Lunch with family!

So right now I am sat on the sofa with my brother as I type...We are at my dad's girlfriend's (Angie's) house with my brother James, my cousin Todd, my gran, my dad, Angie, Katie (sort-of step sister) and Jack (sort-of step brother). We are about to have some lunch but I forgot that the kitchen had been re-done so now it looks awesome! I love interior design so I got very exited. I've taken a few pictures of the front room in the house now as it looks quite nice. Hope you like them! Will post again later on as this was just a quick mention really. Thanks for reading!

xo

A quick vegetarian recipe!

Ok, I don't normally post recipes and cooking stuff but this is probably the simplest recipe in the whole world. It's a vegetarian tomato sauce for pasta! You could probably use the sauce for other things as well, but I eat a ridiculous amount of pasta so it seemed rather appropriate for this recipe. So this is what you do:

What you need

Tin Chopped tomatoes
Tbsp Tomato Puree
Pinch of Salt
Tsp Herbs
(Tsp Sugar optional)
One Onion (chopped)
Splash of Olive Oil

 Salt (This is a herb salt - just being fancy, any kind of salt will do)

 Herbs - Basil/Parsley/Rosemary or even black pepper - whatever you have available to you!

 Tomato puree - ketchup will do if you don't have any.

A tin of chopped tomatoes!

Garlic or onion - whatever you have or what you prefer :)
Equipment

A pan
A spoon
Knife
Grater


Steps

1. Heat olive oil in pan and add chopped onion. Cook until soft, not burnt.

 2. Add chopped tomatoes to pan.

 2.5. This isn't necessarily a step, just a good tip. Fill about a quarter of the empty tomato tin with water, swoosh around and add to the tomato sauce. Cleans the tin and adds to the sauce!

 2.5a. It doesn't matter if you add a bit too much water - it will evaporate away when you boil it.

 3. Add tomato puree/tomato ketchup. About a tablespoonful depending on how much flavour you want to add.

 4. Add cup of herbs to sauce.

 5. Yum yum yumsies.

 6. Add a pinch of salt to sauce.

 7. Yum yum yumsies x2.

 8. Stir and bring to the boil - once it is boiling, lower the heat and keep it simmering.

 9. If you have an electric oven, turn it to about 2. Otherwise, just keep it on a low heat. :)

10. Stir again, and put lid on to make sure the sauce doesn't dry out.

11. Keep the sauce cooking for as long as you like, the longer you leave it the more the flavours will be brought out! I would suggest around 20 minutes if you want the taste but don't want to wait around for ages.

The thing that is great about this recipe is you don't have to worry about timings. Don't rush to put on the pasta or sort things out, just relaaaaaax for as long as you like! When you think the sauce is cooking nicely, cook the pasta and grate some cheese. Once the pasta is cooked, add the sauce and mix until it looks delicious. Sprinkle some cheese on top and BAM you have a simple but delicious meal ready! :)

I love this recipe so much because you barely need any culinary skills to do it ;) I would definitely recommend to anyone and everyone, unless you have a tomato allergy...if you do then please don't try this! Also, if you don't wanna hang around waiting for it to cook, this is the best part - you don't have to. Once all the ingredients are together, you can serve it straight away! The only reason you might want to leave it for longer is because some people like all the flavours blended together, but it doesn't really matter that much.

Thanks for reading! Have you ever tried this recipe before? What are YOUR favourite recipes? Comment or leave a link below, I would love to read some!

xo

Friday Rewind: H&M

Hello to you! Yesterday I tried uploading a post about the day, but for some reason my e-mail address was not sending the pictures so I couldn't do it. Luckily i've sorted the problem now! Yesterday I went into town to get my new glasses with my friend Jazel (Yes, Hazel with a J - she's new to the school) and we were going to be meeting another one of our friends there. Her name is Jule (pronounced You-La...she's a German Exchange student) but unfortunately she was running a bit late, and me and Jazel were freezing so we decided to go into H&M.

We walked around for a bit before I decided that we should pick out 5 random tops and try them on, so...we did! These were some of the pictures:

 The first tops we tried on...Jazel chose a grey jumper with glass beads which was really cool.

I really liked this jumper because it had loads of detailed colouring! From a distance, it just looks rather green-y but it's very pretty when you take a good look at it. Thumbs up from me!

 Next outfit...Jazel chose an off-the-shoudler butterfly top and I chose a lace t-shirt that said 'Stay great'. I think it would be a nice thing to wear for loads of different occasions! Another thumbs up.

 These tops we were not as keen on...mine was more like a dress than a top, and it was very unflattering. If I wore a bright coloured belt with it, maybe it would look nicer on me but not today H&M! Thumbs down for now, but watch this space...!

 Jazel chose a more blouse-y top that had studs all over it. We agreed she looked like a cowboy! Thumbs down for this outfit.

