Nothing says 'Home' like the smell of Baking!

Since it's half-term I came home for the weekend. I forgot about the simple things in life like sleeping in your own bed, being fed by your mum, having a dishwasher and being able to throw everything in the laundry basket and have clean clothes miraculously appear! However, my favourite thing ever is to cook in our family kitchen so my brother and I decided to bake brownies...

Step 1 - measure out your ingredients

Eggs

Sugar

Butter

Flour

Cocoa Powder 

Cooking Chocolate

Walnuts

Chocolate Chips

White Chocolate Chips

Step 2 - Melt the butter and chocolate together 

Step 3 - In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and sugar until the mixture is thick and creamy and then fold in the melted butter/chocolate.

Step 4 - Then fold in the sifted flour and cocoa powder

Step 5 - Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts and then pour the mixture into baking trays

Step 6 - Cook in the oven for 30 minutes

 Step 7 - Enjoy :) cut yourself a piece when they're still warm with some ice cream!

We used a recipe from the bbc's good food website and added our own walnuts and chocolate chips but they were so good and the website has so many great recipes to try out at home and they're really easy to follow!! 

Let me know what your favourite thing to bake is

Do you have any family favourites?

Which recipes do you use all the time?

Letter Writing - A Lost Art

This week I have been searching for a postcard to send to my younger cousins. I thought that this would be a relatively easy task, being that postcards are not exactly "extinct" quite yet. After going to local corner shops, my student union, newsagents, and walking around the post office a couple of times I decided on my third loop of the post office that I would ask behind the desk. I was directed to the saddest looking shoebox on the floor at the end of the counter next to rubber bands and pritt sticks. After this whole ordeal was over and I was home after writing the two or three sentences that had taken a week to write down on paper,  the second task of the quest revealed itself - where's the nearest postbox?

The whole experience got me thinking how sad it was that letter writing is such a rare act and that in the eyes of my generation is so old fashioned and in some ways novel as it fits into a sort of indie/vintage fashion. Apart from Christmas Cards and thank you letters, I never send anything by post.

Over Christmas my Grandmother found a series of letters written between older members of her family, in 80 years are people really going to be scrolling through my phone to uncover the events of my life. It saddens me to think that my great grandchildren will all be sat around saying "oh look, she said 'cool - see you soon' to this girl called Lucy in 2014". There's such a romantic air about a letter, the fact that you can physically hold it, see the smudges and gestures in their handwriting, even putting the date in the top right hand corner seems to be a trademark that is no longer used.

Anyways so the whole point to this rambling rant is that I like getting letters in the post and sending them back to people so that's what I will do - write more letters.

A Life That's Good

My plan for the next couple of months is to stop being negative and concentrate on the happier things in life. I am going to try and complete the 100 Days happy Challenge!

http://100happydays.com

Amazingly 71% of people who have tried have failed - they couldn't find the time to appreciate the happy moments in their day to day lives. Personally, that makes me sad and I think I can do better! 

Inspired by my friend Ally, I want to spread some happiness and hope that it's contagious! So, I'm going to try and submit a picture once a day on my instagram of what made me happy every day!  #100happydays

I've been pretty ill this week but I'm trying to see the silver lining!
The silver lining for today is that I went to Wagamama with my friend Izzy for a change of scene, to make us feel better and and to escape from washing up! I then went home and watched Safe Haven so I feel like things are looking better!

Let today be day 1 of 100 Happy Days! 

Can you be happy too?
Let me know if you're taking part or think you can be happy for 100 days in a row or even what put a smile on your face today?


Day 1 #100happydays

RAG Week

Have you spotted those wonderful people walking about campus in neon orange hoodies? Standing in the pouring rain huddled together? Dancing in the Middle of the High Street to a busker playing Mr Brightside ? Dressed up as bears, footballers, punk rockers and some other character you can't quite make out? Well, it was all in the name of RAG Week.
"Raising and Giving" for a number of fantastic charities including:
NSPCC
PAPYRUS
ACE AFRICA
NIWE

This last week has been incredible! A chance to meet people you would probably never bump into, share amazingly funny stories of "what happened to you last night?!"and experience a week filled with events and nights out all in the efforts to raise money for our charities.

Highlights of the week include the now-forever-famous Toby dancing the whole of the Beyonce's Single Ladies routine during our student union's adaptation of "Take Me Out", Crew sing-alongs after our attempts to build spaghetti towers at the pub quiz and the many nights trying to avoid the cage in Sinners.

I have absolutely loved being part of Crew 6's Football team for the last week and will definitely be signing up again next year! I highly recommend it to anyone who's thinking about it to get involved!

Can We Start Over?

Right, so I've decided it's time to start over and "re-vamp" this site. A new year, a new semester... what better time to strip the walls and begin again?
With the Chinese New Year in mind I've come up with a few resolutions to kickstart this second (hopefully successful) attempt at blogging!

1. Make the most of this year!

Time has flown by since September - I literally have no idea what has happened, where the days went and how I let it all sprint by without taking it all in and capturing it!! 

 

2. Get involved!

I started writing for my University's Newspaper "The Courier" in October and have absolutely loved it! It has encouraged me to get involved and keep an eye out for events going on about the campus! I also just took part in RAG week which was incredible - so continue as a means to go on I guess. 

3. Be Spontaneous! 

Today I Don't Feel Like Doing Anything

I had an interview for this incredible internship opportunity today.  Although I'm far from getting the hang of answering the standard self assessment questions such as what my weaknesses and strengths are I really enjoyed the whole experience. The nervous feeling, trying to find the place, waiting once you get there etc. 

However once I got talking I had a fantastic time! I think that the more I try and convince someone else that this is what I want to do, the more I remind myself. It's quite exciting trying to start your way into the real world. Hopefully and fingers crossed they might consider me and take me aboard on what sounds like an incredible company with a new, exciting brand that is exploding all over the country. 

After my interview I headed of to South Ken for a quick visit to the Science museum (my all-time favourite place in the world). It was exactly what I wanted to do! After all the excitement I got home and crawled onto the sofa with a blanket and after Watching the second Sherlock Holmes movie; A Game of Shadows (which I highly recommend to anyone who's been living under a rock and hasn't seen it) I think I'm going to take a lazy day tomorrow.

                          

Elephants Never Forget

In my opinion Elephants are the coolest of creatures; they're strong, majestic, and (probably because of my favourite childhood movies "The Jungle Book", "The Lion King" and the book "Water for Elephants") they could easily be my favourite.

This year has been a big one for me and I have enjoyed every second of it spending my last school year in London with all my amazingly weird and wonderful friends. Everyone has their own plans for the next 6 months and will be travelling all over the globe to their University choices or their Gap Year destinations.  So I've decided that to make the most of this summer I'll need to channel my inner-elephant and "never forget". 

(Or in other words: take a tonne of photos and jump at every possible opportunity)