Foodie Favourites / Lean In 15, Deliciously Ella & More

Recently I've felt like a major foodie trying out new recipes and ideas, I got a couple of new recipe books for Christmas too so I love flicking through them and drooling over the Instagram worthy food photos.  I have been trying a few different healthy meals and recipes but there are still some which I just keep going back to - so I thought I'd share them with you all.

One of my favourite breakfast recipes is nutty granola with greek yogurt, I've posted about my favourite granola recipe here and it's sooo good.  It's from the Honestly Healthy cookbook and is so much better for you than most store bought granola mixes, it doesn't contain anywhere near as much oil and sugar so it's perfect first thing in the morning (it also works great as a snack if you're feeling peckish!).

During the week I like to keep my evening meals simple and straightforward and I find the Lean in 15 cookbook from The Body Coach is perfect for this.  One of my favourite meals from the book is the cheesy chorizo chicken and spinach recipe, you basically fling those ingredients and some extra vegetables in a large frying pan and let them cook away and that's it done! It's so tasty and filling too.  

Another Lean in 15 recipe I've tried recently is the bad-boy burrito, I actually had this with chicken instead of steak but it was still so good and easy to fling together.  The great thing about this recipe is you can really make this your own and add any other ingredients you like, I added some avocado and it was so good. 

On the snacking front I was looking for something healthy and that would give me energy so I turned to my Deliciously Ella cookbook as she has so many healthy alternatives to refined sugar filled snacks.  I made the almond and chia energy bites and they are SO tasty.  They are nice and sweet and a perfect pick me up for a mid afternoon or after work snack to keep me going!  I've made a few batches now and the recipe in Ella's book lasts so long, the energy bites last in the fridge for a long time too which is great - making sure I have healthy snacks available all the time!

What are your favourite healthy recipes and meals?  I'd love to get more ideas or hear about new ones you have tried.    

♥︎

April Life Update / Quality Time With Family & Friends

Hello lovelies! Long time no blog(!), life has been a bit crazy and I was unwell with the flu for a week so blogging was on hold for a couple of weeks...but I'm back!

For April's life update one of my highlights was a night in with my bridesmaids! What was meant to be a wine and cheese night ended up being a cocktails and cheese night with sooo many laughs - what more could you want with a night in with the girls ♥︎ We also made rice crispy squares, rocky road and truffles to go with our homemade strawberry daiquiris, pink lemonade prosecco cocktails and champagne!

Home Baking & Strawberry Daiquiris

Pink Lemonade Prosecco Cocktail

Cheers! ♥︎

Stella & I loving our Champagne! 

I also had a great day at Easter spending time with my cousins and aunties, another one of those days where everyone is in a great mood and laughing away all day! It was a day where I smiled from start to finish.  My cousins have recently moved into and bought their new homes so we were also toasting to them - another excuse for more champagne in my April update..!

Champagne in Christmas Cups..!

Cheers to my Cousin's New House! 

Little Lily All Dressed Up

Cutest Easter Card from Logan ♥︎

It's been a great month catching up with friends and family and I finished it off with a catch up with my uni gals, one of my friends has been in Australia and I hadn't seen her for a year! It was so good to catch up and hear how everyone is getting on, we had a lovely lunch in All Bar One, Glasgow - complete with a pot of tea of course.

I feel like all my life updates include a tea photo?!

I hope you've had an amazing month!
What have you been getting up to? I'd love to hear about the exciting things you've done!

♥︎

Everyday Eyeshadow Palette / Zoeva En Taupe

For the past few years when applying my everyday make up I've usually had a small individual cream to gold eyeshadow which I would always use, I never thought of having an eyeshadow palette but I'm definitely so happy with the one I have and the choice it gives me everyday.

For the past few months I've been using the Zoeva En Taupe eyeshadow palette for my everyday make up routine and it's such a great subtle yet varied option for everyday eye looks.  

The great thing about Zoeva palettes is that they are so affordable, £18 for a palette including 10 shades is amazing!  This Zoeva En Taupe palette is lightweight with slim packaging, making it travel and storage friendly too.  

