Easter Decadence.

I have had such a lovely Easter, it is days like this when I feel super lucky. I have been surrounded by family and good food, there is nothing better than that in my opinion. This is my mum's fabulous version of Mary Berry's Easter Lemon Pavlova, mum even candied the lemon peel! I love lemony puddings and any kind of meringue, so this really was my perfect pud.     

Not many Easter eggs got eaten today, mainly because of the luscious lemon pavlova. Ed and I bought mum and dad a box of lots of tiny eggs filled with extravagant goo, I bought Ed a white chocolate and raspberry egg and Ed got me a massive walnut whip with baby walnut whips inside. It has been such a relaxing, chilled day. We are now just enjoying a nice cosy evening watching the TV. Hope you have had a great day.xkx

Thrifting in Newark.

I went to Newark yesterday, which is about 20 miles outside the centre of Nottingham. Ed and I needed to get Doris MOT retested and the garage was just outside Newark. So we left her there to get a spring make over and we decided to go and have a wander around. Newark is a really nice place to spent a day, there are plenty of independent coffee shops, charity shops with the odd gem in them and most importantly one of my all time favourite vintage shops Vintage Vixen. 

Vintage Vixen is one one of those rare gems, the stock is very high quality, honest and quirky. I even got married in a dress I bought from here for £12! Pretty much every time I go here I find something exquisite. And this visit was no exception...

I am absolutely in love with my retro jumper I bought from there, I just couldn't wait to wear it out today. It is really warm too, so I think this will be a favourite for when Ed and I go campervanning in the summer for the chilly evenings. I really love pleated skirts like the one above, but I sometimes find that they are a bit 'old lady' (and not in the good sense) or unflattering, but the colour, style and length of this one is just perfect. Last but not least is the tweed jacket! It has massive shoulder pads so it makes me feel like Hilary Devey and then it cinches in dramatically at the waist, absolutely gorgeous. Three awesome vintage finds that will be staples in my 2013 wardrobe and they all came to £30! I was glowing with vintage happiness all day after this haul.

Hope you are having a great Easter weekend <3

xkx

Kitchen Glamour - Coconut Oil.

Coconut oil doesn't seem to that popular in the UK but I would not want to be without it in my kitchen/ bathroom cupboard. You can use this for both cooking and beauty, it is delicious on crumpets and you can even fry chips with it (I have never tried this but it does sound super yummy). I mainly use coconut oil for beauty bits and bobs though...  

I have found coconut oil invaluable when it comes to keeping my hair in good condition. It may not come as a surprise to you that my hair is not naturally bright red. I pre-lighten the roots then dye it red, so I find that I constantly battle with split ends and dry hair. You can  use coconut oil as a deep conditioner by melting it (you can do this by putting it into a cup, in a bowl of hot water) then smothering you hair with it and leave it in for 20 mins. It is best to wrap your hair in a warm towel because this helps your hair to soak in all the goodness. Then wash out, shampoo it first before you wet your hair because of the simple science that oil repels water. I'm not too keen on doing this though, I'm not always patient enough to wait and then to wash it out properly. The lazy way is to wash your hair as normal, towel dry then melt a little bit in your hands (about the size of of a 5p coin), make sure your hands are really oily then just scrunch it into your hair, especially the ends. You really don't want to put too much on because it will make your hair look greasy! You can then either let your hair air dry or blow dry it, I have found both works well. Doing this every time I wash my hair has really made a difference to the condition of it, which has meant the colour stays more vibrant longer and when I re-dye it it looks even redder. 

I also use coconut oil as make up remover. I used to use sensitive skin make up wipes but I found that they would flare up my eczema around my eyes and make them really puffy. So I started to use coconut oil instead. I melt a bit in my hands then I massage it around my eyes and wipe with cotton wool pads, then I rub the rest around my face. I wet my face with some water then just wipe my whole face with another cotton wool pad. Whatever oil is left on my face I leave there overnight and it is absorbed in the morning. It leaves my skin in wonderful condition and you don't have to worry about what chemicals are in your make up remover either. If I have a spot coming I dab a little extra on it at night and I find after a couple of days it will have disappeared (hopefully). It is also fabulous for any dry skin on the body and pesky dry cuticles, I just rub some around any problem areas at night and by the morning there is a great improvement. 

The last way I use it is to oil pull. I will probably do a whole post on oil pulling at a later date because it is a pretty amazing process that I only recently found out about. Basically you swoosh this in your mouth for 15-20mins twice a day and the oil pulls the bacteria from your mouth which means that your immune system is freed up to fight illness etc. 

