REVIEW: Casio watch from The Watch Hut and a little NEW house tour!

As a lot of you will know I've moved house recently, which has been both tiring and exciting. Packing everything up, hiring a van and moving it all has been exhausting but the unpacking and decorating of our new house has been very exciting. It's amazing how the same 'stuff' can look completely different when it's in a new house! So as part of this post I thought I'd show you some little snippets of our new house, not everything's unpacked yet, so I can't do a proper tour yet.

 

Since moving house and not having a watch I've realised how much I rely on either technology or other people for the time. The day we moved into this house and out of our previous house I was constantly in need of knowing the time. We had a lot of time restraints to keep to, whether it be the 10am meeting with the estate agents to sign the contract, 11am meeting the landlord to get the keys, doing the inventory for our previous house at 4pm or 8am when the van needed to be returned. Time was definitely of the essence that day! But having no watch meant I was constantly badgering other people for the time, not exactly ideal!

 

 

This got me thinking about all of the moments within a normal day I need to know the time and it's a surprising amount! So when The Watch Hut kindly offered to send me the Casio Ladies Silver Tone Digital Watch (RRP £27.50 but buying it at The Watch Hut will only cost you £17.99, see here) I really started to notice how much I had needed a watch for a while. We all live busy lives and time is definitely of the essence, so why waste time routing through your bag for your phone to find out the time when you can have a watch! I know it sounds so simple but for some reason, I never did!

 

 

This Casio Ladies Digital Watch is perfect for everyday wear, it's lightweight, durable and stylish (I especially love the retro feel of it!) The fact it's water resistant is ideal for someone like me, one session of washing up and I'd ruin a watch that wasn't water resistant! It also features an alarm and date display, this is honestly the most perfect watch for my job/life. I'm always needing to know the date and (unfortunately) I have to set an alarm everyday for work! To show how many different times you would need to know the time I did a little walk through in my house, so this doesn't include the life we all lead away from our homes.

 

This is a typical working day...

 

Alarm going off at 6am, the mad rush to get ready and get out of the house for around 6.50am begins.

 

Applying my make up usually begin around 6.15am. I constantly have to be checking the time in the morning, especially when I poke myself in the eye with mascara or my hair just will not cooperate!

 

On to my hair, straightening my hair takes around 10 minutes, taking me to about 6.30am.

 

After some breakfast I'll try and head out of the door at 6.50am, although I'm often later!

 

I'll get into my car and drive the 1 hour 15 minutes to work. I don't mind the drive but I'm not a fan of the numerous country lanes on my journey!

 

 I'll get back home from work anything between 5pm and 7pm and will start cooking dinner. Always need to be keeping an eye on the time as me and Tom have different meals (I'm a vegetarian), so everything is being cooked at different times.



 

 Finally, sit down and watch some tv. If I'm back before 6.30pm I'll watch Hollyoaks and then 'First Look' Hollyoaks, of course I need to know the time to know what's on tv!

 

 

 

Then I'll either have a bath or shower, this is usually around 9pm as I'm so tired! I know, so rock and roll!

I might then fake tan, this Cocoa Brown self tan takes 1 hour to develop so I need to know the time I apply it. Wouldn't want any streaks!

 

 

 Last but not least I will get into bed and paint my nails, once again timing how long since I painted the last coat to make sure they're totally dry before snuggling down to sleep.

 

All those times I have needed a watch in the past, honestly having a Casio watch from The Watch Hut has made my life easier in the fact that I don't have to spend ages rooting around for the time anymore :)

 

Do you like to know the time or prefer to 'go with the flow'?

 

Feel free to leave me a comment :)

 

RECIPE: Healthy Fish Finger Sandwich with Homemade Minted Mushy Peas

I can't tell you how excited I am about the kitchen in our new house! It's everything I want in a kitchen and more. In our last kitchen there was only one cupboard for food, so we had to have it stacked at the end of the corridor, not exactly ideal. There also wasn't any surface space, the electric hob was pretty much all of the surface space there was! So my delight when unpacking food, saucepans, trays etc into a cupboard when we moved to this house was almost uncontrollable! I know, probably a little bit sad, but I don't care. I absolutely love cooking and just haven't wanted to in our old kitchen, so I've made a 'New House Resolution' to cook more and eat healthier meals.

