FRENCH FOR CUPCAKE

Graduation

2012-01-24T19:27:00.002Z

I don't know if I ever posted about graduation, I remember moaning to you all when I was writing my dissertation and celebrating when it was finished but yes, I graduated :) I now have a BA Hons and an MA with commendation. Thanks to the wonderful Sarah Kane, my best friend and photographer to the stars (and me) for taking my photos. Check out her work and her blog here. It's funny to see how much I changed in a year and half.

Graduation 2010

Vanilla Twilight

2012-01-20T23:51:00.003Z

Well, not quite vanilla and more like lavender, ylang ylang and ovaltine (yep). I just love that song. I've been having trouble sleeping recently and have been throwing money at anything that might help. One of the cheapest, healthiest and often most effective solutions has been having a nice Lush bath. I bought a few products last week to try. I had a bit of stressy week, and then today I had to get my little gerbil Ninja put to sleep after 4 years because he had tumour on his belly and I needed some major cheering up so I decided to have a nice bath and try out the bath bomb 'Twilight' tonight.

Phoenix Rising, Twilight and A French Kiss.

I love anything that changes the colour of the water (because I am an overgrown child) but it also smells amazing and did calm me and and relax me. I tried half of phoenix rising last week and it may be my new favourite smelling Lush product. I'm looking forward to the Lavender bubble bar as well.

There's a bit of a spectacle to Twilight as well, it looks amazing fizzing in the water. I can't really describe it and the video I took doesn't do as good a job as the Lush official one so here it is below in all its glory.

Nice to meet you...

2012-01-17T09:00:00.003Z

I was pretty chuffed to see a little mention of my blog in The Irish News today, and I thought since I have acquired some new readers that I'd finally do an FAQ of sorts. I get asked a lot of the same questions a lot so hopefully this will introduce my new readers to what my blog is about, and answer a few questions from you old timers :)

I've focused mainly on the fashion side of my blog here, so I've filled it with some of my favourite outfits from over the years. I will do a baking FAQ soon :) x

What age are you?

I’m 23 years old.

Where do you live?

Belfast, Northern Ireland. Although we are on the island of Ireland we are part of the UK – so most of the shops I buy from are typical UK high street shops.

What is your dress size and how tall are you?

UK 16/18. It really depends on the shop! I’m 5”1 (and a half).

What does body positive mean and why do you identify your blog as a body positive blog?

As far as I see it being body positive is pretty simply not being critical of yours or anyone else's body. It's avoiding terms like "real women" (absolute nonsense term) and realizing that every body is real and every person has the right to feel comfortable in their own skin and dictate what they will wear and how they feel about their body. I don't care for fashion rules, I will wear stripes if I want to wear stripes and if Gok Wan tries to tell me I shouldn't well he can get lost to be quite honest.

Where do you usually shop?

I live on a tight budget so it’s all UK high street for me really. I buy most of my clothes from New Look, Primark, River Island, ASOS etc. I love Topshop but they only go to a 16 (something I take issue with) so it depends on what the fit of the item is like. I buy most of my jewellery from Topshop and online.

What did you study and where?

I have a BA Hons degree in Film Studies with a Minor in Sociology, and I just graduated from my Masters degree in Film & Visual studies both at Queen’s University Belfast. My writing was focused on gender and sexuality in film. My BA dissertation was on representations of women in films with female directors, focusing on Sofia Coppola and Jane Campion. My MA dissertation was on the representation of sexual violence in film, with an extensive focus on the films of Lars von Trier.

Where do you work?

I work in a supermarket, a job I took up when I started Uni. I’m currently working with Belfast City Council in a business programme to get my baking company up and started. I bake for friends and family and occasionally for parties and weddings, but I’m in the process of getting all of my legal certificates and getting a website going. I have to have my business plan submitted by March 2012. I’m excited!

Do you earn a lot of money?

No, definitely not. I have always worked through university but only part time as it was really important for me to work and do well in my studies. My BA degree was paid for with student loans but you can’t get a loan for an MA so once fees were paid I had nothing to live off but my part time job as you don’t get a maintenance loan. I just finished a few months of unpaid work and the rest of my income is made up with my cake orders. I hope I’m some sort of proof that you don’t need to be loaded to run a decent blog, you don’t need new things every day to blog about. And remember, ebay is your friend.

What camera do you use?

I use a Canon 1000D. I don’t claim to have any photographic expertise, I just know my camera and I know what I like.

What do you use to edit your photos?

Photoshop and Picnik.

How did you get followers on your blog?

It didn’t happen overnight, I’ve been blogging for 3 years on blogger and 10 on livejournal before that. You can’t expect to start a blog and get followers right away. The blogging community is just that, a community – and the best way to gain readers is to interact with other bloggers. Be active, read lots of blogs and comment, tweet, get to know people. Help other bloggers out, and don’t see anyone as competition. I’ve made a lot of friends through blogging, and that’s one of the most important aspects for me.

Do you make money or get a lot of free stuff through blogging?

I’ve never made money from blogging. I occasionally get offered items for free to review but I turn most of them down because I don’t want to recommend something I wouldn’t pay for or think is overpriced, or if it’s something I don’t believe in. You wouldn’t believe the amount of companies who ask me to accept clothes to review that don’t go above a size 14. That’s just not going to happen. I won’t endorse a company that I or my readers couldn’t buy from.

Hopefully this answered a few questions, hello to my new readers! I hope you like it here.

Mutant and Proud: X-Men Cupcakes.

2012-01-15T11:00:00.001Z

Paper doll templates available for free at Pay Per Toy.

Comic by Kate Beaton

I made this this weekend for my friend's birthday, she loves X-Men. We watched First Class (read: mostly looked at Fassbender), made X-men paper dolls and ate X-men cupcakes. It was x-ceptional (sorry).

Bye Bye Birdie

2012-01-14T15:19:00.003Z

Dress - Primark

Tights - M&S

Shoes - c/o Deichmann Shoes

Necklace - Forever 21

Bag - Angelic Pretty, Harajuku

I am in love, I am in love with a dress. This dress. I saw it on a blog months and months ago and couldn't find it anywhere in store. I managed to find it on ebay for £45 but couldn't justify spending that (at all, especially on a Primark dress). Then on a whim the other day I went into Primark and found one single dress, in my size. Even better, it was marked at £17 but when I got to the till I found out it was in the sale for £5. It was meant to be.

I mark the hours every one...

2012-01-11T16:21:00.003Z

Shirt - Florence and Fred

Skirt - Primark

Tights - Dorothy Perkins

Boots - Ebay

Necklace - Noble Collection

I've been meaning to share these photos for a while now, but things sort of got on top of me. The boots are basically the most amazing things ever, I love anything gaudy and a bit mad.

Credit goes to Charlene of Dainty Dresses for alerting me to them. You can find them on ebay, also in tan.

The Time Turner is the thing I have been really excited about for ages. Can't go wrong with a bit of Harry Potter. It's a replica from the film made by Noble Collection. It comes in a display box and I think probably is meant to be a collector's item more than an actual piece of jewellery but it's too cool not to be worn! x

Tokyo part 4: The Internet is made of Cats.

2012-01-04T01:23:00.004Z

Happy New Year everyone! I've been feeling a bit down in the dumps if I'm honest, and was looking through photos from the last few months to cheer myself up when I came across these photos I never shared from Japan. I shared a few from Ja La La, the first cat café I went to, but these are from a cat café on the island of Odaiba. Odaiba is a man made island off Tokyo, with rollercoasters, outlet shops, restaurants and well...a cat café. There was about 5 rooms in this one, and hardly any other customers. I wanted to take the little bee cat home.

I thought I'd include a few others I found as well, from places such as Tsukiju fish market and Asakusa. I definitely want to travel as much as I can this year. I hope you enjoy the last of my Japan photos, finally!

LOOK AT HIS LITTLE FACE!

A building on Odaiba, said to have inspired Blade Runner.

A clock designed by Hayo Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli.

A cat in the fish market, this seemed like a terrible, if adorable idea to me!

Sushi breakfast at the fish market, freshest sushi there is!

There's very little I wouldn't give for a proper bowl of Ramen right now.

Saying goodbye to Japan, and hoping I will see it again soon.

A month of Instagram: December.

2011-12-30T22:26:00.003Z

My last post of 2011! Thanks to all my readers and all your lovely comments, and I hope you all have a wonderful New Year. Here's my last Instagram post of the year, full of the usual...with added baby, yep...my Irish/Canadian nephew Finn is truly adorable!

Oh, I forgot to give you a hug!

2011-12-25T08:30:00.003Z

Merry Christmas! It's the time to eat and drink in excess, be with loved ones, wear silly hats and pull silly faces (and to watch Elf)! Have a good one!

Very.co.uk Review

2011-12-24T15:36:00.005Z

Dress - Very.co.uk

Shoes - Topshop

Earrings - Topshop

This will be a long post, so warning in advance! This post has been months in planning. I was corresponding with Very.co.uk since October to do a review of this Holly Willoughby dress. It apparently was sent out to me, but got lost. Then they were sending another but it never arrived, and then it was out of stock and I was waiting to hear back from them (and still am). This went on for about two and a half months. The PR people I dealt with were very nice but it's a bit frustrating to try to plan posts and be making sure you are home for deliveries and then for nothing to show up, and to have to email again and again for so long. I wanted to wear the dress to my work Christmas party, so when it suddenly appeared back in stock in my size earlier this month I just caved and bought it myself.