The pot pictured above cost me under £10 from Amazon and it has lasted me 6months to a year. So it has probably saved me money for all the things I have replaced with it. 

I hope you found this helpful and I hope you have some rather lovely plans for the bank holiday weekend. Ed and I are going to a spa this evening for a bit of R&R.

xkx

BrewDog Wednesday.

As it is a bank holiday on Friday, today is more like a Thursday. So to celebrate this weird logic Ed and I decided to go to BrewDog for a couple of jars this evening. I had Dead Pony Club which is one of my all time favourite craft beers, then I tried one called Chaos Theory which was pretty damn awesome as well.   

BrewDog is possibly our favourite place to drink, and maybe Ed and I are biased but we think BrewDog Nottingham is the best! We have been to the one in Edinburgh and Birmingham but we still love the Nottingham one most. The vibe is always really cool and you don't get those scary, letchy, beery men in there either *yey*.  

Ed and I had a lovely few hours chatting and drinking then we went home and cooked a delicious curry using my mum and dad's own curry blend that they give us in jars. It has been a pretty good Wednesday, roll on the bank holiday weekend with all the fun that we haven't planned yet.

Any exciting plans for the extra long weekend?

xkx

Tuesday Teacup - Cosy Cuppa.

The weather has been so unpleasant this past week, Ed and I were hoping to get away in Doris (our VW T25 campervan) over Easter but it really isn't looking good at the moment. So to try and keep the faith that we will be Easter camping, we have been having our afternoon tea in our campervan mugs. My mum made me the tea cosy, I think it is possibly the cutest tea cosy in the whole world! Our chosen afternoon tea is loose leaf Gold Yorkshire Tea. This is a black tea that is super comforting and it is the perfect way to warm up and relax after a long days hard work.

I take my black tea with milk, no sugar. I sometimes have sugar if I am feeling like I want a nurturing treat. Having a cup of this tea with the perfect amount of milk is the perfect way to gather my thoughts, unwind and warm up. How do you like your tea best?xkx

Washing Away a Grey, Chilly Monday.

It has been a cold, icy, grey Monday. Ed and I had to do grown up things like house work and drying the washing, then we had awful service at a local cafe whilst we were waiting for the washing to dry. So when I got in and had made the tea I decided that a pink bubble bath was necessary to put some colour back into the start of the week. Lucky enough I had a couple of bubble bars hiding in the bathroom, Ed bought me these from Lush a while ago and I had squirrelled them away for when I needed them most. 

The top bubble bar is Creamy Candy and the one below is is called The Comforter. I just couldn't decide which to use for my bubble bath, so I broke them both in half and mixed them up.  

What a wicked, decadent way to revive a week that had lethargically smothered the weekend. I am soaked, scrubbed and ready to race towards the bank holiday weekend! 

Hope your Monday has been pink and bubbly too.

xkx

My Blog Corner.

I've been reading some blogging books lately and the majority of them seem to point towards having a space set up for blogging, usually a desk etc. One of the reasons I love blogging is the fact I can settle into my bum groove on the sofa and get my creative juices flowing. I think I would struggle having a desk space, it is just too rigid. So I would like to welcome you to my blog corner! I bought these cork boards for £2 each and a tester pot of teal wall paint for £1. 

I love this little space and I am really happy to have a small corner that I can pin up ideas and play around with concepts. Also if I want to expand I will just add some more cork boards. I adore these lady bird pins, they remind me of my favourite game on Orisinal called Bugs where you have to leap around to make the bugs fly away from you. 

What does your blogging space look like, are you more of a desk or bum groove kind of person?

xkx

Snowy Saturday at Belton House.

It has been snowing all day and most of last night, Ed and I decided not to risk taking Doris for her MOT retest because the roads weren't great and we didn't want loads of salty road crud getting underneath her, as she needs some rust treatment down below anyway. So we rescheduled her in for next week. 

So after we had gluten free crumpets and scrambled egg for breakfast we decided to venture out and have a snow adventure. I whipped out our National Trust memberships and we went to Belton House. It is possible that this is the most beautiful National Trust place that Ed and I have visited so far and the snow made it even more sparkly.  

What a perfect day we had, full of adventure and we even had a hot soup picnic in the car before we set out home. I can't wait to visit this place in the summer when the gardens are all beautiful and groomed. Now we are tucked up under a rug on the sofa watching Eat Pray Love and I am trying to contain my wanderlust.

Hope you are having a great weekend <3

xkx