Showing posts with label autumn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label autumn. Show all posts

Wednesday, 9 January 2013

Mani Refresh : The Living Daylights

Yesterdays manicure was still going strong, no chips! bravo Kiko. So instead of changing my colour I decided to do a little refresh, using a polish I bought before Christmas.


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OPI The Living Daylights is from the 2012 Skyfall collection celebrating 50 years of James Bond films. It is a beautiful concoction of large hexagonal glitter pieces in silver, copper and teal. Completely unique and a great polish for paring with so many colours for autumn/winter.


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Wednesday, 31 October 2012

#OrangeOctober The Final Segment

#OrangeOctober Day 31.

Happy Halloween!!

Wow! 31 Orange manicures! I can safely say I will not be wearing orange on my nails any time soon. I am craving dark, vampy colours ready for winter :)

Todays post is double the trouble, in honour of Halloween I am going to share with you two of my favourite orange glitters, but these are no boring orange glitter.

China Glaze Fortune Teller was an US exclusive in 2009 that was extremely hard to find. I managed to find on ebay last year and paid a pretty penny for it. But I just had to have it after falling head over heels for it after seeing it on SayAnythingBrooke and Scrangie's blogs.

Fortune Teller is small and medium round orange glitter and larger hexagonal orange glitter in a black creme base.



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The magic really happens when you add a matte top coat to this glitter. I used China Glaze Matte Magic.

Doesn't it look like molten lava?



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The other Halloween themed polish is an all time favourite of mine, this is Ick-a-Bod-y. I have a particular fondness for this polish because of the name, I absoltulely LOVE the story of Ichabod Crane and the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow, so much so I named my pet cat after the main character, Ichabod or as I liked to call him Ichabody. So of corse I had to buy this polish when it was released.

Ick-A-Bod-Y is a fine orange glitter suspended in a black gelly base colour.



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China Glaze NEVER disappoints with their Halloween collections.

What is your Halloween mani? Don't forget you can share photos and links to your blog posts on Facebook and Twitter

Trick or Treat! Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Trick or Treat!

Today's post  is a super quick and easy recipe for a delicious and tasty treat; Toasted pumpkin seeds I really am utilising every part of my pumpkins this year ;)

Here's what you will need,

A baking sheet,
Baking parchment,
Fresh pumpkin seeds,
Salt and pepper,
Olive oil,

There is only 3 steps to this recipe!

Pre-heat your oven to 180o

Lay out your pumpkin seeds on a baking sheet covered in parchment, drizzle with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.



Bake in the oven  for 10 minutes or until they just start to turn in colour

and that's it! toasted pumpkin seeds!




You can even add a little chili powder for a

Tuesday, 30 October 2012

#OrangeOctober Flocking Orange

#OrangeOctober Day 30.

Welcome back for the penultimate #OrangeOctober blog post.


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Flocking is the latest craze to come to nails since the caviar manicure, but how easy is it for an at home manicure?

I ordered my flocking powder from ebay and a couple of days later it arrived through my door. I can't say I was excited at the prospect of having furry nails, for some reason I imagined it would feel uncomfortable, like matte nails, but 100 times worse. I wasn't fond of the idea of mess or the removal process either. But me experience wasn't as bad as I had anticipated.

Here's what yo need for an at home flocked manicure...

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Base coat,

Regular polish in a matching colour to your flocking powder,
Quick drying top coat,
Flocking powder,
A sieve,
Hoover to clean up ;)




Apply base coat, two coats of your base colour, I'm using a Kiko polish that I have somehow managed to leave out of #OrangeOctober *shock horror* This is Kiko


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Apply your top coat, I am using Seche Vite, but any top coat will do the trick :)

Working quickly sieve your flocking powder onto your nails.


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Gently press down on each nail to ensure the flocking has adhered to the nail.


Your all done!


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Overall I actually like the effect, I couldn't wear it all day, or on a day to day basis, but it isn't uncomfortable at all on the nails.

It kinda reminds me of this guy...







