Showing posts with label manchester fashion blogger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manchester fashion blogger. Show all posts
22/11/2015

The November Book Edit


Some of you may not know but I'm currently in my second year of studying Literature at university and because my course involves so much reading, I found that I was weighed down with so many heavy novels that I wasn't doing what I loved in my free time. So this year, I've been making a conscious effort to read before bed and read a book that I haven't been told to...

Penny books on amazon are my holy grail (you only pay for postage) and so I recently made an order with a couple of vouchers I'd been saving up and ordered a whole load of books that should hopefully keep me going for a couple of months. 

First off isn't a new purchase but is something I actually preordered and is Harper Lee's Go Set A Watchman which is the sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird which was actually one of the first "adult" novels I read (we're talking year 7 here) and it's a book I always have and is consequently almost worn out! It's a great book but if you're as obsessed with the first one as I am, then you might want to give this a miss as it's definitely not as good as the first one.

Then, another sequel is The Invention of Wings which is the sequel to The Secret Life of Bees which is another incredible book. The Invention of Wings follows the story of Hetty for the next thirty or so years and really develops character far more than in the first. I would definitely recommend reading The Secret Life of Bees first as there is a significant back story that could cause elements of the sequel to be slightly lost.

And then a book which was massively popular a couple of years ago, but I've only recently read is The Goldfinch. It reminds me of The Catcher in the Rye and has a similar storyline in the way that it centres around a 13 year old in New York City but it's far more intricate story as it follows the main protagonist's life after he loses his mother and is taken in by a wealthy family friend. Theo then discovers a painting which reminds him of his mother and is sucked into the world of art. It's not a difficult read but is absolutely fascinating to read.

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19/05/2015

The Summer Hair Update: The Balayage





I've never been much of a hair care person - I tend to buy the cheapest shampoo (we're talking under £10 here) and the most I do is the occasional hair mask or hair serum (if I remember) so hair is not big on my list. But I do love getting highlights.

So with Spring finally setting in, I decided I wanted my hair to be a bit lighter and went for a balayage which is essentially a more "natural" ombre and because the upper half of my head is still natural, it's a relatively low maintenance colour. For all my manchester readers, I went to RCNQ in the Northern Quarter for a cut and colour (Liam did my colour and Vince my cut) and I'm so happy! What I'm so pleased about is the condition of my hair, it's definitely slightly drier on the newer blonde parts but nothing like when I've had colour put in before. But when I was getting my hair cut, I got chastised on my lack of hair care, I decided it was time for a change.

Cue, Bumble and Bumble. Bumble and Bumble is almost a cult brand for hair care - they're obviously more expensive than your standard L'Oreal Elvive but they're brilliant. I've been using the Bb Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Sulfate Free Shampoo and Conditioner which are brilliant. Because my hair is naturally quite frizzy, the oils in the shampoo and conditioner leave my hair feeling soft and smooth which means serum is off the cards! When blowdrying it, I'm using the Bb All Style Blow Dry Creme (not pictured because it's only a sample size) but I've been loving it so much that I've ordered a full size! My hair feels so light and smooth and it definitely holds it's blow dry longer than before.

Instead of assorted and random hair masks, I've been using Sacha Juan Hair Repair which is so lovely. I try to whack this on a Sunday so I can leave my hair in a shower cap for as long as possible but it makes my hair so much softer and manageable and I've noticed a steady improvement in the quality of my hair since using it.

So definitely a bit of a Bumble and Bumble rehaul but my hair is in so much better condition that it's definitely worth it. What are your haircare essentials?
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12/12/2014

Cheap Gift Ideas: Christmas Chocolate Shortbread






There are (unfortunately) always those moments in life with Christmas approaching and the prospect of having to give people christmas presents looming when your bank balance isn't quite in the best state... And there are also those awkward moments when you're given gifts but aren't necessarily in the financial place to return the gesture.

But I have the solution!

There were so many people that I wanted to give presents to this year that it simply wasn't feasible so I decided to go down a more crafty route - baking and packaging the baked goods. Erring away from your more traditional christmas cookies, (one of my closest friends hates cinnamon), I chose to go with Nigella's chocolate shortbread recipe with a chocolate glaze which came out quite nicely...

Here's how I did it (recipe makes approx 24):

For the biscuits
250 grams soft butter
150 grams caster sugar
40 grams cocoa powder
300 grams plain flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

For the festive topping
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
175 grams icing sugar
60 ml boiling water (from a kettle)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
christmas sprinkles (I bought mine from Aldi)


  1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C/ gas mark 3/ 325 degrees farenheit.
  2. Cream the butter and sugar and then add the cocoa powder. When mixed well, add the flour, baking powder and bicarb of soda.
  3. Bake each batch for 15 minutes. They come out quite soft but cook more as they cool. (Trust me, my first batch were overcooked!)
  4. For the glaze: Put all the ingredients into a saucepan and whisk for ten minutes on a low heat. Let it cool before you ice the biscuits. The glaze seems incredibly liquidy but it dries hard on the biscuits so don't add any more icing sugar!
  5. When icing the biscuits, make sure the cooling rack is on top of some newspaper as the icing does go everywhere! 
  6. Sprinkle some of the festive sprinkles whilst the icing is still wet as it dries quite fast.
  7. Let the icing cool for about 10 minutes and you're good to go!
Then what I did is package up the cookies in little cellophane bags (you can get these everywhere - try ebay or your local craft store), tie a bit of twine round them and attach a cute little gift tag for a lovely festive gift.

