Food: Nutella Brownies

I am obsessed with Nutella! It is my naughty go to when I want a bit of sweetness, I just dip a spoon in the tub and get stuck in! When I came across this recipe for Nutella Brownie, I couldn’t resist giving them a try. They are now a regular occurrence in my kitchen, they are so easy to make and just way too yummy!

 

 

Ingredients...

8oz Nutella

2 Eggs

5oz Flour

Chopped Walnuts

What to do...

Preheat the oven to 200c and spray a muffin tray with non-stick cooking spray. Then in a bowl mix together the Nutella and Eggs. Add the flour, and whisk until fully blended and smooth. Spoon evenly into muffin tray and sprinkle with the chopped walnuts.

Put in the oven for 10 minutes, this may vary depending on your oven, so just until the tops have set and cracked around the edges. The middle needs to be wet and fudgy! When you remove from oven, leave to cool for 5 minutes.

Bon Appétit!

Friendly Gesture

I am a huge fan of Etsy, an online market place filled with unique hand crafted bits and pieces. I can easily waste an afternoon browsing away at all the different shops. You can be guaranteed to find original goods that suit everyone’s style.

As a huge accessories fan, especially jewellery, Etsy is like a treasure trove to me! I love spicing up an outfit with a quirky necklace or some funky earrings. Which leads me to today’s post, I wanted to share with you all my favourite shop on Etsy and the recent purchases I’ve made from them! Friendly Gesture sells a wide range of cool hand stamped jewellery with a quirky edge.

Over the past year I have been slowly filling my jewellery collection with their range. My favourite piece so far is a T-Rex necklace, however this may have been trumped by my latest buys which are pictured below…

I am obsessed with Dinosaurs, I collect anything with them on so just had to add these awesome dino earrings to my collection, how cute are they!! The star earrings go with everything and are gorgeous. Finally, just check out my favourite piece, this Pegasus necklace, I have just one word, LOVE!

These bits come all the way from Nebraska in the USA, but shipping is pretty reasonable based on what you purchase and mine items have always arrived within a week of me placing my order¬

Do you have a favourite Etsy shop?

 

 

 

 

30 Things To Do Before I'm 30

Ladies and Gents, today is my 28^th and a half birthday!! Now I don’t tend to celebrate half birthdays, I’m not the queen, it’s just brought me to the shocking realisation that in 18 months I shall be turning 30. THIRTY!!! This terrifies me for numerous reasons. I think this is partly due to the fact I think in my head I’m still 17, I certainly don’t feel mature enough to be nearly 30. 10 years ago if you asked me what I thought I would be doing ten years from now my reply would have been along the lines of ‘be in a job I love, own a house, married with babies’, damn you Disney for making me want the fairy tale! Instead of any of this I’m nearly 30 and live in my parents loft and am in a bit of a rut. I guess I also thought I would have achieved a lot more by now. Don’t me wrong I have no regrets, I don’t believe them and have had the most awesome experiences, travelled to some incredible places so I really can’t complain. My life is pretty great I just need some changes and new challenges as I’m a bit lost at the moment.

I also better state for the record that I don’t think turning 30 is the end of the world, I fully intend to embrace it, I just feel like life has been a bit stagnant lately so want to insert some fun into my life and turn things up a notch.

So for all the reasons above I have created a bucket list, a list of 30 things I would love to achieve before I turn 30. It’s a wide variety of things that I have wanted to do for a while but for whatever reason have been a lame ass and haven’t done yet. They are all things that I think will help me make the most of life and make me a better person...

 

1.    Start dating... my love life is drier than the Sahara desert, mainly due to the fact I don’t put myself out there.

2.    Go indoor skydiving

3.    Cook one dish a week from scratch... I live off toast at the mo....

4.    Say yes more! To any opportunities that come my way.

5.    Learn to long board

6.    Try a roller derby

7.    Visit Disney World in Florida.

8.    Start a ‘grateful’ diary and record 3 things I am happy for every day.

9.    Buy a house.

10.  Try Paddle boarding.

11.  Start a successful Etsy Shop – I’ve started this one already but my aim is to make it successful!

12.  Write a book

13.  Live abroad for a month

14.  Get down to a clothing size 12

15.  Run a 10k

16.  Do a painting on a canvas

17.  Go to a music festival

18.  Visit Machu Piccu

19.  Fall in love and be loved

20.  See the northern lights

21.  Visit Ireland

22.  Try Wakeboarding

23.  Start an art class

24.  Learn to Surf

25.  Learn another language

26.  Learn the ukulele

27.  Figure out some sort of career path and be happy with whatever it may be.

28.  Make a drift wood coffee table

29.  Read one book every month

30.  Go to New Zealand

I don’t know if I can or if funds will allow me to achieve all of these but I am definitely going to try my hardest to make this all happen! I will try and do a few blogs to keep you in the loop as I go along with this journey. Wish me luck!!

