Fall/Autumn Nails

    After all the bright colours popping on our nails in the summer, it's time to relax a bit more and darken down the colours as we watch the leaves tumble off the trees ready for our feet to crunch. I've picked out some of my favourite colours for fall that you'll want to splash on your fingers straight away.

    Barry M- Chilli
This is a deep red shade with some brown tint in it. I think this is great because it's the colour that some of the leaves are turning.

    OPI- Viking in a Vinter Vonderland
I love the names of all the OPI colours because their so unique and this is one of my favourites. This is a dark purple shade that would look amazing paired with black clothing.

    Barry M- Mustard
As shown by the name this is a mustard colour nail polish that could be worn with cable-nit jumpers and would scream AUTUMN!!

    OPI- I Don't Give a Rotterdam
I think this colour is more on the Wintery side for it suits quite a simple look like white and reminds me of snow. It has a beautiful shimmer effect to it, making you look like a glistening angel.

Furry Coats and Fawn Clothing



    It's that time once again. Everyone's flouncing around, Pumpkin Spice Lattes in hand, kicking the crunchy leaves with their knee-high boots and cozying up by the fire. Yes, it's Autumn! This is my favourite time of year because by now your sick of the heat and are ready for Halloween, Bonfire Night and CHRISTMAS! I'm so excited for Christmas and I am already filling my room up with the scent of the Yankee Candle Christmas Range. A new season also means new clothes. Everybody loves new clothes. I recently popped into Primark and picked up an outfit that I'd love to share with you.

 

    This outfit will keep you toasty whilst the outside world feels like a freezer. It's basically all fawn coloured with fawn trousers, jumper, boots and fur coat. The fur coat really is the cherry on top in this outfit and will make you stand out from the crowd, not in a " I look like a clown " way but more like a " I'm smashing the model runway look like Kendall Jenner." I hoped you liked doing a window-shop through my wardrobe and be sure to tell me what your Autumn Staple is in the comments.

Summer in Vancouver

 It's that time of year again. Its cold, its dark, its dreary.  We need to escape and start surfing the web, looking to find the perfect Summer Holiday. I can give you a head start and recommend a destination I visited last summer, its Vancouver, Canada and it is a beautiful place. I went on the Disney Cruise to Alaska, look out for an Alaska blog soon, and the starting point was Vancouver.

 When I first arrived in this magnificent city I went to check out my hotel, The Fairmount Waterfront. I highly recommend this hotel. It has a beautiful rooftop pool, garden area, restaurant, wonderful service and a mini food court underneath. We wanted to go for dinner so we visited the concierge and she reserved us a table at  'Cactus Club' . It was amazing. We were seated at a gigantic window overlooking looking the water. I ordered a burger with chips and it was truly scrumptious. My brother ordered a steak sandwich with sweet potato fries. I nicked one of his fries and now I'm addicted.

 

 We were also able to use the hotel bikes and spent the day cycling along the seawall. This was one of the main things that made me want to move to Vancouver. How you could go every day on a bike ride along the sea wall, take in  the stunning view and appreciate what you have. It would be a brilliant way to start of you days. We spotted some seals in the water. We also saw  a family of otters running along the shoreline.

 

 We stopped off at the second beach outdoor pool, to cooled down and take a break.

 We saw some rock balancing art

 The last stop was the totem poles.

 

 Vancouver isn't just about the great outdoors. There are plenty of wonderful shops to get your dose of retail therapy. We went to a great MAC store and I had a free makeover.

Love Verity.

 

Berry Green Smoothie

  Welcome to 2015. Why not start of this year with a new healthy habit? Smoothies are a great way to incorporate fruit into your diet and you'll probably get addicted like I have. I've been having a smoothie every day for breakfast since I received my new smoothie maker for Christmas. I've got a Blend Active smoothie maker. For recipes I've been looking at a website called http://simplegreensmoothies.com/recipes. It has millions of different green smoothie recipes from mango to beetroot. 

  Green smoothies normally have spinach in which is rich in iron. It has abilities to restore energy and improve the quality of blood. I know what your thinking. 'Why would I want a smoothie with spinach in?' Thats what I thought too. I hate spinach but you honestly can't taste it inside the smoothie. 

  Enough chatting, let's get on with the recipe. 

  For this smoothie you will need:

- 1 cup of orange juice

- 1 1/2 cups of spinach

- 1 banana 

- 1/4 of a cup of blueberries 

- 1/4 of a cup of rasberries

- 1/4 of a cup of cherries

- 1/8 of a cup of rhubarb 

  

 1. First blend the spinach and orange juice together until smooth. 

  

  

 2. Now add all the fruit and blend until smooth.

  

  

  Tip: Use at least one frozen fruit to make the smoothie cold.  

