The Perfect Christmas Eve Night / Baking

MERRY CHRISTMAS ! YAY

So my parents are asleep on the couch and their is literally nothing on TV ... sounds about right

unfortunately the busy town of Sunderland needed their coffee fix so once again I was at work today. However once I finished I couldn't wait to get the train home and spend Christmas eve eating, baking and watching 'Home Alone'... but thanks to every channel, that wasn't on... so 'Shrek the halls' it was... great!

If your going to jump into anything on Christmas eve it has to be a bath! ..and after my day at work I definitely needed one!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE 'LUSH' bath bombs. They are just great and smell absolutely amazing!!

......and what says festive like a ' father Christmas' bath bomb ... although it looked more like some sort of gremlin with a Santa hat.

.......and of course... fresh new PJ'S

My dad had spent the day baking yummy pastry goodies

So this year I am in charge of making desert. I am not going to lie but I am pretty good at making cheesecake, so I thought I would bake my own and put my own twist on it.

INGREDIENTS

3 eggs lightly beaten

900 grams of softened cheese

1/3 cup of sugar

1 cup of sugar

1 1/2 of digestive biscuits

2 tbsp of flour

1 tsp of vanilla

1 lemon

60 ml of milk

1/3 melted butter

I began with crushing up my digestive biscuits and adding a whole cup of sugar. This is what will make your yummy base.

After adding the melted butter the biscuity base should form a sand like texture after mixing it all together. I then poured my mixture into my spring form pan and flattened it out with my fingers.

Because I will be BAKING my cheesecake I will need to cook it in a water bath. This is really important and crucial if you want an even bake, and it will also prevent cracking in the cheesecake.

To prevent hot water leaking into your cheesecake in the process, I folded tin foil and created a barrier around my cheesecake.

Now for the cheesecake......

Mix your softened cheese, sugar, vanilla and wisk

Then add three lightly beaten eggs and grated lemon and wisk again

Then your ready to pour this on top of that buttery biscuit base

Place your cheesecake into a large pan and fill with boiling hot water so that it comes quite high

After you have pre heated your oven to 180 your cheesecake can then be placed in the oven and can be left to bake for 30 -35 minutes. After this turn off the temperature and leave in the oven. Once the hour is up you can take out your cheesecake and let it cool.

So my cheesecake turned out perfect, however my plan for tomorrow is to chop a load of fruit  and decorate it, but you can see the finishing result tomorrow 

Last night I caught up with some of my lovely friends from BIZR !!! It was so lovely to have a few cocktails and spend time with my friends that I had missed so much!!!

I wore my TOPSHOP - velvet top £36.00

and my AMERICAN APPAREL - DISCO PANTS - £70

and my new RIVER ISLAND boots - £35 in SALE YAY

LIPSTICK - MAC - DIVA

Hope you all have a great night 

bye 

xoxo

lets get NAKED!!

ITSS HEREEE!!!!  THE NAKED 3

The NAKED 2 was obviously too much to handle for us makeup lovers, so with that Urban Decay have released, (personally) their best palette to date.

I am addicted to it, and to be honest its not hard to see why when you open up that shimmery rose gold packaging.

I was shopping on Oxford Street in London when I thought a quick look in Debenhams wouldn't be of any harm. I glanced over at the Urban Decay stand and was shocked to see a full row of NAKED 3 palettes, IS THIS REAL ?! ARE THEY FAKE!! ... and most importantly CAN I BUY ONE ?

The guy laughed as I stood their in utter shock and excitement, I quickly grabbed for one, cradling it like a new baby! oh my word it was beautiful.

With the NAKED 1, I feel the colors where to dark for my complexion, and with the NAKED 2 the colors where pretty much all taupe and didn't really stand out that much for me. However the NAKED 1 AND 2 both had great highlight colors, saying that the NAKED 3 lacks a shimmery highlight which sucks for my brow bones.

NAKED 1/NAKED 2/NAKED 3

However with the NAKED 3 the colors are unreal! all with a rosy pink undertones, so it looks so flattering on pale skin. The colors are very build-able, and all compliment each other very well. No matter what colors you mix and match together it will always work and give you a great look.

 The palette comes with a double ended eye shadow brush and a mini Primer Potion. As always Urban Decay never fail to impress and surprise us with their insanely pigmented eye shadows, so if you like rose and pinky colors then you would go crazy for this palette.

It retails for £37.00 and you can purchase it from Debenhams, Urban Decay website and John Lewis. 

I took swatches of each palette just so you can see the color difference in each of the pallets and how different they are.

NAKED 1 AND NAKED 2

The colors are pretty similar in both pallets, both with taupe and silvery gold colors.

NAKED 3

As you can see the colors are much more pinky toned and glittery which I love. I think this pallet has came out at exactly the perfect time for Christmas. Whether your going to a few parties or catching up with friends over a coffee, this pallet suits all occasions. And with that little bit of shimmer and glitter it makes an outfit look so much more glamorous and christmassy.