Trick or Treat! Pumpkin Soup

So after making the delicious Pumpkin, Cheese and Chive muffins, I was still left with a lot of pumpkin that I didn't want to waste. So I decided to try making pumpkin soup :)







You will need ...

1 1/2 kg of Pumpkin, peeled and cubed (for a handy how to video click here)
1 Onion, sliced,
50g Butter, 
2 Garlic Cloves, peeled,
1 ltr Chicken stock,
1 ltr Water,
2tbsp Creme Fresh or double creme,
1 pinch or nutmeg,
1 pinch of cinnamon,
1tbsp Olive Oil,
2 tbsp Maple syrup,
Salt and Pepper.

I chose not to make the croutons, but if you want to you will need ...

2 Slices whole grain bread, cut into cubes,
1sp sugar


Heres the recipe I followed in the handy form of a video ...












Delicious!

Monday, 29 October 2012

#OrangeOctober Extra-va-vaganza!

#OrangeOctober Day 29

Who doesn't love a glitter polish?!

Todays polish is the third that I have featured from OPI's Burlesque collection, wow! who would have thought Burlesque = Orange?!


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Extra-va-vaganza! (like Va-Va-Voom) is from the glitter half of the collection. A beautiful orange glitter mixed with silver, and if I'm not mistaken, green? Its a gorgeous blend which works really well for this time of year :)


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Trick or Treat! Peanut Butter Cookies

Todays treat is Peanut Butter Cookies.  This was my first time making this American classic recipe and I was so happy with how they turned out! they are delicious.




Heres what you will need for this recipe:
3/4 cup butter at room temerature,
1/2 cup light brown sugar,
1/2 cup caster sugar,
1 large egg,
1 tsp vanilla extract,
3/4 cup peanut butter,
2 cups plain flour,
1/2 tsp Bicarbanate of soda,
A pinch of salt,
Chocolate chips (optional).

Lets get started!


Into a bowl add the butter and sofen with a hand mixer.



Add to the butter the light brown sugar and the caster sugar, beat together with a hand mixer until light a fluffy.



Add in the peanut butter, you can use smooth or crunchy, whichever you prefer. Mix until fully combined.




Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.



In a sperate bowl, mix together the flour, salt and bicarb. 



Add the flour mixture to the butter and mix until it forms a dough.





I am going to make half a batch choc chip. If you want to do this separate the dough into two bowls and add the chocolate chips to one half of the dough











Chill both doughs in the fridge for 2-3 hours, or overnight.



Preheat oven to 180o and line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

Roll your cookie dough into balls approx 2.5 cm and place on the baking parchment.



Take a fork to and press into each dough ball, turn the fork 90o and press into the dough ball again. There we have our cookies!






Bake for 10-12 minutes, take out of the oven and leave to cool.



Eat immediately! Yummy!

Let me know if you try this recipe!

xoxo


Sunday, 28 October 2012

#OrangeOctober Deutsch You Want Me Baby?

#OrangeOctober Day 28.

Whose getting excited for Halloween?

Today's polish is so incredible, its as if OPI have bottled up autumn and Halloween . It is so festive, a gorgeous, rich, rusty, burnt orange colour yet so vibrant with a velvet like finish. This polish is so festive and dark, it almost leans red and is oh so shimmery. I can't say enough good things about it, the photos simply don't do it justice.


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This is Deutsch You Want Me Baby? from OPI's Autumn/Winter collection this year. It was a spur of the moment buy for me, I figured I would just sell it on ebay if I didn't like it, but I am so glad I picked it up! it was love at first application.


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(oops I think I need to mow the lawn *embarrassing*)


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The application wasn't what I come to expect from OPI, the formula was a little thin, but the colour was build able. This is three coats, but two would probably suffice.

I also have German-icure on order from the same collection. I hope it is just as beautiful as this one. You have big shoes to fill German-icure!

What colours did you buy from the German Collection? or which would you like to get in the future?
I still have a long list, but they will have to wait until after Christmas now, or maybe Santa will surprise me?!

xoxo