Thursday 13 November 2014

Christmas/Winter Wishlist


Hello guys. Here we go with the Christmas themed blog posts, and yes I am starting early. After Halloween, I am feeling so Christmassy and believe it or not I want the tree up now. Too early?..

Here is a little wishlist, (that has made me want to go shopping so bad, being a student is terrible sometimes), I have created with Christmas and the Winter months in mind. So yes, that means onesie, tartan, Christmas jumper loving time.

The shape of these is so peculiar it is definitely a love it hate it kind of boot. The ankle cutaway gives the boot a little edge and would look great with a dress and black tights! Need these in my life.

Who doesn't have a tartan object in their life? This little beauty is beautiful and would look great teamed up with a leather jacket.  

This is by far the best Christmas party kind of dress I have seen, pretty much ever. The embellishment over the whole dress is simply stunning and the low back makes it special. The frill at the bottom of the dress reminds me of "The Great Gatsby" film! The only problem with this beauty is the price. Offt.

It is that time of year again where all the onesies can come out! This one looks so warm and cosy, especially on those cold nights. I love the fact it has a fur hood, so you can get even more cosy! AH!

So Christmas is not Christmas without a stupid jumper from Primark. However this one is amazing. Team it with a white shirt and a black skirt and it would look great! I will still be cracking out my Primark one this year. 

This is such an elegant coat. Something I wish I could pull off. The bit fur collar would keep you warm in the cold days and yet you will still look amazing. Best of both worlds I say! Love it!

I love any themed socks and these are brilliant. Topshop do a range of Christmas socks, get on that hype ha! 

Sparkly nails are a must for Christmas and winter. I have tons from Barry M, great application and pigmentation! :) 

What is on your Christmas/Winter wishlist?

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Raspberry Swirl Butterfly Cupcakes- Gluten and Dairy Free


Hey guys, we are in November now and if you are having Summer-time sadness, I have an inspired recipe to bring back a little bit of the Summer. By bringing back Summer, I mean bunging in a few Summery fruits in cake mix ha! I joke, but seriously that is basically what it is. I have took Jemma's recipe from Jamie Oliver's youtube page (view here) and adapted it to be dairy free as well as gluten free! Even the buttercream is gluten and dairy free too. This was the first time I had tried this recipe and they tasted so good! Will be making them in the very near future indeed. On to the ingredients...



Ingredients

Raspberry Goo:
300g frozen or fresh raspberries or any fruit of your fancy.
1/2 cup of sugar

Cake Mix:
125g gluten free flour mix (I used Dove's)
125g caster sugar
Pinch of xanthan gum
125g of dairy free butter (I use Pure's sunflower spread)
2 eggs
1.5 tbsp almond milk or soya

Butter Icing:
140g dairy free butter
280g icing sugar
1-2 tbsp almond milk


Method:

1. Heat raspberries and sugar in a sauce pan and simmer for 25-30 minutes.
2. Sieve the whole raspberries so you are left with a goo/raspberry liquid.
3. Leave to cool till later.
4. Mix butter, sugar, flour and xanthan gum for the cake mix in one bowl.
5. Add eggs and milk and mix till smooth.
6. Add a tbsp of raspberry goo to your cake mix and swirl gently in.
7. Be careful not to mix the goo in too much with the cake mix.
8. Add the cake mix to your muffin trays and bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.
9. Once cooked leave to cool.
10. Mix your butter and icing sugar for the topping.
11. Add the milk and whisk till nice and thick.
12. Add a bit of the goo again to the butter icing, being careful not to mix too much.
13. Cut circles out of your cakes and add the butter icing to the left over holes.
14. Cut the circles in half to create wings and place them in the butter icing.
15. BAM YOU ARE DONE! NOMNOM!


These are by far the best cakes I have tried in a long time. I have been figuring out what cake to make for my 21st and I think I am going to make loads of these bad boys. If you try this recipe out, feel free to tweet me up with your pictures at www.twitter.com/rachellwhitee

Monday 27 October 2014

XTREME SCREAM PARK FUN AND YUMMY PUMPKIN PIE!


Last week I got the chance to go to the Xtreme SCREAM park in Melton Mowbray. If you haven't heard of this before, it is basically a park with several different "scary" attractions for all you thrill seekers! These attractions are basically mazes which you have to find your way through. Other than finding your way out in pitch black, you have "actors" scaring the crap out of you. All fun, I say!


