Summer Reads | 'The Help'

It's every bit as fantastic as the film.

Recipe | Cheeky little snack

I do try my best to eat as well as I can, but finding tasty, healthy snacks is a bit of a challenge...

Life | Things I've been loving recently

Summer Reads | The Fault in Our Stars

Possibly a little bit late to hop on this bandwagon... 

Life | Looking After Yourself

Don't be swayed by the title- I'm not going to tell you how to live your life, that's your business, but I am going to take a wee bit of your time to emphasise how important it is to look after yourself with a bit of 'me time'. I'm a huge pioneer of this on my days off or on a boring Saturday night in. If you find yourself with a rare whole day to yourself, like I did last week, here's a few things you could do!

Life | Why we all need to just slow down

Last week I started an internship in London. Now, I am no stranger to the city, not a tourist but also not a resident. I live about 45 minutes outside London, which means a fairly lengthy commute  and therefore the growing daily frustration of using the beautiful, expensive curse that is the Underground.

Life Update

Hi everyone!

Firstly, I can't remember the last time I posted and that makes me an awful blogger! Unfortunately, all my time has just been eaten up over the last few weeks but I am hoping to get some sort of blogging routine in place from next week!

As I'm in my second year at uni now, everything gets that little bit more intense and that little bit more ridiculous in terms of free time. It doesn't help that I am one of those people who can't say no and then finds themselves in a right pickle when they realise that, by saying yes to everything, they don't actually have the time to do everything. Yes. That is me. And for that reason, my blogging has suffered immensely and I'm sorry!

Hello 2014!

With it being the New Year and all, I'm feeling a bit reflective; I thought I would just do a quick round up of 2013 as a little farewell as we sail into the unknown waters of 2014.

*May contain a few cheesy cliche's.*

Merry Christmas!

Hi everybody!

Yes. I have been the most dire blogger that ever there was recently, sorry about that! Everything just got a little bit mad: I had exams, got a new job and have indulged in many a festive outing. But I refuse to let Christmas Eve go by without wishing you guys the merriest of all Christmases!

A few little updates!

10 Stocking Fillers under £10 for Her!

I did somewhat of a gift guide a few weeks ago for presents under £30 which were in the sales or had a special discount (you can see that here). However, some of them may well have expired now and I thought I would do a stocking fillers one this time! All items are under £10 at full price and I've put links where possible directly to the product if you want to buy it now.

Today it's for the ladies but I will do one for guys as well. Perfect for Christmas on a pretty tight budget!

Remember Remember the 5th of Novemer...

Happy Bonfire Night!

This is one of my favourite days of the year! Autumn is in full swing and the time has come to don your hats, gloves, scarves and coats, grab a burger, a hot chocolate and a sparkler, huddle together to watch fireworks and bonfires! 

Pinterest

Happy Halloween!

This year, I was lucky enough to go to two Halloween events (none on actual Halloween though...) I went to the traditional house party and then a proper night out.

Now I don't know about you, but I find that house party and proper night out warrant different dress codes. The house party is a safe environment where the majority of people there will probably know you, so it's safe to go a bit further with your whole Halloween look. I'd like to point out now, I am not massively into Halloween; to be honest, I just like eating the sweets left over from the teeny amount of Trick or Treaters and watching Halloweentown, but I do love a good party and an excuse to dress up. This year my house party costume was a pirate. Initially, I was aiming for a bit of a dead Elizabeth Swann, instead I wound up looking more like a sleep deprived Jack Sparrow, which interestingly worked better than my first plan!

 

Just in case you fancy recreating (probably a much better) version of this, the details are all below!

Discounts and Sales!

It's getting much nearer to that time of year again... yes. Christmas is coming. We can't deny it anymore. The Argos advert is on, Next has it's Christmas display up and the Christmas candles are out in force. There's just 10 short weeks to go until it's present swapping time, and we all know how much pain Christmas causes our bank accounts. After about 5 years of panic buying the week before Christmas, this year, I am starting my shopping early.

So, for this reason, I have be traipsing the internet all afternoon to find you guys as many discount codes, offers and sales as I can to make the present buying experience a little less painful and a little more organised.

But, first things first, before you go and buy anything for anyone, make yourself a list of some ideas for what to get people. I do this every year (I rarely stick to it, but I have the right intentions...) and, to make that a little less of a headache, I like to make mine pretty and festive, to put me in the spirit of things when I start my shopping. Also, set a budget for each person. If you're doing secret santa, keep it to a £5- £10 limit and try and make this the only novelty gift you buy! (I struggle with that every!) Personally, I tend to do £30 per parent and sibling, £10- £20 for my best friend and per grandparent and about £10 per housemate. Obviously, if you can get the perfect present for less then don't just buy loads of extra things, they won't know it was in the sale! Boring, but important stuff there!

So, to the fun bit. I'm going to pick a selection of gifts "For Him" and "For Her", all on offer, with a discount (not student, not all of you have that) or are in the sale. All items will be under £30.

