Sunday 15 July 2012

Songs on Sunday #15



I think of you often

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Bon dia,
Weeks go by so slowly at the time, but so quickly all the same, I wish time would slow down a little, but would go faster all at the same time. I miss the man, this is what I need weekends for. I wish everyone well, I hope everyone is looking forward to Monday morning, right?!
cap de setmana.

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Saturday 14 July 2012

1 :2 :1 : Favourite Nail Polishes For Summer.

- I usually have painted nails (mainly because it's the only thing I get time to paint at the moment!) The Man always jokes that every time he sees me I have different coloured nails, but let's face it, he's away from me for weeks at a time at the moment!

- I thought I'd let you all see my favourite colours for summer, (to be honest, it's every colour, well. most.)

- There are plenty of nail blogs around such as Linda's, Camille's or Chloe's, and I could look at them for ages, along with plenty of Pinterest boards, but as much as I like painting my nails, I haven't the patience for complex designs, my varnish only ever lasts one day before it starts to look chipped!

- Looking at the nail trends from the catwalk there are a few predominant trends, but the nails (on the whole) appear to be kept short and square, with slightly rounded corners. I like this length of nails, they are practical, while the shape looks quite neat.

- It's summer, so obviously it appears to be the best time of year to play with brights! perhaps even a nod to the neon trend of 2012.


Pictures2

(Clockwise from left)
1. Bourjois 1 Seconde in 09 Lavande.
2. collection 2000 hot looks fast dry 5 with Claire's cosmetics nail polish in an unknown NEON pink colour! (The neon-ness of this does not show through, it's SO bright!)
3. Barry M Nail Paint in 304 Mint Green (My absolute favourite colour!)

- Bright colours are a summer no-brainer, and so are pastels, colours that evoke a feeling of springy-summer florals, unoffensive, feminine colours.

Pictures1

(left to right)
1. 17 High Gloss Nail Polish in Pinking Shear with Color Club 842 Sex Symbol (I do actually really like this look, the Pinking Shear is just a delicate colour you could get away with in work environments who weren't fond of over powering nail colour's and the sex symbol on the top just makes them glisten in the light, super hard to capture in a picture!)
2. Barry M Nail Paint in 308 Berry

- One of my favourite tricks with nail varnish is to paint a couple of coats of a glitter top coat onto my nails and create an almost foil-like texture. I once went into a night club with one of my friends, and handing over my money at the ticket booth the woman giving tickets stopped me and demanded I tell her how I did it! - it was rather a surreal moment for me, but I've been doing it for a while and it adds a little interest to an otherwise plain colour, my favourite glitter is a taupe colour! It's a good job that many of the design houses featured metalics in their collections this spring/summer!

- Although I think this gold colour would be best suited around Christmas time, I also see it working quite well on holiday after a day at the beach, when you go to a resteraunt! (Shame the Man is set on Barcelona this year!)


Pictures

(Clockwise from left)
1. Barry M Nail Paint in 320 Foil Effects (I do like this polish, despite the blatant brush lines it leaves, would be nice with a clear top coat, but I wanted to just show the true colour)
2. Bourjois 1 Seconde in 14 Rainbow Apparition (So beautiful - I'm wearing that right now!)
3. Color Club 845 Art of Seduction

- Now if you are into more conservative colours, if you wear deep dark colours all year round, you're in luck this summer designers such as Naeem Khan featured dark colours in more autumnal shades

- I did try however to brighten up slightly the darker colours, for example a dusky pink, a deeper red and a taupe-y brown.


Pictures3

(Clockwise from Left) 
1. Maybelline Express Finish Lacquer in 77 Rouge Seductuion (I just painted a thin wash of colour, but this can be built up to a deep almost black colour in three coats, it does dry imensely fast as well, claiming "from wet to set in 40s". 
2. Collection 2000 Hot Looks in 2 Couture ( this colour is so uninspiring in the bottle, so you would almost never pick it up, but I love the way it looks on the fingers, a beautiful dusky mauve-y pink that compliments almost every skin tone) 
3. Barry M Nail Paint in 310 Mushroom

- Basically. . . . it's the summer! anything goes! inspire yourself and polish your nails for a super finished look. You're in luck, any colour you choose will more than likely be in vogue!