Xtreme SCREAM park in Melton Mowbray has 5 frightful attractions:

Stilton Hall Hotel & Spa- New for 2014. Inside there is over 50 rooms you get to explore. The spa room was probably my favourite. I needed a good massage ha! As written on the website, "Escape and feel the pleasure, we will transform you, beauty or beast? Prepare to experience relaxation beyond your worst nightmares."

The Pie Factory & Pig Man's Paddock- New again for 2014. This was one hell of a scary attraction. Chain saws rawr-ing and claustrophobic inflatable walls where you couldn't see the end! As said on the website, "Step inside the doors and make your way through the complex of scare maze horror attraction to discover the gruesome process of slaughter in a hell that extracts human flesh of the finast quality."


Dungeon-  "The undead have been released, centuries ago buried alive in this dark horror maze the bells of the long forgotten Zombie monsters of the dark are ringing, they have been unleashed, at night they hunt for food. Human Flesh."



Curtain Chaos- This one was probably one of the nicer attractions of the night. Not as scary and as we went on this one first, I felt it was a build up to the more scary ones. "The Oxford Dictionary states that Coulrophobia is the irrational fear of clowns. Once inside this labryinth of colour and noise you will discover that this phobia is not so irrational. Curtain Chaos scare maze is a sick and twisted fantasy overrun by rogue clowns." If you have a fear of clowns..this one is not for you. Ha!


Farmhouse of fear- "Brave the claustrophobic corridors and dark passageways of the ancient Melton Mowbray's farmhouse haunted Halloween scare maze. The Leicester farmers are here to bring back those childhood nightmares. Experience strange haunted happenings, you never know who you will bump into at every turn in this fun and frightening Halloween scare maze."




Overall I had such a great night being scared the hell out of. Weird idea for some. However if you are a thrill seeker and want to go to this particular one. Here is the website!

I thought as this post is all Halloween themed, I would post a little gluten and dairy free pumpkin pie recipe. It didn't come out of the oven looking as appetising as I would have liked, but it does taste slightly good hah!



Recipe adapted from "Gluten Free Home Maker" which you can find here.

Ingredients:
1 pie crust recipe with gluten free flour
1 small pumpkin or puree
150g sugar
2 eggs
115 ml almond milk or any dairy free milk. (coconut milk would work great!)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:

1. Prepare the gluten free pastry and blind bake for 15 minutes in the oven at 170 degrees.
2. Combine all ingredients together and mix with a fork.
3. Roll the pastry and add to a 9 inch pie tin
4. Add the filling carefully into the pie tin.
5. Cover the whole pie in foil being careful not to let the foil touch the filling.
6. Bake for a further 40-45 minutes.
7. Let it cool and enjoy with some whipped cream.



Hope you all have a lovely Halloween!

Friday 24 October 2014

What is Happiness And How Can I Achieve it?

"Thousands of Candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."

-Buddha


How would you describe happiness?

What does it take to be happy?

I feel that these questions are difficult to answer, in fact maybe impossible. When is "happiness is a choice" ever enough. Happiness doesn't have a time scale and people go through very tough times in their lives whether it is a few days or even years. We all have our own definitions for happiness, but how can we be happy?..right now..right in this moment. We need to stop thinking happiness is based solely on achievements or posessions. Here are 7 ways you can choose happiness.

1. Being grateful. Focusing on the positive things that are happening in your life rather than the negative, can really help you realise what is more important. These grateful moments could be as big or as small as you want them to be. Write them down in a book and look back at them!

2. Treat others with respect. In other words, "Treat those how you would like to be treated." If you do nice things for people they will do nice things for you. Giving is just as important as receiving and this brings out joy in those who do.

3. Smile

4. Exercise, meditate and eat healthy. All these things can make you feel so much better about yourself. Going for a run or walk first thing in the morning can help clear your head especially when you are going through a stressful time.

5. Look forward to every day. I have recently read this blog post from Tiny Buddha, and it is all about living in the moment and looking forward to the next day. One note I have took from the blog post is to forgive. Forgiving everything can be so difficult. This is something I obviously need to work on. But doing so can put things in the past, making living the next day easier and therefore you being more happy.

6. Hold back on starting an argument. This is something I am pretty bad at. I am not saying keeping your feelings in are the best thing to do sometimes, but choosing not to create an argument can make you feel you are better!