I honestly have to say ordering from Very was one of the worst experiences I have ever had from any company. I ordered the dress on a Saturday afternoon a full week before I needed it for the party. The delivery day was Tuesday. Tuesday came and went, no dress. Wednesday, no dress...and this continued. I manged to get a reply from Very on the Thursday to tell me my dress had been lost and I would be refunded (also they would refund my postage as an act of 'good will', no, you'll refund me because you didn't deliver the service I paid for thanks, if a company want to annoy me any more than they already have this is how to do it). They suggested reordering and paying for next day delivery so I would have it in time for the party on Saturday. Well, two problems there, it's out of stock again and refunds take days and sometimes a week and I didn't have another load of cash to drop on a new dress.

I was still desperate to find the missing parcel so Very said they'd contact the courier, and then the next day it was found. This was Friday morning (the tracking was updated to say it was waiting to be dispatched to my local depot) so I was hopeful I would have it in time for Saturday. by the evening, still no dispatch. Saturday, still nothing. So I was left out of pocket and without the dress. It did eventually show up, over a week after I ordered it and no use at all to be honest.

Really, I can gladly say I will never order from Very again and I would encourage my readers to avoid it as well. I did some googling and it seems they are a bit of a nightmare, parcels going missing everywhere. Fair enough, this may be the courier but as a business they are responsible for providing a decent courier and it's not like the postage is particularly cheap.

Another part of the Very experience I would warn you against is signing up for an account, I almost applied for their credit account without even realising it. One more click and I would have applied for £1000 worth of credit, but no there's a big blank space so it looks like that's the end of the page and if you scroll right down to the bottom there's the button for paying with your debit card. This reminded me of something Ryan Air would do, and it drives me nuts. So if you do order from Very, be wary of this.

The dress itself was a bit of a let down, it was £65, so definitely not cheap. It does feel a little cheap as the velvet is very coarse. It also runs quite big, so I would size down in future. It's a really pretty colour and the collar is lovely, but the shape is a bit dowdy and I will probably stick it on ebay. 16 is back in stock so I would normally try to exchange, but the thought of sending it off and dealing with Very again makes me tired to even think about. I ended up wearing this dress to the party by the way!

I did let Very know that I would be going ahead with this review, and if they respond with anything I'll be sure to let you know!

In happier news, look at my Christmas nails! I used Barry M polish, one of the new Topshop nail pens and some red rimmel polish for the candy canes. I'm feeling a bit sick today, so I'm resting in preparation for the amazing feast I know my mum will prepare tomorrow. Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

Baby it's cold outside...

2011-12-22T15:35:00.000Z

I don't think I've written a post on here in ages that hasn't included glitter. And what of it? It's Christmas! The only time of the year where it's totally acceptable to dust it over everything (that's basically every day for me, but yeah for other people maybe not so much). Today was my last day in the lovely QFT office, and if you need any proof of how fabulous my boss is look no further than my leaving present. I have been searching high and low for this record! And then it was too late to order and wouldn't be here in time for Christmas, then as if by magic it appeared on my desk today. So I had a lovely evening wrapping presents and listening to Zooey and M.Ward. P.S. Just check out that amazing red vinyl!

As well as that, I delivered the many many cupcakes I baked for the last of the Christmas orders and most excitingly I collected my brother, his wife and their 6 month old baby Finnegan from the airport. I haven't seen them in two years! Christmas day will be brilliant, Finnegan is adorable and expect to see many photos of the little cutie on here.

Anyway, I'm returning to my Candy Cane eating now, I'll leave you with some seasonal She & Him.

All that glitters...

2011-12-19T08:00:00.003Z

When Jennie tweeted about these bows by Beauxoxo I couldn't resist. I am a pure magpie, instantly drawn to anything that sparkles! These were exactly the type of bows I was trying to find and for only £4 I snapped three up right away. I ordered these at 1pm and they were with me the very next day. How amazing is that? They're beautiful and wonderful quality, very sturdy and no glitter falls off! Decorating everything in glitter and bows is definitely how I get into the Christmas spirit!

Santa baby...

2011-12-12T21:38:00.009Z

All details here.

I haven't asked for anything specific for Christmas. Honestly this year I really feel like I have reached the age where Christmas genuinely is more about family (and food!) than presents. My brother and his wife are coming over from Canada and I haven't seen them in two years (!) and they have a little baby boy called Finn who was only born in June and I can't wait to meet him. A girl can dream though, and these are the things I've been dreaming of! I've been without my signiture and absolute favourite scent since summer now! I am a volunteer and only work in my paid job 10 hours a week, so I don't get the chance to splurge very much. I bloody miss the days of student loans, I didn't know I had it so good! That perfume would definitely be considered a splurge now. I hope you like this little post, I rarely do them but I had fun making this one! P.S. If you want to buy me those Miu Miu shoes that's fine with me!

Winter Pick Me Ups!

2011-12-05T19:08:00.007Z

I'm not sure about where you are, but in Northern Ireland it has suddenly become freezing! Snow and ice and that chill that's actually painful to walk through! I thought I'd share a few of the things that cheer me up in winter through the dark evenings and icy cold.

1. Do some Christmas baking!

The oven warms the house up and you have something yummy to eat with that cup of tea. Baked goods also make brilliant presents! I baked these for a customer order, but will definitely be baking some for friends and family. Making the decorations for you cupcakes is also great fun, I made the stars, candy canes and snowflakes with regal icing and some glitter.

2. Get some good pjs and slippers!

I was kindly sent these Snuggs Sheepskin slippers from Nature Shop and I have been basically living in them non stop. They can be a bit pricy, but they keep me warm and will last me a long time, instead of paying a £6 for a pair from Primark every year that will fall apart. Also the sole is gripped, which means I don't do silly things like fall down the stairs whilst carrying a cup of tea and end up scalding myself. Let's pretend that never happened. Nature shop also sell snow boots, which if the weather keeps up I may have to invest in. Snow, nice to look at, horrid to walk to work in.

3. Have a hot bath with lots of nice smelling things.

Can't be beaten! I got stupidly overexcited when I found old Herbal Essences in Tesco. Am I the only one that hates their re-branding? And of course, Snow Fairy! American Cream is also amazing and makes my hair smell like milkshake. And any bath bomb that changes the colour of the water is a win in my book, I am a child.

4. Hot drinks.

A must, hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows is my favourite. And a shot of peppermint syrup if I have it! Drinking it in such a pretty cup and saucer helps as well, my Grandparents bought me this one :)

5. Box sets.

I have hundreds of dvds, but none get more watched than my beloved box sets. I have about 5 different shows on the go right now (was the latest Walking Dead not AMAZING?!). There's nothing better than snuggling into bed with a cup of tea and selecting 'play all'.

6. Embrace the stupid hats.

If it keeps my head warm, I am loving it.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and that it's not as cold where you are as it is here! I'm off to cuddle back into my Slanket, Liz Lemon style.

Polka dots and dreams.

2011-12-03T16:48:00.005Z

Dress - Dorothy Perkins

Shoes - Primark

Bracelet - Disney Couture

Nails - Barry M polish and Models Own nail pen

And a song I am liking today :)

Peanut Butter Cupcakes!

2011-11-27T23:43:00.005Z

I baked these for the dvd night with my sisters last night. Oh how I love Bridesmaids, Jon Hamm is too amazing in it. Almost as funny as he is in 30 Rock. Anyway, these were a big hit so I thought I'd share the recipe, it's from the Primrose Bakery book again.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Ingredients (makes 12)

75g unsalted butter (at room temperature)

130g smooth peanut butter

190g soft dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

120g plain flour, sifted (the key to good cupcakes!)

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

60ml semi skimmed milk (at room temperature)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160c (fan)/180c/350F/gas mark 4, line cupcake tray.

2. In a large mixing bowl cream the butter, peanut butter and sugar.

3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing for a few minutes after each addition.

4. Stir in the vanilla extract.

5. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl, add a third of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat well. Pour one third of the milk in and beat again. Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk has been added.

6. Carefully spoon mixture into the cases filling to about two thirds full. Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins, until a skewer comes out clean. When you remove them from the oven, leave the cupcakes in their tins for about 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

7. When cool, decorate with the chocolate ganache icing (recipe below).

Chocolate Ganache icing

Ingredients (enough to ice 12 cupcakes)

60ml double cream

30g unsalted butter (room temperature)

300g milk chocolate (I used Galaxy)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

1. Put the cream and butter in a saucepan on very low heat, stir continuously until melted. As soon as the butter has melted, remove the pan from the heat.

2. Add the broken pieces of chocolate and leave until it has melted, this can take up to 10 minutes. During this time you should keep stirring.

3. Add the vanilla extract and mix again,

4. If the icing is too runny, leave for a while at room temperature then beat just before you start to decorate the cupcakes. It's messy, but the chocolate will set slightly in time. If making these to transport I'd do it so you have an hour or two to let the chocolate set nicely so it doesn't drip everywhere.

The book says to decorate with peanut butter chips, but such amazing things are not available in the UK. I'll have to order some off the internet for next time! I used M&Ms instead.

Tell Me I'm the Only One

2011-11-26T15:36:00.005Z

Coat - New Look

Bag - River Island

Boots - Topshop

Scarf - Primark

I haven't done an outfit post in forever, I know. Does it count as an outfit if it's all outerwear? Oh well! I braved the rain for this, I swear my hair looked decent before I went outside. I got the coat with 20% off, it's so thick and warm. I can't believe it cost me about £50, the quality is brilliant.

And my Allegra boots, oh how I love them. They were an impulse buy, sort of. I had shoes to exchange and no others took my fancy, I'm so glad I bought them! They are amazingly comfortable and that's saying something coming from me, I generally can't wear heels for more than 20 minutes because I wore them constantly when I was 15/16 and destroyed my feet. Anyway, I'm off to bake peanut butter cupcakes to take to my sister's house tonight. We're having DVD night in, little sister, middle sister (me) and older (and very pregnant) big sister. We're watching Bridesmaids, I never tire of it!

It's been a while since I shared some music. In celebration of my signed Uh Huh Her cd finally arriving, have some hotness courtesy of Leisha and Cam.

A few forgotten months of Instagram.

2011-11-22T21:54:00.004Z

Remember my monthly Instagram posts? Yeah, I guess I sort of forgot about that. Whoops! I haven't done one since August. I have no excuses! Here's a few from the last couple of months. I have two fun posts coming up to keep an eye out for, one about Winter pick me ups and another sharing my new coat of dreams and winter boots.

Oh and I'm glad so many of you liked the cupcake recipe post. I had a few people asking me if I prefer it over Hummingbird's, and to be honest - yes I do! The measurements work for me, and the consistency of the batter is much thicker and I find that just makes a nicer cupcake.

My Favourite Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

2011-11-21T02:35:00.003Z

On Friday I baked cupcakes for an event I had been working on since September. I was a mentor on the Takeover Film Weekend and Friday was our premiere. We screened Parked and had Colin Morgan from BBC's Merlin as our special guest (he is lovely!). I thought I'd take this opportunity to share my favourite vanilla cupcake recipe with you all since I get a lot of emails asking me what it is! It's from the Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery book, which is my most loved baking book and the only one where recipes actually make the amount they say they do! I recommend it over all others.

I hand cut the decorations out of fondant icing and painted on the colours with edible luster dust and glitter. The pearly sheen on the icing was achieved using Dr Oetker silver shimmer spray.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients:

110g unsalted butter, at room temperature

225g caster sugar, preferably golden

2 large eggs, free-range or organic

150g self-raising flour

125g plain flour

120ml semi-skimmed milk

1tsp good quality vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160deg C (fan)/180 deg C/350 deg F/gas mark 4.

2. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until the mixture is pale and smooth. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, mixing briefly after each addition. This can take a few minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to ensure the mixture stays well combined.

3. Add the vanilla extract to the milk in a plastic measuring jug.

4. Combine the two flours in a separate bowl.

5. Add one-third of the flours to the combined butter and sugar mixture and beat well. Pour in one-third of the milk and beat again. Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk has been added.

6. Carefully spoon the mixture evenly into the cupcakes cases. Bake in the centre of the oven for approx 25 minutes (regular size) or 15 minutes (mini size) until slightly raised and golden brown. Check with a cake skewer in the centre of one of the cakes to see that they are cooked.

7. Leave in their tins for 10 minutes or so and then place carefully on a wire rack to cool. When completely cool, you can ice these cupcakes with vanilla buttercream icing.

The cupcakes can be stored in airtight containers for up to 3 days at room temperature.

Buttercream icing

Ingredients:

115g unsalted butter, at room temperature

60ml semi-skimmed milk

1 tsp good quality vanilla extract

500g icing sugar, sifted

Few drops of food colouring (optional)

Method:

1. Beat the butter, milk, vanilla extract and half the icing sugar until smooth. This will usually take a few minutes. Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar to produce a buttercream of a creamy and smooth consistency.

2. If you want to colour your buttercream, always start with a drop of colouring and beat thoroughly. This will be all you need to create a very pale pastel shade. You can then add more drops and beat after each addition to build up to your desired shade.

The buttercream can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature. Before re-using beat well.

Airplanes take you away again | Dublin and Manchester travels.

2011-11-15T14:55:00.006Z

Hello! So I guess I vanished for a little while, I was doing a little bit of show seeing and some travelling. I went to see Tori Amos (FINALLY in my own city) in Belfast and Dublin and then on to Manchester to catch up with some friends and have a bit of a birthday get together for my friend Simon. The Tori shows were amazing, Sarah and I got to meet her again (read about my previous musical adventures) and got bumped up to front row, and she played my song request. I pretty much died. Also, the Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin is stunning, oh how I wish I could afford to move to that city.

I was really happy, but er...really nervous and unable to form my mouth into much of a smile!

This was my request, give it a wee listen!

In Manchester we spent the weekend eating and drinking, and I got to see my lovely friend and fellow blogger Zoey of Daisy Gin. I thought I'd share some photos from the trip. Thanks for all the comments about the Game of Thrones post by the way - seems a lot of you are fans!

Bugglegum and Cherrybomb cocktails at Captain America's!

My bear phone cover and Sarah's blinged up one.

I have no hands! Yeah, it was freezing.

Snuck into fancy toilets at a fancy bar to get changed and refreshed before the show!

And that was Dublin, now on to Manchester!

Had drinks and a fried breakfast at Trof.

Old school friends

Simon is annoyed there are not more photos of his face on this blog so have this one. He is special. And the Birthday Boy.

At Night and Day for White Russians.

Mulled Wine in a mug.

Hiya Zoey!

On Sunday we went to Teacup in the Northern Quarter for a really relaxing lunch. Yummy cakes and lots of different tea. The tea comes with little sand timers so you know when it's brewed perfectly!

Didn't manage to get an outside shot, so was cheeky and used a photo I took on my last trip here.

The message on the receipt made me smile.

Hope you enjoyed the photos! If you want you can read about when I was in Manchester before, and Dublin as well! p.s. if anyone knows the song this blog post title is from, I love you.

New blog header!

2011-11-14T00:52:00.002Z

I wanted to share my latest blog header with you all, it was done by Rai of Blargle Fargle. Isn't it cute?! I changed the layout of my blog around a bit to match. I've been away in Dublin and Manchester over the past week or so, hence the lack of posts but I have lots of fun stuff coming up this week! x

Ours is the Fury

2011-11-05T14:36:00.004Z

Top - H&M

Skirt - Warehouse (old stock)

Shoes - Primark

Necklace - F21

Nails - polishes from Models Own.

This is what I wore yesterday for a really exciting tour I went on. Is anyone else obsessed with Game of Thrones? Well, it's filmed here in Northern Ireland and they've been here filming season 2 since July. I am obsessed with the show, so it's really exciting for me that it's filmed here in my city (and in the hills around us, of course!).

Last week Northern Ireland Screen ran a special event at a cinema in town where they screened the entire of season 1 over 2 nights. You could only get in if you won tickets, and I managed to nab a few. It was amazing! 5 episodes a night, interspersed with questions and prizes. And the iron throne to sit on. I had a blast and managed not to fangirl too hard.

And then yesterday, a trip I have been excited about for months finally happened! I'm working with Takeover Film, a film weekend coming up in a few weeks organised and programmed by young people. As part of this, we got to go on a tour of the Paint Hall Studio (so named because it's in the Titanic quarter where the ships used to be painted) where they are filming Game of Thrones. This is a closed set so it was really an amazing opportunity! I can't describe how awesome it was. We started in the Throne room at King's Landing and it was just insane! I got to sit on the actual Iron Throne (and Cersei's little chair beside it) and hear all about how everything was made. We got to wander around the bedrooms too, Sansa's and the Kings chambers.

We walked around the corner and I saw scribbled on the side of a piece of wood 'Eyrie' and was having another fangirl moment thinking 'ohh cool this must be a prop from the Eyrie!', turn a corner and I'm IN the Eyrie. Amazing! The whole room was just spectacular and I was blown away. I got to sit in the Throne there and hear about how it was made (from three pieces of driftwood). The Iron Throne is impressive of course, but the Eyrie throne is seriously beautiful. Following this we went through the prop room and saw all sorts of things, including a pile of dead bodies (!) and the Dire Wolf body from episode 1. Anyway, so you can probably tell I am a bit of a geek by now. We weren't allowed any photos because it's all super hush hush for season 2 but I can tell you, it will be fantastic! My brother is an extra on it and they're filming in a Quarry and local harbor. Anyway, enough fangirling! It was great though, like my Disney World to be honest.

After the tour I walked into town, if you don't alreay know the MTV EMA's are here in Belfast this year. Justin Bieber is in town and there are hoards of teenage girls everywhere. I said hello to Snow Patrol who walked past me outside the Merchant. It's so odd having so many celebs in the city, it's buzzing. Anyway, if I spot Lady Gaga or Rihanna i'll let you know ;)

The Lost Boys

2011-10-30T14:49:00.003Z

Happy Halloween everyone! I'm enjoying looking at all of your costumes, they're putting me to shame. I haven't dressed up for Halloween in years, oops. Last night I went to a special screening of The Lost Boys at the cinema I have been helping out at recently. It was brilliant, amazing cocktails at their new Jameson bar, takeaway cartons filled with sweetie snakes and spooky music and prizes. The film is just so cheesy and wonderfully 80s. And I can't resist a bit of Kiefer Sutherland if I'm honest. The movie was filmed in Santa Cruz (standing in for Santa Carla) and watching it reminds me of the summers I spent there, it still looks exactly the same as it does in the film (minus the vampires...probably).

Dress - A-wear

Scarf - H&M

Tights - Dorothy Perkins

Boots - Primark

Necklace - Galibardy

Ring - A-wear

I did the nails with Barry M paints, and the leopard plaster is there because I managed to slice a proper chunk out of my finger with a pair of scissors.

Spooky Jameson cocktails by Drinksology

If you're around Belfast check out the QFT, I may be biased after years of classes there but it really is a great cinema and shows loads of films you'd otherwise not get the chance to see on the big screen. And if you haven't seen The Lost Boys yet, get on that.

Enjoy Halloween everyone!

Bad Passion

2011-10-28T22:27:00.005+01:00

When Jackie of This Charming Girl announced a few months back on twitter that she was starting a new jewellery company I knew it would be something to get excited about! So at the beginning of October, Bad Passion was opened and it did not disappoint. I intended to wait until pay day to treat myself but I couldn't wait that long and before I could stop myself I had clicked a few buttons and this wondrous creature was on its way to me! Check out this baby! Anyone who knows me at all knows how much I love mad, insane and most importantly - tacky, jewellery! The bigger and weirder the better.

