When Bean Came to Stay

Outside florian florist on western road - gorgeous Mother's Day selections

What a lovely weekend I had.  I didn't really get to see much of G but I feel like I achieved loads.  It was such glorious weather I spent the day outside on Saturday in the garden tidying, fixing the shed roof, planting some bulbs and taking a load of junk to the dump.

It feels so good to get rid of loads of rubbish and make everything a bit tidier.  I then came inside, made a cake, tidied up and hoovered the whole house.  A real spring clean!

On Saturday evening Bean came to stay....so lovely to have her over.  We didn't do anything on Saturday night apart from chat and eat a tasty thai dinner that I made, but it was just nice to have her here.

On Sunday morning we tucked into a yummy breakfast that I had prepared of yogurt, oats, rhubarb and blueberries! Very healthy and tasty.

After checking out the fab article in this months Simple Things and doing some quick Google searches we went armed with a number of different new places we could try. 

The fantastic places we found were Mr Wolfe for a tasty coffee,  Dowse for some greetings cards, Sushi Garden for some lunch and Present (only opened this week) for a look at some gifts.

Cute sign that drew us in to have a look in Dowse Gallery and Shop

Fab interior of Mr Wolfe, Montpelier Place

Bean in Mr Wolfe reading the most recent Stylist Magazine

My gorgeous new scarf and jumper from COS

Tasty Sunday special - all this for only £6.50!

Sushi garden on Preston street, Brighton 

Spa Days

Oh Ragdale Hall, how marvellous you are!  Last month Bean and I took a fabulous trip up to the Midlands to finally celebrate her 30th Birthday in style.

Mum and Dad paid for us both to stay for 2 nights at the Hall for her 30th Birthday prezzie and I hope it was everything she wanted it to be.  I loved it! We had a fantastic superior room with dual aspect windows looking over the gorgeous lawns and pond.

I had a gorgeous Caribbean wrap, a full body massage, a hand and foot treatment and a fantastic eye brow thread.  What a relaxing weekend.

We literally wandered around the hall in our robes, drank champagne, lazed around reading our books and indulged in the outdoor swimming pool.

I've never been to a spa that wasn't just a pool with sauna and steam room, but Ragdale Hall has so much more than that, it even has showers that smell of mint.  I totally managed to relax and forget about everything outside of the little oasis of calm!

I think this perhaps may need to be an annual trip!

Sunrise out of our bedroom window

Breakfast that gets served to your room so you don't even need to get dressed or roll out of bed!

Amazingly comfy beds and super soft bed linen

Gorgeous corridors and one of the cafe areas

Feeling stunningly fresh faced after some of our treatments

Tasty Latte from the cafe

Sunset over the grounds

Tortilla Chips...literally

Super quick post today as I was super excited by these wikid tortilla chips! They were so super simple.

I had a packet of slightly stale tortilla wraps in the fridge and was about to throw them away when I came across a sweet version on Rachel Schultz blog.  

Slice up the wraps, rub a tiny bit of oil in and sprinkle with salt, place on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 mins until crispy...et voila!

Spring has so nearly sprung

Everything in the garden is just starting to look lovely again.  The light in the garden on Saturday was glorious, it was such a nice, fresh spring day.

I am so excited about planting some flowers this weekend in my terracotta pots to add a bit more colour to the garden.  I have decided that bulbs are the way forwards and I'm excited about choosing some more daffodils and tulips to fill these pots.

Spring Blooms

I was so pleased with this gorgeous Essie Gel colour that I bought from Amazon.  It's similar to my favourite colour Fiji but this is a gel.  I bought the lamp and equipment for doing gel nails at home and it works so well with these gorgeous flower nail transfers as well (also shown here)

I Feel So Fat

I don't know if many of you know this, but I studied Graphic Design and Illustration at Uni.  I loooove getting creative and drawing but I rarely have time now. I think that's maybe why I love the blog so much, it gives me a way to release my creativity without taking up loads of time and getting the place all messy.

One of the projects I did as part of my degree was an illustrated book on how I felt about myself.  I have ups and downs about being bigger and at the moment I can certainly say I'm on a big fat down.  I've put on loads of weight since the wedding and don't feel very cool or sexy.  

I had done so well to loose so much weight before the wedding, I was even feeling like a normal size person for the first time ever.

I found this book yesterday hidden on the book shelf and it made me realise that although I think I am fat and blobby, there are still some beautiful things that can come out of it!

Hope you enjoy the illustrations x

However, note to self: stop being so lazy and eat less cake and pastry!

Recipe: Lemon Layer Cake

I haven't baked for ages and although I've made jams and chutneys recently and made some very tasty meals, I don't remember the last time that I spent the afternoon baking.

I feel like I've managed to master my pastry but I haven't ever quite mastered the sponge.  Cupcakes never really work out so I thought maybe I would try a layer cake.  I went for something plain and simple so as not to get carried away with frills and whistles, rather than concentrating on the texture and flavour of the cake.

I keep seeing fantastic layer cakes, and although I attempted one a year back, it never really lived up to Emily's or these tasty looking treats on Pinterest.

When searching through for recipes it's tricky to find fab ones that are in English measurements, but after a quick bit of looking good old Delia came up a treat!

This lemon layer cake was the perfect choice!  I doubled the recipe to make it a super tall 4 layer cake and added some lemon juice and icing sugar to the icing to make it a bit less creamy.  Admittedly also I used shop bought lemon curd as that was a bit much to do as well!

I cannot believe how super quick and easy this cake was and the result was flipping amazing! 

What layer cakes have you tried?