Easy Peasy Shortbread

This is the last weekend before the dreaded dissertation deadline (and for me my documentary hand in too!) so I thought I'd make some amazing shortbread to keep me going this weekend.

Its possibly the easiest thing to make, pretty much everyone has the ingredients lying about and if I have time I usually try to make a batch at the start of the week to keep my cravings during the week at least slightly subdued.

This is based on a Sam Stern recipe but changed slightly

You will need:

175g plain flour
70g caster sugar
110g soft butter
Few drops of vanilla extract

You need to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees fan oven and give your cake tin a good buttering. I usually save the foil bits from butter spread and use that to just save a bit of time (kitchen paper always leaves messy bits)

2. Put all of the ingredients in a bowl and start rubbing the ingredients together. Stick this on to keep you entertained:

3. Once you've got all the ingredients into breadcrumbs pour the crumbles into your tin and push down into the sides so its all equal.

4. Now its time to decorate, I usually stick to the old school fork marks round the sides and little forks pricks, score the lines of where you'd like to cut the slices lightly.

5. Stick it in the oven for about 10 mins or until its nice and golden. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 mins, cut the slices along the scores you made earlier and take out of the tin to cool down.

6. Sprinkle on some caster sugar and enjoy with a yummy coffee! Enjoy!!

Hopefully I'll make it through this weekend now I have these bad boys! Have a fab weekend, see you on Monday!

Joules Spring Collection

Yesterday was my first day back at work for a while and I returned to a whole new shop full of new spring bits and bobs so I thought I'd show you a few of my favourite pieces in the collection.


I'm not exactly the Joules target customer and I've worked here for so long that I think my eyes have been blurred by stripes, but every season I get a few welcomed surprises which threaten my pay packet! (all picture sourced from joules.com)

{Sinnington jacket - £159}

I have wanted this jacket for a long time and its always coming back out with a different flowery lining, one day I will get it! Its a brilliant investment piece as its a good tailored fit and not too obvious tweed so it will go with everything!

{Moredale coat - £84.95}

My family and I went a bit coat crazy this Christmas with Joules but I got this treasure and its so great. Its smart enough to wear as a jacket and so comfy! They're very popular coats but if you do enough searches you'll find it, determination is needed when it comes to some clothes!

{Fiona blouse - £59.95}

This is another item that I have and its such a gorgeous fit, the picture doesn't quite give it justice but its fitted enough but loose to cover those lumps and bumps, its also more creme than this pic! The necklines gorgeous too.

{Christen top - £29.95}

A perfect staple for your wardrobe, everyone needs a Breton and this is a very good price for such an essential!

{Maristow skirt - £44.95}

This skirt is just perfect for a summer event that needs a little mosre smart but not enough for a full on summer dress. This pattern will work every summer so you'll get your use out of it!

{Katelyn bag - £44.95}

Now lets talk about accessories, Joules always has the prettiest accessories! This bag is the perfect holiday bag especially for Mums or whoever holds the passports and tickets in the family! My Mum has such trouble with all the things she needs to take with her that you need a big bag like this, so why not make it a cute dotty wicker bag? 

{Lanie pumps - £26.95}

These little pumps are so cute and the most useful shoes to wear for the summer, they'll go with everything and keep you comfy all day and they're a bit of a steal at that price.

{Lottie trainers - £24.95}

Another pair of gorgeous, handy shoes for the summer! You can get the plain versions but I quite like the little flowers. Cath K do some similar ones but I've been told they're quite rubby so give these ones a go!

{Evedon wellies - £64.95}

These are probably the most popular Joules wellies as they've gone transatlantic! I've seen multiple pictures of these on Pinterest pinned by some Americans not knowing where they're from! I have an old pair when they were called Posh Wellies and they are PERFECT for festivals, in a sea of Hunters you're the one that will stand out at the festival!

OUTLET

{Phaedra jumper - £44.95 reduced from £69.95}

Now lets talk outlet, theres still so many great things left in the outlet like this cute Pheasant jumper, a little bit of country but they're so soft and a bit of tongue in cheek for Joules.

{Tabby hat - £9.95 reduced from £22.95}

I'm in love with this hat its just so cute and looks great on teenagers and young'uns, perfect for those bad hair days!

{Slippersocks - £9.95 reduced from £19.95}

These will get you through any cold days I promise you! I've had mine for almost 2 years now and they're still going strong, I absolutely love them, stick your feet in next time you're in a shop and you'll see exactly why people like them so much!

MENS

{Atwell jumper - £69.95}

{Carter shirt - £59.95}

Theres some lovely mens things but these two pieces are my favourites. The jumper is gorgeous and perfect for those lazy Sundays. The shirt is a brilliant staple for work or casual and my Dad has told me multiple times how brilliant the Joules shirts I buy him are, they wash well apparently!

