Chocolate Chunk Cupcakes

Happy Thursday Lovelies, 

This weekend it was my Sister in laws birthday, we spent the weekend visiting Welbeck open art studios and baking cupcakes. 

We had to use an american recipe for the cupcakes as Sannie did not have any weighing scales and I didn't take mine. I will list the recipe that we used and a recipe with measurements in grams as well. 

Cups 

• 1 cup of unsalted butter
• 1 cup of caster sugar 
• 2 and 1/2 cups of self-raising flour
• 3 eggs 
• 1/2 cup of milk 
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder

Grams 

• 150g unsalted butter 
• 150g caster sugar
• 150g self-raising flour 
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder 

You can add any flavouring to the mixtures, we chopped up a cheap chocolate bar to make choc chunks and added these. 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees F
2. Place bun/muffin cases into a muffin tin 
3. Cream the butter and sugar
4. Mix in eggs and flour a little at a time 
5. Add baking powder and mix
6. Mix in chopped chocolate   
7. Spoon mixture into cases 
8. Place in oven for 10-12 mins or until golden brown on top
9. Place cupcakes on a cooling wire and leave to fully cool 
10. The fun part DECORATING time!! 

We forgot to add baking powder ooops!!

To decorate the cupcakes we cheated and bough Dr. Oetker chocolate icing in a can.(I would highly recommend this if you are not to keen on having to wash a lot of dishes) I did find that the can only decorated around 8 cupcakes though. 

For toppings we used Asda's own popping candy and chocolate toppings which included; white chocolate stars, white, dark and milk choc covered cereal, milk choc covered toffee pieces and brownie pieces. 

We also had a bag of matchsticks, I found that I ate more of these than I used for decorating haha. 

This was the result!!

 

Nearer Christmas I will hopefully be doing more Christmas themed baking, as long as I have the time and energy. Baby is definitely taking up a lot of energy at the minute and when he's here I'm sure I will be very busy, but I will hopefully have more mummy and baby posts :D.   

Let me know if you have a go at making your own cakes or any cheats that you have for decorating. 

xx

Christmas Nails, Blogmas (Maybe)

Hello Lovelies, 

I can't believe that it is December already! Where has the time gone, not only is it nearly Christmas but it's also nearly my due date eeeekkk. 

I was going to start a YouTube channel but feeling huge, emotional and the fact that at any point I will be having a baby, I decided that maybe it's not the right time. So instead of filming vlogs etc. I opted for trying to blog more through Xmas. 

I have a list of blog posts that I want to do so hopefully I will be able to upload more, I'm not making any promises though, just in case haha.   

So here is the first Blogmas post. Christmas nails. I have searched through my nail varnish collection for the most Christamassy/ Wintery colours that I have. I may have even purchased a couple more.

Before painting my nails I always use collections 2 in 1 Base Coat and Ridge Filler. I find that this gives me an even base to cover over. It also protects my nails from staining if using a darker colour.

I may post some combinations and nail art using the varnishes. Let me know in the comments if you would like to see this post. 

 Usually around Christmas I tend to stick to my Reds and Glitter, however this year I have also been loving Icy Blue shades. 
Left to right here are Ciaté caviar pearls midnight in mahattan, this was one from last years Ciaté mini mani Christmas Calendar, next is Barry M that I was gifted last year (I think), I believe that it was a superdrug special, Sinful Colors in the shade Cinerella has been a go to this year, it is such a lovely shade. Last but not least in the Icy Blues and glitter is Collection Bedazzled nail effect in the shade Razzle Dazzle. This has silver and blue glitter in, I love to use it on it's own or as a top coat.

  The Ciaté mini caviar and glitter (sprinkles) are from my advent calendar last year. R to L: Twinkle Toes, Metallic Pearls - silver, Caviar Pearls Metallic gold, Sequin dallas dolly, Caviar cookies and cream and varnish Fit for a Queen. 

Onto the classic Christmas reds and glitter. Ciaté boudoir  and Barry M red glitter. The Barry M glitter is more of a full varnish than a glitter top coat. 

