Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and done fabulous things. Have we all chosen some resolutions? I have selected mine which include:

1. Stop swearing (it isn't very lady like and at the moment by mouth fathoms that of a sailor, mainly when I am at work, hmmm)
2. Visit at least 3 new places. (Normally I say countries, but I am going to count the different states of America as a new place so hence the choice of word 'place') I already have Jamaica, Californa, Nevada and Arizona on the list, so that is 4, but I would like to fit another trip in somewhere. Lots of wonderful additions to my food adventure!
3. Concentrate more on writing. I am a top class procrastinator and need to sit my ass down and actually commit to it.

And those are my resolutions, or the main ones at least. I welcomed in the New Year at my friends house as she had a bit of a party. This is me with my friend who threw the party and our yummy glasses of champagne.

She put on a bit of a buffet but the highlight was the iced fairy-cakes, they made me feel like a little kiddy again! If your having a party, there has to be at least one piece of party cliche in there somewhere.

And the New Years Eve 'Wall of Shame!' Who made the cut for 2011? Not me! I was a good girl and I paced myself, except when we played a drinking game and I was picked several times for the forfeit : S

In between Christmas and New Year I did a couple of things. Normally on Boxing day, me and my friends get dressed up in fancy dress and go on a night out, but this year, as I am saving my pennies to pay off my U.S.A trip, we decided to stay in, watch a christmas film and order chinese. We also attempted to make Bailey's cocktails but we were not very successful! I think I put too much Vodka into the Mudslides.... I also enjoyed a bottle of Brothers Toffee Apple cider which has to be one of the nicest ciders I've ever tasted. If you see any in the supermarket, buy it and try it!!

I also went to Manchester on the Bank Holiday Tuesday for a bit of sales shopping and for a few drinks. Me and my mate went to Tiger Tiger in The Printworks where I enjoyed a 'Vanilla Kiss' cocktail made with vanilla vodka, Drambuie and cranberry juice. It was a nice cocktail but I could barely taste the vanilla because of the Drambuie, which is a shame because I really enjoy vanilla flavoured vodka. My next cocktail was a 'Ga-Ga Colada' which was delicious, made with Havana Club rum, Malibu and pineapple juice, my kind of drink!
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While I've been off I've had a little trawl of the internet and found a fantastic website called 'Fine Food Specialist' You know me, I love my internet shopping and there's nothing I like better than to find a gem of a website, be it fashion or food! They specialise in, well, fine foods and they offer the most amazing range of ingrediants and foods. If you are into your food and enjoy cooking, you need to check it out. My particular favorites that I have spotted and think sounds a-mazing, is their 'Mini Wagyu Burgers', perfect little bite-size burgers, ideal for canapes which you can find here in their Beef selection.

If you have a bit of time, make sure you check out the Seafood section as well as they sell fresh Lobster and Crab Ravioli, which, in my opinion, sounds absolutly divine. They sell so much different stuff and is a really nice alternative to the supermarket counter. You'll even find cheese and pate's on there which is a little weakness of mine. Check it out!

You may not hear from me for a couple of weeks as this is my last day off work for 15 days (getting in the overtime as I need the money!) and so I may not have very much that's interesting to say! But it is all in preparation for this year's plans. I'm always keeping my eye out for a good Groupon (I know, I know, such a bargain hunter) so let's hope for some good reviews this year. Here's to 2012!

It's Chriiiistmaaaas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everybody is having a fabulous time eating, drinking and generally being merry!

Where to begin? In a chronological order I suppose. I've had a wonderful time doing festive things such as Work christmas partys, visiting christmas markets and spending time with friends.

17th December - Work Christmas Party

Oh yes, the annual shin dig organised by moi for my colleagues at work. It was just your standard christmas do, a function room thing but we all had a fantastic time having a laugh and swapping our Secret Santa presents. Here are a few piccies from the night.

My outfit was a bargain from River Island (I know, I know, I've said before, I have a problem!!) I snapped up the dress and shoes from the sale, the dress was £35 knocked down from £60, and the shoes were £30 knocked down from £55. I love a bargain!! The box of wine was my Secret Santa present and saved me a few pennies on the sly haha!

My meal at the party was lovely as well considering it will have been a mass-churned out affair! I had Pate for starters, Roast Ham for my main and Sticky Toffee Pudding for dessert.