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

Don't you just adore this time of year when you can snuggle up on the sofa wearing your fluffy PJ's , drinking hot chocolate topped with a mountain of whipped cream a delicate sprinkle of marshmallows, actually more like a blizzard of marshmallows. Well along with these cosy nights in comes the hectic season of Christmas. I've got a head start on my present wrapping which I'd like to share with you. 

For the first present I used plain brown paper tied with string. To make the string look more rustic I split it into three pieces and plaited it, making sure it was long enough to wrap around the present three times. I found these great freshly dried decorations called 'Christmas in a Bottle.' When I was out shopping the other day. I stuck a leaf and a shrunken looking pumpkin thingy on the top along with a plain card gift tag. Voila!

The second present is for my brother Leo.  Needless to say it had to be kinda masculine. Again I started with the brown paper and trimmed with hessian. I then threaded a couple of dried apple slices onto the raffia and finished it with the brown card gift tag.  To make the gift tag a little more special I stuck a small button above a slightly larger button, drew on a tilted hat and a snowman magically appeard.

I hope this has given you a bit of inspiration for an alternative to all that glitter and sparkle. Happy Wrapping!

Quinoa, Halloumi and Pomegranate salad

This week, instead of picking up the phone and ordering a take-away, why not make this quinoa, halloumi and pomegranate salad for a healthy, light alternative? 

  Quinoa is a wheat-free seed that you can eat instead of starchy grains. It has twice the protein content of rice or barley and has lots of vitamin B, E and fibre. Another benefit of quinoa is that it's a good source of calcium. It will fill you up for an active day. When quinoa seeds are cooked they become soft and creamy but still maintain a but of a crunch. They are slightly bitter with a nuttiesh taste. 

   Omega 3 seeds contain a great amount of omega 3 and 6 fatty acids. They help heart, eye and brain health and you can sprinkle them on your cereal, yoghurt or salads. 

  Pomegranate is the most powerful anti-oxidant fruit and improves brain, heart and eye health. 

    Ingredients:

1 Pomegranate 

170g Quinoa

250g Halloumi 

1/2 a Red Onion

7 Prunes

50g of Omega 3 Seeds

A Small Bunch of Chopped Parsley

2 tablespoons of Lime Juice

1 tablespoon of Demerera sugar

2 tablespoons of Balsamic Vinegar

A Pinch of Salt

2 tablespoons of Olive Oil

First pop the quinoa in a sieve and rinse under the tap. Then put it in a pan of boiling water with the salt and cook for 15 minutes. 

Whilst the quinoa is boiling slice the halloumi and place onto a baking tray lined with tin foil along with the finely sliced onion. Grill the halloumi and onion on both sides until golden brown. 

 

Then start preparing the dressing. Put the balsamic vinegar, demerara sugar, lime juice and olive oil in a jar and shake.

Slice the prunes,

seed the pomegranate 

and gather the onion. 

Put the quinoa in a bowl and pour 1/2 the dressing over the top. 

Then add the onion, omega 3 seeds, parsley and prunes. 

Lastly, put the salad on a serving plate and sprinkle on the pomegranate, halloumi and the other half of the dressing. 

This salad is amazing because the halloumi adds a beautiful, salty taste whilst the pomegranate sweetens the whole thing up. 

PS: A great way to eat this salad, if your a cave man and don't like to use a knife and fork, is plopping it onto an lettuce leaf and shoveling it into your mouth. 

Luxury Lush Pud

Help I'm a lush addict! When I'm innocently walking down the street the smell of lush will always find me, whether I like it or not. On entering the shop you are struck by the most wonderful fragrance in the universe. It's as if a good witch has taken every person in the worlds favourite scent and added it to her cauldron, creating a potion of heavenly magic and sprinkling it all around the shop.  So, what are you waiting for? Get yourself over to your local high street Lush and fill your basket with all the sweet treats, from bright bath bombs to moisturizing shimmer bars which are all handmade. Lush don't test their products on animals and use all natural ingredients which is an added bonus. I'm going to be talking about one of their bath bombs. 

This bath bomb is the Luxury Lush Pud. As you can see it is bright pink with colored spots topped with a candy Holly piece. The scent of this bath bomb is a sweet and aromatic. It is made with lavender oil which will sooth and calm you ready for a good night rest. 

When you put this in your bath the spots will burst open, fizzing out their rockets of color, and the pink bomb will fizz away. It will leave your bath water hot pink, with a hint of festive glitter. Lay back and relax.... When you step out of your luxury bath you will feel as smooth as a babies bottom, hydrated and smelling like an angel.