Holidays...

Finally the summer holidays have come around and trust me I am 150% ready! I feel like the last school term has been painfully long! But now its over and the holidays have arrived it means that, hopefully, I will have more time to blog and it might even be in regular weekly or twice weekly slots (if your lucky!)

Cheesy as it may sound, for me, summer time is all about family, friends and new experiences and hopefully this year wont disappoint! Next week I am jetting of you California to stay with relatives for 2 weeks and then I'm off to Tiree with a close friend and her family. Now all this travelling is new territory for me! For that past 9 years I have gone to the same place every summer so I am extremely extremely excited to go somewhere a bit different!

To get us all in the summer time mood, I thought I would share some shots from last summers shenanigans! Enjoy!

What are you up to this summer?

Lola 

xx

Your Summer Guide - 2014

I've managed to compile a list of my favourite, warm weather appropriate, blog posts and videos from some of my favourite people on the inter webs... Hopefully it will provide you with some summertime inspiration or just a couple of interesting pre-holiday reads! Get ready to do some serious bookmarking....

Your SPF Crash Course  It doesn't matter if you are lucky enough to be going away this summer or will be enjoying a "staycation", this article is full invaluable information on the benefits of UVA and UVB protection.
(Here are some other useful tips!)

Summer Style Challenge Some really nice ways to change up how you style items in your wardrobe this summer...

Faux Glow...Anna made this video last summer sharing all her most used tanning products and I made sure to bookmark it for when I needed some trusted advice on the best bits to make me look a bit less pasty and a bit more healthy. Although, I am still absolutely terrified of using anything that isn't just tinted!
(You can find her most recent routine here!)

Fun Workouts Yes really! Not only are they fun they're also really really effective but I am always amazed at how effortless Cassey makes it all look; these observations are usually made while I'm sweating an ocean and have just collapsed on my bedroom floor....

Also Pintrest is awesome for finding some quick 5 minutes workouts. I like to do a couple of these exercises before I get in the shower!

Polishes That Enhance a Tan? Yes Please!

Hair styles Summer is the best time for experimenting with your locks... I mean what other time of year can you turn your hair in to your very own walking flower garden?!
Mimi has almost 3 hundred easy to follow hair tutorials on her channel. Her braid videos are my favourite :)

Sweat Proof Make up Tips from the makeup Queen her self.... What more could you ask for?

Hope some of these have been helpful!

Lola

xx

That time I saw One Direction...

Nearly a month ago now I went to see One Direction perform at Wembley Stadium with two of my closest friends (Artie and Indi). We had seating tickets which, in hind sight, probably wasn't the best idea for the kind of experience that I was hoping for (far to civilised!) Also it meant we where with the majority of the parents that had obviously been dragged along by their children, although you wouldn't have thought it by the time 1D where on! They where singing along like the rest of us!

Despite all that, I think its safe to say that for my first ever concert, One Direction was pretty intense.

There was screaming.... Soooo much screaming. And many, many tears where shed (although not by me I should add!) And even though I'm not much of a Directioner, it was almost impossible not to get swept up in all the excitement & by the end of the night I was surprised that my feet hadn't  fallen off from all the dancing...

Next time look out for us on the front row!

Lola

xx

Super Simple Carrot Cake!

For all of you that couldn't understand my awful hand writing (still getting to grips with my new chalk board!) then here are the ingredients to make the cake all nicely typed!

2 Free Range Large Eggs

200g Soft Light Brown Sugar

175g Self Raising Flour

150 ml Sun Flower Oil

300g Peeled and grated carrots

1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1 tsp Mixed spice

1 tsp Cinnamon 

A pinch of salt

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 130 degrees fan/ gas 2.
First mix the eggs, oil, sugar and carrots in to one big bowl until well combined. Then sift in the remaining dry ingredients mix again! Now line your loaf tin with tin foil and spoon the mixture in. Pop it into the oven for 1hr 15 mins, or as long as it takes for a skewer to come out clean when inserted into the cake (see, super simple!!)

Once the cake is out of the oven it has to be left to cool for roughly 20 mins. So meanwhile you can start on the Icing!

For the yummy Icing you will need:

100g cream cheese

200g Icing sugar

The zest of 1 orange

Instructions
Sift the icing sugar in to a bowl with the cream cheese and then add the zest. Mix with a wooden spoon until everything is fully combined!

Now every thing is cooled and ready to go, you can spoon the icing on to the cake ( I just used the back of my spoon to evenly spread the icing around the cake.) I then took a little bit more grated carrot and arranged it in to a rough carrot shape and used some fresh rosemary as the leaves.
The extent of my cake decorating abilities...

So to sum up! If you want a super simple, super moist and just over all super delicious carrot cake... Then Why not give it a try and tell me what you think?
Dad said it was, "Bloomin' Gorgeous!" and I think thats all you really need to know!

Lola

xx