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Tuesday 25 June 2013
Fashion vs Finance
I'll admit that I've never really been one for designer brands for one of two reasons. I find that a lot of them tend to treat their target market like walking advertisements (I'm talking Bench, Abercrombie, Superdry etc...) and the other is the price. However...
I went to Bicester Village with a friend of mine at the weekend, and we wandered into the Karen Millen store, where I saw this little beauty;
I went to Bicester Village with a friend of mine at the weekend, and we wandered into the Karen Millen store, where I saw this little beauty;
and of course, I made the fatal mistake of actually trying it on - despite the £145 price tag... I fell in love! I have never wanted a dress (especially a dress) so badly in my life and it looked exquisite on, but this brings me to my second dislike of designer brands. The dress was in a sale; unfortunately the £145 tag was the sale price.
So this lush little outfit remained un-purchased, as for its price and style I don't think I'd have got the wear out of it that it really deserved. However, this has opened my eyes a bit to the benefits of designer - the fit and feel of the outfit was unlike anything I've (personally) tried before, and it felt really well made...
So...
Next post will be (hopefully a positive one) about the new (to me) Karen Millen dress that I bought for less than £10 on E-bay!
ST
(Image from KM website of course!)
Saturday 22 June 2013
Food Fail - Bread vs Toaster
After a brief shop today, I returned home and went to use the toaster;
Pic 1; too long to go into the toaster width ways.
Pic 2; too tall to toast a whole slice in one go!
Massive #foodfail
Bread 2 : Toaster 0
ST
x
Pic 1; too long to go into the toaster width ways.
Pic 2; too tall to toast a whole slice in one go!
Massive #foodfail
Bread 2 : Toaster 0
ST
x
Self Love and Shorts
We went out for a meal yesterday for a friend's birthday, and I finally managed to pluck up the courage to wear my new High Waisted Shorts (Next, second-hand courtesy of flea-bay). My aim with these is to go a bit Monroe-esque, and the next stage will be some suitably retro/vintage (still not sure on the terminology!) tops.
Now, even though the weather was warm and the sun was shining, I still felt unsure as to whether I should even wear this outfit considering the amount of flesh on show - so I stuck the pic on Twitter and FB as you do (hehehe, nothing like a bit of self-validation is there!) and luckily all the responses were positive.
However! This particular response from a friend stunned me completely;
"I know everyone is saying congratulations on looking so thin and you look amazing now... But. When did you not look amazing?"
And you know what!? He's SO right! Why am I any less or any more amazing than when I was big, eh?! The fact is, I'm not any more amazing now than I was a few years ago - I am now, and was then, all sorts of awesomeness.
My advice - tell yourself YOU ARE AWESOME as many times a day as you can. Be positive, and be 100% convincing when you say it... it won't be long before you start to believe it!
ST
x
Friday 21 June 2013
The Royal Horse - Leamington
Yet another "plastic pub" has opened near Leamington, a part of the Hungry Horse chain, we now welcome The Royal Horse.
On the face of it, it looks no different than any other new pub, and interior is pretty much the same too; the décor is nice, seating is nice, and "nice" is really the only adjective I can conjure up. I'm not a great fan of these places, they tend to have very little in the way of atmosphere, or personality.
I have to say that the service is friendly, the people who sorted us with tables and food were polite, and had smiles (always great to see, and unfortunately a bit of a rarity these days).
Food wise, I have to say I was a little disappointed. I ordered the Black and Blue Burger, which when it arrived looked pretty good - a decent sized burger, nice portion of fries, with coleslaw and barbecue sauce for dip. I lifted up the burger 'lid' and was happy to find some onion rings in there, and a decent helping of the cheese sauce, though upon tasting the sauce contained next to no flavour, and I was grateful of the barbecue dip for all the wrong reasons.
Thursday 20 June 2013
Food Love, Body Love
OK, so I went to Pilates (hey, I'm not on a health kick, and I'm not on a diet, but I'm still a healthy girl, mkay!?) and once again, whenever we stop behind to talk to our instructor, we always end up on one of 2 topics.
1/ Food, which always entails the bloody C word (Calories) or Health content.
