Holiday prep and a few new purchases...

So, given that I’m off on my first (of 4!) holidays of 2012 shortly, I thought I’d share a few of my recent summer wardrobe purchases and, as anyone who knows me knows, given that I’m an absolute sun worshipper, I thought I’d also share my little regime for getting your skin prepped ahead of the lazy days on your sun lounger catching the rays.

First up; wardrobe brights. Here are a few items I’ve bought in the last month or so but not yet worn (given that it’s been more like winter than summer until um, yesterday!)

From the left; I’m loving the neon fashion this summer and although most of the neon colours do nothing for me at all, I really liked this top from H&M in a sort of neon coral/pink. I think it’ll look great with white jeans and my new fave pumps (or a pair of chunky heels if you’re going out) and it’s the sort of colour that will really ‘pop’ against tanned skin. The photo doesn’t do the material justice really and I can’t find it on the H&M website to add a link but it’s in store now priced at £24.99.

Next up are me new trews! I can’t wait to wear these – I bought them about 6 weeks ago and they only had a Size 8 not a Size 10 so I had to go for the 8 even though I was fairly sure they wouldn’t fit. I got them home, tried them on and yes, I could go them up, just, but I couldn’t actually move in them and there was no question of my sitting down. So I decided they would be my ‘aim’ trousers for holidays. I decided that in 6 weeks I’d lose two or three pounds, just enough to enable me to wear them comfortably. After a fair amount of willpower and a few runs here and there, I finally this morning managed to put them on AND sit down in them! Hurrah! The trousers have therefore made the cut for my holiday packing. Courtesy of Primark for just £14! I just replaced the plastic green belt they came with for a tan leather belt to make them look less cheap....

Finally, a brightly striped dress I picked up in Forever 21 a few weeks ago for a bargain at £16 (copied from my friend in work who yes, is 12 years younger than me so I appreciate I’m probably too old for this number). It’s fairly short with a high elasticated waist band which I’ll wear with a thick belt over, and heels or wedges, to give the illusion of long legs, again only once I’m tanned and probably only whilst abroad. I don’t think I could get away with this one in London at my age!

Oh and whilst I’m on the subject of packing, whenever I get given free samples, I like to put them to one side to use when I’m going away so here are a few products I’ll be sampling this holiday;

The new Molten Brown skincare range for normal to oily skin

Estee Lauder’s ‘Idealist’ which is meant to be great for people like me who have big pores (my husband says the pores on my face are so big he could curl up and sleep in one of them, cheers!)

Deep Cleansing mask from Nude. I’ll probably get this out towards the end of the holiday to give my skin a good clear out from all the suntan lotion etc. I’ve sampled a few of the Nude products and I have to say, they are luuuuurrrrrvvvly.

Now – on to my skin prep regime. I’d like to say I did this more often than just before I go on holiday but I generally don’t – I don’t have the time or the inclination to do it other than when I have the motivation of an imminent  beach holiday to prepare for or before a special occasion. I’ve posted two versions of this; one being the ‘splurge’ products , the other one being with ‘save’ products:

So I start by dry brushing my skin from head to toe paying particular attention to the fronts and backs of my thighs, my bum, the bobbly bits on the backs of my upper arms (everyone has those right?), my elbows and my back. Ok so that pretty much covers my whole body! I give it a really good brush till my skin is red raw and all dead skin cells must surely have been brushed away, then I move on to the body scrub.

The Bliss one goes on dry whereas the Vitamin E one from Superdrug (I’ve used this for years and swear by it) just needs a couple of drops of water to add a bit of movement to it. Stand on a towel, pop your exfoliating mitt on and start scrubbing! I really go for it till my arms ache. The Bliss scrub smells heavenly (lemon & sage) whereas the Superdrug one is purely functional.

Then hop under the shower to wash yourself down, pat yourself dry and finally feed your poor skin with a moisturising body lotion of choice.

My newly discovered favourite of the moment courtesy of my very generous sister-in-law, is this Clarins Satin-Smooth Body Lotion. I’ve been using this twice daily for a few weeks and the difference to the smoothness of my skin is incredible, even my husband noticed it. My favourite ‘save’ body lotion, especially if it’s before bed when you just want something that dries fast and doesn’t leave a residue or is overly scented, is good old E45 moisturising lotion.

