Farewell 2013, Thanks for all the Memories.

I thought I would shake together a montage of what 2013 has blessed me with. So many gorgeous memories. Sometimes at the end of the year I sit down and wonder what I have done and achieved, but blogging really helps me piece together all the 365 days. Some of my favourite adventures included: buying Doris & Libertea Belle, free arty gin, bike riding, getting the pigs, picnics, quaffing beer, alotmenting and visiting many National Trust properties. 

Happy New Years Eve all you lovely readers. Thanks for perusing over my blog this past year. I hope you all have a wonderful night full of fun, memories and sparks of excitement for 2014. Here is to many more adventures, journeys and love. 

Much Love and see you in 2014 <3

Kirst xXx 

My Three Favourite Cook Books.

I'm a bit of a foodie, well that is the posh way of saying that I love food and eating. I can't say I am one of those people who read cook books in bed at night but then again I do own quite a few. I would love to build up a collection of old cookery books, especially ones from the 70s because they are so bad that they are good! I also have my eye on the Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management that resides on my mum's bookshelf. When I moved to Nottingham I tried to hide it in a box of books I was taking, she knew me too well and before I went she rummaged through and repossessed it. So anyway these are my three favourite cook books at the moment: Gok Cooks Chinese by Gok Wan, The Vintage Tea Party Year by Angel Adoree and The Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal. 

My affections for these books are all very different. Gok Cooks Chinese is full of mouthwatering pictures of dishes that I would have been far too scared to attempt. I have a couple of other chinese recipe books and I look at the tasty pictures then look at the humongous list of ingredients and give up. But Gok's book is very different, his recipes are based on a meagre larder of Chinese essentials and if you follow the instructions the food looks just as delectable as the pictures and tastes better than any takeaway! Ed cooked salt and pepper pork from this book the other night and it was out of this world good. 

Now where to start on The Vintage Tea Party Year, its just perfect in my opinion. The content is superb, the layout is beautiful, the illustrations are treats for the eyes. Angel Adoree will aid you through everything you need to know to pull of an exquisite vintage gathering from decor to hair to cocktails, oh and the recipes are pretty amazing too! I own the Vintage Tea Party book too and I just love every page these books have to offer. If you love vintage and you don't own this book you are seriously missing out!

I will probably never be able to cook anything out of The Fat Duck Cookbook, not to its full extent of deliciousness anyway. I would like to have a go at the chilli in there one day though. I have wanted to eat at The Fat Duck restaurant for years, but it is a serious investment to go there, it being a couple of hundred pounds for a tasting menu. But a girl can dream and this book is the perfect aid for that. 

What cook books are your favourite? 

Kitchen Glamour - The Zingy C Exfoliator.

Kitchen Glamour is my new weekly post where I will be sharing my homemade cosmetics that I have created from items that you probably have in your kitchen cupboards. I will be posting Kitchen Glamour every Friday to give you little sparks of inspiration so you can look fabulous for your weekend of adventuring. Alongside the recipes I will also show you some of the more random ingredients that I make sure that I am never without. The vast majority of Kitchen Glamour will be Vegan friendly too. 

This is The Zingy C Exfoliator and I found it has been my salvation in battling against wintery skin. A ripe kiwi fruit is the main ingredient in this for 2 reasons: the first being that I only like to eat under ripe kiwi fruit so I needed to find a use for the ripe ones, and the second reason being that kiwi fruit are amazingly nourishing for your skin! The kiwi fruit is bursting with Actindin which is an enzyme that dissolves protein, this means that it is a natural chemical exfoliant that powers through the dead skin cells on your face. Kiwi fruit also have super high levels of vitamin C and E, this means that this fruit is an awesome antioxidant and that plays an important role in supporting the production of collagen. Even the little black seeds are useful as they are stuffed full of omega 3 acid and alpha lipoic acid which can help balance out the oil in your skin and give it a slight tightening effect which helps to reduce those pesky large pores! 

So all you need for my Zingy C Exfoliator are sugar and a ripe kiwi fruit. Peel the kiwi fruit and mash it up with a fork (you could use a food processor or a pestle and mortar if you want to crack the goodness out of those little black seeds). Once you have a nicely squished kiwi fruit then this one is really up to you and how much extra exfoliation you want. 

Add between 2-4 tbsp of sugar to the kiwi pulp. I use caster sugar because the grains are small and I find that it is quite gentle, Demerara would be a lot more scratchy for example because the grains are larger! Start with adding 2tbsp then see if you are happy with the consistency, if not add more. Once you have a mix you are happy with apply in circular motions to the face (over a sink is preferable unless you want a fruity bathroom floor). I take off the excess and leave on my face for a few minutes then rinse off with warm water, but if you have the time you could leave it on for 15-20 minutes then wash off. Watch out for the sticky bits under your chin too! Finish off with a flurry of facial moisturiser and you are ready to go out on the town with your glowing skin. 

Hope you have lots of lovelyness planned for the weekend. We are off to take Doris for her MOT retest tomorrow *eeep*.

xkx

Xmas Partay.

Yesterday was the work's Christmas party. So Ed and I had a lovely lazy day then got our party clothes on! We had a really good night, it was awesome to spend time with our friends and catch up with people that we hadn't seen in a while. I definitely am getting in the mood for Christmas now (mainly I see Christmas as a chance to wear pjs most of the time, spent time with my dearest ones and eat enormous amounts of cheese!). 

Hope you had a slightly festive, fun weekend <3