tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7153408798211401782024-03-13T08:13:50.711-07:00Thrifty But GlamLiving within a tight budget, but still rocking the glam!
Follow my blog to receive tips on making your cash stretch further, guides on how to budget smart and most importantly how to still achieve a comfortable lifestyle without putting yourself in the red! Lot's of crafty tutorials and recipes too.Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.comBlogger113125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-44298125007574190512016-01-08T06:12:00.000-08:002016-01-08T06:12:24.021-08:00Nutella and Almond Bread Maker Rolls Recipe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EIMu5Z-p4Bs/Vo_BHyKJaeI/AAAAAAAABZQ/m1XYZlJhync/s1600/IMG_20160107_211351.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EIMu5Z-p4Bs/Vo_BHyKJaeI/AAAAAAAABZQ/m1XYZlJhync/s320/IMG_20160107_211351.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
2016 is set to see a huge strain on our finances as I have just started maternity leave! In an effort to save money I am operating a zero waste policy in the kitchen. After rummaging in cupboards the other day I realised I had not only an almost full jar of Nutella that was just sitting there, but also a small amount of powdered almonds left over from the Christmas baking. Something had to be created from these two wonderful 'leftovers'.<br />
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I am a huge fan of cinnamon rolls and a bread maker version had been on my <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/chibichidesigns/recipes-i-want-to-try/" target="_blank">pinterest</a> wishlist for ages! I'm also quite in love with an amazing chocolate brioche that Aldi sells and was wondering if I could come up with something in the same family to squash my craving. The lightbulb moment came when I decided to combine two recipes; the breadmaker cinnamon roll recipe and one I found for Nutella and almond rolls!<br />
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The process for this is super easy and only involves about 20 minutes of actual work, the bread maker does the rest! If you don't have a bread maker you need to get one in your life! Read about how much money you could save with one <a href="http://thriftybutglam.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/cookworks-stainless-steel-bread-maker.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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<h3>
Ingredients</h3>
Makes 12<br />
<h4>
For the Dough</h4>
<span data-original="250ml (8 fl oz) warm milk (45 C)" itemprop="ingredients">250ml (8 fl oz) warm milk (45 C)</span>
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<span data-original="2 eggs, room temperature" itemprop="ingredients">2 eggs, room temperature lightly beaten</span>
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<span data-original="75g (3 oz) butter, melted" itemprop="ingredients">75g (3 oz) butter, melted</span>
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<span data-original="600g (1 1/3 lb) bread flour" itemprop="ingredients">600g (1 1/3 lb) bread flour</span>
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<span data-original="1 teaspoon salt" itemprop="ingredients">1 teaspoon salt</span>
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<span data-original="100g (4 oz) caster sugar" itemprop="ingredients">100g (4 oz) caster sugar</span>
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<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast</span><br />
<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">2 teaspoons almond extract</span><br />
<h4>
<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients"> </span></h4>
<h4>
<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">For the Filling </span></h4>
<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">1 jar of Nutella</span><br />
<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">50g ground almonds</span><br />
<h4>
<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients"> </span></h4>
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<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">For the Icing</span></h4>
<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">90g icing sugar</span><br />
<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">4 teaspoons whole milk</span><br />
<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">1 teaspoon almond extract</span><br />
<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">1 teaspoon vanilla extract </span><br />
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<h3>
<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">Method </span></h3>
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<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients"> </span></h3>
<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">Place the dough ingredients in the bread maker in the order specified in your manual (mine is always wet ingredients first, followed by dry and then yeast, sugar and salt on top). </span><span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">Don't worry too much about getting your milk to the perfect temperature. I measure mine into a microwavable mug/jug and place it on high for 30 seconds, stir and repeat until it is warm but not hot. Select the dough cycle and press start. </span><br /><span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">After the bread maker has finished, the dough should be doubled in size. If it isn't place on a floured surface and cover until doubled in size (about 10 minutes).</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QF2Zl2gW9zE/Vo_BBUjBqsI/AAAAAAAABZE/J7pDuMW9-wI/s1600/20160107_162426.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QF2Zl2gW9zE/Vo_BBUjBqsI/AAAAAAAABZE/J7pDuMW9-wI/s320/20160107_162426.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients"> </span><br /><span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients"> </span><br /><span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">Roll the dough out on a well floured surface to measure 40cms x 50cms. It will be very springy and pliable, so do not force the dough with the rolling pin, just roll gently. Make sure that you measure the dough and that it is in a rough rectangular shape.</span><br /><span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients"> </span><br /><span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">Using a large spoon and either a knife or spatula carefully cover the dough in the jar of Nutella. Once you have an even layer, sprinkle on the ground almonds.</span><br />
<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients"></span><span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients"> </span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">Starting with the longer end carefully roll the dough into a spiral shape. Make sure that it is tight enough that the Nutella was stick the dough together and it won't loose it's shape once cut. Then divide the long sausage into 12 pieces and arrange cut side up on a well oiled tin (or 2 tins if required). The rolls should be touching.</span><span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients"></span><span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients"> </span><br />
<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients"><br /></span>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I4NZMPDmfF0/Vo9RTfPbi4I/AAAAAAAABYk/xQcbbfoE5jI/s1600/1917758_10206787816987510_490537027262842876_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I4NZMPDmfF0/Vo9RTfPbi4I/AAAAAAAABYk/xQcbbfoE5jI/s320/1917758_10206787816987510_490537027262842876_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">Cover with a piece of clingfilm and place in a warm setting for 30 minutes, they will double in size. Whilst you are waiting for this step pre-heat the oven to 200c / fan 180c / Gas mark 6.</span><br /><span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients"> </span><br /><span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">Once the buns have risen remove the clingfilm and bake in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them after 12 minutes as they will quickly catch, they should be a light golden brown colour.</span><br /><span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients"> </span><br /><span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">While the buns are cooking mix all the icing ingredients together in a bowl. You may need to adjust the icing sugar and milk quantities to get a nice runny paste. Once the buns have been cooked, remove from the oven and drizzle over the icing whilst still warm.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GZ1qeJFW7JE/Vo_BFsjv3hI/AAAAAAAABZM/B0zc2lA_zOw/s1600/20160107_211409.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GZ1qeJFW7JE/Vo_BFsjv3hI/AAAAAAAABZM/B0zc2lA_zOw/s320/20160107_211409.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients"></span><span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients"> </span><br /><span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">After 10 minutes, carefully transfer the buns to a wire rack to prevent soggy bottoms!</span><br /><span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients"> </span><br /><span data-original="2 1/2 teaspoons quick yeast" itemprop="ingredients">These are best eaten warm, but can be re-heated in a cold oven (not pre-heated) at 160c / fan 150c for 5 minutes. These also freeze well to ensure you always have a batch on the go! Just defrost by placing on a wire rack for a few hours and then re-heating as usual</span>
Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-62969647616768971762016-01-01T11:06:00.000-08:002016-01-01T11:06:55.130-08:00Save £667.95 in a year, 1p at a time!So it's January and a lot of us are feeling the burn from a big Christmas money splurge. Every year we say that we will save throughout the year and every year some unexpected event or bill clears out any plans that we had to put money aside for Christmas.<br />
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What if I told you that you could pay for Christmas by putting aside a few pennies a day? At first I thought that there is no way that you could save a reasonable amount in this way, but the figures don't lie. The basics are on the 1st day of the year you save 1p, on the 2nd 2p, on the 3rd 3p, on the 4th 4p and so on. The most you will ever put away is £3.65, and at the end of the year you will have earned a cool £667.95 (£671.61 in 2016 as it's a leap year!). In fact it's only part way through April when you will need to start putting away more than £1 a day, plenty of time to recover from last years Christmas over-spend.<br />
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There are a few people out there that prefer to start the money challenge backwards and so put aside £3.65 on 1st January, £3.64 on 2nd January £3.63 on 3rd January, £3.62 on 4th January and so on. It depends on whether you feel you will be able to put a little more aside in January or December.<br />
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There are two main ways in which to do the challenge;<br />
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<li>A physical jar that you fill with change</li>
<li>If you have access to internet banking it is easy to transfer the required amount to an ISA or savings account.</li>
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Both have their positives!<br />
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A physical jar means you have the added motivation of seeing the coins rising, you could also add any spare change you may have to make your total even higher. An ISA or savings account will also have an interest rate which means you should see a small return on all those pennies too.<br />
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If like me you have an appalling memory, the wonderful bloggers over at <a href="http://adamngoodlife.com/saving-for-that-rainy-day-is-easier-than-you-think/" target="_blank">A Damn Good Life</a> have created a printable sheet that you can tick off daily to ensure you don't lose track of where you are on your savings.<br />
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Be sure to head directly over to them and download a high quality version, their blog is a great read too!<br />
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For those of you that are using a template on a leap year, remember to add in £3.66 at some point to cover the extra day!<br />
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Why not let me know how you get on in the comments?Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-43099932277214532022016-01-01T09:04:00.002-08:002016-01-01T09:04:49.217-08:00Happy 2016!Well 2015 is over and today we are enjoying the first day of 2016!<br />
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2015 was certainly eventful and although I lost my much beloved Nan, we have come through the year being thankful for all that happened too. I am currently 8 and a bit months pregnant and we finally moved into our forever house a few weeks ago.<br />
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As we move into the new year I'm in a quandary about what to do with this blog. Trying to conceive has been such a huge part of my life for over 5 years, but that chapter is about to come to an end. My blogging and crafting hobbies helped enormously with regaining a sense of self that our miscarriages and struggles robbed me of, but at the same time I don't know where my new role as a Mother will leave these priorities.<br />
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Most importantly I am all too aware of the lovely people that read this blog that are still trying to achieve their dream of parenthood and I don't want them to have to read about the new baby and have it feel as if it's being rubbed in. I have been there and I know that no-matter how happy you are for the new parents, there is always a bubble of resentment beneath the surface, the 'why not me?'<br />
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So as I move in to 2016 I am left with two options;<br />
<ul>
<li>Call time on my beloved Ramblings of a Baby Making Addict blog and start anew</li>
<li>Update and re-name the blog to focus on our new chapter</li>
</ul>
Both have pros and cons and it is a decision that I have been pondering for some time. I know however that with only 3 and a bit weeks to go until D-day I need to make it fast!<br />
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I wish all my readers a very happy and prosperous 2016! <br />
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<br />Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-64614356882141060942015-10-17T14:11:00.000-07:002015-10-17T14:11:35.343-07:00In progress video walk through of the house over-haul!Since getting the keys to our home 10 weeks ago so many things have changed. At one point the house literally looked like a building site! Walls were knocked back to bare plaster, dado rails ripped out, doors removed, carpets torn up, fixtures and fittings gutted and the cloakroom suite completely ripped out.<br />
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Thankfully we are now on the final stretch (under 6 weeks until we hopefully move in!) and I wanted to do a video walk through to document just how far we have come in our renovation journey. In hindsight, shooting in landscape would have been a much better idea, but sorry folks you'll just have to put up with the scaled down view!<br />
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/s_vi/TFBebd5p4Nw/default.jpg?sqp=CNDtirEF&rs=AOn4CLCZwlpDox510GKrIl8SXD8Eqj0V2A" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TFBebd5p4Nw?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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If you can't remember the condition of the house when we moved in, I featured it in a blog post <a href="http://ramblingsofababymakingaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/new-house.html" target="_blank">here </a>:)<br />
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Our home is definitely one built from love as it is thanks to amazing parents, friends and family that we have achieved so very much. The Mr and I have sadly had minimal input with the physical side of things (joys of ill health for the Mr and pregnancy ailments for me!) but we are so very blessed to have such an amazing support network.<br />
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As the video says, let me know what you think in the comments!Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-66925971426925407792015-10-04T00:52:00.000-07:002015-10-04T00:52:30.658-07:00A Happy Announcement!It occurred to me a few days ago that I haven't technically announced my pregnancy on here! Sure I may have mentioned in passing in a few recent blog posts that we are decorating the nursery etc, but seeing as I am 24 weeks along tomorrow, I guess I really should be making the formal proclamation!<br />
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Well we had IVF/ICSI back in May (2015) and although it almost killed me (I WILL post my scary OHSS stories over the next few days) we were successful! I am almost a Long Term Trying To Conceive Graduate, and although we are a matter of months from having our baby, I still don't think it has sunk in.<br />
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Junior will be due on January 25th 2016 and of course we are over the moon!<br />
