Kitchen essentials for your first home

I've been moved into my first place now for a couple of months and am adjusting to independent life nicely. After all the preparation and worries involved in moving out its so nice to actually be settled in! One of the challenges of moving into your first place is knowing what you actually need to buy. When you live with your parents everything is there and there are things you use daily that you probably wouldn't even think about when purchasing things for your own home. I've decided to put together a series of essentials that you'll probably need for your first place. I'm starting on the most boring, yet one of the most important parts of the house...the kitchen!

The essentials:

Frying pan 

Pan set 

Knife set 

Cutlery (knives, forks, tea spoons, table spoons)

Plates

Bowls 

Glasses

Mugs

Chopping boards 

Baking trays

Oven proof dish

Cooking utensils

Can opener

Measuring jug

Pizza cutter (you could say this is not essential, but to me it is!) 

Kettle

Colander

Mixing bowl

Weighing scales

Obviously this list could go on forever, depending on what kind of stuff you like to cook. I'm not a great cook, but for me, that is more than enough to sort you out for the first few months in your first place!

I got the majority of my kitchen wear from IKEA. I would recommend going there when you have to buy a lot in one go. It's good value and everything is all in one place, which makes it a bit easier. 

Not the most exciting post but I hope you find it useful. Please comment below with anything I might have missed or anything you would suggest!

xxx

An awesome facial wash!

With all the exciting beauty products out there I feel like it can be easy to neglect the bare essentials. Which is why I've decided to share a new facial wash that I've been using lately. Well I say new...it's new to me! I was browsing around super drug and trying to avoid the make-up area...once I start putting make-up into my basket I cant stop! I ended up walking past the super drug skincare section and picking up one of their facial washes. I've used their tea tree wash in the past so this time I decided to try the tea tree and lemon facial wash.

I like to use a facial wash aimed at spot prevention because although my skin isnt to problematic, I do get breakouts around my forehead. I find that just regularly using a good anti-blemish facial wash and a few dabs of tea tree oil every now and then is usually enough to keep it under control.

This face wash is perfect for me. Tea tree oil is great as it has antibacterial properties to prevent and treat spots. The Lemon oil is to cleanse the skin of dirt, oil and other impurities for super clean skin. The lemon also smells lovely and feels so refreshing. I don't know if this is just me, but I always associate the smell of lemon, and just citrus scents in general, with cleanliness. However some lemony scents can smell a bit bleachy, which made me think twice about purchasing this, but as this is mixed with tea tree it doesn't smell to strong.

On to the most important part...how it makes my skin feel. Firstly I wanted to say that this works better for me than the Superdrug tea tree facial wash. Although the tea tree wash is great at clearing spots away, this one makes my skin feel softer and more refreshed. This also thoroughly cleanses my skin while still being gentle. I also find that this manages to remove most of my make-up, even pesky mascara, so I don't get out of the shower looking quite as much like a giant panda. Definitely will be repurchasing! 

xxx

Things to do this Summer

The lovely weather we have been having lately has got me thinking about plans for the summer. Since we don't seem to get that much sun in the UK I want to try and make sure I make the most of this summer, and make the most of my time off work. I have a week off in 5 weeks...not counting or anything. I've also got a week in July and a couple of weeks in August, wooo! Hoping for lush weather for those weeks but knowing my luck it will end up snowing or something. But I wont let that thought stop me making plans! Not all my plans involve sunshine anyway...some involve potentially being in pyjamas all day and lets be honest, they are the best plans.

SO here's what I want to do this summer...

Watch the new series of OITNB

Visit Thorpe Park again 

Do some baking

Shopping!

Go for walks in the evening 

Visit a new place

Start (and actually finish!) a few crafty projects

Visit London again 

Pass my driving test (Booked in June, EEEK!) 

Go and pick some strawberries

Eat the strawberries!

Spend more time with friends

Try and eat a (bit) healthier 

Get up early and go for a walk

Practice making bath bombs

Go to a BBQ 

Go swimming

Blog regularly!

Try and go out of my comfort zone (shouldn't be hard as literally everything is out of my comfort zone!)