Essie shades are; A List (Red) and Set in Stones. These were my cheeky purchases from the weekend when I was supposed to be Christmas shopping ooopsie. I haven't used these myself yet but did paint both of my sisters nails, I have to say that I was impressed with the application of the essie polishes. 

xx

Pregnancy update

Hello lovelies, 

Just a really quick update today. Firstly want to say so sorry for the lack of blogging. It's something that I really enjoy doing and need to get back into again. 

I am now 32 weeks and 2 days, so we have at least 8 weeks until we get to meet our baby boy. I'm so excited, I can honestly say that I am ready to start getting things a bit more organised.

On the agenda for this week is: packing hospital bags because realistically baby could decide to arrive at anytime now. Attending modwife and antenatal appointments and then some well needed rest. 

I will be uploading a hospital bag post for both me and baby in the next week or so. I have a few of the necessary items that I need and I have to get some more. 

Any suggestions of what I need to take or what you found useful? 

Also through December I am thinking of doing vlogmas / lead up to baby vlogs on YouTube. It is something that I have thought about doing a lot but I'm a bit nervous about getting started. Actually picking up the camera and talking down the lense is a bit daunting. 

Any advice? 

Hope you've all had a fantastic weekend. Let me know what you've been up to. 

Lillybet xx

What I've Been Up To

Hello Lovelies, 
I hope up are all well. It's been such a long time since I last updated, I am now in my final trimester (29 weeks), time seems to have gone so fast. During the second trimester I seemed to have a lot more energy that the first and beginning of my third. 
Last week me and Anthony went to Cornwall for a week's holiday. I have been going to Cornwall for years with my family and friends. We used to go at least once a year, for the past couple of years I've not been and missed it so much. It's like home from home down there. 
It was so nice to take some time off work and relax, including walking on the beaches, trips to St. Ives, Fish and Chips from Rick Stein's in Falmouth, surfing (for Anthony not me ha) and just generally spending time together. It was bliss. 

 Driving from place to place we stumbled across a tin mine with amazing views so we stopped for a short walk.  (Excuse my windswept/make up free/chipped nail varnish selfie). 
If you are ever in Porthtowen you have to have a Moomaid ice cream, there's a small shop near the beach and they sell the most amazing ice cream. The one that I had here was a banoffee sundae. It was AMAZING! 

Above are the views from a walk around at St Ives in the morning and Anthony off for his surf at Sennon Cove. He hired a board and wet suit, I didn't let him take his own boards because I wasn't too sure about surfing so soon after his accident, but because the weather was so nice and other people were surfing as well. I sat on the beach read some of my book and had a hot choc. 

We've been back in Sheffield now for a week and Autumn has made it's appearance. I'm not complaining I love Autumn it's my favourite season of the year. There's something about dark nights with pj's, films and hot choc that I just love.  


Let me know what you've been up to. If anyone has any hints and tips for the third trimester I'd love to hear from you. 

Thanks for the read. 

xx

Harrogate, Knaresborough and York

Hello Lovelies, 

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend and bank holiday weekend (if you're lucky enough to have one). I have had a busy few weeks, moving from our house and back in with my parents for a while. Long story short the house was bad we hated and needed a nicer space and my lovely parents have made us a bedsit in their house. 

So we have been moving between houses as well as myself working 8 - 9 hour shifts, busy, busy times. 

In the middle of all this Anthony decided to whisk me away for a romantic weekend to Harrogate and York. It was so refreshing to just have some relaxing time together. Mum and Dad kindly agreed to look after little Ozzy. 

Our first stop was Harrogate. I myself had never been before so it was nice to experience somewhere new. it took a while to get there as the traffic on the way was really bad, a quick change of route and we were soon there. 

Harrogate is such a lovely place and we spent all day wandering the centre looking in independent shops and high street shops. I realised half way around that I had forgotton to pack any Pjs for myself, so we popped into Primark and picked up some dispicable me pyjamas. 

After lunch and a long stroll around we decided to have a rest in a little coffee shop called the Bean and Bud, we were drawn in by all the artwork on the wall by Sheffield Artist Pete McKee. I love his prints and had to have a peek at the ones on the walls. The coffee they served was amazing and the atmosphere was so calm and relaxing. 