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Like most things in life, we never get the easy ride. Firstly I was hospitalized for just shy of 3 weeks immediately after our IVF egg transfer as I'd managed to develop Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome (OHSS). It doesn't sound all that scary, in truth most cases are mild and just severely uncomfortable, but I opted for severe. So severe that my kidneys shut down, my lung collapsed, my liver started to fail, they found fluid on my heart and I had to be fitted with a abdomen drain. I gained just under 2 stone in fluid in a matter of days (not great for a petite build like me!) and was kept on the high dependency ward (with one scary instance where a particularly militant doctor was trying to transfer me to ICU due to the 'severity of my condition'). You bet I was scared, but I secretly knew our IVF had worked, ironically it's the release of HCG (a hormone created during pregnancy) that had pushed my OHSS to mild to severe. My OHSS initially declined until (presumably) implantation occurred and then it began to sky rocket.<br />
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Secondly we had the side effects of the OHSS to contend with. Myself and the baby were at a huge risk for clotting (due to all fluids being stripped from my blood and pooled in my abdomen) and so I was on daily injections for blood thinners until 20 weeks. My blood tests also showed that my liver had suffered severe damage and in the first few months following hospital discharge there was some question as to whether it would fully recover, luckily it has!<br />
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Thirdly I opted for combined screening at our 12 week scan as one of my gorgeous cousins has Downs Syndrome and (although this wouldn't have effected our decision at all) we like to be prepared. We are very low risk for downs syndrome, but we had an awful call from a midwife to tell us that we were high risk for markers of Edwards and Patau syndrome (Trisomy 18 and Trisomy 13). Naively we had never heard of this (or read the literature in our pregnancy pack!) and so when we were told it is ultimately a death sentence for the baby, we were obviously devastated. What followed was 5 weeks of torture, we opted out of an amniocentesis (although we were strongly being advised to take it by the NHS healthcare team) as I was convinced it would cause a miscarriage and that the results would then back as clear. We found out about a private none invasive blood test that has a high percentage of success called a Harmony Test. The local NHS midwife was advising the foetal medicine centre in Harley Street, London to carry out the test and the travel expenses and private blood tests were pretty costly. We had to travel to London twice as the first blood test failed and sadly the second blood test was unable to pick up a result either. It's not all doom and gloom though as part of the testing fee included two very in-depth ultrasound with a technician trained in picking up physical markers for these abnormalities. The first ultrasound technician found now physical abnormalities and told us he would be very surprised if the baby had Edwards or Patau syndrome. We took great comfort in this, however our midwife dashed our hopes when she told us it wasn't definitive enough and to strongly consider opting for amniocentesis. When we went back to London the second time we saw a different ultrasound technician and when we explained what the midwife had said he re-scanned and told us categorically that there is ALWAYS a physical marker that they see and that in his opinion our baby does NOT have Edwards of Patau, in fact he said that we didn't really even need the second blood test as the scan was so clear, which was pretty reassuring as the second blood test failed too.<br />
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Fourthly both our 12 week NHS and private scans revealed I have a weak placenta. The bit of research I have done shows that the OHSS could possibly have been a factor in causing this, but in truth we will never know. Basically it means that the baby will eventually outgrow the placenta before the standard 37 weeks. I need growth scans at 28 weeks and then continuously to make sure baby is not being deprived of vital nutrients which will affect final growth. If baby does seem to be in difficulties then I will be induced early, scary! <br />
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Our 20 week NHS anomaly scan was consultant led and an absolute dream! The consultant was over-joyed at baby's progress and said all growth was textbook. The sonographer did pick up that baby was on the small side, but our lovely consultant waved this comment away with a 'So is Mummy'. We were treated to almost an hour of scanning and as we had a trainee in the room were given a running clinical commentary too! Our local hospital had just been fitted with a 3D scanner and we were asked if we minded being guinea pigs, free 3D scan and photos, yes please!<br />
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We have our next growth scan in 3 and a half weeks and I have a sneaky suspicion that baby will be staying put for a good few weeks after that as Jr has grown a huge amount recently! Which is pretty lucky as we have been living with the in-laws since I was 11ish weeks and our house isn't going to be ready until I'm about 30 weeks, please stay put baby!<br />
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For now, I will leave you with our pregnancy announcement picture for facebook! It was posted pretty late at 17 weeks, but with all the testing drama we wanted to keep it to ourselves until we were feeling more positive about the whole outcome :)<br />
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<br />Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-73432036876236213202015-08-29T00:16:00.000-07:002015-08-29T00:16:12.523-07:00House Quirks - Part OneSo, last week I shared our initial moving in house <a href="http://ramblingsofababymakingaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/new-house.html" target="_blank">post</a> and I promised to share some of the more interesting house quirks (or bodge jobs as the Mr calls them), so here we go!<br />
<br />The first thing I noticed when we stepped through the front door with the keys in our hands was that the previous owners had left a lot of random things attached to the walls. There were coat hooks, childrens plaques, mirrors and strangest of all two notice boards in the kitchen.<br />
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A bit of closer investigation to the notice boards revealed that the previous DIY novices had left it all behind as it was attached with no more nails! I mean seriously, who sticks a light weight cork board to the wall with a heavy grade adhesive when a simple frame hook will do? What were their magnets made of, lead weights?!<br />
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For those of you that are fortunate enough not to be familiar with this god awful invention, when you try to remove anything that is secured to a wall with it, the damage is so severe that great big chunks of plaster are taken with it!<br />
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The problem with no more nails is that the damage it causes extends far beyond where it was applicated. By the time I had removed all the surrounding blown plaster I ended up with this huge area of disaster.<br />
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Sadly the damage caused isn't minor either, as you can see it runs pretty deep and is going to need a lot more than the two seconds required for filling a frame hook pin hole, if the boards had been hung correctly.<br />
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I know it is a personal taste thing, but I hate dado rail. At some point, one of the previous owners thought it would be a great idea to put dado rail in the hallway, lounge, stairway and upstairs landing. In some places this had been secured with the correct pins, but in some places an adhesive had also been used. More damage to the plaster.<br />
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3 weeks in to our project and we are still filling and sanding the bloody plaster! We've used just over 11kg of ready made filler and I fear the end is still not in sight. There is no way we could have afforded to get a plasterer out to rectify all the damage caused by no more nails!<br />
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This is probably my favourite bodge of all, just because of the sheer comedy value! The previous owners actually managed to attach the tap upside down. Not just content with that, but they then layered it with hard curing putty to make it near impossible to fix without replacing the whole bloody thing. <br />
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If you are aiming for more than a dribble of water from the tap, then you are out of luck. The water pressure is so high that it arcs out high over the kitchen window and helpfully waters our flowering tree in the garden. Try filling a bucket from that! <br />
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In some areas of the house, they decided to screw heavier items directly into the wall from the front. What mirror isn't complete with a set of 4 screw heads poking through the wood?<br />
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When you have children, you want to personalise the house with all their crap and make it accessible to them. Children grow at quite a speed and perhaps someone should have pointed out that securing a cute animal wooden coat hook at their children's height with no more nails is a bad idea. Not only will they not be able to easily change the height as their child sprouts up, they also can't easily remove the thing when the child decides that animal coat hooks are for babies.<br />
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If the paint on the wall starts to crack and blister, surely it indicates that something is wrong? Perhaps it would be wise to find out if it was just lack of preparation on the last decorators part, or something more sinister like damp? Or you could just paint over it (including the bits that had flaked back to bare concrete) and hope for the best!<br />
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This is confined to one area of the master bedroom (the corner of the two external walls) and at some point it looks like there has definitely been a damp issue (although it has resolved or been rectified).<br />
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The problem with just ignoring an issue like this (or just painting over it) means that when the poor next owner comes to try and rectify another bodged job, the damage has extended well beyond the initial point.<br />
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The internal walls of the house have been so damaged by no more nails and lack of general house maintenance that in all honesty we need a professional plasterer to come in and make good. Sadly the thousands that this will cost is well beyond our budget. This means the walls all have to be stripped back by us and filled/sanded to an acceptable level. Unfortunately we are not skilled plasterers (although coincidentally I was considering signing up for a course just before we found out I was expecting!) and so 95% of the house will need to be wall papered to hide any blemishes. Eventually we may be able to stretch to having one room plastered at a time, but right now this is the most sympathetic and cost effective approach to rectifying the damage.<br />
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I've called this post part one as I am sure we will have plenty of other 'bodges' to share with you along the way!<br />
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<br />Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-68929256881589887932015-08-22T01:32:00.001-07:002015-08-22T01:32:55.183-07:00New House!Well it has taken almost 5 months, but we finally completed on our new house!<br />
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Previously we have always been lucky enough to rent or own new build flats and so purchasing a property almost as old as me and the Mr has taken a huge dose of adjustment! We purchased our house on the shared ownership scheme and although it is far from perfect (and admittedly very over-priced!) we know we were lucky enough to be accepted as the scheme is highly sought after with huge waiting lists. For us (like most), it was the only way we would ever be able to buy our very own home.<br />
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The major drawback with viewing shared ownership homes is that only the barest of details are listed (both online and with the estate agent/housing association) and you are lucky to see a photo of the outside of the property, it is almost never that a listing will feature interior shots or floor plans. This means that you get into the habit of booking to view and having to keep an open mind when it comes to figuring out if this mystery house could be your dream home.<br />
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We had spent a total of 10 minutes viewing the house and although we could see it was tired and needed a lot of work, we knew we had to register our interest anyway as securing a house on the shared ownership scheme is a rare thing indeed. We were initially told that the house had been offered to someone else, however a few days later we received a call to advise us their funding had fallen through (told you it was over-priced!) and were we still interested. We jumped at the chance and were pleased as punch to finally be on our way up the housing ladder.<br />
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There were a lot of niggles with buying shared ownership that I will address one day in another post, but for now let's just focus on the awesome house!<br />
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Because the buying process dragged on, by the time the completion date rolled round we had mainly forgotten about the exact layout of the house and argued a lot about where things would eventually go! As I mentioned before shared ownership property photographs are rather thin on the ground, BUT with a bit of internet detective work I did manage to find a 2008 listing for the property in the rightmove archives, complete with floor-plan! Now we knew from our viewing that this was massively outdated (the latest owners were not a fan of domesticity and it really showed!) but it was better than nothing.<br />
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As you can see from the floor-plan, it isn't a mansion but it does have some nifty storage and a slightly bigger than average (for the house size) garden. <br />
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The outside looks pretty much the same, just even more tried! A definite lick of paint is needed on that woodwork. <br />
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A perfectly functional kitchen<br />
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The garden is quite a good size and was at one time low maintenance but looked after. <br />
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I quite like the layout of the dining area as although it is attached to the living room, it still feels separate and has the bonus of the kitchen door being opposite the table area. <br />
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We are lucky enough to have two bedrooms and this is the master, a good size.<br />
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When the current owners moved out, they were inconsiderate enough to leave the house in quite a mess (I spent hours cleaning our flat making it welcoming for the new owners). In fact I was so shell shocked at how severe the dirt and damage appeared (since our 10 minute viewing 5 months prior) that I forgot to take photographs until we started working on it!<br />
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We are actually lucky enough to have a hallway off the front door, a rarity in todays newer builds!<br />
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Just off the hallway we have a downstairs loo, essential in any home! This room was probably the dirtiest in the house. I usually have an iron stomach, but it took me a few days to steel myself against the filth to tackle it with bleach, gloves and a mask. The wall tiles actually turned brown when I started wiping, it was months (if not years of filth) and yes that is a plastic cistern you can see, definitely original to the house :) <br />
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This poor sink was so old/dirty that all the metal work has corroded and not even the wonders of cillit bang can bring back it's sparkle, it definitely needs replacing.<br />
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The lounge isn't a bad size and although we aren't a fan of the dado rail, the work needed is mainly cosmetic.<br />
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I am slightly worried if our leather beast of a sofa and huge cuddle chair is going to fit, but I'm being optimistic! <br />
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We know just how lucky we are to have patio doors that go straight from the dining area into the garden and it is something the dogs will love!<br />
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Just off the living area we have this under-stairs cupboard with full size door. It is a great area for storage and I have my heart set on converting part of it for pantry use!<br />
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The under-stairs cupboard isn't huge, but I think I can give it a makeover so the hoover can live in harmony with the pantry part.<br />
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According to the latest owners the kitchen was updated two years ago.