Motivational Monday #21

source

This quote means so much to me right now. I am stuck in a massive rut, there are certain parts of my life that I am deeply unhappy with and desperately need to change. I am completely at a loss as to how to do this thought! However I know I am the one keeping me from making this happen, I think I am scared of the unknown and of changes in general. Saying this I know I need to make changes and need to work out how to do this, and I am the only who can do it!!

I need to give myself a kick up the butt this week, I need to start changing things up and I’m determined to also have a fun, happy positive week!

Happy Monday lovelies!

Makeup Revoloution Vivid Baked Bronzer in 'Ready To Go'

So when I purchased Makeup Revolutions Iconic 3 Palette, I may have slipped a few other items into my basket at the same time, oops!

One of these products was their Vivid Baked Bronzer in Ready To Go, as id been recommended it by a few fellow bloggers. I have to admit, I was a little startled when it arrived in the post as it was a lot darker than it looked on my computer screen. The downside of makeup shopping on the interweb!

However I was pleasantly surprised as once applied it went a gorgeous peach colour, it’s too heavy and has a gorgeous finish. Warning: you only need to apply a small amount of this bronzer unless you want to look like you have a streak of poop across your face!

 

I found this bronzer really long wearing, I only touched it up once during the day. The powder is quite loose but for £4.00 I am ridiculously chuffed with this product. It is definitely a new staple item in my makeup bag!




 

You can now sponsor 'Lipsticks and Lashes'!

I have some really exciting news to bring you all today!  Drum roll please... I would like to announce that you can now sponsor ‘Lipsticks and Lashes’!

Eeeeek! I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while and the time just feels so right at the moment. ‘Lipsticks and Lashes’ has been growing and evolving so this feels like the natural time to offer advertising packages. Its also a fab way to spread a bit of blog love, to other bloggers and small businesses.

I have decided to offer 3 packages ranging from £3.00 to £13.00, with a range of benefits that include all large and medium advertisers featuring in a monthly ‘Who’s in my side bar’ post. Each ad space will run for a whole month, and you can advertise for as many months as you like!

My blog is growing every day and I'm planning some exciting changes for the near future and I'd love you to join me! So if your a fellow blogger, small business or brand and are looking for a new way to advertise then check out my ‘Sponsor’ page for more information on the packages I am offering!

Can Bloggers do original?

A couple of weeks ago during a #Bloggersdoitbetter chat on twitter someone made a comment along the lines of ‘There is no such thing as an original blog post’. This comment has been really playing on my mind, I want to say it kind of offended me but at the same time by no means to I claim to be completely original. The comment really got me thinking.

So what is original? According to the Oxford dictionary it is defined as ‘Created personally by a particular artist, writer, musician, etc.; not a copy’.

So as bloggers we can’t deny that there are a lot of very similar posts floating about, I’ve seen sooo many ‘what’s in my handbag’, ‘makeup storage’ and similar posts in my blogging time. Also as a beauty blogger when an ‘it’ product is released we are bombarded with reviews on it. To the point I can’t be bothered to review it myself! Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure I fall into this category occasionally, how can we not when there is so many blogs around these days. However we all have our own personalities, views, likes, dislikes so each post is slightly different, so would that be classed as an original post? Or what about being inspired by a fab blog and wanting to explore a concept further? Original or not?

Or as I’m sure others have noticed, I’ve seen quite a few bloggers outing fellow bloggers for outright copying posts lately. Firstly, why would you do that? And secondly it has only has added to my quandary around original blog posts. I don’t condone copying at all and feel so disheartening, and it got me thinking about why I started blogging. I find it so sad and frustrating when I hear about these things and when I see bloggers who ‘follow for a follow’ or those who get upset on twitter about having little followers. I have been working hard on my blog for 2 years, I never started this looking for followers, and I genuinely never expected anyone to stop by, so am ridiculously humbled and flattered that people spare their time to do so.

 

I started blogging for a creative outlet, I wanted something to do for fun where I could practice my writing and play with my camera. Did I want to be original? Yes I guess I did. My blog is personal to me, I blog about things I do, things I love, my passions.

I hope this doesn’t come across as some sort of grumpy rant, I am genuinely just questioning the authenticity of blogging. I think the question of ‘Can bloggers do original?’ really interests me. Perhaps bloggers aren’t original in terms of brand new ideas but original in personifying a post to themselves and their blogs?

I would love to hear your views on this subject? Is there even such a thing as ‘original’ anymore?