Currently loving: teapigs Darjeeling First Flush.

I recently got back from a week in London, and on my return I found the lovely people at teapigs had sent me a little treat in the post! There's nothing like a good cup of tea when you get back home :)

This is a cup of their new Darjeeling First Flush, which promises to be a very special cup of tea. What makes this tea different from the usual darjeeling, is that the tea leaves are the first to be collected after the winter season- hence being the "first flush". The teas coming from this season are hugely popular in Japan and Germany, and teapigs have managed to get hold of some for us over here!

Being an avid tea enthusiast, I decided to enjoy mine in the garden with some magazines and sunshine- pure bliss!

And when my nephew saw me enjoying my tea so much, he got a little curious and wanted to try some  too :P

If this has all peaked your interest, make sure you get yourself over to the teapigs store straight away, the Darjeeling First Flush is part of a new range of limited edition teas, and you wouldn't want to miss out!

For thirsty readers out there, teapigs are offering you a 15% discount on your orders when you enter  "BLOGGERS12" at the checkout.

Tea for all!

And don't forget to sign yourself up to the teapigs newsletter while you're there, that way you can keep up to date with their current offers and new products! 

Looking forward to: Mallzee

Heads up everyone, we've got a new site heading our way and I'm super excited! Think "Pinterest-meets-every-shopping-website-you-use" and you have the essence of "Mallzee", a shopping site launching in December this year.

The idea is to sign up with Mallzee and they'll give you a few products to rate to get an idea of the styles and brands you like. Then, they'll go and find the products best suited to you, and you can then set up a mall (aka "Mallzee") filled with the brands you've picked.

Users can also seek out their Facebook friends' malls and chat, share and suggest Mallzees to each other- it really brings together shopping and networking (Lord knows 80% of my Facebook chat to my BFFF is links back and forth on Asos and Topshop).

Mallzee is set to launch with over 200 high street brands including Urban Outfitters, French Connection, All Saints to name a few, so I'm thinking this site is shaping up to be a pretty big deal. I might just smell an upcoming "latest big thing"!

All this is leading up to "the best part":

Shopping with Mallzee makes online shopping so much easier- with so many brands in one place, you've just saved yourself time and money when putting together a cute outfit for date night/ a girl's night out/ your boyfriend's horrendous wardrobe. I'm looking at you, threadbare socks.

That wasn't the best part- I just like being able to do things while I'm wearing pyjamas, be it shopping, saving money or writing this blog post. I'm just kidding, it's 3pm and I'm wearing a summer dress. With slippers.

No, THE best part is:

People are buying the things they see on Mallzee and if they're buying from the brands on your Mallzee, then you'll find yourself making a pretty penny or two. I'll say it again:

You're making money from people buying the clothes you put together in your Mallzee. 

Now you're interested huh? Sign-up below ready for the launch, and spread the word on Facebook and Twitter to enter yourself into a prize draw for £100 worth of shopping vouchers. That's $155 for the Yanks, and a sweet deal for everyone all round.

Well, this is embarrassing...

Apologies for such a persistent silence on here folks, I blame an onslaught of final year deadlines and crises for taking up all my time and creative energy. For fellow artsy-craftsy people, I'll be posting a little something for affordable fabrics, projects and the like.

Watch this space.

Save While You’re Spending: teapigs. For tea pigs like me.

Student life, it's a stressful one. Deadlines, drama, dating, the stress just pours in from all sides. For me, my therapy comes pouring out of a teapot, over a long chat with my friends/personal therapists. Whilst this is a lot cheaper than paying for an actual therapist or life-guru, my inability to deal with stress is burning a hole in my pocket.

Whilst thinking of New Year resolutions and ways of saving a few extra pennies, I realised I could pour my own therapy, in the comfort of my own home, for a fraction of the cost AND without compromising on my fancy tea tastes! (Now that’s a lot of positives…)

My usual haunts offer a huge teapigs selection, and luckily for me, I can also get hold of their teas at home without a big mark-up on the price of a cup of tea!

When I say there is a huge teapigs selection, I'm not exaggerating, I've counted 22 different blends on offer. 

22 tea blends. That means you can dedicate one particular taste to any and every mood, craving, and panic-inducing situation. With some left over for tea parties or nights in front of the telly.

When looking for comfort, I usually pick the Christmas-reminiscent, spicy sweetness of a chai latte, which gives me the warm fuzzies all over. I decided to try out the chai tea latte from teapigs, to see how it compared to the ones made by the pros in the teashops. And then I took pictures with my hipstamatic app, just 'cos. 

Using a fancy glass mug to capture the tea-making magic, I let the teabag brew in hot water, while I acquainted a measure of hot milk with a milk frother. The results were spectacular. At that point all I had to do was put everything together- as easy as 1,2,3.

(The shortest how-to section to date, a testament to how easy it is to get fancy drinks in the simplest of student kitchens. or any kitchen for that matter.)

