08 August, 2012

Cupcakes

Who doesn't love cupcakes?
They are a lovely sweet treat for any occasion; be it a birthday, wedding, leaving party or just because!
Great with a mug of coffee or a cup of tea.
A variety of different flavour sponges, multitude of icing and a selection of cake toppers.
My husband and I had cupcakes for our wedding cake with a large cake for cutting and sending out to family and friends who couldn't get to the celebration. We found a lovely local cake maker who produced exactly what we wanted.



















Cakes for occasions


Today, I found this website which wants to promote cupcakes and are giving potential and existing customers a chance to win some yummy cupcakes!
All you have to do is enter your name, email address and hometown on the following link to be in with a chance! The website says:

CupCakes Giveaway!
Free CupCakes! Did we get your attention? Okay, you’ll probably want the details …
CupCakes.co.uk is on a mission to spread the positive message of eating CupCakes! We have decided to run a free weekly competition where the lucky winner will win a dozen cupcakes of their choice. At the end of each week we will choose someone at random and give them the money to buy a dozen cupcakes.
You will also find 50-70% Off Cupcakes deals in our weekly newsletter.Please note – value of the cupcakes cannot exceed the maximum amount of £24, and is open to UK residents only.

Cupcakes

22 July, 2012

SOS Dairy - Fair price for milk

Milk.
It is one of those products that people tend to take for granted.
You put it in your tea or coffee.
It goes on your cereal for breakfast each morning.
It's found in so many products - cheese, butter, cream, custard, yoghurt, baked goods, chocolate... The list continues.

A fair number of people will buy fair trade products as they want to give a fair deal to the developing world producers. But then we forget to look after the producers of foods in our own country.

We already have to import many foods now as it sometimes just isn't financially viable for our farmers to compete with the cheaper producers from abroad.
This is putting many farmers in very difficult positions both financially and emotionally.

Many retailers have already agreed to give dairy farmers a fairer price for their efforts.
Amongst those retailers who are giving a fair price are Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer.

After some peaceful protests by dairy farmers and consumers alike, Co-Op and Morrisons have moved on their milk price and will now give a fair price to our farmers.

Unfortunately Asda, one of the biggest supermarkets, is so far reluctant to budge on its prices.

Asda aren't alone though on not wanting to budge. Many of the budget supermarkets - Aldi, Lidl and Iceland - want to keep their prices down and so far don't want to give a fair price to their dairy farmers.
A few celebrities are assisting this issue by using social media to spread the word.
If you wish to join in, use #sosdairy when posting on twitter and take a look at the following links for more information and posters to make your opinion known to the supermarkets.
Farmers Weekly
National Farmers Union

Movie & Dinner date!

After spotting on Facebook that Pizza Hut were about to stop using their Crown Crust base, hubby and I decided to book a table to try it out and go to Cineworld at the same time.

We booked a table for Saturday night at 6:45pm and had booked our Cineworld tickets for Magic Mike for 8:20pm.

After arriving a little late, we were pleased to hear that Pizza Hut hold your table for 15 minutes to allow for such occasions.

We were settled into a table for two, ordered our drinks and then browsed the menu. We decided on cheesy nachos to share and the crown crust pizza base with veggie supreme topping and additional sweetcorn. The girl returned from the kitchen with good and bad news. "Good news is that the base is available until tomorrow evening, the bad news is we have run out of the bases for tonight."

Pfft. Stupid Pizza Hut! So we settled on the same topping but on the cheesy bites base.
All was fine, but the girl seemed very rushed off her feet and the time for the movie was approaching while we were waiting the 20 minutes for our bill. Every time she passed she said "I haven't forgotten about you two, I'll bring the card machine over in a minute".

In the end I left to collect our cinema tickets and my husband went to wait by one of the tills to pay.

On the receipt it said "Did we make you smile? Give us your feedback and receive a 2 for 1 voucher and a chance to win £1000"... Might take you up on that offer Pizza Hut. Might make up for not getting a chance to try the crown crust base and for waiting so long for the bill!

When I got to Cineworld, there was another couple trying to use the ticket machine in the foyer. After you book on-line it says all you need to do is insert your card into the machine to print off your tickets. Simple.
But no, the machine didn't work for them. It just kept saying please insert your card but when they did it just rejected it. I tried as well, but was getting the same error.

In the end I went to the main queue and the cashier said "Oh the machine isn't working as we are upgrading our systems. I can print your tickets here instead.". Wouldn't it have been nice to put up a sign saying machine out of order so that customers didn't waste their time faffing around!

My husband joined me and we bought a large coke and went along to screen 2 to find some seats.
There theatre was pretty full, but we found two seats available on the back row between a group of teenage girls and a couple on a date.

The trailers ran for upcoming movies, and I have to say I quite fancy the look of the film 'The Watch'. It features Ben Stiller and Jonah Hill - so should be quite a laugh.

Then up came Magic Mike. Without giving anything away, the storyline is:
"A male stripper teaches a younger performer how to party, pick up women, and make easy money."

There is some more information about it at IMDB if you would like to find out more.

The film features Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, Alex Pettyfer, Olivia Munn and Cody Horn.

I was a little curious as to how it got a 15 rating. Nudity, offensive language and drug taking doesn't shout 15 rating to me! But at least more are able to view this film and enjoy it!

Mike is working a variety of jobs, including being a stripper, as a means to get some money behind him to become an entrepreneur. At his day job Mike meets Adam, who lives with his sister Brooke. Taking pity on the younger man, Mike introduces Adam to his evening job - stripping.

