25 Before 25: Host a Tea Party/Host a Fundraiser

I knew from the beginning of my 25 Before 25 that these two entries would be together. I’ve wanted to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness Month for a while now, it’s something close to my heart after seeing my Nana die from it and seeing other family members battle it. I had seen the Get The Girls ‘Round campaign last year and thought it was the perfect idea. Straight away I knew I wanted to do a tea party, it was perfect for all ages and I could bake away to my hearts content! Here’s some of the pictures from the event.

Those adorable bun cases above (and in the 3rd photo) were very kindly sent to me by Orla from Irish Girl in London.

As you can see I went with the pink theme. I made the bunting above in the second photo, as well as a skirt for the occasion (which I will do another post about!). We had some jazzy tunes playing and I had collected tea cups from charity shops all through the summer. Local businesses kindly donated gifts towards a raffle and since people brought along a load of other baked goods (we had another table covered in goodies!), we had an impromptu bake sale the next day after Mass. I have yet to finish counting the money raised, as I keep getting donations in, but so far we’ve raised in around the 500 Euro mark! Very happy with that, I was hoping to get around 200 Euro so I’m delighted.

And here’s a shot of the aftermath!

That doughnut looking cake in the background was delicious and I will have a separate post with the recipe for that!

Cake Batter Fudge

I’ve made this twice already and I love it! It’s so so simple and so quick to make. The worst thing is waiting for it to set!

Cake Batter Fudge

Adapted from The Pursuit of Hippieness

Ingredients

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk

3.5 Cups (works out at almost 400g) white chocolate, chopped or broken into bits

3 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/4 of a tsp Almond Extract (original recipe called for 1/2 tsp, I found it too over powering. You could go for 1/8 tsp if you really don’t want a strong taste)

Sprinkles

Method

1. Pre-line a pan (I used a square baking pan) with tin foil and spray with some cooking spray (or brush some oil on). Put the condensed milk and white chocolate into a microwavable bowl and microwave until white chocolate has melted. Stir to blend until smooth.

2. Add the extracts and stir. Add the sprinkles, stir slightly to mix in. Pour mixture into pan and then sprinkle some more sprinkles on top so they sit and stick to the top.

3. Let rest in the fridge to firm. The first time I made this, it wasn’t firming so cut into pieces and turned them upside down, this helped to firm. I think it wouldn’t firm as I didn’t have enough chocolate in it, so definitely make sure you have enough.

4. Enjoy!

YouTube Pick of the Week: Gangnam Style!

So I’ve been meaning to put this out for a while now but seriously slacked on it. I’m still loving Gangnam Style, which I wrote out in a past YouTube Pick. And of course I’m also loving all the spin offs of it!

Grant from Mythbusters does his spin on Gangnam Style.

Mom and son dance to Gangnam Style! They also got to do it on Ellen!

Speaking of Ellen, here Psy surprises Britney and teaches her how to dance Gangnam Style.

Are you a metal fan but find yourself loving Gangnam Style? Fear not as here’s the metal version done by 331Erock. He does loads of other metal versions of songs, even if you aren’t a massive metal fan you’ll still appreciate them!

US Naval Academy decided to do their version too.

Key of Awesome were of course on trend and did a parody called Kim Jong Style.

Last but not least is Bill Nye the Science Guy doing it Science Style.

Book Review: The Casual Vacancy

This book isn't going to be to everyone's taste. But I really enjoyed it. The step when reading this book is to completely take J.K. Rowling out of your head. Because if you don't you'll just ruin it for yourself. Done that? Good!

The book is very character driven, not a huge amount of action. The book is building up slowly to a climax but it is more about the characters, their relationships and how they interact with each other. I really enjoyed this as I live in a small village and I find it interesting how people know each other from just being around the place and as I'm a bit nosy I often wonder about the secret lives of people and what goes on behind closed doors. This book is kinda like that.

