March Review

In Life

The most exciting thing that has happened this month is this!  We've also got on well with our wedding planning and have recently booked our photographer. It's all happening!

What We Watched

Due Date - Starring Robert Downey Junior, and the crazy guy from The Hangover, this film was pretty funny, I enjoyed it
Goon - Sean William Scott plays a complete contrast to his American Pie character in this film. A sensitive guy, ironically a bouncer, who then ends up playing semi pro ice hockey. He can't skate, but he throws a mean punch! Not one I thought I would particularly like, but this is actually quite a sweet film despite its agressive subject matter!

Oz the great and powerful- I'm quite a fan of the original Wizard of Oz, so this was a great one to see at the cinema.  It tells the story of how the Wizard ended up in Oz,  and became the wizard! I found that it honoured the original well, starting in black and white, and changing to glorious colour once he reached Oz. It's got a great cast too.
Cockneys vs Zombies- This was a pretty standard British Zombie film, although it was no Shaun of the Dead!
The Promotion - Another Sean William Scott film. This time he plays alongside John C Reilly competing for a promotion (of course). A nice friday night film
Back to the Future and Back to the Future 3 - These are such classic films, although I definitely need to watch Back to the Future 2 now!

The Walking Dead - We are most excited about the season finale airing in America on Sunday.  If you like zombie films and you haven't watched this series yet I suggest you check it out, it is awesome!

What I Read

Trash - A wonderful book! You can read the full review here
Jamrachs Menagerie - I bought this after Amazon recommended it to me as similar to The Night Circus. It was not at all what I expected!  It is about a boy, Jaffy, who escapes the slums of Victorian London with a chance encounter of a Tiger and his owner, Jamrach! However, the story takes a rather unexpected turn when Jaffy goes off to sea to hunt for a Dragon, and the ship sinks! I won't tell you what happens in case you want to read it, but be warned, it is not for the faint hearted!

In Blog Land

This was the month of the Cambridge Blogger Meet or #CamBlogMeet. It was fantastic and we were given a wonderful goodie bag each. I can't wait for the next blogger meet up! I may even be organising one myself so watch this space!

This month I have also done 17 posts in total, that is the most I have ever done in a month, yay for March!

My Favourite Posts

SATCHEL REVAMP - BEFORE AND AFTER

DIY - COLOURFUL HAIR GRIPS

HEALTHY SMOOTHIES - WATERCRESS BLUEBERRY AND PINEAPPLE

JOULES SPONSORED POST

KITTY NAIL ART

DIY TUTORIAL - CUSTOMISED JUMPER

Laura xXx 

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Exciting News!

Guess what?  Yesterday we put an offer on a lovely little house, and today it was accepted! I did a little watercolour painting of it to commemorate the event. We are very excited and crossing our fingers that it all goes smoothly.  Chris and I are going to TGI Friday's tonight to celebrate, yippee!

Laura xXx

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DIY Tutorial - Customised Jumper using Fabric Paints

If you follow me on twitter you may know that Chris and I are hunting for our first house at the moment. To help us in our quest I decided to make a lucky house hunting jumper! (Of course)

A little while ago the people at The Works gave me a voucher to spend in their store! Yippee! Among the crafty bits and bobs I chose was a set of fabric paints. This gave me the perfect excuse to put my crafty hat on and try my hand a DIYing my own jumper.

Supplies:

• A jumper
• Fabric Paint
• Some fabric transfers of your choice
• Pins
• An Iron

First up, pick out a cute design. Mine came out of 'The Bumper Book of Embroidery Transfers'. This is authentically vintage as it was my mums and it's got to date back to the early nineties at least! 

Pin your designs upside down to your jumper.  Try to avoid using the pretty pins with little coloured plastic bobbles on the top. I used these once and the iron will melt them very quickly onto your lovely jumper, and that probably isn't the kind of unique design you were going for.

So, once you have them pinned securely in place you want to carefully iron over each design. You can peel back the corner of the transfers to see how well they have taken, if they are missing areas or are not dark enough then just iron a little more! Once you are happy that the whole design has been transferred you can unpin them.  

Now get your fabric paints and start painting! You can see above how the transfer came out (the lighter areas of the design) and the areas I have started to paint. In the end I decided to just use the black paint, but i might add some pretty colours at a later date.

I found that the nib of the paint a little too large for the intricate designs of my pattern, so i resorted to using my nail tools to do the job, but they actually worked quite well! Although it made it a little more time consuming than i would have liked.

I think it turned out pretty good, what do you think? I'm not sure how the paint will wash yet, but it looks like it will hold up well. If my new lucky house jumper helps me to find a house like that one then I shall be very happy! Well, I can dream! Wish us luck!