 Cheesy smiles here!

 This top was definitely a no-no. I guess for big occasions it would be alright, but it was far too dressy for me! I'm sure you could make it way less dressy depending on what you wore with it, but personally I wasn't to keen on it. Thumbs down!

 This top I picked out because I thought it would be good to wear at festivals and such, but after I tried it on I realized I didn't really like it. Oh well! Thumbs down.

Can't finish without a silly picture.

Overall, some of the tops were quite nice but didn't suit me for any particular reason! I'll probably come back and buy some and see what I can do with them :)

After we had put all the clothes back on the coathangers, we didn't want the fitting rooms assistant to think we weren't going to buy anything so we gave him 2 of the tops and puts the other 3 back ourselves! Oh how sad are we.

By this time, Jule had arrived so we rang her to say we were by H&M - she said she was standing outside but me and Jazel couldn't see her so we were wondering where she was? Suddenly we heard a dog barking but I heard it through the phone as well, so I turned around to see Jule almost walking right past us! It was very funny. Then we walked up to poundland to buy some food because we were all hungry at this point, and we were going to go to my house to watch a film.

When we got home, the TV decided to stop working...not very useful when we wanted to watch a film! So instead, we decided to take some pictures.

 Jule trying her first creme egg! Can't believe she's never had one before :O

We got bored...and there are a few more pictures that Jule took with her amaaaazing camera! (Was ridiculously expensie but I think it would be worth it - what do you think?)
Anyway, we left my house to drop them home before 6...and an hour later, we got home! Such a long journey! My friend Faye came round afterwards, and of course we took a photo oppurtunity of us all wearing our glasses:

Some lovely faces there. Well that was pretty much a summary my friday, thanks for reading! What do you normally do on fridays? Any weekly traditions? Let me know in the comments!

xo

Mandy

Hey guys!
Well here's a little story for you...
On my birthday, my slightly wacky-but-lovely mother decided to get me something very...interesting. She got me loads of stuff that was all very nice and pretty normal, but I saw there was a big box at the end of the room. So my mum then said:

"I saw this at a vintage fair, you'll either love it or hate it."

So I was thinking she had possibly bought the world's biggest jar of marmite. Anyway, when I opened it I was faced with a mannequin! Not a full one though. Literally just the BODY of a mannequin, from the top of the legs to the neck. I was a tad confused. It was kind of awesome, but I thought I would have nightmares if it was just sat in my room! Turns out, it was fine. So now I use her as a necklace holder and I dress her up. As you do! Here are 2 pictures of Mandy-Quinn (geddit?!) in action:

The first picture has flash on, sorry if the pics aren't very good quality though - I took them on my iPhone!

Clothes

Scarf - Birthday Present (Shop in Norwich somewhere?!)
Black Jumper - H&M
Skirt  - Primark
Bird Cage - Vintage Fair

I will have to post a picture of Mandy without my 'artistic touch' as she is made out of some crazy materials. If you haven't already guessed, I adore vintage things! I will have to do some posts about my room sometime as I have quite a few vintage items scattered around ;)

That's all from me today! So if you are reading this, feel free to comment any ideas for upcoming posts? What do you think about vintage styles and room decor? Have you ever recieved any wacky birthday/xmas presents? Let me know!

xo

New Year's Resolutions

Hello to you! If you are reading this, I assume somehow you have made your way to my blog.

I am aware it is now February, but I still haven't decided what my New Year's Resolutions will be. Silly isn't it? I had about 15 so I have cut it down to my top 5:

1. Start a new project. (For me this is making a youtube account that I post videos on regularly, and obviously starting my blogger account here. Let's see how it goes!)

2. Stop biting nails. (I stopped biting my nails 2 years ago, but occasionally suffer from mini-relapses. This year I want to stop completely!

3. Be more organised. (For anyone that knows me, they will probably tell you that I am one of the messiest people they know. Even as I type I am aware that my desk is scattered with half used makeup, broken earrings, and probably the occasional furball...not good. I make this resolution every year, let's just hope I can try to stick to it!)

4. Save money. (I know I know, who expects a 15 year old girl to stick to a resolution like that, especially when the shops are only 10 minutes away! I have realised over the last few months I have spent a lot more money than I should on rubbish. So what I am trying to do is to only spend money on things that matter! Let's see how long this one lasts...)

5. Be more positive. (Life can get everyone down at times, and the best thing to do is try to see the positive side! It sounds incredibly cheesy but it's true. No one likes being in a bad mood, so try and cheer up and think of all the good things that are in your life instead of the bad! Now smile. CHEESIER PLEASE!)

But those are probably the most important ones out of my whole list. Why not try some of these yourself? You'll never know what will happen until you try!

Thanks for reading. I hope 2013 will be a great year for everyone! :)

xo