Capsule packing

Heyyy everyone,
Firstly sorry I haven't posted in a while I went on a short holiday. However I had to pack pretty light, as I was staying in a Caravan, which meant packing clothes that could be styled in different ways for a fresh look. Coincidently that is what inspired this post, which is all about the capsule pieces I took. So enjoy taking a look through, some prices are listed, others aren't as they are older pieces so I'm not sure of an accurate price. Also, I have tried to be as accurate as possible with the prices, but some might be slightly out depending on how long ago I got them.

First I packed a swimming/beach essential. Although I have never personally done it, if it's a nice day you could always pair your bikini top with some shorts, jeans or a skirt for a new look.
Bikini top: £12.99 River Island
Bottoms: £2.00 Primark

 A light weight cardigan for when it get chilly or of an evening, this one is from Jane Norman, however I regret I can't recall the price.

Two summery dresses that can be made warmer by popping the aforementioned cardigan on top or a shirt/rollneck underneath.
Yellow dress: No price, as I made it myself!
Black slip dress: £15.99 ASOS

A summery dress for a nice evening out, or perfect for a picnic. Again this is another of my creations so no price I'm afraid.

 Rollnecks!!These are an absolute essential of mine, perfect for layering and they look so chic on  their own too.
Green rollneck: £14.99 H&M
Grey rollneck: £8.00 Primark

Off the shoulder tops are so in right now, here's mine black to be paired with anything.
 Bardot style top: £15.00 Miss Selfridge

This skirt keeps cropping up in my posts, because it's so versatile it can be easily dressed up or down.
Skirt: £7.99 H&M

Culottes are a great piece, again easily dressed up or down.
Culottes: £12.99 New Look

Lastly I couldn't go anywhere without at least one pair of trusty jeans, I have had these ones for ages so sorry no idea where they were from or how much.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer x

Look book modelling

Hey everyone,

As my last look book post got a crazy amount of views, I figured you guys find this type of content interesting. This post features creations from two of my very talented friends, and me as the model. Both dresses are for the same project titled 'Commercial Diffusion', where creative designs were diffused to create a commercial, wearable outcome based upon an existing designers work. In both cases my make up was done by the designer and the hair by myself. The designers also both took the photos themselves.

The dress below was designed and created by Joyce Giron.The design inspired by designer Roland Mouret, who creates sophisticated silhouettes, often with geometric panelling. The colour palette reflects the bright colours used in many of Mouret's collections.

Discover Joyce on Pinterest here:https://uk.pinterest.com/joyceanne_giron/
More about Mouret: https://www.rolandmouret.com/brand/post/biography 

The next dress was designed and created by Emily Richmond. The design was inspired by Erdem, who uses a muted colour palette and lightweight materials. The hand sewn starfish on the cape were created freehand and mimics the fine detailing Erdem uses on his garments.

Discover Emily's blog here:http://thetypicalaquarius.blogspot.co.uk/
More about Erdem:https://erdem.com/about/biography

I recently also modelled a shirt for Emily, which I will do a post on at a later date.

Hope you enjoyed this and make sure to check out my awesome designer friends work!

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer x

Copycat Biscoff Biscuits

Hey everyone,

This is another cooking post, although not as extremely delicious as Biscoff biscuits this copycat recipe curbs the cravings the same way. I adapted a recipe I found online which I have adapted to suit ingredients I had in the house and what I thought would enhance the flavour. Feel free to completely follow the recipe or you can use my adaptation.

Original recipe:http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2010/07/biscoff-cookies-from-scratch-recipe.html

I kept most of the same ingredients but adapted a little bit.
My ingredients:

• 2 Cups of plain flour
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 Cup of  unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/4 Cup of granulated sugar 
• 1/4 Cup of molasses 
• 1/4 Cup of dark brown sugar 
• 3 tbsp of ground nut oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

 So as I already know how to make cookies I pretty much free styled the instructions, but I will post what I did regardless as not everyone cooks as much as me.

 
Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 350F/ gas 4.
• In a bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients.
• In a separate bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, oil and vanilla extract with an electric whisk on low speed.
• Gradually add the flour mixture into the butter mixture, whisking on a low speed until it is well combined. 
•  Line two baking sheets and scoop a tablespoon of mixture at a time so the cookies are evenly spaced.
• Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, leave to cool for 10 minutes then you can munch away !! 

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer x 

Weekend in London

Hey everyone,

Well this weekend has been a busy one for me I spent a wonderful two days there. On the Saturday I went to see The Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre and on the Sunday I went to ZSL London Zoo in Regents Park. I must say that The Lion King was an amazing experience the costumes, acting, singing and set work were all so well put together I was transported to Africa by the realism. The costumes weren't exact replicas of the Disney animation, they were more tribal and you could see some of the puppeteers, however this just added to the experience. As the show was in the evening I decided to take some touristy photos in the day! Also this is kind of an outfit post as well as I composed a little London capsule wardrobe for the trip, so enjoy the photos from that too. ZSL London Zoo was very large and my feet hurt afterwards, but it was well laid out and the animals all looked well looked after, which is always my primary concern when going to the zoo.

