Sass & Belle...

If by now you haven't realised that I am a lover of all things shabby chic and vintage then you haven't been paying much attention! ;)

As I share my house with my husband I haven't been able to fill every room with gorgeous trinkets and treasures as I have to make room for "boy" stuff too (like model cars and airfix! lol)

Fortunately I have been able to sneak in pieces here and there from a lovely place called Sass & Belle and our boudoir is slowly but surely turning into my girly paradise!

With some lovely photo trickery from Instagram I can show which lovely pieces of theirs I have and what is going onto my Christmas wishlist this year!

The first two photos are of my Molly Vintage Owl who guards my bed whilst we aren't there! The second two photos are of my Mr & Mrs  & Love white shabby chic signs which were used at our wedding in June. Everyone loved the Mr & Mrs sign which sat on the top table and commented on how lovely it looked. The signs now take pride of place on my dressing table to remind me of our special day. The bottom two photos are of my May metal jewellery holder which sits on my chest of drawers and holds all my earrings, necklaces and bracelets. I love the cute bird design!

Unfortunately being on the South Coast, i've not been lucky enough to visit one of their stores in London, but luckily they offer free delivery on orders over £35 (which, let's face it, isn't hard to do after looking at all the lovely things on their website!) Next time I go to London i'll definitely be popping in and probably popping out with handfuls of stuff!

Finally, here are the items which are going on my christmas wish list this year (so hubby if you're reading this - take note!)

1/ 2/ 3/ 4

Thanks for looking :)

Renshaw Snip & Swirl Icing

As I've mentioned in some of my previous baking posts, I've been having a little trouble perfecting my buttercream icing on my cupcakes, well I came up with a solution - cheat! 

I popped into my local Lakeland store and came out with Renshaw's Snip & Swirl. I chose the chocolate flavour as my husband wanted me to make chocolate cupcakes for his work colleagues and I was happy to oblige!

Inside is a plastic piping bag pre filled with the flavour of icing of your choice, they currently do chocolate, vanilla and strawberry varieties. Along the bottom is a cutting guideline so you can either create a swirl or a star design on top of your cupcake. I chose the swirl design and cut across the bag so it created the effect I wanted.

The instructions on the back of the box are really easy to follow. All you have to do it gently massage the piping bag first, then snip the bag for your prefered design and then just swirl on top of your cake!

For a novice baker like me, it was a little tricky at first, but when I managed to hold the bag so I could get the right grip I was well on my way! The texture is thick and fudge topping like and it flows really well (it's also very moreish - I loved squeezing the last bits from the bag straight into my mouth!) I decided to decorate them with a button on the top so I ended up squashing the swirls but I'm still happy with how they turned out!

I love this product and will definitely be trying out the other flavours soon, it saved me so much time and instead of getting frustrated with my buttercream not turning our right, I was able to enjoy icing my cakes.

Have you tried this type of icing before? What was your opinion?

Things i'm loving this week...

Beauty Review - L'Oreal Million Lashes Mascara

A few years ago I used to work at Boots and loved when we used to get new cosmetics in, I've tried numerous mascaras from budget to high end and always struggled to find one I liked.

I used to settle for No7 mascara mainly because as an employee I used to get 25% off and I was a poor student but I found that they went dry really quickly and went crusty all around the top! Not great!

With my trip to London coming up, I decided to buy a few essential cosmetics, I follow L'Oreal cosmetics on Facebook and Twitter and had seen posts about their new Million Lashes Mascara so decided to give it a try. Firstly I went to Boots as they had a 3 for 2 offer on but they didn't have to other product I went in to get (the new smokey eyes eyeshadow palette, review post to follow) so nipped across the road to Superdrug. I managed to get both the products I wanted and even better they were buy one get one half price so I managed to save a few pennies (great with Christmas fast approaching!).

So here it is...

 I've never been able to get to grips with mascaras with big brushes - I usually end up getting it all over my eye but this brush has an anti clump wiper inside to wipe off all the excess before you put it to your face!

It's easy to apply and dries quickly so you can add more coats (perfect if you're always in a hurry like me!)

I also love the packaging, its bright and easy to find in my make up bag.

Here's how it looks on...

I think it makes my lashes look so long!

Have you tried this mascara? What are your thoughts?

Pretty Cupcakes!

I'm having a bit of a cupcake obsession at the moment, not that anyone is minding as my husband, his work colleagues and my work colleagues are getting to try everything I make! Unfortunately it isn't ending there though - I love all things cupcake, books, stationary, photos etc!

I've been experimenting with different receipes to try and find the perfect one and this time is definitely my best attempt so far.

