My Home-Made Roasties

Hello lovely people,

So one of my New Year's resolutions was to cook more and this weekend I decided to put that into action by making a lovely home-made roast dinner! Not a typical roast dinner with yorkshire pudding etc. but I cooked a lovely pork joint and decided to make some roast potatoes and roasted carrots to go with it.

I was very impressed with how they turned out and I wanted to share them with you.  I always thought it was easier to throw a bag of Aunt Bessie's roast potatoes in the oven to cook, but it was so easy and they were so tasty, I couldn't believe it!

For the carrots, peel them, wash them and cut them into bite-sized pieces.  Put them on a baking tray (I drizzled some olive oil onto the baking tray before putting the carrots on), to try and reduce the amount of calories I was adding, I sprayed Fry Light (1kcal cooking spray) on top of the carrots, you can use olive oil if you want but I used this and it tasted great. I then sprinkled some Thyme on top and they were ready for the oven.  

I put the carrots in the over at 180 C for about 40 mins

For the Potatoes, I peeled, wash and cut them into quarters. I then part boiled the potatoes for 10-15 minutes. Once drained, I carried out the same steps as with the carrots and drizzled olive oil on the pan, then added the potatoes, sprayed with Fry Light 1kcal spray and sprinkled with Thyme.  These then went into the oven with the carrots for approximately 40 minutes.

Obviously, this timing is an estimate so if you are trying this yourself make sure you keep an eye on them and make sure you check them regularly. Now I wouldn't ever say I have good skills in the kitchen but I have to say these tasted great, the roast potatoes were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

Do you have any good tricks to make great roast potatoes?

Looking back on Christmas

Hello lovelies,

I can't believe its the second week of January already! It seems like only yesterday I was wrapping Christmas presents and now its all over and its back to the real world!

My family have a great tradition, where we rent a cottage somewhere and pack everything up for a week and spend the whole of Christmas together, which is so nice as we get to spend quality time together and my nan gets to look after us all! The only down side this year, was that there was no wifi! It felt like we were cut off from the world as there was very little phone signal too, which is why my blogging schedule has gone awry. But its back to normality now and I'm trying to get things back on track.

It's crazy how quickly the holidays come and go so quickly, I hope you all had as a great a time as I did! 

My Aunt just sent me a copy of the photo she took of me while I was stuffing the turkey! So I thought I would share it with you. This was my first time cooking a bird or anything like that so its quite nice to have a photo to document it!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! Welcome to 2013 and I can feel that it is going to be a great year!

First of all I would like to wish everyone all the health and happiness possible for 2013 and to say thank you to all of my lovely followers for sticking with me. It feels as though 2012 has been a tough year for many (myself included) but I see a lot of positivity surrounding the start of this year and I know it is going to be a good one.

I'm going to try not to make this a soppy post, but I have had such an amazing response to my blog over the last few months that am I really starting to feel at home with my writing and I absolutely adore the community aspect of blogging that gives me such a smile every time I see a commented posted on my blog or read the amazing posts written by others and I just can't wait for that to grow throughout 2013!

Now as its the start of a new year, the first question you're usually asked is of you have any resolutions? I usually give myself lots of resolutions but never follow them through, but this time I am going to try and make a change!

So what are my resolutions you ask? Well it starts with the usual eat and drink less, exercise more, lose weight and get fit an healthy (but no matter how many times I take up this resolution it's always the hardest one to stick to). My main ones I desperately will work to keep are to remain positive and work harder than ever (if so I'm sure good things will follow), in the past year I have felt like I'm stuck out in the ocean all by my self, trying to hold on but I know that will change this year. To put lots of effort in for true friends, I have met some amazing people in the past year that are so important to me that I want to build those friendships web more. Be creative, even if it doesn't work it's always good to try new things and to be happy! My life feels so fluid (not sure if its the right word, but it feels right) at the moment and nothing stands still so I want to do and feel as much as I possibly can to keep my life happy and moving forward!

Now that I have told you all this, I have to stick to it or ill have you all to answer to!