We then popped across the road to Mellow Melts, such a cute little shop selling all things delicious smelling from candles to bath bombs. Anthony treated me (us) to three bath bombs, they both look and smell amazing. 

We then went back to the car and set off to our hotel. Anthony wanted to take a detour through Knarseborough to see the castle and bridge. We arrived, and oh my goodness it is such a nice little place to walk around. 

Finding the castle we had a quick stroll around the grounds and found this amazing view. It was so beautiful, we sat on a bench together and took it all in having a casual chat about the area and what a great day we had. 

Anthony then turned to me and explained that he had bought me here for a reason. I had no idea what was going on. The next thing I knew he was down on one knee and asking for my hand in marriage. EEEEPPP! I was so shocked I even asked at one point if he was being serious haha. It turns out that he had been planning it and had the ring for a while. He of course asked my Dad first. 

Obviously I said YES! I was then surprised further when a lady appeared from over the hill saying what a lovely moment it was and that her husband had a camera if we would like a picture. Her husband then came around with a huge camera and took a lovely picture which he emailed to us the next day. So a big thank you to the lovely couple. 

After spending the night in a hotel we then headed for York early Sunday morning and had a quick walk around whilst it was still quiet. It  was lovely that it wasn't to busy and that a lot of the shops were not yet open. It meant that we could have a walk around and just take in the lovely City. 

Wow that ended up being a long post. 

Thank you if you made it to the end.

   

xx

Gender Reveal!!

Hello Lovelies, 
Just a quick update today. On Thursday we went for our 20 weeks scan, Anthony and I had both decided that we would like to find out the gender of our baby. 

The 20 weeks scan is so detailed, the sonogropher spent ages looking at all sorts. He did say that we had a very active baby. I had to get up and wiggle a bit (pretty embarrassing wiggling my hips around) to get the baby to move so that we could see the heart better. After a thorough inspection we were told that everything is fine. 

Nothing had been mentioned about the gender so I plucked up the courage to ask. The Sonographer had a good look and revealed we are having a .....

  

Boy!!!

We are both so excited,  I had a feeling from the beginning that we were. We didn't have a preference however now we know it all seems a bit more real. I have definitely bought more things since finding out. 

I hope you have had a fab week. 

xx

Skin Care/ Pamper Routine

Hello Lovelies, 
I hope you are all well. It's been a busy few weeks for me and Anthony, if you follow me on instagram you will know that I was a bridesmaid at Anthony's brothers wedding. 
I have also been back at work whilst Anthony is still off recovering. Although the reason that he is not at work is not nice I am enjoying having him around more, we have been able to visit a few places together when I have a day off. Separate post coming up about that. 
Recently I have been trying to look after my skin. my everyday routine usually consists of the Garnier Micellar cleansing water and Lancome Hydra Zen Moisturizer. This evening as I had a bit more time to relax I decided to pamper my skin with a combination of my favourites at the moment.   

  1. Garnier Micellar cleansing water

 2. Soap & Glory The Fab Pore 2 in 1 mask 

 3. Soap & Glory You Won't Believe Your Eyes

 4. Boots Baby large cotton pads

 5. Cussons Mum & Me bump stretch mark cream 

The first step of my routine was to take off any make up using the Garnier Micellar Water, I love this as it removes make up so easily and you hardy need any on the cotton pad.
I have been using these larger ones from the baby section in boots as I find that I can use just one to remove my make up .

 The Fab Pore mask has been one of my go to masks for a while (I think I have mentioned it in a previous blog post). This was a fresh new pot ooo a part of me did not want to ruin the newness haha.

 I took a big blob of this on my fingers and massaged onto my face, this mask has small beads in "Rice Microbeads" that exfoliate the skin and leave it feeling really smooth and soft so make sure that you massage these in really well for the full effect.  

 Another ingredient in the mask prevents spots and clears pores, I fell that my skin really needs this at them moment as I have a few hormonal breakouts. The mask also smells really refreshing with a minty fragrance. 
Ahhhh here is my face covered in the mask, I wasn't going to put this on the internet so I do apologise if this gives you a fright. 
Anthony came upstairs to see what I was doing, safe to say he was a little surprised when I turned around looking like this!!