18th December - Manchester Christmas Markets

The day after the party I was surprising very fresh! So me and my friend decided to go to the christmas markets in manchester for our annual hotdog! Me and my friend also enjoyed a cherry strudel which was gorgeous, If you have never been to the markets in Manchester then make sure you go next year! One of my friends has just been to Frankfurt in Germany for the christmas markets and she said was brilliant, so that is now on my very long list of places to go!

22nd December - Italian with my friends

Every year me and my friends go to a wonderful Italian in Westhoughton called Casanostra just before Christmas. The food is great and they do a great deal, 3 courses for £11.50. So it's always an affordable affair, leaving more money for drinks! I try to vary my menu choices but you know what it is life, when you don't go somehwere that often, you always go for your favorite! But the problem is I have about 5 favorites!

These prawns were FIT! They were in an amazing white wine and garlic sauce. Just writing about them makes me want them again. I want them NOW! haha.

This Carbonara was equally lovely. Because I'm not a fan of onion, I really hate it when there are massive chunks of onion in a Carbonara, I have no idea if it is supposed to be in there but there wasn't a scrap of onion in sight in this dish which made me a very happy girl! Each year we usually make the mistake of gorging ourselves on garlic bread and our starters so by the time it comes to our main we are usually full, but this year I excercised some willpower, I actually managed to finish my main this year.

And these are my lovely friends.

24th December- Christmas Eve!

Normally on Christmas Eve I stay at home with my family, but this year I decided to go for a few drinks with a couple of my friends. I had a great time without getting too drunk (don't want to ruin my christmas day with a hangover!) We mostly drank Christmas cocktails, largely featuring cranberry juices and the words 'Elf' in the name but they were cheap at only £5 for a pitcher from Yate's!

My playsuit was from ASOS and I got it for £26, although it did later go down in price to £19 but never mind! It is something a little different to what I usually wear but I got a few compliments on it so I may wear it again sometime.

Christmas Presents!

I really had a lovely Christmas day. My day is usually a lazy one as family live a little bit of a drive away so it's me, my brother and our parents for the day, eating and watching christmas telly!

I have been a very lucky girl this year and gotten some wonderful presents. As you can see I was given a Kindle which I am absolutly made up about as I love reading and I think it will come in very handy when I do my bits of travelling next year!

My mum n dad thought it would be funny to give me a toy for christmas and seeing as I used to be mad about Pony's this is what I got!

I always love a bottle of perfume and my brother bought me a bottle of Lady Million (aswell as giving me $80 towards my America trip which was very generous of him!) and my cousin sent me a bottle of Ricci by Nina Ricci which is lovely.

I also got these gorgeous boots from Dune which I LOVE. And this was my present of my friend Emmy, this lovely Urban Decay palette, the eyeshadow shades are stunning.

I have a few other plans yet before the year is out and will be posting about them, so for now, I hope you all continue to have a wonderful Christmas and have a fabulous New Year!

Christmas Prep

I've had a nice couple of days getting ready for christmas, buying and wrapping presents, sorting out Christmas party outfits and generally doing festive things : )

On Saturday I went to Bents garden centre in Glazebury, Cheshire; who are well known for their incredible christmas displays. They don't allow photographs so unfortunately can't share those with you but I can show you the amazing chicken caesar salad I had. It was a generous portion (but at £9.50 I should bluddy well think so!)

I also got a little bit domestic goddess today and made fudge based on a recipe I got out of the Asda magazine. I'm still waiting for it to set but the mixture tasted fab! I've taken a picture of the recipe so you can recreate yourself and I promise it tastes nicer than it looks in the tray!!

I've wrapped my Christmas presents as well (little miss organised this year!) and have gone for a silver and purple theme with some lovely gift tags I purchased from Paperchase. Wrapping presents always seems like its going to be a pleasant thing to do, until you are actually doing it and struggling to curl the ribbon! But it's done now anyway!!

Has anyone been watching Desperate Scousewives btw? Loving it!!

Christmas tree & hot chocolate

Just a mini blog post : )

Had a lovely afternoon helping my friend and her two younger cousins put her Christmas tree up whilst watching Elf and having hot chocolate with mini marshmallows and sweets. Win!

Really looking forward to christmas and looking forward to blogging about my Christmas party outfits!

