Reading Update

Hey Guys!!

As you know I love reading and I have set myself a little reading goal for the year, you can see the post here. I must say I am actually doing amazingly well with reading at the moment. I am now onto my 4th book this year and we are only January, well there's not long left of the month. 

So here are the books I have read this month.

Northern Lights - Philip Pullman This was a re-read for me as I haven't read this book in so long, I wanted to read it again. I enjoyed this book but sometimes I felt like I didn't quite understand it, but overall it is a good book.

The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman This is the 2nd instalment to Northern Lights and I must say from this one I started to understand the story a bit more than the first. Again I enjoyed this book and can't wait to get the 3rd instalment so I can see how it ends.

Paper Towns - John Green I read this as my sister recommended it and I loved it! I read this really quickly to as I didn't want to put it down. I don't about you though but I didn't like the character of Margo, I just thought if she was a real person we would not get on.

Me Before You - Jojo Moyes I have only just started this book, I've only read 5 chapters, but I am really liking it and can't wait to read the rest.

There we have it, the books I have read/reading so far.

What books have you read or are currently reading?

Would love some recommendations!!

See You Soon!!

InstaLately #4

Hey Guys!!

This week I have been feeling very positive and can feel myself getting back to my happy self. I have needed to get back to that as I think I have been quite unhappy and not realised it until now. Sometimes I think we just have to take time out from things to gain perspective and to figure out things.

L-R, I had a Dentist appointment, found a place for my Disney teddies, got my new Rugby shirt and had tea in a cafe in one of our local parks.

What have you been up to?

See You Soon!!

Baking: Chocolate Cakes

Hey Guys!!

The other week I decided to have an afternoon of baking, when I say afternoon it literally took me 3 hours to do these. The only thing was with these, was that they didn't turn out exactly how I thought in my head. I also cheated and used a mix rather than bake from scratch like I usually do.

These were the ingredients I needed, plus water.

The first thing I did was pour the mix into the little mixer, add 2 eggs and 8tbsp of water. Then mixed it altogether on speed 2 for 2 minutes, I did this twice as I made 2 sponges.

I then poured the mix into a silicone mould and baked it for 20/25 minutes.

Once the 2 sponges had baked I waited for them to cool and then cut out circles, first using a glass, then used a knife as it was easier.

I then weighed out 170g of icing, well I went over a bit and 80g of butter to make the butter icing. Then mixed it together, which is hard work if you don't use an electric mixer.

Then came the first messy part, icing the circle sponges and putting them together.

I then melted the chocolate, at first in a plastic jug but thought it was going to melt the jug so changed to a pyrex jug. Then came the second messy part of covering the cakes with the chocolate.

I made 7 and out of them all one came out decently.

I enjoyed making these but they really did not come out how I seen them in my head. I will try them again though but maybe do them a different way so they get covered by the chocolate. They did taste very nice, very chocolate-y ha ha, and the mix was very crumbly, so I wouldn't use those mixes again.

Overall I liked them but they did go quite wrong, a 5/10 from me!!

What do you think?

See You Soon!!

InstaLately #3

Hey Guys!!

This week was my week off work so I just relaxed and got things done that I needed to. 

This week I have absolutely loved reading and seem to be flying through my current book. I have also found that I am getting back into the habit of cleansing as my skin has been terrible lately. I have been eating rather healthily to and trying new things. It's been very cold this week to so have either been wrapped up in my dressing gown or in my bear onesie.

How's your week been?

See You Soon!!

MOTD #1

Hey Guys!!

As you will have seen Wednesday I shared with you my outfit I wore and today I thought I would share with you my make up look. I'm going to try and share more posts like this in the future.

I just went for a natural look and went for a classic red lip to have a pop of colour. A red lip seems to be my go to for lipsticks lately, so if you know of any other good red shades, leave them in the comments :) 

All my make up is from Make Up Academy except for my lipstick which is L'Oreal. You can click any of the links below to see what exact products I used.

