Autumn Essentials

Autumn excites me so much, with Halloween, bonfire night and the run up to Christmas there's so much to do and I just love it, and as the weather gets colder and more rainy I actually have an excuse to stay in, curled up on the sofa all day. But, when you do have to face the outdoors there are a few things that are much needed to motivate me to leave the house.

Obviously a scarf is just a necessity round this time of the year, I got this one from Primark last year and I still love it this year so I've pulled it back out of hiding and it will hopefully keep me from freezing to death.

Dark lipsticks are basically made for Autumn, and I really love the Topshop Beguiled one and, everyone's favorite, Kate Moss 107. Neither of these were overly expensive and they make me feel very autumny and cosy so they're always on side to help me look a little bit more presentable.

During Autumn and Winter my hands feel really dry and I really hate dry hands, so I take a little hand cream round everywhere with me to make sure that my hands are always soft and hydrated. This one is a travel sized soap and glory one and it smells really clean and soaks in quite quickly, but it's the perfect size to carry around.

I have got to admit, during the colder months the lighter colours in my naked 3 pallete are rarely touched, but I love the darker colours for this time of the year and they go really well with a dark lip too. Although 50% of the time doing eye shadow takes up too much time and I do tend to skip it.

Honestly...can someone tell me why I've never tried a pumpkin spice latte before last week? I think I'm in love with them, they basically taste like a mix between autumn and winter and if someone gave me a gallon of it, i'd happily drink it until I was sick...what a lovely image.

What are your autumn essentials?

dais xx

Autumn Gingerbread Cinnamon Cupcakes

Autumn is probably my favorite season out of them all. I love sitting down with a hot chocolate and a soft blanket and watching YouTube, Netflix or my favorite DVD and it being acceptable to do so, without the constant feeling of guilt that I should be out with friends or enjoying the 'nice' weather. With the days getting colder and shorter (thank god) i feel like this is the perfect time to get back into baking, which sort of took a back seat for me over the last few months- but I found this recipe which produces the perfect autumn/winter cupcakes..you can thank me later.

Gingerbread Cinnamon Cupcakes

Method:
Step 1- Preheat the oven to 180C and place 12 cases into a cupcake/muffin tin.
Step 2- Cream together the butter and sugar for about 2 minutes.
Step 3- mix the spices together with the self raising flour in a separate bowl
Step 4- Crack the 3 eggs into a cup and whisk them a little bit until they're combined.
Step 5- Add a little bit of the egg then mix, then a little bit of the flour and mix. Keep alternating between the two until you've used all the eggs and flour (I would suggest stopping a few times and folding in the flour round the sides of the bowl)
Step 6- Stir in the milk
Step 7- Plop about a tablespoon and a half of the mixture into each cupcake case and put them in the oven for about 17-20 minutes (17 was plenty for me or they would have burnt)

While they're cooking in the oven, make the toffee and the buttercream.
BUT to me the toffee was kind of an unnecessary step and if you're looking to cut cleaning up time I would skip this bit. I didn't end up using the toffee on top, and the toffee I did put in the buttercream, you couldn't really taste.
Step 8- Melt 50g of the 200g of butter in a pan with the sugar until it's turned into a toffee sauce and then add a little bit of milk, you can let this cool because it melts again so easily.
Step 9- Whisk the remaining 150g of butter until it's smooth
Step 10- Add the icing sugar and 3/4 of the toffee sauce (if you're using it) then put it in the fridge for a little bit while your cakes cool down
The amount of buttercream the recipe says doesn't make enough for all of the cakes and I doubled it
Step 11- When your cakes are cool *insert sunglasses emoji* stuff the buttercream into a piping bag and pipe on little swirls of icing.
Step 12- Decorate with anything you want! I used little sparkly gingerbread sprinkle and gingerbread toppers from sainsburys, but you can use anything really! Then that's it, you're done.

If you make these please make sure to leave me a comment below telling me what you think!
(and good luck trying not to eat every single one in one sitting...it's tough)

dais xx

homeware haul

wow it feels like years since i've done a blog post! i literally say that every time I write one but it really does.
Anyway, now that the school year is starting back up again I decided to re-decorate my room to get myself more motivated, i'm not exactly sure if that excuse justifies the amount of money I spent but let's just go with it...