The necklace is seriously heavy duty and really sharp - it could do some real damage! Anyway, I love it and you should definitely check out Bad Passion. And if it's all a bit too hardcore for you, there's always the delightful sister site This Charming Girl.

Nails were done by myself with a Models Own nail pen, the polish is Models Own Goldfinger.

Apologies for not having more outfit posts lately, it's too dark to take photos by the time I get home as you can see from the photo below! I do have a very exciting parcel on the way to me and a special post built around it which I can't wait to share, and a Halloween post coming up. Thanks for reading! x

Dress - Primark

Bag - River Island

Tights - Matalan

Shoes - Topshop

Tokyo Part 3: Ueno Zoo, Ikebukuro and Shibuya.

2011-10-20T23:34:00.008+01:00

Me annoying a goat in the kids zoo.

Ueno Zoo was somewhere I'd managed to miss the first time I went to Tokyo. I'm so glad I went this time around! The zoo is MASSIVE and has lots of animals I'd never seen before. It's also in the middle of Ueno Park which is completely beautiful and has a few shrines in it so you can make a whole day out of it. I was also really pleased (and slightly proud of myself) that I managed to find my way to an epic toy shop called Yamashiroya I vaguely remembered visiting last time I was there. It's 7 floors or so of just pure amazing, Japanese craziness.

Anyway, on to more cute (and scary) animals from the zoo. The crocodile was amazing and so bloody creepy.

This bird terrified me and I hate it.

And some cute (as is always the case in Japan) food from the zoo.

Anyway, enough animals (for now). You'll probably see a lot of Shrines in Tokyo but if you're anything like me you'll never tire of them. They are always amazing and calm and just an absolute haven in the middle of such a busy city.

Next I wanted to share some photos from Ikebukuro and Shibuya. Ikebukuro is the prefecture of Tokyo I stayed in last time I was there and I have a certain fondness for it. It's also home to Sunshine city, a 60 story skyscraper with shops, an aquarium and an observation deck. I think seeing the views over Tokyo at night from the top was a moment I'll never forget in my whole life. Just wondrous, it's such a massive city you can't even see how far it goes on for. And football pitches on top of buildings! Amazing.

Of course there's a souvenir shop on the top floor. I kind of wish I had bought these now.

Sunshine city also has Namja town in it, a theme park of sorts. It has lots of Japanese games that I couldn't understand because there was no English, but it's really cool to walk around in, it's cheap and there's part of it that's called Ice cream world. Sold. There's also a whole part of it dedicated purely to gyoza, one of the most wonderful foods in the world.

That's chicken ice cream. CHICKEN. With bits of chicken in it. They have any ice cream flavour imaginable, sea urchin, garlic, squid. Who knows why. The chicken was disgusting. I had some strawberry flavoured snow as well though which was delicious.

GYOZA! ALL THE GYOZA! Amazing.

Lastly here's some photos of Shibuya. It's where all the teenagers hang out and it's just generally mental. Brilliant though, you might recognise the Hachiko crossing from Lost in Translation.

Tempura and cocktails in Shibuya. Nom.

Anyway, I thought this would be the last post but I still have a few more photos to share. One more and that'll be me back to regular blogging! I feel a bit bad clogging the blog up with travel photos instead of outfits and baking, but I just love this bloody city and want to share it with you all. Also I work a lot now, I do three days in the office, two days in my retail job, one minding my niece and then the day I have off I do work on a film festival on the evening. Loving it, but it means less time for nice outfits and the like! I do have some coming up though. I may have bought the most beautiful bag ever and I want to share photos.

Oh and before I forget, I need 2 more followers to reach 1000 and then I can do my next giveaway...and generally just be awed that people actually read this little blog of mine! Which if you hadn't noticed yet, is a .com address now! Well, back soon! Hopefully I won't leave it two weeks this time. Bye! x

Tokyo Part 2: Shinjuku and Akihabara

2011-10-08T18:21:00.006+01:00

Shinjuku from the bridge of the South exit. That's the Park Hyatt in the distance. Our hotel was just past the corner on the left corner.

Thanks for all the comments on my first Tokyo post. I'm glad you didn't feel overloaded with photos! I thought I'd share some more of my favourite parts.

Shinjuku

Our hotel was the Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku which was lovely. Small rooms but everywhere is small in Tokyo. It was very fancy and I managed to clear out the free toiletries every day and come home with 7 hairbrushes. Stop judging me! I can really recommend it, it was reasonably priced (which is rare for Tokyo, about £500-600 for 7 nights for a double room I think, double bed in Japan is more like a largeish single though). The location of the hotel was amazing. Firstly we had no problem at all finding it, compared to when I stayed in Ikebukuro in 2007. We got the train from the airport to Shinjuku station and the hotel is about a 5 minute walk from there. It was so good to be in Shinjuku, where you can get Yamanote line (JR train) which is basically a loop which takes you around anywhere you'd want to visit on a trip to Tokyo. It's the busiest train station in the world - apparently 2 million people pass through there every day.

Don Quijote.

Don Quijote Shinjuku (also in Akihabara if it's more convienient - actually the Akihabara one is way bigger and more exciting so go to it if you have to choose).

Japanese girls are OBSESSED with false eyelashes and contact lenses. I love my false lashes so this was great, but my eyeballs are too pointy for contacts. That's both a true fact AND a quote from Liz Lemon. We have so much in common.

Don Quijote is the most fun shop EVER! It's basically a maze of craziness and such a fire hazard that it'd never be allowed outside of Japan. You can buy anything here, and I mean anything. From laundry detergent to a Hello Kitty vibrator. I'm not even joking. You can check out a video of how mental it is here.

Around Shinjuku.

Shinjuku is also home to the Park Hyatt Hotel, as seen in the film Lost in Translation (one of my BA dissertation films). Lost in Translation is shot almost entirely in Shinjuku and neighbouring Shibuya. We went for drinks at the hotel on the last night as a treat. The New York bar is on the top floor and offers amazing views. If you're going get there before 8pm. At 8pm they charge a 2200yen/£19 cover charge (as there's live jazz). The cocktails alone are around £18-20 so unless money is not an issue I recommend going before the cover charge sets in. You can also get a spoonfull of caviar for £130 if you fancy it with your drink :P We went around 6pm as this way we got to see the sun setting and see the Tokyo skyline by day and night. The cocktails were delicious, it was so fancy. I felt a bit out of place but as with all Japanese staff they were very welcoming and polite. If you do go, I recommend the Climbing Rose cocktail. Or if you're after a relaxing time, you could make it Suntory time.

We went for dinner elsewhere (the bar food alone started at £50!) and I managed to embarrass myself by knocking over my full glass of coke and having to apologise (gomenasai!) profusely as I was so embarassed. And this was just a casual place - sooo glad I didn't do it in the Park Hyatt! I managed to pull a whole tablecloth and all the cutlery and glasses to the floor in a fancy restaurant here in Belfast once. So red faced.

Akihabara

How can I put this? Akihabara is basically THE MOST FUN PLACE EVER. It's otaku town, otaku meaning geek. It's full of shops selling manga, action figures, maid cafés (we went to one in 2007 and it sort of creeped me out to be honest), electronic shops, game centers and yummy places to eat. And giant pikachus to buy.

Also I got really excited because from a little googling I was able to find Ja La La, a cat café I wanted to go to. It was so awesome. Basically you pay by the hour (I like to call it cat brothel but this isn't recommended) and you get a drink and can play with the cats all you want. There are some rules so the cats stay happy, like you can't wake them up if they are sleeping and you can't use flash photography. You can buy snacks to feed them. I was in heaven! We went to another one in Odaiba but I'll post photos from that in the next post.

Amazing cuties at Ja La La

I was going to write about Ikebukuro here as well but it's already a bit full! I'll save it for next time :) Hope you liked this, ask away if you have any questions. At the end of these I might do a Japan guide on things like money, customs, travel etc. Does that sound like something you might like to read? x

Tokyo Part 1: Harajuku!

2011-10-06T19:51:00.006+01:00

Hello everyone! I'm back! I hope you all enjoyed my guest bloggers. I have so many photos to share with you all, I think I'll have to break it down into three or four posts. I took over 1000 photos, and narrowed the ones for here down to about 100 so i'll hopefully not bombard you all too much! Anyway, enough rambling - on to some photos!

A wedding in Meiji Jingu Shrine.

Meiji Jingu is so beautiful and it's completely massive. It's right beside Harajuku station and Yoyogi park so you can make a whole day of exploring this part of Tokyo.

Obviously Harajuku is a favourite part of Tokyo for me because the fashion and shops are so cute. The girls in 6% Doki Doki were so gorgeous, I wanted to take photos! Almost every shop in Japan has a sign up saying no photos unfortunately.

No trip to Japan is complete without a visit to Daiso. It's a chain of 100yen stores throughout Japan and there is a massive one on Takeshita Dori (the main street of cool shops in Harajuku). Daiso is full of Japanese oddtiies and cute gift items, basically anything you could want. I found Japan so expensive compared to last time I was there in 2007 as the exchange rate has changed so dramatically. Last time I came home with a suitcase full of keyrings, toys and notebooks and things because they were so cheap before but this time even keyrings and things were around £8 and it seemed silly to spend money on those things when there's so many cool things to do in Japan that I could be spending money on. Because of this, Daiso was a godsend for me!

Daiso - everything for 100 (+5 for tax) yen, which is about 88p currently. Last time I was in Japan 100 yen was about 55p.

A dog wearing shoes. The Japanese seem to go mad for dressing their pets in clothes.

The streets of Tokyo are full of these little machines for toys and keyrings for about 200yen. You never know which one you're going to get so it's always fun!

