Fashion Inspiration Book

The other day I was clearing out my room and I came across some old magazine posters and cut outs that I had used when studying fashion photography at College; I didn't want to throw them away as they were good quality and the images were some of my favourites, so I went onto Pinterest to browse for ideas that I could make some use for them. I came across a fashion moodboard that I could collage the images together, however I had no where in my room to place it, as well as my room was about to be redecorated so it wouldn't be convenient. I then decided to keep with the same concept, however produce it into a book. That day I took a trip to HobbyCraft and purchased an A4 black ringbinder sketchbook. Below is a series of images that demonstrate the pages I have produced. 

I have catogorized each page to visualize a theme, for example the 4 pages above show pages about, coats, autumnal clothing, vintage and pastel colours. I have also focused on what I personally like most; throughout the book there is a ocurring theme of vintage and girly aspects of fashion as well as of my favourite models such as Cara Delevingne and Georgia May Jagger.  

I am really pleased with the outcome of each pages and that its really easy to set up whenever or to grab a magazine and cut out my favourite inspirations. Particularly the collage of pages above, HobbyCraft HQ instagram pages have regrammed my picture with a comment that they really loved it! Which as really encouraged me to carry on, even though its not for a college project. Check out hobbycraft's instagram Here 

Thanks for reading 

Alice xo 

Autumnal Loves - Polyvore

Firstly, to introduce this post with a new website I have found, called 'Polyvore'. This is a website that enables you to create moodboards/collage of anything, ranging from fashion, beauty and art. I though this would be a creative way in showing this blogpost of listing my top loves of autumn. My most recent sets are the autumnal loves (below) and my rose gold set. If you're interested to see others that i have made and will soon make more, the link for my profile will be at the end of this blog post.  

So September is finally here and i cannot be any more happier, it also means its even more closer to Christmas! I personally love the autumnal season, as I love the cozy evenings with oversized jumpers and the fluffy blankets, then to top of the christmas movie marathons; its never to early for christmas movies!. With the polyvore website, I created a collage of my top 5 things I love most about autumn. 

1. The first being shirts; I love cotton shirts, both plaid and plain, in all colours, as they are so comfortable and makes it look like you've put alot of effort in planning your outfit! 

2. Military boots; I live in my boots, even in he summer because I love them so much, but particularly in autumn I think they look great, prior with the shirts. 

3. Red/dark lipsticks; I've recently got into darker shades of lipsticks, as I found I couldnt pull them of with braces and having such a pale complexion, but now with darker hair and being brace free, I have found shades that suit me, one of which is one of the Revlons super lustrous lipsticks.

4. Candles; Every scent of candles I love, ranging from apple spice, cinnamon and pumpkin, purely because it reminds me of Christmas.

5. Lastly is halloween, I dont go trick or treating or celebrate the season too much, but I enjoy watching horror films around this time and going to Tulleys Farm Shocktober. 

Link to Polyvore Profile - http://mynameisallie.polyvore.com/

Thanks for reading! xo

Alice 

Ginger and Pecan Biscuits

I purchased a crohns diet guide from amazon (link below) and was desperate to try out some recipes. So this weekend we tried out the ginger quinoa biscuits, however we replaced the quinoa with plain flour. We also added dry pecan nuts on top to give more taste to them, however this can be whatever you prefer, such as walnuts, hazelnuts etc. After baking these, next time I will consider adding an orange water icing to drizzle on top to balance out the spice and sweet flavours. Below is the ingredients needed to make these as well as the method that is in the book. 

You will need:
Plain/quinoa flour
Ground Ginger
Bicarbonate of Soda
Ground Cinnamon
Ground Cloves
Fine Sea Salt
Brown sugar
Unsalted Butter
1 Egg

Method:

Preheat oven at 180'c

Gently mix together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, cloves and ginger together, ensuring everything is mixed well.

In another bowl whisk the sugar and egg, to create a smooth thick mixture.

Use a wooden spoon to mix in the flour mixture until well blended.

Leave to chill in the fridge for an hour.

Divide mixture into thirty 1 inch sized balls onto a baking tray. At this stage you can add on any toppings, such as dried fruit or nut.

Bake in the oven for 9-12, until the biscuits are golden brown. 

Crohns Disease Diet Guide Book

Vanilla and Raspberry Cupcakes

I had a load of raspberries leftover from the white chocolate and raspberry blondies, so I decided to do a quick bake to use them up. I came up with simple vanilla cupcakes with vanilla and raspberry icing. They look so summer with brightly cupcake cases and a take on strawberry and cream.

You will need:

4oz Caster Sugar

4oz Self raising flour

1tsp Baking Powder

4oz Margarine 

2 Eggs 

1tsp Vanilla Extract

Topping- 

Buttercream icing

Raspberries

Method:

Weigh our dry ingredients and mix together well. 

Add in margarine and egg, to create a pale yellow smooth mixture.

At this stage add in a drop of vanilla extract.

Line a cupcake tin with decorative summery cupcake cases and fill over half the case with the mixture.

Bake for 15-20 mins, until golden brown and springy. 

Once cooled on a cooling rack, apply the buttercream icing and decorate to your preference.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Blondies

You will need:

1 teaspoon baking powder 

250g White chocolate 

250g Raspberries

6ozs Caster sugar

4ozs Butter

6ozs Flour

3 eggs

Method:

Preheat oven to 180'c and line a 18 x 27 inch baking tin. 

Melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl over simmering pan of water.

