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.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Well, the holiday period is finally coming to an end...For some of us at least. As you can see, posts have been pretty sparse over Christmas, owing to my final year of exam-panic and a hefty load of baby-sitting for my sister (a little additional income never hurt anyone right?)

Please expect posts to continue to be irregular over the next fortnight, owing to these dreaded exams, when my time will be thoroughly congested with revising and job rejections. After all this though, prepare to have me back with some fabulous DIY projects, some tasty cheat's recipes and a very exciting post-revision remedy in the form of tea. Ah the joys of being British.

If you find you miss me terribly in the mean time, have a gander at my Tumblr blog, where you might be able to spot what kind of mess I'll be making with home crafts.

See you all in the New Year!

Invest

Odds are this Christmas you'll be in one of these situations
1. You'll be getting a new phone/laptop/tablet to replace the stone slab and chisel you've been using for the last hundred years.
2. You won't be getting a new phone/laptop/tablet to replace the stone slab and chisel you've been using for the last hundred years.

In either situation, trying to set up your new piece of tech or trying to internally upgrade your old hunk o' junk to your needs can be pretty costly when, let's say, the full Microsoft Office Suite can set you back approx £90. Let me guide you towards a slightly more affordable solution:

Software 4 Students


Just click on the above link, the discounted prices pretty much speak for themselves, I can't really add anything of value to that. Enjoy!

Currently Coveting

Netflix UK. If the UK prices are as competitive as US prices, I will be one of the first to sign up.

Currently Coveting

Fair Isle Leggings £28

I have seen so many people wearing variations of these, usually the cool-traveller types who picked them up somewhere really ethnic and cool. My idea would be to team them with a slouchy, black, grandad jumper and hair tied up in a top-knot.

Invest: Christmas Shopping.

I always find my student loan arrives at the wrong time; 3days after my rent is due, 2 weeks after the start of term and this year, my student grant was 2 months late- Thank any and all religious figures for my parents for covering my bills and rent over that time, or I just wouldn't have been able to come to uni for first semester at all.

After reimbursing parents for that, paying for unexpected "graduation fees" and now the looming dread of Christmas shopping- there just won't be enough in my bank account to shower my nearest and dearest with the gifts they really deserve (I tell you when I finally start earning something, after rent, bills and groceries- everything I make I am turning into wonderful gifts for my family). I feel so bad about giving people mediocre gifts, but it's so difficult to juggle making 20-odd sock monkeys and writing a dissertation. There might be some hope however, after trawling through the internet, I think I have found some fairly affordable solutions!

1. Make your own gifts!
Last year I attempted to make everyone I knew a sock monkey. I made 5 and gave up because a) it took too long and b) I got sick of pricking myself with the needles c) related to the previous point, but blood-spotted sock monkeys make morbid Christmas gifts.
However, if you are far more patient/efficient/hard skinned than I, sock monkeys make cute and charming Christmas presents- Look at Sir Monkington-Smythe:

He was given to me for my birthday last year, and assumed the duty of protecting my birthday meringues- a fine and noble position for any sock monkey.

If you've already made an army of sock monkeys, then how about knitting some sort of critter to give to friends and family? My niece and I went through a knitting-craze over the summer, and promised ourselves that when we gained a little more skill, we would buy this book and make the "Squirrel on Wheels".

The creations in this book are fairly small, so if you have some skill of knitting already, you should be able to make a few quite easily and quickly.



2. Show them you care with a "Care Package"
You might not be creative enough to make your own gifts, but now is not the time to despair! I have found this little gift-shopping haven which might just hold the answer!
If you click through to its "Unusual Christmas Gift" section, you'll find a range of beauties from as little as £2. I was particularly struck by

-Suki Shoulder Bag £1.95: Reduced price, recycled material, cute and girly. Can't really argue with that. And there's a less girly version for anyone offended by dolls here.