Kiddyland is an awesome, fun place to visit in Harajuku. It's a massive toy shop with themed floors, Hello Kitty and Studio Ghibli heaven! Usually it's 6 floors but the building has been demolished and is being rebuilt so this is the temporary one around the corner. Still massive, I couldn't believe this was just temporary! I bought a Kiki's Delivery Service purse (love that film!) and a fancy Llama for my skating helmet.

We went to Harajuku twice on this trip, the first time we had amazing Tempura at a restaurant we found opposite LaForet, and the second time we went to Jangara Ramen which is often called the best ramen in Tokyo. It was delicious! It's at the very top of Omotesando on the left side walking from the station.

Vegetable Tempura

Jangara Ramen - amazing marinated pork in it!

This is not Jangara in the 2 above photos, I don't know the name of the place but it's right beside our hotel (Sunroute Plaza) in Shinjuku. Good gyoza there as well!

Another thing you will see all over Harajuku is crépe stands. They are not like French crépes, instead they are stuffed with fruit, chocolate sauce and lots and lots of sweet cream! The Tamagotchi shop (yep, you read that right!) also serves mini donuts. They looked so cute and yummy but I was already full.

Well I have a lot, LOT more photos to share but this already seems like a lot for one post. Coming up, lots of cat café's (not like it sounds!), Akihabara (geek town) and plenty of stunning night views - so until next time darlings xo

Guest post: Irish Soda Bread.

2011-10-02T12:00:00.001+01:00

Joanna of http://smorgasblog.ie/ shares a recipe for Irish soda bread - I hope you love it as much as I do! - Claire xo

I am so thrilled to be able to be asked by Claire to do a guest post for her blog. I’m afraid I’m not as glamorous as she is, but I do hope that my recipe for soda bread matches her high standards of cooking.

This recipe is modified from Darina Allen’s Brown Soda Bread in the Ballymaloe Cookery Course book. It makes one very large loaf. As there is only the Beau and me in my household, I cut the loaf into quarters, eating one straightaway and freezing the other three for later in the week. This bread keeps wonderfully in the freezer for up to 3 months, after that it gets a little dry.

Ingredients

600g brown wholemeal flour

400g plain white flour

200g wheat bran

2 tsp salt

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (bread soda)

850 ml buttermilk

Equipment

Large mixing bowl, large flat baking tray, cooling rack

Method

Preheat the oven to 230 C

Weigh the wholemeal flour, the plain flour and the wheat bran into the bowl.

Add in the salt and bicarbonate of soda.

Pour in the buttermilk and with your hand mix the buttermilk into the dry ingredients. I’m sure it goes without saying that your hand should be clean and free of all jewellery, you really don’t want this mix getting stuck in your rings!

Once you have a rough dough, tip it out onto your worktop and pull in any loose bits of flour until you have a large slightly sticky mass.

Sprinkle some flour on the worktop and over the top of the dough. With dry, floured hands roll the dough over the flour, tidying it up and making it less sticky and more cohesive.

Grease a large baking sheet and place the ball of dough on to it. Flatten the dough into a rough circle, to a thickness of approximately 5cm. Don’t worry if it’s not that exactly, there’s no need to get your tape measure out.

Cut a deep cross into the top of the bread and prick the four corners of the loaf with the knife tip.

These steps are traditional to firstly bless the bread (and to control its cracking during the baking process) and to let the fairies out of the bread. Having done a little research, I can’t find why soda bread in particular would be infested with fairies but couldn’t find anything about it. The Beau, who has an interest in these matters, thinks that it is probably to do with the buttermilk, apparently the fairies love it!

Put the loaf into the oven and bake for 15 – 20 mins before reducing the temperature to 200C. Bake for a further 20 – 25 mins. The bread will be done when it sounds hollow when tapped on the base.

Leave the loaf to cool before enjoying with lashings of butter and jam.

Guest post: Picnic with the Birds.

2011-10-01T12:00:00.001+01:00

Absolutely delighted to be guest posting on Claire's blog. My own blog has daily posts of curious & unusual homewares. So in keeping with Claire's love of birds & baking, I've found some bits and bobs for a picnic with the birdies.

All of these items can be found on ebay by searching for 'kitsch birds'. The tea cups have been reused as bird feeders for the garden. I'm going to have to steal this idea for my own house.

Guest Post: Derby Girls!

2011-09-30T12:00:00.000+01:00

Something a bit different for today's guest post. I'm a derby girl in training and so I thought I'd get the lovely Juliet to explain the game to you all. Try and find out if there are any local teams near you, and if not - start one yourself! It's a wonderful sport and a great chance to make friends. And believe me, I am NOT a sporty person and I love it - Roller Derby for everyone! - Claire xo

Hi! My name is Juliet and I blog over at Ever So Juliet. Claire asked me to write an introduction to roller derby, and I was more than happy to oblige!

Roller derby is by far the hardest thing I have ever done. I absolutely hated sports at school, and went out of my way to avoid them, but one day in 2010 my lovely boyfriend bought us tickets to go to a local bout for our Valentine's date. Not sure what to expect I went along and was blown away by a group of passionate, fast skating, hard hitting women (and only a tiny part of that enthusiasm was fuelled by the drunken picnic we'd had earlier!). I signed up to the fresh meat programme the next day.

Image by Chris Scott

If you've never heard of derby, let me explain. Roller derby is an all-female, full contact sport played on quad skates. Players skate anti-clockwise around a track in a pack, where they try to get their Jammer (point scorer) past the opposing team's Blockers whilst also blocking the opposing Jammer. Phew. It's fast paced and very tactical with many rules to make sure the game is played safely and fairly.

This video sums up the basic concept very well!

I've been training with the Auld Reekie Roller Girls for over a year now and every practice is a challenge. When I first strapped on skates (plus obligatory knee and elbow pads, wrist guard, helmet and mouthguard!) I couldn't even stand up, and spent much of the two hours wobbling and falling over. Even after a month I was still looking like bambi on ice. But something kept making me come back to practice, pushing myself to hit a little harder and to get that little bit faster. It's been a challenge – I've strained muscles in my feet (meaning I had a limp for two months), missed many practices due to work or holidays, and had to keep my confidence up when newer skaters progressed at an incredible rate and made the team in no time.

Image by Chris Scott

It's scary and it's tough and it requires so much effort to keep on going. But you know what? It's absolutely worth it. My league are now expanding to include a rec team for people who love to skate but can't commit as much time as competitive skaters, which fits me perfectly.

Roller derby teams are cropping up all over the country – find one near you and go to watch a bout. Teams are run for the skaters, by the skaters, and are made up of every type of girl (and guy) you can imagine. When you first skate you'll hurt, and you'll ache. A lot. But it gets better - it'll stop hurting so much, you'll get stronger, and it feels amazing when things start to make sense. You'll also meet wonderful, crazy people and only refer to each other by derby nick names (I'm Miss Chief by the way. I think nothing of calling my friends "Moo”, "Stitches" or "Slam" in public).

It's fast. It's scary. It's exhilarating. It's basically bloody brilliant.

(Oh, and if you've seen the film Whip It, let me just say in “real” derby you aren't allowed to punch anyone in the face!)

Guest post: The Arched Eyebrow's Guide to Fat Fashion

2011-09-28T12:00:00.000+01:00

Bethany blogs at The Arched Eyebrow. She is a good friend of mine, and a daily inspiration (also hopefully my future wife). I hope you enjoy this amazing post she put together for you all! Also, she hasn't asked me to do this but it would be super rad if you could vote for her blog in the Cosmo Blog Awards in the student blog category. Come on, she deserves it! - Claire xo

In fashion, as in life, the world revolves around people telling other people what to do. In fashion, as in life, the people that tend to get told what to do are fat people. Chubby girls like me are on the receiving end of ‘well-meaning’ ‘fashion’ ‘advice’ far more often than I’d like to acknowledge, and to be frank, a lot of the time it’s absolute balls. So I’m here to bust the myths that every fun-crushing, confidence-starving feature on DRESSING FOR YOUR BODY SHAPE!!!! have been shoving down our well-fed throats since time immemorial.

THOU SHALT NOT ‘HIDE YOUR CURVES’ IN BAGGY GARMENTS

Apparently if you have any semblance of a padded hourglass figure you should be wiggling around your respective place of work or education in an ensemble that would put Joan Holloway to shame. You should never even think about committing the heinous offence of wearing loose-fitting clothes. But what if you like the odd loose garment? What then? WEAR THEM! This is one of my new favourite outfits, especially for my forecasted ‘gothic autumn’. Saying that baggy clothes lead people to believe you have no shape implies that every member of the population possesses a power of imagination no greater than the assumption that one’s body shape is literally represented by their clothes. Like a snap-on outfit for a doll. I’m going to credit the human race and its optical abilities with greater powers than that. Also, it looks good.

NO STRIPES! EVER!

Ha, you fools! If I never wore stripes I’d never wear lovely clothes like this Primark dress or this Marc by Marc Jacobs coatigan. And aren’t they divine? And don’t you still, even in the presence of stripes, understand that my body is only the size it is, no more, no less? Can you accept that your eyes can accurately sense size, shape and scale, or are you still going to tell me that YOUR EYES ARE DRAWN OUTWARDS and IT ADDS AT LEAST TWO DRESS SIZES? Oh well, if you are, then that’s fine. Because the clothes are still beauteous and my body’s still super cool.

SMALL PRINTS ARE THE DEVIL INCARNATE!

Nah, Nadine Dorries is the devil incarnate. Small prints are just nice to look at and pretty to wear. How sweet are those stars? How fierce is that leopard print? I would be so much less happy if I were a person that denies myself the chance to wear things on the grounds that I once heard I shouldn’t wear them, and never went anywhere near stars and leopards and florals and polka dots and all the rest of it.

NO TIERS! NO RUFFLES!

