February 2017 Wrap Up

A brief looksie at what I got up to last month. It was a good enough month, a saw a lot of friends looking back and generally enjoyed myself!

Enjoyed- Cocktails! I’m one of my friend’s bridesmaids and I met up with her and the rest of the bridesmaids one weekend. We had a great time trying on our dresses, trialling make up and hair and then going out for nibbles and cocktails. I’m a sucker for cocktails, I love trying new ones. Like this one, which was very creamy and served in a milk bottle!

Relaxed- The following day we went to the spa! We were booked into a mud treatment and then the thermal suites. There was some slight hiccoughs in the day, mainly the fact the water went in the hotel half way through our mud treatment! However everything got sorted and we enjoyed lunch after. It was my 2nd time at a spa, the first time being the Lush Spa back in 2011.

Went- Bowling with a group of friends, the first time in years. I really enjoyed it! I wasn’t that great but I want to go again as it was such fun.



Socialised- Outside of the above, I spent a few evenings with my other half and our friends watching rugby when the 6 Nations started. And also one evening my fiance went to see some rugby live and after I went to dinner with him and his friends.

Cinema- To see the Lego Batman Movie. I liked it, I laughed a lot but I did enjoy The Lego Movie more. It was fun though. I wish I had gone to the cinema more, it being Oscar season, but the cinema closest to me took Hidden Figures out of screening the week I wanted to go (I swear it was only there 2 weeks!



Ate- Pancakes. Well, only on the last day of February as it was Pancake Day. My fiance made crepes which were lovely and at some stage I also had these cinnamon swirl pancakes which I posted a few years ago.

Watched- Riverdale. I went to a friend’s house one Friday planning on watching something but when that didn’t work out we scrolled through Netflix and came across Riverdale and decided to give it a shot. The characters are based off the Archie comics and the series starts with the investigation into a murder. Everyone has something to hide and Riverdale is not as idyllic as it seems. I’m still a few episodes behind but really enjoying it so far.



Listened- To RuPaul’s new song Rock It (To the Moon), it as a real Daft Punk vibe and I’m sure I’ll be listening to more RuPaul leading up to the end of March when Drag Race ruturns for Season 9 (Yes, I said ruturns instead of returns, deal with it!)

Bought- This glorious mug!! I bought it on last day of Febrary so my final purchase for the month. I almost didn’t get it as it was a bit pricey for me but it’s beautiful and I’m glad I did!





Read- All the books I read are in my February Reads post which you can check out here.
And that’s February! And I’m half way through March now, probably should have posted this a bit earlier but better late than never. How was your February? Let me know below!

YouTube Pick of the Week

A short one this week!

I posted one of Jimmy Fallon and The Roots with Christina Aguilera a few weeks ago and this is a very cute one with Mariah Carey! To get you into the festive mood.

Chandler is possibly my favourite Friend (though I have a soft spot for Monica as we’re pretty alike) and just cracked up at this Moves Like Chandler video. And then I discovered the Chandler Dances on Things tumblr. Could it BE any better?!

This video takes the piss out of the Science, It’s a Girls’ Thing video that the European Commission released earlier this year.

Finally a video for Egg Nog! I’ve never had it before but I plan on using this recipe to make some. Yum!

My Halloween Party

Ok, so two posts in one day about Halloween, probably should have done them earlier than this but I wasn’t feeling great. I had a Halloween party for my birthday Saturday night (I will be doing a 25 Before 25 update seeing as I am now 25!). I had a great time organizing it!

This was the bathroom. We added a red light bulb for an extra creepy feeling, added cobwebs all over the place, wrote REDRUM on the mirror and put the creepy doll complete with axe and ‘blood’ (strawberry syrup!).

Here’s Mike the Mummy! We got some white clothes, stuff with them newspaper and then wrapped him in a ripped old sheet. Luckily the sheet was off white anyway so we didn’t have to tea stain it or anything. Got the idea from this video. We also added a red light bulb to that half of the kitchen.

I also got some warning tape from Tesco that said ‘Enter if you Dare’ and put it on the front door, but never got a picture of that unfortunately.

My cupcakes! Jack Skellington and vampire puncture marks. All I did was cut the top off cupcakes to level them off, add a bit of icing to it (jam would work too), rolled out and cut out ready to use fondant, stuck on top of cupcake and then used icing pens to fill in details. Simple but effective!

Brain cake pops! I got the idea from this post here. The broken ones happened because the chocolate wasn’t thick enough, I suggest doing a double layer of white chocolate at the beginning to make it stronger.

