The Chocolate House Kendal Review

After I’d been to The Mill Day courtesy of PaperMillDirect I spent the Saturday morning in Kendal, having a look around the gorgeous little town. I know for sure that I’ll be visiting the town again and hopefully this will be in 2013.

The Chocolate House Kendal Review 1

The Chocolate House, Kendal. Source

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Papermill Day and Handmade Paper

James Cropper Mill

I have been a very lucky lady! I was chosen by the wonderful people from Papermill Direct to join them on a Mill Day for bloggers. There were 4 of us in total: myself, Laura, Kim and Bev, as well as Hilary who runs Craft Blog UK. You should really check out their blogs as they are all so fab and all so different!

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Curlformers Outfit Inspiration

Curlformers Outfit Inspiration 2

This is a different post than usual, although I know that sometimes I do post clothing I have my eye on in my loving posts! I’m far from a fashion blogger and don’t think I’d want to be, but the lovely Lilla was running a competition on her blog to win £100 of Amazon vouchers! Of course I thought I should join in, especially since I have been interested in the brand for a while – basically they are a heat free curling system, which is definitely something I know a lot of people are looking for.

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Bake : National Chocolate Week

I’m a complete and utterly self-confessed chocaholic! This week is National Chocolate Week 2012 and it excites me. Although don’t you just wish there was free chocolate sent to everyone just because of it? Me too.

Anyhow, I thought I’d share with you some of the yummies I’ve been enjoying lately, what I’ve been drooling at and dreaming of, and a recipe for one of the delicious treats I have been snacking on.

First of all, what I’ve been enjoying:

 

rice krispie brownies

Rice Crispy Brownies…. so delish, seriously, and the recipe for you to make them is further on in this post!

 

Cadbury’s new Dairy Milk bars: Toffee Popcorn and Golden Biscuit Crunch. I preferred the Golden Biscuit Crunch one, it was so delish. I’m kind of addicted and am ignoring those cravings right now! They are currently on 2 for £3 in Sainsburys right now, which is where I picked them up from.

Cadbury’s Mint Bubbly Bar: Basically the Bubbly bar (similar-ish to an Aero) but with a layer of creamy mint, yum!

Things I am lusting after:

 

squirrels stash chocolate

Hotel Chocolat’s ‘Squirrels Stash‘ which are pralines filled with crunchy nuts, yum!

montezuma shake and shiver

Montezuma’s Monkey Bar in ‘Shake and Shiver’, a dark chocolate bar with added cocoa nibs and mint.

And for my face, Raw Gaia’s Raw Chocolate face pack. Now I love Lush’s cupcake face mask, and this also sounds as delish… not sure if I could stop myself from attempting to taste it though!

A recipe

Now as mentioned before I said I had a recipe for you, for the Rice Krispie Brownies! The recipe is by Nigella Lawson:

Ingredients
  • 7 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 5 tablespoons golden syrup (such as Lyle
  • 6 ounces good-quality milk chocolate, chopped (or 3/4 cup chips)
  • 2 ounces good-quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped (or 1/4 cup chips)
  • 5 1/2 cups Rice Krispies
  • 3/4 cup milk chocolate morsels or chips (or use half dark and half white chocolate chips)
  • 1 x 8-inch square cake pan or 1 rectangular aluminum foil pan approximately 13 x 9 x 2 inches
Preparation

Line your cake pan with aluminum foil or get out one of your trusty foil pans. Put butter, golden syrup, and chopped chocolates (not the morsels) in a heavy-based and fairly wide saucepan and melt over a low heat. Stir to mix the glossy goo, take it off the heat, then quickly pour and stir in the Rice Krispies. Still off the heat, quickly stir in the chocolate morsels, and spoon and scrape the mixture into your pan of choice. I find it easier, once the gunk is in the tin, to smooth the top with hands covered in a pair of disposable vinyl gloves. Put in the refrigerator to set for about 4 hours before cutting.

Make ahead: The brownies can be made up to 2 days ahead. Wrap pan tightly with plastic wrap and store in a cool place. In warm or humid weather, store in the refrigerator. Cut into squares before serving. Keeps for 3-4 days.

Make: Inspiring AND Money Saving?!

Yep. You’ve got it right.

Today I am looking at not only what inspires me, but how to save money. I’m an avid crafter and am lucky to have a room where I can do my crafty stuff without any fear of covering the whole house with glitter and mini alphas (any scrapbooker will know what I mean by that!). At the weekend I had a bit of a work on my room as it was slightly cluttered. I have a lot more work to do on it, but I thought I’d share with you one of the things that I recently picked up second hand from a local craft shop which is relocating. Ahold my paper storage unit:

Make: Inspiring AND Money Saving?! 3

(plz ignore the polar bear and my ‘diary’ board!)

I have lots more paper in that 12×12 plastic tub, but I shall need to get some more of those plastic shelves, so at the moment it only houses my cardstock and any new kits I have.

Speaking of kits, have you ever made yourself a kit out of your existing crafting stash? I do this every so often for a number of reasons, but mainly…

It saves buying way too much new stuff! You can see how newer and older collections can work together, which can be inspirational in itself. Look at different colours and even materials used in other crafts.

There’s actually a blog I found recently where they post a beautiful kit from a scrapbooking kit club (eg Studio Calico, Cocoa Daisy, Scrapagogo…) and then using your own supplies you create a kit for yourself inspired by it! I thought it was pretty cool and think that one day soon when I’m not super busy I will have to give it a go! The awesomely inspiring blog is called Counterfeit Kit Challenge, so go take a peek at it if you want to set yourself a scrapping challenge with what you already have.

See, I told you that this ‘shopping from home’ was a good idea!