The Zoeva En Taupe eyeshadow palette is made up of both warm and cool toned taupe shades, making it perfect for so many skin tones.  The colours are very smooth when applying and the colours are a lovely mix - from greys and browns to nude neutrals and purple hued shades.  

There is the perfect mix of matte, satin, shimmer and glitter finishes (yes, there is even a glitter shade flung in there!), I currently love Handmade, Outline, Wrapped in Silk and Exquisite.  

They are lovely warm shimmer shades which really help to give you a more complete make up look with only a quick dusting of colour - making application easy peasy on an early Monday morning!  

Have you tried this Zoeva eyeshadow palette?  

Let me know what shadow combinations you love!

♥︎

Pop The Question / Will You Be My Bridesmaid?

My boyfriend and I got engaged in September 2015 so we've been busy planning our wedding for June next year (it's going in much faster than I was expecting!).  When we started planning our wedding, one of the first things we wanted to do was ask our close friends and family to be a part of our day - this has without a doubt been one of the most exciting moments of wedding planning for me so far!  Below I've shared how I asked my maid of honour, bridesmaids and flower girl to be a part of our day and I thought it might give you brides-to-be some inspiration when asking your closest friends and family to be in your bridal party.

When I was planning to ask the girls to be a part of our day I wanted to surprise them all and I managed to get tears 4 out of 4 times so I think I pulled off the surprises..!

To start off, over the festive season we had a family day out in Edinburgh visiting the gorgeous Christmas tree in The Dome and the Christmas markets, and to make it extra special I decided to ask my younger sister, Cassie, to be my maid of honour.  I handed her a cardboard box and the photo below is what was inside!

The box was gorgeous when you opened it up - gold sparkles, bright colours and pretty fonts.
I filled the box with a personalised mug with 'Cassie, please will you be my Maid of Honour?' inside a teal love heart, a mini bottle of Cava with a pink striped straw (making it ready to drink straight away!) and an Essie nail polish in 'bachelorette bash' - definitely appropriate..!

Champagne to Celebrate with my Sis!

I also asked my friend Deborah, my cousin Stephanie and Graeme's sister Stella to be bridesmaids and I loved seeing their reactions.  I bought them all a silver necklace on a card with 'It's my turn to pop the question, will you be my bridesmaid?' along with a balloon or flowers, a personalised card and prosecco.  Although my friend Deborah has been obsessed with Blue WKD since she was about 17 so I got her a bottle of that instead..!  I loved the pop the question necklaces and thought they were such a cute idea!  

Last but not least we also asked our niece Lola to be our flower girl, and we did that with a personalised card, pale pink bracelet with a flower pendant and a big balloon (which she loved and played with for the rest of the afternoon)!

Do you have any great ideas for popping the question to your bridesmaids? 

Let me know how you did it!

♥︎

March Life Update / A Love For Krakow & Polish Vodka!

March has been one fun month - I had a great family weekend away to Krakow in Poland and it was great to chill, see Krakow and drink Polish vodka..!

Ten of us went away for a long, family weekend and I was so excited to visit Poland as I had never been before.  We stayed in gorgeous apartments on a little street just off of the main square in Krakow's Old Town, which had a lovely market running through the centre in the Krakow Cloth Hall and gorgeous buildings dating back to the 13th century.  The square was much bigger than I had expected, and have since found out it is one of the largest medieval squares in Europe.  St. Mary's Basilica is also on the main square and is such an impressive building, I wish we had the time to see inside the basilica!  We also passed by the gothic Wawel Castle while on our way to the Jewish Quarter.

The nightlife and bars in Krakow were great too, so many bars to choose from and all quirky little bars down cobbled streets off of the main square.  There were jazz bars, karaoke bars and a bar playing 90s pop music - from n*sync through to Samantha Mumba - I was in pop music heaven!

We had a great trip away and I feel like I laughed from start to finish!  Below are some of the photos from our weekend...

Town Hall Tower, Main Square Krakow

Group photo! 

Sister, Sister...

