Hummingbird Bakery and a Museum Mooch

I went to London with my friend Amy on Saturday... at the point of making the decision to go i felt better. As soon as we got there i had that moment of 'what have i done' i didn't feel better at all... I did however have a really good day out, and even though we did a lot of queueing, it helped me rest. :) 

I sound like a pensioner... But no I've just had a cold, and Gastroenteritis. Lucky me.

Going down the escalators...


The London underground decent to the bottom..


South Kensington Hummingbird Bakery
The first stop was breakfast as it was only 10am, i love Cake, but i was not feeling icing and too much sweet stuff... how did i resist it?




 Such a cute Bakery... the cake slices are huge so its not so badly priced. My order came to £5.60 for a peppermint tea, and a slice of lovely Banana loaf cake.

Huge slice...

How cute are the pictures on the wall!


My friends Raspberry brownie cheesecake... it was SO good.
We then went onto the Natural History Museum which was about a 5 minute walk away!

We had to queue for about 20 minutes to get into the museum, then we queued for about another 20 mins to go and see the Dinosaur exhibits. (Look at that queue below!)

Giant tree stump which was over 1300yrs old... incredible.

I Love the colours of these Oxides.

The Earth section.
 Next we hopped back onto the tube to go on the search for Lunch, we went to southbank and checked out all the different restaurants. We decided on Las Iguana's and we had Tapas!


Happy hour on cocktails! (This is a virgin tropical juice one)
I've never had Tapa's before and this place has a pretty good deal. 5 dishes for £24 and they are big portions. In hindsight i could have just eaten the natcho's and been full! ha


I had a good day out with my buddy and you can never beat a good day out in London, its always fun!

Glossy Box February 2014!

I didn't think you were going to be reading this, as i have been feeling so ill, i've had a viral bug and literally felt like crap for the past week. So without further a do, here is my thoughts on the latest Glossybox.

 ______________________________________________________________

I have been thinking about ordering a Glossy Box for about a year now. I finally decided to bite the bullet and ignore everyone who was slating the items they received. I ordered the Valentines box this February as the box is pretty awesome.... Look it.

Looook at it, B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.



 I had a few issues with the Glossy box website when i signed up. It had an option for flat, and house number. So as i have both, i filled them both in. Apparently the website didn't like that and omitted out my Flat number. After a few calls to customer service, one successful call, and one which left me thinking the guy there was a bit of a Sassy pants... the box arrived 7 days after they shipped it. Glossy box basically blamed me for the address problem, which it was not. But... they are defending their Brand i guess.



The outer box was a little bit damaged and mushy from the rain, But the inside was perfectly fine. On opening the box there is a Glossy magazine, and a card which lists your products. I threw this to the side, i didnt want to ruin my suprise.



The good products:


I received the Toni & Guy Stick it up gum, which is full sized and retails for £7.90. A lot of people are complaining about receiving this, however i have very long hair and its hard to get volume and texture sometimes. This is good for working into the root, or using it to texture the ends. Also its good for sticking down those fly away hairs when you put your hair into a Pony, or a high bun. I'm excited to try this!  
I also received a full size Ciate paint pot in Kiss Chase, the full size pots are £9 and are 13.5ml, which is a big size bottle! 

I was really pleased to see i received the Maybelline Kajal eyeliner in black, i had been eying this up in Boots a while ago. Its on sale for £5.99, its basically a long crayon that you use on its side to draw a nice slick cat eye.

 

The MEHHH products:

There was two things i received which were not really my taste, these being the Nougat London body shimmer, and the Eldora Lashes.  I cannot stand to be shimmery, i mean I'm not one of the cast of twilight, or a spice girl, or 15 anymore. Not my taste at all but I'm passing this to my friend who does like to be shimmery :)

The Lashes are not something i would wear, i generally like my lashes as they are and haven't ever needed to wear false ones, so i have swapped this with another fellow glossy boxer for the Maybelline big eyes mascara. (Ill review this at a later date!)

Final Thoughts:

Value for money - The products in this box are worth in excess of £20, so for a cost of £10 per box + £2.95 P+P this isn't bad. I would prefer free postage, and for it to be sent by royal mail though.

Product Variety - There is a selection of good known brands in this box, which i liked nearly all of them including the free chocolate!!

I will give Glossy box another go just to see if this was a fluke, then ill make my final decision as to whether ill carry on with my subscription, as i like the way you can earn extra 'glossy dots' to get a free box.

Click here to read about other subscriptions i have..





Saturday Catch up #3

Hi There,

Are you having a Saturday morning lie in?