-Popcorn Holder £1.95: I've seen this in other shops retailing for a lot more, so this has really got my attention. What would I do with it?
~I'd go to some accessory shop and buy a multi-pack of earrings, some form of miniature stationary, a pack of bathbombs/other small toiletries e.g. mini perfumes.
~Pop some popcorn. Natural popcorn, probably not the flavoured stuff.
~Half-fill the popcorn holder with the cooked popcorn- this will act like a packing material. Break up the multi-packs you have bought and hide an item from each inside the popcorn holder! So instead of buying for one person a 3-pair pack of earrings, separate the pairs and gift them to 3 people! Doing things like this can make your money stretch a lot further, and your gift recipients will have lots of little knick-knacks to play with (and some popcorn to eat, omnomnom)

I highly recommend looking through the rest of the website for other gift ideas, they have a really good selection of oddities, and if you can clear most of your Christmas shopping list in one place, you can save on paying lots of delivery charges.

3. Get creative in the kitchen!
They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but I assure you most women (that I know anyway)  also fall for this culinary ploy. Whip up a batch of gingerbread cookies, and turn them into Christmas decorations! I've made a Christmas tree from gingerbread, and it struck me that I could have threaded pretty ribbons through the left over shapes to hang up on the tree/wrap in pretty cellophane pouches to give away. Curses. But there you go, learn from my mistakes.

Sadly I can't find a link for my Christmas Tree Cookie Cutters- but I got them from Lakeland for about £6 (I can't remember exactly). They even suggest a vanilla cookie recipe on the back of the box, and provide you with 2 piping bags in the box- how very thoughtful of them!

Bomb Cosmetics are, well, "da bomb"

A very lovely man bought for me a little assortment of goodies to help ease the pain of working through the cold Scottish evenings- part of this parcel? 

 No, not the sock monkey, the little tinned candle. 

I love candles, I usually get those vanilla-scented tea lights from IKEA, but I'm always really disappointed at how quickly I burn through them (ba-dum, pssh) and I could never before justify getting the bigger ones in case the scent wears off or I get a headache from the smell after too long.

Call this my maiden voyage into the realm of "proper" scented candles, and I am already planning my next trip. We found this in a little gift shop in St. Andrews, they had a really BIG candle display, and this one caught my eye because of the name ("Opium Den" by the way) Sounds like a candle for adults, dangerous, living on the edge kind of adults. I could live on some form of edge I suppose.

 And then I took a whiff. 

Oh-my-word. Divine doesn't even cover it. I expected something kind of sickly sweet smelling (I'm always sceptical when buying perfume-type things, the sales ladies seem to confuse "gorgeous" with smelling like a strawberry) but no, it's got a woody, spicy, almost sexy scent to it. According to the label I am enjoying the delightful aromas of "patchouli and sandalwood". I read on: "will burn for 45-50 hours" - No, really? "45-50 hours"? They can't be serious.

I have now had this candle for around 9 weeks, I use it during essay-writing/ tea-drinking/ bed-reading time (and this takes up a lot of my time) and this candle is only just showing signs of slowing down. 

Opium Den by Bomb Cosmetics, people, don't even hesitate

Ladies, if you have a "thing" for candles, and Yankee candle just seems a bit too much to stretch for- make this purchase. 

Men, if you're lacking ideas for stocking fillers this Christmas- look no further.

I can vouch for both parties that this candle 1. Smells some kind of wonderful 2. Lasts a lot longer than all night long 3. Don't even question the price, don't even look at it. I easily save money buying this than repeated bags of tea lights- I even did the math.

Oh and what happened when it officially finished? It didn't.

Make Do & Mend

 I created these little darlings from the leftover candle wax in the original tin!

What you will need:

-Miniature jam jars (available from your flatmate's jammy fixation/ the condiment aisle at any supermarket)
-Candle wicks, I got mine from the local craft store for around 10p per wick
-Candle wax

Step 1. Excavate the remaining wick and wick holder from the candle you want to melt down, make sure to also remove any darkened, singed bits of wax (or it'll turn the entire batch an unattractive grey colour)

Step 2. Find a non-stick pan that doesn't look like this, put it over a medium-low heat and melt down the candle. 