Start and stick to a workout routine

It will be good to see how well I get on with this list, lets see how many things I can get ticked off! It will be good to come back and look at this list if I'm stuck for something to do one day. Hopefully it's given you a couple of ideas as well. Let me know your plans for this summer!

xxx 

Freedom Pro Brow Review

I only started filling my eyebrows in a few months ago and I really don't know why I didn't start earlier. The reason I started was because I dyed my hair a darker colour. My natural hair is blonde and unfortunately with blonde hair, comes blonde eyebrows! They didn't look too bad when my hair was blonde, they weren't great but not awful! Then I died my hair an warm amber colour and they just looked kind of  cold and washed out...so then I decided it was time to start filling them in. 

I started using a matt eye shadow to fill them in but it was a little dark so I only did it very lightly and couldn't really fill them in or shape them properly. So when I was out shopping with my friend (who is a little obsessed with eyebrows) I bought some brow powder. We were in Superdrug and to be honest there wasn't that much of a selection for lighter brows. I wanted my brows darker but I felt like a brown would be a bit to dark, not to mention that it would be a bit of a drastic change, going from blonde brows to dark brown. 

Luckily I found this brow powder from Freedom. I hadn't even heard of the brand before but it was super cheap so I thought I might as well give it a go! And well, I've used it pretty much every day since. I was actually surprised how good it was for the price and I feel like a lot of people wouldn't pick this up, simply because they would assume this wasn't a good prouduct. 

I find that you sometimes have to use quite a bit to get good coverage but this isnt a big issue. Saying that, it goes a long way, I bought this one around Christmas and as you can see I've barely made a dent. It also stays put, another thing I was really surprised about because most of my make up seems to wear a lot during the day. I think a main reason for this is because I walk to work and back but this prouduct seems to withstand the wind, rain and sweat. Pretty gross I know but my eyebrow area seems to sweat more than the rest of me, which makes the prouduct even more fabulous. 

They also have a great range of shades, which you don't always get with drug store brands, especially when it comes to eyebrows. There are 11 different shades to choose from so you'll definitely find a shade for you. Blonde is the lightest shade available. As well as the duos, they also have single pots of shadows. These come in the same shades as the duos but they don't have the lighter shade. I'll probably go with one of these next time as I don't tend to use the lighter shade in the duo. 

This prouduct is definitely worth a try and with a great selection of shades in both the duo and the single shadows, you'll find one to suit you. The duos are currently £3 in Superdrug and the single shadows are £5. Maybe you'll find a new favourite! 

xxx

My bedroom so far!

So we've been in our new place for a couple of weeks now and while there's still a bit to do, we're pretty much settled in now. So now that everything unpacked and in place, I can start thinking about what to do next! 

The room I'm most excited about is our bedroom, so that's what I'm going to show you today! This is the room as it is now, it looks a bit bare but there's still plenty I want to do here. I'm going for a shabby chic look in here.

This is my current 'dressing table'. I want to get an actual dressing table to go in this space pretty soon as this just looks messy! It would also be so nice to have it a bit more organised! I quite like this one from Argos. Its nice and small, I don't want anything to bulky as this isnt a massive space. I'm also a bit obsessed with white furniture, so it had to be white! It's not that shabby looking but I'll make it work. I'll probably change the handles, I'm not a fan of the silver ones, but that's easy to do.

this is the rest of the room. It was pretty hard to take a good photo as its so bright outside today! Not that I'm complaining, it makes a change from the constant rain we've been having. One thing we definitely need here is more cushions. As well as white furniture, I also have a bit of an obsession for cushions. 

Speaking of white furniture...I'm debating on whether to paint the bookshelf in the corner. I like it but I feel like it looks a bit dark, and as I'm planning on getting a white dresser and have a white bed I just feel like it would go better. I was thinking about painting it white and distressing it a bit and then sticking some nice paper or wallpaper to the back so it looks like this. I'd quite like a blue floral pattern on the back as I'm going for mainly blues and pinks in this room. What do you think? Should I leave it as it is or go for it?!

We also need a couple of bedside tables. I have one, you can just see it peeking over the top of the bed. This is the same colour as the bookshelf but I think we will probably end up getting  rid of this or using it in a different room and getting 2 new ones. 