In my opinion it was trashed two years ago! Plug sockets were replaced
at wonky angles and since the 'new' kitchen went in it has suffered
major damage from improper use. We have missing handles, broken
cupboards and drawers, holes in cabinets, cracked floor tiles and the
dirt is unbearable to think about. The kitchen in our old flat was
almost 6 years old and I am proud to say looked almost as good as new
thanks to our careful ownership. <br />
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The old owners also left us with an unusable sink as they had bodged removing their washing machine and couldn't find a waste pipe cap to replace the part they removed. A quick trip to wickes luckily solved this. <br />
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The kitchen isn't huge, but it's definitely bigger than my last one.<br />
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The stairs are actually off the hallway which is the preferable alternative to having them in the living room <br />
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Because they are so enclosed the stairs are quite dark, a light colour is definitely going to be needed.<br />
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The upstairs landing is tiny and windowless meaning like the stairs it is pretty dark unless all the bedroom/bathroom doors are open. <br />
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We do have the old airing cupboard where the heating tank used to be housed. Although that curtain has to go! <br />
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Plenty of storage for towels and bedding in here!<br />
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When we first moved in, there were no bedroom doors attached to either room. Quite annoying but I'm sure the previous owners had their reasons. <br />
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The master bedroom once belonged to children and so like the rest of the house it is worn and filthy. <br />
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Admittedly I am a little worried about painting over the areas where the vinyl has been, I just hope it doesn't take too many coats to stop it peeking through. <br />
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This room is a good size and definitely bigger than our old master bedroom.<br />
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When we tried re-hanging the second bedroom door, we realized what a bodge job it was. There was a good 2 inches difference in height between one end and the other, with a wonky connecting line to boot! <br />
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We are lucky enough that this is a double bedroom too, we just need to decide if the baby or the business gets it!<br />
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The bathroom isn't a bad size, yet again it's just been poorly finished. The toilet has a huge lean to the right and so far no one has been brave enough to use it!<br />
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The garden is beautiful and sunny! <br />
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Although it definitely needs some TLC, it definitely has potential! <br />
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We have a nice flowering tree in the corner <br />
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As the house is semi-detached, we are lucky enough to have side access from the front straight though to the back, this will be invaluable I'm sure! <br />
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The current owners put these weird trip hazards randomly dotted around the garden and my lovely mother in law is terrified I am going to trip (clumsy, me?) and squish the baby, they have to go! <br />
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One of the nicest surprises about the garden was this double shed. Although it's been placed in a very awkward position (the middle of the garden!) it is going to be perfect as a work studio once water proofed and insulted. <br />
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I have to admit that I think the house looks very smart from the back!<br />
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In truth I am itching to move in, but we have owned it for two weeks now and the list of work that needs to be completed before we can finally start moving our items in seems to be growing. <br />
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Next time the make over will begin and I will reveal some of the slightly odder DIY quirks that our new house seems to possess!Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-3105280263964625372015-07-19T01:27:00.002-07:002015-07-19T01:27:53.171-07:00Kitchenaid Vs Kenwood<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8xJORQp5VK4/VatY35WblgI/AAAAAAAABOc/u66CsD7jMd8/s1600/g3849.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="378" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8xJORQp5VK4/VatY35WblgI/AAAAAAAABOc/u66CsD7jMd8/s640/g3849.png" width="640" /></a>For as long as I can remember I have coveted a KitchenAid mixer. It's sleek 1950s design calls to me and KitchenAid's reputation for being a workhorse in the kitchen has convinced me that my baking life would be enhanced by this object of beauty. I've watched every season of The Great British Bakeoff and dreamed of replicating the recipes with my very own pastel beast.<br />
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I am fortunately now in the position to buy one but here's the rub, spending £386 on a glorified kitchen appliance is causing palpitations. I refused to spend that amount on our fridge or dishwasher and these are considered vital kitchen equipment (in our house anyway).<br />
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Every blog or discussion forum I have gone to in my bid to research the KitchenAid Artisan has harbored a set of equally passionate Kenwood kMix owners that are proving that performance wise their machine can't be beaten. They are the first to admit that it does not look as beautiful as the KitchenAid Artisan (although the newer KMX80 is a big improvement in the looks department) but many claim to keep it in a cupboard when not in use. The ultimate statement of 'Its definitely not as pretty, but I am buying a mixer, not a work of art' from a kMix owner is one that I'm struggling to argue with logically.<br />
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In an effort to try and help thrash this argument out, let's compare the two machines specifications side by side.<br />
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KitchenAid Artisan - £386.10 Currys</h3>
<ul>
<li>Power 300w</li>
<li>Capacity 4.8 litres</li>
<li>Attachments Available Yes</li>
<li>Speed Levels 10</li>
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Amazon Reviews - 4.7/5 from 262 reviews<br />
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Kenwood kMix KMX80 - £299 Curys</h3>
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<li>Power 500w</li>
<li>Capacity 5 litres</li>
<li>Attachments Available Yes</li>
<li>Speed Levels 8</li>
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Amazon Reviews - 4.7/5 from 572 reviews<br />
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I know that there are cheaper models of the kMix available, but for me aesthetics will play a big part in my decision and so I had to choose a model that I would be happy to have on display, as space is at a premium in my wee kitchen!<br />
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On paper it is a bit of a no-brainer, the kMix is not only cheaper, the attachments are too and it is definitely the stronger model. However in my heart I worry that if I were to buy the kMix it would feel like settling for something. I fear that I would regret my decision and always wish I had spent a bit extra on the machine I have always lusted for.<br />
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After all, if the KitchenAid Artisan is good enough for the bakeoff tent, then it should be good enough for me!<br />
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Does anyone have experience with either of these models?Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-48331202053834832312015-05-04T07:04:00.000-07:002015-05-04T07:04:18.981-07:00Gourmet Gadgetry Electric Popcorn Maker ReviewFor as long as I can remember I have been obsessed with savory popcorn! When Walkers bought out their own Cheesy popcorn in my tweens, I was obsessed. I loved the taste, the branding and even now almost 16 years later I still know all the words to the advert!<br />
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Sadly I seemed to be one of the few that loved the extreme cheesy taste and the product was soon pulled. Over the years I have resorted to all kinds of inferior products to get my popcorn fix, but none lived up to the taste of Sundog. <br />
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The popcorn industry in the US has been going strong for years, but it's only recently starting to catch on in the UK and I am in my element! My absolute favourite is Tyrells Sour Cream and Jalepeno Proper Popcorn<br />
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The flavors may not be as punchy as I'd like, but they are so savory that it ticks all my boxes! The problem is that this stuff is pretty over-priced (<span class="st" data-hveid="37">1,275% mark up for most popcorn!) and this particular blend is becoming increasingly hard to find.</span><br />
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<span class="st" data-hveid="37">There is a solution to being such a cheapskate fuss pot, make my own!</span><br />
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<span class="st" data-hveid="37">I admit that microwavable butter popcorn has long been a guilty pleasure of mine, but the calories are pretty intense and we try to limit the amount of microwaved food we consume. I have been considering an electric air popper for ages, but never got round to buying one. However last December the Mr decided to take me to Lakeland to pick my Christmas presents and when I saw this beautiful red machine I decided to take a gamble!</span><br />
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It is marketed as a 'retro design' I'm not sure I would agree with this, but I do love the red (it matches my kitchen).</div>
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It is a very simple mechanism with an inner chamber that rotates at speed whilst circulating really hot air. This hot air pops the kernels and et voila, popcorn! Above the chute is space to store the measuring scoop, this not only delivers the right amount of kernels without the need to weigh them, but you can also place butter in it and the heat from the popper will melt it providing a perfect popcorn topping!</div>
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We've used this a handful of times now and I can honestly say I'm really pleased with it. The simplicity is actually really impressive and although air popcorn is reputed to have a slightly drier taste and texture, but for me personally this method doesn't detract from the taste.</div>
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There are tons of popcorn flavoring recipes out there now and Asda have even started selling their own seasonings. </div>
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We've tried the Nacho Cheese and Sweet and Salty, both of which are devine. I also plan to purchase some gourmet flavorings at some stage too!<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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<span class="st" data-hveid="37"><br /></span>Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-80848639181028981282015-03-14T00:11:00.001-07:002015-03-14T00:11:50.759-07:00Joseph Joseph Adjustable Pastry Rolling Pin ReviewIt's not exactly a secret that I love baking. I love to make pastry and biscuits, but I've always struggled with gauging the depth when rolling out dough, or getting an even thickness.<br />
My wonderful husband took me to Lakeland to choose my Christmas presents last year, and this nifty rolling pin really caught my eye.<br />
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The rolling pin is by Joseph Joseph and features different widths of plastic rings that ensure you can roll your pastry to not only the correct depth, but also that you have an even finish. Initially the price put me off big time. At £22 (price correct for December 2014) for a simple wooden rolling pin with coloured plastic ends, it seemed really over priced. I didn't even put it on my Christmas wish list as figured I could find a cheaper alternative on Amazon.<br />
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Well I did scour both eBay and Amazon and there were a lot of alternatives, but they either had terrible reviews, or looked so cheap I knew they would break after a few uses. Plus, the quirky colourful design had kind of grown on me. I added it to my wish list and Father Christmas (under the guise of my husband!) delivered it to me in time for Christmas morning!<br />
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I've only used it a few times, but each time it has made rolling my pastry a cinch!<br />
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The rolling pin is solid and sturdy, made from long lasting beech wood. It is long enough to cope with most standard pastry recipes, although rolling larger batches may not be possible whilst using the plastic guides. You are somewhat restricted to rolling pastry no larger than 35cms whilst using the guides as this is how long the rolling pin is.<br />
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The rolling pin has measurements written on the shaft. It took me a little while to figure out how to actually use these <strike>and then I cheated and checked the Lakeland website! </strike>Basically, there are mirrored increments of measurements on either end of the rolling pin. If you want to measure 4" the space between the 4" mark on the left and the 4" mark on the right is 4". If you want to measure 6" the space between the 6" mark on the left and the 6" mark on the right is 6" - and so on. There are also measurements in mm too.<br />
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These markings have not been printed on, instead they have been etched/burnt into the wood meaning that they will last as long as the rolling pin itself.<br />
