London.. I Love You!

Pancakes at The Breakfast Club Spitalfields

I love London! Whatever your budget London is the perfect place for a day trip or weekend away.

My boyfriend Andrew and I set ourselves a budget of £150 for a night away. We chose London as there's so much to do there plus it's only a couple of hours in the car away from where we live.

We stayed at the Premier Inn in Redbridge. Whilst they're basic, you know what your getting and this ones located about a 20 minute tube ride out of Central London - perfect for stepping off the tube after a long day shopping!

I've seen so many blog posts about the breakfast clubso I decided to add it to my bucket list for 2014. The food looks amazing, the atmosphere looks amazing and I can confirm it's just that! We chose The Breakfast club in Spitalfields. As soon as I opened the door, I fell in love! It's just like being in an American diner - including the portion size! I chose the pancakes and berries which is 4 pancakes with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and vanilla cream. Not forgetting the drizzling of maypole syrup which the waiter topped up during the meal.

The photo speaks for itself. These pancakes were well worth the money. I have a feeling I'll never try anything else from the menu for fear it won't live up to these!!

Today is going to be a good day!

 

I felt slightly guilty for chomping through these (even thought I accompanied them with a healthy OJ which technically wiped out some of the calories - I can wish!) we decided to take a walk round Camden market and then onto Nottinghill. There's so many pretty places in London we haven't been before so it was great just walking around and taking a look at all of the beautifully coloured houses on Portabello Road.

 

Takeaway from the Hummingbird Bakery - Nottinghill

To finish off the day we cycled through Hyde Park and Kensington gardens - stopping off along the way to visit the Princess Diana memorial and Kensington palace. If you've not been on the Barclays bikes before, I definitely recommend it. It's such a quick way to explore the parks - it also makes a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the busy London streets.

Cycling through Hyde Park

Met this lovely lady in Harrods... Day Made!

London on a budget

Premier inn Redbridge - £40
Day tube tickets - £17
Breakfast for two at the breakfast club - £25
Cakes at the hummingbird bakery - £6
Barclays cycle hire for 24 hours £10
Dinner at Hard Rock Cafe - £35

Total - £133

My daily skin care routine

 

Taking care of your skin is important but as you grow older I think you start to understand the benefits of taking care of your skin while you're young.

I was always a lover of face wipes and don't get me wrong I still use them but these days I understand what's good and what's not so good for my skin!

My daily routine is to cleanse, tone and moisturise with the simple range. Iv tried high end products before but the simple range seems to be best suited to my complexion - leaving my skin feeling fresh, glowy and deep cleansed. I do this once in the morning before applying my make up and again in the evening. I also use the No7 Protect and Perfect Night cream - it leaves my face feeling tight and protects your skin against the first signs of ageing.

My Top Tips for Healthy Looking Skin!

• Drink plenty of water! It's recommended that you drink at least 8 pints of water per day. I'm not much of a water drinker so this has always been hard for me. I would challenge yourself to start drinking more water than you usually do. Whether it's 4 glasses or 8 pints, it's key to keeping your skin hydrated and glowy.

• Cleanse tone and moisturise twice daily!  Wash away the days dirt and grime plus any left over makeup - after all no one likes waking up to yesterday's mascara on the pillow.

• Know when to use a face wipe. Face wipes are great for coming home after a night out or a weekend trip away when you just can't take three big bottles to CTM, but make sure you return to Cleanse tone and moisturise twice daily as soon as you can. A tip is also to use face wipes to make any corrections after applying mascara - they're a quick and easy way to wipe away any excess mascara.

• Have makeup free days. The recent 'go barefaced for charity' campaign was not only successful in raising money for Cancer but it also increased people's confidence in stepping out with no makeup up on. Especially now were coming into summer - go barefaced to get a sun kissed glow (the lobster look is not good so make sure you apply a SPF)

I hope you found this blog post helpful. I've suffered in the past from acne (around the age of 25) which is when I learnt how important it is to do everything you can to keep your skin clean and looking fresh.

Easter Baking!

The best part of the day... breakfast!!!

It's our first Easter in our new home so wanted to make a big thing of Easter this year. So much so that I've been making Easter nests now since about February!!

Shops seem to sell such lovely Easter decorations these days and I just couldn't resist buying this cute little Easter chicken from John Lewis - it's perfect for sitting on the dresser in our kitchen!  I'm hoping to pick some more decorations in the sale or even have a go at making some!

John Lewis Easter Chicken!

We started off our morning today with Easter breakfast! A great excuse to use some of the lovely Kitchen bits we've been buying over the past few months. I'd love to say I made the hot cross buns but that would be a lie - these ones were pre baked from Tesco and delicious! I did make the Easter nests from scratch though (ok, so they're easy to make, but at least I did it!).

I thought I'd share the recipe too. I know at Easter time we can often be left with loads of half eaten chocolate eggs, so these are a great way to finish off the left overs!!

What you'll need

- 200g of any chocolate of your choice
- 85g of shredded wheat
- 2 large spoon fulls of golden syrup
- Decorations of your choice (I chose Milky Bar Mini eggs)
- Cupcake Cases

How to make the Easter nests

- Break the chocolate into pieces and melt over a pan of boiling water
- Break the shredded wheat into a bowl, adding the two large spoon fulls of golden syrup
- Once the chocolate has fully melted, all you need to do is stir in into the shredded wheat!
- Then the easy part, spooning your mixture into cupcake cases
- Decorate to finish!

Simple Spring Easter Nests!

You'll find loads more Easter ideas in Pippa Middleton's Celebrate book

And it's as easy as that.I also made a helpful video below - mostly because I wanted to try out a new app I have for making videos!

With Love
Charlotte

It was a Good Friday!!

 

It was a Good Friday!

Easter - My second favourite time of the year (my first of course, is Christmas)! Partly because these are the only times of the year where it's acceptable to eat chocolate for breakfast - but also because the weekend is always filled with fun, friends and family!

This Easter will be no different and Good Friday was spent with family in Holkham. For those who've not been to Holkham, it's situated in North Norfolk and is a great day out for a walk along the beach followed by a pub lunch or Mr Whippy! It was also the location for Cold Plays video Yellow!

I thought I'd share a few photos from the day - apologies for the poor picture quality - these were taken on my phone!!


North Norfolk

Our family dog Madge, with the wind in her fur

 

After along walk on the beach we headed off to Thornham for lunch. One of my favourite places to eat in Norfolk is The Orange Tree. They offer a restaurant and bar menu - it's good quality food in a beautiful setting. It's dog friendly in the bar and Madge enjoyed something from the canine menu! Super cute!! I chose the burger - and as always it was de-lisssshious!

The Orange Tree at Thornham! Deeeee-lish!

Another thing I love about Spring are the flowers and in particular Cherry blossom! I couldn't end this post with out sharing this beautiful blossom which I came across. We've just bought one for the garden but at the moment is more of a twig!!

The prettiest pinkest blossom!

You'll notice the serve lack of photos of me from my blog posts since I started! I'm currently doing what every girl dreads - growing my eyebrows ready for a reshape!!! I'm having them threaded next week but in the meantime, I don't think my blog is quite ready for a mono brow!! Only kidding- it's not quite got to that point yet!!!

Love Charlotte