Sunday, April 15, 2012

London Montage on Lorraine :)

Last week my work was shown on ITV's Lorraine :)

There was a whole feature on how you can decorate and style your home this year with British inspired artwork and accessories - and there mine was!! SO EXCITING!! 

 

Available at Isme.com as well as the Graham and Brown website for a small £25 

A perfect patriotic accessory for you home and just in time for the Jubilee and 2012 Olympics :) 

xx


Saturday, April 14, 2012

Im Making Mojitos :)

So I've decided Im going to try and grow a plant this year - I have failed in the past but this year I am determined! I bought a strawberry mojito kit from Sainsburys and inside you get all the bits and bobs to grow your own strawberries and spearmint! 

I planted them a couple of weeks ago so there isn't much happening at the moment but I'm very excited to nurture my new plants into healthy organic summer produce - I feel like the female equivalent to Alan Titchmarsh at the moment :)

 


                                           

I'll keep you all up to date on their progress :) xx





Easter Cupcakes


To make Easter just that little bit extra special, Lotte and I decided we would make cupcakes and delivered them to our nearest and dearest.

With a little help from our friend - the hummingbird bakery cookbook we made some yummy earl grey cupcakes 


Definitely worth a go :)



Ingredients:
For the cakes:
    • 3 earl grey tea bags
    • 3 tbsp hot water (just boiled)
    • 80g butter
    • 280g caster sugar
    • 240g plain flour
    • 1 tbsp baking powder
    • 1/4tsp salt
    • 200ml milk
    • 2 large eggs
For the icing:
  • 50ml milk
  • 500g icing sugar
  • 160g butter
Method:
  1. Put the teabags in the hot water and let it infuse for 30mins.
  2. Preheat oven to 190′C and line the muffin tin with liners.
  3. In a mixer, mix together butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
  4. In a jug, whisk together the milk and eggs, then pour in the infused tea, squeezing out every drop of liquid from the teabags. Save the teabags for the icing.
  5. Pour 3 quarters of the milk mixture into the dry ingredients, mix slowly to combine first, then increase speed to mix till the batter is smooth. Pour in the rest of the milk mixture and mix until smooth and lump free.
  6. Fill the muffin liners no more than 2/3 full, bake for 18 – 22 minutes, until well risen and golden. When cooked, cool on a cool rack entirely.
  7. To make the icing, put the used teabags in the 50ml milk and leave to infuse for 30mins.
  8. Mix together the butter and the icing sugar, now mix very slowly at first as it will go everywhere… if using mixer, remember to cover it with a tea towel first. Then mix in the tea flavoured milk until fluffy.
  9. Ice the cooled cakes and decorate! 
Enjoy :) xx




Happy Easter Everyone





Happy Easter - hope everyone had a lovely Easter break and ate lots and lots of chocolate.  

Every year my mum decorates our house at home with Easter decorations including an Easter tree - so this year I wanted to do the same in my new flat.  I suggested it to my housemate who had never heard of an Easter tree!! Well after a bit of explaining she soon got on board with the idea and we spent the next evening blowing eggs and covering them in paint, glitter, buttons - we even had our very own Easter Bunny :)




Claire Mayes (age 6)

Haha my mum still likes to hang these every year :) 

( a beak and a mouth??!! )