the yorkshire soap company

A few weeks ago I visited my Grandma in West Yorkshire and had a day-trip to a little town called Hebden Bridge. I've never been before but have heard it's good for shopping, particularly for gifts. Unfortunately the town has been badly hit by flooding in recent months and a good proportion of the shops were closed for refurbishment. However there are still plenty of beautiful, unique gift shops and vintage boutiques. I was in heaven!

One of my favourite shops there was a little place called The Yorkshire Soap Company. Enticed by their amaaazing window display and the delicious smells, me, my Mum and my Grandma wandered in. My Grandma was a little confused, bless her, and thought for a minute we were in a cake shop. But you can see why!

They make a selection of soaps, bath bombs and other luxuries - all disguised as beautiful cakes and delicately wrapped making them perfect gifts. I couldn't leave the shop without buying something so I bought their Yorkshire Rose Soap Cupcake and a beautiful Bath Truffle (the smaller one). They're now taking pride of place in a little dish in our bathroom, I'm not sure if I'll ever have the heart to use them to be honest but they do smell amazing.

This is their website if you fancy a peek. I'll definitely think of them next time I need a present for a girly friend or relative and it might be a rather large order at Christmas! I often head to Lush for this kind of thing but I think these are just that bit more sophisticated.

P.S. Just thought I'd point out that I certainly haven't been asked by them to write this, it's all from the heart :)

haul: h&m, primark and new look

Cardigan, New Look, £22.99

Burgundy Trousers, H&M, £14.99

Cream Jumper, H&M, £12.99

Levi Shorts, Vintage, £20

Denim Shirt, H&M, £14.99

Key Necklace, New Look

Hat and Gloves, Primark

Bag, H&M, £29.99

I'm so pleased with this little shopping trip. You know when you have those days where you try hundreds of things on and ALL of it makes you feel fat/frumpy/just plain wrong. Well I certainly didn't have one of those days. Infact, I had to put quite a few things back that I just couldn't justify. I like to think most of the things I bought will be key pieces in my Autumn/Winter wardrobe. I basically gave in and purchased 4/5 of the items I put on my lust list the other week. H&M is so good at the moment! I'm totally in love with this bag too - it reminds me a little of the Alexander Wang Rocco, except obviously the studs are on the sides rather than the bottom. It might not sound like a lot of money to some of you but I haven't bought a handbag from anywhere other than Primark for a good while so parting with 30 of my hard earned pounds was a little painful but you get what you pay for and the quality and weight feels a lot nicer than Primark. How sad is that - can't wait for the day that designer handbags are the norm. <3

How cute is this hat and gloves? I often look abit daft in hats but I actually think this one suits me. I probably shouldn't say this but I'm quite looking forward to a bit of colder weather. A/W fashion is my favourite - layering, boots and snuggly hats - what's not to love?

And finally, I got some new (old) shorts. I did have about 5 pairs of denim shorts but I've lost some more weight and they're all hanging off me now so a new pair was desperately needed. I've been seeing vintage Levi shorts all over the place at the moment but was searching for the perfect pair. After trying a few pairs on in Ark to no avail, I bought these from a vintage shop in Sheffield but get this - in the changing rooms there were no mirrors! I didn't fancy parading around the shop in my tiny shorts so I just went off how they fitted. I felt like they fitted fine so I bought them and tried them on again at home. It was definitely a risk because the shop didn't do receipts so I couldn't have even returned them but it paid off and I love them. Reckon I'll be wearing them with opaque black tights now until next summer.

Sorry for the rambling - I do love talking about shopping :) Alex and I are off to York for three nights tomorrow so I'll be putting together a few outfits and I might do some OOTD posts.
Hope you're all enjoying the bank holiday weekend.

weekly ups and downs #6

dalmation outfit, new shorts, new disney pjs

bye-bye blonde, hello ombre, fotd

home-made chicken korma, chinese takeaway, favourite cookies

mannequin hands, new key necklace, can't wait to go back

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Ups

+ Bought lots of lovely new clothes this week - haul post coming soon.

+ I had a job interview for some casual work at my students union - I think it went well and I'll find out this week if I got it!

+ Feeling very excited for our 3 nights in a luxurious hotel in York this week. Outdoor pool, jacuzzi, steam room and a spa too - can't wait! Fingers crossed the sun will shine for a spot of swimming. 

+ I've been for 3 runs this week and feel like I'm slowly regaining my fitness. 

+ I can't decide if this is an up or a down but I go back to university 4 weeks tomorrow! I am getting a bit bored really so I'm looking forward to the social side but not the workload!

Downs

- Although I've been running a few times this week I still don't feel ready for my first 10k race next sunday!

- I need to really appreciate this week with Alex as from next Monday he'll be a 9-5 man! I know that's normal for a lot of people but having both been students and having had the whole summer off together I'm going to miss him just being around the house. 

I hope you're all enjoying your Bank Holiday weekends - we aren't doing anything special. I guess when you're unemployed/students it doesn't make much difference as every day is a day off! Not for long though!

just call me cruella

Top: Primark

Leggings: American Apparel High Shine Leggings

Shoes: Dorothy Perkins (old)

Apologies for the ridiculously cheesy smiles - Alex was taking the photos and he likes to make it his aim to make me look as silly as possible!

