Curls and Creations

I have never attempted a pin curl set before, and I was a little unsure of how it would work on my already curly hair, but I decided to give it a go. I bought some setting lotion and a boar bristle brush on eBay and they arrived in time for me to try it out for my cousins birthday party on Saturday. On Friday night I washed my hair and towel dried it, before brushing some setting lotion through it. I then sectioned my hair off and started to pin curl it. My pin curl clips seem to have vanished, so I just used a lot of hair grips to hold the curls in place. My set was pin curled in opposite directions on each row as I wanted to achieve a 40s wave style. I slept on it and gave it a quick blow dry in the morning to get rid of the few damp bits that were in some of the slightly thicker curls. My spiral curls when I took my hair down. I then finger combed my hair to separate the curls, and my hair more or less double in volume. It took a lot of brushing t...

For my Grease costume, I needed a pair of shoes to wear, but wasn't keen on any of the green ones I could find in shops because they were a little bright. I didn't want white shoes either because they would stand out a bit too much against my dark tartan skirt in Act 1 and dark green dress in Act 2. With this in mind, I decided to dye a pair of white pumps to match my costumes. The supplies I started with: White Pumps - £3 - Primark Dark Green Dye - £2.99 - Wilkinsons Rubber Gloves and Mop Bucket - Poundland I had never used this kind of dye before, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. I also wasn't entirely sure how well the shoes would take the dye, but I was reassured as I saw them darkening in the bucket. The shoe laces unfortunately didn't pick up much dye, they are an extremely pale mint green, but that isn't too much of a problem as they look fine alongside the white grommets and soles of the shoes. Ta-da! Green shoes! The ...

A few days ago, I went to the post office to collect my box containing issues 2 and 3 of Something Sweet magazine. Issue 3 came with a free folder in which to keep all of the magazines. The inside of the folder has lots of handy conversion guides and temperature guides for both chocolate and sugar. Issue 2 contained a Sugar Mouse Mould (with tails), Gold Cupcake Cases and a Pink Truffle Box.  Issue 3 came with a Hydrangea Cutter and Embosser. The first subscription gift was a Sugar Thermometer and a Chocolate Thermometer. Both of these will be useful for trying out some of the variety of projects detailed within each magazine. I look forward to trying a few new recipes and putting the gifts that come with each magazine to good use. I will hopefully be able to make lots of wonderful sweet treats in the near future, just need to buy the supplies first!

I really cannot help myself when it come to shopping. Here are a few more purchases I have made recently. Two cute Paris Themed Pairs of Knickers - Primark - 50p each Two Pairs of Frilly White Socks for my Grease costume - Primark - £1.50 each Brown Satchel for Grease - Primark - £9 Frilly Fold Up Umbrella - Primark - £4 Smart White Shirt - Primark - £6 Burgundy Rose Print Dress - Primark - £13 reduced to £5 Corkscrew Hair Grips - Poundland These hair grips are brilliant for wearing your hair in a bun or other updo, as you just screw them in and they hold your hair up really securely. A great alternative to using loads of normal hair grips. These sell for about £5 for a pair in some other shops, so head to Poundland! 40s Style Fascinator/Hat - Claire's Accessories - £1 (in the sale) I was just browsing in Claire's when I saw this little hat and decided that I really wanted it. It had no tag so I wasn't completely sure whether...

Today I made some really chocolatey cupcakes whilst I had the house to myself. They were from a packet mix, so nothing too fancy, but they tasted delicious! I used a packet mix from Morrisons, some Dr Oetker chocolate chips (because clearly there wasn't enough chocolate there already!) and a piping bag and nozzles (also Morrisons). The cake mix was easy to make and only took about 15 minutes in the oven. I forgot to put in the chocolate chips until I had closed the oven door, so I took them back out again and sprinkled a few into each case and gave them a quick mix with a spoon. Back into the oven they went. Here they are all iced and ready to be sprinkled with chocolate curls. The icing didn't make up properly when I followed the instructions on the packet. It said to just add 60g of softened butter to the icing sugar and mix until it was smooth, but it just created a breadcrumb consistency no matter how much I mixed. I ended up adding a little bit of water, w...