However, the best thing about the new collection is the Picnic collection!!

{Picnic Basket - £74.95, Coolbag - £29.95}

{Carrystool - £29.95}

I'm a big fan of Joules picnic bits, we have the cool bag and it goes to every Point to Point with us but this seat is amazing! You have no idea how useful this item will be, say you've got a garden party and you've invited more people than seats... carrystool to the rescue! You get my drift, they're fab. The Picnic basket is so nice, it comes with everything you'll need and everyone needs a picnic basket don't they?

One thing I am excited about is the unveiling of the Joules stationary! I think we all know how much I like stationary after my long post about cards and notebooks!

So if you're thinking of revamping your spring wardrobe or looking for some new picnic bits have a look at www.joules.com and see what you can find! Or give us a visit in Bournemouth Beales :)

Procrastination

I hold my hands up, I am an AWFUL procrastinator. I'll be writing an essay for about 5 minutes and I'll get restless, check my twitter, blog, Pinterest and any other website I simply can. Not the most productive thing for a degree.

However, I've now found the perfect tool to stop me from doing it (as much!) it's called RescueTime and its an app which you install onto your computer and it records how you use the internet, all day everyday.

It therefore guilt trips me into thinking "I should do some work otherwise my RescueTime will think I'm inefficient" and the sight of the graph which tells me I've been on Twitter for 2 hours in one day is enough to make anyone look at themselves differently!

It doesn't have the prettiest interface but it is clear and useful, it will tell you what websites you've been on and for how long by day, week and month.

You categorise which websites or applications are distracting (the red columns), neutral (the purple columns) and efficient (the blue columns). Once you've got that set up you just leave it on in the background and find out your shocking results later on.

I have obviously shown you a graph from when I had been particularly good, I'm not showing you the terribly inefficient ones but trust me they were ALL red!

It can also show you when you've been the most efficient, whether you're an early bird or a night typer you'll find out your best times for working using this tool.

They email you with a weekly newsletter summarising your progress too so you really can't hide from your procrastination anymore!

So before you start that essay the night before, download this app (for free!) and start making all of your graphs a pretty blue!

This is the website to download: https://www.rescuetime.com/ and follow the link to download! 

Burberry Acoustic

I have become obsessed by the Burberry Acoustic Youtube playlist, it features beautifully shot acoustic videos of new music. There's loads of them on their Burberry playlist which gives you hours of distraction.


All are filmed in different outdoor locations, around London mostly, obviously styled by a Burberry stylist before they sing so it all looks gorgeous. 


I've got their playlist (which you can find on any of these videos) just playing in the background all the time but heres a few of my favourites!

{Rae Morris 'Wait A While'}

I've found 3 videos of this girl on Burberry and all are just brilliant, she's got a beautiful voice and she looks so cute!

{Chris Wall 'Posterity'}

{Keane 'Somewhere Only We Know'}

{Johnny and Lillie Flynn 'Amazon Love'}

All of the videos are amazing so give them a good look, you won't regret it! Follow Burberry on Twitter @Burberry for their updates, they have so many social media things going on, I personally love their Instagram account with loads of pictures taken by Christopher Bailey and they have live streams of their catwalks too.

Paperthin Hero Day Two

This weekend was full of all work and no play (well we did squeeze in some fun!) with a lot of early mornings!

Saturday was the house shoot so we filmed in our Weymouth barn location again but filmed two scenes between our Mum Georgia and the loveliest little boy Elliot who is our main boy. 

We had to age Georgia so there was a good comparison between the flashbacks and her mother look now, so our costume girl Beth dressed her in a cardi and headscarf and Keleigh made sure her make up was much more muted.

Elliot needed to look like a typical little boy at school but with a twist, he had a great big shiner on the side of his face from the bullies at school. Elliot made sure he looked cool for school on Monday!

{Shiner}

{Elliot's School Boy Outfit}

{Georgia and her Marigolds}

{Battleman comic designed by Alex and illustrated in the US}

{Crew and Cast working on the kitchen scene}

We had a great day on Saturday and everything was going so well, a little too well....

And then the heavens opened on Sunday, the day we were filming with 3 kids in an uncovered alleyway ALL DAY! We started filming and each take showed us a more and more soggy group of kids so we unfortunately had to stop filming. Annoyingly the rain was just ruining every shot and Joel's baby, his camera.

So we made the executive decision to get out of the freezing rain and re-schedule for next week. The kids were brilliant though so at least we know they're good enough to get the shots done relatively speedy.

The rest of the weekend was made up of going to pre drinks for parties and leaving at 11 for bed before I fell asleep on someone's shoulder! On Sunday night Emma came round for a sleepover, we had a delish chicken curry and watched a new programme called Homeland. Its really good, I can't believe I hadn't seen it before. Hope everyone had a more relaxing weekend than me!

Paperthin Hero Day One

Today was the first day of Alex's shoot and it was such a good day filming!

The film is a period drama set around the 1950s with 40s flashbacks about a little boy who believes in superheroes. Today we filmed the flashbacks of the boy's parents beginning their life together and showing his gradual process to signing into the army and leaving his young family.

The shots were brilliant, we found a great location to be their house, a cosy, run down barn in Weymouth which gave us some really nice looking shots. We also shot at Poole docks which was quite surreal filming around massive cranes!

Here are a few production shots of Matt and Georgia, our actors for the day, they were great and really worked well together. The costumes looked incredible and we're so pleased with it all!

{Grubby dock worker Matt}

{Basically Rupert the Bear}

{Our lovely cameraman Joel}

{Gorgeous Georgia in a handmade dress by Beth}

{Kissy kissy}

{Matt getting his conscription flyer in the post}

{Julian became my favourite model of the day}

{Jumping in shot}

{Soundman Julian}

{Georgia kneeding Alex and I's handmade bread}

{Amazing WWII outift}

{We had a special moustache made for Matt}

{Tearful goodbyes}

{War photo of the father which is given to his young son}

We have two more long days left of shooting over the weekend so theres no rest for the wicked. Will post the other two days filming on Monday for you to see! Have a good weekend everyone!

Tartlets + Crumbles

Last night I went to a little dinner party with a couple of friends and I was given the responsibility of making dessert for everyone.


Everyone had given up naughty things like chocolate for lent so I opted for a mildly healthy (ish!) Apple Crumble but with a little twist.


Have you ever eaten a Gu Cheesecake? (stay with me, this will make sense) Well if you have, you'll know that at the end of eating it you're left with a little glass ramekin and when you eat as many as me and certain friends of mine, you'll have a lot stacked up in your cupboard. So I decided to use them to make mini, individual apple crumbles for everyone. They're quite a small portion so perfect for having after a big dinner (we had a huge chilli) and very easy to make.


I unfortunately, made them in rather a rush so slightly burnt the apples when making so I won't show you too many example photos (one friend described them as slugs, not so yum) but they taste good so trust me on this!


You will need for about 5-6 Ramekins:


150g plain flour
90g brown soft sugar
100g butter
4 apples (eating apples are fine, who has cooking apples around these days?)
1 tsp Cinnamon


You need to do:


1. Get the apples going, cut them into quite thin slices and chuck them in the saucepan with a good knob of butter. Put it on a low heat (I didn't, hence the burnt slugs), sprinkle on your cinnamon and a little bit of sugar and let them cook down. Stir occasionally.

2. Make your crumble in a big bowl, put all of the ingredients in there and rub it all together until it makes breadcrumbs

3. Once the apples are nice and soft put them in your little ramekins and push down a little so they fill the base, I prefer having more crumble than apple but I'll leave it to you to decide.


4. Sprinkle over the crumble topping, pop in the oven at 180 degrees for about 15 minutes until the topping starts to be golden brown and then eat as soon as you can.

I went one step further last night and made some cute tartlets to start as well which are a recipe I modified from the lovely Catherine who gives me veggie cooking tips.


Usually I make tomato, pesto and feta tarts but I changed it up a little and made roasted pepper, pesto and mozzarella tarts and they tasted really good. Again I rushed them so the peppers are a little black but they taste fab!


You will need for 4 tartlets:


2 red peppers
2 Tbsp Pesto
Half ball of Mozzarella
1 sheet Puff Pastry
2 cloves of garlic


You need to do:


1. Slice the peppers thinly and fry with a little oil for about 5 minutes until slightly softened.

2. Transfer peppers into a roasting tray, pop in your garlic cloves with the skins still on and roast for about 10 minutes in the oven until they're really soft and roasted.

3. While they're in the oven, prepare your pastry. Roll it out onto a baking sheet with a spray of oil to stop it sticking and cut into quarters and prick them a couple of times to disperse the air while it cooks. Spread on the pesto lightly.


4. Now get your peppers out of the oven and squeeze your garlic out of it's skin, when you roast garlic in their skins they become really sweet and don't have the tang raw garlic has. Mash or squeeze the garlic onto the peppers.


5. Pop your peppers on the tarts and then sprinkle over however much mozzarella you fancy. Lightly score a box around the peppers as if you were leaving a little frame for your pepper masterpiece.

6. Put them in the oven for 15 minutes on 180 until the cheese has melted and the pastry has risen and turned a golden brown.

They're great to pre prepare and heat up again later but they always taste best straight out of the oven!


The dinner was so nice, had a good old catch up but possibly with too much wine, I feel horrendous today!!