I left the mask on for 15 minutes, I had to set a timer because otherwise I would have forgotten what time I put it on. 

After the 15 minutes I removed with a cotton pad and warm water. 

After removing the mask I moisturised with the Lancome Hydra Zen Neurocalm moisturiser. I have been using this for a few weeks now, mainly at night, and my skin feels super soft. 

This is a sample size that I got from the counter when I bought my foundation and blusher. I think once I have used this up I will be purchasing a pot. 
  




The cream smells lovely, I find it very relaxing to use on my skin at night time. The scents which are     used are anti-stress and calming. There is more        information about this here.




Under my eyes I then use the Soap and Glory You Won't Believe Your Eyes.  This eye cream has a roller ball applicator and is so soothing on tired eyes. I use it in the day as well as it has light reflecting particles to lighten my tired mummy to be eye bags,  

 Speaking of mummy to be this brings me to my final skin care product which is the Cussons mum & me bump stretch mark cream. Obviously I don't use this on my face but it just finishes the skin care well. I'm not 100% sure that any stretch mark cream or oil works but it's worth a try I suppose. 
I find this cooling especially with the hot nights we have been having in Britain recently.  

                           

What are your favourite skin care products/ mummy to be products? please let me know as I would love to try some of your recommendations. 

Thanks 

xx

First Trimester my experience and tips

Hello lovelies,

I had planned to do an update last week but unfortunately was too busy. 

I am now 17 weeks pregnant so have finished the first trimester. During the first trimester I read a few blogs and watched YouTube videos. I found that these helped me to understand what I could expect and what I was experiencing. 

For the first few weeks up to around 6 weeks I was unaware that I was pregnant. 

I didn't really notice any changes until I was around 6 or 7 weeks.

The main symptom that I had during my first trimester was sickness and nausea. I know that it's different for everyone, some people don't experience sickness or nausea at all (lucky lucky people). 

My sickness mostly happened as I got out of bed first thing in the morning. I found that I couldn't even keep down a cup off tea. I went totally off tea and coffee altogether :(. 

After some research and family advice I tried eating ginger biscuits. These were really helpful and took away the nausea. However I still didn't have much of an appetite. Another favourite of mine whilst going through sickness was cream crackers. I found that because they are bland I could keep them down (urgh so gross). 

I have a few things that I would recommend for the first trimester. These are the items that really helped me and hopefully could help you. 

1. Pregnancy the beginner's guide by DK. This book was and is really helpful, it breaks each month down and has handy tips and facts about what is happening to your body. It also has a Dad's survival guide page for each month explaining how they can help and what their partner may be going through. Very helpful. This was £12.99 from waterstones. 

2. Ginger nuts/ Gin Gins. How funny is the little ginger man on the box. Ginger nuts, ginger biscuits can be found in any supermarket. The gin gins were from Anthony's mum she got these from Holland and Barratts I'm not too sure of the price but I think they will be on the website. 

3. Cream crackers. 

4. Cordial/dilute/squash. People have different names for this but basically because I had been put off tea and coffee I started to drink a lot of robin sons to make sure that I was taking in fluids as this is very important. 

5.

Essential vitamins folic acid and vitamin D I started to take these before visiting my midwife, as my mum told me how important they were. These are around £3 from boots however once you have been to the midwife and sent off a form you can get them free on prescription. I still need to send my form ooops. 

6. Bubble bath. With my job I work shifts so sometimes don't get home until around 9pm. Having a nice relaxing bubble bath helped me to unwind. Make sure that you find a scent that you like though because you're senses will be stronger. I found I couldn't wear perfume in the first trimester as it set off my sickness. So find a scent that you like and can handle. 

At 12 weeks we went for our first scan. It was such a mixed feeling the night before  I was scared that there wouldn't be anything there. I know it sounds silly but yeah. Anyway there was and we could see it's little heart beat sooo cute. We didn't manage to find out if we were having a boy or a girl but we will be on my next scan in a few weeks. So exciting. 

So apart from sickness, tiredness and a lack of energy there isn't really much more that I can say about the first trimester. 

As I said I am now into my 17th week the sickness, nausea and lack of appetite have began to disappear. I still have a few mornings when I'm sick but no where near as many as before ( every morning) and as for loss of appetite that has gone. I have found myself wanting to eat a lot more. I have also been eating extra fruit and veg for vitamins etc. 