2/ Figures - no, not the numbers (I'm not Sheldon from Big Bang here!).
Now in terms of the food - BRILLIANT, I absolutely love this topic; especially when it swings around to my favourite Thai Restaurant (Totally Thai in Warwick) but then, then it always seems to get ruined when it sidelines into the "oh yes, Thai food is much better for you than [insert alternative here]" - I swear, my brain all but switches off at this point! Who cares?! If it's tasty, eat it, and love it for what it is!
Topic number 2? Well, really! After one Pilates session, the topic of figure came up (again) and someone said "well let's face it, no one is ever happy with their figure are they?". Actually, YES! Jeez, even when I was fat I never had as many hang-ups about my body as these people seem to have (and yes, I managed to get up to a size 18, which at 5ft nothing is quite a hefty weight to be lugging around). But one thing I learnt as I lost it, is that you only have 1 body (well at least until they perfect brain/personality transplants) and that body deserves to be looked after, well respected, but most of all LOVED no matter what shape or size you happen to be.
If you spend all your time looking for faults, and listing the bad points, you're never going to be happy with anything, and this goes for both your body, and the things you choose to feed it with. Case in point, the quotes for both 1 & 2 were courtesy of the same woman who is a size 8-10, and has a figure most people of any age would be very proud of!
Enjoy your body, enjoy food, but most of all, ENJOY LIFE.
1/ Food, which always entails the bloody C word (Calories) or Health content.
2/ Figures - no, not the numbers (I'm not Sheldon from Big Bang here!).
Now in terms of the food - BRILLIANT, I absolutely love this topic; especially when it swings around to my favourite Thai Restaurant (Totally Thai in Warwick) but then, then it always seems to get ruined when it sidelines into the "oh yes, Thai food is much better for you than [insert alternative here]" - I swear, my brain all but switches off at this point! Who cares?! If it's tasty, eat it, and love it for what it is!
Topic number 2? Well, really! After one Pilates session, the topic of figure came up (again) and someone said "well let's face it, no one is ever happy with their figure are they?". Actually, YES! Jeez, even when I was fat I never had as many hang-ups about my body as these people seem to have (and yes, I managed to get up to a size 18, which at 5ft nothing is quite a hefty weight to be lugging around). But one thing I learnt as I lost it, is that you only have 1 body (well at least until they perfect brain/personality transplants) and that body deserves to be looked after, well respected, but most of all LOVED no matter what shape or size you happen to be.
If you spend all your time looking for faults, and listing the bad points, you're never going to be happy with anything, and this goes for both your body, and the things you choose to feed it with. Case in point, the quotes for both 1 & 2 were courtesy of the same woman who is a size 8-10, and has a figure most people of any age would be very proud of!
Enjoy your body, enjoy food, but most of all, ENJOY LIFE.
Wednesday 19 June 2013
Why Should Food be the Enemy?
After seeing a plug for yet another "This is why you're fat, and here are the foods you should stay away from" book, I had a flashback to the 'food wheel' at school.
I can't actually remember if that's what it was called, but when I was a kid, at school we were shown a wheel split into the food groups that a human needs, and each was made up of a collage of things that fell into each category.
As far as I remember, bread, sugar AND carbs were on there, all things that the above so-called "Self Help" book decided are bad for you, according to Jeremy Vine (@TheJeremyVine) on twitter.
No one food group can provide the nutrients that a human requires, so for a BALANCED diet you need to include all three of these things too; sugar, bread and carbohydrates. And before you start; Fruit contains sugar, Vegetables contain carbohydrates, and bread is pretty unusual to include on it's own, though I can possibly guess (and kind of agree) that the preservatives included in mass-produced stuff might be the answer to its inclusion.
It's a shame to blame food for being the reason people are fat, but I'm also interested to know what else this book claims is the cause. I admit that I've not read the book in question, "Why We Get Fat, And What to Do About It", by Gary Taubes, and will definitely not be paying for the "pleasure", however if anyone wants to sling a copy in my direction I'll happily read it in order to give a more informative response.
From a lover of food who has just eaten carbs, bread AND sugar for breakfast!