Wawel Castle, Krakow

Me & my little sis :)

First night of the trip..cosmopolitan of course! 

Best breakfast ever...

Town Hall Tower, Main Square Krakow

Having drinks (& a breadstick) under a blanket and heater outside :)

Cloth Hall, Main Square Krakow

Tourists ✌️

When I got back from my trip I spent a weeknight catching up with my close friends and we got to meet my friends new puppy, Daisy - isn't she the cutest!  She is so soft and fluffy and was so playful with us that I think she tired herself out by the time I took this photo..!

Towards the end of the month I got to see Ellie Goulding at the SSE Hydro, the show was amazing and she is so, so talented - what a voice! Beforehand we grabbed some Mexican tapas from Topolabamba in Glasgow, the chicken tinga quesadilla...mmm...
Really if you get the chance to go see Ellie Goulding I'd definitely recommend it.  My boyfriend and I got to see her playing in a square in San Francisco while we were on holiday last year and it was brining back lots of great memories!

I hope you have all enjoyed March and it is now officially SPRING! 🌸
Did you get up to anything exciting or had any trips away too?  I'd love to hear about them!

♥︎

High End Fashion Favourites

Fashion accessories are some of my favourite things, accessories can last so much longer than clothing as we move through new trends and styles and they can easily dress up or down an outfit - I love mixing and matching my accessories and outfits.  

Recently I've had a few high end fashion favourites that I am obsessed with, first being the Manolo Blahnik Drawings book.  Ok, so this is maybe a bit of a cheat fashion accessory but I've been loving it!  It's the perfect little coffee table book, one you can pick up every so often and enjoy insights from Anna Wintour on Blahnik's shoe designs while swooning at the drawings throughout the book.  It definitely makes you dream about buying a pair which is dangerous for my bank account..! 

From my dream shoe collection to one of my favourite pairs in my actual shoe collection - the gorgeous Alexander McQueen velvet embellished slippers.  They are black velvet with beading and embroidery across the top of the shoe creating a star emblem, I absolutely love how sparkly they are! They dress up so many outfits with the sparkles and they are comfy little slippers.

Ahhh the love of my life, my Burberry scarf.  This gorgeously soft cashmere scarf is made in Scotland, lightweight and beautifully designed.  I adore the colour of this, a beautiful plum purple with black and white detail, perfect with so many looks and light enough to still get away with wearing it in Spring and Autumn - it's so dreamy.

What are your favourite high end accessories at the moment?  

♥︎

The Body Shop / A Few Favourites

Skincare products with gorgeous scents have always made me swoon and recently I've been introduced to more products from The Body Shop which I'm loving at the moment.

Before Christmas I had The Body Shop advent calendar and I received a few gifts at Christmas too - lucky girl that I am!

Probably my favourite range from The Body Shop is the Fuji Green Tea collection, it's a lovely fresh, cleansing scent and not too overpowering so you could use the products daily.  The body scrub is a miniature I received in my advent calendar and it's a great travel size.  The scrub is really great and not too drying or irritating on the skin.

Another favourite miniature I have is the Shea Body Butter - mmm I love body butters, they are so soothing on your skin and The Body Shop have lovely creamy and rich products in so many scents!  Some body moisturisers and butters can irritate my (annoyingly sensitive) skin but I'm a-ok with The Body Shop Shea Body Butter...yay!

If you're looking for something fruity to remind you of those lovely winter scents then Frosted Plum is your guy.  It's such a lovely and warm yet refreshing scent, I love the small love heart soap I have and this scent really reminds me of Christmas - so what's not to love..!

If you're looking for a hit of moisture then the Wild Argan Oil collection is definitely worth checking out, it has a lovely fresh scent and unlike some shower gels it doesn't dry out my skin which is perfect!  Let's be honest...if Argan oil is good enough for our hair then it's definitely good enough for our skin.

Last but not least, another Fuji Green Tea staple in a lovely shower gel.  It cleanses and purifies and combined with the refreshing scent it's a perfect wake up call in your morning shower.  

What are your The Body Shop favourites?  Any products you just can't live without?

♥︎