- All those girls who run full time nail blogs, you are wholly admired by myself, it is so hard to take a picture of your own hand!

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Friday 13 July 2012

Food on Friday #3 Cinnamon Rolls


- Every now and then you have to treat yourself. . right. . . right?!

- This week's Food on Friday is a little more complex than others, but totally worth it. It's not a difficult recipe, it's just time-consuming because of the rising time of the dough.

- I wasn't actually allowed to eat any of these, however I did share one with my mother and they are ace, the best we've managed so far, although we think that along with the nuts there should either be some chopped dates or raisins.



  cinnamon buns 4
(before second rising, they fill all of the gaps eventually!)

I found the recipe at AllRecipes.com, I didnt really make any alterations, except I used some chopped nuts instead of peacans, because we had a package of chopped mixed nuts in the pantry, and I didnt want to go and do any special ingredients for this project.

cinnamon buns 1

Dissolve 1 package of fast action yeast in 1/2 a cup of warm water
While this is beginning to react, heat 1/2 a cup of milk gently in a small saucepan adding 1/4 cup of white sugar, 1/4 cup of butter and 1 teaspoon  of salt stirring until melted & dissolved

cinnamon buns 2


 combine the milk mixture with the yeast mixture, add two beaten eggs to this mixture
Stir in 4 cups of self raising flour, 1 cup at a time.
Pull your dough together & knead for approximately 5 minutes until it becomes particularly elastic to touch.
Lightly oil a bowl, roll your dough in this bowl and set aside in a warm place covered with a damp tea towel, after an hour your dough will have doubled in size.

cinnamon buns 3

melt 3/4 cup of butter and mix with 3/4 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of chopped nuts, place in the bottom of baking tins - I used two IKEA small roasting tins ( I don't really think this step is needed and if I did it again I would miss it out!)
Roll out your dough paint  1/4 cup of melted butter and sprinkle with a mixture of 3/4 cup of brown sugar, 1 tbsp of cinnamon powder and 1/2 cup of  chopped nuts ( This is where I would have added some dates, I think some grated apple would be nice aswell.)
Roll up your dough into a long sausage shape and cut into rounds - I believe I yeilded 32 overall!
Place into your prepared tins and let rise for an hour, covered with your damp tea towel
Bake at 190 C for 25 minutes.

Good served hot, or cold!




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Saturday 7 July 2012

Food on Friday #2 Savoury Kale Cheesecake!

- I love brunch! who doesn't love brunch? when you can be really lazy, do things in your own time. It is the perfect saturday!

- I made this "cheesecake" - which is more or less a quiche, for a very special brunch!, it is my Granddad's 81'st birthday tomorrow so I decided to treat him to a yummy brunch.

 - Obviously there will be other things to eat, a selection of cheese and ham and salami, various breads, cinnamon rolls (coming next week!), croissants and (of course) cake! haha.

 - Anyway, whatever your saturday holds, I hope it is a good one, and I hope you all get your breakfasts' in bed!

savoury kale cheesecake Combine 8oz of Plain Flour with 4oz of butter- process in the food processor until they resemble bread crumbs 
with the processor still running add warm water (about 1 tbsp) until the pastry forms a clump and lumps around the machine (it will combine itself) (of course you can do this by hand, which is also dead easy, I just like to do it this way) roll out pastry on a floured surface, and line quiche lorraine dish 
chop up two handfull's of kale, 1 onion, 1 chilli, add 1tbsp of rosemary, 1tbsp of basil and 1tbsp of dried chilli flakes
 In a jug combine 8oz of soft cheese with 6 eggs, 2oz of grated sharp cheddar and 1 tbsp of milk
 layer the prepared ingredients into the pastry, and fill up the case with the egg mix. bake at 180 degreees c for 35 minutes 

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