Laura xXx

P.S As I am posting this Chris is putting in an offer on a house we went to see this morning, eep! 

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Book Club - Trash by Andy Mulligan

“People say to me, 'I guess you just never know what you'll find, sifting through rubbish! Today could be your lucky day. ” 

In a way, 'Trash' by Andy Mulligan is an adventure story. Three boys out to uncover a mystery, much like the Famous Five!  But instead of living in a quaint little English Village, these boys live in the squats of Behala. Sifting through other peoples rubbish to find anything worth money.

Behind the adventure and excitement of the story is the stark reality of the terrible conditions in which some people live. The book also focuses heavily on police and government corruption, exposing how difficult it is for people in this situation to get out. Of course this is a fictional book, but we have all seen the appeals on the television, children on rubbish dumps living in squalor. This is real! And I feel that Mulligan does a good job of bringing the situation to life in his book.

“I  learned that the world revolves around money. There are values and virtues and morals; there are relationships and trust and love---and all of that is important. Money, however, is more important and it is dripping all the time, like precious water. Some drink deep; others thirst. Without money, you shrivel and die. The absence of money is drought in which nothing can grow. Nobody knows the value of water until they've lived in a dry, dry place---like Behala. So many people, waiting for the rain ” 

The book serves as the diary of the events which occur after one of the boys, Raphael, finds a bag on the rubbish dump. Unbeknownst to him, what is inside the bag is very valuable information which the police are in high pursuit of, and which eventually leads Raphael and his two friends into danger and onto adventure! 

 I really enjoyed the way that the book was narrated, split up between the 3 boys, each taking their turn to tell their part of the tale.  Occasionally we would hear from other characters too, helping to give a fully rounded account of events.   

“It fell into my hand: a small leather bag, zipped up tight and covered in coffee-grounds. Unzipping it I found a wallett. Next to that a folded up map - and inside the map, a key.” 

It didn't take me long to read this book, partly because it wasn't very long and partly because I couldn't put it down! I was rooting for the main characters the whole way through, and was pleased when good was finally able to  triumph over evil. I always love it when a book has a satisfying conclusion! 

“With the right key you can bust the door wide open. Because nobody's going to open it for you.” 

 Laura xXx

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Healthy Smoothie - Watermelon and Strawberry

As you may know I have started a little series on some healthy smoothie recipes. Last week I shared my recipe for a watercress, blueberry and pineapple. Today's smoothie is watermelon and strawberry. Here are some of the benefits of these ingredients---

Watermelon is great for your heart, its a great source of potassium and helps muscle and nerve function and it can ease inflammation among other things!

Strawberries can help lower blood pressure, they are great for your bones and eyes, and generally contribute to a healthy immune system.

 Ingredients:

• 3 cups chopped watermelon
• 2 cups strawberries
• 1/2 cup water
• Agave Syrup or honey to taste

This recipe makes just enough for 3 large glasses. Chop it all up, throw it in the blender and serve chilled. This would have been a really easy one to make had it not been for all those pesky seeds in the watermelon. It did take a little while to get them all out, but once they were it was quick as a flash. I actually used frozen strawberries for this one, which made it even quicker!  I imagine this one would be great for after a workout, especially in the summer as it was really refreshing!

Laura xXx

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Kitty Nail Art

I wanted to share something very cute with you today. These are teeny tiny cat nail transfers which the lovely Harriet Gray was sweet enough to send to me.  I was very excited when these were delivered on saturday and had to try them out straight away! Here's how they turned out:

Pretty sweet huh? As well a selection of kitten designs there were also some cute little hearts included.

There is a limited amount available in Harriet's shop now, so I suggest you scoot on over pretty quick if you want to snag some for yourself.  You will also find lots of other lovely goodies with these kitten designs on, as well as other cute animals. I think these temporary kitten tattoos and this iphone case are my favourites.

Just in case you were interested the nail varnish I have used as a base coat is Barry M Peach Melba.

Thumbs up to these Harriet!

Laura xXx

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How to Make Your Own Fruit Crisps

I've always wanted to try making my own fruit crisps, so while I'm on my week off I decided it would be a perfect activity. We are lucky enough to be living in a house with an Aga at the moment so I thought I would take full advantage. The coolest area in the Aga is perfect for drying fruit. 

I decided to start easy with just apples and Bananas. I chopped them up, cored the apples and spread them on one of those reuseable baking sheets. 

I left them in for nearly 7 hours in total. When I took them out I was a bit worried I had left them too long, but actually I think they were just right. I'm excited to try some other fruits now. Mango, pineapple and papaya are all on my list!

Laura xXx

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