Open when...letters ❤️

As you know my boyfriend, Tom, has just turned 21! I did go out and buy him some presents, but as well as that I wanted to do something really personal. 

I'm just about to start a new job down south and he is going to be doing a PGCE in Lancaster! I know we are both going to miss each other loads so I wanted to give him a present that would remind him of me and that he could use while I'm 300 miles away this year! 

I had seen loads of these open when letter ideas on Pinterest and thought they were perfect. I like the idea of being able to be there for him on paper when he needs me! 

I saw loads online with fancy envelopes with patterns on but tbh my Tom won't care about an envelope with an Aztec pattern, he'll be more interested in what's inside (hopefully)! So that's why I used plain envelopes... I had so much fun drawing on them all :) 

It was great procrastination for exams too (shh...) 

Here's a list of the topics I did and some things that were in them (they all had a little note from me) 

Open when:  

You need cheering up- things to be thankful for etc.  

You can't sleep- a word search, some sleeping tips

You're horny (don't judge me)- I cannot disclose this information

We've had a fight- a little flowchart, a mini chocolate bar

You need motivation- poem

You're jealous-poem, a kiss 

You're ill- 2 ibuprofen, 2 paracetamol, a beechams cold and flu sachet

You're thinking about our future- pictures of gorgeous houses etc.  

You need to know someone loves you- lots of kisses, reasons why I love him

I've just left after visiting- cute coupons to excite him about the next visit (e.g. massage/cuddle/movie night etc.)

You need to have a rant and I'm not available to listen- paper to write down everything that is wrong and get it off his chest

Boy, did these take me ages to make...

D'you like them? 

I hope you do... but what's really more important is that Tom really liked them! In fact he even got a bit emotional but lets not tell him I told you that!

Tom's Swimming Pool Birthday Cake

It was my boyfriend's 21st birthday on Sunday so of course I made him a cake (with our friend Kayleigh who I've mentioned before when I made the Budget Baker's Birthday Jar)! 

We decided to make a swimming pool cake as Tom loves swimming and is captain of our university team. It was loads of fun and he really liked it! 

Ingredients for the sponge: 

250grams butter 
250grams caster sugar 
4 eggs
250grams self raising flour
2tbsp baking powder 
1 tsp vanilla extract

Firstly we mixed together the butter and the sugar until it was lovely and smooth. While I was doing this Kayleigh sifted out the flour into a bowl to remove all of the lumps. I wisked up the eggs (only using a fork) and added them slowly to the butter and sugar. My arm got tired so it curdled a little bit, but that's okay because we just added a little bit of the flour to stop it from getting out of hand! 

Then we added all of the flour and folded it in a figure of 8 (this fills it with air and helps the sponge to rise). We added in the baking powder and vanilla extract. 

Mix, mix, mix. 

The baking powder had so many lumps in it :( After what felt like an hour of mixing we got rid of those stubborn lumps! Phew. We poured the mix into a square/rectangle tin and let it cook on 180degrees for about 35 mins. 

Fast forward 35 mins after some embarrassing dancing round the kitchen with Kayleigh and our sponge was ready to come out! Yay!

While the cake was cooling we made up the buttercream top. Warning: arm workout inevitable. We decided buttercream would give us a better swimming pool effect... you'll see why later. 

Ingredients for the buttercream: 

Icing sugar (a lot) 
Butter 
I tsp vanilla extract 
A lot of blue food colouring 


Mix together the butter, vanilla extract and icing sugar, keep adding icing sugar until it gets to a nice consistency. We left it quite a bit more sloppy than usual because we wanted it to be able to look like water. 

Actually that was a lie... I'm awful I know. I'll tell the truth now. 

We made the buttercream to the perfect consistency but didn't factor in that we were adding food colouring. And to be honest it took a lot more than we expected to make it look blue. For a while it was a horrendous mould colour. Ewww! So after adding quite a bit of the colouring it ended up a lot more runny. But it didn't matter in the end, it looked quite good and tasted really nice. 

For the cake we made a little swimmer man out of royal icing which we just bought ready made (cheater alert!) and for the lane ropes we bought some of those sweetie necklaces! We obviously didn't want to leave the string on the cake so we cut the necklaces in half holding it carefully so the sweets didn't go everywhere... Then we placed it down in a line and pushed in the sweets with a flat knife edge. Then really really carefully I pulled out the string from one end. 

Tip: Cut the string just next to where the knot is or it will pull all the sweets off the cake... trust me I learnt the hard way! 

Oops, I forgot to mention... of course it has a jam layer in the middle. 

