NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

Hello!

Firstly I'd like to say I hope you had a lovely Christmas and got what you wanted, and secondly I'd like to apologise for how late this post is uploaded because I've had a busy week, and not had much time to write up anything special.

Today I'm going to be telling you my New Years resolutions. Most of these are your standard NY resolutions, but a few are my own personal ones I want to achieve.

1. Eat healthier food.

Every year I set myself the task of trying to eat healthier, and I attempted it this year until I realised how big my disliking for salad was, which infact made me throw up after eating a plate of ceaser salad-oops. Anyway, this year I aim to only eat healthy foods, and have 1/2 days a week in which I will be able to eat unhealthy snacky foods (chocolate, sweets, bacon). At the moment i'm going quite well with eating healthily, and persuaded myself to pick a salad over a pudding which was a nightmare to eat, because I really do not like salad, however I made myself eat it and felt good about myself after.

2. Go to the gym.

At the moment I do a 20 minute workout daily just before I go to bed and I just use apps on my phone for the workout, however I think it's time I hit the gym and used proper equipment for once. I do have a rowing machine and exercise ball at home which I use, but I don't feel quite in the right atmosphere working out at home so I think I'd benefit more from going to a proper, kitted out gym. The reason I want to go to the gym is not to lose weight, but to gain muscle and tone up. I am quite muscly in my legs, torso, and arms because of dance and previous activities I did, but I want to get proper muscle and in shape.

3. Use less heat on my hair.

Currently, I don't use heat on my hair very often compared to how much I used to, but I'd still like to get out the habit of straightening/curling my hair and let it sit naturally. Not long ago I really discovered the dangers of using heat on hair, and the effects of long-term use really are frightening; some of which I don't want to happen to me. In previous months I have straightened my hair non-stop for weeks, aswell as curling it, but I am slowly getting out of that habit and only using heat for certain occasions, or if my hair is looking completely mental.

4. Make the most of opportunities.

 I sometimes feel as though I'm not taking on all the opportunities that are thrown at me, and take for granted what I can do in life which others can't. I would like to accept any non life-threatening opportunity thrown at me, whether that be going somewhere knowing hardly anyone and having to interact/make new friends, or do something out of my comfort zone and possibly find a hidden talent.

5. Get a tan.

I know this sounds like something silly to put on a NY resolutions list, and isn't really a resolution at all, but I really would like a tan. As I'm going on holiday this year 2-3 times to hot, tanning locations, I'd really like to come back with a brown tone to my skin. For me tanning isn't the easiest as I have fair hair and sensitive skin, so I burn indefinitely, but I don't like the thought of fake-tanning because it doesn't always turn out the best, and can sometimes look really tacky. 

Happy New Year!

 

3 CHRISTMAS DESIGN IDEAS

Hello!

Last Christmas, I didn't really put much effort into decorating and making my friend's presents something special, but this year I've broken that uncreative banner and stepped out of the box. Nearly every present i've wrapped has had some sort of decoration around it, but these design ideas I'm going to show, and explain to you today may help you step out of the box when it comes to wrapping.

The 3 design ideas will consist of a wrapping, card, and present idea, which look like this:

The first idea I will be explaining to you about is the Fabric wrapping with bows and glitter:

I came up with this idea when I was looking around in my fabric box for some ribbon to tie around things, and I thought I should try and do something creative with the fabric for wrapping up my bestfriend's presents considering she put lots of effort into my birthday gift. Anyway, I then came up with a solution and made a very easy fabric wrapping paper, which looks very sweet and rustic.

How To make:

1. Get a piece of fabric bigger than the present you're giving away, place the gift in the middle of the fabric and collect the fabric at the top of the gift, but make sure you leave enough material at the top to tie something around it.

2. Try your best to bunch up the material at the top of the present making the bottom bit as tight as possible so there aren't too many gaping holes.

3. Get a piece of ribbon or wool of your choice and tie it tightly around the scrunch at the top. I chose to do colours that match the present inside just for a sweet touch.

4. (optional) Dip the top of the scrunch in some glue and sprinkle glitter on for a more festive look and effect.

  Handmade personalised christmas card:

 This card is also for my bestfriend in returns of the adorable card she made me for my birthday with her creative talent. I had seen quite a few of the bauble designs online but instead of photos as the baubles, buttons were used, however I wanted to add a personal spin and use photos instead.