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The rolling pin has a solid feel to it, although it is light enough to easily roll.<br />
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I now love the fact that all my dough is the same thickness all the way through! Perfect if you're a little on the OCD side like me.<br />
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The plastic ring guides come in either 2 mm, 4 mm, 6 mm or 10 mm. They are also colour coded which makes it easier to match the ends and quickly grab the depth you need. The green turn key to keep the guides on is made from chunky plastic and feels well made. The screw thread of the rolling pin has been made from the actual wood, so there is no fear of rust or plastic wearing down.<br />
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The reviews on Amazon are pretty impressive - to date it has earned 4.5 stars from 35 reviews. The only negative review refers to the older model (grey rings) where she complained the pastry sticks to the rough wood. I can honestly say that I haven't encountered this, she either had a dodgy batch or they've updated the smoothness on the new model.<br />
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Each time I've used it, it's given me a flash back to Art class at
school where we used to use wood blocks and a rolling pin to achieve a
uniform depth in our clay - this would have been a perfect alternative!<br />
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I think this will last me years and with that in mind, perhaps the outlay isn't too bad. I probably still wouldn't just buy it, but I think it does make a great item for a present wish list! Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-88741615732719595452015-03-07T09:13:00.000-08:002015-03-07T23:44:59.939-08:00My Pinterest ObsessionLike most of the world I am obsessed with <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/chibichidesigns/" target="_blank">pinterest</a>. I can easily lose hours looking through all the awesome things that I plan to replicate some day and pinning to a board that I have every intention of coming back to make from.<br />
The sad truth is that like most although I put the hours into pinning, very little time is ever spent actually creating anything from my boards. Periodically I may have a little pin or board cull where I decide to organize my jumble, but even then it is rare that I see a DIY I decide to actually make.<br />
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I mean how awesome is this tea set from <a href="http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/crafts/kitchen-crafts-teapot#slide-2" target="_blank">Good Housekeeping</a>? When I saw it, I thought it was adorable and would be really cute in our kitchen. Heck, I even have the porcelain pens to create it! However, I've never gotten round to it.<br />
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This amazing etched glass trifle bowl by <a href="http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2010/06/glass-etching.html" target="_blank">makeit-loveit</a> was one of my very first pins! In fact, this DIY was one of the reasons I bought my Silhouette Cameo! A friend even presented me with an exact replica trifle bowl as an anniversary gift so that I could make my very own. But, after some not so great attempts at glass etching, I always manage to talk myself out of it :(<br />
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It's not just homeware DIYs either!<br />
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When I spotted this cute skirt from iCandy, blog hopping on <a href="http://kojo-designs.com/2012/03/striped-skirt-by-icandy-handmade/" target="_blank">Kojo Designs</a>, I was desperate to make it! Sadly the sewing machine has not been out to whip this up, instead I continue to look lovingly at it sat on my '<a href="https://www.pinterest.com/chibichidesigns/sewing-patterns-to-attempt/" target="_blank">Sewing Patterns to Attempt</a>' board.<br />
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It's not all doom and gloom though, I mean I have managed to create a few pinterest finds!<br />
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<a href="https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/1655857_671649086226654_1917431709_n.jpg?oh=e1ac455b405a9679d13a4350fda2beae&oe=5582EE76&__gda__=1433564993_b5ecf3a5fae8b41d8269f4e0f2022f9b" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/1655857_671649086226654_1917431709_n.jpg?oh=e1ac455b405a9679d13a4350fda2beae&oe=5582EE76&__gda__=1433564993_b5ecf3a5fae8b41d8269f4e0f2022f9b" width="171" /></a></div>
Who could forget our awesome <a href="http://ramblingsofababymakingaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/wizard-of-oz-diy-wine-glass-dishwasher.html" target="_blank">Wizard of Oz Dorothy</a> glass?<br />
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And we actually use pinterest as a family quite a bit when it comes to arranging dinner recipes!<br />
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I have two main boards; <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/chibichidesigns/possible-dinner-recipes/" target="_blank">'Possible Dinner Recipes'</a> which is where we store all the recipes we would like to try as a main meal and <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/chibichidesigns/tried-and-tested-recipes/" target="_blank">'Tried and Tested Recipes'</a> which is an elite board that only the yummiest recipes are pinned to. For our pins in the tried and tested board, I use the description text to make any notes about the recipe. For example we have a mean <a href="http://www.food.com/recipe/my-best-ever-breadmaker-pizza-dough-50101" target="_blank">pizza dough</a> recipe that we slightly alter by omitting the corn meal, but adding Italian herbs into the dough. Adding notes ensures I don't forget when whipping up the next batch.<br />
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I actually know of a few ladies that have made it their New Years resolution to make one new thing from their pinterest boards a week. I'm not sure I could quite manage one a week, but I'm definitely going to try and increase the amount.<br />
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<a href="http://www.marthastewart.com/sites/files/marthastewart.com/imagecache/img_l/ecl/images/content/pub/everyday_food/2010Q2/med105471_0410_cabbage_wedge_vert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.marthastewart.com/sites/files/marthastewart.com/imagecache/img_l/ecl/images/content/pub/everyday_food/2010Q2/med105471_0410_cabbage_wedge_vert.jpg" /></a></div>
In an effort to start as I mean to go on, tonight I am making Roasted Cabbage Wedges by <a href="http://meandpinterest.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/roasted-cabbage-wedges.html" target="_blank">MeandPinterest</a>. Fingers crossed it makes it onto the Tried and Tested board ;)<br />
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**Update**<br />
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The roasted cabbage wedges were okay, but not amazing. In truth, I probably wouldn't make them again as both myself and Chris prefer boiled cabbage! Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-57759422454023072172015-03-01T12:30:00.002-08:002015-03-01T12:38:43.332-08:00Do you know what's really in your cake?We all know that cakes are bad for us, but have you ever actually read the ingredients list on shop bought cakes? Believe me when I tell you that there all kinds of nasty chemicals, unnatural additives and a ton of 'ingredients' that in my opinion shouldn't be there.<br />
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Mr Kipling Mini Bakewell Tart</div>
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Even the packaging that touts 'natures' own will have some not so natural additions, and if the cake is organic, I can guarantee that to act as a preserver they've used a ton more sugar than you should consume.<br />
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So, should you give up cakes? God, no! To me the thought of not having a sweet treat in the house sends me into palpitations, a dinner is not a meal without an indulgent pud to finish it off. So what can you do? Simple, make your own.<br />
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I'm not going to lie, it will be more time consuming, (slightly) more expensive and even stressful at times, but you will have the benefit of knowing exactly what has gone into your cakes and bakes. I promise that <strike>95% of the time</strike> they will even taste better than the shop bought stuff! There is something very fulfilling about having a tin filled with cakes, I get an enormous sense of pride knowing that I am carrying on the traditions that my Nan taught me - always a home baked treat to share with loved ones.<br />
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If you've never baked before or are somewhat of a novice, then start simple. No one is expecting you to be churning out patisserie standard confections! I've been baking for a few years now and my husbands favourite cake of mine is still the humble Victoria sponge. Your time spent baking should be one of indulgence and an act of love to both yourself, family and friends.<br />
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You may worry that you don't have enough time in your schedule to squeeze this in. We are a single income household (mine) and on top of working full time, running two businesses, general household chaos and spending time with my family, I still manage to bake at least once a week. No, I'm not being smug, just telling you it can be done; I just tailor my bake to the time I have available. Forward planning is a must and so whenever possible I will decide what I will be making in advance and ensure the ingredients are ordered with the weekly shop. Simples.<br />
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I shall share some of my easy bake recipes with you, just click <a href="http://ramblingsofababymakingaddict.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Recipe" target="_blank">here</a> for a full list. I'd love it if you commented below with links to your creations!<br />
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Enjoy :)<br />
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<br />Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-69512455802609258382015-02-15T03:57:00.000-08:002015-02-15T03:57:20.901-08:00Trying to Conceive UpdateI guess we are very over-due for an update on our current trying to conceive situation. After all, this blog was created to help me get through both the struggles of trying to conceive, but also to discuss the impact that the process was having.<br />
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The 8th February 2015 saw us hit the 5 year mark of trying for our first child. If our first pregnancy had carried to term, we would have a 3 year old that would be quickly approaching their 4th birthday. If our second pregnancy had stuck, we would have just celebrated a 2nd birthday. I still struggle to get my head round the fact that these potential babies would now be so old, we would be contemplating first school and nursery!<br />
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So much has changed in our 5 year journey, we have grown from newly-weds into life weary adults and I can honestly say that we are closer than ever. They say that long term trying to conceive will either make or break a relationship and one of the most positive things to come from all of this is the bond that has strengthened between us. If you support each other through miscarriages, intimate tests, false hope, crushing failure and can still find the topic of the porn on offer during semen analysis a hilarious subject rather than an embarrassing and depressing one, you will be together for the long haul.<br />
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My lowest point was in October 2012, we had just been advised that the memorial for our second miscarriage had gone ahead without our knowledge and I was separated from my husband as I had to take part in a hen party. I was already feeling depressed and vulnerable, so when a friend announced at they party she was expecting I did not take the news well. I said the mandatory congratulations, but I am ashamed to admit that everyone could see just how insincere it was. I couldn't help but feel jealous and wish it were me. When I finally got over myself a few hours later, I did apologise and explain it wasn't personal and how I really was happy for the Mum to be, but I still cringe every time I think of how all eyes turned to me during the announcement and how I really did not deal with it well.<br />
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In late 2013 and into 2014, something changed. My husband became ill, scarily ill and life was no-longer about my quest for our first born, but the worry as to whether or not I was going to lose my husband. When we learnt that things were not going to get better and the best we could hope for was for him to remain stable, our priorities and outlook changed.<br />
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Instead of constantly planning for a future and forever looking ahead, we realised that we had to focus on the now, enjoy what we have today and make new memories, because none of us know just how long we have left.<br />
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Instead of keeping friends safely behind a guard, I started opening up and joining in more. My friends have been an amazing source of comfort and delight. My closest friends know exactly when I need to talk, but equally when I don't want to answer questions or dwell on the latest bad news. I feel blessed to share my life with such amazing people and they have been a big part of helping my husband and I start to integrate ourselves into the now.<br />
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Our new outlook also included us (trying) being more positive, yep things are pretty scary and can seem bleak, but we are also aware that we have so much more to be fortunate for and although the occasional spiral into self pity is allowed, it's not something that I permit either one of us to indulge in for too long.<br />
