Three Cliffs Bay

To celebrate mine and my friend Eli's birthdays this year we decided to go on a day trip to Three Cliffs Bay in The Gower. We had it planned for ages but as it got closer to the date we realised the weather wasn't going to be on our side. But, we bit the bullet and went anyway and I am so glad we did. 

When we arrived into swansea it was absolutely hammering down with rain and we thought we had made a big mistake dragging all of our fiends on a soggy day trip. However, luck was on our side and once we got out of the cars the rain stopped and we got to enjoy a lovely few hours on the beach. 

I had never been to The Gower before but it has now become one of my favourite places in the UK and I will definitely be going back this summer when the weather is a little nicer. It was so peaceful and beautiful and I came away feeling so relaxed and happy. 

PHOTOBOOTH

Something that has become really popular at parties in recent years is having a photo booth. I absolutely LOVE taking photos and having them as memories so I really wanted to set one up for my Mum's party. 

I spent a long time researching how to do it on YouTube and Pinterest and in the end it was super easy. We have a small front porch so using a white sheet, I covered all of the walls up to create a plain background and decorated it using a gold foil curtain and string lights. I also printed the word photo booth out and stuck it above the door which I thought really added to the effect. I set the camera up on a tripod and then all that was left to do was for people to grab a prop and snap away. 

It was definitely one of the highlights of the night and now we have all of the photos of everyone who came to the party to keep. My mum actually printed a bunch of the pictures off and has included them in her Thank You cards which I thought was a really nice idea. Anyway here are a few of my favourite pictures from the night.

Cute Carrot Cake

No Birthday is complete without cake and a special birthday deserves a special cake. My Mum can't eat chocolate so I wanted to make something that looked pretty but also tasted amazing which is why I went for an ultimate carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and cake bunting! 

The cake bunting was made using paper straws, string, patterned card and letter stamps and was unbelievably easy to make. My friends and I cut out all of the flags and glued them to the string, we when tied the string to the paper straws and it was done! It was so simple to do but it made the cake the centre piece on the night.

For the cake you will need:

150g self-raising flour

100g wholemeal self-raising flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp mixed spice

zest 1 orange

400g caster sugar 

(this is A LOT of sugar and could easily be reduced or swapped for light brown sugar)

350 ml vegetable oil

4 eggs

350g grated carrots

This recipe will make a large two layered sponge. My original idea was to do four layers so I made two batches of mixture but when my first sponges came out of the oven they were so huge I ended up with three layers and a whole tray of cupcakes.

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees/gas mark 4 and grease/line your cake tins with baking paper.

In a mixing bowl stir together the flours, bicarbonate of soda, sugar, mixed spice and orange zest.

Mix in the eggs and oil until fully combined.

Stir in the grated carrot.

Spoon half of the mixture into each of your cake tins and place in the oven for up to 50 minutes until a skewer in the centre of the cake comes out clean. 

For the icing you will need:

170g icing sugar, sifted

60g unsalted butter, softened

240g full fat cream cheese (Waitrose full fat)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Whisk the butter and icing sugar together on a low speed until it forms a sandy consistency.

 Add a little cream cheese at at time while continuing to mix.

 Add the vanilla extract and then turn up the speed and beat until light and fluffy.

This is the best cream cheese frosting recipe I have come across so far. All of the other recipes I have used in the past used Philadelphia cream cheese and I found that as soon as I started to mix it it went runny and horrible. The Waitrose cream cheese didn't do this at all, it held it's shape and was really easy to spread on the cake.

To finish the cake off I crushed some walnuts and sprinkled them in a circle on top and obviously decorated it with birthday candles and the cake bunting.

I was so pleased with how this recipe turned out and I got nothing but good feedback on the night. The cake was so moist and delicious, I just wish I had got a picture of the inside but it was demolished so quickly I didn't get a chance!!

DIY Paper Pom Poms

My Mum turned 50 this month and what was originally going to be a very low key gathering at the house, very quickly turned into a huge party when I became involved. I love organising parties and one of the first things I knew I wanted was paper pom poms and a lot of bunting. I had seen these pom poms all over pinterest and a friend of mine told me how easy they were to make so I decided to give it a go myself. They really are so easy and look so effective. There are tons of video tutorials on Youtube about how to make them but I thought i would do my own step by step guide in pictures.

You will need lots of sheets of coloured tissue paper, some thin metal wire, some string and a pair of scissors. I experimented with various amounts of tissue paper and for the large pom poms shown in the picture above I used about 6 sheets of tissue paper. some of the videos recommend you use up to 15 sheets of paper but this gave a much denser effect and I liked how mine looked slightly more floral.

Next you need to line all of your sheets of tissue paper up and start folding them in a concertina. It is important that all of your sheets of tissue paper stay in line because it makes it easier when you come to cut them later on.

One you have finished folding, you need to find the middle point and pull each side out to make a double ended fan. 

Next, take the wire and wrap this around the middle. 

My wire was pre cut and was quite long so I twisted it together and then wrapped it around again to make sure it was extra secure.

After this you will need to attach the string. It is best to do this now because it is quite tricky to tie it on once the pom pom is finished. All I did was thread the piece of string under the wire and tie it in a loop. 

The next step is to cut the edges of your fan to the shape you would like. I went for a scalloped edge because I wanted my pom poms to look like flowers. I have seen some with pointy edges that look equally as good. I found it easier to cut a few layers at a time because my scissors weren't good enough to go through all of the layers at once.

This is what it should look like once you have finished cutting the edges. You need to pull it out so that it looks like a double ended fan again. You can also see how I have tied the strong on a little bit better in this photo.

