Gingerbread Cookies

Hello guys,

So as we are getting closer and closer to what I call 'proper Autumn' - when the leaves are falling of the trees and it starts to get cold, I wanted to do an autumnal bake, something that you can eat with a hot drink, in front of the fire and feel very cosy! So what better recepie to share then gingerbread. Gingerbread is one of my favourite recipes and this one is really good!

This was taking out of Mary Berry's Baking Bible and I am not taking any credit for it. If you enjoy baking then this is defiantly book I would recommend buying.

Ingredients:

• 350g of plain flour

• 1 level teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

• 2 level teaspoons of ground ginger

• 100g butter

• 175g of light muscavado sugar

• 4 tablespoons of holding syrup

• 1 large egg, beaten

Method:

1 Pre-heat the oven to 190°C/Fan 170°C/Gas 5. Lightly grease 3 baking trays.

2 Measure the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar. Add the golden syrup and beaten egg and mix to form a smooth dough, kneading lightly with the hands towards the end.

3 Divide the dough in roughly half and roll out one half on a lightly floured work surface to a thickness of about 5mm. Cut out your biscuits using a cutter and place them on the baking trays.

4 Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 10-12 minutes until they become a slightly darker shade. Cool slightly then lift on to a wire rack and leve to cool completely.

5 This final step is optional and it is to ice the biscuits. This bit wasn't in my book and I'm not sure how much I used. If you do choose to ice you cookies use 6 teaspoons of water for every 200g of icing sugar.

If you made this recepie then tell me how it went in the comments. Also if you gave any questions ask, and I will try my best to answer them.

Thank you for reading

 Abi
♥

The Best Friend Tag!

Hello Guys,

First of all I want to apologise for my lack of posts over the last month I have been busy (and lazy!) but i will try to post one a week from now on!

Anyway this week I wanted to do the best friend tag with my best friend Emily. She also has a blog, so please click on her name to check it out!

Emily is on the left and I'm on the right

1. How and when did we meet?

Together: When I (Abi) was born and Emily was 9 months old, through our families and church

2. What are your favourite memories together?

Emily: The holidays to Norfolk and France

Abi: Em's first birthday sleepover

3. Describe each other in one word.

Abi: Creative

Emily: Hilarious

4. What's your best friends dream job?

Abi: Emily wants to be a dance teacher or a West end Performer

Emily: Abi would like to be an interior designer or a West End performer


5. What's your best friend's favourite makeup brand?

Abi: MUA

Emily: Collection


6. What is something that annoys you about the other person?

Abi: When I ask Em a question she often just shrugs her shoulders or says dunno

Emily: Abi always takes mugshots of me

7. If you could go anywhere in the world together, where would it be? 

Together: NEW YORK!!

8. Favourite inside joke? 

Abi: My Baby is home...

Emily: Rubber dub dub...

9. My best friend looks beautiful when ________

Emily: When Abi has her hair in a bun

Abi: When Em is dressed up and looks fancy!

10. Your best friend's favourite season? 

Emily: Summer because Abi loves the heat (even in England!)

Abi: Emily is greedy and likes them all but probably Autumn if she had to choose

11. If your best friend has a scar, how did they get it? 

Abi: Em has to lines on her arm from scraping it on a door

Emily: Abi has one on her forehead because she is a wizard (that's what she says but she doesn't actually know how!) and one on her knee from falling over

12. What is it like being best friends with a blogger. 

Together: We are both quite new to blogging so it means we can inspire each other with different ideas

13. Would your best friend choose heels or flats? 

Emily: Abi loves heels but thinks flats are a lot more comfy, so flats

Abi: Emily likes wedges!

14. Would your best friend choose trousers or dresses? 

Emily: Both! It depends on the occasion but probably trousers

Abi: Dresses

15. Your best friend's favourite animal? 

Emily: Her cats Beebo and Hector

Abi: Giraffe

16. If your best friend's house was burning down, and their entire family and pets were sure to be okay, what 3 things would your best friend save? 