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Unfortunately we have been told that IVF is our only option, but very fortunately our IVF journey is about to start and even more amazingly we have been told that our best hope is ICSI and it is to be covered by the NHS! Two fresh rounds and (hopefully) two frozen, I am so confident that we will manage the frozen cycles and even more confident that one of these four are going to result in our forever baby.<br />
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For now I am banning any research on the subject, I plan to go in to this just using common sense and the guidance from my health care team. Of course I still think of what ifs? But I refuse to get drawn in to negative thinking as it's not good for stress levels - one of the supposed negative impacts on IVF.<br />
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Wish us luck xDanielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-28252566946667239062014-11-29T11:10:00.000-08:002014-11-29T11:10:04.833-08:00It's Going To Be A Kraft Christmas!Every year my wrapping of Christmas gifts seems to turn into a torturous event. My painstakingly chosen gifts are turned into a crumpled, sad looking monstrosity of ill wrapped disappointment. This year WILL be different.<br />
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It started (as most of my craft obsessions do) with pinterest. After browsing for Christmas crafts, I started to lust after the beautifully presented packages that seemed to festoon the pins. An absolute favourite seemed to be Kraft tags and brown paper.<br />
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I have always loved the traditional red and golds of Christmas, so perhaps it wasn't such a leap for me to decide to pair this colour scheme with the Kraft card and brown parcel paper.</div>
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Turning back to pinterest, I started a <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/chibichidesigns/2014-christmas-wrapping-inspiration/" target="_blank">board</a> for inspiration. Here are a few of my favourite pins!</div>
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<a href="http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/dd/e8/27/dde8278e9830950bbeb5511e56774e57.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/dd/e8/27/dde8278e9830950bbeb5511e56774e57.jpg" height="640" width="158" /></a></div>
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I'm a sucker for anything gingerbread related, so there is a definite NEED to create my very own gingerbread house tags!</div>
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Do you see that fantastic 'Time to Drink Champange' tag? Well that tag started my inspiration for printing my own using Kraft card gift tags using my beloved Silhouette Cameo!</div>
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These are so simple, yet so adorable! I love the idea of mini message bunting and I just know that it is going to be a cinch to create with the silhouette cameo print and cut feature!</div>
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Where to even begin with this one? It has a jingle bell and a cute Monogram tag that could easily double up as a hanging tree decoration once it's all unwrapped.</div>
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Candy cane gift tag? Yes Please! I can see this will be a winner for all the littlies (and a great deal of biggies too!)</div>
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This year I am going to own that wrapping!</div>
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<br />Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-88327501319668221562014-09-14T03:33:00.001-07:002014-09-14T03:33:32.149-07:00Colour B4 Extra Strength Review - Part Two Using the Dye Remover and helping to prevent re-oxidationIf you haven't already read it, you should really check out Part One of this as it details preparation, it can be found <a href="http://ramblingsofababymakingaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/colour-b4-extra-strength-review-part.html" target="_blank">here</a><br />
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Well it is done and I am rather impressed with the results, even if I do say so myself! There were a few things that I did differently this time and I will go through the entire process and then share the finished result.<br />
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You will need;</h3>
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<li>Sectioning Clips</li>
<li>Comb</li>
<li>Colour B4 Extra Strength</li>
<li>Cling Film</li>
<li>Two beanie style hats</li>
<li>Hair Dryer</li>
<li>Shower</li>
<li>Bucket Loads of Patience</li>
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Step One</h3>
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Start by sectioning your hair and clipping the upper portion to the top of your head. If like me you have long hair, it is best to start with the underneath layers. I found the easiest way to apply the remover was to take a small section of hair (no more than an inch wide) and squirt a small amount into my gloved hands and start with the ends carefully rub it in. I usually applied 3 squirts to each section; end, mid length and root. Time should be taken to ensure each squirt is completely rubbed in and the section is fully saturated before moving on.</div>
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Clip back each of the soaked sections and gradually move from the underneath to the top of the head. Although it's tempting to rush at this point, you need to make sure that you have fully covered all of your hair, so be patient!</div>
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Step Two</h3>
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Now it's time to massage your scalp and brush through your hair. You really should use a wide toothed comb for this part as it is a hot mess of tangles at this stage. Again you need to take your time and make sure the remover is fully and evenly distributed through the hair.</div>
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Step Three</h3>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-letOqUmZ6-k/VBVhjcOOA8I/AAAAAAAABFk/IHv_hzB-hXQ/s1600/2014-09-07%2B09.56.19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-letOqUmZ6-k/VBVhjcOOA8I/AAAAAAAABFk/IHv_hzB-hXQ/s1600/2014-09-07%2B09.56.19.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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Now pile all the hair on your head and wrap in clingfilm - yep that's right clingfilm</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-allBn6y4mD0/VBVhwsU6kiI/AAAAAAAABFs/9GvWkciqyiA/s1600/2014-09-07%2B09.57.17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-allBn6y4mD0/VBVhwsU6kiI/AAAAAAAABFs/9GvWkciqyiA/s1600/2014-09-07%2B09.57.17.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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Over the top of your clingfilm you need to put on your two beanie hats, I promise this isn't some ploy to make you look a fool!</div>
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If you've ever had your hair coloured or bleached at the hair dresser, you will know that during the waiting period, you are wheeled under the drier. There is a reason for this, heat helps to activate the chemicals used. In fact, if you read the Colour B4 packaging, it tells you to sit in a room away from drafts - this stuff doesn't work if it's too cold! So it makes sense that by keeping in the heat, you can help the remover do it's stuff.</div>
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Step Four - Optional</h3>
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Red and dark brown are tricky colours to shift, I knew from using Colour Rewind last year that I could do with some extra help - the hair dryer!</div>
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For the next 50 minutes, I sat with my clingfilm/hat helmet and used the hairdryer on it's hottest setting all over my head. My arms were killing as I had to keep moving it in small circular motions across the whole of my head. It was hotter than hell and a few times I thought I was going to just give up, but I persevered and kept at it.</div>
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If you do decide to do this step, you need to keep checking your hair and make sure not to keep the hairdryer in any one area for too long (no one wants melted clingfilm in their hair!). If you start to feel faint or dizzy, stop straight away.</div>
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When I removed the hats and cling film I was a little shocked at just how much lighter my hair was. I was also a little anxious as this is a LOT lighter than my natural hair.</div>
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Step Five</h3>
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This is probably my most hated step of all, rinsing. I spent about 40 minutes rinsing this stuff from my hair. I used hot water as I know that red dye molecules fade under hot water as they are smaller than most other colours and fall from the hair shaft when shrunk with hot water. I then used half of the buffer solution and rinsed again - if you have used this stuff before and know that re-oxidation / darkening of the hair after a few days is a problem for you, make sure you follow the step below.</div>
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Step Six - Optional</h3>
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When I used Colour B4 last year, my hair darkened within a day or so each time :( It wasn't lots, but enough for me to notice and feel annoyed that I had become a few shades darker. This is called re-oxidation and is where small amounts of the old hair dye become trapped in the shaft and expand when exposed to air - this darkens the hair again. Although not enough rinsing is thought to be the most common cause, Scott Cornwall admits that some hair types are more prone to it, but they have been unable to pin point what kind.</div>
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I scoured the net and found some handy tips and tricks to try and minimize the amount of re-oxidation that would happen;</div>
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<ul>
<li>Double the amount of rinsing time, this should ensure all dye molecules are out of the shaft</li>
<li>Before using the buffer solution for the second time, hop out of the shower and dry your hair completely, you can use a hair-dryer to speed things up. This step not only helps prevent re-oxidation, but you can assess your colour</li>
<li>After using the second buffer solution, run a bath of hot (hot enough to tolerate laying in) water and soak your entire head for 10 minutes, continuously running your fingers through the ends (underwater) to agitate the dye.</li>
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Step Seven</h3>
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Once you have followed all the instructions on rinsing and buffering, it is time to dry your hair and assess the results!</div>
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When I initially dried my hair after the first buffer, I completely panicked as it was way lighter than my natural mousy brown hair! Colour B4 is not to blame for this lightening, all the vibrant reds I use have a degree of peroxide in them that bleaches the hair to achieve a more vibrant tone - this lighter than natural colour I have been left with is simply the Colour B4 doing what it's designed to do and removing all dye from my hair.</div>
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I actually made the decision to let my hair re-oxidise a bit to try and darken it and skipped the hot bath. It darkened slightly, but maybe by only 1 shade.</div>
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Over-all I am really happy with the results of my Colour B4, I genuinely believe that keeping the hair warm during it's activation phase really helped with the lightening process.</div>
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As you can see my natural roots coming through, I am going to have to make the decision whether to try and dye it back to a closer tone to my natural hair (boring mousy brown) or leave it be. We are about to start IVF and I don't really want too many extra chemicals in my system, so I may decide to just leave it be and hope that as my roots grow it isn't too noticeable.</div>
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Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-72592088479665761532014-09-06T09:39:00.000-07:002014-09-14T02:21:58.872-07:00Colour B4 Extra Strength Review - Part One Preparation<h2>
Here we go again.......</h2>
This is quite a long post where I discuss my specific needs, past experiences and hair preparation for using Colour B4<br />
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Regular readers will know that I actually reviewed Superdrug Colour Rewind twice last year. The first post can be found <a href="http://ramblingsofababymakingaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/superdrug-colour-rewind-hair-dye.html" target="_blank">here</a> and the second one <a href="http://ramblingsofababymakingaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/superdrug-colour-rewind-hair-dye.html" target="_blank">here</a>. Well I had a mini hair dye relapse and the results are less than spectacular :(<br />
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About a month ago I caved in and dyed it back to red. BIG mistake! My hair is now the longest it has ever been (I had a mother who seemed to be rebelling over being made to keep her hair long as a child, by ensuring mine was never too far past my shoulders) and I think that it has grown past the length that I can properly dye it at home solo.<br />
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I was left with a hot mess of patchy red, brown and *cringe* orange shades. Despite switching to a specific shampoo and conditioner for dyed hair, and only washing it in cold water, it faded within a few days. My roots are growing at such an alarming rate (they were noticeable within a week) that I can't wear my hair with a parting without feeling embarrassed. Now I remember why I quit dying it in the first place!<br />
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So it is time to reach for the dye remover once again, but this time I am fully armed with all the tips and tricks to ensure that (hopefully) my hair is lifted back to it's natural colour. At the very least I want rid of this red patch nightmare.<br />