Brain hemmorrhage shots! Inspired by this post. But instead we used pear schnapps.

These weren’t made, my boyfriend bought them for me, but they’re too cute not to add!

I also had a jelly brain made from a big jelly mould I got from 2 Euro shop, Jelly shots and Jelly Shots in the shape of pumpkins and skulls that I made in a silicone ice cube tray.

We played snap apple and also I made a pinata in the shape of a Mummys Head but didn’t get a good shot of that.

 

And you can see my costume here, I was Effie Trinket from The Hunger Games.

We had a great night, I really enjoyed it. If you are looking for other Halloween treat ideas, check out my post on Witches Fingers and last year’s post about random Halloween treats I made. Enjoy!

30 Days of Pinterest Project: Day 4

Make no mistake, if I thought I felt rotten yesterday, then it’s ten times worse today. I woke up with a dreaded feeling of ‘I have no energy to do today’s Pinterest post’. To make matters worse,I have no car today either.I was sat looking at my boards, thinking ‘I don’t have the motivation for this’ and ‘That looks good but I’m missing stuff for it and can’t travel’. I took to Twitter to moan and this is when Irish Girl In London sent me a tweet to say ‘Look up cold and flu remedies’ and sent me a link to a board. Halleluiah! So off I went and picked out a number of drinks that would help soothe my throat.

First up was my most dreaded, gargling salt water. I not a big fan of salt, I rarely add it to food (well,I do when cooking). And I’ve known about this tip for years but never really tried it because I feared the saltiness would make me throw up! I dissolved one teaspoon of salt in a glass of warm water and gargled 3 times. Surprisingly it worked! And didn’t taste too bad.

Very interesting photo there!

A few hours and coughing episodes later, my throat was sore again. So I turned to this link on The Burlesque Baker blog (I must say,I love the name of this blog!). A Homemade Ginger Tea. Just a couple of things. I don’t like tea, sometimes I have a few herbal ones knocking about but that’s very rare. Also, I had no ginger or lemons. So far, so good. But then I remember the last time I was sick and that my friend brought me over some Ginger and Lemon tea. And I was in luck! There was one teabag left! And I had some oranges too. Here’s my recipe.

Honey and Ginger Tea

1 Ginger and Lemon Twinnings teabag

Honey

1/4 of an orange

Brown sugar

1 mug of hot water

Method

1. Combine water, 1 tsp honey, 1 tsp sugar and orange in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.

2. Strain with a tea strainer/sieve in a mug. Add the teabag and let steep for a bit. If want, add an extra teaspoon of honey.

While this was certainly a nice relief for my head cold, I don’t think it did much help for my throat. So back to Pinterest I went!

And I found this Hot Coke Toddy from Squidoo. It was…interesting to say the least! I’d be willing to try it again, it wasn’t too bad but not something you’d jump to try again! Luckily my brother brought me to the shop to buy the ingredients.

Hot Coke Toddy

1 can of Coke

1 lemon

Fresh ginger

Method

1. Cut about an inch of ginger off (or more if you wish) and slice half the lemon into thin slices.

2. Pour the coke into the a saucepan along with the ginger and lemon. Over medium heat, simmer until a boil.

3. Pour into cup and drink hot.

When I got home later, I decided to go all out and just make myself a hot toddy! I used this recipe here.

Whiskey Hot Toddy

1 shot of whiskey

Honey

Citrus fruit (I used orange)

1 tsp brown sugar

Hot water

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a mug/glass.

2. Enjoy!

I’m still drinking this now, I’m sure it’ll help. If not, at least it’ll help me sleep!!

Baileys Milkshake

St. Patrick’s Day has arrived and maybe you’ve been too busy to whip up some to Brown Soda Bread or some Green Velvet cupcakes. Fear not, this Bailey’s Milkshake is quick and tastes great!

Ingredients

-Vanilla icecream (or whatever flavour you like, vanilla is best for picking up the Baileys though. Mint would be good if you like Shamrock Shakes)

-Baileys (I chose Hazelnut flavour,but again it’s up to you)

-Milk

-Green food colouring (optional)

-Whipped cream (optional)

Method

No really recipe as such, just add the ingredients into a blender and whizz until you get your desired thickness. Top off with some whipped cream and enjoy!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, where ever you may be! Last year I made a post about why it’s great to be Irish. And it still is just as great!

October Recap: London Part 2

So I’m pretty late with this one but better late than never!