Bronzer

Highlighter

Foundation

Setting Powder
Primer

Lipstick

See You Soon!!

OOTD #1

Hey Guys!!

On Saturday I had a night out with my friend for her Mums' Birthday, so I thought I would share with you what I wore as I want to start sharing more OOTDs' with you. 

This outfit was very comfy, I felt it also looked really smart as usually I wear skirts or dresses. The only thing is you don't have to wear a bra with it, which I am so not used to doing, but it was fine as there was no malfunctions.

Unfortunately now while looking for the links for these items I have found they are now unavailable.

Jumpsuit - New Look

Duster Coat - New Look

Shoes - Primark

Bag - Primark

See You Soon!!

InstaLately #2

Hey Guys!

So far this month I am feeling very positive and I really do feel like this is going to be such a good year. Seem to have a nice amount of stuff planned to keep myself looking forward.

This week I baked cakes that didn't turn out great, featured an OOTD for shopping, had french plaits done in my hair, tried deciding on a lipstick shade, had a night out and is falling more in love with my Estee Lauder make up set.

Hope you've all had a good week!!

See You Soon!!

InstaLately #1

Hey Guys!!

InstaLately is back!! I loved doing this last year as it was nice to see a little round up of the week. This one is a little late as it will be going up on a Monday not a Friday but I already had a post for Monday just gone.

This InstaLately shows how I have found my love for colouring, a shopping outing, my Mums' cat loving a cuddle with me, Christmas Dinner with the family, seeing in the New Year with a lot of alcohol and the first selfie of 2016. 

Its been a rocky 2015 but hopefully 2016 is going to be full of happy times and lots of memories.

See You Soon!!

2016 Reading Challenge

Hey Guys!!

Once again we are into a new year and again I am setting myself the challenge of reading a set amount of books, or maybe more. Sadly for the past 2 years I have fallen short of my goals, so this year I am very determined I am going to achieve it.

I am planning on reading 15 books this year and I will be keeping track of this goal on Goodreads, you can follow me on there to if you'd like to see what books I read.

1. Northern Lights - Philip Pullman

2. The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman

3. The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman

4. Paper Towns - John Green

5. War and Peace - Leo Tolstov
6. Me Before You - JoJo Moyes
7. The Husband's Secret - Liane Moriarty
8. You're The One That I Want - Giovanna Fletcher (CR)
9. Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green & David Levithan
10. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
11. All That Glitters - Vicky Pattinson
12. A Game Of Thrones - George R. R Martin
13. A Clash of Kings - George R. R Martin
14. A Storm of Swords 1 - George R. R Martin
15. A Storm of Swords 2 - George R. R Martin

Bit of a wide range of books there and I own all but one of these books, hopefully I can get it with the same cover as the rest of the series.

I think I will do a monthly update on how I am doing with this also as a way to keep myself on track.

Do you have a reading challenge this year?

Hope You All Are Having A Good New Year So Far!!

See You Soon!!

Reflecting On 2015

Hey Guys!!

Do you find at the beginning of a new year, you like to sit back and reflect on the year? Me to!

2015 started off great but slowly became more rocky and very rough. I attended my first Bloggers event in September, you can read about that HERE. We celebrated my youngest sisters turning 18, finally got to Paris, had a few weekends away, spent a lot of time with family and friends, took lots of photos and just made a lot of memories.

Looking back over the year I have learnt that my anxiety and depression needs to be worked on as well as other issues. I also need to work on being happy within myself so that I can enjoy every minute of life. This year also taught me that sometimes you need to make changes if you're not happy even if it's not what you expected to happen or how you expected your life to turn out. 

I am taking with me into this year a lot of positivity as I feel like I am in a place where I can be happy and achieve the things I want to. I'm not setting myself goals as I find it puts to much pressure on me and I can't achieve them. So I am going to carry on with what I am doing and hope that this year will be a better one.

I do hope that by getting back into blogging and having a refresh will help this positive start and lets see what the year brings!!

How was your 2015?

See You Soon!!