Did you want something to read so you can stay in bed that little bit longer?

Well here is a couple of old blog posts to keep you snuggled in bed that little bit longer :)

Radvent: an Inspiring post 

An oldie but a goodie - After xmas sale shopping 

Make up Haul from Boots 

Enjoy!

6pp Weight Watcher Recipe: Tomato & Mozzarella Risotto

I've been in the kitchen again whipping up some tasty food. 

I feel like I've turned into Delia smith or something, except im not a good cook, i dont know why but i HAVE to follow a recipe to the exact measurements. It stresses  me out if it doesnt have amounts. (The cous cous recipe from last week had no measurements... AHHH!) I think i have measurement OCD. I dont know if there is such a thing, but if not, there is now!


I copied the recipe from the 'Your week' magazine from last year. I halved the recipe they had as i didn't want it for 6 people. This is marked at 6 pro points.


 You will need:

200g cherry tomatoes
Calorie controlled cooking spray (I used olive oil fry light)
425ml Vegetable stock
350g Jar of weight watchers mozzarella and rocket sauce
1 Onion
140g dried Arborio rice
65g low fat mozzarella (Drained and chopped)
Rocket to garnish. (Approx 30g)


Diced Onion, Chopped Mozzarella & Tomatoes. Yum!

First you need to heat the oven up to 180'c, put the tomatoes on a baking tray and spray with the cooking spray, roast them for 15mins.

In a pan bring the stock and weight watchers mozzarella and rocket sauce to a simmer and keep warm.
 
Then spray a pan with cooking spray and add the diced Onion, fry them for 5 mins then stir in the rice. This is where it gets  a bit tedious... Stir in a ladle full of the stock and simmer until the rice has almost absorbed all the liquid. Repeat this for about 20 mins until you have one Ladle of stock left. Make sure you keep stirring, you will have arms like Arnie by the end of it.
 

Lastly you need to add the final ladle of stock along with half the mozzarella and the tomatoes, stir it in until all the stock has absorbed. By this point it looks like this....


 Its ready, stop drooling, get those plates and dish it up. Put some Rocket on the top with some of the left over mozzarella and now you can eat!





Awesome Parcel Exchange - Hello kitty Galore!

I had been waiting on a parcel from my friend Rachel who lives in Singapore. We did a Christmas swap, but we delayed it until the end of January.
Rachel is seriously awesome and she always sends me the most amazing gifts, im SO lucky!



Upon opening the parcel... it took some hefty sized scissors to get into it i'll have you know.

This is what i was surprised with... Ahhhh Hello Kitty, not just any HK, its a Mac donalds Fairy tail one.. I have the Wizard of Oz one. So Kawaii. ♥


Next, after i had contained my excitement..

A TokiDoki Sanrio Purse, this purse is awesome. It has two zippered sections, the top one it big enough for my phone, money, cards etc - it will definitely make a good purse to use for shopping trips so i dont have to carry my bulky (equally amazing) Warehouse one around.


Next up, there was more TokiDoki gifts!!!!

A cute little plush which i will be putting on my camera :)

And some a-w-e-s-o-m-e nail stickers, look at them..


LOOK.AT.THEM... 
 

Right... excitement contained, i think there to nice to use! lol

Here is a selection of Gotochi charms and a cool Mt.Fuji Pen. 



 Look at how cute this Hello Kitty Washi tape is!!! Cant wait to use this in my Smash book.


 The next little bag was full of sheet face masks, they are from Korea and Taiwan. There is a selection of Innisfree , and i forgot the name of the other one. But i tried one out, and it was amazing, my face felt really good after.




How amazing is the package, I literally couldnt ask for anything more, its covered all my favourite things, i wish Rachel lived closer as i bet we would get on SO well.

Thanks Girl, your awesome and i really hope you loved your package too. Cant wait for the next one!

Elf Nail Polish Review: Mod Mauve


I decided to try out a nail polish from Elf (Eyes Lips Face)  i picked out the colour called Mod Mauve, it cost £2.50 and is 10ml which is a nice size bottle for the price!

I used a base coat and then two coats of the polish, it has a nice shaped brush which is really easy to apply and it glides on quite nicely.

The colour is a really nice dark reddish brown colour, i topped it off with Sally Hansen's quick dry top coat which gave it an almost Gel like look.  

I painted them on a Sunday night, and saw a tiny bit of chipping on the Monday which was due to me doing some Housework and walking the dogs.  However the rest of the nails lasted really well. 