OH ARE YOU SERIOUS? But look at how freakin’ great that dress is. I’m wearing swathes of material, there are ruffles and frills and tiers all over the shop and yet, I’m still standing. There’s nothing I love more than swishing around a dancefloor in a voluminous maxi dress, and besides, there’s something super romantic about loads of puffs and frills and layers. And don’t fat chicks deserve super romantic too?

I’m so grateful that simultaneously to me writing this, there is a sea-change in the perception of how fat girls should be dressing: this is embodied in the phrase FUCK FLATTERING. Flattering is just a sugar-coated way of saying ‘thinner’, and any sentient being knows that absolutely nothing you wear will make you look much more than 4lbs thinner, and anything that performs this task is probably no fun at all. Brights and glitter and prints and sequins and different lengths and textures and accessories are fun. Owning your look is fun. Walking down the street with a spring in your step is fun, not because you look the apparent 4lbs lighter, but because you would rather make your own choices about what you want to wear and how you want to wear it than let a sad, cynical narrow-minded someone tell you that because you’re fat you shouldn’t be seen within 40ft of a stripe.

Guest post: Maria's Outfit of the Day

2011-09-27T12:00:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone, I'm Maria and I blog over at Frills 'n' Spills where I write about the food I make, the places I go and the clothes I wear. Claire has very kindly agreed to feature me on here whilst she is off on her holidays and I have an outfit post for you all today!

As a fashion blogger I think it is inevitable that you are quite aware of trends and what is popular on the catwalks but also what best suits you. If you are regularly taking photos of your outfits you soon seen what doesn't look right and even better, what does work for you. Whilst I think you should wear whatever takes your fancy (orange flares anyone?!) there are certain things that always look better. Until now, I hadn't worn jeans for 2 years but when I saw these berry beauties I knew that they had to be mine!

Jeans: Miss Selfridge, shirt: Mango, shoeboots: Office,belt: vintage Laura Ashley, bag: Fiorelli (gift)

I have to say, squeezing into these super skinny jeans came as a bit of a shock as I haven't worn anything this form-fitting for years... They certainly don't leave much room for seconds at dinner!

I paired it with this loose blouse to balance out how fitted the jeans were and added this vintage belt to bring in the colour of the shoes and the bag.

I really love rich jewel colours and brown together and these shoeboots are so comfy and perfect for Autumn. I decided to really show them off by rolling the hems of the jeans up but I'm not sure if it makes my legs look really short?

What do you think, did it pull off super skinny jeans? How would you have styled them?

Guest post: French Cupcakes for French for Cupcake!

2011-09-25T12:00:00.001+01:00

Hello there! My name is Katie from the blog Katiecakes and I'm here guest blogging for the lovely Claire while she's off having the time of her life in Japan! So jealous! As I'm here on French for Cupcake this fine day, I thought I'd create some French style cupcakes for you along with some basic instructions on how to whip them up yourselves. So here we go!

First of all you'll need some basic equipment at your disposal including a rolling pin, cling film for rolling your fondant, a clean paint brush, luster dust in gold and pink (available from all cake decorating stores), a sharp knife (careful now), fondant in white, blue and pink, a beautiful cameo mould (I got mine from Designacake.com) and of course, your blank cupcakes.

Next you want to roll out your fondant in your chosen colours, don't forget to roll between two sheets of cling film, saves a hell of a lot of cleaning up. Once rolled cut out circles using a pastry cutter large enough to cover your cakes (a wine glass is usually the perfect size). Pipe splodges of frosting atop each cake before covering with the fondant circle, taking care not to be too rough. Gently ladies, gently.

Once you've topped all of your cupcake the fun can commence.

For the cameo cake you first need to make the center of your cameo. Take a walnut sized piece of white fondant, dip it in icing sugar and press it into the cavity in your cameo mould. Taking a sharp knife, trim off the excess fondant leaving your cameo snug inside the mould. Turn the mould up side down and allow the sugared cameo to plop out. Next roll out a piece of white fondant just larger than your cameo center and paint it gold using your paintbrush and golden luster dust. Pop your cameo in the middle of the painted fondant and trim away any excess, leaving a .5cm border. And there you have your cameo, affix to your cupcake and admire your handywork.

For the striped cake all you need is to roll a super long, thin sausage of white fondant. Cut eight equal lengths from your sausage and paint each string gold. Affix the sausages to your cupcake in a symmetrical pattern. Next roll a pea sized ball of white fondant in your hands and squish it to form a disk, paint gold and place on the center of your cupcake to hide the sausage joins. Using the same method, make a fondant cone, paint gold and affix to the disk. There you go!

Now you've got the hand of it just let your creativity flow, you could make a dotty cake, or a cake topped with a bow. The world is your oyster!

Have fun and I'm sure both Claire and myself would adore to see your efforts!

Katie xoxo

Guest post: Zoey's make up favourites!

2011-09-24T12:00:00.000+01:00

Hey I'm Zoey and run a small blog called Daisy Gin. Not specifically a fashion blog, I don't actually own a camera so use my blackberry so no outfit photos! I love make-up and beauty and have a love for Hendrick's Gin. I thought for this I would concentrate on a wonderful online only make-up brand which I am sure you have heard of, ELF. Every time ELF run a 50% off offer I instantly fill my basket with products to try. Some I love, some not so much.

My collection is ever expanding, favourite products include Complexion Perfection, Corrective Concealer, High Definition Powder, Natural Radiance Blusher and the Studio Stipple Brush. Products that I don't rate would be the Cream Eye-Liner (no staying power, as the photo below demonstrates!) and the Brightening Eye Liner (basically just scratches your skin and leaves no pigment).

The Flawless Finish Foundation is a product I was keen to try. As a pale girl most foundations are either too yellow or too orange. There is nothing wrong with the colour of this foundation, the finish however isn't perfect. I've tried to apply it a brush and with fingers but still it leaves a slightly cakey finish and doesn't have the best smell. It isn't the worst foundation I have ever used however, I've leave that to Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse. As a side note, my eye-liner isn't usually that bad. I was going to do a whole FOTD with ELF Products but found the cream eye-liner doesn't even hold up 10 minutes without a good primer and then a base eyeshadow.

ELF Nail Varnishes are a bargain at £1.50 each - currently I own Smoky Brown, Lilac and Fluorescent Pink. They take around 3 coats to be fully opaque and don't dry particularly quickly but are perfect for nail art.

So in all in all ELF is very hit and miss, however they are a firm favourite due to the price point and that the products I love I really do love and are very much at home in my makeup collection along side my MAC and Benefit!

Zoey xo

Guest post: Handmade Brooch Tutorial

2011-09-23T12:00:00.000+01:00

Hello readers of French for Cupcake!

My name is Kerry and I write over at A Small Scoop where I blog about things that inspire me and document my own work and interests. It’s also an ongoing personal project to motivate myself to be more creative and expressive - whether it’s taking photographs or illustrating or even baking! For my guest post I’ve decided to write a tutorial, and I hope you guys enjoy it.

Over the years I’ve built up quite the collection of jewellery, and during a recent clean-out I decided to make use of all those old earrings, bracelets, and necklaces I no longer get any more wear out of. Inspired by my love of brooches and this image I decided to create a little DIY version.

Image from the J.Crew 2010 Lookbook.

- Use the pliers to carefully remove the charms from the chain or clasp

- Once you have selected which charms you’d like to use, line them up in the order you want to arrange them in and make sure the length corresponds to the length of your safety pin (otherwise it won’t all fit!). Play around with the order until you’re happy with how it looks.

- Start putting the charms onto the safety pin. You can use the pliers, or if it fits, just weave it through the safety pin loop.

- Use beads in-between the charms to help hold everything in place.

- Keep going…

Once you’ve got the hang of it, you can start experimenting some more. It’s a great way to recycle jewellery, especially odd earrings which are missing the other pair or all those old bracelets from your teen years which you have slightly outgrown! There’s so much you can add on for more elaborate designs – buttons, ribbons, fabric, etc! They also make a great idea for a gift :)

Before I end the post I’d like to thank the wonderful Claire for giving me the opportunity to guest blog here. I hope this tutorial gives you some ideas and inspiration for your own creative projects. If you make one do send me a picture, I’d love to see how they came out!

Goodbye for a little while!

2011-09-22T17:47:00.003+01:00

Dress - A-wear

Bag - Topshop

Necklace - H&M

I'm off to Japan for a few weeks. I'll be back early October. I'm leaving you all with some amazing guest bloggers, I hope you'll love their posts as much as I do! Can't wait to share my photos with you once I return. Bye! xo

It's hard to dance with the devil on your back...

2011-09-16T16:28:00.005+01:00

Dress - Dorothy Perkins

Tights - Dorothy Perkins

Belt - off a Primark dress

Shoes - Office

Necklace - Topshop

Sometimes all you need is a simple black dress. And then to make sure your necklace is lying properly, and that your camera isn't on the lowest quality setting. Oops! Still, I love this dress so much I wanted to share and it was only £22. I might have to go back and get it in some other colours!

Also, are you all as in love with Florence's new song as I am?

Time for tea...

2011-09-14T20:29:00.003+01:00

So I have to apologise for being a bit absent in the last week. I do have a good excuse though! Today I handed in my MA dissertation. It's consumed my life for the best part of the last 12 months, so it's a huge relief to have it printed, bound and dropped into the submission box. I don't know what to do with myself now! The thought that I might never again write an academic essay is slightly terrifying to me if I'm honest.

I had plans of dressing up and looking fancy for afternoon tea but getting ready time lost out to sleep.