In another bowl whisk together the butter, eggs and caster sugar to create a creamy thick consistency. 

Once the butter and chocolate has melted, fold gently into the butter and caster sugar mix.

Also add in the flour and further fold, to create a yellow paste. 

Place the raspberries evenly on top.

Pour into the baking tin and cook for 30-35 mins. 

Once cooled on a drying rack, melt extra white chocolate and drizzled on top of them. Cut into 12 equal squares. 

CD- Follow up appointment

Today I had a follow up appointment with the surgeon since my surgery, this was just a confirmation that I have crohns disease as well as future plans. I am now being referred to see a gastroenterologist, who will discuss the types of medication I will need for this life long disease, as well as iron and b12 vitamins. As they have taken out the section that your body naturally absorbs b12, I have been taking b12 supplements. Though from now on, I am to have a B12 injections every 3 months. As for my iron levels; I’ve also been anemic, I have to either take iron supplements or to take iron foods, such as beef, broccoli etc, however beef is one of the foods I can’t eat, which makes it difficult.

The most important thing I learnt from the appointment, was  that having the one meal that is under the category of not recommended foods, will not do internal damage, however will mean I will suffer the consequences, e.g. stomach cramps. So for a barbeque which is happening next week, I can have the odd burger, which is nice as I don’t feel so left out. Apparently there’s a chance in years to come that I may need more surgery caused from the immune system and how it works (some science technical stuff), though this could be 10 years or more. Right now I have a positive mind with how everything is going and hopefully it stays on track and is managed relatively well.

I have also purchased a crohns recipe book as I’m finding new vegetables and ways to incorporate them. However I’m more into baking, than savoury cooking, therefore for my next blog post I will be showing my recipe for white chocolate and raspberry brownies.

Thanks for reading!xo

Alice

Crohns Disease

Hey!

This is going to be a different post; not focusing on fashion and beauty, however on health and my personal experience. Over 2 months ago and in the space of a week  I had gone through major abdominal surgery and had spent a week in hospital; what was originally suspected as appendicitis, turned out to be Crohns disease. It took a while for me to understand what had actually happened and the cause of it, but after alot of explaining I now understand alot more about it. I have decided to blog about it, to inform others, as it quite unknown and after reading forums and other people with crohns, found  it interesting to learn about others experiences. 

Crohns disease is a chronic inflammatory disease thats occurs in the iluem (small) and colon (large) intestines. Without getting too descriptive as it can be abit 'bluergh', I've had the surgery where they've removed the part of inflammed section.  Apparently there isn't a complete cure for crohns, however it can be managed through diet and medication. I have spent hours reading through websites, blogs, forums, books, discovering new diets and talking to people who have the same. I have had to cut out alot of the food that I used to eat on a daily basis and basically go through a trial and error process in finding out whats foods effect me. So far I have found some fruits, chocolate, raw vegtables, frieds foods and spicy foods are the ones that have effected me. 

Blogger 'Deliciously Ella' has inspired me to try out new healthy dishes/recipes which are gluten free, dairy free and meat free. So from now on, I have decided to do similar and blog about my own recipes and how they turn out (hopefully tasty) as well as using this blog as a diary entry of each stage and getting through it. I have already planned out to try out an alternative to spaghetti bologenese! 

Thanks for reading!
Alice xo

Scrapbooking

I've recently got into scrapbooking, as I have now finished my time at college. I have no courseworks or revision work to focus on, therefore I now have time for myself. I've always liked being creative and making books, so I decided to make an on-going scrapbook, capturing events that I want to keep as memories. Below I have listed the essential equipment needed as well as displaying pages that are in my scrapbook to show my theme and layout. 

The scrapbook  is a 12 x 12 square size book available from Hobbycraft online and instore. They have a choice between white, black, red, blue and green in this size book, as well as a smaller version of a 6 x 6. They also provide background paper; I've been using the Bohemian 12 x 12 paper which is a country and floral theme. However they also offer a range of different patterns and themes. For the cover, I decided to simply opt for stickers which displayed my name. I used the gold metallic heart stickers outlined with a silver metallic pen . However you can accessorize it to your personal preference with buttons, assorted shapes or ribbon. Below I have put together a series of three images, displaying a few of my favourite pages, ranging from subtle simple designs to loud and vivid. 

Primark Haul - March 2015

Yes, it is time, for the long awaited 'Primark haul'. For some odd reason, I have never uploaded a haul focusing on my Primark purchases, however I went shopping today and picked up some basic tops which I thought would be nice to share.

Now that spring is approaching and the sun has finally decided to shine, I realized I didn't own many t-shirts. So when i went shopping, i was particularly looking for basic t-shirts. Primark had the one stand, selling between £2 - 5, so  I thought that this was a bargain. I picked up a black t-shirt with a pink and purple floral pattern. Which i though would be good for spring, as following the floral trend. However I also opted for a less spring look, with a black and white snake skin effect t-shirt. I picked these tops as I thought they would go with more of my clothes, however I wish I had picked more up as the quality and comfort is unbelievably good. 

Back To Blog

Hello! Long time no..writing?

I know its been over 6 months since my last blog post (oops), but I've gone back being more committed and after catching up with stressful college works and finally get my life on track, I'm continuing on posting blog posts. I've enjoyed organising posts, shooting images and writing, even if noone reads it, so decided to carry on.

Anyway, I have a collective haul from over the past weeks, which I aim to post on Monday. This will also be a bit more interesting and exciting. So definitely stay tuned!

Thanks for reading!

Alice xo