Honey, I'm Home

Hello hello. Poor Pritt Stick and Glitter has been slightly abandoned over the past few months but now that A Levels are over and I have a bit of spare time on my hands, I can continue my ramblings once more.
What have you been doing whilst you've been gone? I hear you cry. Well, this post is dedicated to filling in the gaps since February.

What I've been doing:

There's been a new arrival at the Ivory household, yes, my best friend Jasmine has acquired a beautiful little kitten called Izzy and she's as cute as she is crazy. Aww.

My mum took the family out to Nottingham Lakeside festival to see the luminarium. It's basically a huge inflatable structure handmade by artists, each section is a different colour and the main chamber has a 'tree' in it. It's calming yet intense, I would recommend it to anyone who isn't on a comedown because it's quite trippy.

 

What I've been eating:

Eating healthy is all fine and dandy but every so often you need to get the stage where you've eaten so much that walking is a struggle. Other the past few months I have been in this position perhaps a little too often but hey, I love food more than I love the gym.

If you live in Nottingham then you NEED to go to these two places:

The Navigation - For only ten quid you get a burger the size of your face with a whole range of delicious toppings and a side of fries. I don't think I'm capable of summarising the menu so take a look for yourself here. I had the bacon cheddar burger and I've never been so satisfied in my life (ok, I exaggerated but it was very good) the plan for summer is to try as many burgers as possible, the fajita burger is next on my list. The best part about this place is that they offer every burger as either vegan, veggie or meat so anyone can eat there, hooray!

I had to get this image off Google because I was too hungry to take a picture of my own.

Peachy Keens - In four words, around the world buffet. Need I say anymore? Peachy Keens is the only place where it's acceptable to have pizza and sushi on the same plate. Not only can you pile your plate with a range of exotic (or if you're less adventurous they offer a Sunday roast) and unusual cuisine, it's all ultra delicious and some dishes like stir fry are made right in front of you. I usually cruise round the buffet four times before moving onto the dessert table, complete with ice cream machine and chocolate fountain as well as mini versions of classic puddings like tiramisu and apple crumble. Peachy Keens also have a chain in Birmingham as well as Nottingham so I suggest visiting at least one of them.   

What I've been listening to:

In preparation for Secret Garden Party I've been checking out loads of new and exciting bands, here's a taster of the kind of music there, I'll do a bigger post about The Secret Garden Party nearer the time because it's going to be a highlight of summer, hello any gardeners reading! 

So here's a few bands to check out:

Mø - My favourite recent discovery, Mø's music is catchy, in your face and all round funky. Trying to Google her is a pain in the arse because of the weird ø but she's worth the trouble.

Wolf Alice - An up-and-coming summery kind of band, Bros in particular gets you singing along, especially when you're drunk.

London Grammar - This band are more chilled, I tend to listen to them when I'm sad or want to sway slowly around the kitchen whilst I load the dishwasher.

Well that's that

Now you're up to date with everything (except my 18th birthday but more on that shortly) I'll let you know I'm off to Spain in the morning so I'll be seeing you shortly.

Thanks for stopping by!

Eve x

Happy Vegan Valentine's Day

As usual my best friend Jasmine is being my Valentine, it's become a bit of a tradition now. Tonight we're having a romantic vegan dinner and I've made her a dairy free chocolate cake which tastes rather good. The recipe is from a book my mum wrote about raising children vegan, sly bit of advertisement for my mum there...

You will need for a 7-9" tin or 24 cupcakes:

• 9oz self-raising flour
• 5oz sugar
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• pinch of salt
• 125mls sunflower oil
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 2 tsps vanilla essence
• 300mls water

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and grease the tin with a little oil or margarine, or line a mufin tin with paper cases.
2. Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa powder and salt in a large bowl.
3. In a jug mix the sunflower oil, vinegar and vanilla essence with a fork.
4. Pour into the bowl and add the water. Mix everything together.
5. Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, test with a knife to see if it's cooked.
If you want to make the icing, sift 4oz of icing sugar and 2 tbsp of cocoa powder into a bowl and mix with a little water. The chocolate sprinkles were a gift from Germany but you can find something similar from a supermarket.

This is one of the best Valentine's day cards I have ever seen, enjoy. And have a wonderful day.