I found myself wanted to read this after I had put it down to do something else. And if I had started to read it and just thought 'one more chapter', I'd actually end up finishing after 6 more chapters. That to me is a good sign, that I found myself wanting to read more and more. Though it's not necessarily a sign of a good book. I do think it is a good book though as I liked the characters (or loved to hate the nasty characters), I could identify with some, I could identify the characters as 'real life'.

The only downside I thought it had at first was when I didn't quite get the whole J.K. Rowling aspect out of my head and I found it very crude at first. The swearing, references to sex and drugs. At first I did wonder whether she was doing this just because she could, for the shock value and to try set herself apart from Harry Potter (I managed to go this far without mentioning HP!). There did seem to be a certain element of that. But once I managed to get the J.K. Rowling thing out of my head I did find that it fit into the story and it didn't bother me so much. Also it can be a dull in places as it isn’t so action filled.

Overall I would recommend the book, especially if you like character based stories. It’s a sturdy read and if you like J.K. Rowling’s ‘voice’ then you should like this.

25 Before 25: Take a Random Roadtrip

So ideally, this would have gone down something like this: boyfriend and I would decide to go somewhere to stay overnight without booking before hand, fill up on petrol and hit the road with no destination in sight. Though as I approach the deadline for this I realise it’s not going to happen (neither is visit a country I’ve never been to before unless I win the lotto or someone wants to pay for me to go abroad! *cough*).

So Saturday morning I had to drop my aunt off to the bus station early and I bought along my friend K who was staying with me for the weekend. We decided instead of heading straight back home we’d go on a drive, deciding where to stop along the way. Which lead to a mini tour of South and West Clare.

The first place we hit was Lissycasey, where we drove past this pub and then promptly turned around for some photo opportunities.

Next main place we hit was Kilrush, where we decided to visit the Vandeleur Gardens. Unfortunately, seeing as we were up so early, we were 2 hours too early to enter. Instead we went for a quick stroll in the woods.

And then off went again! Next we hit Kilkee so we decided to stop at the West Clare Railway at Moyasta. And would you believe it, it was also closed! (are you beginning to see a theme here?!). So I took this quick snapshot of the office and cafe.

From there we decided to head onto Loop Head Lighthouse. We looked up on K’s iPhone that it was open until early September. We weren’t sure if they would be open or not seeing as it is now mid-September! But we decided to take the gamble. And luckily it was open!

After we went for a quick walk around the cliff edges.

After our lovely walk, we continued on, deciding on a whim to stop in Doolin in the Tea Rooms. Unfortunately it was closed! Moving onto Quily we stopped at Seafield beach to look at Mutton Island.

We were then going to play some arcade games at Sugar Island Cafe but it wasn’t open yet! We figured that was the final sign to head on home and put our feet up!

Nails of the Week!

I was trying to use my striping tape to do some pink and mint green nails and it went a bit wrong. So I covered it up with black crackling polish. It reminds me of the 80s for some reason!

Rimmel Lycra Pro Professional Finish in Peppermint

Angelika Nail Polish in Sweetie Pie

W7 Crackle in Black

Nails of the Week!

I was so excited when I received my Dollish Polish in the post! I got ‘Heart of Glass’, named after the Blondie song and it’s just beautiful, so sparkly. I decided to use it over a black nail polish for a dramatic effect.

Black base- Catrice I Wear My Sunglasses At Night (with flash)

I couldn’t capture it properly but the black has very subtle pieces of dark glitter through it.

Look at how pretty it is!

No flash

With flash

Blurry picture but it shows the colours the sparkles give off

I love this polish, it has 3 elements to it. The big chunks of glitter, which to me remind me of broken CDs or something (also reminds me of the bits in the Essence The Huntsman polish), the sparkly strands and then the holographic pigment that coats all the nail, making the base colour holographic. It’s so beautiful, I got lots of compliments on my nails, even from my boyfriend!