Can you tell that there is a bit too much food colouring? It was an accident but it gives the cake such a good 'water' effect! I can't believe how lucky it turned out that we didn't quite have enough icing. And it tasted great so don't worry about doing this! 

Jess & Flash

I have some adorable news!

I've got two gorgeous little kittens... (well when I say I do, I mean my parents do). 

The kittens were my Auntie's cat's litter, she had 4 girls and 1 boy and we have taken two of the girls. The other kittens have all gone to lovely homes too :)

My dad thinks this one looks like Postman Pat's cat so we have called her Jess. D'you see the resemblance? 

The other little girl is called Flash because of the stripe down her face. 

Flash is her nickname, but her Sunday name is going to be 'The Grand Master Flash'! I know that sounds pretty male doesn't it but their mummy was called Monty so it's already all upside down in there world. 

I think Jess is my favourite so far (I know I'm not supposed to say that) because she is much calmer than Flash and it means we can get better snaps of her...

Jess also loves being cuddled and purrs really loudly when you tickle her belly!

The babies also can't sleep alone... they have to snuggle up to each other at bed time before they'll sleep soundly! HOW CUTE? 

I've got them a really really really good value for money house/bed/igloo to sleep in! 

Dyou like it? I do, especially for only £9 from Quality Save -what a bargain. The lid zips off to make an open top bed and there is a really soft cushion inside that comes out and can be easily machine washable. Buy of the month! 

But they don't really sleep in it... They just sleep on me in all sorts of random positions. But hey! I'm not complaining. 

Cross your fingers that our other cat Fuzz likes them! 

I'll keep you updated :)

How to be speedy in the Supermarket

Here are my top tips for being really speedy in the supermarket...

There is no need to spend ages dawdling around walking up and down each aisle pondering over life.

Get IN. Get OUT.

Here are my top tips for being really speedy in the supermarket...

1. Pick and Stick: Most people already have their one supermarket that they're loyal too, if you don't then you need to decide. Nothing will slow you down more than entering into the maze that is a new supermarket...
2. Mini List: Make a mini list only! Just include the really important things that if you forgot you would genuinely go back for. Any more on the list will make you dawdle, and unless you can write the list in aisle order you'll be faffing about reading the whole list as you get to each aisle.
3. Pre-Pack: This is an important step because it saves lots of time in the later stages of shopping and when you get home. When you put something in your trolley follow this order system- Freezer-Cupboard-Fridge. Put everything that will go in the freezer furthest away from you, cupboard stuff in the middle and fridge things closest to you in the trolley. I do it in this order so I don't get mixed up with fridge and freezer when I get to the till, some of them can be either and its hard to remember which when you're speed packing. 
4. Till Grouping: Put your items on the conveyer-belt in the same order as the pre-packing. At this stage I make sure to spread out the heavy things within each category. (e.g. I don't put the juice and the milk next to each other on the converter-belt because they're too heavy to go in the same bag). If the supermarket is a bit busy you'll have some time at this stage to get your grouping perfect. 
5. Speed Packing: Theres nothing to stop you now! Just grab a bag and throw the items in as they're passed to you. They'll be in the right order... all you have to do is realise when one category has ended and another has begun and make sure you start a new bag!

See my tip for saving money at the supermarket. 

Saving Money at the Supermarket

I'm not going to bother telling you what to and what not to buy at the supermarket, you will get what you want and you'll spend as much as you want too! You might buy branded, you might buy basics/value, you've got brand match on your side so you're not losing out by being at the wrong supermarket.

But what can you do to save a bit of money? 
It's all about what time you go shopping. Now in 24hr shops it can sometimes be a bit later than in others but I recommend 8:45pm as a general time in all shops.

• It's usually not very busy
• The clearance ladies have just done a sweep of what is going off today and just marked it down 
• The bakery have hot cross buns practically for free (tomorrows breakfast yes please?) 

If your supermarket closes at 10pm, don't make the mistake of thinking that going for a quick shop at quarter to will get you loads of good bargains... they have definitely started (and probably nearly finished) throwing away all of the clearance food that is left over by then!! 

But the food goes off today/tomorrow? 

Not a problem, whack it in the freezer!

I put everything from meat to bread in the freezer. It doesn't make much difference just that you need to take out things to thaw in the morning before you go to work. And don't give me that "I don't have time for that in the morning", I timed myself it took me 29 seconds to get out a bag of ready-prepared chicken breast and put it in a bowl of water. 

I have been known to follow the clearance lady (as I like to call her) around the shop watching her mark things down and then popping them in my trolley. I've even engaged in a 10p garlic baguette war with a random man... yes I'm talking both of us holding an end each like an old fashioned comedy sketch or cheesy movie. It wasn't love at first sight... and yes of course I won the garlic bread!