ST x
I can't actually remember if that's what it was called, but when I was a kid, at school we were shown a wheel split into the food groups that a human needs, and each was made up of a collage of things that fell into each category.
As far as I remember, bread, sugar AND carbs were on there, all things that the above so-called "Self Help" book decided are bad for you, according to Jeremy Vine (@TheJeremyVine) on twitter.
No one food group can provide the nutrients that a human requires, so for a BALANCED diet you need to include all three of these things too; sugar, bread and carbohydrates. And before you start; Fruit contains sugar, Vegetables contain carbohydrates, and bread is pretty unusual to include on it's own, though I can possibly guess (and kind of agree) that the preservatives included in mass-produced stuff might be the answer to its inclusion.
It's a shame to blame food for being the reason people are fat, but I'm also interested to know what else this book claims is the cause. I admit that I've not read the book in question, "Why We Get Fat, And What to Do About It", by Gary Taubes, and will definitely not be paying for the "pleasure", however if anyone wants to sling a copy in my direction I'll happily read it in order to give a more informative response.
From a lover of food who has just eaten carbs, bread AND sugar for breakfast!
ST x
Monday 17 June 2013
Ideas for Eggs
I couldn't go without posting about possibly one of the most delicious, nutritious creations ever devised by Mother Nature - The Egg, coupled with possibly the best ever website in creation, Buzz Feed!
http://www.buzzfeed.com/emofly/eggs-in-exciting-holes
I have never, EVER seen so many excitingly random things to do with an egg, and so much inspiration for different ways to cook them!
My personal favourite idea is definitely the Muffin Tin (example above), as it offers so many variations within the one idea, my favourite so far probably being the bacon option in the picture.
For other exciting holes (ahem!) to put your eggs into, check out the link above!
I just need to buy a muffin tin now!
Oh and FYI; Eggs contain;
Protein
Iron
Vitamin A
Vitamin C
Folate
Calcium
Potassium
Vitamin B-6
Vitamin B12
Magnesium
http://www.buzzfeed.com/emofly/eggs-in-exciting-holes
I have never, EVER seen so many excitingly random things to do with an egg, and so much inspiration for different ways to cook them!
My personal favourite idea is definitely the Muffin Tin (example above), as it offers so many variations within the one idea, my favourite so far probably being the bacon option in the picture.
For other exciting holes (ahem!) to put your eggs into, check out the link above!
I just need to buy a muffin tin now!
Oh and FYI; Eggs contain;
Protein
Iron
Vitamin A
Vitamin C
Folate
Calcium
Potassium
Vitamin B-6
Vitamin B12
Magnesium
Thursday 13 June 2013
The Rediscovery of: Bagels
Have to say that I've got vague memories of disliking Bagels. I distinctly remember trying them and being unimpressed.
However recently my brain has been telling me to give them another go, and on a recent trip to Morrisons (other supermarkets are available) I bought two sorts to try again - hey, they were on offer!
1/ Sesame Seed bagels - my god, these are absolutely lush! Especially cut in half and toasted! Surprisingly sweet, they still go quite well as an alternative to standard toast with a full English Breakfast!
2/ Cinnamon and Raisin... Need I say more, just add butter, they're like a different variation on toasted hot-cross buns!
So I guess you could say I'm a convert to these wonderfully stodgy, flavoursome, fantastic-when-toasted Os of yumminess.
Go forth and Nom.
Image courtesy of thesun.co.uk (ya I know, but it focuses delightfully on the sesame seed one!)
However recently my brain has been telling me to give them another go, and on a recent trip to Morrisons (other supermarkets are available) I bought two sorts to try again - hey, they were on offer!
1/ Sesame Seed bagels - my god, these are absolutely lush! Especially cut in half and toasted! Surprisingly sweet, they still go quite well as an alternative to standard toast with a full English Breakfast!
2/ Cinnamon and Raisin... Need I say more, just add butter, they're like a different variation on toasted hot-cross buns!
So I guess you could say I'm a convert to these wonderfully stodgy, flavoursome, fantastic-when-toasted Os of yumminess.
Go forth and Nom.
Image courtesy of thesun.co.uk (ya I know, but it focuses delightfully on the sesame seed one!)
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