Pastels and Polka Dots!

Hey Chummers!

This weekend in Aberdeen was really quite grey and wet and miserable, so I decided on Sunday that I was going to bake a cake with a difference after being inspired by this blog post.  I didn't read the blog post until a bit later but the image of the cake popped up on my facebook page and thought it would add just the right amount of colour into my weekend!

I would like to point out that my cake did not turn out as intended but it was still yum, so a win really! Haha!

I started by making the batter from my coconut recipe as detailed here, this was going to be for my coloured cake balls.

I then split the mix into five seperate bowls, added some food colouring and mixed it well in.

I didn't have a cake pop baking tray so I thought I would just make individual cupcakes and trim them to size, so I used my pastry/basting brush to grease a baking tray with butter and then threw sifted flour over it. You can buy the silicone cake pop trays off of the likes of ebay and amazon pretty inexpensively.

I divided the mixture into the baking tray using an ice cream scoop.

How pretty does that baking tray look!! haha!

I baked them for about 15 minutes, until a cocktail stick stuck in the centre came out clean.

While they cooled, I made the buttercream icing, again like the one for the coconut cake (without the coconut) and added a teaspoon each of vanilla essence and blue food colouring - my other half picked the blue!

I used the excess batter to make a wee rainbow layered heart cake for the Mr.

This is where I forgot to take pictures, silly me! I trimmed the cupcakes down to kinda ball shapes but was a little bit gutted that the colours were not very vibrant, the blue looked green, the green looked yellow, the purple looked pink, the pink all rose to the top and the yellow wasn't even visible!

I made a vanilla sponge batter, which is just the coconut sponge recipe without the coconut and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.  I put a thin layer over the bottom of a greased and floured cake tin.  I used a square one as I thought it would be fun against the circles in the cake, but a 9"/20cm round sandwich tin would be fine.

On top of the thin layer, I placed the cupcake balls and then poured the rest of the batter over the top making sure that each ball was well covered.

I put it into the oven at 180 degrees C (fan assisted) for about 30 minutes - again, keep checking with a cocktail stick on knife, when you stick either one of those in the centre, they should come out clean, if they come out and they have mixture on them it means that it is not cooked through the middle.

Et Voila!!

Leave for 5 minutes in the tin to cool but do take a knife round the edge to loosen the sponge.  After this, place on a wire cooling rack until completely cool and then decorate 'til your heart is content!

I hope you like and that this maybe inspires you,

Do you have any recommendations of vibrant food colourings?

Hugs,

Jodi 

xxx

Feelin' Fruity?!

Heyo!!

This last week has gone flying by! 

Friday came really quickly which is great as that is always nail painting day! Hoorah! 

I couldn't decide which colour to go for and I was looking at the blankey that Honey was lying on, which was this one, and thought to myself 'yup, that's it!'.  Shame I didn't decide this until after I had tipped all my polishes out onto the living room floor! Haha! (The blankey was one I bought for my niece when she was staying with us for a week, fyi!)

After packing away all my deep, dark, wintery polishes first, I set to work...

I used five O.P.I colours; strawberry margarita, the 'IT' colour, y'all come back ya hear, gargantuan green grape and fly.

 As I wanted the colours to 'pop', I painted my nails white first, using just a Rimmel white that I picked up ages ago.

It's worth mentioning that gargantuan green grape is actually a matte colour however, I topped my finished nails with a coat of seche vite and so all was glossy in the world!

Again, I have decided to take pictures of my nails last thing on Sunday evening before I have to take them off.  Since painting my nails I have carried out the usual weekend home stuff, baking, cleaning and shopping to name but a few and so apologies for the slightly worn notw! 

Two things are frustrating me at the moment, the first being that my seche vite has gone all gloppy and  as such I am finding it increasingly difficult to use and specifically to wrap my tips.  Secondly, I filed down my nails for work and again, can't wrap my tips! Damn tips! 

Do you wrap your tips? 

Do you like skittles? 

Has this made you want to go get some skittles? ;-) 

Hugs, 

Jodi 

Xxx

Stop, you're making me *blush*

Hey Chums,

Blusher is not something I use very often to it's full potential, usually during the day I may do a quick sweep across the cheeks but by the time I have walked to work, it's usually gone!

As for contouring, I find that quite difficult on such pale skin but I have been investigating some matte bronzers for light skin so watch this space!

Anyhoo, I purchased a few items from e.l.f. a wee while back and one of them was a blush and bronzer duo compact, as can be found here, when I ordered mine there was no choice of colours and so my one only has #025 as a name.  These are supposed to be dupes for a Nars compact, here, but as I can only dream of Nars cosmetics, I couldn't possibly comment!