Anyway, regardless of what body moisturiser you use afterwards, just make sure you use lots of it and leave it to soak in.

I try and do this twice in the week leading up to holiday and by the time I go, my skin feels prepped and ready for the sun and I swear it makes your tan last longer. Even more so if you slip the exfoliating mitt in to your luggage and give yourself a gentle exfoliation every couple of days (or just use a handful of sand instead of a mitt and do it whilst at the beach!)

After that mammoth post I’m off to Spain and will no doubt bore you with all the details when I get back. Adios Amigos!

xxx

Weekend baking

*Disclaimer – none of these ideas are my own; they were taken from other blogs I follow as I'm far too amateur in the kitchen to ever come up with a recipe myself*

Ok so now I've got that out of the way, here's what I got up to in the kitchen this weekend;

Friday evening saw my first attempt at home-made pizza dough.

Till now I’ve always cheated and bought the bases then the stuff to go on top so having seen a recipe online recently for making it yourself, I thought I’d give it a go. What I failed to do was read down to the bit in the recipe where it says ‘now leave the dough somewhere warm for an hour’. An hour? It was 8pm on Friday and Mark & I were both starving so, with the dough expanding in the airing cupboard, we set about making the tomato topping and homemade pesto. In fairness, both super quick and easy to do.

We made far too much pesto so whilst we were waiting, we popped some halloumi under the grill and drizzled over with pesto as a little snack. Delish!

Then after much kneading and some sore knuckles, I finally got the pizzas together, albeit not as thin a base as I was hoping for plus mine being a fairly odd shape, but not too shabby for a first attempt and voila - homemade pizza with buffalo mozzarella and pesto.

 

Saturday I moved on to baking some mini Victoria sponges. Again – just to stress this wasn’t my own idea so I can take no credit for it but seriously, how cute are these?! 

Using empty small cans to cook them in (Sainsbury’s garden peas in this case), you simply remove both ends of the can, wrap the bottom in tinfoil then pour your sponge mixture in.

Once cooked and left to cool, I popped them out of the can, cut them into three layers and, with help from my willing assistant Rosie, spread each layer with some whipped double cream and oodles of Bonne Maman jam. Too easy!

I’d woken up on Saturday morning deciding no carbs before Spain (no, not Marbs, that's later in the year) so I didn't have one myself but judging by the speed at which both Rosie and my husband devoured them, I reckon they tasted ok.
 
So there you have it; pizzas & pesto on Friday and mini Victoria sponges on Saturday.
With some tunes on in the background and a glass of wine or a beer to hand, I do enjoy a bit of weekend cooking & baking if I don’t have a hangover. There's something so satisfying about it even if, on this occasion, I exercised enormous will power and didn't get to enjoy the fruits of my labour.

xxx

Marvellous Morito

Rewind a month or so and a good friend of mine suggested we meet for dinner at a small tapas place near her work as she’d been a few times and could testify that the food was good. Being a big fan of tapas (oh hello Spanish holiday next week!), I was more than happy to go with her recommendation. And therein I discovered Morito; the younger sibling of Moro, (an institution in Exmouth Market) and I reckon there is definitely going to be some sibling rivalry on the cards with these two as I can honestly say Morito was fantastic. Much more casual and laid back than Moro next door, I was thoroughly impressed and couldn’t wait for an excuse to return.

So having arranged to meet an old uni friend for dinner this week, I put forward the suggestion of Morito and it was greeted with enthusiasm by Stefan so off we went for what proved to be another equally delicious evening.

There is a no booking policy in the evenings (yes, it's one of those places) and even when we got there early doors at 6.30pm, it was already full and really buzzing. Luckily we managed to get two stools at the counter (always where I prefer to sit if I can at a place like this as you really get to see what’s going on in the open kitchen plus the bar man is always close at hand to take your drinks order!) and I got to sample lots of dishes on the menu that I hadn’t had room to try on my 1^st visit.