Abi: Emily would save Winnie the Pooh, her Special box and her phone as it has all her pictures on it

Emily: Abi would save Grandpa Bear, Special Box and her pandora bracelet 

17. Would your best friend choose comedy, horror, or chick-flick? 

Abi: chick-flick

Emily: Abi likes comedy

18. Would your best friend choose Blackberry or iPhone? 

Together: iPhone!

19. Does your best friend have any nicknames?

Emily: Abs, Abi, Shmabi

Abi: Em

20. What is something weird that your best friend eats? 

Emily: Abi would eat Biscoff by the spoon!

Abi: Emily eats the gherkin in the McDonalds burger which is gross

21. Do you guys have anything matching? 

Together: A top from Primark

22. If you were out together, what would your best friend eat?

Emily: A margarita pizza (thin base)

Abi: Emily likes curry

23. What's something you want to teach your best friend? 

Abi: How to play sims!

Emily: To eat more interesting foods

24. What is something you want to change about your best friend?

Emily: To be more organised 

Abi: To be less organised!

25. If your best friend were deserted on an island, what are the 3 things she could not live without?

Abi: Her Dad, her bed and her fridge!

Emily: Her Parents, her bed and her fridge (after a big Tesco shop!)

Thank you so much for reading I hope you enjoyed, have a great week and I will (hopefully) post another blog soon!

Abi
♥

DIY Paper Bunting

Hello Guys,
So today I am doing a DIY because on Thursday it was my Birthday and last Sunday (the 9th) I had my party. I was quite bored the day before so my Mum suggested I made some bunting for the party so I made something up and wanted to share it with you. It is really simple but looks great.

Equipment:

• Coloured Paper
• Ribbon - Use as much or as little as you want depending om how long you want it, make sure add an extra 20 cm to each end though so you can tie it up
• A hole punch
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Ruler

Method:

1) Make a template for how big you want you triangles to be mine were xxxxxxxx. I used paper but card is best.

2) On your coloured paper draw the bunting. If you used card you should just be able to use as a stencil to draw around. If you used paper, put a ruler at the very edge of your template and draw. Then cut out the pieces.


3) Once you have cut out all your pieces hole punch the two top corners of each piece.

4) Lay out all the pieces on the floor in the order you want. I started with one piece and worked outwards, so it is symmetrical, but you can do any order you want.

5) Get your roll of ribbon and cut it so it is about 40cm longer then you want your bunting to be. This is so there is space to tie it at either end. Start with the middle piece(s) and work out on either side.

Now you are finished! Let me know in the comments if you tries this and Share if you enjoyed.

Abi

♥

Update

Hello Guys,


I'm really I haven't posted anything for the last couple of weeks, I have been on holiday and been really busy! I thought I would share with you a quick update blog and then a longer one later this week, maybe a nail art tutorial...


I broke up from school on July the 21st, packed on the 22nd and then left to go to Spain on the 23rd! It was very busy and I didn't have time to write a blog post. My holiday was amazing, we stayed with friends who had moved out to Spain about four years ago so it was nice to see them again! There house is in Malaga (south Spain) and is so close to the sea, the view from my bedroom window was incredible, I felt so lucky :) We visited Granada, had days in the pool, went to the beach, went to a Spanish market; I had so much fun! We stayed there for a week and then came back to England for a day and then packed our bags again to see some friends who moved to Northumberland, which is in the north of England.


I had an amazing time there too (but it was no where near as hot as Spain!) we went to the beach, did some shopping, played 'The Sims 4', went to the park, it was a really relaxing holiday and great to catch up with our friends, as my Family and I hadn't seen them for ages. On the way home from there I visited my cousins who live in Derby for a few hours and we did the Bean Boozled challenge - I got toothpaste and centipede (yuck!)


Now I'm at home and have a lot of time to do whatever! It's nearly my birthday so I'm excited for that! I will try and write more than one blog post a week.

Abi

♥

July Favourites

Hello guys,

This week I decided I would do a monthly favourites, I would do it at the end of the month but I'm in Spain next week so there probably won't be a post (sorry!).