The blush and bronzer duo have more of a shimmer than I would like, especially for daytime, but the blush is a nice almost rose gold colour.  The bronzer, I feel, is too dark for me and no matter how much I blend, it doesn't look natural and sunkissed.  Pigmentation is nice and you don't get a lot of fall out from them which is one of my pet peeves!  

Now, the super duper bright pink was a shock at first! It is a blush by Sleek and it's called 'Flamingo'.  I received this in a Glossybox in March or April.  It is a highly pigmented colour and really, really pretty in real life.  It again has very little fall out and blends very easily.  I like that there is no shimmer to this. The Flamongo blush also goes really well with my pale skin *Hurrah!*

 e.l.f Blush -> e.l.f Bronzer -> Sleek 'Flamingo

  Totally Blended e.l.f Blush -> Bronzer -> Sleek 'Flamingo 

Blended Bourjois #95 'Rose de Jaspe ->  e.l.f Blush -> Bronzer -> Sleek 'Flamingo

I'm throwing Bourjois into the mix there as well, just because!  There is a lot of praise for the Bourjois Little Round Pots but I fail to see the hype, I find the product really difficult to budge from container to brush and find it takes me some time to actually see any product on my cheeks.  It's a shame because I really like the colour of this and have actually used it on my lips before with a little vaseline for a no make-up, make-up look (that is a thing, I promise!) One thing that is unusual about the Little Round Pots is the fact that they are rose scented, which is a nice change!

What is your favourite blush or bronzer?

Do you prefer shimmer, matte, creme or powder?

Hugs,

Jodi 

xxx

Summer Cheer! :-)

Hey Chums,

This is just a quick nails post, at the weekend, I painted my nails with a bright pink again, this time it was OPI Strawberry Margarita and I dotted on some polka dots using some white Rimmel polish and a kirby grip.

Unfortunately, about 5 minutes after doing this (it was early!) I had forgot I had done it and started cleaning my windows!

The final result is therefore a tad messy but from a distance it still looks pretty cheerful and the pink is a definite summer pink!

Whats your go-to colour for summer?

Hugs,

Jodi

xxx

My Makeup...well, most of it...

Hey Chums,

I thought I would show you my make up collection as it is at the moment.  Many a time I have read a blog and thought, oh my god, I would love all that 'stuff' but in reality, I don't even know how I would store half of the things I see! Haha!

A bit of a mess, and some of these things I have had longer than is hygienically suggested *whoops*

Most of the make-up I own is high street stuff and it does me just fine, however, I do own a few Benefit products and a few high end mascaras (which are samples or gift with purchases).

My brush selection is was pretty basic but I got a few Diorshow brushes a few years ago from my boyfriend for a birthday or christmas present.  This is the first time I have ever actually looked these brushes up and OMG, they are more expensive than I would have thought! Having saying that, they are very good brushes and have lasted me for years with no sign of wear.  I will say, they also came with brush guards unlike my recently purchased real techniques brushes and I am a big fan of brush guards.

This isn't all my make up, I have some in boxes that I probably won't ever use unless it's for a fancy dress party and I have a small box full of eyeshadows that again, I rarely use as they are all bright colours and I tend towards neutrals now.

I store the bulk of my make-up as such...

This is a case that again, my boyfriend got me from Amazon and it is super handy!

Amazon have some awesome make-up storage and if you have a nice dressing table area, there is a lot of the acrylic storage which is great for showing off your goodies!

How do you store your make-up and beauty products?

Hugs,

Jodi

xxx

 

Beautiful Brownies!

Hey Chums!

I found a recipe on the BBC website for what the author claims are the 'Best Ever Brownies' and by jove, they are!!

They are melt-in-the-mouth gorgeous! I baked these last for a comic relief bake sale at work and I found it very difficult not to scoff them all as soon as they came out of the oven! 

If I am baking them for non-work peeps or people I don't know, I don't add anything extra but if I'm making for friends and family, I totally add pecans! I love pecan brownies!

These are squidgy and gooey and super-chocolatey and would earn you some serious brownie points (Geddit? ;-)) if you decide to share them!

I hope you cook up a storm!

Hugs,

Jodi 

xxx

Playtime?!

Hey Chums!

Just a wee post today on something a wee bit random!

Since we got our (3rd) cat, Honey, a few months ago, she has discovered that she really likes playing, however, she only likes playing with one particular toy...

Meet her feather wand! She goes absolutely daft for this and as soon as she sees me in the morning she will run over to it or the area of the sofa where she usually plays with it!  I got this particular one from Zooplus, although I bought three and she is on her last one.  you can also get them from some pet shops and they are usually a bit more feathery and a bit more expensive (£2.99 approx).

This is an action shot! ;-)

I think she loves this as she was an outdoor cat and so would have been used to chasing birds and mice around - she is super fast for an old girl too!

As for the boys...

They sleep. They eat.

Boys!

Hugs,

Jodi

xxx