Healthy Pina Colada Ice lollies

I've got a bit of an obsession with pineapple and coconut at the moment, and I have been making delicious ice lollies with the simplest recipe.

Ingredients;

1 tin sliced pineapple in juice - 425g

1 sachet of coconut milk - 200ml

Simply pop it all in a blender then pour into icelolly moulds. I have been drinking any leftovers as a yummy pina colada flavoured smoothie just by adding a little water. Simple huh!? And healthy too!

I also tried a little experiment. I wanted to see which was better, tinned pineapple and packet coconut milk, or fresh pineapple and coconut. The fresh version turned out to be a bit of a disaster. Looks harmless enough right...

Well, it was pretty inedible. For starters it was nearly impossible to get the coconut open. Once I did, I realised there wasn't a lot of water in the coconut, so I decided I would try to blend in some of the coconut flesh. Big mistake! Perhaps if you had a super duper blender this would work better, but I was left with lots of little chunks of coconut, which was not a nice texture. Especially in the drink version, not good!

Packet coconut wins hands down, although I am tempted to try packet coconut with fresh pineapple, that could be a winning combination!

Have you got your ice lolly recipes out yet?

Laura xXx

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Get Conscious! - Sustainable and Ethical Clothing

Yesterday I walked into H&M on a hunt for some flipflops for my upcoming holiday. While I was there I noticed their Long Live Fashion campaign. The idea is that H&M customers bring in their unwanted clothes, for every bag they hand in they get a voucher of £5 to spend on your next purchase of £30 or more. I thought this was a fantastic idea, and am really impressed with the actions H&M is taking to make their organisation as sustainable and ethical as possible, you can see what they have been up to here. Plus, they have launched the fantastic new 'Conscious' range, supplying clothes made from sustainable fabrics. You can see some of my favourite picks from this line above!

The reason this is so interesting to me, is because about 3 years ago I made the decision to stop buying clothes from un-ethical sources.  I banned myself from shopping on the high street and only allowed myself to buy second hand clothes or from ethical clothing lines. You may ask "What led to this madness of which you speak?!"

The answer would be 2 brilliant and revealing books;

Eco-Chic by Matilda Lee

Green is the New Black by Tamsin Blanchard

Unfortunately after about a year I slipped somewhat back in to my old ways, but I want to take this opportunity to remind myself why I did it in the first place, and also make others more aware of the fashion industry and exactly what they are buying into!

At the time, I was working in the waste industry, and the most painful thing for me to see was the amount of clothing that is simply being sent to landfill! I find it unthinkable that anyone would put their clothing in the bin rather than a clothing bank/fabric bank or giving it to a charity shop. I guess it is all about awareness, and hopefully this is growing! Here are a few stats you may find interesting from eco-chic;

• 2 million shoes are thrown in UK rubbish bins every week.
• We throw away approximately 220 million black bags worth of textiles every year.
• If everyone in the uk bought 1 reclaimed woollen garment a year, it would save an average of 1.686 million litres of water and  480 tonnes of chemical dyestuffs.

Craziness no? If you are interested in the fashion industry at all, I would strongly recommend you read these books. In fact, I think everyone should read them!

From now on I am going to be aware of what I buy, waste less, try to support as many ethical businesses as I can, try to buy secondhand and maybe even try to make some clothes for myself! Why not join me in my little campaign by taking a bag of unwanted clothes to H&M, and using your £5 voucher on something from their Conscious range?

It is unrealistic to expect everyone to stop buying from their favourite clothes shops, but I think (I hope) that most people would be willing to cut down, and maybe buy from a few more ethical shops or clothing lines to show their support.

What are your views on this issue?  Do any of you buy from ethical shops or have any tips?

Laura xXx

This post was not sponsored by H&M or any other company, all views are completely my own.

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A New Venture!

Guess what? I'm finally going to open an etsy shop! And just in time for the Southampton etsy craft party too! Here is a sneak peek of some of the things I will have to offer...

The shop is not quite ready yet, but if you would like to follow me on etsy ready for when it is, you can find me here. 