I will do more of an update on my 2nd trimester nearer the end as a summary but I'm also hoping to do weekly updates between then. 

Maybe even a mini haul when I have a few more things :). 

I hope you have found this helpful if you are in your first trimester. I will be happy to answer any comments/questions  :). 

Happy Sunday. 

Thanks 

Lillybet xx

     

Big News / About Me

Hello, 

I know I've been pretty quiet on the blog front recently, hopefully this post will explain why. 
It has been a very busy few months for me and my boyfriend Anthony. In October we decided to move in together after 7 years we thought it was about time. 

We moved in together, at this time I started working as a teacher after studying Early Years with Qualified Teacher status at university. I thought this would be my dream job and I would be doing this forever. I was wrong, after three months of trying my hardest but slowly being ground down and ending up feeling not too good I made the hard decision to leave my job. This was a very hard decision as Anthony was still working hard at uni studying Energy Engineering for Sustainability. 

Over the Christmas holiday's I spent everyday filling in application forms and sending CV's, I was offered a job in a call center and took it as I needed to pay bills etc. 

So that was the beginning of the year and now 6 months later Anthony has finished his degree and fingers crossed has passed with a 1st!! Not only this but he has accepted a job as a Trainee Manager in Energy and Controls. I'm so proud and excited for him as he has worked so hard. I am still working in the call center but feel so much more relaxed and better than I did before Christmas. I probably will go into teaching in the future again but for now that's all on hold because . . . 

We are expecting a baby!!!! We are so excited I have been keeping this a secret for so long now and thought it was about time that I shared this news. We had our first scan 2 weeks ago where we were told that the baby was 12 weeks and 3 days old. The scan was amazing to see the little heart beat, it made it all so real. I had already told my family and Anthony had told his, everyone has been so supportive and excited. 

   I started this blog to distract me and keep me busy, I love writing on here. You can expect a lot more posts from now as the news is out. I will be keeping the beauty posts up but will also be including a lot more pregnancy/ baby/ lifestyle posts as well. 

I know this has been a long one but I hope you feel that you know me a bit more now and I am excited to share the rest of my journey with you all. 

Thanks for reading, lots of love. 




 xx

I'm back

Hello Lovelies,

I hope you are all well, it's been soooo long since my last post so I thought I would do a quick update. 

I'm still here and I'm still going to blog. The last few weeks/months have been so crazy with work and other things I haven't really had time to sit down and blog and I've really missed it. 

I have decided that I need to commit to this little hobby of mine and do an update at least once a week. 

There is some very big news coming in the next couple of weeks which I'm so excited to share with you all. So stay tuned for that. 

Also I thought I would publish a list of future blog ideas (in no order) so that it is in here and you know what to expect in the futures so here goes. 

Reviews 

Make up looks 

Mini hauls 

Big reveal 

A day with me 

Days out 

Baking

Favourites 

Ozzy updates 

If you can think of anything you would like to see on here let me know on the comments. It would be lovely to hear from you if your still out there reading. 

Thanks for the visit. 

Lillybet xx

Puppy life

Hello lovelies, 

A bit of a different post for you today. If you follow me on Instagram you will know that I have a puppy, I also mentioned him in my first ever post on here. His name is Ozzy, he's a cocker spaniel poodle cross. 

I can't believe how fast he is growing he was so small when I first brought him home. 

This picture was when I first met him, I think he was around 6 weeks old at this time. We brought him home at 8 weeks and he had grown a little bit by that time. 

 

I decided to get a dog when I moved out as from the age of 16 I had one at home, I never knew how much of a difference having a dog makes. Don't get me wrong it can be really hard work when you are toilet training them and can be expensive but all of this is out weighed by the amount of fun you have with a dog. 

So here are some snaps of Ozzy from weeks to 7 months old. 

If you're thinking of getting a puppy I would recommend reading up on training and caring for a dog. 

If you would like more lifestyle posts or doggy posts let me know. 

I promise I won't leave it as long next time. Enjoy the rest of Easter and thanks for the read. 

Lillybet xx