I also have some lego dotted around this room as you can see...its my boyfriends and I'm hoping I can persuade him to move it into the spare room!

At the end of the bed we have a big blank wall. This wall is the longest and is the same wall that my dresser will be against. I really want to put something in the space at the end of the bed and I think something like this would look really nice. It actually looks pretty easy to do as well.. I would like to do it with a rectangle frame rather than a square, I'm not even sure where I can find big frames, any suggestions? 

I could probably buy something to go here but that's no fun! I also love a bit of crafting and it's nice to have a project to do. 

xxx

Sweet Potato Fries

So I have heard a lot about sweet potato fries lately and decided to give them a go. I am not adventurous when it comes to food, I could literally eat the same thing every day of the week. I also tend to eat a lot of pasta based foods, I mean pasta is great but its good to get a bit of variety. There is only so much pasta I can eat! 

I decided to give sweet potato fries a go and they're a new favourite! I love how they are nice and fluffy, almost creamy. They just pack a bit more flavour and a better texture than normal potatoes. And they are actually so easy to make. Trust me, if I can make them, you can make them. I once almost made a fire while boiling an egg. Heres how I make mine...

First you need to wash your potatoes, don't want to be eating dirt. I would use about 3 sweet potatoes for 2 people, this depends on what you're eating with them, the size of the potato and of course...how hungry you are! 

Cut your potatoes up into wedges. I usually do quite thin wedges. Be warned though that sweet potatoes are really hard to cut so you'll need a fairly sharp knife. I always end up jamming my knife into the potato and then not being able to get it out again so a thin knife is probably best!

Put all the wedges in a bowl, add some salt and pepper and olive oil. (or any other oil you fancy) If you're trying to keep them healthy then use less oil, but just make sure there's enough oil to coat all of your wedges. I'm quite generous with the oil because I like mine nice and crispy! Then stir everything around to make sure all the wedges are coated. 

Just tip them on to a baking tray and pop into the oven. I put the oven on about 200°C and leave them in for roughly 30-40 minutes. This is long enough for the middle to be fluffy and the outside to be crispy. You might need to leave them in for longer depending on how you want them but make sure to check them often so they don't burn. That would just be tragic. 

Then all thats left to do is serve and enjoy! I love them with BBQ sauce because thats also got a sweetness to it, the two go really well together. I had some earlier with a Quorn steak and both were delish! Definitely worth giving these a try if you haven't already, they're healthier than potatoes and they count towards your 5 a day! 

xxx

Our first place!

On Thursday we got the keys to our first flat! Since then we have been super busy and the last couple of days have flown by! We are just about unpacked now, there are a few bits to go up still but other than that it's almost there. Staring to look a bit more like a home now! I thought I'd share the photos I took when we first got there. Excuse all the stuff dotted around the place!

This is the front door (from the inside) there are 2  cupboards to the left of you as you walk in the door. 

This is the living room half of the kitchen/living area. It actually looks a lot smaller in this photo than it does in reality, that might be the bad lighting! (none of these have been edited, sorry!) 

And here's the kitchen! I really don't know what I was thinking when I took these photos, the open door is blocking half of the kitchen...anyway! I love how this room is nice and light, there's the big window next to the kitchen and then the 2 smaller windows in the living room. Buying curtains was a nightmare but more on that later! 

These two pictures are of the master bedroom. The first is the view you get as you walk through the door and the second is the wardrobe around the corner. Again this room looks a lot smaller in the photos and seems to look bigger in real life now the furnitures all in...weird! This is the first room you see as you walk in the front door.

This is the second bedroom. This room has been claimed by my other half as his 'games room' so we're leaving it as it is for now until we have the rest of the place sorted. We're going to be moving my single bed into here as well so it will also be a place for people to sleep if anyone comes over (or if I decide to kick Jayden out of our bed)

last up is the bathroom. There's not much to say about that really! I'm happy that there's a mirror already up in here, saves us trying to hang one! We have a few bits to go in here, like a bath matt and toothbrush holder but there's not much to do in here.

I'm so excited to be moving into our first place and cant wait to put our own stamp on this place to make it feel more like home. I'll be sharing photos once its all set up, we're almost there!

xxx