I have been hunting high and low for forgotten cut glass items that I can upcycle into colourful new visions, I have been particularly fond of sourcing pretty decanters. It seems they have fallen out of fashion where pouring wine is concerned, however, as a colourful ornament or vase I think they are quite delightful!

You may have spotted a couple of my creations in my Room for Improvement post. I am keeping those ones for myself though, I have grown quite attached!

Speaking of etsy, are any of you coming to the Southampton Etsy party? Or to any of the etsy parties for that matter?  I am soooo excited, only one week to go!

Laura xXx

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Cinnamon Chocolates

I just wanted to share a very quick bit of deliciousness with you today.

After I had finished making my chocolate grapes the other day, I had some of the cocoa, vanilla sugar and cinnamon mixture left over. I also had some melted dark chocolate left, so in an effort to make sure nothing was wasted, I decided to mix it all together and see what happened! I poured the mix into some little heart shaped chocolate moulds and left them in the fridge to cool.

I wasn't sure how they would turn out, after all, you probably don't need to add more cocoa to chocolate... but they were quite yummy!  I liked the cinnamon kick, they did have a grainy texture but I liked that too. They melted pretty quickly, but they also got eaten quickly so it didn't really matter! Terrible for you of course!

Ok, back to the spinach and watercress smoothies...

Laura xXx

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Gradient Nail Art

I have seen lots of tutorials for gradient nail art recently, but they all seem to use a sponge and look rather messy. Also, I didn't really have a suitable sponge, so I found an alternative solution. This tutorial shows how to create a gradient by mixing clear varnish with your chosen colour on tin foil, and layering it over the top. Gradually you will add more of the colour to the mix so that it gets darker towards the top. 

It was a little annoying having to re-mix the varnishes for every coat, but all in all it was quite easy. I started off using a make up brush as the tutorial suggests, but I found that this dried out too quickly. So instead I started using the brush from one of my old clear polishes that I don't use any more. This worked much more smoothly.

Supplies:

• Rimmell- Peppermint
• Mavala - Pistachio
• An old clear polish
• Seche Vite top coat
• Tin foil - to mix together the varnishes

What do you think? Does it look as good as the ones that use the sponge technique?

Laura xXx

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Grape Expectations - Grape Covered Chocolate Truffles

These might look like chocolate eggs, but in actual fact they are chocolate covered grapes! You know me, I like a healthy snack, and although the coatings of these might not be all that great for you, the centre certainly is!

I had a bit of a brainwave when I heard about people freezing grapes and eating them as icy snacks. I tried them and they were great! So I thought I would try to devise a recipe that turned them into mini chocolate ice lollys (without the stick). I had grape expectations for this experiment (grape, hah, see what I did there!?)

In actual fact I think these were much nicer when they had just been refrigerated rather than frozen. To get the best flavour you have to chew them quite quickly, rather than suck them. As you can imagine this is pretty difficult when they are frozen!

I started off the experiment by sending Chris to the shops to get me a bunch of grapes, and a packet of dark chocolate. Whilst that was being taken care of, I raided the cupboards to see what I had that would work as a coating.

I re-emerged with the following ingredients

• Hundreds and Thousands
• Sesame Seeds (my healthy option)
• Cocoa Powder
• Vanilla Sugar
• Cinnamon

The hundreds and thousands and the sesame seeds were ready to roll, but I mixed the cocoa powder, cinnamon and vanilla sugar together. I'm not quite sure how much I used of each, it was mostly cocoa powder, a bit less sugar, and then a fair sprinkling of cinnamon. 

Then I found some little dishes to put each topping in. A small deep bowl is preferable to a large shallow one. I also got out a large piece of baking foil to lay my finished grapes on.

Next I got on with melting my chocolate. The usual way of boiling a pan of water and sitting a pyrex dish on top, I popped in my broken chocolate and stirred until completely melted.