Wilko

I've decided to have an accent wall in my room, before it was white and although i really like white, it was just too white. So i thought a duck egg wall would look nice. Now, I'm not too sure if paint is classed as homeware but for the sake of this haul it's going into that category.
I bought this paint from Wilko and it was only £10 for a tub of it. I'm in love with the colour and it looks really nice on my wall. There is just normal duck egg but after 30 minutes of closely comparing the two colours me and my friend decided the darker duck egg would look nicer.

I also picked this white bedding up from wilko, i've wanted white bedding for a really long time but honestly, i may as well of been living in a hospital, my room would have been WAY to white. We looked everywhere for some plain white bedding with no frills or patterns on it and we couldn't find any..anywhere.
but eventually, hidden away in wilko we found this for only £7.99! I love how it looks with my wall and it makes everything look really clean.

The last thing(s) I got from wilko were these cushions. Keeping with the duck egg theme, these were only £4 each and I feel like they also look really nice against my white bedding.

Primark
I really love the home section in primark, although trying to resist buying multiple candles is a task and a half, they do actually have good quality things for not very much at all.
Me and Lauren were in primark just looking for clothes when I saw this and it was on sale for £4.50 which I think is so good... and also it fits with my duck egg wall so...winner.
It's honestly so soft and considering I got the cushions and this blanket from completely different places they're a pretty good match.

Ok, I honestly can't remember why I bought these. They were definitely an impulse buy, but I just think they're so cute. I love how they're all different patterns and quite 'retro' and I'm sure I'll put them to good use, and they're really good for £2

These are the last things I bought from primark and they're definitely not homeware... but I wear them in my home i suppose soo hahaha i'm really funny not.  They were way too cute to not add in this AND they're called snuggle socks..I'm sorry but you can't leave something with the word snuggle in on the shelves.

Ikea
I picked up a bedside table from Ikea which really fits in with my room and it was only £15! I also got this chair from Ikea for only £11 which I think is so good and it's a really nice design. It's actually really comfortable to sit on, which you wouldn't think for an £11 chair, I really like it.

I got these candle holders..which i'm actually using as pen holders. These make me seem so organised and I love it...we'll have to see how long that lasts.

So that's all I bought for my room, I think it looks so much nicer now and you always feel better when you've got a clean, decorated room.
Have you bought any homeware (or cute bambi socks) recently?

love dais xxx

Lush and Primark Haul

i've been getting ready for my holiday recently and that only means one thing...shopping.
i've been to town countless times looking for bikinis, shorts and other holiday attire but it's crazy at this time of year and i think i've left it a little bit too late because i'm finding it really hard to get my holiday wardrobe ready!

but some good has come out of my trips to town and i thought i would show you what i have bought because i love reading hauls and seeing what other people have bought (so im banking on everyone else loving them too)

LUSH

 1. big blue- this is my favourite bath bomb ever (seen as phoenix rising has now disappeared from lush *cries*) i love the sea so this really relaxes me.
2. dragons egg- i've used this before and it's so exciting and the smell reminds me of a sweet shop so i couldn't resist picking it up.
3. fizzbanger- i've never used this before but i loved the cinnamon smell that it had which reminded me of phoenix rising (as you can tell i'm finding its discontinuation very hard to deal with.

 PRIMARK

 this is a skort but having a whole picture of it really didn't do it justice. I love the pattern on this and it fits really nice so i thought this was amazing for just £6- buying this made me feel quite happy because it's something that i can actually use on holiday!

I could probably use these on holiday too but really, i just bought them because of how cute they are. The purple ones are my favourite because they remind me of being a little 7 year old running around the playground, anyone else? just me? ok. 

judging by the lack of 'holiday-esque' clothes in this haul i think i'm in serious need of a little bit of asos shopping.
have you bought anything recently?

love dais x

Recent Favourites

i feel like i haven't done a 'favourites' post for ages, partly because i haven't been blogging but also because i haven't really been using new things. I don't tend to use new things i just stick to things i know work for me, but these are a few things that i have really been enjoying lately.

 scrub of your life and thick and fast mascara

the scrub of your life is probably one of my favourite scrubs ever, i love the smell and i love how my skin feels after i've used it. I've got so many little travel versions of this and i have been using them almost none stop over the last couple of days.

the thick and fast mascara was a new one that i hadn't ever used before and now i love it, it makes my eyelashes look so long!