Richmond Tea Room Review

Ok, so, over the past couple of weeks I have been a busy girly. And I’m going to fill you in what I have been doing. Most notably I have visited a FABULOUS tearoom in Manchester called ‘Richmond Tea Rooms’. I have done some shopping, been to an Ann Summers party where I had a deliciously naughty cake and been planning some awesome trips for 2012.

And now I shall begin.

When: Tuesday 15^th November 2011

Where: Richmond Tea Rooms, Richmond Street, Manchester

Who With: My lovely Mother

If you live in/around/near Manchester, you NEED to visit Richmond Tea Rooms. Tucked away in The Village, you wouldn’t know it was there unless you knew it was there. And it is such a treasure to have a found. I plan on revisiting next time I go to Manchester.

It is the most fantastical and quirky tearoom with an Alice in Wonderland/Tim Burtonesque feel and decor about it. I cannot describe it. I shall the photos do the talking.

As you can see it is simply fabulous. Sitting there, all I could do was look around in awe, taking it all in. The detail was incredible and there was also something interesting to look at, such as a vase filled with feathers instead of flowers, which was gorgeous.

Me and my mum had a voucher off Living Social, entitling us to a champagne afternoon tea for the both of us and it was lovely. We arrived at about 1:30 in the afternoon and the tearoom isn’t massive so most of the good tables were taken up but we were perfectly happy where we were seated. We were presented with a tea menu, to select our preferred tea, and not knowing much about tea, I chose to select the Tea Room’s own blend of tea, as did my mum.

It was served to us in lovely vintage-style teapots and cups, with a traditional tea leaves (no pg-tips here!). And below you can see the very generously served glass of champers we were given, which I have to say was amazing. I find a lot of champagnes to be too dry and fizzy, but this was a gorgeous light champagne, I could’ve drank a few more of those!

The actual afternoon tea itself was lovely, although the ratio of cakes to sandwiches was a little bit outweighed by the cakes. We got four finger sandwiches each (and they were small, but delicious). There was smoked salmon and cream cheese, chicken mayo and a fig and goats cheese sandwich, if I’m honest I can’t remember what the last sandwich was! I'm not a big fan of fig, but I LOVE goats cheese, so it was all good in the end.

Cake wise, it was IMMENSE. There were four bite-size miniature cakes each, a tarte shell filled with fresh blueberries and chopped pineapple as well as a fresh scone with a very large dollop of clotted cream and two little pots of jam. All that each!!!  I did take a picture of the actual afternoon tea but my silly computer won't allowe me to rotate it so couldn't put it on. But you can see a bit of it in the picture of the champagne.

A champagne afternoon tea at Richmond Tea Rooms will cost you about £23 each, but the Living Social voucher meant that it was £23 for the both of us. They offer a full menu of a variety of afternoon teas, they also serve sandwiches, soup and jacket potatoes for around £5 - £7 each and the cake cabinet is not to be missed!!! Honestly, you need to visit this place. It is such a wonderful change from the usual Starbucks and Costa Coffees, and is probably the same price, for a much richer experience.

It is so easy to find. If you know Manchester then you go down the street that Yates Wine Bar and the National Express coach station is on and it is literally the second right turn after the coach station. Please go!

Whilst in Manchester I also revisited Primark and picked up a couple of jewellery bargains.

Those earrings are an absolute BARGAIN. They are only £1 each! Go out and get them now! The rings were about £2.50 each and I love them. I plan on wearing them over christmas to bling up my outfits. I'm really gold-toned accessories at the moment. I also bought this Illamasqua nail varnish whilst checking out the newly relocated beauty section in Manchester Selfridges. I am in an eternal search for a dark blue nail varnish that actually looks blue and not black aaaaannnnd.....it's a winner! It was a bit steep, £13 for a nail varnish, I don't normally pay so much for nail varnishes but something came over me and decided to give it a chance.

In other news, check out the amazing cake my friend made for an Ann Summers party I recently attended.

It was a sponge with chocolate chips and a white chocolate frosting topping with marshmallow willies, and it was devine. I also had at the party a bottle of Sainsbury’s own pre-mixed Cosmopolitan, which was delish and only £7.99 for 70cl. You can buy branded pre-mixed cocktails such as Smirnoff for about £15, and I have also tried the tap-bags of Malibu cocktails for about £13 which is equally yummy, but it depends on what your budget is.

