As you may already know, Children in Need was on Friday the 13th this year and because I was in placement at a primary school this year, I thought it would be fun to bake some cakes with Pudsey Bear and sprinkles on for the children.
I didn't have a clue how on earth I was going to make the Pudsey faces, all I knew was that I needed coloured icing and a cutter somehow...
Well, in the end I had to trace a picture of Pudsey from my computer and then copy it onto a cardboard cut out for me to be able to make my Pudsey Bear faces better. It took forever but there were amazing even if I do say so myself. Proper proud of myself!!!
I was up until like 2 in the morning making these... I put a lot of effort into them and at least the children all behaved as they knew there was cake on the go hahaha!! Luckily there were a few left over so I got to take the rest home.
This one was by far my best Pudsey face, I love it!!!
The best thing about being in placement is that I get to join in with all of the activities the children do to guide and support them even though I'm really enjoying them too hahaha!!
Halloween we were allowed to dress up as someone from Harry Potter and for Children in Need I dressed up as a super hero and donated to the charity and did my bit... did you do yours??
Let me know if you did anything like this for Children in Need, it's such a great cause!!
Hope you have all had a great week and keep sending you're thoughts and prayers to all the families in Paris, no one should ever have to go through anything like that!!
Melishia x
It's the 1st November, we all know what that means... IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!!! *ahhhhhhh*
As I have said time and time again, Christmas and Winter are my favourite things to look forward to and when it comes to this time of year, I have so much in mind that you could do. So I' going to share these ideas with you so you too can make your Christmas magical and the best it can be!! If you have younger children in the family I'm very sure they will love to all of these too!!
1. Visit a winter wonderland/Santa's Grotto
This is just a magical experience in it's self. Tweddle Farm I have just visited in one of my last posts, they do a Winter Wonderland experience with fake snow and reindeer with a Santa's Grotto walk way and it's just magical. Good for the children or big kids too.
2. Christmas Markets
Everyone has to love a good Christmas Market!! With all the Christmas smells and all the lights and decorations. It's amazing!! I'm hoping to go to two this year at York and Durham. I know there are plenty happening up and down the country, If there is a one close to you I highly recommend you go!!
3. Trip to the Panto
Pantomimes are Brilliant!! *oh there not* oh yes they are!! (Sorry I couldn't resit it hahaha) I haven't been to a Panto in quite a while. The last one I went to see was peter pan and I'm hoping to try and get to another one this year. But it is fun for all the family not just the children.
4. Cooking Christmas Cookies/Cakes
This is one activity I am going to be doing very soon!! and there will be a blog post on it obviously!! Ginger bread men, Snowmen marshmallows, reindeer cakes you name it, you could probably make it!! On my Pintrest I have lots of Christmas food related posts pinned go check it out!
5. Christmas meal out
One year I went out for a Christmas meal with Friends and Family and the pub we were at had a Christmas sing along it was great!!
6. Christmas film day/night
Cuddled up on the sofa in front of the fire, Drinking hot chocolate and eating sweets and Christmas related foods. This would be a perfect night in. Don't forget the Christmas candles!!!
7. Walks in the snow
Obviously you can only do this if it actually snows *fingers crossed* Taking a sledge out with you too and building snow men having a snow ball fight. Act like big kids really.
8. Visit the CocaCola Truck
When the CocaCola advert comes on the Tv you know Christmas is almost here!! So why not go and visit the CocaCola truck in real life? I did one year and it was great! It tours around the UK and the dates and places are on their website I think.
9. Making Home made decorations
Our local Library do this every year. One year I made a wreath for the front door. But it did die because we used real holly and outside things, but it was great fun. We also made little Rudolph decorations which I still have. But you can still do all of this at home, I'm sure there are a lot of activities on Pintrest.
10. Decorating the house with Christmas colours and smells
It's always good to be able to decorate your home with Christmas things. Warm colours such as red and golds make it feel so Christmassy and having candles that smell like Christmas too. This is probably one of my favourite things to do. While you're doing this, play some festive songs, it's always a great idea.