My second recap starts on the Wednesday, which was my birthday! After waking up obscenely early, I travelled to Covent Garden to meet my boyfriend, who had flew in that morning. After failing to get cheap musical tickets, we went for some breakfast and then I went to get pampered in the Lush Spa!

I love Lush stuff and even though the treatments at the spa are fairly expensive, I decided to splash out on my birthday. I decided to go for the signature treatment, the Synesthesia. When I got to the shop, I was brought downstairs to the spa which looked like a lovely country kitchen.

I was given a glass of water and told what to expect of the treatment. I was shown the board full of words and told to choose one, which would be the theme of the treatment.

I chose uninhibited, it just seemed to pop out at me. I then had to go to a table full of glass bottles of different shapes, sizes and colours. Attached to these were little tags with words and I had to chose one of the bottles based on the word and which one stood out, without smelling it. This was also used in the treatment. The bottle I picked had the word free and after my massage, my therapist told me free was supposed to go with uninhibited, that they compliment each other.

The massage was wonderful. When I walked in the room, it was beautifully lit. I had a shower, where I got to use loads of different Lush products, then settled on the table and when ready rang a bell and the therapist came in. The massage was 80 minutes long, started at the face (including hot and cold stones), my arms, chakra stones, my feet, my legs and my back, which was done to the specially composed soundtrack that had lots of bird and countryside sounds. The time flew and after it was finished, I went back out to the kitchen table and was given Uninhibited tea and I also got a massage and bubble bar in the same scent.

After the massage, my boyfriend and I went to the Oxo Tower along the Thames for Not Afternoon Tea. Instead of tea and scones, we got a cocktail and desserts. I chose the chocolate nuts desserts with the matching cocktail.

My boyfriend got the fruity desserts with the matching cocktail.

Everything looked and tasted so exquisite and we picked the perfect time to go here, as it was sunset and we got to go out on the balcony and look at the beautiful view.

After we walked along Waterloo Bridge towards Covent Garden as I was told by my aunt this is one of the best places for views.

St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Oxo Tower at one side of the bridge.

The London Eye, Houses of Parliament and Big Ben to the other side of Waterloo Bridge.

At Covent Garden, we went to The Top Secret Comedy Club (we got in for free as we went before 7.30) and here we saw INSERT NAME AND INSERT NAME. We unfortunately had to leave before the last act to get to The Ice Bar at INSERT but I would definitely go back again if I had the chance.

As we walked towards the Ice Bar, we passed the M&M Shop at Leicester Square and couldn’t resist going in. Despite it being 10 at night, the place was still really busy and full of life. We had fun wandering around and looked at all the different merchandise and taking pictures at the statues.

The Ice Bar was great fun, a novelty once off though. Set in an old industrial meat freezer, the entire place is made of ice. The bar, the seats, large ice sculptures which change colours due to the lights behind them changing. When you get there, you’re given a cape and thermal gloves and voucher for a drink. You get one cocktail included in the entry price but after that, they’re pretty expensive. If you lose your ice glass, you have to pay £4 to replace it! You’re in there for 45 minutes, which actually flew by, mainly taking photos and swishing about in your cape (well, it’s what I did).

 

Finally, as a final surprise that night, when we all got back to the apartment we were renting, my friends had organized a surprise party for me! Including this awesome cake.

And then I collapsed in bed as we had to be up early the next day for Thorpe Park! Which despite the not so great weather (and the puking boyfriend), I really enjoyed, Stealth or Inferno were probably my favourite rides. And as it was Fright Night at Thorpe Park, they had loads of Halloween mazes and people dressed up ready to jump out and scare you. The mazes were so funny, as everyone got so scared.

After Thorpe Park, we went to Brick Lane for the two main things it famous for: Curries and bagels (with some drinks and dancing in between).

Friday morning we were up early again (and half relieved it was the last day!). My boyfriend and I went to Primark on Oxford Street and then to Camden Market. It was the boyfriend’s first time there and he loved it, as he got to barter to his hearts content. We headed to the airport early enough, so we’d have time to eat and do some more shopping there. A great great holiday and since I love London so much, I’m heading back there in 2 weeks time!

Eurovision Party!

I LOVE the Eurovision! Sure, it’s cheesy, cringey and camp at time but it’s good fun for all the family. I have fond memories of watching it as a child and now that I’m an adult I love the fact you can have a big old party! I had one last year at a friend’s house and while I unfortunately can’t go all out again this year, I thought I’d share some of my ideas so you can host your own!
Fancy Dress
I love fancy dress parties and Eurovision is a great excuse for you. You can either dress as past acts or else dress up people from the countries.