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Let me give you a sneak peek at my patchy mess!</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_Ip5zsv0ruE/VAsf0WkGUUI/AAAAAAAAAzI/s80sYvgwTNw/w503-h542-no/2014-09-06%2B15.53.02.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_Ip5zsv0ruE/VAsf0WkGUUI/AAAAAAAAAzI/s80sYvgwTNw/w503-h542-no/2014-09-06%2B15.53.02.png" height="320" width="296" /></a></div>
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We have roots, red, orange and brown!</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6AIIU6eFWfA/VAsfSyT1wLI/AAAAAAAAAyE/2PsraULCi4k/w459-h542-no/2014-09-06%2B15.50.46.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6AIIU6eFWfA/VAsfSyT1wLI/AAAAAAAAAyE/2PsraULCi4k/w459-h542-no/2014-09-06%2B15.50.46.png" height="320" width="270" /></a></div>
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You can see a major orange tinge creeping in here</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cf156A1maIs/VAse_zWlgKI/AAAAAAAAAx4/g7ls6sJplZU/w533-h542-no/2014-09-06%2B15.49.32.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cf156A1maIs/VAse_zWlgKI/AAAAAAAAAx4/g7ls6sJplZU/w533-h542-no/2014-09-06%2B15.49.32.png" height="320" width="314" /></a></div>
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Can you see the darker ends, it's quite visible</div>
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Last time I colour removed, I opted for Superdrug Colour Rewind, but this time I decided to go all guns blazing with Colour B4 Extra Strength Argan Oil Edition.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HcVs2_Yydkw/VAspipAUZfI/AAAAAAAABE4/01J5iVPkMoI/s1600/2014-09-06%2B16.25.47.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HcVs2_Yydkw/VAspipAUZfI/AAAAAAAABE4/01J5iVPkMoI/s1600/2014-09-06%2B16.25.47.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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See that great big sticker celebrating 50 years of Superdrug? Well that sticker makes me instantly suspicious that perhaps Colour Rewind and Colour B4 are in fact the same item, in different packaging. At the time of purchase, Colour Rewind was on offer at buy one, get one half price (£9.99 a pack) and Colour B4 was £11.99 with no special offer. I needed two and was sorely tempted by the special Superdrug own offer, BUT Scott Cornwall (who I think is the creator of Colour B4) has posted so many helpful tips and tricks about this product (he will answer most questions on his <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ScottCornwallHair" target="_blank">facebook</a> page) that I felt perhaps my money would be better spent at least trialing this colour remover.</div>
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Usually when dying your hair, you are advised to start on slightly greasy hair, colour removers are slightly different. If you usually use none organic hair products (shampoo, conditioner, styling products etc) chances are that you have a lovely build up of silicone on the inside and outside of the hair shaft. If like me you use straighteners on a high setting, you may have even baked the silicone into the hair :( This means that if you are trying to use a colour remover (or even dye) the silicone provides a barrier, stopping the product from actually removing the dye molecules.</div>
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The best thing to do is a clarifying treatment to try and remove all of this build up. While I was in superdrug, I did ask about clarifying shampoo, but the range was pretty tiny and at £6 for a huge bottle (which I probably wouldn't use again) it seemed a bit of a waste. After a search on google, I found that it was pretty easy to make your own clarifying hair masque with just two ingredients;</div>
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<li>Bicarbonate of Soda (also known as baking soda)</li>
<li>Water</li>
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I plan to do a clarifying masque today, and apply the actual Colour B4 tomorrow.</div>
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There is conflicting advice on using bicarbonate of soda long term - there is evidence that the high alkaline base can actually weaken the hair, and that it may irritate the scalp for a few people. Interestingly, there are also a lot of 'recipes' on the net using bicarb with lemon juice, vitamin C and shampoo as a 'natural' colour remover.</div>
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I was initially going to create my own clarifying concoction using bicarbonate of soda, distilled vinegar, lemon juice and water, but I figured that as I was trying to remove excess build up I should keep it simple! A peek on Scott Cornwall's blog had me stumbling across a post about <a href="http://scottcornwall.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/clarifying-hair-and-silicone-damage.html" target="_blank">Clarifying Hair and Silicone Damage</a>, as a bonus it also included a bicarbonate of soda 'recipe';</div>
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<i style="background-color: white;">"<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: left;">For a deep clarifying treatment put two spoons of bicarbonate of soda into a mug of warm water. After using a Clarifying Shampoo, pour the Bicarb rinse through the hair and comb through. Leave for 10 to 20 minutes and rinse off. The bicarb will help to break down any surface residue and over time can help with severe build up."</span></i></div>
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As I am skipping the clarifying shampoo, I thought I would tweak the ratios to those listed on another popular blog called <a href="http://www.maskcara.com/2014/03/20/break-up-with-your-build-up/" target="_blank">maskCARA</a>;</div>
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<i><strong>"Recipe:</strong> (this is a tough one so brace yo-self)</i></div>
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<i>1/3 Cup Baking soda (I’m convinced that between baking soda, corn starch, coconut oil and duct tape I could create anything! )</i></div>
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<i><i>4 T Water</i></i></div>
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<strong><i>Directions:</i></strong></div>
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<i>Mix together until it’s a paste. Then (starting with the ends) massage into your *hair. {I did this over the sink so I didn’t make a mess)</i></div>
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<i><i>Leave it for 10-15 minutes then wash as usual.</i></i></div>
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<i><i>* For recently color treated hair always try a test piece first! Celeste has colored hair and it looked vibrant and beautiful when we were done but you never know!"</i></i></div>
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I will be back to let you know how I get on with the clarifying treatment :)</div>
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Well that was certainly interesting! I doubled the quantities to 2/3 cup baking soda to 8 table spoons of water as my hair is quite long. The resulting mixture was quite runny, but had the consistency of corn flour mixed with water.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O1D9VCSyNDY/VAs5UV2UekI/AAAAAAAAAzY/3P28O6fJ8fs/w407-h542-no/20140906_174151_LLS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O1D9VCSyNDY/VAs5UV2UekI/AAAAAAAAAzY/3P28O6fJ8fs/w407-h542-no/20140906_174151_LLS.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></div>
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I definitely recommend that you use this in the shower or stood in the bath, because it makes a huge mess! I took in my hair dying wide toothed comb too as I needed to ensure it was evenly through my hair. Also be prepared to keep stirring the mixture and to work quickly, as a non newtonian fluid, this stuff will keep trying to separate and the bicarb to congeal into a hardened mass.<br />
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I brushed my hair and then starting at the ends, slathered it all on. It was pretty tricky as it is not very thick and kept running straight out onto the shower floor. I could have probably done with with tripling the amount, but I made do.<br />
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Once it was all on my hair, I started combing it through. Be prepared for a big tangled mess, but it really is important to make sure it is evenly spread. The next thing to do is wait for about 20 minutes. I piled my hair into a big top knot and then wrapped it in cling film (mainly because I didn't want to dirty my towels, but also because it helps keep the heat in).<br />
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In truth I probably left it on to closer to 30 minutes as I got distracted by Christmas shopping (I know it's only September!). After the 30 minutes it was time to rinse, and rinse, and rinse some more!<br />
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By this time my hair felt worse than straw, the urge to slather it in conditioner was almost over-whelming, but I managed to resist. It took close to 15 minutes to try and get the comb through my hair whilst rinsing, but I knew that at least this way it would be well and truly rinsed out.</div>
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My hair has finally dried, and it feels weirdly light, but drier than anything I have ever experienced :( It's now dark here, but I will post some photos in the morning.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ygOGoAZ0FFo/VBVdlkHXeGI/AAAAAAAABFQ/bmBlT2-smDY/s1600/2014-09-07%2B08.28.49.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ygOGoAZ0FFo/VBVdlkHXeGI/AAAAAAAABFQ/bmBlT2-smDY/s1600/2014-09-07%2B08.28.49.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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My ends were not in great condition before, but due to how dry this masque made them, they are definitely worse</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LVv1cgN8iDA/VBVdlr20GoI/AAAAAAAABFM/pUBY1-iToqE/s1600/2014-09-07%2B08.29.42.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LVv1cgN8iDA/VBVdlr20GoI/AAAAAAAABFM/pUBY1-iToqE/s1600/2014-09-07%2B08.29.42.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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Split end central!</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wi2Bwf9vvxM/VBVdlnGyPZI/AAAAAAAABFI/aFHJ3mkUNn4/s1600/2014-09-07%2B08.28.19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wi2Bwf9vvxM/VBVdlnGyPZI/AAAAAAAABFI/aFHJ3mkUNn4/s1600/2014-09-07%2B08.28.19.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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My hair did feel a bit unclean, but I figured it was just because I was so used to the effects of shampoo.</div>
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All in all, I am glad that I did the preparation process as I feel confident that it definitely helped achieve a much better result.</div>
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Part Two can be found here </div>
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<img src="webkit-fake-url://355B4E2D-0B8A-4F85-AD6B-8770F0D552E5/imagejpeg" />Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-67363714087019096312014-09-06T02:44:00.000-07:002014-09-06T02:44:37.685-07:00Vanilla Shortbread Recipe<h2>
Great British Bake Off Week Two - Biscuits</h2>
So it is no secret that I am in love with Great British Bake Off! This year I have decided to do a little bake-along each week, inspired by whatever theme the weeks programming is.<br />
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Week two was biscuits and I decided to create some vanilla shortbread. In truth, the only biscuits I generally make are cookies, so I was quite excited to try these, especially as they are a favourite of the Mr! They were surprisingly easy to make and went down a treat.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C4M6O7mV2JA/VArOWvoiglI/AAAAAAAAAvg/AacPYTwVyOE/w439-h585-no/20140824_133121.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C4M6O7mV2JA/VArOWvoiglI/AAAAAAAAAvg/AacPYTwVyOE/w439-h585-no/20140824_133121.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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These were fantastic, (even if I do say so myself) so it seems only fair for me to share the original recipe (<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1843406365/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=479289247&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1908449497&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1Y43S7F5HP4TSCHBGT3B" target="_blank">from my favourite baking book!</a>) along with my tweaks so you can try them yourself :)</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ingredients</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">225 grams</span></div>
<span class="ingredient-name" property="schema:name"><span style="font-family: inherit;">butter</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">125 grams</span></div>
<span class="ingredient-name" property="schema:name"><span style="font-family: inherit;">caster sugar</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">225 grams</span></div>
<span class="ingredient-name" property="schema:name"><span style="font-family: inherit;">plain flour</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">125 grams</span></div>
<span class="ingredient-name" property="schema:name"><span style="font-family: inherit;">ground rice (or rice flour) - I used a gluten free flour mix I had in the cupboard</span></span></div>
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<span class="ingredient-name" property="schema:name"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1 tea spoon vanilla extract</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">1 pinch</span></div>
<span class="ingredient-name" property="schema:name"><span style="font-family: inherit;">salt</span></span></div>