These are my top ten things to do. I could probably think of more when I'm not trying to think of them, if you get me? But I hope this has gave you some ideas of what you could do the lead up to Christmas as now it is just around the corner.
It can be a stressful time of year but if you don't think about the stressful side and just have fun and make it Christmassy and the stress will go away. I just can't wait for Christmas!!!
I hope you have all had a great weekend!!
Melishia x
Last Sunday I though I would be creative and bake some cookies and cupcakes, just because I was bored and had nothing else to do... apart from the college work I almost forgot to do... I know some of you were looking forward to this post to know how to make them yourselves!!
Toffee Popcorn Cookies
225g Soft Butter
250g Demerara Sugar (brown sugar)
1 Large Egg
300g Self Raising Flower
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
100g Toffee Popcorn
100g Dark Chocolate
Method:
1. Pre-Heat your oven to 180, fan 160, gas mark 4.
2. Whisk the butter and sugar together until all combined, then add the egg and whisk together.
3. Pour in the flour, baking powder and half of the popcorn, then add a pinch of salt and mix together with a wooden spoon.
4. Split the dough into golf size balls and place them onto a large flat baking tray with baking paper/grease proof paper. Lightly flatten each of the dough balls and press the remaining popcorn into the top of the dough.
5. Bake the cookies for about 15-20 minutes (but I would check them at about 10 minutes just to be safe). leave the cookies on the tray to cool for 2-3 minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack.
6. Now, you can melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water then drizzle it over the top, which I forgot to do...
Princess Cupcakes:
100g Sugar
100g Butter
100g Self Raising Flour
2 Large Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
Cupcake casings
Method:
1.Add the sugar and butter into a mixing bowl and whisk them both together until light and fluffy. Then add the two eggs and whisk again until all combined.
2.Pour in the flour and whisk again until all the mixture is combined and add 1tsp of vanilla essence.
3.Once all the mixture is combined together, add your cake casings into a pudding tin (I doubled the casings over so the mixture didn't spill out.) Then spoon the mixture equally into each of the cases.
TIP:Don't fill the cases right to the top, you have got to give them enough room to be able to rise and so they don't spill over the cases.
4.Place into the oven at around 180(Fan) for around 15-20 minutes. To make sure the cakes are cooked, place a knife into the middle of one of the cakes, if no mixture is left on the knife, they are ready.
5. Leave to cool on a cooling rack for about 25-30 minutes before decorating. I used the butter icing recipe from the back of the icing sugar box (which I put in the bin so I can't remember the brand but it is in a pink box).
I used a piping bag to do my icing which you can get from any supermarket I think. Then used some pink and purple sprinkles from home bargains to place on top of my cakes too. The cake boxes were two for 50p from Tesco if you were wondering.
So that is how I made both of these and they were delicious!! I would suggest eating the cookies within 2-3 days of baking them as the popcorn goes a bit dry and soggy after a while, other than that I really enjoyed baking them and eating them hahah!!
I hope you enjoyed this post and if you bake these send me your pictures I would love to see the end product!!
Have a great weekend
Melishia x
Days are getting shorter, Nights are getting darker. You know what that means don't you? Autumn is here... then WINTER!!! I am so excited for both of these seasons, they are my favourite time of the year! Well Winter is my overall fave but then Autumn is the run up to winter which Makes you even more excited!!
As it is Autumn very very soon, I am obviously going to write an Autumn post!! Also suggested by Jasmine at Blogsallbeautyy (Go check her out, her blog is Great!)
First of all, I know most of us girls have different make up choices to chose from for different seasons. So why don't I show you the products I have started using for this season.