I shall start with "For Him". I don't know about you guys, but buying for men is the baine of my life. I struggle so much!

Taming Frizz

Hi everyone!

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been buying a few too many beauty products lately. My hair is SO frizzy as it is naturally very curly, which means it gets dry and looks a bit like Mia Thermopolis pre- princess make over.

but worse.

Breaking Out!

A brief beauty review for you all today!

So I've been suffering from a bit of a break out recently, which is fortunately a rarity for me. I've been using the Superdrug sachet masks for ages, but I wasn't really using the full sachet so was getting a lot of waste, so I went hunting for a tube version. I found a little selection in Superdrug- they were all on offer and weren't massive tubes so if I didn't like it, there wasn't too much financial or physical waste.

Ice Cream Cupcakes

My love for cupcakes is no secret. It is also clear that I love decorating them, possibly more than I enjoy eating them. The perfect party food- they are guarenteed to go down a treat and you know that if you take cupcakes to a party, you won't have to awkwardly pack them all back in your cake tin and take them back home afterwards.

My last cupcake post was my Rose and Vanilla Cupcakes. Today's cupcake recipe is these delicious ice cream cupcakes.

To make them you will need:

Cakes

 2oz Baking Butter

2oz Caster Sugar

1 or 2 Eggs (2 is better)

Couple of splashes of Vanilla Essence 

3oz Self- Raising Flour

Cupcake Cases

Decoration

Icing Sugar

Baking Butter

Vanilla Essence 

Flakes

Choice of Treat Sauces

Fruit Sundae's: Nice and Not Remotely Naughty!

You may or may not have heard me mention my recent health-kick, so far I haven't been a complete failure but I am finding the sweet cravings hard to tackle. This is mind, I thought there just had to be a way for me to get my sugar fix and not feel like I need to just eat leaves for the next few days.

Last night I came up with the perfect solution! Fruit Sundae's. Possibly one of the nicest and feel good desserts I have ever eaten, and it perfectly fuilfills that infuriating sugar craving, without having you reaching for the Ben and Jerry's.

If you wanted to have a bash at one yourself, here's a brief how-to:

You will need:

 -Choose your fruit

-Grab a couple of fat free yoghurts (I've gone for strawberry and vanilla)

- Get some Granola- mine is crunchy nut granola with chocolate and hazelnuts

-Sauce (mine is chocolate)

-Glasses

1. I started by swirling some chocolate sauce into the glasses. Then I popped them into the fridge for the sauce to set while I chopped my fruit.

2. I washed and chopped my strawberries first, then popped them in a bowl with 2 tbs of sugar because I often find strawberries to be a little sour (and these were Sainsbury's Basics, so had check they were sweet!) and then I popped them into the fridge as well.

3. I continued to chop most of my fruit up. After 10/15 mins of chopping, grab your glasses from the fridge and start layering up! I started with a dollop of yoghurt and then added some fruit (don't forget your strawberries!), then granola. I followed this pattern until my glass was full then added a final sprinkle of granola and a drizzle of sauce to finish. 

4. And voila! 

 A few tips:

- I found that this size glass was just too big, today I made a similar thing with just peaches and vanilla yoghurt with granola and sauce in a much smaller glass and it was so much better!

- Ensure all your fruit compliments each other- I used a lot of different fruits as an experiment but I found that some just didn't work together.

- If you do use treat sauce, maybe use it throughout some of the layers as well for an extra sweet kick!

It's never gonna be a TGI's Oreo Sundae substitute but it will cure the more frequent sugar cravings!

What do you think?

On another note, you can now like Princesses and Pink Champagne on Facebook by clicking here.

Happy Saturday!

Rose Tinted Cupcakes

I am meant to be on a diet for that belated and rather more winter than summer bod, but it was a friends birthday recently and I thought it was as good an excuse as any to whip up a tasty treat for me and my buddies. On a birthday, nothing else quite cuts it (pardon the pun) like cupcakes. But these aren't just any cupcakes. Oh no. These are vanilla and rose cupcakes. Are you intrigued yet?

I've been admiring a variation of this recipe in my cupcake book for about 3 years and today I was browsing the bakery isle in Sainsbury's for inspiration, when the elusive rose water ingredient that I had stuggled to find, caught my eye. All excited about the cute little make over Sainsburys's had given their bakery section and the rows of cute little bottles, (which kept me occupied for a good 15 minutes, much to my mum's irritation) made me eager to get home and have a play. They looked and tasted great (if I do say so myself) and I thought it was a nice little treat to share with my lovely readers.

Makes 6 cakes.
You will need:

Cakes

2oz Baking Butter

2oz Caster Sugar

1 or 2 Eggs (up yo you!)

Splash of Rose Water

Splash of Vanilla Essence 

3oz Self- Raising Flour

Cupcake Cases

Decoration

Pink Ready to Roll Icing

White Fondant for Modelling

Edible Glitter (if you like)