The Verdict:

After wearing the nail polish for a week it lasted well, a few chips on the ends of my nails, but then i do a lot of typing at work. The chips were different to other brands I've used as they literally just chipped off. Usually a chip turns into strips of pain peeling off, well not with the Elf nail polish!

For the price, this is good stuff and i will definitely be getting some more! 

Saturday Catch up... #2

Hi There,

Are you having a Saturday morning lie in?

Did you want something to read so you can stay in bed that little bit longer?

Well here is a couple of old blog posts to keep you snuggled in bed that little bit longer :)

Click here for my Saturday Shopping Face... you could try it today?

Click here for my 'JustFab' whats in my bag!  

Click here for a look into Radvent 2011..

Have a super Saturday!

Simple Start: Roasted Vegetable Cous Cous!


I have yet again been in the kitchen whipping up a healthy meal. I decided to pre-prep my lunches to make it easier to stay on track. This Week was the lovely looking Veggie cous cous which was in my Simple Start guide.


  •  2 Peppers in your colour preference.
  • 1 whole can of Chickpea's
  • 75g Cous cous (Whole Wheat)
  • 1/2 a red Onion
  • Courgette
  • Cherry Tomato
  • Lemon (for the Zest)
  • Fry Light


First things first, chop up the Peppers, Onion, and Courgette..


Once you have it all chopped up into chunks, spread it out onto a baking tray and spreay with Fry light. Shake it up a bit, then pop in the oven for 20mins at 200'c.

Whilst this is cooking away put your wholewheat cous cous into a bowl and pour over 115ml of boiling hot water, cover and leave for 10 mins. 



 Pour the chickpea's into a pan and heat slowly until they are hot. Dont let them boil though!

 Once the veggies have roasted for 20 mins, pop the tomatoes on top and give them a spritz with the fry light and shake them up. Leave them in for 10mins, and then they will look like this...


*Droooooool*

At this point i tasted some of the peppers, and Ohhhhh myyyyy, they tasted amazing!


Now is the time to get the Lemon and give it a grate to get the lovely zest... I used the whole lemon and my cous cous tastes a bit like Cif... So I would say Use half.

Then you just need to mix the roasted veg, the cous cous and the Zest together and its ready to eat! 




Update on my weight loss journey so far... 

I lost another 1/2 lb this week, which brings me to 4lbs lost in total. I am proud that i haven't gained at all since i started back at weight watchers! 

I'm aiming for 1/2 lb a week, anything more is a bonus!














Show some Love today!

Image from Google.

I believe today is a day where everyone show spread some love.

How about some random acts of Kindness just to make someone day.

 You could....

  • Put some change in the vending machine at work / college /school for the next person to get a free treat.
  • Smile at someone.
  • Give up your seat on the train/Tube or Bus.
  • If you think someone looks nice, then TELL THEM!
  • Bring a treat to work or school ... take valentines day cupcakes, or heart shaped sweets.
  • Be kind to everyone you meet. 
  • Buying yourself a coffee, then how about you  buy the person behind you one too.
Imagine how you would feel is someone did any of the above to you.... its heart warming isn't it. 

Have a great day, and i hope whether your single, married, in a relationship of any stage that you have day full of love and kindness.

 xxx

Valentines Day Nail art!

This is a re-blog from last year, and oldie but a goodie!

 Firstly you need:



  • Plasters (or Band aids if your from the US)
  • Scissors
  • Base coat
  • Nail polish colour of choice
  • Accent colour nail polish for the hearts
  • Top coat


Paint your nails as you would normally, i used Nails inc Porchester Square, Then use a base coat, then leave to try for a while,  to be on the safe side i left them for an hour. 

Then the fun bit!



Cut off the sticky bits of the plaster, and fold in half, cut half a heart out and you have a perfect heart shape (admittedly i did this a few times to get the heart shape i liked)
Stick the stencil on your nail and press down the edges.

Paint your accent colour over the heart cut out, i used Nails inc in 'St James', you could also do it in gold which would look quite glam. Peel off the stencil carefully after about 10 seconds
Let the hearts dry a bit longer then apply a top coat, be careful to avoid drag and smudging the red hearts.

I did the hearts on my thumbs and both ring fingers, you could do it on all fingers if you like to be extra romantic.

 
There you have it, a really simple nail art tutorial.  


Please show me what you have created i'd love to see! 

Tweet me @georowe or @ramblingsofgeo (Instagram)

Christening day!

Last Sunday we were invited to a christening for our friends Daughters, it was a lovely day and really nice to catch up with friends and fa...