 Toni and Guy Moisturising Shine Spray

I got this so i could do my hair for prom and i've been loving it ever since. I use it after i've curled my hair mainly and it's the perfect little finishing touch.

 Toni and Guy Salt Spray

I have used this before and i've never fallen out of love with it. I've used it for a few years now and it makes hair styling so much easier! Especially if i get up late and haven't got time to curl or straighten my hair.

 Pretty Little Liars

There was so much hype about this and i must have put it off for at least a year, but i decided, because i've finished my GCSE's and have 10 weeks off where i will be lying in bed and eating chocolate  i should start a new television series and i am now obsessed.

Boohoo

I've been loving boohoo recently, it's a little bit like an online primark to me and i could probably spend thousands of pounds (that i don't have) on that website and the sizes are like real sizes and don't say size 8 when they mean size 2.

what have you been liking lately?

love dais xx

Lush: Ro's Argan Body Conditioner Review.

This is the Lush Body Conditioner that came with my Rose Gift Box... I used this in the shower this morning,it sort of works like a hair conditioner only its... for your body haha (duh)

It makes my skin feel quite soft and it smells AMAZING, The smell doesn't stay on you for too long but I suppose it depends what you're doing in the day. I have only used it a couple of times, so it might make your skin softer than the softest thing ever but I don't know yet. But I do really like it and I do think it's worth buying. You don't really get too much in it though and its not the cheapest thing in Lush I know that the big tub is £16 so I think the smaller one would be about £7/8 and you might not think it's worth the money...I do really like it though and would recommend it :)

xxx

Happy Mothers Day!

happy mothers day!

this is what i got my mum for mothers day- can i just say the honeycomb cookies are amazing

Sorry that i haven't posted anything for ages i've been a little bit busy but i will start trying to do a post every week now (we'll see how that goes)

thank you to my mum for being a fab mum :)

dais xxx

my life lately in snapshots

 1. i decided to treat myself to a few lush bath bombs as i feel like i haven't really had a 'me' night since my exams started so i think a lush bath is definitely in order.

2. my prom is next week and i'm really excited and seen as all my friends are getting fake tans i wanted to too (this was a perfect excuse to ask my mum for some more st tropez)

3. i'm honestly living in white jeans and the moment and these were the newest ones that i bought from boohoo, £1.99 next day delivery? yes please

4. pizza hut. is my life. i would happily spend the rest of my life there and this pizza looked way to good to not picture

5. i love popcorn, all popcorn. but this bag of popcorn was probably the prettiest bag i have ever had so i couldn't resist showing you. (why is it that food is always prettier than me)

6. i got a new necklace on depop, it's a little fairy sitting on the moon and it reminded me a little bit of disney

7. more lush things. this is actually one of the bath bombs i bought from the earlier photo but i felt this one deserved it's own photo because this one is probably one of my favourites -space girl

8. again, another example of food being more attractive than me. mcdonalds isn't the usual place to take a photo of your food but it looked too good not to!

this 'snapshot' idea is not my idea i have taken it from milkbubbletea

sorry that i haven't posted for ages (literally months) i've been so busy with my gcse's that my blog and most other things had to take a back seat for a little bit.

love dais xx

mini pamper evening

today i have been quite 'active' so for someone who normally only gets out of bed to get food I feel like I need a little bit of chill time, but unfortunatly i've run out of lush bath bombs and i cannot have a 'complete' pamper evening without a bath bomb from lush in my bath so tonight i thought i would just have a mini pamper evening. 

 a mini pamper evening normally consists of painting my nails and putting a face mask on and then chilling with a hot chocolate and something nice to eat.

 the 'fab pore' soap and glory face mask is one of my faves and leaves my skin feeling really soft and fresh. it smells super nice too and you don't need very much of it for it to cover your face.

 this is my all time favourite nail polish, it's called 'fiji' by essie and i've used it for about 2 years now. it's a very light pastel pink and it's amazing and well worth the £8, it dries really quick and you only need a couple of coats of it.

 and of course, to top it all off, a doughnut from Krispy Kreme and a hot chocolate i think i need to start eating healthier. It's so hard to not get one of these when you pass the little counter of them in tesco, they look so appetising so I picked one up the other day and hadn't really gotten round to eating it but i felt like after a day of walking up hills and around castles i really deserved it haha sure.