All that is left to do is start lifting each layer of the tissue paper. You will quickly start to see the shape of the pom pom come together. You need to be quite careful when doing this because the tissue paper can rip quite easily (I had a few casualties!) Luckily it doesn't matter if they aren't perfectly formed because it adds to the quirkiness of them. 

Once you have finished lifting about half of the layers, flip the pom pom over and start lifting the layers on the other side, This creates the sphere effect you are looking for and also makes the pom pom look more even.

Here is a cheesy picture of my holding the finished product!

I hope this post is helpful to anyone who is planning party decorations or just likes a good old DIY.

I have a few more blog posts on the way from the party including a DIY Photobooth and the Birthday Cake so keep your eyes peeled. 

My Year In Photos

I probably should have written this post before the new year, but I have been feeling a little low this week so I decided to have a look back at my photos from 2015 and count my blessings...

January

(top left) I started 2015 off surrounded by my absolute favourite people which was perfect!

February

(top right)I cooked a huge vegetarian feast for my Mum's Birthday.

March

(bottom left & right) I got promoted at work and bought myself a red Mini which I have wanted for as long as I have been able to drive.

April

(top left & right) I went to Scotland with my mum and dad to visit family that I haven't seen for a very long time and Phil and I celebrated 4 years together.

May

(bottom left & right) I went to see S Club 7 in Cardiff with my Mum and it was a childhood dream come true, I never got to go when I was younger. I also celebrated by 23rd Birthday and spent a long weekend away in Paris with Phil. This was probably the highlight of my whole year!

June

(top left)We welcomed our new fur babies Alfie and Milo to the family. Sadly we lost Ruby in February and our house just wasn't the same without any pets. 

July

(top right) Phil won tickets to go to WOMAD festival from his work. It rained pretty much the entire time but this photo was taken during the few hours of glorious sunshine that we did get!

August

(bottom left) I went for on holiday with my parents to Turkey for a week. I love this photo so much it makes me instantly feel relaxed when I look at it.

September

(bottom right) This was a quiet month but we did have a huge get together with all of my best friends from school and their parents. 

October

(top left & right) We did very last minute halloween makeup and went to a party at a pub which was very fun. I also came third in my works bake off competition (still very proud of this cake!)

November

(bottom left) Phil and I went to Center Parcs for a week and had a relaxing time away.

December

(bottom right) I enjoyed a very quiet and relaxing christmas at home with my lovely family.

I was starting to feel like 2015 had been a bit of a non-year for me but looking back so much has happened. It is funny how quickly a year goes but I think I made it count. 

Paris

This year, for the first time in four years, I wasn't doing exams in May. So to celebrate this, and my 23rd Birthday myself and my boyfriend went to Paris for a long weekend away. I had never been to Paris before and it is safe to say I absolutely fell in love with the city. I wouldn't say it was the most relaxing holiday I have ever had because there was so much we wanted to see and do that we were on our feet pretty much the whole time, but I wouldn't have changed it for the world. 

The highlight for me was definitely the dinner cruise down the river Seine which my boyfriend organised for me as part of my Birthday present. The food was as amazing as the views were and we finished the evening off with crepes under the Eiffel Tower which were so delicious!

I was also very excited to go to the bridges with all the locks on as I had seen them so many times in movies and I have always thought it was such a romantic thing to do. Not long after we left all of the locks were removed as they were too heavy and damaging the bridges so I feel lucky to have my own photos of them. 

The six month catchup!

To say I haven't posted in a long time is a bit of an understatement, life has sort of got in the way of my little internet hobby, which is ironic seeing as all I do on here is write about my life. Since my last blog post I have turned 22, spent a couple of months revising for my final exams, finished my third year of uni, moved out of my student house in Cardiff and back home to little old Stroud and will be graduating a week today with a 2:1 Law degree. PHEW!

Here are some of my highlights from the last 6 months to catch you up and I am hoping to be able to find the time to post a little more regularly now that I have finally finished uni!

I was asked to be a bridesmaid by my lovely friend and housemate

 Went to the Cardiff Law Ball

Ruby helped me revise for my third year exams

 

I turned 22 in the middle of exams but managed to fit in a birthday meal and cocktails with my family

Finished my law degree and celebrated with my best friend

Moved back home to the countryside

  Spent a few days in Manchester

Went to Phil's Graduation last week, my turn next! 

Cupflakes

At the start of the summer I celebrated my 21st Birthday with a big party at my house. This meant there had to be cake, and lots of it. Cupcakes are a bit of a trend at the moment with little shops popping up all over the place. However, to buy from a 'professional' can be quite expensive so we decided to make our own and I was extremely happy with the results!

I had a little team of helpers including my best friend, Granny and Mum to help with the icing and decorating but I slaved away all morning making batch after batch of cakes. We ended up with about 60 and yes, we are still eating them now!

The recipe:

10 oz sugar

10 oz margarine

10 oz self raising flour

5 eggs

I repeated this recipe about 3 times in the end, I think it is fair to say I got a bit carried away!

For the icing my Granny made the most delicious butter cream. She told me not to ask for the measurements because she always judges it as she goes along but I know we got through 5 and a half blocks of butter and two and half boxes of icing sugar! Her secret ingredient is a dash of milk which made the icing as light as air, it really was delicious. She also added a drop of vanilla essence followed by pink or yellow food colouring.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon decorating the cakes with different toppings that we got from the supermarket which was definitely the most fun part! My personal favourites are the ones which look like little ice creams with flakes in which my friend cleverly named 'Cupflakes'.

I was so pleased with how the cakes came out and everyone at the party commented on how great they looked and tasted. We saved so much money making the cakes ourselves and had a lot of fun at the same time!