Step 3. While the wax is melting, keep dipping the metal part of your new wicks into the wax, to create a tacky base that you can use to stick the wick into the mini jam jars with. This way, you can pour in the wax and the wicks will support their own weight, and you don't have to stand holding the wicks in the hot wax, waiting for them to cool down. (I clearly forgot this step and had to resort to an ice bath to hurry the cooling process along)

Step 4.Pour the wax into the jam jars, using a spoon to ladle the hot wax in if necessary, be careful not to burn yourself, and I would advise pouring over some sort of surface like a plate that you can clean easily if you do spill.

Very "The White Company" right?

Currently Coveting

Well, the second wind storm in Scotland this week has slightly scuppered my plans to upload my first "Make do & Mend" post (I can't upload my photos!)
These boots could go down a treat right now, the storm outside is horrendous!

Mel Shoes Grey Wellibobs £38

I currently have some knee length red wellies, which are beginning to get a little old in the tooth, and really make my legs ache after trudging around in the wet for a few hours. I might have to invest in these wellibobs after Christmas- smaller, lighter, and they smell like bubblegum! No really, the rubber is bubblegum scented- like a built in odour eater. Yum!

Currently Coveting

Look how cute these are! I have no particular need for cheese knives per se, but I'm loving the colours and the price could very easily persuade me to buy them and host a dinner party with cheese plates affair...

Taylor's Coloured Cheese Knives: £12.99 on Firebox

*Edit: I don't know how many people this may apply to, but when we moved in to halls, we were given no kinds of kitchen utensils or cutlery, and the price of knives is something that you really take for granted until you realise a decent blade can cost £10+ Enter Taylor's Coloured Kitchen Knives

Not only are they cheap, you'll be able to tell if any of your flatmates try to keep some for themselves at the end of the year!

Currently Coveting

Topshop Placket Shirt- Camel

Topshop Gold Stripe Leggings

Topshop Adder Heel Boots

Don't forget: Free standard delivery on all UK orders with Topshop until Monday (midnight), happy shopping lovelies ;)

"I have nothing to wear.." "O-relia?"

Pardon the pun, pardon all the puns I just love wordplay.

I went to Edinburgh over reading week, and in particular hit up the TopShop there (living in a small uni town, you DON'T get many opportunities to shop..)
I love the basement floor of the Topshop on Princes St. it provides you with your 5 basic food shopping groups: Underwear,Nightwear, Make-up, Misc Apparel and ACCESSORIES.

I love pretty jewellery, I just often forget to put it on when I'm getting dressed all bleary-eyed and in the dark on a cold winter morning. Especially in Scotland. Did you know: Winter in Scotland is more vindictive than anywhere else in the world (maybe?). I digress. I also forget to accessorise (british sp anyone?) when the jewellery I own is so old it becomes camouflaged with all the other stuff on my desk, and the obscene price of "statement" jewellery seriously puts me off making any new purchases.

"£18 for a necklace? Honey, I could eat for a week offa that."

Enter my (new) favourite Topshop concession: Orelia Jewellery

Prices range from £8 for sparkly bracelets and delicate necklaces to.. a bit more than £8 for other things. Go look around for yourself.

I stepped out as the proud owner of...

These are also known as

1. Celeste Bracelet (but in white)

2. Ruby Necklace

Admittedly my friend bought me the bracelet for my birthday when she saw me gushing over it in store, and ordered it online- according to her the people running the site were really sweet in letting her know the original bracelet she was getting me had recently sold out but were super quick in getting the replacement sent out. 

So there you have it- cute jewellery pieces, fair prices and lovely people behind the website. Worth a visit if you're looking for affordable self-indulgence or Christmas gift ideas for some special lady (or guy, you never know..)  this winter.

Oh my word check out how cute this is! Adding to my wishlist pronto...