Frills 'n' Spills

 I have been trying to experiment more with my make up recently (you saw how much I love my new liquid eyeliner!) and I have been trying to wear more neutral make-up recently. I haven't quite mastered that 'no make-up, make-up' yet but once my skin clears up, I am hoping to wheel out my Nars Sheer Matte foundation again. 

The best bit about this dress is how it looks like a skirt and a top. This more generous cut also allows for wriggle room when eating tons of birthday food (ahem). I love fitted dresses for work and it is so nice to have one that works better with flats than heels! I imagine this will be my go to dress for when I have meetings in London, you can't wear heels when running across the city!

However many tutorials I watch, I will never be able to master the art of a beehive but tumbling curls and some volume at the crown is my (much easier) version, no backcombing required here!

Do you know of any good YouTube hair tutorials?

Ever since I first visited a Leon restaurant, I have been in love. What's not to like about reasonably priced, delicious food? I obviously talked about Leon a LOT as I received their second recipe book for Christmas from my parents. I can honestly say it was one of my favourite presents and I sat down and read it from cover to cover, mentally bookmarking recipes. Strangely enough, I have never had quite the right ingredients to try any of the recipes... until yesterday! I decided to bake some cereal bars as the cost of Tracker bars is prohibitive and I had a rather forlorn pack of museli sitting on the side in the kitchen.

Now I have to say, I used less honey (I'm not a fan of the sweet stuff) and I omitted the flour altogether, meaning my cereal bars are slightly sharper but nothing a sprinkling of sugar won't sort out!

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/ Gas Mark 5. Put the dried fruit into a processor and blitz until well chopped. Do the same for the nuts. Put the fruit, nuts, seeds and cinnamon into a bowl. (I don't actually have a food processor so I just left the fruit and nuts fairly large for a more 'rustic' effect.)

Warm the fruit juice and honey in a large pan together in a pan large enough to eventually contain all of the ingredients, until the honey is dissolved. Add the flour and oats, and stir in the fruit and nuts.

Smooth the mixture into a 25x30cm baking tray about 2.5cm deep. If the tray is not non-stick, it is wise to line it with baking parchment.

 Bake in the oven for 20 minutes- longer if you would like your bars more crunchy. Allow to cool, then cut into rectangular bars. They will keep for 2 weeks in an airtight container.

I as really impressed with how easy the instructions were to follow and the bars are yummy and work out much cheaper than even the basic range of tracker bars at Sainsbury's. I will be doing a full review on the recipe book soon as it is too pretty not to share!