt - Charity Shop

Scarf - Mum's

Vest**, Necklace, Shoes - New Look

Jeans - Primark

Total Outfit Price: £18.73

It's getting so cold!! I'm trying not to put a coat over the top of my outfit picture otherwise you can't really see what I'm wearing but I might have too soon.

I did say I wasn't going to post on a Tuesday as I'd be at uni but our lecture got cancelled so that meant a few extra hours in bed recovering from this nasty cold and taking blog photos.

I've got a post planned for some day this week too. I made oreo cupcakes and I'm going to share my recipe so keep your eyes peeled for that.

It's nice to be back into blogging again, I love making time for it but it gets really difficult trying to balance everything in my life. I still need to get a notebook so I can stay on top of things. Oh well I'll figure it out.

♥

All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey!

top**, vest**, jeans**, necklace, cardigan**, boots** - New Look

Bracelet - Dolly Peg

Total Outfit Price: £33.25

My work outfits tend to be very similar, loose fitting top and skinny jeans. I just find it's easier to wear something comfortable because no doubt I'll be lifting heavy delivery boxes or something less glamorous so practicality has to play a part in it all.

I'm hopefully going to be doing a bit of shopping this week so keep your eye out for some new clothes, yay!

This bracelet is now available on Dolly Peg for £2.95. What a bargain! Take a look click the link above or click shop on the top bar.

Happy Weekend everyone!

♥

Nails #5

I've has quite a few compliments on my nails recently so I thought I'd do a quick post about them.

I first applied a base coat to protect my nails (up until recently I skipped this step and since using a base coat, my nails have been less dry and my nail polish goes on better.

I then applied MUA Shade 9 nail polish and waited for it to dry.

On top of that I applied W7 nail polish in 3 Blue Dazzle (available here). I find this polish quite sticky so make sure you have a long time to leave them to dry.

To finish it all off I used MUA Shade 17 clear polish as a top coat.

And voila! A spot of hand cream to make my hands super smooth and your done easy as that, and not bad for £5.98!

♥