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<span class="ingredient-name" property="schema:name"><span style="font-family: inherit;">golden sugar for coating</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">1. Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy, then add the vanilla extract stirring well</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />2. Sift the flour, ground rice and salt together onto the creamed mixture and stir in, using a wooden spoon until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. I tend to do this gently to try to keep mixture really light.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />3. Gather the dough together with your hand and turn onto a clean worksurface. Knead lightly until it forms a ball, then lightly roll/shape into a sausage about 2 inches (5 cm) thick. Do all this a gently as you can.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />4. Wrap in cling film and chill in fridge for at least a couple of hours</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />5. unwrap the roll and slice into discs, about 1/3-1/2 inch (7-10 mm) thick.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />6. Roll the edge of each biscuit in golden sugar.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />7. Place the biscuits on two baking sheets lined with greaseproof paper ... spread them out a bit as they will expand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />8. Bake at 190C (375F) for 15-20 minutes, depending on the thickness, until very pale golden.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />9. On removing from the oven sprinkle with caster sugar. Leave on a baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.</span></div>
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If put in an air tight container, these will keep for just over a week :)</div>
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<br />Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-33572276640530051592014-08-10T12:33:00.001-07:002014-09-06T02:45:07.915-07:00Great British Bake Off inspired Chocolate Orange Swiss RollSo the 2014 series of The Great British Bake Off started last week and I managed to catch up with the first episode this morning.<br />
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Their signature bake was a Swiss Roll and it occurred to me that this is something I have never attempted before.</div>
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The first contestant to leave was the lovely Claire Goodwin and I loved the flavour combination of her chocolate orange Swiss Roll.</div>
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In honour of her, I decided to have a go at one too.</div>
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A chocolate and orange sponge Swiss Roll with Orange Curd and whipped dark chocolate ganache. Covered in a set dark chocolate ganache and candied orange peel slices.</div>
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There were a lot of firsts in this bake;</div>
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First Swiss Roll</div>
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First Orange Curd</div>
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First Candied Orange</div>
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The flavours are fab and I really enjoyed making the curd :) </div>
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I was actually quite surprised at how easy this was to make. Sadly it is quite runny (I cooked it for far longer then the recipe called for). But the left overs will make a fantastic dip for my chocolate brioche.</div>
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<a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0VJVerXEc8Q/U-fJDVLs-hI/AAAAAAAABEY/oYPdrwGDL70/s640/blogger-image-518842228.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0VJVerXEc8Q/U-fJDVLs-hI/AAAAAAAABEY/oYPdrwGDL70/s640/blogger-image-518842228.jpg" /></a></div>
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This looks so effective, and was just made by boiling water, sugar and the segments for an hour.</div>
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Sadly I'm not actually a fan of candied peel, but I have to admit it really adds an extra dimension to a homemade bake.</div>
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Although inspired by Claire, the actual component pairing (ganache, curd and candied peel) was my very own.</div>
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I will hopefully get round to sharing the entire recipe with you all, but for now just enjoy the phots!</div>
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Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-53180746397262653342014-08-06T23:19:00.000-07:002014-08-06T23:19:09.559-07:00Free Wine PrintGood Morning Lovelies, today I am sharing a freebie! We asked lots of wonderful fans which their favourite <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ChibiChiDesigns" target="_blank">Chibi Chi Designs</a> print was, and the resounding answer was our funny wine print!<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J7cS4LtB0CU/U-MYb4pvYDI/AAAAAAAABDo/CaE-XoZUxk8/s1600/DSCF5732.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-J7cS4LtB0CU/U-MYb4pvYDI/AAAAAAAABDo/CaE-XoZUxk8/s1600/DSCF5732.JPG" height="273" width="320" /></a></div>
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Now before I share the image, I just wanted to remind you all that these are only for personal use. You can print as many times as you like, use them for yourself, give them as gifts, but under no circumstances can you profit from them.</div>
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It's not cool to rip off a designers work and not give them any reimbursement for their time and effort.</div>
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To download, simply right click and press 'save image as' - Simples!</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IIoVtuii37E/U-MZKMUlpvI/AAAAAAAABD4/kMnc1DaaduI/s1600/Good+Wine.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IIoVtuii37E/U-MZKMUlpvI/AAAAAAAABD4/kMnc1DaaduI/s1600/Good+Wine.png" height="640" width="451" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rtWViVEmrJU/U-MZJsF_8nI/AAAAAAAABEE/aUnxVmYppZg/s1600/Good+Wine+Orange.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rtWViVEmrJU/U-MZJsF_8nI/AAAAAAAABEE/aUnxVmYppZg/s1600/Good+Wine+Orange.png" height="640" width="451" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dDscXzZWiHg/U-MZKNmPCuI/AAAAAAAABD8/AvimsQ0yRYg/s1600/Good+Wine+Purple.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dDscXzZWiHg/U-MZKNmPCuI/AAAAAAAABD8/AvimsQ0yRYg/s1600/Good+Wine+Purple.png" height="640" width="451" /></a></div>
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If your image downloads pixellated or blurred, send me an email and I will reply with the uncompressed image - chibi-chi-designs@hotmail.com</div>
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For those of you that would like all the hard work done, the items can be ordered in either poster or card form from my <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ChibiChiDesigns" target="_blank">facebook</a> page or <a href="https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ChibiChiDesigns" target="_blank">Etsy</a> shop :)</div>
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These prints are only available to download for a limited time</div>
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<br />Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-47021402907720199182014-07-12T09:06:00.000-07:002014-07-12T09:06:49.261-07:00How to Print and Cut on Dark Card with the Silhouette CameoIn my <a href="https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ChibiChiDesigns" target="_blank">shop</a> we have recently been creating a lot of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ChibiChiDesigns/photos/pb.482105065181058.-2207520000.1405164770./739440749447487/?type=3&theater" target="_blank">Wedding Stationary</a> for customers, the majority of these designs need to make use of the Silhouette Cameo print and cut feature.<br />
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I have a love hate relationship with the laser in my cameo, it probably fails to read (or worse cut correctly!) 75% of the time. If you are using anything other than bright white card stock, prepare for more tears, tantrums and wasted card than you can shake a stick at!</div>
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Sometimes a customer will ask for a design on quite a dark colour, although my heart used to sink; how on earth could I tell a bride that she couldn't have the colour that matches her design scheme, because my crappy machine can't cope with it??? After my latest order was completed on dark blue card with success, I've finally found a workaround! White address labels.</div>
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I know it sounds crazy, but think about it. The laser cannot read the registration marks because there is not enough definition between the black lines and the colour of the card. Before you start this method, I would strongly advise that you try these two tricks first;</div>
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<li>Ensure that you have set the registration marks to the thickest and longest length</li>
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If still no joy, then in all likelihood your card is too dark and you will need to use this method.</div>
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I use the standard avery address labels and cut each label into 6 width ways</div>
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Position two labels in each of the corners (in a L shape) where the marks will print. You need to make sure they are stuck down well.</div>
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Time for a bit of lateral thinking! When loading in the card, you need to make sure that when it prints the bottom registration mark, it will print onto the label and not the blank card corner (it leaves one corner without any marks).</div>
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Once printed you can load and cut as usual :)</div>
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Easy Peasy!</div>
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Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-40124090753851842322014-06-29T03:55:00.000-07:002014-06-29T03:55:39.962-07:00Wii Console Games vs the Gym - Initial PurchasesSo the challenge was to try and get all of my starting items for as close to the £35 monthly gym fee as possible. I succeeded! All of the above came in at £38 - the £3 over spend was on batteries and in all honesty we could have probably done without them, but I wanted to avoid any battery hogging conflict with the Mr ;) To give you some idea of what I got for my cash, here is the breakdown.<br />
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<li>Wii console, controller, nunchuck, balance board, wii fit and all cables - £25</li>
<li>Wii fit plus - £3.50</li>
<li>My fitness coach - £1.50</li>
<li>Just Dance - £5</li>
<li>4 x rechargeable batteries - £2</li>
<li>11 x AA batteries - £1</li>
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The console came from gumtree (plenty of similarly priced ones in our area) the extra games are pre-owned from CEX and the batteries are from the 99p store.</div>
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The more observant of you will notice I have both wii fit and wii fit plus. Technically wii fit plus is the original wii fit game with extra, so I don't need the original. I can part exchange this for perhaps 50p in CEX the next time I'm in. Not great money, but it all helps!</div>
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So this is my starting point. I am hoping to purchase EA active 2 with the heart monitor and accessories, but they did not have any of these in my local CEX. Ebay are stocking them for £8 including postage, but I shall try and hunt one out for cheaper!<br />
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I know a lot of people will argue that there are better fitness games available for consoles on the Xbox or Playstation, although I agree to a certain extent, the big difference is the price. The wii console and games are a fraction of the price of the others, and a large part of this experiment is keeping costs low.</div>
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My next post will be all about my first day of using and a brief look at Just Dance and Wii Fit Plus.<br />
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Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-35451565006146448282014-04-21T03:07:00.001-07:002014-04-21T03:07:46.047-07:00Turning Scrap Book Paper into Framed Art<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So part of the flat over-haul is depersonalizing our home - a somewhat sensitive subject between my husband and I. After almost two decades of being addicted to interior design and house selling programmes (started with changing rooms and evolved into a fully fledged Sarah Beeny crush) I know that most buyers can't over-look the array of personal items and see the potential of a home. There is a reason that staging and show home chic is a design staple when it comes to selling, it works. With this in mind our beloved wedding photos had to come down.<br />
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In hind-sight, it would have been a good idea to actually show you a before and after photo, but being as rushed and forgetful as I am, I didn't remember. Basically once all the wedding photo frames were removed (bar one canvas, as we do want the flat to actually feel lived in!) we were left with a giant blank <strike>mucky</strike> purple wall.<br />
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I have hording tendencies, and so even though we painted the feature wall in October 2010, it shouldn't be surprising that we kept the leftover paint ;) Mixing a squirt of washing up liquid with warm water, the walls were gently cleaned from top to bottom and left to dry. I then touched up any stubborn areas with the leftover paint - it was seamless and looked as if it had all been freshly painted :) Not bad for free!<br />
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Next came the idea of what could be done to transform the blank (beautifully painted) wall into something more of a feature - it is the finishing touches that will make or break a home after all! I had a brain wave - whilst scouring <a href="https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ChibiChiDesigns" target="_blank">Etsy</a> for inspiration, I came across the trend for big graphic type prints grouped together in 4s or 6s. I was in love with this idea, and knew that if I had the time I could easily whip <a href="https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ChibiChiDesigns?section_id=13498126&ref=shopsection_leftnav_7" target="_blank">something</a> up. Sadly time is something in short supply around here - two businesses, a part time job and a sick husband means that most days it's lucky if I can remember to feed myself let alone sit down and play designer for a personal project.<br />