7. Don't worry. I know pretty well how worrying and being anxious can cause us to feel overwhelmed and even stop us from doing things we want to do. I heard a while back "99% of the things we worry about, never happen", I say this every time I start letting anxiety get the better of me. Trying hard not to worry about the little things can make us feel happier within ourselves and have a more positive outlook.

Sorry for the soppy blog post. I was inspired by many blogs recently to write up a happiness post. Other than people (you) who are reading this right now, I feel like I can keep looking at this when things are getting a little rough. I hope you have enjoyed. :) If you liked this post, I have recently wrote one on ways to relax. You can view it here

What things make you happy?

Friday 17 October 2014

The Perfect Autumn/Winter Scent?




It has come to that time of year again, when you are on the hunt for a perfume more suited to the Autumn/Winter weather. I think this perfume "Intense" by Dolce & Gabbana could be my favourite A/W scent I have ever layed my nose upon. 

I first saw this perfume around about this time last year and instantly fell in love with the smell. It has such a night time mature musky scent about it, yet still so wearable in the day due to it's other fruity notes. Dolce & Gabbana describe "Intense's" different notes on their website which you can view here.

Top Notes:
Oriental floral notes ignite the senses with subtle hints of Neroli and Green Mandarin. 

Heart:
The top notes yield to a rich and intriguing contrast of two noble white flowers, Orange Blossom and Tuberose, giving an intense full-bodied signature to the perfume.

Base Notes:
The warm resinous Sandal wood and the sensual musky notes that blend with the creamy addiction of the Guimauve define a powerful presence of captivating sensuality.

Oh don't D&G know how to wow you with their beautiful descriptive words?

Other than it's beautiful warm scent, the bottle is simple yet stunning. The bottle is an Autumn-y burgundy shade which is slightly opaque. It isn't the most complicated design out there but looks so elegant, along with it's elegant scent. 

I advise you all to go smell this bad boy in shops and consider it on your Christmas list. Am I the only one who has started one of those already? ha!

Tuesday 7 October 2014

Girls just wana' have fun..



I love nights like these. I feel movie nights and spending time at home are very under-rated these days, especially with how out going students are, maybe I'm just not a good "student". Ha.

Last night me and a couple of my house mates decided to have a film night. Snacks and a good scary film was very much needed after having a terrible terrible day! Blah, eff you Coeliac Disease!

After watching The Conjuring, I felt very very jumpy and my friend Paolo was waiting in the toilet to scare me! I will seek my revenge ;) 

Other than being scared sh*tless, I had a lovely night in and sometimes you just need evenings like this. Time away from work and a good ole laugh.

*Sorry for the short short post, but I really wanted to shove these pictures on the blog haha! *

What things do you like to do when you are having a difficult day?

Friday 3 October 2014

Nottingham Lush Christmas Event..

Hello guys! 

Yesterday I had the chance to go to the Christmas Lush Event in Nottingham. I am a big fan of Lush products and was dying to go, I am so glad I got the chance.

Every year, Lush bring out a line of products related to Halloween and Christmas and of course they had out some of their classics, such as "So White" and the good old "Penguin" (I love how they seem to have their own little personalities, with how different each one looks) ha! Along with the classics, they had also brought out some brand new products which got me very excited! So White has been one of my favourite bath bombs for a long time now and Lush now have the scent in shower gel form. I had to get my hands on it! Lord of Misrule and Yog-nog were some of my favourite scents from the event and the people of Lush kindly allowed me to have three products of my choice. I chose, Lord of Misrule, Northern Lights and the Yog-Nog soap. I cannot wait to use these bad boys.

Here are a few pictures from the night. I had such a brilliant time and met so many lovely bloggers. This was my first event and I was go glad I built up the courage to go. Bring on the next one!

















Gluten Free Banana Muffins..


Hello guys!

I am back and with yet another gluten and dairy free recipe. This week I had tonnes of bananas just sitting in my kitchen not being eaten, so I decided to grab them and make muffins out of them (as you do). 

This was probably one of the fastest recipes I have ever done. Literally prepping and cooking within half an hour. BISH BASH BOSH!

Here are the yummy photos..




This recipe is one I adapted from allrecipes.co.uk, it serves 12.

200g Dove's gluten free flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
3 bananas
150g caster sugar
1 egg
75g melted butter

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line a muffin tray with muffin cases.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Mash the bananas and add sugar, egg and melted butter to them.
4. Fold in the flour till the mixture is smooth.
5. Spoon the mixture into the cases.
6. Cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
7. Enjoy.

What are your favourite type of muffins? 