So here is me ready to head off to London... yes this is the first post in which I have included my face.

Shirt-Primark £10
Trousers-Select £? Think they were about 10 but not sure, sorry.
Bag- Cath Kidston (no price as it was a gift)
Socks-River Island £8 (for 3 pairs)
Shoes-Primark £12
Earrings-Simply Silver £30

Arriving in London and being touristy...

Getting ready for The Lion King...

Dress- Dorothy Perkins £30
Shoes-Primark £3
Tights-Primark-£2
Earrings-New Look £2.50
Hair bow-New Look £3.99

Finally there... EEEeeeep excitement here !!

Day two outfit, It was warm so I just used the shirt as a cover up as sunburn and pale skin =Pain

Top (worn underneath)- Primark £6
Dress-ASOS £15.99
Tights-Primark £3
Shoes and shirt as before in previous outfit photos above.

The Zoo in the sun and a sleepy tiger!!!

Thanks for reading, let me know if you have done any of these things especially The Lion King!!

Jennifer x

Malvern Food Festival

Heyy everyone,

So this week I ventured out to the local Malvern Food Festival. This featured lots of local producers of everything from chutney to cake, of which there was lots of free samples...I'm now chubby. The Festival featured a man on stilts, BBC Hereford and Worcestershire, a live demonstration and street food vans. Below are some shots I got of the day, hope this interests you.

So this is how the festival looked from various angles, as you can see it got quite busy.

So from some of the samples we decided we liked it so much we went back in disguise a couple of times for more... only kidding, we actually decided to purchase some of the delightful goods on offer.
An array of Jams, chutney and sauces...

Followed by a fudge overload of deliciousness...

And finally a local community recipe book. (watch this space as I intend to trial some of these recipes)

 

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer x 

Disney Painting

Hey everyone!
So today I decided to post an artsy but simple painting. I copied the design of this from the lantern painting in Tangled, but I put my own twist on it (the hair) as it was for somebody else. Below you can see the original from the movie and my easy step by step process of creation. I apologise in advance for the poor quality of the photos my camera decided to have no charge, so they were taken on my phone instead.

Here's the original...

I started out by doing the background, so I began with the hills then I did the skyline. I did this by blocking in colour then blending in the lighter and darker tones.

I then started adding in details by blocking in the shapes of the trees, I then refined them with daker and lighter tones and detailing.

Next stage was to add the lanterns, I used a sponge to blurred and block in the shapes then perfected with a brush. I also used a few small blobs to make up the figure, a stroke of hair and voila done... see how easy this was.

Thanks for reading!

Jennifer x

Healthier Alternative Cheesecake

Hey everyone,
So I decided to make something with some leftover tofu. Gross I hear you say, actually in this recipe it adds consistency and it tastes delicious, but don't take my word for it make it yourself! This recipe is for a Key Lime Pie style 'Cheesecake', I will guide you through how to make the base as well, but your welcome to be lazy and use whatever crushed biscuits you fancy* (I recommend Lotus Biscoff biscuits as I'm slightly obsessed with Biscoff, watch out for a cooking post involving it, in some form soon).

So let's get to baking then...

Base 
Ingredients:

• 170g plain flour
• 50g sugar
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 3 tbsps honey
• 50g coconut oil
• 87g coconut cream
• 1 egg yolk
• 100g coconut chips

Method:

• Preheat the oven to Gas 3/ 160C/325F and line a baking pan with grease proof paper
• First of all mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl ( sugar, bicarb and flour).
• Then melt the coconut oil and honey in a saucepan over a medium heat until liquid state.
• In a separate bowl whisk together the egg yolk and coconut cream until fully combined.

• Once slightly cooled, a little bit at  a time, whisk the oil mix into the egg mix until fully incorporated.
• Then a little at a time pour wet ingredients into dry and mix thoroughly until you have a wet dough, then add in the coconut chips and combine.

• Scoop with a table spoon onto your prepared baking tray, leaving space for spreading(see my example).
• Place in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and leave to crisp up and cool down**.

• Once cooled crumble up the cookies into large chunks and add to a food processor, processing until you have a fine crumb.
• Melt 1tbsp of coconut oil with 2tbsps of golden syrup in a microwave for 30 seconds, then slowly add to the processor, mixing after each edition.
• Grease a freezable pie dish and press the cookie crumb mix evenly into the dish.

 * If doing the lazy version just follow from the third step from the end.
**If you simply wanted to make these as cookies just ignore the last three steps and you're finished. 

'Cheesecake layer'
 Ingredients:

• 1/2 block of firm tofu
• 163g coconut cream
• Juice of 2 limes
• 2tbsps of honey

Method:

• Put all ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth.
• Scrape the tofu mix into the prepared pie crust and spread into an even layer.
• Place in the fridge to set for at least a hour and remove when ready to serve for the same or next day.
• Alternatively this can be made in advance and kept in the fridge for a month at most, just remove a hour before serving to defrost. 

Hope you have fun experimenting with this recipe!

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer x