Response Post to Va-Voom Vintage: My Early Style
31/01/2013
Filed under Uncategorized
Tags: buffy the vampire slayer, fairuza balk, shirley manson, the craft
As mentioned in Brittany’s post, our sense of style is shaped and evolved by celebrities, books and movies and therefore constantly changing.
I am getting to a point now where I think I know what my personal style is, because so far it’s been a bit eclectic!
My teenage years were a bit of a rollercoaster, as I think it was for most of us!
My first year of secondary school was spent head to toe in Adidas as the townie-esque craze swept through. Then I saw this :
Oh how I wanted to be Fairuza Balk’s character Nancy, minus the insanity bit of course. And here ushered in my gothic tendencies. Non-uniform days made for amusement as I rocked up to school in black eyeshadow and lipstick.
Then this was sideswept this little lady.
I loved watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and hated not having Sky 1 so I had to wait until it came out on BBC2. I remember buying 3/4 length coats and thinking I was oh, so cool because I emulated Buffy’s style.
I think part of me wished I could have my own David Boreanaz, I had enough posters of him on my walls!
And finally, the reason behind that red hair :
Yes, that red hair. The reason? Shirley Manson from Garbage. Version 2.0 is the album of my teenage years and I loved how cool she was and to me that equated with having amazing red hair.
I did enjoy being a redhead, but it is not worth 8 hours in the salon chair!
I (thankfully) don’t have may photos of me in my teenage years, but between these ladies and my love of Oriental clothing, I doubt I looked much like anyone else.
I’m the one with short hair and red top
And on a side note, this is not indicative of my current dress sense :
Who influenced your style and fashion?
Angry Insects and the Pudding Night
Last night we went to a Pudding Club in my MILs village, with all puddings made by the local WI. Heaven!!!!
Imagine a long wall lined with tables groaning with over 30 different puddings, jugs of cream and custard and a crepes suzette stand down one end. I’m asking you to imagine this as I forgot to take a picture, whoops!
Over the course of the evening we were invited to try as many desserts as our stomachs could hold, buy tickets for the raffle and tombola, and take part in the quizzes.
Mr H and I did fairly well in the pudding stakes, as seen by the pictures below. My personal favourite was the Rhubarb and Raspberry Crumble, and I currently have two portions sat in my fridge for tonights dinner!
I walked away from the tombola with a GI cookbook, Coffee Mug set and a bottle of Irish Meadows (cheaper version of Baileys). Towards the end of the night we noticed a fellow table returning from the tombola stand and holding up a tube of Vagisil. After a bit of an investigation by our table mate, it turns out that there was also Strawberry flavoured lube, and a packet of condoms with a complimentary vibrating cock ring. After about five minutes of laughing so hard at this “prize” having been offered on the tombola, it turned out another person on that table had brought it from home to deliver it as part of their Secret Santa. Given that my MIL is part of the WI, I can tell you I was greatly relieved that the Secret Santa present had not come through the tombola (excuse all puns)
Now onto the Angry Insects. One of the quizzes was 25 cryptic clues posted around the room, each revealing a type of pudding. A lot of trading went on to discover the answers of No’s 4 (Scottish Regiments), 13 (Heavenly Kingdom Shapes) and 25 (Angry Insects). Can anyone guess them?
No. 4 – Scottish Regiments – Highlanders (never heard of this dessert)
No. 13 – Heavenly Kingdom Shapes – Paradise Squares – (again, never heard of this one either)
No. 25 – Angry Insects – Croissants or Cross Ants
After hearing the answer to 25, I would never have gotten it as I don’t pronounce it that way, but nee matter. The grand prize was a wooden spoon!
Bake of the Month – Baizelnut Muffins
25/01/2013
Filed under Bake of the Month, Loves
Tags: baileys, bake of the month, hazelnut, muffins, nutella
Apologies this post is so late in coming. I was planning on writing it when I left work early last Friday due to the snow, but it took me 5 hours to get home so that went out of the window!
But now, this is the inaugural post on my brand new laptop – yay for being back in the 21st century!
Onto the post. As a new feature for 2013, I will be doing a Bake of the Month which will usually be themed on what is going on in my life at the time.
January’s Bake of the Month is my personal favourite Baizelnut Muffins (whilst thinking of the ingredients I needed on the way to work I had a brain fart and the name for these bits of heaven was born!) These muffins are a Hazelnut Baileys Muffin topped with a Nutella buttercream and just the perfect gooey winter warmer for those of us who had the best intentions but have already forgotten about them (raise your hands, you’re not the only one!)
Now for the how-to :
I amended the recipe found here, substituting the packet of vanilla sugar for 1tsp vanilla extract, used 80g chocolate chips instead of 40g cranberries and 40g chocolate pieces, and added Hazelnut Baileys.
Whisk the sugar, vanilla extract and eggs until slightly frothy.
Mix in the sunflower oil, followed by the Baileys.
I mixed in the flour and baking powder until just combined.
Then I added the chocolate chips, in hindsight I should have either folded these in or added them once the batter was in the muffin cases as they did sink to the bottom.
The batter was then poured into the muffin cases and put in the oven until fully baked.
Once they’d cooled I topped them with the Nutella buttercream recipe found here.
Resolutions for 2013
15/01/2013
Filed under 101 in 1001, Laughs, Learning, Life, Loves, Random Musings
Tags: 101 in 1001, 2013, resolutions
I decided this year not to make any resolutions as a lot of what I want to do with my life, aims and such I put into my 101 in 1001 list.
There are a few things I will/aiming to accomplish this year though from the list :
3 – Go on a road trip
We will be going to France this summer camping, and going on our first road trip!
9 – Finish decorating the bedroom
We are nearly there now, and I want to try and get it sorted before my degree gets underway, if not, it will be November before it gets done!
11 – Have Christmas all organised and ready to go in advance
This is going to be especially important as my exams will be in October – my normal Christmas prep period – and I would like to not have to be stressing about Christmas the same time as I try to remember basic rules of french grammar!
21 – Create a menu plan according to French Women Don’t Get Fat and 27 – Shop seasonally for at least four months
Already started this as part of a healthy start to the year
35 – Restart my degree
35 – Restart my degree
Countdown to 2nd February!
37 – Learn how to park in the Honda
The Honda is poorly at the moment, so this may not be needed, but if it recovers I need to get on top of this before I have to travel for a tutorial. Not being able to reverse park in the leviathan is embarrassing!
For Mr H
To the man I love :
“Let us all be Dinosaurs and Lovely Other Dinosaurs together. For the sun is warm. And the world is a beautiful place.”
Here’s to two years of being happily married, and to many more.
And for those who haven’t seen it, here’s the highlights reel.
Our Wedding Highlights from Kiri Humphreys on Vimeo.
Mrs H Presents 