My biggest and most exciting piece of news is a trip I have just literally booked today. I am going to the U.S of A next year. Eek! I've never been before and me and 3 mates have booked a two week trip through Trek America travelling around California (LA, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara) and visiting Yosemite national park, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. I am so effing excited. I plan on doing a lot of foodie-blog research and cannot wait to report my findings! I travel on the 3rd July 2012 so will be in LA for Independance Day which should brilliant.

So next year I have Jamaica in April and U.S.A in July. Have one or two other things hoping to be planned so I shall keep you posted!

My day out shopping (and the results!)

Yesterday my friends and I had a day out in Manchester. We went early to avoid the madness that is Primark, so that we could buy our many items without having to queue for a ridiculous amount of time. Shopping should completely qualify as exercise! I was shattered at the end of the day, my arms were killing me, my legs were tired (They started to ache later on when at home). All that walking round Manchester must have definitely burned a few calories!

Let me show you some of my purchases.

 The polka-dot top is from Primark and was a bargain at just £8. I will probably wear it tucked into some black skinnys. It has also has some golf button detailing on the sleeves which you can’t see in the picture. My friend purchased the same top but in black & white.

The black jumper with the sequined birds is from Topshop and I absolutely adore it. I had seen it on the website and wanted it as soon as I saw it, but decided to wait until going shopping. I’m glad I managed to buy one. It was £46.  A bit steep but the heart wants what it wants.

The teal coloured dress was another bargain as I managed to get it in the sale from Topshop for £17. Normally I hate the sales, I can’t stand the jumbled vibe and the mess and usually steer well clear, but I decided to have a nosey and this is what I found. It isn’t for anything in particular, I will probably wear it on a random night out.

These are some accessories that I picked up.

Both pairs of shoes are from Primark. Normally my shoes come from River Island (Honestly I think I am addicted), but my heart did a little flutter when I saw these pairs of shoes. I am so impressed with the heeled loafers; they look like they could have come from Topshop.  They were £18!  Primark also had these shoes in a dusky blue colour as well.

The black courts were a mere £10 and honestly are so comfy to walk in. Surprisingly my shoe cupboard has a lack of black shoes, so with the slightly lower heel they fill a gap on my shoe rack as they will be perfect for nice meals out and chilled drinks with my ladies.

The scarf was from H&M. Again I had seen it the night before on the website, and immediately knew I had to have it, but I decided to wait until going to Manchester. It was £12.99 and will be perfect for an outfit I have imagined for New Year's Eve as I will be going to Edinburgh and to the street party so essential to get woollied up. But that's another blog-post. The brown and gold keyring was also from H&M and I thought it would spruce up my car keys as they have been looking a bit sad recently.

The hair clips and the bracelet were from Primark and again cheap as chips. I had already taken the bracelet out of the packaging prior to taking the photo through eagerness to wear it. Both cost £2.50 each. At prices like that, it would be rude to leave them. 

The ring I bought from Topshop. Just because. I don't need a reason ; ) It was £8.

Not bought in the same day, as it was purchased off ebay, I have bought this lovely camel mohair jumper.

 It is my first venture into the world of vintage. I bought it from a great vintage e-bay shop called tups-vintage. I’m ashamed to say the wardrobe has never really seen any vintage before, but all that is about to change. It was a little light-bulb moment after perusing the virtual rails of River Island yet again (seriously, I think I need some help!) that I thought, ‘Come on Carlene, be a bit different’. And so there you have it, the first of probably many vintage purchases to come. I already have my eye on a cute dress from the same e-bay store; it has 4 days to go so we shall see what happens.

We went to Wagamama's for lunch, somewhere I have never been before.

I chose the ‘Chicken Tama Rice’, but asked for it without onion, which they did. We also shared a portion of ‘Duck Gyoza’, which came with an amazing hoisin sauce. My dish was lovely. It was white sticky rice with chicken, courgettes and mushrooms in a garlic, ginger and wine sauce. My only gripe about it is that it wasn’t very hot. Other than that it was delish. It was a very healthy dish, rocking up only 490 calories, perfect for a foodie watching the ol’waistline as I am at the moment in anticipation of Christmas and a dress that I would very much like to fit into. I’m not doing too badly either, 8lbs lost so far :D But never fear, my foodie quest has not suffered under this new regime.

Anyway, that is all for now. I fear I have chewed your hypothetical ear off and shall say, 'Until next time'

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