Nails, Nails and more Nails!

It's nearly been three weeks since my last nail post, I've been getting withdrawal symptoms! So I thought that today I would share with you the nail design I came up with for our Etsy Party. The photos are by Rachel who captured them on the day, you can see the rest of her post on the awesome Etsy party here. 

Supplies;

• Rimmel Lasting Finish - 704 - Sweet as sugar
• Rimmel Lycra Pro - 600 - Peppermint
• Rimmel 60 Seconds - 840 - Blue eyed girl
• Nail Stickers

I really loved this colour combo, not least because it matched my outfit on the day! Some of which you can see in the photo below. No matter how many other nail varnishes I try I always seem to end up coming back to Rimmel. I do think they are great quality varnishes for the price of them.

Speaking of our Etsy party, I had some pretty serious competition for most fabulous nails going on, check out these beauties (which I also stole from Rachel's blog)...

The red and gold triangles are Rachel's, the watermelon nails are Rosie's, and I don't know whose the sparkly gold ones belong to,  but if anyone can tell me I'll give you a biscuit!

Laura xXx

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Healthy Wheat Free Turkey Burger Recipe

Last week I came up with an idea for a healthy, wheat free, turkey burger. And it was pretty yummy! So here's the recipe...

Ingredients;

Burger

• 400g Lean Turkey Mince
• 2 Cloves Garlic
• 1 or 2 tsp Ground Cumin
• Chopped coriander

Crust

• 2 Slices Wheat Free Bread
• Pepper and Salt to taste
• 2 eggs
• Olive oil

Toppings

• Avocado
• Tomato
• Crushed Garlic (probably not a whole one! Just a little bit)
• Coriander
• Lettuce
• Small amount of finely chopped onion

Start off by getting your hands dirty. Crush your garlic cloves into your mince and add the cumin and finely chopped corriander. Mix it all together with your (clean) hands until you think it is even throughout the mixture.  Ball up the mixture then flatten to make the burgers. I made 4 regular sized burgers and 2 mini ones out of this mixture.  Then put them in the fridge to set for an hour or so.

Meanwhile you can make the crust. Get your wheat free bread, preferably a bit stale, but if not just pop them in the toaster for a bit. Then put them in the blender until it has turned into breadcrumbs. Add a little salt and pepper and put this mixture in a shallow bowl. Take another bowl and break 2 eggs in it, then mix together.

Take your burgers out of the fridge. Heat some olive oil in a pan. Dip your burgers in the egg, and then in the breadcrumbs. Now pop on your pan and turn over when nicely browned on one side.

While these are cooking you can make your topping. Take your avocado, chopped tomato, onion, garlic and coriander and mix together in a bowl.

When the burgers are cooked assemble in your bun with a lettuce leaf and your avocado mixture. I also made some sweet potato chips by covering them in oil and baking them in the oven.

This meal felt really satisfying and like I was eating something naughty, but really it is pretty super healthy!  Plus the breadcrumbs were delicious and I don't think you would have been able to tell they were wheat free at all!

This would have been great without the bun too to be honest, and that would have been even healthier!

What are your favourite wheat free meals?

Laura xXx

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Etsy Craft Party Southampton!

Yesterday was the much talked about Southampton Etsy Craft Party, or #SCP as it was dubbed on twitter.

Oh my! Where to start? Rachel from OhNoRachio and Harriet hosted the days events. We really were in for a treat, fantastic decorations, yummy food, crafty supplies to keep us entertained and gifts a plenty, we were in our element! These girls done good!

It was lovely to see a few familiar faces, as well as meeting lots of new crafty friends. Spending the day with lots of likeminded people was fantastic, and I think everyone had a brilliant time!

Above you can see pictures of the prize draw table. Due to the fact that there were so many wonderful sponsors who donated items, everyone got to go away with a prize!  I don't think anyone could have been disappointed, they were all lovely!

I won some super pretty paper straws and a jar of yummy sweeties from the The Sweet Hostess. You must check out her website, it's lovely!

The selection of cakes was amazing, and Els made us some delicious homemade strawberry ice cream, with big chunks of strawberries in! But we didn't just eat, ooh no! We spent the day crafting our little bums off. Harriet had made us all pennants to decorate and embroider with motivational sayings on them. I loved how everyones turned out so different! I went for the classic "dream big", in my blog header font of course!

And the fun didn't end there! We were each given a goodie bag filled to the brim with gifts from generous sponsors!

Look at it all! Can you imagine how excited we were when we opened these up? In the picture above you can see;

Hair bow - Crown and Glory

Hand Cream  - Lush

Badges and stickers - Alphabet Bags

Sleepy Doghnut Brooch - Polkadot Dreams

Kitten Brooch - Ladybird Likes

Cat Tattoos - Harriet Gray

Tiger Card - Ohh Deer

Cake O'clock Card - Nikki McWilliams

Sweet Stuff Print - Charlotte Valance

Audrey Hepburn Print - Katherine Moody

Pretty Peg - Zerabifish

Floral ring - Claireabellemakes

Rose earrings - OneTenZeroSeven

#HASHTAGQUEEN card - In Twos & Threes

 Other sponsors not photographerd were;

Cawston press

Daniel Wellington

Graze

Just Bake

Lactofree

Laura Manfre

Lionheart Mag

Merrimaking

Nicola Rowlands

OhNoRachio

Paper and Chain

Printed

That Northern Lass

Stay Home Club

Emma Carlisle

Rebecca Abell

All in all it was a super duper day! Huge thanks to Rachel and Harriet for organising it, I think everyone will agree that they must have spent a lot of time and effort on everything, and it really was appreciated! I'm looking forward to seeing all my new pals again in the not too distant future! 

For a list of (most of) the people that attended you can find a twitter list here

Laura xXx

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Open For Business!

I've finally opened my Etsy shop! You can visit it here. I will be adding lots more items in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled! 

Laura xXx

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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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