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To my eye, a lot of these <strike>pricey</strike> graphic prints looked like fancy scrapbook paper, lighbulb moment! To go with the purple wall, we have black and silver soft furnishings, I knew that whatever framed feature I came up with, I had to stick to those colours to make sure it flowed. I started off scouring the web for free digital scrapbook paper (I'm impatient and wanted the ease of downloading over waiting for the postman). This was taking too long, and understandably the free digital designs were a little sub par or too mismatched.<br />
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I'm an Etsy seller, the idea for this project came from Etsy, so it made sense that I actually buy the digital paper from there too. Once I popped 'black and silver digital scrapbook paper' into the search bar, I was over-whelmed with thousands of beautiful designs. I soon found the one I loved at <a href="https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/GracefulGraphics?ref=l2-shop-info-name" target="_blank">Graceful Graphics</a> and at £1.83 for 10 different designs, I was smitten!<br />
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<a href="https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/107014202/scrapbook-paper-pack-digital?ref=shop_home_active_9&ga_search_query=black%2Band%2Bwhite" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VBnQRYJ1Oos/U1TqY115_hI/AAAAAAAABBs/t_NTcf-gu4E/s1600/il_570xN.366223871_e382.jpg" height="320" width="247" /></a></div>
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Now I know that not everyone is fortunate enough to have a business A3 printer like me, but providing you use photo paper, and make sure your settings are for best photo, you can print out some pretty fancy artwork too. If you're worried about how much ink this uses, I can highly recommend some of the cheaper none brand cartridges on ebay too!</div>
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I chose some <strike>cheap</strike> economical black frames as I knew that these would go best with the furniture and just had to get my sizing figured out. Pictures framed with mounts (that white surround) always look more professional, but when I looked at the prices, they were almost as much as the frames! No way, was I going to pay for that. Instead, I used my silhouette cameo print and cut software to leave a 3cm border all the way around the design. I also used my cameo to cut, so my lines were perfectly straight :)<br />
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Each of the frames were £2.85, and I used 6 - the photo paper and printer ink I 'borrowed' from my shop supplies (but most people have this lying around the house) so for the grand total of £17.10 - I am super happy with how this feature wall turned out!<br />
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<br />Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-83611644429705880802014-04-21T02:29:00.000-07:002014-04-21T02:29:17.348-07:00Over-Hauling and Selling UpSo, we've reached another sad chapter in the current ongoing saga that is our life. Chris has been medically retried, and as a consequence we are now a one income family; mine. We need to make cut backs and one of the biggest is our lovely flat by the sea :(<br />
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We are fortunate enough to live on the South coast of England, and in our town you are never more than 10 minutes from the sea. Or in our case, a five minute walk.<br />
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We bought our flat in 2009, and it was a whopping £193k - now there is now way that we could firstly afford that, and secondly that we would spend that much money on a flat with no garden - despite the beautiful views!</div>
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We were lucky enough to be eligible for a government grant (First Time Buyers Initiative) so that we only had to get a mortgage on 51% of the property. The mortgage was much cheaper than renting, the location was wonderful and we had enough money left over each month to finally get married!</div>
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Fast forward to now and the government is requesting monthly interest payments on the percentage that they helped to pay for, and once the maintenance charges, ground rent and mortgage is taken into account, we are quickly coming to the point where it is no longer financially viable to stay here :( So we are toying with the idea of selling.</div>
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We are competing with neighboring flats that are listed for £220k and that have been sat on the market for over 6 months. We need an edge to make our home look not only on a par with these fancy flats, but to entice the buyers to settle for the full asking price. If we don't achieve market value, the government will not let us sell (or it will take a lot of stress and hassle to convince them of why we need to sell at a low price). We may be lucky and come away with a few £k to settle our debts and maybe enter into another shared ownership scheme, so every penny really does count!</div>
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The next few posts will show you how we have over-hauled our home for as little ££ as possible! Fingers crossed this all helps. The only downside is that it is going to be even more difficult to leave our lovely home once all these extras are complete.</div>
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<br />Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-15071657125761316972014-03-08T08:21:00.002-08:002014-03-08T08:21:44.795-08:00Our Nightmare Before Christmas (NBC) Wedding CakeSo you may not know this, but my husband and I had a Nightmare Before Christmas themed Wedding. Yep, that's right, Jack, Sally, the whole shebang!<br />
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When we were planning our wedding I found it quite difficult to find Nightmare Before Christmas Wedding items that weren't super OTT or tacky. This is probably why we kept ours subtle, with just a few placements of the actual characters (Invitations, Stationary and Wedding Cake) and why I made or designed it all myself <strike>and not because I'm a control freak!</strike><br />
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Originally I was going to make my cake myself, (I do like to make things as stressful as possible) but luckily I finally listened to reason and we found a wonderful local hobbyist to make it instead :) She had never heard of the film, and when I showed her the toppers I could see her struggling to hold onto her smile lol.<br />
I showed her my design and she diplomatically told me that it was definitely possible. I was prepared for the fact that my cake may not look as great as I had imagined, but boy was I wrong - it was even better!<br />
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We thought our wedding was pretty normal - we did have Richard Cheese playing during the sit down meal, and we picked our entire evening reception playlist (with requests from guests every third song) so we could have Slipknot, Mudvayne, Foo Fighters etc, but we also played my favourite cheesy hits like Saturday night, YMCA and even Lil Chris! However we later heard through the grape vine, that staff and the DJs had nicknamed it the goth wedding! I'd love to see their faces if they catered or worked at an actual goth wedding ;)</div>
<br />Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-715340879821140178.post-41516118104482158162014-03-08T07:57:00.001-08:002015-03-01T12:33:09.146-08:00Rockabilly Giant Cupcake Baby Shower CakeSo two of my closest friends are about to pop! Seriously, they are both due within a week of each other and there is now less than a month to go! So when I was asked if I could make the cake for one of my friends surprise baby shower, how could I refuse?<br />
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This friend and I have very similar tastes. I am in awe of her amazing clothes, cats eye glasses and ever present trade-mark red lips. So I knew if I liked the cake, she would too ;) This friend had the most rocking wedding cake ever! I was seriously up against some stiff competition in the awesome factor. Take a peek if you don't believe me;<br />
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A few of you may remember I made a giant cupcake for my mother in law a few years ago, (you can find the original post <a href="http://ramblingsofababymakingaddict.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/giant-cupcake.html" target="_blank">here</a>) well in keeping with my friends wedding cake, I thought it would be awesome to do another giant one :)</div>
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I really wanted to make this cake personal to my friend, and knew that a plain giant cupcake just wouldn't fit the bill. In my head I knew I needed polka dots, swallows, tattoos and of course leopard print! I wanted to do the cake base in a really dark blue and polka dot fondant, with the cake iced in blood red 'roses'. In my head it looked awesome, but I knew that pulling it off may be a bit trickier.</div>
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Yep, I'm sure you've noticed the flowers are pink :( I wanted blood red and even bought coloured food GEL to achieve this, but for whatever reason the icing would just not budge from pink!</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kO_1O3tpx3g/Uxs40To5YVI/AAAAAAAAA_g/-UV992ZECSs/s1600/DSCF7453.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kO_1O3tpx3g/Uxs40To5YVI/AAAAAAAAA_g/-UV992ZECSs/s1600/DSCF7453.JPG" height="257" width="320" /></a></div>
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Man was this cake heavy! I ended up having to use our black Wedding Cake board just to easily transport the thing. It seriously weighed more than both our dogs put together!</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b1XiyQepz0g/Uxs43MthjII/AAAAAAAAA_s/4Afp9AWm9XU/s1600/DSCF7454.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b1XiyQepz0g/Uxs43MthjII/AAAAAAAAA_s/4Afp9AWm9XU/s1600/DSCF7454.JPG" height="257" width="320" /></a></div>
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I did toy with the idea of a rolled fondant leopard print board, but when I found this fab ribbon in my <strike>ever expanding </strike>craft stash, I knew it would be perfect :)</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XX2iRbJ_Bnc/Uxs4536LZ0I/AAAAAAAAA_4/VdaA79yW-18/s1600/DSCF7458.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XX2iRbJ_Bnc/Uxs4536LZ0I/AAAAAAAAA_4/VdaA79yW-18/s1600/DSCF7458.JPG" height="238" width="320" /></a></div>
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We know they are having a boy, but the name is being kept top secret until the birth, so I anointed him Crouch Junior ;)</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CrTNCpFE56Q/Uxs48eWHFaI/AAAAAAAABAA/YPLZ9Q7Ew60/s1600/DSCF7460.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CrTNCpFE56Q/Uxs48eWHFaI/AAAAAAAABAA/YPLZ9Q7Ew60/s1600/DSCF7460.JPG" height="267" width="320" /></a></div>
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My last cupcake also featured a chocolate shell casing, but I had severe melting issues when applying the ribbon :( I learnt from my past mistakes and increased the chocolate quantity and switched to all plain - It held up fantastically.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sd3cnBGCnWA/Uxs4--zsNyI/AAAAAAAABAI/IA2cphBZQxU/s1600/swallow-tattoo-design-14ef926.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sd3cnBGCnWA/Uxs4--zsNyI/AAAAAAAABAI/IA2cphBZQxU/s1600/swallow-tattoo-design-14ef926.png" height="179" width="320" /></a></div>
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I did consider making this out of painted fondant, but I wisely chose to print it instead (using the print and cut function on my silhouette cameo of course!). I figured this way it could be removed and scrap booked as a memento should my friend want.</div>
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The cake and frosting are orange flavored, and coupled with the thick plain chocolate shell, it was divine!</div>
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I love giant cupcakes, as they are fairly easy to decorate and look fantastic!</div>
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If you would like to make your own, please check out the links to all the different components :)</div>
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<a href="http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/517880/victoria-threader-s-giant-cupcake" target="_blank">Giant Cupcake Recipe</a></div>
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To make this super orangey, I substituted the vanilla essence for 4 teaspoons of orange essence, and decreased the milk to only 2 table spoons.</div>
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You can also add the zest of an orange too!</div>
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I had enough batter left over to make two small Victoria sponge cakes from too :D</div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG3n1OHwMYk" target="_blank">Chocolate Cupcake Case</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/517880/victoria-threader-s-giant-cupcake" target="_blank">Icing Recipe</a></div>
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I doubled the quantity of this as I wanted enough to assemble, crumb coat and pipe the roses</div>
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Again, substitute the vanilla extract for 4 teaspoons of orange essence - you may need to add a bit more icing sugar to get it to the right consistency</div>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5jxPN5xYpw" target="_blank">Rose Piping Technique</a></div>
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My friend love the cake, and went so far as to say it was far better than one they had recently had professionally made for £90 - Happy face!</div>
<br />Danielle Janeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11881400954040306745noreply@blogger.com0