This Eye shadow pallet, that was also featured in the August Haul, has different shades which can be used for every season which is why I love it so much and been wearing it almost everyday!! As you can see by the delves in the segments, I have used 4 shades more than the others. The 2 shades at the beginning of the pallet to the left are the shades I was wearing all the way through August and I loved them! The other two darker shades towards the right end of the pallet are what I have been starting to use with a little lighter colour to the inner of my eye. These colours are great for Autumn and Winter.
The next product I have started using is a liquid foundation by L'Oreal instead of the Dream Matte Mouse by Maybelline as I find that in the summer months, liquid foundation doesn't really work for me but the Dream Matte Mouse did so I used that for the summer and now I am going to start using this for Autumn/Winter months. This is the True match foundation by L'Oreal in Beige and I have used it for about 2 weeks and I really like it. It took me a while to get used to but it complements my skin really well in my opinion. (and my Mam thinks so too hahaha)
And of course you can't have your foundation without the matching concealer too!! I really like this concealer works really well too.
I haven't got a very good image of how I have been wearing my hair a lot more but I know I have posted this image on Twitter so some of you may have seen it. I got this look from Zoe (Zoella) from her YouTube tutorial and I really liked it and it looks cute and Autumn and Winter are cute seasons so it reminded me of that hahaha!! It can't be just me... Also this outfit can fit into the autumn season too and this wasn't even planned that way.
Of course no Autumn days are complete without candles burning all around your house to make it extra cosy and warm when the weather outside isn't all that good. These are currently the candles I have out. I do have another candle but it wouldn't fit in the photo. Every single candle I have in my room is a Christmas candle apart from the purple candle called Black Plum Blossom from Yankee Candle, which is like a spring scent.
And to finish it all off, My favourite, Fudge Hot Chocolate with Mini Marshmallows and Squirty Cream, Can't go wrong really can you?
So there it is, most of the things I will be using/Wearing this Autumn and winter, I love all of these!! If you have any Autumn related posts, send me your blog links I would love to read them!!
Melishia x
Before I start this post I just want to say that I am so sorry I haven't posted in a while!! Iv'e been settling into a new college and its great and full of lovely people. I have been extremely tired though but again I am sorry I haven't posted in a while :(
Last week, Me and Kev had a day out in York because we hadn't been anywhere for the whole of the holidays and needed a day out!! It was so lovely there, York is one of my favourite places to visit... Not just for the American Sweet Shop either.
There are so many different kinds of shops from normal everyday ones to the unusual. But obviously, the best shop in York is the Disney Store!! Even though Kev dragged me past it once I still dragged him in when we went past it again!! (Mwhaha) He did tell me if I went in the Disney Store he was taking me to get my ears pierced which I am afraid of doing...(Is that bad?)
One thing I got reallllly excited about in York was the fact that I seen Twinnie- Lee who plays Porsche on Hollyoaks!!! I was literally buzzing and I couldn't believe it!!
You know when you look at someone and think to yourself,"I recognise you from somewhere..." that's what happened. I only remembered who she was when she had power walked past me so I didn't get the chance to speak to her. But she probably didn't want to be noticed.
In York there is this little park down beside the river and it is so beautiful! It was such as nice day as well and the scenery was gorgeous, I couldn't help but take photos and think "This will be great for a blog post". We found this little squirrel as well that 'supposedly' charged at my Mam but I doubt it. They were literally coming right up to you so close you could probably touch them, (I wasn't going to in case it bit me). A man passing by knelt down beside it and was feeding it nuts it was so cute!!
I don't know why but I have this love for pigeons...I also think they are cute too. While we were sitting on a bench, deciding on where to go next, there was this old man on the bench next to us feeding the pigeons but they were like, on his knee and he was stroking them!! It was so amazing and cute!! I would of took a photo but I didn't want to disturb the man (or pigeons).
I got this really spectacular view of the Cathedral as well, I was proud of my photo skills for this.
If you haven't been to York yet, I do recommend you go, it's such a great City!! If there are any places you have been and you loved, please let me know I really would like to go to more places I haven't yet been.
Have a great Day/Evening/Night
Melishia x