The film made me laugh and also made me cry. I honestly didn't expect that from a stripping movie! But there was a touching storyline running through the movie too.

Parts were hard hitting and gritty and others were subtle yet laced with emotion.

The director was Steven Soderbergh, who definitely chose an interesting way to film and portray the movie. It was almost sepia toned during the happier scenes and perhaps more grey-scale in the emotional and gritty moments.

It had a lower budget feel to the cinematography, but for me this just made it more likeable and inviting. It wasn't highly polished and didn't have the Hollywood soulless stamp on it. It was more human and natural, which really appealed to me.

There were quite a few boyfriends and husbands in the crowd too, and all seemed to enjoy much of the film. There was something for everyone to enjoy and remember.

21 July, 2012

McCain - Summer of Sharing

A goodie bag arrived in the post yesterday! Well, it was left next door as I was at work and in the evening the little boy popped around saying he had something for me! So cute!

I ripped open the jiffy bag and inside found a bright blue plastic party bag.


I entered a competition a while ago on McCain's website, an email came through a few days ago that I had won a party pack and it arrived yesterday!

In the bag there was a selection of goodies - party hats, balloons, party blowers, recipes, paper streamers, face paints, party tips and party game ideas.


McCain's Summer of Sharing Party Pack includes lots of lovely stuff to help you entertain this summer. 
Enter now for your chance to win. 100 winners drawn each day until the 1st August.


McCain's are also giving you the chance to win the Ultimate Summer Party. You and 20 friends will enjoy food, drink & entertainment (incl. bar tender & ice cream van) - plus we'll also provide decorations & party games. 
Enter now for a chance to win. Winner drawn on the 2nd August from all entrants.

You can also print off some vouchers from McCain's website.
Under the 'our range' tab, there is a link down the page saying 'just for you - 50p off McCain Wedges'.
I printed mine off and there was:

50p off your next purchase from the McCain Wedges range
50p off McCain rustic oven chips (1kg pack only)
50p off McCain micro chips straight cut & crinkle

Every little helps!


20 July, 2012

L’Oréal - Because you're worth it

What a revelation! I recently signed up to the L’Oréal Insider where you get free samples and vouchers plus competitions to enter!
A place where I can satisfy my girly needs of being preened and polished yet still pleasing my husband as I'm not breaking the bank account!

I've entered to win / claim samples of Glam Shine lip gloss, GO CREATE Styling Spray, BB Cream and Extraordinary Oil.

Fingers crossed!

Once you input your details into the L’Oréal Insider site, they will give you 3 vouchers a month off items they think match what you might want or need.

For July the had selected £2.50 off when you buy any L’Oréal Paris skincare product, £2.00 off when you buy any L’Oréal Paris cosmetics product and £2.00 off when you buy any shade from the L’Oréal Glamshine Miss Candy range.

So I know what I will be doing on the weekend - skipping on down to the shops with these vouchers in my purse!

L’Oréal also have a FaceBook page where there are various other samples to be claimed.


18 July, 2012

Free Music!

Recently, I have been really getting into an artist called Delilah. I had heard her on BBC Radio 1 a couple times before and found her voice so pure and silky.
There is one track, Breathe, that every single time I hear it goose-pimples cover my body. One evening I even set that one track on to repeat for several hours and didn't grow tired of it.
She is described as (taken from her FaceBook page) :
Delilah’s unique look and sound epitomise the true essence of the multi cultural environment she grew up. Delilah was raised amongst the vibrant sound of London’s live music scene. Her father introduced her to this through his work in promoting British bands and live music, during the 90’s. When he died in 2002, Delilah used her emotional experiences of life and death to start creating her own music...
 Give her a try if you like Little Dragon, Lykke Li, Sia, Sade, Adele, Amy Winehouse, Aaliyah, Norah Jones, Patrice Rushen, Massive Attack, Portishead, James Blake, Zero 7...

You can grab a free single on Amazon: Delilah - I can feel you
There is a free mix tape: Delilah - 2-4am from here  (Facebook) or here (Her official site, when you sign up to her newsletter)
Free mix tape (a half hour track): Delilah & Bass - The Mixtape (SoundCloud - enter your email on the page to receive a download link)

Delilah's début album 'From the roots up' is just mere days away from being released. You can preorder the album from the following places:

iTunes: Standard or Deluxe
Amazon
HMV
Play.com (Limited edition, signed copies!)

She also has a UK tour planned for October - I have hinted heavily to my husband to buy me tickets for my birthday! Will see how that goes...






















Hope you enjoy these aural delights as much as I have!

Nikki
xx

17 July, 2012

Hello blog land!

Greetings to my new blog!

I have written a couple blogs in the past, but they always tailed off once I became bored with them. Part of the issue was not quite knowing what direction I wanted to go with them. 

I'm thinking this time I want to keep posts short and sweet, have more photos included and perhaps even throw in some links that interest me on the day of the post.

I enjoy a bit of freebie hunting, music listening and driving my convertible in my free time (what little I have in between working at an archiving company) so hopefully this might be of interest to you. I have also had a kidney transplant (and other health problems in the past) but I will try and limit my posts on those, as when I dwell on them it makes me feel a little downbeat and reminds me I'm not 100% healthy.

If anyone has any questions, requests or suggestions then get in touch.

Thanks,
Nikki
xx