With that, there was nothing to stop me from fixing:

1. My "after dinner dessert tea", featuring the Rooibos Crème Caramel.

2. A "It's too warm in bed and too cold outside" Spiced Winter Red.

3. And finally, a "I'm on a diet, but I really need some chocolate" Chocolate Flake Tea.

Told you, teapigs really have got a tea for everything. As well as all the equipment you need to fix them "Fancy Teashop" style. And you don't even need to question how much money you're saving with a DIY cuppa, because they break down the prices for you on their website.

 Need I go on? Does it get any better than this?

Well, yes, because any readers out there looking to make a purchase of delicious teapigs tea get 

15% off their orders with "BLOGGERS12" until the end of the month.

Tired, stressed and strapped for cash tea lovers- You. Are. Welcome.

Save While You're Spending

Spend a week in London knowing that the next semester's social calendar is going to go off with a bang, and a shopping spree becomes inevitable. While I am ever in search of the perfect LBD, I managed to pre-emptively purchase lots of little trinkets to decorate myself with when the right dress comes along!

All from Accessorize! And all purchased with change from £10. No, really:

Looking closely, you might notice that all but the earrings have a little defect to them, but nothing that needs more than a new jump link, stitching or strategic snipping. The earrings themselves are in perfect condition, minus one pair of butterfly backs, and my niece gets a little weekend treat because of 2 pairs being put into the same bag. Win! And look at all those savings. Scrumptious. 

Moral of the story? Absolute treasures can be found while rummaging through a bargain bin! (Especially when unobservant sales people organise the bargain bins) Now go! Rummage!

Make Do & Mend: Salvaging Flared Denim Jeans.

Oh em gee you guys look at these super cute denim shorts I bought!

Pah, no, I made these.

I bought these horrendous flared jeans many years ago, before I had any awareness of style or my body shape. 

I am still around 5"3, my derriere remains sizeable, and since these jeans do nothing to flatter these two features of mine, they were resigned right to the back of my wardrobe, deep, deep down. I don't even want to think what other ghastly things are back there.

So the day came that I fancied myself some denim shorts, but I'll be damned if I'm paying £30 to have my bum cheeks hanging out of some piece of fabric, it doesn't look good on even the most beautiful of back sides, and frankly, no one needs to see that. (What happened to dressing to look good and decent I ask you?)

Here's the how-to.

1. Put on your ugly jeans, and mark where you want to cut them off with a pen or safety pin (if you go for the latter you won't stain your jeans!) I went for a longer length than I wanted, so I could err on the side of caution if things went wrong, and leave a little length for some sort of hemline if I wanted to roll up the ends. Leave maybe an extra inch or two.

2. Cut off the jeans using SHARP scissors. Make small snips, and angle upwards to make a "V" with both legs. The small snips will give you something to shred if you want a cut-off look hem, but if you want a cleaner edge to roll-up and press use bigger snips. The V-shape should, in theory, make the jeans look more flattering when you put them on again.

Save the bits you cut off so you can practise how to distress the denim or how it'll react to bleach and dye if that's what you're planning on doing. I wanted to make distressed patches on mine, and here's how I did it.

1. Make incisions spaced approx 1cm away from each other, any further apart and you'll have a tight weave to fight against.

2. Quick anatomy of denim: Running lengthways through the denim are blue strands, this is what colours your jeans. Running at 90 degree angles to these strands are white elastic threads: these are the ones we want to expose. Looking at the cut edge of your incision, use a pair of tweezers to find a blue strand, single him out, and pull it out. Lather, rinse, repeat until you've finished that patch, and move on.

3. What I neglected to photograph is what you do at the tops and tails of your distressed patches. To make the distress look a little more finished, flip over the material so you are looking at the wrong side. At the top and bottom, find a white thread, and pull it away from the denim. It should still remain connected to your denim, and when you flip it over, it'll frame the distressed patch with a tufty, frayed bit of denim

4. Still playing with the spare material, practise how you want to finish the hem of your hot pants. I went for a frayed look, and got that by tugging on the exposed white strands at the bottom of the denim. I then trimmed them down on my shorts so I wouldn't have white strands tickling my knees or anything.
You might want to turn up the bottom two or three times and then iron over the fabric to make a straight, crisp hem, completely stitch free.

When you're confident with what you want to do with your shorts, go ahead and do it!

Expensive Tastes?

One more item to add to my growing list of high-street steals:

Paul's Boutique patent black bowling bag: £61

Or yours for £12 from Primark, complete with multi-coloured bag tassel/charm thingy, and in a variety of colours.

(Sadly, I can't find an image of it on google, but for reference you can find it here)

Expensive Tastes?

I was just moseying around the Accessorize sales a few days ago, and I see someone in their design department is very switched on!

A few months ago, swarths of very affluent/ "don't give no **" ladies fell in love with the latest jewellery line from Yves Saint Laurent, and this ring in particular really captivated people (I admit, even I coveted the little dear)

Source: Yves Saint Laurent, £165

Only problem I'm faced with is: do I pay my rent and continue to afford 3 (if that) square meals a day, or buy the ring?

Well I'm still here ain't I?

Source: Accessorize, £12

Voila, a very affordable alternative from Accessorize, definitely not the same as the YSL version, but similar enough to satisfy my expensive tastes. And my boiled eggs still have their hunky soldier escorts.