What's In My Bag

I was inspired to photograph the contents of my bag when I read this post on the wonderful Everything Pretty blog. I've always been fascinated by what other people keep in their bags (Marie Claire USA does those wonderful peeks into celebrity handbags on the last page), and so I thought I'd share with you the things that I am carrying around in mine at the moment.

Above are the items which are usually in my bag: phones (Irish and UK), glasses, Filofax, camera, purse, perfume (Love, Chloé), pen, nail file, keys, and a little black bag filled with some other essentials.

 

My Filofax is always ridiculously full: as you can see above, it is filled with scraps of paper, postcards, addresses, stamps, perfume samples...anything papery that I find, really!

And here are the contents of my little black 'bag inside my bag': cherry Carmex, pink and red lip stains, a little compact mirror which belonged to my grandmother (it once contained something from Yardley), my favourite chewing gum (I like the peppermint one too) which I am never without, another pen, some tablets (painkillers, allergy tablets and travel sickness pills, plus a lemsip sachet just in case!), two little Miffy highlighter pens, and a little 'Free Hugs' purse which contains the selection of hair bands and clips you can see. 

And at the moment, all of that fits (just about!) into my trusty Warehouse bag.

Lady In Coral (With A Big Hot Chocolate)

Jumper from a thrift shop, dress from Topshop, shoes from Office and bag from Warehouse

It was raining again today, but I decided to brave the weather and take some photos anyway! Wednesday is pay day for me and my boyfriend, and sometimes we treat ourselves by going to a coffee shop. Today a big mug of hot chocolate seemed appropriate, what with the rain pouring down outside the window. I also made friends with a giraffe on the way...

Have you ever seen a more colourful giraffe?!

Rain splattered shoes, rain splattered pavement

It's not hot chocolate without marshmallows and cream

I look like I've been caught doing something I shouldn't!

Dressing It Down

Dress from Amity, top and shoes from Topshop

I bought this dress when I lived in Ireland, in a gorgeous little shop in Cork called Amity. Set up by two Irish women to offer a unique selection of clothes, the shop is filled with beautiful, vintage inspired collections. Anyway, one day as I was browsing I spotted this dress and fell in love with it immediately. I took it into the dressing room, tried it on, and came out to show my friend...and the sales assistant, standing nearby, said, "Oh, you've got that on back to front but it actually looks great like that too"! I was a little embarrassed! Anyway, I wore it quite a few times in Ireland: out to the pub on a few occasions and once to a Lifehouse concert in Dublin. 

Not sure why I look so sad!

The other day I noticed that it had been languishing in the back of my cupboard, so I decided that it was time to debut it in Scotland. However, I've always been a little iffy about the low front it has...especially as I wanted to wear it during the day this time. So instead of pairing it with boots and tights as I have often done in the past, I decided to dress it down with some cute white lace ups and a casual tied tee. What do you think?

Lip Color is MAC Weekend Getaway

It's The Little Things

Top from Lucca Couture, skirt from Vero Moda, boots from Schuh

Today I took advantage of the improvement in the weather and asked my boyfriend to do an impromptu photo session across the road from Waitrose before we got some ingredients for our dinner!  I was wearing one of my usual outfits (black skirt, black tights, black boots!), but with one of my favourite tops. It's such a pretty, feminine shade, and I love the little details: the lace at the shoulders and the bottom, and the slanted edge is very flattering.

Looking very serious because the sun is in my eyes!

Then I went home and cooked dinner. Ingredients included courgettes, chopped tomatoes, sausages...and one pretty top, now splashed with oil!!!

Last time was worse though: my boyfriend left me alone in the kitchen for about two minutes, and when he came back I was in floods of tears. As soon as he left, I somehow splashed hot oil all over my hand and wrist, then put it under the tap...but I always forget which tap is which, and instead of cooling cold water, I put my hand under the hot hot HOT tap! Pain and tears ensued.

Hopefully the oil will come out and my top can live happily ever after!

I was NOT smiling like this after I noticed I'd splashed oil on my top!

New MAC Lipcreme in Love Long Distance

Charm from Thomas Sabo, chain from Newbridge Silver

Bright Nails for a Rainy Week

The final result!

A combination of my computer continuing to act up and the weather being absolutely miserable for most of the last week has meant that outfit posts have been impossible, but I hope to have something new up very soon. 