Top - New Look

Jeans - Evans

Shoes - Topshop

Bag - H&M

Scarf - New Look

Necklace - This Charming Girl

I have only had two hours sleep in the last 2 days so please excuse this entry if it is a bit lacking in decent grammar. I have a lot to carry on with though, no slacking for me yet. I'm on a panel planning a Film Festival in Belfast so I have plenty to do there (we are going on a tour of the Game of Thrones set next month!) and on Monday I start my placement as Marketing assistant at the local art house cinema here in Belfast. I'm really excited though, and I can't complain about being too busy as I am off to Japan at the end of next week.

So today I went and handed in my dissertation and thought that was some cause for celebration. I decided instead of spending lots of money on going out drinking and taxis when I really don't have the energy, that it might be nice to go for Afternoon Tea at the Merchant Hotel with my best friend Sarah Kane. It was such a treat, I could get used to the luxury! The Merchant is a beautiful 5* Hotel, there's a hot tub on the roof! It's so beautiful. I've been for cocktails there before (my favorite cocktail ever is a White Russian) but this was my first time there for afternoon tea.

I would definitely recommend afternoon tea at The Merchant if you're in Belfast! It was £19 (£10 more if you wanted champagne), the staff were just amazing and the food was wonderful. We filled ourselves up and still had things left to take home! As well as that it was made even more special for me as the chef sent out a complimentary cake for me, I must have been gushing loudly about my hand in! It was such a lovely thing to do, it made my day (and tasted delicious). Now, I sleep!

Recipe time: Fifteens!

2011-09-07T20:52:00.004+01:00

So occasionally I like to check my blog stats, who is visiting, how they got here etc. Sometimes it's really funny, people actually get to my blog by googling things like 'big boobs in the street' um....but then there's lots of nice things as well. One of the things I get a lot of searches for is fifteens. I did a post on them back in 2009 when pretty much nobody read this little blog. I thought I'd revamp and share them again so more people can discover the wonder of fifteens, which are a delicious tray bake that seem to be found only in Northern Ireland.

They are called fifteens because there's 15 of each ingredient in them. You can of course double them, and make them thirties which I have a habit of doing, bad Claire.

Ingredients:

15 digestive biscuits

15 marshmallows, halved

15 glacé cherries, halved

One tin of condensed milk

Dessicated coconut

Method:

1. Put the digestive biscuits in a food processor, or in a plastic sandwich bag and bash them with a rolling pin until they are totally turned to crumbs.

2. Add the chopped glacé cherries and chopped marshmallows and mix.

3. Here is the messy part, it is unavoidable, add the condensed milk and mix all the ingredients through with your hands.

4. Lay some tin foil out and sprinkle a good amount of dessicated coconut on it.

5. Place the mixture on the coconut and using your hands shape it into a log, roll the log so that it is coated in the dessicated coconut.

6. Roll the foil up and tie the ends so it is all contained, place in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

7. Take the log out of the fridge and cut it into slices.

And you're done! These are amazing and will have you hooked instantly.

Calling all bloggers!

2011-09-04T23:57:00.005+01:00

As you might know (since I haven't shut up about it) I am off to Japan for around two weeks at the end of the month. I don't want things to get boring around here so I thought I'd try to recruit some guest bloggers! If you would like to give it a go please email me at frenchforcupcake@hotmail.co.uk with your blog link and what you might like to blog about. I'll keep submissions open until next Sunday and then I'll send replies out. Thanks, you'd be doing me a wonderful favour! x

EDIT: Due to the high number of submissions I am only now accepting emails until this Thursday, that's the 8th September.

The age of Princesses and Pirate ships...

2011-09-03T19:47:00.005+01:00

Today my little niece Jaime turned three. I can't believe she's three already! I made her cakes for her 1st and 2nd birthday and so it seemed tradition to make the 3rd as well. The only request was that it was pink - no problem there!

This is the recipe I used for a simple sponge cake. It was delicious, very moist and only three eggs needed. It was really simple to make, you honestly couldn't go wrong with it. I just changed it to decorate it with buttercream instead of fresh cream.

We had a great day. I love being an Auntie. I also have a little nephew called Finnegan who was born in June. My brother and his wife live in Canada so I have to wait until Christmas to see him but I can't wait! Jaime had a wonderful day.

I got Jaime the sparkly dragon, I kind of wanted to keep it! And the helmet, I was impressed with my new pink helmet for roller derby but that unicorn one is amazing! Hope you enjoyed reading, and give the cake a go!

A month of Instagram: August.

2011-09-01T17:03:00.004+01:00

I can't believe ir's September already! That means just 2 weeks until my dissertation submission (eeek!) and 3 weeks until I go to Japan (yay!). Enjoy!

Amazing necklace I won from Bijoux Bijoux from Essbeevee's giveaway!

The cupcakes in the middle were by my friend Dawn at her housewarming :)

My sisters and I out for dinner. Impossible to get a good photo of the three of us! Nevermind with my two brothers added.

Rainbow nails: Models Own.

2011-08-31T18:44:00.003+01:00

So did anyone else take advantage of the 50% off Models Own sale? I know a lot of people have had problems ordering but I have to say there wasn't a single problem with mine and everything I wanted was in stock. I ordered early on Wednesday morning and got my polishes today so if you ordered around the same time I'm sure they'll be with you soon.

The polishes I got (L-R) are Gold Finger, Pink Sorbet, Peacock Green, Aciiied (the name of this one cracks me up), Fluro Orange, Orangeade, Purple Passion and Tickled Pink.

They have added nicely to my collection, I thought I'd show a few of my favourites below.

The sale is still on until Monday tonight, so hurry! The code is FIFTYFIFTY.

And it's for my heart that i'll live...

2011-08-29T22:57:00.002+01:00

Dress - A-wear

Shoes - Primark

Necklace - Galibardy

I went out for dinner with the family to celebrate my sister's success with her GCSE results, so I thought I'd take some quick snaps before I left. I feel like my outfit posts aren't as frequent or as interesting as they used to be, simply because I am busy so rarely go out, and because I am broke so I can't buy shiny new things to show off every week. Hopefully you still enjoy seeing them all the same. I have had this dress for ages now but I still love it to bits. I'm a bit shy with showing off my upper arms but this dress was too pretty to pass up.

My nails are Models Own Bubblegum Pink and Juicy Jules. Can't wait for my sale buys to arrive! I'll be back later this week with my August Instagram Post. Oh and before the month ends, I'll annoy you once more by asking you to consider voting for me in the Established Fashion Blogger category for the Cosmo blog awards over here. Oh, and a beautiful song to finish with.

I wake with good intentions, but the day it always lasts too long.

2011-08-24T01:09:00.003+01:00

Lace jacket - 2nd hand

Top - Topshop

Shorts - New Look

Boots - Stolen from my sister, but they're Primark

Bangles - Primark

Ring - Topshop

I've felt my style changing a lot over the last 6 months (no idea why) and this outfit is a good example. I still love my vintage and floral dresses but I've been feeling a little bit more like throwing on some heavy boots and a band tshirt lately. This top is about the fiercest thing I own (and resulted in my saying to a friend "how can it not be fierce? It's a lion! It's the epitome of fierce!"). In reality I am about as fierce as a kitten with a phobia of dust. But I still love it.

I hit 900 blog followers today so lookout for a giveaway coming very soon! Also if you haven't already, I am shamelessly asking for you to take a moment to vote for me in the Cosmo Blog awards under the Established Fashion Blogger category.

It would mean the world to me to be nominated. When I think how much this blog has done for my confidence it blows me away. I was always shy and heavily insecure about my weight before I started blogging and got introduced to so many other amazing girls, and I'm thankful for it every time I walk out the door. For example, a few years ago I'd have been way too scared to wear shorts! Thank you to anyone that does nominate me <3

And of course, a song that is amazing and everyone should hear. I think you will be hearing a lot of Emeli Sandé from now on.

The ultimate blogger cliché?

2011-08-20T17:29:00.005+01:00

My bag was £14.99 from H&M (I almost never shop there, I find their sizing rubbish/weird). They have it in red and brown as well.

I have to admit I am pretty proud that I have made it three years of blogging before doing on of these posts, they're the ultimate cliché when it comes to fashion blogging. In all honesty though? I love what's in my bag posts. I am the nosiest person alive, I love seeing what people carry around with them and let's face it, blogging is all about voyeurism. Hopefully you like this post, and I won't rely too heavily on clichés in the future. That means no Jeffery Campbell Lita's, reviews of GlossyBox/Boudoir Privé, raving about Kindles or multitudes of inspiration photo posts. All tongue in cheek of course, I usually enjoy reading those posts. I actually am a massive cliché. I've had dip dye hair, I bake cupcakes and I do nail art. Enough said. I hope you like this all the same!

1. Keys, Dior Midnight Poison perfume, hairbrush, painkillers and makeup.

2. A handout from Derby practice, some obscure cherry chew bars from Lidl, gum, name badge from work.

3. Toki Doki wallet from France.

4. Headphones, lipsticks, comb, iphone 4.

5. A book I bought from Oxfam today, mints, some jewellery, a party invite, loose change.

6. Some reciepts, my bag is usually FULL of bits of paper but this is a new bag and I haven't managed to mess it up yet. Oh and my Moo cards.

Maybe we can get a little discussion going, tell me your favourite and least favourite blogger habits!

OOTD: This is pouring rain, this is paralyzed.

2011-08-14T01:10:00.004+01:00

Dress - Get Cutie

Shoes - Primark

Necklace - ASOS

Ring - Topshop

Can you spot the blogger cliché in these photos? ;) I was at a housewarming party tonight, I had a new dress from ASOS but I changed my mind at the last minute and decided to wear my beloved Graduation dress. I bought it from Get Cutie for the ceremony last year, who wants to wear black and be boring, eh? I also wore my Harrods Ruby Slippers for graduation. I have to do it all over again for my Masters graduation in December.

I love Get Cutie, their service is great. I had to exchange the original one for another size (they run about a size small I'd say) and I had my new, perfectly fitting dress within a few days of returning the first one.

And as goes tradition, here's a song I can't stop listening to. Totally dreamy, I love Bon Iver.

I am in a ridiculous amount of pain today after going to Roller Derby practice last night. My muscles are killing me today. So off to bed for me now! Night folks, I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Have a photo of me looking like a massive dork.

Three little things.

2011-08-08T21:42:00.009+01:00

1. A quick outfit, it's a bit rubbish because I forgot to take the photos until it was a bit too dark but I thought it's been so long since I did an outfit post that I might as well share them! I also wanted to do a little post about some of my new favourite bloggers!

I still need to figure out where's the best place in my new garden to take photos!

Dress - River Island (via ASOS)

Belt - Primark

Cardigan - New Look

Boots - Primark (borrowed from my little sister).

Necklace - c/o This Charming Girl

And typically I have just noticed my necklace is the wrong way round - doh!

Speaking of outfit posts I am super excited as I have a dress arriving from ASOS this week which looks gorgeous so hopefully it will fit. Also, on Thursday I am going to an exhibition at the Ulster Museum and then shopping with my best friend and we are going to take outfit photos, as well as photos of the exhibition which is about film costumes and I can't wait to see them.

2. Some bloggers you need to check out! I love discovering new blogs so I thought this would be a fun feature to do. Let me know if you like it and I might do this as a monthly feature.

1. Bethany of The Arched Eyebrow. I'm a bit biased here as I have been friends with Bethany for a while and I utterly adore her, according to me she does no wrong but she recently started a blog and I genuinely think it is wonderful. She is now a firm favorite plus size blogger of mine, she also wrote an amazing post on why she hates when people tell her she isn't fat, which sums up my thoughts on the matter perfectly! On top of that let me be superficial and say she's totally stunning and I have constant eyebrow envy.

2. Ani of Ani Golightly is a fellow Belfast based blogger, and baker and I just love finding people from the same area as me who blog. I wish I could find more Belfast bloggers, please say hello if you are reading! Anyway, more to the point Ani wears lovely things and recently did a tutorial on a floral headband that I think you will all love.

3. Morgaine of Bust my Buttons. I love her eclectic style, and her ability to pull of a nose ring (I want one, but 3 people now have told me I look too much "like a housewife" to pull it off, ta guys, loving life)

4. Another Claire, like me and she is also from Northern Ireland! Claire of I fell into Yesterday does amazing nail art and has been fuelling my recent addiction to beauty blogs, bad for my wallet!

5. Caroline of Sparkly Vodka. I only discovered this blog recently and I went through right to the beginning of it and read every entry! Another blog that will give you major hair envy, love it.

6. Zoey of Daisy Gin is a great friend of mine who has recently started blogging. I love her style and I've loved seeing little glimpses of her life since we met years and years ago now. She's also really fun to dance with, I can vouch for that. Her latest post on whats in her bag was brilliant because it wasn't like so many bloggers 'in my bag' posts where they have clearly tidied out and organized everything before taking photos! Please check her out!

3. Before I leave, I would just like to ask if you like my blog could you please take a moment and nominate me here for the Cosmo blogger awards? It would mean so much to me, and I think it would be nice to get a plus sized blogger in the running. It's the 'established fashion blogge' category. I feel a bit weird calling myself a fashion blogger still! Thank you so much!

A month of Instagram: June and July.

2011-08-04T00:27:00.006+01:00

Well, yes I suppose this should be called two months of Instagram. I totally forgot about June until about two weeks in so I thought I'd hold off and include it with July. I never tire of this little app, if you have it add me, my username is french4cupcake.

Seeing my beloved Laura Marling supported by Louise and the Pins who are also wonderful.

That photo in the middle is genuinely what my hair was like when I woke up one morning. Flock of Seagulls, anyone?

I reupholstered those chairs, the fabric is from ikea.

One day it was warm enough for Jaime and I to paddle our feet.

My toaster glows and changes colour.

My mums car. The last photo is the carnage after July 12th her in Belfast, shameful!

The tattoo is a temporary one from a pack my little sister bought in Poundland, ha.

Polka dots done with my Models Own nail pen.

Thanks for reading, everyone! I promise I won't forget August!

Belfast Pride 2011!

2011-08-03T01:30:00.003+01:00

Hello! I wanted to share some photos from Belfast Pride which was this past weekend. I intended to take more and there was lots to photograph but I got carried away having fun being out and proud etc, oh and trying not to get overwhelmed by all the rainbows. I'm just really thankful that I live in a city which despite it's past and it's problems, can be so tolerant. So here are a few snaps, I'll be back with my Instagram June and July (since I forgot June!) soon!

That Sweet Smelling Blackberry Stone.

2011-07-22T23:24:00.003+01:00

Dress - Topshop

Shoes - River Island

Necklace - Accessorize

Ring - Topshop

I'm back at my parent's house for a weekend so I finally had the chance to get my sister to take some photos. I need to find the bit for my tripod so that I don't always have to rely on her! My outfits have been pretty boring lately as I am working all the time and also I am saving for my trip to Japan in September so there's not much in the way of pretty new clothes. I got this dress from Topshop which is odd for me since I never ever wear white or cream because I always feel like it is see through and everyone can see my bits, because all my underwear is black or not sensible colours and because I spill everything. I need a bib. I like this though, so hopefully it'll last!

So just a quick outfit post tonight! As well as two things I am excited about.

1. I have a little newphew! My brother's wife gave birth to him at the end of June. They live in Canada, so I can't see him until they come home at Christmas but I am admiring him from photos right now. He is their first baby, and was born at home on a shower curtain since the hospitals were all full! His name is Finnegan and he is adorable.

2. Laura Marling has announced the name of her new album and I am very, very excited. So to celebrate, have a song and be excited for A Creature I do not Know. Oh how I love her.

A brief absence.

2011-07-19T23:38:00.001+01:00

Hey everyone, just a message to say I am still alive but I've been taking a little break from blogging. I have some stressful things going on and I don't want to blog just for the sake of it when I'm not really motivated. I'll be back soon though. Oh, and I got a spontaneous hair cut. Don't leave, I promise I will be back x

Turning Japanese.

2011-07-01T16:02:00.005+01:00

Time for a bit of my second passion on French for Cupcake now, food! I'm part of a competition over here at So Feminine to write about your favourite food (if you love food as much as I do check out their recipes page, some great stuff) so I went out a few days ago for lunch and thought I'd share the photos.

One of my absolute favourite places to eat in Belfast is Sakura, I love Japanese food and they do amazing sushi. And only £1.80 a plate at lunchtime, yum! If you remember I am going back to Japan in September and I'm not going to lie - one of the things I am most excited about is the food. I can't get enough of it! I was a bit apprehensive last time I was there but I'm more adventurous now and can't wait to stuff myself with gyoza dumplings, ramen and sushi. I'm not even a big fish fan, but something about fresh fish with rice and soy sauce does it for me. And if you don't like fish Sakura has loads of sushi made with other meats or veggie options. I had salt and chili squid and Miso soup as well. Both amazing, I've never had better cooked squid anywhere else.

Sticking with the Japanese theme I thought I'd show you some of the photos from my last trip there. Er, my style has changed somewhat since I was 18!

I can't wait to share my photos from my upcoming trip with you. What's your favourite food? Are you an adventurous eater?

p.s. This post was not sponsored by Sakura in any way, I just really love them! Be sure to check them out on Botanic Avenue if you are in Belfast.

Through urban fields, and suburban life

2011-06-22T19:10:00.004+01:00

Dress - Primark

Black top - H+M

Shoes - Topshop

Necklace - Forever 21

A bit of a gloomy day here in Belfast, but my little sister and I decided to take ourselves out to browse the shops and drink peppermint frappuccinos. High point had to be me seeing a tv crew, trying to run away and managing to go "uhhh what?" and try to run away again when some man asked me if I was a Libra (I'm not). Then I was so stunned I signed release forms and apparenly will be on BBC1 for some show about mindreading....uh, great. GO ME.

My nails are Fuzzy Peach by Models Own and I used their nail pen for the leopard.

I picked up this dress in a teal-ish colour today as well. I love it! There was a lovely floral patterned version but I already own so many florals. I thought they would be good to take to Japan with me since they're quite light and it'll be really humid there. I also bought something semi sensible, eggcups! But even when I buy sensible things they have to be a little silly - so they're Hello Kitty.

We really went to the shops to get my little brother a birthday present, he turns 20 tomorrow, scary! I somehow found myself in Topshop, oops. But I got all the 5 things below for a total of £14.85! Sale + Student discount = I love Topshop. I'd wanted this necklace since forever but originally it was £20, then they must have brought in a new price point because it was £14, still a bit much for me, but I managed to get it today for £6.70. The ring was £2.50, the pencils £2 each and the shadows only £3 for the palette. I've said it before, I love Topshop make up.

I've been attempting Dissertation work, first chapter submission is next week ahh! I have mostly been distracted with Game of Thrones though. How amazing is it? I can't believe the first season is over already. They're coming back to Belfast in July to film season 2 though and I plan on doing a little stalking...ahem. I just bought the first book and plan on starting it once I finish Caitlin Moran's How to be a Woman which will be soon I'm sure as it's so, so funny and I'm flying through it! Speaking of Game of Thrones I did a little post on my other blog about the women in it, and there's a good few other ones I have written over the last few weeks which I would love you to check out if you like film and feminism.

I'll try to most more regularly, at the minute dissertation work and moving (on Monday!) are keeping me busy! A bit of a change of music I'm leaving you with this week, but this video is so bizarre and adorable and the song is great. Not my usual singer songwriter finish but I hope you like it all the same.