Flowering Tea

Now this is something I hadn't seen before and being a massive tea fan it did excite me.. My mum brought these backs from a little trip to Chester and I couldn't wait to try it out. So here is the result.

The pack of two didn't come with instructions so I had no idea of what kind of tea it was but after a bit of research it seems to be the Jasmine Fusion kind. I love jasmine tea however this did not taste like the regular tea bag sort.. Even though I wasn't a massive fan of the taste it still gave me much entertainment for a good 30 minutes...just watching it open up into the flower is incredible and after my good friend Debs telling me about JINGTEA I am definitely going to pay them a visit and get some that I will actually enjoy drinking as well as starring at!

Caetagram Phone Case

A few weeks back in America they had their Black Friday sale. A crazy sale that goes on in all the shops the day after Thanksgiving and thanks to Lily Pebbles from What I Heart Today I found out that Casetagram were having a Black Friday sale with $10 off. I jumped at the chance and purchased this awesome personalized phone case. I had seen them before but at around $25 per case plus P&P I wasn't so sure. However this deal was $10 off AND free shipping! Hello! I chose all of my favourite photos from my Instagram (you can also upload from your file and from Facebook . It has some family pictures on there..friends and memory snaps. I just love it! My boyfriend always said I was a crazy one for phone cases as I can find myself on eBay looking for hours at a time but I think this one will definitely be on my phone for a good few months at least! It took around 2 weeks to arrive which was good as they warned me of about 4 weeks. If you have been looking at them wondering whether to get one..do it.. you wont regret it. Just make sure when you are designing your case check it is exactly how you want it before you save because you cant go back and change it unless you email them and get them to do it. I found that out the hard way but they were extremely nice and got things changed for me. The quality is great and you can customize them in lots of different ways.

Lauren x

p.s. 5 sleeps!!

OOTD - Those cold sunny days!

Jumper - Primark (Men's section)

Jeans - Dorothy Perkins

Shirt - Internacionale (Last year)

Shoes - Converse

Hat - Primark

This was an outfit from last week when me and the other half went for a walk in the local park. It was such a nice sunny day but oh me oh my it was chilly! It is a gorgeous park with a beautiful pub in the middle. There are hundreds of huge trees where the little squirrels live. I end up trying to stalk the squirrels even though I know they wont come near me! I had some boring black gloves too but I took them off. Im back up North now until after Christmas so have time to get some Christmas craft posts up soon.

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend :)

Lauren x

Free Hand Drawn Printable Gift Tags

I stumbled across these on HEY LOOK's blog and had to share them. Cute gift tags that you can print out for free HERE. My gift tags for the year...sorted.

Do you make your own gift tags and decorations at Christmas?

Lauren x

LUMI Magique

Its the time of the year where my skin starts to look dull and gloomy therefore I whip the highlighters out to add a tad of glow to the face. I am usually one for powder highlighters however when I spotted this one I thought I would give it a go seen as I prefer cream blushers to powders so thought it might be the same for highlighters. 

It is such a light texture so does not feel 'cakey' at all and put under my eyes over the top of my Bobbi Brown Corrector I think it works well and brightens up the area with it being a concealer too (Bonus!) Also I like to pop a bit at the top of my cheekbones to boost them up a bit and with its SLIGHT shimmer it really catches in the light without you looking like a glitter ball!

Silly me picked up the wrong colour.. Instead of meaning to get No.2 Medium I got No.3 Dark which surprisingly is not dark at all so I would say to try it in the shop before buying as you may be a different colour than you expected.

(No makeup apart from the highlighter product)

(poop lighting for you to see it anyway! Fail!)

The LUMI MAGIQUE can be purchased HERE for £8.49 but I have seen this in some market stalls for much cheaper so check out your local markets first. 

Is is L'Oreal who own YSL? As it is basically the touche eclat right?

What is you favourite highlighter?

Lauren x

Banana and Walnut Muffins Recipe

Just round the corner from my new flat is a market stall that sell a ridiculous amount of fruit for just £1. Its basically one pound per bowl and in that bowl fit around 15 bananas! Yes great price you may think..but I bought apples and grapes too so needless to say we had a lot of bananas running out of time to be eaten!

Since I have been feeling poop all week with a stooopid chest infection I decided to make something yummy that reminds me of when I was younger (My Nan and I used to make something similar) so here is my Banana and Walnut Muffins.

Ingredients-

230g Plain Flour

200g White Sugar

1tsp Baking Powder

¼ tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

¼ Salt

1 tsp Cinnamon

80g Chopped Walnuts

2 Eggs

100g melted sated butter

3 ripe Bananas (mushed or mashed, however you would like to say it)

1tsp Vanilla Extract

Ready for how simple it is?!

• In a bowl mix all the ingredients together
• In a seperate bowl mix all of the wet ingredients
• Pour the wet ingriendents into the dry and fold to mix it all together
• Pop a heaped spoonful of the mixture into 12 cupcakes cases that are in a cupcake or muffin baking tray
• pop them in the oven for around 13 minutes or until you can stick a knife in them and it comes out clear
• and VWALA! 

They are SO delicious and so yummy warm straight from the oven. They would be great with custard or cream too! 

Let me know if you try them..

Lauren x

Barry M - Gelly Hi-Shine Nail Paints

I have always been a massive fan of Barry M nail paints with approx. 20 different shades in my collection... however i wasn't a fan of the crackle effect ones that came out a while back now. They look so pretty on other people but just looked odd on me. So I always stuck to their main line of nail paints and never really looked at the 'effect' ones. When I was in Boots last week these beauties caught my eye straight away, mainly because of the two colours I purchased. 

They are quite a thick consistency without being gloopy (is that even a word?) You can even get away with only applying one coat which is awesome. In the photo below I had applied 2 coats and no word of a lie it lasted about a week WITHOUT CHIPPING!!! I know!!! 

At £3.99 (one pound more than the original nail paint line) I think they are brilliant, a bargain and would be an amazing stocking filler for Christmas. I will definitely be purchasing a few other colours.

I do have wrinkly hands for a 25 year old! Thanks mum!

Pomegranate and Plum

I love the fact that Barry M have decided to give there polishes names now too. They originally just had numbers, they went to 'red', 'navy' etc. Names like Pomegranate are much more fun.

 I believe there is 7 different colours in the range and you can buy them from Boots or Superdrug - Link!

Have you tried the Gelly polishes yet? Whats your favourite colour?

Lauren x