do you have any 'mini' pamper evening faves?

love dais xxx

polagram: £5 free!

recently i ordered a few pictures from polagram, which is an app that prints photos off from your phone and turns them into little polaroid pictures for you. i thought this was so so cute and when they arrived i was over the moon they're just like polaroid pictures.

 they came in this cute little envelope which i'm going to find hard to throw away because when it comes to me and cute things i get really attached

 they photos are like normal polaroid photos (if you've ever had a polaroid camera you will know what i mean) and theres space on the bottom to write a little caption if you want or you can do it on the app. i didn't put any captions on but i know some people who have and the captions looks really nice too.

they cost £0.29 each (which i think is really good). if you want £5 worth of free prints click here and download the app. Then choose the pictures you want and put in this code

and theres no 'you have to pay before you can use the code' it's literally £5 free when you sign up!

have fun printing off your polaroids!

dais xxx

*this post isn't sponsored it is my own words and i bought everything with my own money. 

Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake Recipe

ok literally stop what you are doing right now and get your apron on because you have gottt to try this lemon drizzle recipe. This is by far my favourite lemon drizzle and its so quick and easy to make. I found this recipe on the internet a really long time ago and i have been using it ever since. Heres how i made this and what you will need:

170g of self rasing flour

170g of caster sugar

170g of butter

1tsp of baking powder

3 eggs

2 lemons (zest and juice)

110 of icing sugar 

mix the butter, caster sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder and lemon zest together in a big bowl until it looks like normal cake mixture. pour this mixture into a greased loaf tin (mines from tesco and i'm slightly in love with it) then put into a preheated oven at 180 degrees celsius, bake it for 30-40 minutes. while it's baking juice the lemons and mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice. You could probably use lemon juice from the shop already squeezed but i normally use the lemons that i got the zest from (make sure to sieve the squeezed lemon juice though!)

when the loaf comes out of the oven get a knife (or a professional little skewer that i do not have) and make holes all over the cake, once you've done that get the lemon 'drizzle' mix and pour it all over the top. Then you're done! you can eat it straight away or wait a little bit until it's cooled down. it's seriously so nice i could eat it all day...in fact i have been

hope you enjoy it!

dais xxx

youtube?

I've wanted to start youtube for suchhh a long time but i never really did it, but today i filmed a video and it's on youtube now! I only just put it up and i haven't got any subscribers or anything (feel sorry for me please haha) so if you want, to subscribe to me ;)
I don't know if i'm going to carry on with it or not yet, i'm going to see how this one goes.

if you watch pleease could you tell me what you think?
thank yoooou

dais xxxx

Stonehenge

As it's half term me and my family went on a trip to Stonehenge. We stayed near bath for a few nights and it was so nice.








 Stonehenge was amazing, I did think it was going to be a little bit boring but when we actually got there it was actually really interesting. We had to get a bus from the visitors center to Stonehenge and it took about 6 minutes to get there. You might be thinking 'it's just a few stones....' (i know i was) but if you're actually there it's really cool. I think at the summer solstice you're allowed to go and touch them but on regular days you can't because of graffiti and things like that. I would definitely recommend going.

Has anyone else ever been to Stonehenge?
dais xxx

Not a very good week

As you may have guessed from the title..I'm not having a very good week, because i'm not very well (I feel like i want to rip my sinuses and throat out) but there's always a few things that, although may not fix all my problems, certainly make me feel a bit better.

1. Ben and Jerry's peanut butter cup ice cream.
I'm sorry but if ben and jerry's doesn't even slightly increase your mood you might need to see a doctor...this is by far my fave ben and jerry's and i could (and have been) eat it all day.

2. Youtube.
Like most people, if i'm not very well you have a -10 percent chance of getting me out of be. Just as well I have a telly that i can watch youtube on from my bed. Over these last few days i've been constantly watching and re-watching vlogs without moving a muscle (except from going to get my ice cream from the freezer)

3. Fuzzy Socks.
Although they don't take away a sore throat fuzzy socks make me feel soooo comfy and cosy and when i've got them on i always feel a little bit more "looked after"...is that weird?

4. Pinterest
I've recently become slightly obsessed with pinterest. Scrolling down and seeing things that I wish i had or wish I could do always makes me feel a bit better (strangely) I suppose it gives me a bit more motivation....which I will put to use after i am well again..


have you got any things that make you feel a little bit better when you don't feel very well?