Now for the fun bit! I took my washed grapes, one by one, dipped them completely in the melted chocolate, then put them straight into my coating dish. I used a spoon to pour the coating onto the top. Then I rolled it around a bit until I was sure it was covered. You want the toppings to completely cover the chocolate, otherwise the melted chocolate will just stick to the bottom of the dish and make a mess. The cocoa powder one was easiest, I just had to shake the dish and the grape would roll around on its own.

I found it best to leave them in the dish to set for a moment, so I had a little production line going on where I would do one in each coat then remove it when I got back to the first one again. At this point I carefully removed the coated grape from the dish and placed it on my tin foil, and popped them in the fridge to cool for a little while.

I have to admit, these were a bit strange to get used to, but after I'd had a few ... yum! Chris and I devoured all of these during one episode of Game Of Thrones.

My favourites were the hundreds and thousands, weirdly they tasted a lot like a toffee apple! I loved the cinnamon kick in the cocoa ones, but you definitely had to chew them, if you sucked it you would just end up with a mouth full of powder. And the sesame seed ones are great too, they will be a perfect healthy treat. They say dark chocolate is good for you right!?

Ok, they were a little bit fiddley to make, but well worth it!

I think these would be really fun at a party. I would like to see peoples expressions as they eat them and  don't get what they are expecting! A good way to trick children into eating fruit also, no?  Although I never understand children who don't like fruit, particularly grapes, I loved them as a child!

I'm trying to think of some more topping ideas now. Can you think of any that would be good?

Laura xXx

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Room for Improvement: Dining Room Make Over

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to have received an email from Money Supermarket. They asked me if I would like to take part in their Room For Improvement challenge. 

The brief? Improve a room of your choice for just £50 using whatever methods you like!

The best part? They gave each participant the £50 to do the challenge! Since Chris and I are using just one room as our bedroom, lounge, study and dining room, I decided to improve one area of it. It was a tough decision but in the end I settled on the dining area. Primarily because before there wasn't really one before, just a dining table which we didn't use! Take a look at the before and after photos, then I will tell you what I spent my money on.

BEFORE

AFTER

So we did a bit of rearranging and moved the dining table to what had previously been our lounge area.  First things first we needed some chairs. I scored 4 for just £10 at a car boot sale! (I'm only showing 2 in the pictures because we don't have room for all 4 yet) Next I had to paint them, so I went and bought a tin of Craig &; Rose 1829 Pale Mortlake Cream, from B&Q for £11.98 and got to work sanding them down. Four coats later and they were nearly finished, but I wanted to add a little bit of an accent colour. Luckily we had some light blue paint left over from another project, so I added the finishing touches! Here are the before, during and after pictures of the chairs. 

I also bought some plain white calico off of ebay, which cost £4.20 including postage.  I simply covered over the horrible brown leather effect fabric, and used a fabric staple gun on the reverse to secure.

Next up, I wanted something for the centre of the table, so I bought a cute little cut glass pot for £1 from a car boot sale. I decided to continue with the blue theme, and found some spray paint at The Range for £4.99 to match the colour on my chairs. I had a plant which I had been meaning to re-pot, so I thought he would be right at home in the centre of the dining table.

I didn't want to hang anything on the walls, since we will be moving in a few weeks time (into our very own house, yay!) But, the wall did look rather bare, so I came up with an alternative; really tall flowers! I have always loved the way the cherry blossom looks, it reminds me of beautiful Japanese paintings. So, I was rather chuffed when I found faux cherry blossom branches for £2.99 each at Dunelm Mill. I bought 3 of them, and popped them into a painted decanter which I already had.

I found a rather lovely jug in TK Maxx FOR £13, and obviously I needed to buy it to match the pretty pink cherry blossom flowers. With my last pennies I bought some wine glasses for £3.14 from Dunelm Mill, since we will definitely be needing those the day we move into our new house!

Total Spend = £57.28 (Ok, a little bit over, but not far off!)

While I was perusing my Bloglovin feed this morning I spotted a few of my bloggy friends who had also taken part in this challenge. If you fancy seeing some more ways to brighten up a room for £50 why not pop over to Claire, Rachel and Harriet's blogs.

Laura xXx

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