 Their are only three matte colors and the rest very shimmery and glittery, so if your a girl that likes her matte makeup then this might not be your best friend.

When i was in London a few days ago i always always always seem to end up in TOPSHOP...I just don't understand how it happens!

So of course I bought some festive clothes. I love velvet this time of year it looks cosy and glamorous!!!

VELVET TOP - TOPSHOP £36.00

VELVET DEEP RED SKIRT - TOPSHOP - £29.00

and obviously the NAKED 3 was in my purhcase - £36.00

London was so beautiful, I cant wait to move their so I can spend every Christmas walking down the streets full of sparkly lights and cheery people with mulled wine.

I spent a week working in High Kensington street doing some work experience. A lovely friend of mine let me stay at her house so we spent the week eating, drinking and shopping!!!

I bought 'I heart Christmas' for my travel to London. This book is so so good! I feel myself not being able to put it down once I have opened it up.

Its an easy, enjoyable read to get lost in over the Christmas period! Lindsey Kelk's writing style is so whitey and funny and its great to escape into when my days been shit.

She has another 5 books in her series....of which I now own all.

Have a good Christmas ....

expect a few blogs over Christmas

bye 

xoxo

My work and travel America experience with BUNAC

hi, hope you are all well 

OK, where to begin...

So this summer I spent four months in America, working and travelling.

I will start of with how I found out about this opportunity, and my experience

A close friend of mine worked and travlled america the previous year and i was unaware of how he got the chance to do such an amazing thing. Throughout his time in America i would constantly see posts on his facebook of him in LA, Toronto and so many other amazing places.

I asked him the obvious ... was this like 'camp america' ? 

NO , NO it wasn't...

I would much rather be working in a shop or an amusement park than camping in the middle of nowhere with no shops around and no beach to go sunbathing in your spare time.

He told me one word, and with that one word i have taken full advantage of it...'BUNAC'.

BUNAC

Taking part in a BUNAC overseas work/volunteer program gives YOU the chance to live and work in a new and exciting country, doing something really worthwhile with your time off from work or studies.

BUNAC programs not only provide you with memories that will never be forgotten, but they provide an experience that can seem impossible.

MY EXPERIENCE

I am currently in my third year of University studying for my Psychology degree, in the previous summer that I had off, I had 4 months spare.

I decided to sign up with BUNAC's work and travel america programme as america has always appealed to me and their are so many places that i wanted to see. I paid around £350 at the time, that allowed me to enter the job zone so that i could start sending my CV off to american companies. The jobs ranged from working at amusement parks to working on ranches. I then paid for my VISA and insurance. My return flights from London to JFK where 340 on STA travel. Wich is absolutely amazing. Check them out!

Numerous companies got back in touch with me however one stood out the most and that was 'Candy Kitchen'. Candy Kitchen is self explanatory really, a candy shop but was something like willy wonka's chocolate factory, they had everything. They just had one rule...we could eat it all...whenever we wanted. UHOH

I accepted the job of which was in MARYLAND, OCEAN CITY, a few hours away from NEW YORK. My friend Sam also accepted the job offer he received from them and so we flew out together. We spent a few days in NEW YORK, shopping and sight seeing and then we got a GREYHOUND to OCEAN CITY. When we arrived after 7 hours, we moved into our accommodation 'CASA MIA' which was right behind the candy kitchen shop I worked at. So it was brilliant on the days I overslept haha.

I started work on the 1st June and finished on the 2nd of September. I did three days out of the week working 14 hour shifts as I signed an over time contract to earn more money for travelling. It was tough but worth it. On the other days i worked either from 9am till 5pm or 5pm untill 12.30 am.

Throughout working at candy kitchen i made friends from allover the world who where also on student working visas. Candy kitchen was great and our manager was just the nicest, always willing to help and offer advice. Often she would bring in cakes and treats (not that we didn't have enough) for peoples birthdays.

This was seriously the nicest thing I have ever ate, I must of had around half to eat haha.

I don't think I will ever forget the friends I made, they where amazing and it was so cool learning about all their different cultures and learning some new languages. They where always their to help and so so kind. I miss them terribly, we where such a close family.

 Iv never had to say goodbye to a group of people knowing that I will never see them again, it was very difficult and so hard.

We shared some good times.......

Throughout working I took days off and went to Washington, Philadelphia, Niagara Falls and New Jersey to see maroon 5.

few snaps from WASHINGTON DC.

few snaps from PHILADELPHIA 

NIAGARA FALLS

MAROON 5 GIG IN NEW JERSEY

CALIFORNIA 

Las Vegas - Grand Canyon - Los Angeles - Hollywood - Santa Monica Pier - San Fransisco - Alcatraz - New York

I am so in love with travelling, I don't think I will ever settle for normal life!

I will be leaving the UK for two years on august the 28th!!!
and moving to AUSTRALIA...on my own!
and then I am off to THAILAND!!!

www.bunac.org/SCUSASunderland

click on the link and you can start your adventure...