 

My first 'healthy' meal in our new house is a great alternative to a classic fish finger sandwich. Now as a vegetarian who doesn't eat fish, you may think this was a strange choice but I'm always cooking meat/fish for Tom and I thought I'd try this one out for him. It can be such a hassle cooking two completely different meals every night but its all we've ever known and does mean that all of Tom's fussy eating doesn't hinder my enjoyment (he doesn't like cheese, I mean WHO doesn't like cheese?!)

 

This recipe is so quick and easy, using minimal ingredients. Infact when I cooked this we didn't have a fridge, so everything I bought that evening and used up that evening too! (Well almost, a whole bag of frozen peas was a bit of a challenge but we both had a good go!)

 

You'll need:

Plaice fillets (1-2 per person), I bought these pre-packed from a supermarket but you could get them from the fish counter too

Frozen Peas

Bread Rolls (1-2 per person)

Can of potatoes (1 can for 2-3 people)

Plain Flour

Fresh Mint

Vegetable Stock Powder

Paprika

Chilli Flakes

Black Pepper

 

(I haven't included measurements for two reasons, one it doesn't really matter and two because it's completely to your taste).

 

What to do:

 

Take a humble can of potatoes, they are so cheap and would have been a can I would have walked past in the supermarket. Growing up I had never tried canned potatoes but Tom introduced me to this way of cooking them and they are simply divine, with their crispy outer shell and melt in the mouth middle, it's a winning combination. Drain the potatoes and cut each potato into two or three, depending on the size. Keep a couple of the potatoes behind for the mushy peas later.  

 

 

 

Place them into a frying pan (non-stick works best) with either a splash of oil or a couple of sprays of Fry-Light and leave them to bubble away nicely.  

 

 

Next, take the plaice fillets and put them onto some greaseproof paper, this just makes seasoning them a lot easier. You generally buy them with the skin on but if you aren't a fan of the skin, as Tom isn't, then once you've cooked the skin side the skin is a lot easier to peel off. Trying to do it when the fish is raw can be quite challenging, especially as plaice is such a flat fish.

 

 

Sprinkle the fillets with as much paprika, crushed chilli flakes and black pepper as you like. Then turn them over and do the same on the other side.

 

 

Take some plain flour and sprinkle this over both sides of the fish fillets. This helps create a crispy shell to the fish, without all of the fat and calories in batter. 

 

 

At this point you want to check your frying potatoes, give them a good turn trying to ensure that all of the potatoes are turned over. Then leave them alone and let them cook away. 

 

 

 

 

On to making the mushy peas, to be honest mushy peas are so easy to make that I don't know why I don't make them more often. The steaming peas, flecked with red chilli and black pepper is so enticing on a cold autumn evening. To create a creamy texture I add a couple of the canned potatoes to the boiling water first. Once blitzed up this makes a nice creamy texture, without adding as many calories as something like cream.

 

 

Boil the potatoes, fresh mint and vegetable stock for around 10 minutes before adding the frozen peas. Once 10 minutes has lapsed, add in the frozen peas and cook for around 8 minutes. 

 

Take your bread rolls, I opted for a wholemeal and seeded roll for Tom but it's completely up to you. Pop them into the oven, this allows them to crisp up on the outside and be all steamy and warm on the inside.

 

Once the peas are cooked partially drain them, you don't want too much liquid going into the food processor otherwise you'll end up with a pea soup, and put it all into a food processor/liquidiser.

 

 

 

Blitz until the consistency you want is achieved, if you want a rougher consistency then only do short bursts of blitzing, if you want a smoother consistency then you can blitz it for longer.

 

 

Finally fry the fish on both sides in a small amount of oil, for approximately 3-4 minutes each side or until cooked all the way through. I cooked the skin side first, so that when I turned it over I could easy peel the skin off. I sprinkled some more paprika, flour and black pepper over the newly exposed side and quickly fried that side again.

 

 

Serve the fresh fish fillets in the bread rolls with the potatoes and minted mushy peas on the side. Delicious, or so I'm told!

 

 

Are you going to have a go at this healthier alternative?

 

Feel free to leave me a comment :)

 

HALLOWEEN: Zombie Makeover

As Halloween is quickly approaching I thought I'd do a post on a rather scary zombie makeover look that's perfect for Halloween! This is actually what I look like when I wake up in the morning, such a stunner!

 

But if you'd like to create this rather scary look you'll only need 4 products: black eyeliner, black eye shadow, white eye shadow and red lipstick. I just used cheap make up that wasn't really that great, after all this isn't exactly a polished finish!

 

 

 

I used white eye shadow powder to make my face as white as I possibly could. I then used a kohl black eyeliner to smudge around my eyes, to make the 'smudge' larger I used some black eye shadow. Then the fun part starts, get your red lipstick and smear it all over the bottom quarter of your face and draw a line on your forehead (like a cut) and smudge it all!   

 

I did all of this with my fingers, as it's really messy and I didn't want to ruin any of my brushes!

The really awkward thing was that just after I finished creating this look the postman knocked on my door!! I have never scrubbed my face so hard and so quickly, I literally poured eye make up remover over my face! I don't know how I managed it but I did get downstairs to receive the parcel! I just hope the postman didn't notice my ridiculously red face, partially wet hair and streaming eyes! 

 

Are you going to be dressing up this Halloween?

 

Feel free to leave me a comment :)

 

WINS: #1

As I've mentioned previously on my blog I go through episodes of entering loads of competitions. Prior to working full time I was entering hundreds of competitions a day! After about a year I had won over £3500 of prizes - so it's well worth entering competitions if you have time. It is very time consuming, hence why I've had to stop entering as many now I'm working full time. A while ago now I wrote a blog post about tips for entering competitions - see here - if you'd like to know where to start :)

 

After having a horrible meal at my local Pizza Hut, I complained and they sent me a £25 Gift Card. When a meal or restaurant experience isn't what I'd expect then I often complain, I work hard for my money and don't plan on wasting it on meals that a substandard. I'd recommend complaining if you have an unpleasant experience at a restaurant (which hopefully shouldn't be very often). Restaurants often welcome feedback and how can they improve if they don't know what's wrong?

 

 

 

I won this cute noticeboard (RRP £16.99) from Rosey Rose Facebook page (go check it out here - there's every material design you could ever wish for!). It's a medium size notice board and I was given the opportunity to choose which ever fabric I wanted - how lucky?! I chose this Cath Kidston Shooting Star fabric, as I thought it would be perfect for my niece's bedroom.

 

 

This is a product I've wanted to try for such a long time - a Tangle Teezer Elite (RRP £10.99)! I won this from Black Beauty & Hair on Twitter (@BlackBeautyMag) and am really excited to try it out!

 

 

This is a gorgeous Barbour Picnic Rug (RRP £50) and family day pass to any National Trust location (RRP £40). Barbour have been running a '100 days of Summer', where they were giving away 100 prizes of 100 days! @Barbour were asking people to tweet in pictures of BBQ food/summer days as part of this competition. I tweeted a picture and luckily won!

 

 

I got this Renshaw Flower & Modelling Paste (RRP £2.60) for free, as a reward for filling in a lengthy survey!

 

 

I won this Funkin' Party Park (RRP £15) from their *Your Bay Your Rules* competition on Twitter.

 

 

This is a more random prize, as I'm actually a vegetarian but I won 48 Angus Beef Burgers (RRP £50). I won this from the KK Catering Twitter page.

 

Do you enter competitions?

 

Feel free to leave me a comment :)

 

NAILS: Cath Kidston Inspired

This nail art is inspired by Cath Kidston, I love having flowery nails as almost everything I own has some kind of floral print!

Firstly, I painted my nails with Miss Sporty Quick Dry. I love the vibrant blue colour, perfect for brightening up these rainy days recently! I then used the Poundland white nail art pen to create the polka dot effect. If you don't have a nail art pen with a fine nib just use a cocktail stick, (carefully) snap off the end so that there isn't a point (this helps with even application). Dip into any white nail varnish and dot onto the nails. I try and do this step quickly after applying the blue nail varnish, so that the white dots 'sink' into the blue, creating a more even finished look.  

 

Next I used MUA nail varnish in Shade 3 to create 3 larger dots on my fourth fingernail. But you can use any darker nail varnish you have: purple's and pink's generally work best.

 

While the darker nail varnish is still wet add a paler colour into the middle, this time I used a white. Quickly use a cocktail stick or nail art tool to swirl the darker and lighter colour nail varnish together, making sure that you don't make the circle any bigger.  

 

Then I added some leaves to the flowers using ASDA Nail Polish in Aqua 23. I have used a glittery green nail varnish before for a more sparkly finish.  

 

Here's the finished look:

 

 

What do you think?

 

Feel free to leave me a comment :)

 

 

Brand New Soap & Glory - FIRMINATOR!

Being a Bride to Be comes with a whole load of 'worries' I wasn't anticipating. Not only is there the socially imposed 'Brides to Be Diet' but then there's the pressure of looking the best you've ever looked on your wedding day. I've already started trying to find products that will take any/all of these worries away from me, so when I was kindly sent the brand new Soap & Glory Firminator (£12 from here) to try out I ticked off 'the arms' off the concern list!

 

 

Firstly, how amazing is this packaging?! Certainly won't be missed on a shop shelf! Now I have an issue with my arms, I'm convinced they are absolutely hideous and really are one of the parts of my body I try to hide. I tend to wear cardigans, even when its really hot. Wedding dress shopping doesn't exactly lend itself to a cardigan, so I've had to get my arms out a lot more than usual. Initially I was planning on finding a wedding dress that had 3/4 lace sleeves, as I don't like my arms that much! But there really aren't many designers that design this style (that I could find anyway!), I was therefore left with no choice but to try the more traditional strapless style dresses. I have to admit I didn't find the experience as hideous as I thought I would but I think that was thanks to this product...

 

 

 

It doesn't just tone it also exfoliates, I have poor circulation and the exfoliating nature of this product has really helped to increase the blood flow to my arms, therefore creating a healthier colour. Occasionally I would get those little red bumps on the back of my arms but since using the Firminator I haven't - amazing!

 

 

Aren't we all self conscious about a certain area of our bodies?

 

Feel free to leave a comment :)

 



Wedding Planning Update ♥

As you'll probably know by now, I'm getting married next year! When we first got engaged (back in May) there was a big flurry of sorting out the key things we wanted at our wedding. We had spent many evenings chatting about what our wedding would look like when it came around to it (I say we but it was probably mostly me!). So we were prepared with ideas of what we wanted, as the summer is the main wedding season there weren't any wedding fayre's/shows to go to. We eventually found an event happening up near Sheffield, which showcased a giant Tipi. As a result of that event we did in fact book our tipi's with that company, one thing ticked off the list!

 (Photo Credit)
 

The next thing we had to tackle was where we were going to put the Tipi, just like a marquee, you need somewhere to put two giant tipi's (they take up as much space as a full size tennis court). We settled on having it at the golf club Tom has played at all his life and his Grandparents still go there almost everyday. It holds a special place in a lot of people's hearts on Tom's side of the family, which is lovely. So we booked that and the place we are actually going to get married/stay the night of the wedding. We've also made and sent out our Save the Date's (see them here), it was funny as a lot of people we gave them to weren't sure what they were for! Especially the older generation, bless them :) After a lot of trial and error we have settled on a wedding invitation design, as we're making these ourselves too. We were aiming to get them all made before we have to move house, but did we? Nope!

 

We did all of this during June/July/August and haven't really done much else since! I've been told that's what wedding planning is life, lots of big rushes and then time lapses and nothing needs to be/has been done.

(Photo Credit)

 

Our next venture is going to be organising the catering, as they will get booked up for next summer. We think we've found a lovely catering company but we need to find some free time (does anyone know where some free time is!?) to have a proper sit down chat with them and more importantly taste their food! I also need to order my dress soon, as you have to have them ordered at least 6 months before your wedding! I think I know the one I want but the price tag is putting me off slightly, why do they have to be SO expensive?! I very much have a devil/angel situation in my head, part of me thinks well it is your wedding day and it's never going to happen again but another part of me is thinking what else I could do with that money and to be honest it's far too much!

 (Photo Credit)
 

Ohhh I don't know what to do....

 

Has anyone else had this argument with yourself about a dress/item of clothing?

 

Feel free to leave a comment - I'd love to know what you think :)