Worthy of a particular mention is the spiced shredded lamb with chickpeas, the oak cured beef as well as the montaditos (tapas on toasted bread) with anchovy, blue cheese and Iberico ham; all totally divine.  

Wine comes by the glass, carafe or bottle and is served in authentic Spanish beakers. They also do a mean Spanish take on the Mojito called a Rebojito made with Fino sherry, lemonade and lots & lots of fresh mint and crushed ice; very refreshing and a perfect aperitif whilst you’re perusing the extensive menu thinking ‘where do I start?’

Despite going two rounds of the tapas, and just into double figures in terms of the number of plates we ordered, I had to round the meal off with the Malaga Raisin Ice-cream. Now, let just say that I’m not even an ice-cream fan, I have it occasionally and it’s ok, but it doesn’t excite me. At all. Until I had this, a Spanish take on Rum & Raisin ice-cream, it is served in one of the wine beakers as a single generous scoop of raisin ice-cream then a good measure of delicious warm rum poured over the top…..it is SO good (as you can see my photography skills aren’t great and this photo does not do it justice!)

It was the most delicious end to a really tasty meal and I left Morito with that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you’ve enjoyed delicious food & wine in excellent company and the service has been top notch to boot.

I’m already planning my next visit…anyone fancy joining me?!

Morito

32 Exmouth Market

EC1R 4QE

t. 0207 278 7007

e. info@morito.co.uk

xxx

Pretty Peonies

Yey, it’s Peony season! Very short lived but oh so beautiful. Here are my recently purchased beauties.

(Please excuse the pikey glass vase, my two favourites are, unusually, both already filled with other lovely flowers elsewhere in the house)

That is all!

xx

Back home in Wales

Where better to start my blog than with a short post about my weekend back at home, to the Land of My Fathers!

It was a long overdue trip home, with the husband in tow, back to sunny Cardiff. Yes I know that sounds unlikely but believe me, we got lucky and the sun shone all weekend, glorious.



The sun setting as we drove over the Severn Bridge; Croeso i Gymru

So the weekend was spent with my family, including little brother (I say 'little', he's actually 6'4" compared with my measly 5'8, plus he's almost 27 but regardless, he'll always be my little bro), sunny skies and delicious food - what more could I ask for eh?!

My mum has recently moved to the Pontcanna area of Cardiff which is a trendy little suberb just on the edge of the city centre so her and I spent Saturday mooching about Pontcanna whilst the hubbie was set to task putting together a flat pack wardrobe and my Dad played around with keys.....don't ask.

Two places worth a mention in the area:

Beti Biggs; Located on Romilly Crescent, selling all sorts of gorgeous homeware items as well as some very fancy toiletries, furniture and of course a stockist of the fabulous Annie Sloan furniture paint. Would be a good place for gifts too I reckon. And the owner Jan is just lovely.

Fish at 85; A fabulous fishmonger & seafood restaurant on Pontcanna Street. Choose from either the daily changing menu or, as hubbie and I did, let the experts talk you through the catch of the day counter and choose your piece of fish and how you'd like it cooked etc. We opted for the turbot with the Beurre Blanc sauce and I have to say, it was divine. As were each of the main courses that mum, dad & little brother chose (he wanted good old fish 'n' chips which wasn't on the menu but they were more than happy to oblige which made him very happy!) The house white wine was very gluggable and easy on the wallet and the desserts were too good to turn down, even though I'm trying to be good before holiday. Well, it was Saturday night after all. All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable evening at the kind of place I would love to have near me. Thanks Fish at 85!

Sunday saw mum and I go for a run in Llandaff Fields (mum being almost 67, go mum!), then I popped over to Julia's new pad for a very quick catch up with a few of my girlfriends before finishing the weekend off with a Sunday roast at Dad's before hitting the dreaded M4 - undoutably the worst bit about a weekend back home.

I was disappointed on Saturday night that the husband wasn't up for a night out in town just the two of us (which so rarely happens) as, after a few wines at dinner, I was well up for more drinks and some partying but I have to say that come Sunday morning, I was glad he'd said no and my liver was more than slightly grateful. A boozy night out in Cardiff isn't for the faint hearted let me tell you....but that's a whole other post!

xxx