How To make:

1. Get a piece of card and fold it in half, draw 3 lines from the top downwards ,and make sure they stop and different lengths.

2. Print off the photos you want to be at the end of the lines, and cut them up into circular shapes to represent a bauble.

3. Stick something between the joining of the "bauble" and "string" to neaten it off-I made little bows out of wool.

4. Decorate the rest of the card how you wish. I used sequins to represent snow, and stuck a long line of sequin fabric at the top in which the "snow" would fall off of.

For the inside of the card I wrote in my own message, but made a red woolen bow to stick in, aswell as adding an extra photo of us in the top sector and neatening the edges off with white wool wrapped round a few times! You don't have to add all of these touches, but I did to make it a more personal card.

Rainbow Sweets Jar:

 Sticking with the homemade theme, I made this really cute sweet jar full of M&Ms' for my friend Bee who happens to be into handmade gifts, and sweets. Anyway, I was unsure on what to get her and saw this really cute jar in Wilkinsons which only cost me £1, and I had seen a few other people fill jars with sweets and things but I took it to the extreme ocd, and made each layer a different colour.

How To make:
1. Get your jar and make sure it's big enough to fit in a good amount of sweets, then open up the coloured sweets you're using and organise them into colour groups. (Make sure you wash your hands before fiddling around with the sweets because the person you're giving them too won't want dirty sweets.)
2. Go round the bottom edge of your jar with one colour then fill in the middle with the rest of that colour.
3. Repeat step 2 until you fill up to the top, and the jar is really compacted. Beware this gets quite tricky as you go up because the sweets want to intertwine, so don't move the jar/sweets around too much.
4. Close the lid and tie a ribbon around the jar.

What you could also do to add something extra is attach 2 candy canes either side to make a little sleigh like this:

 OR tie the candy canes in the back of the ribbon so they just poke out the top of the jar as this also looks really sweet.

As I only post on Sundays I won't have anything up on Christmas to say Merry Christmas, so Merry Christmas and I hope you have a lovely day!

REINDEER CUPCAKES

Hello!

Today I thought I'd change things up and do a baking post, so today you will learn how to make Reindeer Cupcakes. I'm no where near as good as a chef when it comes to cooking or baking, but I enjoy doing it in my spare time and thought these cupcakes were cute, and tasty enough to share with you!

 

Ingredients

- 125g/4½oz butter, softened 

- 175g/6oz caster sugar 

- 2 free-range eggs

- 200g/7oz self raising flour

- 2 tbsp cocoa powder

- 100ml/3½fl oz milk 

- 100g/3½oz dark 70% cocoa solids chocolate, melted

- 2 tbsp Irish cream liqueur (optional)

For the chocolate icing:

- 50g dark chocolate (chopped)

 - 3 tbsp double cream 

 

Decoration:   

- giant chocolate buttons 

- crisp-coated chocolates (such as Smarties or M&Ms) 

- mini pretzels (preferably plain)

- black or dark chocolate writing icing

- mini marshmallows (sliced)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3. Line a 12-hole muffin tray with paper cases.

2. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Gradually beat in the eggs until well combined, then sift in the flour and cocoa powder and mix until combined. Fold in the milk, melted chocolate and Irish cream liqueur-if using.

3. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until well risen and lightly firm to a touch. Remove the cakes from the tin and set aside to cool on a cooling rack.

4. For the icing, heat the chocolate and cream in a saucepan over a low heat until the chocolate has melted. Whisk the mixture until smooth and set aside to cool slightly.

*Decoration Time*

1. Spread the icing over the top of the cupcakes until well covered.

2. Press a chocolate button onto the cake as a nose.

3. Stick a crisp-coated chocolate on top using a little icing to hold the sugar coated sweet on the button.

4.  Stick on two slices of marshmallows as the eyes, and use the black writing icing, or dark chocolate for the pupils.

5. Cut 2 little slits near the top of the cupcake big enough to fit in the pretzels.

6. Firmly slot the pretzels into the slits, don't apply too much pressure otherwise the cake will split.

The finished result:

If you made these cupcakes then I'd love to know how they turned out, I hope you enjoyed this baking post and enjoyed the cupcakes if you made them!