Happy New Year to all and I can't wait to get to know you better!

What are your New Year resolutions?

My Trip to Venice: Part Two

Buon giorno

After going through my images from Venice and it was so hard to choose the ones to share that I thought, why not share more!

So here are a few more!

My Trip to Venice!

Buonasera,

I am back from Venice and I still feel in a daze after such a wonderful trip! Venice is such a beautiful and magical place and we had an amazing time, it just feel such a shame that its all over now and were back to the rat race.

For those of you that follow me on Instagram you may have seen some of these images already, but I just wanted to share with you some of the images from my wonderful trip!

(From left to right) On the plane getting ready to leave Gatwick Airport, the beautiful Grand Canal in Venice and the view from the famous Rialto Bridge.

(From left to right) The amazing pasta, the amazing pizza and wine, the lovely view as we crossed the lagoon on the vaporetto (public boat transport).

(From left to right) The lovely Xmas market in Padua, examples of the stunning Murano glass on the Island of Murano, the beautiful view along the Island of Murano.

(From left to right) The Rialto Bridge from afar, me on the Rialto Bridge, the beautiful streets of Venice.

Venice was so amazing, such lovely people, beautiful architecture and stunning views. We managed to explore  most of the main islands and took day trips to Padua and Treviso.

What was great was that everyone seems so laid back there, it is frowned upon to try and eat dinner before 8pm at night and you are supposed to enjoy an 'Ombra' which translates to 'shadow' (of wine). So you fill the early evening with a few glasses of wine and then head for dinner later on. It's all very social and a lot of fun!

I cannot stress what a lovely place this was to visit, we spent a week exploring and walking an awfully long way but every moment was worth it. It was such a relaxing holiday that I wish I was still out there.  If you ever have the chance to visit Venice, please do as you will not regret it!

Have you had the chance to visit Venice?

Not a bad Friday....

Hey guys,

So I thought I'd send a quick post to tell you about my day.... While I'm promoting myself as a make-up artist, I do some temping on the aide to pay the bills and today I'm playing a receptionist at the Aston Martin dealership down the road from me! How fun is that! This means I have time to catch up on my blog reading in between making tea and answering the phones, oh and this is the view I get to look at all day!

My life in pictures: Well the last couple of weeks at least!

Hello all you lovely people!

I realise I have been quite quiet over the last couple of weeks, but I have just been so busy I haven't been able to find the time to type up anything I have been doing or thinking. So I thought I would write a post of very few words to show what I have been upto!

Here are the amazing pancakes my boyfriend made me!

After going to watch The Dark Night Rises at the IMAX in London, we took a leisurely stroll along the South Bank and he was the lovely view!

And the London Eye!

Behind the scenes shot from my shoot last week!

The view from the Ferry as we headed to the Isle of Wight for a wedding last weekend! (Instagrammed!)

A view from the Island (Instagrammed!)

It was such a lovely day for a wedding! (Especially as it poured down with rain on the Sunday!)

My Boyfriend playing the part of Best Man #2! (He's the 4th one on the right!)

The wedding party!

Ha ha so thats my last couple of weeks in pictures!

The Next Step....

Hello to all you wonderful people!

I have to apologize for being quite distant recently, I have had lots going on and its all very exciting!!

I have met some amazing women over the last few weeks as I have become an Independent Beauty Consultant for Mary Kay Cosmetics.  During my years after University, I had found myself drifting further and further away from my dream in Make-up and a life working in an office was not for me.  So I have left my job and am planning for my future, and it is going to be all about the make-up!

My love and my passion is and always has been for make-up and everything about it and so I realised it was now or never and so I took the plunge and haven’t looked back since! I have been meeting some great people and everything is changing around me and I wanted to share this with you all.

Mary Kay Cosmetics is one of the leading brands of skin care and colour cosmetics in the United States and has been for over twenty five years.  The wonderful Mary Kay Products are sold in over 37 countries around the world. Having tried these products, I fell in love! So keep an eye out for some product reviews that will be on there way!!

Take care and stay beautiful!!