I wore this outfit for a trip to Meadowhall Shopping Centre yesterday. I've had this dalmatian top in my wardrobe for a few months now but hadn't got round to wearing it before. I think the brown/gold colour suits me more now my hair is dark. I ended up buying so much more than anticipated, including some lovely items for Autumn and most of the stuff I put on my H&M wishlist post the other day! I think I'll do a haul post later this afternoon - I'm procrastinating as I really should be preparing for a job interview tomorrow. It's just some part-time work at my universities union but I really want it so fingers crossed. 

now baby what've you done to your hair

Before

After

Okay, firstly, please excuse the awful posing today. I'm really not having a very photogenic day - especially post-hair cut. Eeek I've gone back to brown! Despite this being pretty much my natural colour I've suffering from shell-shock at the moment. It's so so dark! Keep doing that double-take in the mirror thing!

Basically I was fed up of having to have my roots done and I've been wanting to try the ombre style for months now so today I bit the bullet and gave my hairdresser a call. It's only a small, local salon so I think she was a bit nervous about how it would come out but we were both pretty pleased! I did ask for a lighter brown than this at the top but she said it will fade really quickly with it being on top of blonde so I think I'll be vigorously washing my hair over the next few days...

What do you think? Be honest (but not too honest :P). 

zebra cake

I was watching Lorraine Pascale's cookery program on the telly on saturday morning (what else are saturdays mornings for if not spent watching cookery programs) and she made this amazing marble effect cake that looks like zebra print. I haven't baked for a while which is not like me at all so I thought I'd try this recipe and rekindle my baking mojo!

Zebra Cake

Ingredients

• 200ml vegetable oil
• 250g caster sugar
• 100ml milk
• 1tsp vanilla essence
• 4 medium free-range eggs
• 475g self-raising flour
• 25g cocoa powder
• 1tsp baking powder

Line and grease your cake tin and pre-heat the oven to 180degrees

Mix the oil, sugar, vanilla essence, milk, eggs and 175g of the flour in a bowl

Halve the mixture into two bowls

Add 175g of flour and 1/2tsp baking powder to the plain mixture

Add 25g of cocoa powder, 125g flour and 1/2tsp baking powder to the chocolate mixture

Place the mixtures in piping bags - I use Lakeland's Disposable ones

(This is the messy bit) Pipe a dollop of alternate mixtures into the cake tin.

Keep piping until you run out of mixture and the tin is full. 

Bake for roughly 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean

Now I'm just wishing I'd known about this recipe when I made my hot pink and zebra-print 21st birthday cake which I blogged about at the time here - that would've been even more impressive! There may be a reincarnation for my 22nd...

weekly ups and downs #5

my fringe really needs cutting, ootd, ice-cream and closing ceremony

watching our friends' band, pink velour for a lazy day, love my new lip butter

cried lots at this film, mmm popcorn, zebra cake

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Ups

+ I'm finally feeling better after my stupid dental operation 2 weeks ago, went for my first run in ages today yay!

+ Me and Alex have booked 3 nights in York next week for a little getaway - the hotel has an outdoor pool so fingers crossed for some sun.

+ My amazing, wonderful and extremely talented fiance got his first graduate job! Relieved is not the word. We now know we can pay the bills, rent etc and he can support me throughout my final year at uni. Must not let this go to my head though - resisting a huge shopping trip to celebrate!

+ Since he's got this fancy new job, Alex has decided to learn to drive finally and once he has passed we're going to be getting a car! So excited for road trips with my boy :)

Downs

- It's exactly 2 weeks til I'm running my first 10k race... with my dental operation stopping me from training for 2 weeks I feel like my fitness has gone back to how it was before I started running :( Fingers crossed 2 weeks of intensive training will see me atleast being able to finish the race! Who cares about times..

- I feel like the house is so dirty at the moment (you probably don't need to know this). It really needs a deep clean so that's what this week is going to be about - fun fun. 

Happy Sunday!

weekend lust list #4

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 

The other day I received the H&M Autumn Season catalogue through my door. It's been lying around the living room until today when I sat down and had a leaf through and saw so many pieces I need in my life! I  don't go back to university for 5 weeks but I'm already thinking about comfy but stylish outfits ready for the new term. 

1. I already have an Arran style jumper but I don't think you can have too many!

2. How beautiful is this handbag? I love the studded detail and the fact it has a longer strap always appeals to me. Yes, I already have about 10 black handbags but this one is extra special!

3. I've been umming and ahhing about buying some maroon/burgundy coloured jeans for a while now. The thing that puts me off is that maroon was the colour of my dreaded high-school uniform so I've always stayed well away - along with green which was my primary school colour! But since I left high-school five years ago, perhaps it's time to embrace the maroon - it's such an autumny/wintery colour and I think the jeans would look great with the cream jumper for a cosy casual outfit. 

4. I've been looking for a new denim shirt for a while since the two that I had have got way too big for me (yay for weightloss). The two I had were more of a bleached denim colour so I think this darker colour will be a nice change.

5. I love the pearls and jewels on this necklace, I think it really softens what is otherwise a quite scary necklace!

Have you started thinking about your Autumn/Winter wardrobes yet or are you still hoping for some more summer?