I've been working on the icing which I've been finding really difficult to get right. That includes my piping technique, my mum bought me a Lakeland's silicone piping bag and so far its the best one i've used. It comes with different nozzles so you can make your desired effect. This time I went for the star nozzle and piped the buttercream in a swirl. I then popped some sugarpaste flowers and little butterflies on the top and sprinkled a little bit of edible pink glitter over them to give them a pretty fairy like finish!

What do you think?

Vintage Tea Party Magazine Issue 1

My mum picked me up this magazine from her local Tesco's as she thought i'd like it. It's by the same company that made Cake Decorating which I started collecting a few months ago. I usually like to get the first couple of issues of these types of magazines but then usually give up and buy a proper baking book because they end up costing quite a lot of money for free gifts that you can usually buy cheaper online or in shops. 

This one caught my mum's eye because of the lovely cake stand that comes with the first issue. Plus the first issue was only £1.99. When I opened it up, I realised that only half of the cake stand is there and the other half comes with issue 3 which is out in November although I think the stand still looks quite nice with just one level and I'd happily use it to display my cakes on.

The normal price of the magazine is £5.99 so I will probably get the third issue as in total it would only cost £8 for the stand. Its made out of really pretty china and has a lovely painted patten on.

The magazine is pretty basic which makes it easy to follow but if you already have some basic baking skills then you probably don't need to look at it. There is a recipe for Victoria Sponge and another for Strawberry Cupcakes.

First tier of my cake stand

Pretty floral design

Overall, I like the design of the magazine and the colours and vintage feel but I don't think it will be something that I'll continue to collect - you can't beat a good old recipe book!

Fashion Awards Goody Bag!

As promised in my last post here are the contents of my goodybag which I received from the Fabulous Magazine High Street Fashion Awards!

I was so excited to receive this when I left as I wasn't expecting it at all (although I'd secretly hoped!) as soon as we were on the train home I had a rummage and just kept pulling out lovely products - most of which were things I actually wanted to try!

Here is what I received!

Limited edition Eylure eyelashes in London Calling to celebrate their 65 year anniversary

Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream which is a multi tasking cream that soothes, restores, calms and helps relieve chapped, cracked, dry skin and smoothes roughness, redness and minor skin irritations.

 Nip + Fab Frown Fix. The concentrated formula plumps + smoothes the appearance of expression lines, fine lines + wrinkles; hydrating + moisturising skin to leave your face smooth + instantly younger.

 Nail Rock designer nail wraps - black dots on white. Can't wait to try these!

 
Rimmel Scandal Eyes mascara in black, Scandal Eyes kohl pencil in black and Precious Stones Nail Glitter

And finally....a Green & Blacks chocolate bar and can of Diet Coke!

I love everything I received in my goody bag and I can't wait to try it all out!

Competition Win - Fabulous Magazine High Street Fashion Awards 2012

I was really lucky to win a trip to the Fabulous Magazine High Street Fashion Awards 2012 in London Leicester Square a few weeks ago. I decided to take my sister Hannah along as she is studying Fashion Photography at University and thought it would be a good opportunity to see what the event was like and maybe even meet a few celebrities!

We caught the train to London in the afternoon and went straight to Leicester Square to see where the venue was. It was being held in an amazing club called DSTRKT which we later found out boasts Lewis Hamilton, Rita Ora and Rhianna as previous guests!

When we arrived we were offered free champagne and canapes, little did we know that all the drinks were free! So we grabbed some cocktails! They tasted really good!

The event was sponsored by Rimmel cosmetics and there were five make over stands where there were Rimmel ladies on hand to do you make up or nails. I chose to have my nails painted and had a lovely plum metallic colour. I'm definitely going to have to try and find it in the shops!

We were already having a great time but then what made it even better was that we found out that Keith Lemon was going to be hosting the awards! I love watching him on Celebrity Juice! He was just as funny and crude in real life as he is on the TV!

The awards were all given out (you can see a list of all the results here) and then it was the afterparty! DJ Neev from Kiss FM was on the decks and her set was really good!

While we were on the dancefloor we bumped into several celebs! My sister was so excited to meet Lydia from TOWIE and we also saw Danielle Lloyd! Silver olympic medallist Gemma Gibbons was there too and Tom Gearing from The Apprentice

There was also a vintage photobooth set up by The Photo Emporium where we had some photos taken with props! I chose a moustache and bowler hat and Hannah had a frame and giant red lips! Apparently they will be posting the photos online soon, I'll post them here when they're up!

When we left we were also given an amazing goody bag full of lovely things, including Rimmel make up and other skincare goodies and yummy treats! I'll be doing another post on the contents of my goody bag so look out for that!

We had an amazing time and its definitely been the best competition win yet!

Me and my sister Hannah!

Free drinks...yes please!

Hannah and Lydia from TOWIE

Keith Lemon - Sha-ting!!

My goodybag!!

Things I Love...