sunny lake days

I had a busy week last week and did a few things here and there, so expect a couple of upcoming posts, and on Thursday last week I went to Virginia Water with my housemate, Alex. It is probably one of my absolute favourite places to go when the sun comes out and when the winter comes, it's perfect year-round. There is a huge lake with small sections of sand and places where you can paddle, a mini-waterfall/cascade, a totem pole, lots of cute dogs, and my favourite of all things, the Roman ruins! They are actual ruins from Leptis Magna that were taken from there back in 1818 and now are what is commonly known as a folly - hint, folly's are some of my favourite things in this world! There's something awesome about fake Roman-temples in Wiltshire countryside and I love it. 

Anyway, we got some frozen-yoghurt, mini-Calippos, grapes and juice and went and sunned ourselves by the water. It's really relaxing there usually, but it was crazy busy when we got there, but  gradually people left and it was getting quieter the later it got. It's part of The Royal Landscape/Windsor Great Park, and the whole area is so lovely. There is a more planted garden, as well as the rest of the Great Park, so it's whatever takes your fancy! 

I threw in a quick snap of my clothes too, but they were completely inappropriate for the weather - I very much underestimated the heat!

convent covent

sunning ourselves in covent garden

obligatory amazing ice-cream!

chanel black-cabs with a twist

On Tuesday last week I had the pleasure of meeting my lovely friend Tam in London. She doesn't really live close to me (although closer than when she lived in America!) so we try and meet up every so often so we can catch up and gossip. Soon she will be moving to London and I am so excited to be able to see her more often! We planned on seeing The Dark Knight together because we both have a long-running love of superhero films and comic books and all such lovely things. Before we saw it though, we met up in Covent Garden in the sweltering heat and had lunch, ice-cream and a wander around, even seeing the awesome Chanel pink taxis outside the pop-up shop! I didn't go in because there was a queue, and I knew I would just spend money there.. We saw the film which was pretty awesome, and regardless of its flaws, I fell in lust with Christian Bale all over again. There is just something about him in a suit..?! He's even attractive in American Psycho.. maybe that's just me! We headed back to Covent Garden after the film to get dinner, and we had really awesome burgers and beer at a place called Byron Burgers, which were surprisingly reasonably priced for London! And then I got a sleepy train home and slept very well. It was just a really nice day, and I had been feeling down for a couple of days and it just made me feel so much better. Maybe it was seeing a good friend, a good film, or just remembering that there is life outside my little town, but it was a good day!

weekend wanderings #4

(images from makingniceinthemidwest.com, kate broughton's etsy store, and sfgirlbybay.com.)

• Kate Broughton's etsy store is just full of things I adore - birds and nail transfers and owls, oh my. I wnat the temporary tattoos an I reallly want a tote bag. I am tempted!
• I've had the Russian Tattoo Encyclopedia on my Amazon wishlist for a while now - I really want it.. but spending £14 on a book I want just because I want to look at pretty illustrations is not something I can justify. I'm going to see if my uni library has it when I go back, though.
• I think if I tried this method of making wall art from record sleeve covers, my housemate would kill me. He has a very extensive collection of vinyl and he treats them meticulously, and loves the images/design of them. He might not appreciate it if I started cutting them up! They do look pretty, though.
• This beautiful house on sfgirlbybay.com's blog post showcasing Anna Dorfman's house is simply beautiful - it's kind of exactly everything I want my house to be when I'm older? A stunning mixture of modern, clean architecture and furniture with interesting ornamentation, and bold colours on the walls and beautiful prints. Sigh, can you tell I love it?! haha.
• With the Olympics now upon us, take a minute to check out the last billboard on this post. Everything I love and hate about the Olympics in one post. Or there is always Paddy Power's trolling LOCOG with this one..
• The blog I'm into this week is a bit different for me, it's the cooking blog Dragon's Kitchen - I made their caramel cupcakes earlier in the week and they tasted so good! They weren't quite as pretty, but they tasted fantastic. There are few more recipes on their blog that I really want to try. I might as well get back in the swing of baking in time for fundraising next year!

zero fucks - confidence

I have been a fan of Franceta over at Frantic Dreams for a while now, she's six-foot-five and has an absolutely amazing body and sense of style. As a larger, almost six-foot-tall girl, I have suffered with confidence problems all my life, and recently I've been getting annoyed at myself for thinking I have to fit into a certain bubble of wearing boring clothes and making myself "blend in" because I am bigger. I think, fuck it, no. And that is basically what Franceta talks about in this video, but says it so much better than I could ever say. I really urge you to watch it. Recently, I've been hating so hard on body/fat shaming and I am so much better for it!

How do you stop giving a fuck? Simple, you stop giving a fuck.

caramel cupcakes

I helped my friend Rachel bake some cupcakes the other day, and it made me want to do some baking, which I haven't done for a little while. After scouring the web, I decided to trythese Caramel Cupcakes  and use up some caramel sauce that was sitting in my fridge. The recipe is a bit over-complicated, so you can check the original post for how they made it, but here is my abridged version!

150g unsalted butter at room temperature
295g granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
*43g caramel syrup
2 large eggs at room temperature
vanilla extract (I normally use a cap full, more if I want them more vanilla-y)
256g all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup of milk (about 240ml)
*the original recipe shows you how to make caramel syrup, but you can buy it from the shop, so skip this step! I had some caramel dipping sauce that I melted and used as a syrup!

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt, and cream until the mixture is light and fluffy. 

3. Add the caramel syrup to the bowl, and beat in. Add the eggs and vanilla extract, mixing after each egg. Mix until well combined.

4. Sift the flour and the baking powder together. (I generally don't bother sifting flour, I'll be honest. I don't find it makes an enormous amount of difference - the flour we use now is so fine anyway.)

5. Add one third of the dry mixture (the flour and the baking powder) to the bowl. Mix in. Add half the mix, a little at a time, and mix in. Add another third of the dry ingredients, and mix, and then the last of the milk. Finally, add the last of the dry ingredients and mix in.

6. Put the mixture into paper cases and cook for 30 minutes or until golden brown. My oven seems to run a bit hot, so it only took about 20 minutes. The caramel in the mixture makes them caramelise slightly on the top, so skewer them with a cocktail stick to make sure they are well cooked. 

7. When the cakes are completely cool, ice them with buttercream frosting. My go to recipe is a ratio of 2 parts icing sugar to one part butter. I also added in a little bit of the caramel syrup and vanilla extract to make them taste better. 

Mine made 12 good sized muffin cases, but it says it will make a 9-inch cake, too, if you feel so inclined. You could probably get more cakes if they were smaller cases, but I only had massive ones! I also didn't bother with the whole dry-wet-dry method of adding the mixture, because I was making them in a rush for dinner, but they tasted fine though. I know the more complicated method is better, but they don't last long in my house, and no-one complained! I didn't pipe the icing on top, but of course that always looks better than smearing it on seconds before me and my brother wolf them down.

Hope you enjoy this recipe!