Past Acts

ABBA (short skirts, long hair, hippish)

Johnny Logan (white suit!)

Gina G (short sparkly dress)

Bucks Fizz (rip off skirts!)

Ruslana (Wild Dances song, Xena Warrior Princess vibe)

Lordi (scary monster masks and costumes)

Scooch (air hostess)

Cliff Richard

Michael Flatley (Not a contestant but sure ya know!)

Terry Wogan (or Marty Wheelan!)

Countries
Spanish senorita
French mime
Irish Leprechaun
Irish dancer
Scots kilt
Dutch girl with clogs
Heidi
Gladiator
German beer maid
Russian doll
German Lederhosen
French Maid
French can-can dancer
Viking
Matador
Greek God/Goddess
Mafia
There’s always someone who won’t dress up, throwing on a funny hat or mask will suffice! Terry Wogan mask was found here.



Food
If you want to go all out and have some food, buffet style is ideal. Again, try and represent different countries with different foods. Not that difficult thanks to the likes of Aldi and Lidl!


Some suggestions
Italy: Lasagne, mini pizzas, pasta salads
Belgium: Chocolate, paté, waffles
Greece: Lamb kebabs, feta cheese, pita bread, baklava, Greek salad
UK: Pork pies, Cornish pasties, sandwiches, scones, fish and chips, shortbread
France: Quiche, baguettes, cheeses
Germany: Sausages, Black Forest Gateaux, Pretzels
Spain: Paella, tortilla Española, Chorizo
BBC lists some recipes ideas here and here. I also got some of my ideas from this site here, which is great for Eurovision party ideas!

Drinks
Bucks Fizz! Though anything goes here really. Wines from France and Spain, beers from Germany, English and Ireland, spirits like vodka (Russia, Sweden and, Poland), English gin, Irish and Scottish whiskey, Liquors and other drinks such as Baileys (Ireland), Pimm’s (England) and Jagermeister (Germany). It’s safe to say Europe has the drinks aspect of things covered. You could mix up cocktails, the BBC 2008 Eurovision guide as some listed here. Or you could throw together a quick punch in the form of sangria.

Decorations
Flags and maps! This website has flags, you could search for an updated list of countries playing in the final if you wanted to put in some extra effort. You could also search eBay and other party sites for flags, bunting and maps. If you have kiddies going to the party, maybe you could get them to colour in some flags before the party begins? You can camp things up a notch with some disco balls and glitter too!

On the Night
BBC website has scorecards which you can print off and give to each guest so they can give each entry their own marks. One way to add some competition is for everyone to choose a country to support at the beginning of the night (either by drawing countries out of a hat or by just choosing). It can add great excitement when it comes to the scoring section of the night. If you want you can also have a prize for the person who has chosen the winner.
If this is a child-free event, then Eurovision is really the perfect excuse for drinking games. If you Google Eurovision drinking game, you’ll probably get a good few hits, here’s one website I found. Another way I searched was through Facebook (I think there’s a Facebook drinking group for nearly anything, I found one for RTE News!). Anyway, this was my favourite Eurovision drinking game found on Facebook. Or you could make up your own rules, I’d love to hear some of them!

After party
So the Eurovision is over for the night, what to do now? Why, stick on some past Eurovision tunes and dance that’s what! (or you could have a karaoke contest too!) Here’s some suggestions
Making Your Mind Up - Bucks Fizz
Hold Me Now - Johnny Logan
Ooh Aah (Just a Little Bit) - Gina G
Hard Rock Hallelujah - Lordi
Boom bang-a-bang – Lulu
Waterloo – ABBA
All Kinds of Everything – Dana
And here’s a snapshot of my Eurovision playlist.

The good ol’ BBC have some playlists suggestions as well, or you could of course also splash out and just buy the Best of Eurovision CD!

I also made a list of general cheesy Euro pop for when we got sick of Eurovision stuff. Bands like Aqua, Vengaboys, songs like Macarena, Saturday Night etc. If anyone wants a picture of that playlist, I’ll gladly upload it.

I think the best advice really is to have fun. I really wasn’t this organized last year but everyone had fun. One of the best costumes were the last minute ones. If you do have a party, let me know! I’d love to know how it went!

I got some of my ideas from these wonderful sites
http://blog.alism.com/the-eurovision-party-pack/
http://www.joel.co.uk/eurovision.php
http://www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision/party/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision/2008/index.shtml