Favourite Shop - New Look
New Look have just had a sale so I picked up a few things for the summer, because there teen range is amazing! I also got I gorgeous pair of boots for Autumn.

Favourite Song - Black Magic by Little Mix
My friend played me the song on the bus home from school a couple of weeks of it and I can't get it out of my head!

Favourite Youtuber - IISuperWomanII aka Lilly Singh
I subscribed to Lilly a while ago but recently have become obsessed with her videos, especially her 'Types of People' videos.

Favourite TV Show - Pretty Little Liars.
I LOVE this show! I'm only on Season 3 so no spoilers please!

Favourite Chocolate - Cadbury's Oreo Dairy Milk
I know it's a bit random to put Chocolate into your monthly Favourites but I don't care, this chocolate is delicious!

Favourite Movie - Expelled
I watched this on Netflix so if you have Netflix I would definitely recommend it.

Thanks for reading please share if you enjoyed and leave me a comment saying what you have liked this month.

Abi

♥



Easy Raspberry and Banana Smoothie Recipe

Hi Guys,
So as we are approaching the summer holidays (whoop whoop!) I wanted to post a really summery recipe. So I looked in my cookbook for some ideas. One of the recipes in there was a raspberry and banana smoothie that my Mum had made up a couple of years ago. It was perfect because I needed to harvest my raspberry plant anyway. So anyway here it is, a quick and easy smoothie recipe for summer:


For two people you will need:

• 3/4 of a banana
• 6 table spoons of raspberries 
• 200ml of milk

Equipment:

• A blender
• 2 glasses (for 2 people, you can do it for more or less if you would like)
• A knife

Method:

1) Slice the banana into thin circles and then put them and the raspberries into a blender.

2) Then add your milk.

3) Blend until there are no big lumps, if you think it should be thinner then add more milk and blend again.

4) Pour into glasses and enjoy!

As you can see this recipe is very quick and easy and I really hope you like it. If you have any questions or suggestions for things you would me to do in the future please leave me a comment.

Abi

♥

DIY Pencil Pot or Vase from old Jars!

Hi guys!

Today I decided to do a DIY so I went on to Pintrest for some inspiration. I found lots of cool ideas but I wanted something that would be quite quick and easy to do. Eventually I saw a really cute DIY where someone had painted lines on a glass milk bottle and used it as a vase. However you needed glass paints, which I didn't have so I decided a good alternative would be nail polish! So here it is, how to make a cute vase or pen pot using nail polish:

You will need:

• Nail polish
• A jar
• Masking tape

1) Put two strips of masking tape all the way around the jar where you want the top and bottom of your paint strips to be. You can do as many as you like. I only used one strip because I was painting the top of my jar.

2) Next you need to paint with your nail polish (or glass paint if you have it) between the strips of masking tape. You may need a few coats to make sure the paint is opaque.

3) Now wait until the paint is dry. For nail polish I would recommend 2-3 hours but judge it by when you think is dry, it depends on the polish you use and how many coats you painted.

4) When the paint is dry peel the tape of slowly and carefully. It should leave a perfect straight line but you can always clean up minor mistakes with nail polish remover and a cotton bud.

5) This step is optional but I added some extra details at the bottom of my pen pot by using a cocktail stick to paint small flowers. This step is entirely optional and it looks great without as well. 

And that's it! However I added lace to the rim of the jar after I had painted these stripes. Some fabrics you can just tie around your jar but others you will need to glue.

To do this you will need:

• Lace, fabric or ribbon
• A clothes peg
• Glass glue - I used UniBond

1) Cut a piece of fabric, lace or ribbon to the size that you want it to be.

2) Squeeze a thin line of glue where you will be sticking you fabric.

3) Stick down your fabric and then where the two ends meet and use your clothes peg to make sure that they don't fall off.

4) Wait for your glue to dry. UniBond takes about 20 minutes but other glues may vary. When the glue is dry add spots if it needs it. I glued along the points where the two ends meet.

And that's it. I am really happy with how mine turned out. Leave me a comment to tell me if you tried this and how it went or if you had any questions.

Abi

♥