If you couldn't get your hands on any christmas themed sprinkles, try getting cellophane bags with festive prints on them (you can get snowmen, snowflakes and loads of other designs), but they're such a cute gift to give and because they're homemade, people don't tend to focus in on the fact that they haven't been bought a gift!

These are perfect for friends - especially if you have over five people you want to give presents too! I had twelve, hence why I opted to make something rather than buy!

The cookies are delicious and they look so pretty!

Would you ever try a homemade gift for christmas?



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08/12/2014

Top 5 New Look Gift Picks



Tis the season of gift guides and I've already suggested several different things but if you still can't find the perfect gift, try New Look. New Look is one of my favourite shops (not only because they stock size 9 footwear) but because they're always on trend and generally stock things for people of various shapes and sizes! They've also recently released a new beauty line which is pretty brilliant!

But they also have just launched a brilliant Gift Generator which helps give you suggestions of things to buy for your loved ones! I was asked to have a bit of a play and come up with my top five gift picks! Simply click on the category that applies best and it comes up with ideas - which is how I came up with my top five gifts - saves so much time trawling through websites and if you still haven't come up with your christmas presents, time is of the essence!

The ones included in the guide are all from the Secret Santa collection from the generator which means they're not overly expensive and suit most people - however, they do have age specific options for both male and female so you can really narrow down your search!

Above you'll find a range of gifts to suit each person from the best friend who loves a good pair of novelty pyjamas to the friend who loves a bit of bling on a bag - there is something for everyone from a range of prices.

I hope you've been inspired from this post and may have come up with a couple of ideas! But don't forget to have a play on the gift generator as it really is fun and very helpful!

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06/12/2014

For Someone Who Has It All: The Book of Everyone




We always have those people in our life who we love dearly but struggle to find them the perfect christmas present and unfortunately, my brother falls into this category.

As a person, he's quite quirky and has so many interests that given the right shop (Think the gift shop at the Tate Modern), you could buy everything for him but if you can't find anything, you struggle. 

So when I found about the Book of Everyone*, I was ecstatic. The whole concept of the book is brilliant - it's all online and you enter the details of the person the gift is for, like their age, name and interests and it generates a book! It is an incredibly personal gift as you get to choose things such as the book cover, change page content and add in little things that only you could know.

The quality of the book is incredible, it's a hardback book and overall, aesthetically it's so lovely. Despite already seeing the book pages online, it was really nice to look through and see what I had digitally created come together on paper. 

However, you don't just have to have books for individuals, they also do "The Book of Dad", "the Book of Mum" etc.  And the best part is that they come in at less than  £20 which means they're perfect for secret santa gifts as well as the ideal gift for someone who has everything!

Is this something you might consider?

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04/11/2014

Wrapping Ideas for Christmas




So Christmas is mere weeks away there is nothing quite as exciting as Christmas shopping and buying presents but for me personally, one of the best things has to be wrapping them.

Pintrest is one of my favourite time-wasting sites and you may be able to tell that a lot of inspiration has gone into wrapping these presents... Bored of the standard ribbons and wrapping paper, I turned to ebay (partially to save time traipsing around shops but partially to get the best deal...)

One of my initial ideas was to use a brown paper as the base and bakers twine (which is traditionally red and white striped) with plain brown luggage tags however I got sucked into ebay and ended up with a little bit more than initially planned...

There are loads of different variations on the plain brown wrapping paper but these snowmen were definitely my favourite - wintery without the garrish christmas colours you often find. Because of the white with the snowmen, I deterred from the traditional bakers twine towards a plain red twine which definitely looks better! The little tags were the final touch and these can be bought in shops and there are loads of different designs, one of my other favourites read "No peeking till the 25th".

I'm so pleased with the results - the presents look so cute and I'm really looking forward seeing my family unwrap them on Christmas! It was definitely cheaper to get these from eBay as they are often wholesale prices. I bought 10m of wrapping paper for £2, the tags were £1 and the twine was £2 - much cheaper than Clintons! If you're super organised, buy your wrapping paper in October because the cheapest merchants on eBay are often located in China so things take a month to ship - but you save even more postage through it! Had I been more organised, I'd have definitely done it but I now have enough wrapping paper to last me another year...

Do you put any thought into wrapping presents or is it not as important? I must admit, I didn't think it was a big deal but then Pintrest happened...

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