Dais xx

School Make up Bag

For school I like to wear a bit of make up..Just to make me look slightly more awake because normally after waking up at half 6 I look like something from the walking dead. So i thought i would share with you what's in my make up bag that I take to school with me

This is my make up bag, It's a ted baker one get it here

these are the ''base'' products
1. nars sheer glow in light 2
2. rimmel wake me up concealer in ivory
3.soap and glory kick ass concealer in medium
4. real techniques expert face brush
all of these are amazing especially my nars and soap and glory concealer-they definitley save me in the morning (if nars is a little bit too expensive then rimmel wake me up foundation is a very good dupe)

 1. boujours bronzing powder, i'd definitely recommend this it's amazing and smells like chocolate
 2. real techniques blush brush

 eyes:

1. soap and glory archery eyebrow pencil & tint

2. soap and glory supercat eyeliner

3. soap and glory thick and fast mascara

(seems to be a theme here haha)

I hope you enjoyed seeing what I take to school with me!

dais x

healthy-ish pasta recipe

So far this year i've been doing quite a good job of staying healthy and choosing healthier foods than last year, but I couldn't cut all my favourite foods out of my diet straight away- that would be impossible for me. So i've been slowly cutting down on my fave foods, this is why this pasta is healthy-ish because it still has a few slightly unhealthy foods in it but it is better than what was in my diet last year.

If you're looking for a yummy dinner or tea-time idea that isn't too unhealthy keep on reading;

(I am aware this doesn't look too nice but it definitely tastes nice)

what you will need:

-50g of penne pasta
-half a can of sweetcorn
-a handful of spinach
-a few stalks of asparagus
-25g of mozzarella (grated)
-olive oil (or any oil but olive oil is a little bit healthier)

First of all start off by cooking the pasta, read the back of the bag of pasta for cooking instructions. While the pasta is cooking get all your other ingredients together, also while the pasta is cooking steam or boil your asapargus (I boiled mine)...it doesn't matter if it goes cold because it will be reheated later.

When your pasta is almost done poor about a tablespoon of olive oil into the pan and let that heat up for a little bit on a medium heat.  Add the spinach and pasta and cook for 1 minute, continuously stirring.

Then add the asparagus and sweetcorn and cook for about 40-60 seconds, add your mozzarella and stir until the cheese is melted and covering the pasta. Take off the heat and leave to cool for a minute until you eat it!

That's it! How easy! It seriously tastes amazing, and i'm quite proud of myself for coming up with the recipe.

I hope you enjoy it if you make it! Also, i was thinking of doing a few more easy health type posts on my blog...anyone up for that?

dais xxx

past week in snapshots

Well, it's a good job my new years resolution wasn't to blog more or i would have already failed, but in my defense i have been really busy getting ready for school and everything and I went to nottingham for a few days.
I have, however, been taking pictures but using these pictures on their own would make for a very boring blog post so i've put them all in a collage, (i have stolen this idea from milkbubbletea but i very much doubt she'd ever see this)

1. I started my healthy eating and it has been going really well actually, a whole week without crisps, i really deserve an award, I made this breakfast and it was quite nice-just a bit boring but very healthy.

2. for christmas i got the marc jacobs perfume 'dot' it smells amazing and the little bottle that it's in is beautifuuul, i was also in boots and saw this purse which is made by bleach london (the temporary dye company) and i fell in love with it so it is now my new coin purse.

3. I visited nottingham and the christmas markets and decorations were still there it was soo cute and i definitely spent a bit more money than I should have.

4. this is one of my favourite outfits at the moment and I'm in love with this coat- I got it from primark for £15!

5. the naked smoothies have really been helping me keep healthy because they're so nice and sweet so instead of reaching for the bag of haribo's i've been having a sip of this and it sort of calms my extreme need for sweet things

6. I was in h&m a couple of days ago and tried this dress on, I'm sort of in love with it but not at the same time and i've never felt like that about an item of clothing before...I didn't get it in the end but i'm pretty sure i will be going back to buy it

Hope you've all had a good week and happy new year!!
 love dais xx

PS: thank you for 1000 followers on blog lovin' i was so happy when I woke up with 1000 thank you so much!