Love Eve

x

Vegan Spag Bol for Dummies

This recipe for vegan spaghetti bolognese is incredibly easy because I cheat and use a shop bought sauce but it tastes great so I can't complain. Obviously you don't have to use the exact vegetables or type of 'mince' I have used, just whatever is available to you is fine. I used dried soya mince, it's so cheap and can be used in lots of different ways, you can get it at most health food shops. If you want to use frozen veggie mince or real mince then go for it, although I'd prefer it if no animals were harmed! This recipe takes around half an hour to make and serves up to 6 people, or 4 really hungry people.

You will need:

•  500g bag of spaghetti
• jar of pasta/bolognese sauce
• passata (if you don't have enough sauce)
• 50g of dried soya mince
• 1 carrot
• 1 pepper
• 1 celery stick
• 1 courgette
• 3-5 mushrooms
• 1 onion
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1 vegetable stock cube

 1. Chop your vegetables to whatever size you like, I do mine quite small.

2. Heat up a table spoon of olive oil on a medium heat.

3. Fry your onion and garlic for 2/3 minutes, until soft.

 4. Add your carrots as they take a longer time to cook.

 5. After 3 minutes add the rest of your veg and pour a tablespoon of water over them to help them soften.

6. It's important to regularly stir the veg as they might burn at the bottom of the pan.

 7. Boil the kettle with enough water to make up a pint of  stock (unless you're not using dried mince) and get your spaghetti started.

 8. Pour the stock onto the veg and add your dried soya mince. If you're using another type of mince then you don't need to add the stock but make sure you season the mince instead.

9. Keep stirring the mince to make sure none gets stuck to the bottom. Do this for about 5 minutes.

At this stage give the mixture a taste, it's really yummy! At this point you could turn the mixture into a vegan meatloaf if you pop it into a loaf tin and put it in the oven for around 20 minutes.

 10. Time to add your sauce. Once the jar is empty, put a little water in it and shake it around to get more out of it.

 11. I noticed that there wasn't enough sauce in the jar whilst I was making this so added half a packet of passata but it's up to you whether you want lots of sauce or not.

 12. Once the sauce has heated through and the spaghetti is cooked, you're done!

Send me your thoughts, could I of done better?

Clothing Crisis

Ok, crisis is a bit of an exaggeration but I can't decide what to wear to my Staffordshire uni interview tomorrow (if the interviewer is reading this then I'm a good student, promise). On the letter the dress code says smart and smart is something that I'm not very good at. I've  struggled to put an interview look together and I'm still uncertain so any feedback would be useful! Would you about able to comment outfit 1 or 2 to help me decide? If not tweet me a number at @evehewitt. Obviously I wouldn't wear the starry leggings (which are great) to the interview, I'm just lazy. Please note the props in outfit two.

Outfit 1                                                                                                                Outfit 2

Keep Calm and Drink Tea

Yes, I did see the title of this blog post printed on a mug and I did steal it. I've been rather busy this week and I have an interview on Friday (wish me luck!) so I'm going to keep this short and sweet so I can return to my student finances. It's one of those times when you're all stressed out and you want a relaxing bath but it will take up too much time so you have to have a quick shower and return to your books which isn't satisfactory at all. I apologize if I am not making any sense. This is how I have been trying to stay sane over the past few days:

Drinking gallons of tea - I usually have around 4 mugs a day but during times of stress or when I have days at home this tends to excel to around 8 cups of tea per 24 hours. Milk and 1 sugar every time.

 My best friend - what a beautiful face! We see each other almost everyday and are often found drinking milkshake, watching Family Guy or eating. Jasmine has to endure all my complaints and stress and I would be useless without her.

My mantra - before my English exam my teacher said I should have a mantra to keep me calm in important situations, this was his suggestion and I have found it rather useful recently.

How do you keep calm? 

Glitter at Your Fingertips

This week is going to be very busy for me so I may get a little behind on blogging which makes me sad! I thought I'd do a quick post about my current nail varnish, it's Nails Inc. shade Sloane Gardens which sounds a lot fancier than blue and glittery. In the bottle it looks great but I was slightly disappointed when I tried it on, plus it peels off very easily. This is unusual for a Nails Inc. as they're usually really good. On the plus side, it dries ultra quick so I can touch it up before college and the sparkles look fab in certain lights. What do you think?

Sunday Nights are for Looking at Pretty Pictures

Monday morning is only a couple of hours away so the last hours of your weekend should be spent wisely, there's no use moping around and scrolling through Facebook, you may as well give your eyes a treat. I found Lukas Wierzbowski on Dazed Digital and I love his work, he uses everyday settings and beautiful models to create fun and gorgeous photographs. His blog is worth checking out, it's a charming collection of interesting sights he has seen, take a look here.