Wednesday 1 October 2014

Shake it Like a Polaroid Picture..





Hello guys!

I have moved into my uni house and after finally settling in and getting back in the swing of getting up to go uni, I couldn't be any happier. Living with my mates is such an awesome experience, even if that means endless pots in the kitchen that need to be washed...it is all fun and games :P

I have been browsing Pinterest recently, especially the uni room decorating boards. I spotted loads of different ways to hang and decorate your photos. One method I saw on there, was a bunting like way of hanging polaroids. It looked so pretty and I just had to recreate it.

Using the Polagram app on the iPhone, I bought several photos. Polagram is an amazing app. You simply buy the photos from your phone, so no internet jobby! You can either choose polaroids or normal sized photos for 29p each. They also do phone cases and photo albums on there which vary in price, but they would make great Christmas presents! (Thinking ahead ;) )

After these arrived, I bought a bunch of little pegs from ebay and attached them to string. Easy as that...job done. I have fairy lights in my room which I dangled behind the photos, so when I turn them on, all the photos illuminate, I love it! :) aha!

If you are lacking any decorating inspiration, go check Pinterest! I go on about this app all the time. If you want to follow me on Pinterest you can here.

Monday 29 September 2014

What Is In My Makeup Bag?


If you are all just as nosey as I am, then you LOVE posts like these. Ones where you get to delve into peoples makeup bags and see what items they use on a daily basis. I thought I would share what is in my makeup bag..I hope you enjoy :)

My make up bag is from Harrods as you may be able to see (durr). I bought this around a year ago and I am still very much in love with it, though I am not too sure if it is still in stores. The best thing about it, is that it has on it every stereotypical London "thing" you can think of. :)


Let's get onto the makeup. The first few things I have in my bag is of course mascara...a staple in every girl's makeup bag. This particular one is one of my favouirtes. It is Maybelline's falsies volume express mascara, it lengthens and thickens lashes just as you would want and doesn't cost a fortune. I also have my l'oreal liquid super liner eyeliner pen. I love eyeliner pens recently, I feel you get more precision especially if you aren't too good at applying eyeliner on the upper lids. Other than upper lid eyeliner, I have normal liner that I use in the waterline. This is Rimmel's exaggerate eyeliner. I prefer roll up eyeliner to ones you have to sharpen yourself as I feel it is just too messy and they break more easily too.


Onto the face bits and bobs! :) One thing I cannot live without is my Elizabeth Arden, 8 hour cream. I have nearly ran out this and it has been going strong for over a year now. I mainly use it on my lips as an alternative to a regular lipbalm as this one is much more moisturising. The great thing about this cream is that you can use it for dry patches on your body and even on burns. The next product is one I live by. This is Dior's BB creme. I have been through 4 bottles of the stuff within a year and a bit and I really can't find anything better. I'm not a massive fan of full coverage makeup as I don't like the feel of it on my face but this is perfect for giving a light coverage and colour correcting too. I LAV IT! Rimmel's stay matte powder is a staple of mine and has been for years now. I have tried so many different powders and for the price of this one, you cannot go wrong!!


As for concealers, I have two that will always be in my makeup bag. MAC Studio finish concealer has amazing coverage and is great for brightening up the area around the eyes, however I feel it can get a little cakey. I think this is personally a great concealer for blemishes! My other concealer is slightly darker and nearer to my skin tone. This is Benefit's Boi-ing concealer. This also has brilliant coverage, if not better than the MAC one. This concealer is also antibactieral so it makes you feel less guilty about wearing makeup on a very bad and very spotty skin day.


I do have my favourite eyeshadow palettes but they can be a right nightmare carrying around all the time, so they stay away from my everyday makeup bag. Maybellines Color Tattoo's are just simply amazing products. You can use them as a primer for eyeshadows such as the Rimmel one pictured below, but you can also apply them on their own as a wash of colour on the lids. I also use the shade Permanent Taupe for my eyebrows...try it! :P


I also have regular eyeshadow primer, this one by Urban Decay is amazing. It makes eyeshadow last all day and you don't even have to use that much of it. This one bottle has lasted me over a year and a half! I also have MAC harmony, which I use for contouring. This one I feel is slightly too dark for me now though  (sad times). I finally have a duo eyeshadow palette. I won't go into too much detail on this baby as I have written a blog post on this a couple months back, which you can read here


So that is basically what is in my makeup bag and items I reach for day to day. I hope you enjoyed reading! What item of makeup do you reach for on a daily basis?