In the meantime, I decided to put on some bright nail polish so I would have something pretty to look at, rather than just looking out at the rain. I used a combination of a new MAC polish that my sister bought me from the Beth Ditto range (a light yellow called Near Beth Experience), an older hot pink MAC polish called Steamy, and Silver Shatter from OPI. Pretty, but with an edge.

The kit

Two layers of polish first

And done!

Strawberry Cheesecake (and a Broken Computer!)

First of all I just want to say that my computer is a little bit sick at the moment, so if I haven't replied to a comment, or commented on your blog recently, that's why. Hopefully it will be better very soon as I am really missing being able to look at everyone else's blogs!

Anyway, I thought I would share this delicious strawberry cheesecake recipe which I made recently for my boyfriend's birthday. My dad gave me the recipe: he makes the best lemon cheesecake ever, and I adapted it to strawberry instead.

Strawberry Cheesecake

Base

8 oz Digestive biscuits
3 oz butter or margarine
1 oz brown sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup

Crush the biscuits into crumbs. I did it by hand, which was pretty time consuming: my dad recommends putting the biscuits into a freezer bag and crushing with a rolling pin. Melt the other ingredients together in a saucepan large enough to pour the crumbs into. When everything is melted together, add the crumbs. Stir until well mixed and smooth into a greased dish.

Digestive crumbs

Butter, golden syrup and brown sugar

The base

Filling

8 oz plain cottage cheese
1 packet strawberry jelly
4 oz double cream (I used extra thick)
Fresh strawberries, chopped (I used a carton)

Melt the jelly in 4 oz of boiling water and allow to cool slightly. Mix liquid jelly, cottage cheese, double cream and half of the strawberries together in a liquidizer. (I don't own a liquidizer, so I used a whisk. However, the cottage cheese didn't mix properly so I had to strain it out. It still worked out right though). Mix at max speed for 30 seconds. Stir in the remaining strawberries, then pour gently over the base. Put in fridge to set.

Chopped strawberries

Jelly, plus a rogue strawberry!

The mixture, plus strawberries, ready to pour over the base

Ready to pop in the fridge overnight

Some Lovely, Pretty Things

How stunning is this dress from Jason Wu's Spring 2012 collection? And I love the lipstick too: it just looks incredible.

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I don't know if you've heard of Lisa Swerling's Glass Cathedrals: they are beautiful wall sculptures which house tiny, intricate scenes. I first discovered them at Spitalfield Market in London quite a few years ago. Lisa has since relocated to America, and is constantly creating new, beautiful pieces. I don't own one yet, but I hope to one day! The scene below is entitled: In case of dullness, blow.

glasscathedrals.com

I've been re-watching season four of Gossip Girl, and staring longingly at pretty much every outfit involved! The two items I love the most though? The outfit Blair wore to the Pink Party, and the beautiful wall hanging in Serena's bedroom, created by Paul Villinski.

coolspotters.com

babylifestyles.com

I spotted this in postcard form on a trip to the Tate Modern in London last year: I'm not sure what it is exactly that I love about it, but I do. Rosen, by Wolfgang Tillmans (1994).

missmollcherie.blogspot.co.uk

And finally, I can't wait to make these gorgeous Confetti Cookies from The Baker Chick:

the-baker-chick.com

Urban Voodoo Machine

We did some sightseeing before the gig

On Friday, we went to Glasgow to see Urban Voodoo Machine for my boyfriend's birthday. It was our first time in Glasgow, so we got there early to make sure we had plenty of time to work out where we were going. I even drew out a little map to help us find the venue. However, what I didn't realise was that there are two O2 venues in Glasgow... When we got to where I thought we should be going, we found a completely closed up building! Oops! Luckily, we still had time to make it to the correct venue.

My outfit: top from Monki, skirt from Vero Moda, shoes from Kurt Geiger

I'm pulling a bit of a funny face in the above photo because the sun was in my eyes, and I was trying to keep them open long enough to take the photo!

Having a fit of the giggles while doing silly poses!

I love this top, especially the scalloped edges

A blurry photo of the band!

We danced so much, it was a really fun gig and the encore was amazing. The venue was really nice too. The next day, my feet hurt and my boyfriend's back was aching from all the dancing we did!