My latest cakes and cupcakes

A few weeks ago before I left for California I was busy helping out at my parents cake shop, we were working on our Christmas window, it took a while to do but I really like it. 
Here is the finished window. Photos are a bit dark because they were taken at night.

The whole window

My decorated cupcakes in the window

My Christmas Tree cake in the window with a train circling it

Santa Claus Cake made by my dad

I really love the nightmare before Christmas so decided I'd try making some decorated cupcakes along with some pumpkin themed cupcakes for Halloween! All the nightmare before christmas and jack skellington faces were all hand cut and hand painted. It took a lot of concentration!

A year ago I hated fondant, I just couldn't get to grips with the stuff but after a lot of practice I think I'm starting to get more confident with it :) Hope you like the cakes and cupcakes, what do you think of them? 

Disney Magic at Harrods

On Thursday this week, I took a trip to Harrods so I could see the Christmas Lights before I left. I met my sister at Harrods and we had a look in the pet section. My cat loves plastic bags and my mum had told me that they sell a cat toy that's soft on the outside but scrunchy like a bag on the inside so I had a look for that but didn't find anything :( Things have changed a bit here, years ago I remember they had things like big palaces for cats and dogs and tiaras, now everything is a bit run of the mill like you would find in most pet stores (except twice the price? lol) 

On the same floor they have a section called Disney Magic, for any other Disney geeks out there it's amazing! They have their own cafe and a Cinderella Slipper Salon where you can go and buy your own pair of Cinderella shoes. They have 3 styles, one for young kinds, one for bigger kids and another for adults. These are exclusive to Harrods only and can be bought in store. Prices range from £25 to £35. Me and my sister both ended up buying a pair. I'm not sure if I'll actually wear mine or keep them as a keepsake, they are quite sparkly! 

I'm in love with these shoes!

 
Along with the shoes I also bought some Prestat chocolate truffles and some Harrods Belgian hot chocolate. Some English treats to bring with me for Christmas :)

After we were done here we took a walk to Shaftesbury Avenue and ate at a small restaurant called Little Sicily which is on Rupert Street. It's an Italian restaurant and well worth the money. I'd highly recommend it.

Long time since I blogged...

It's been a very long time since I blogged and if I'm honest I've been avoiding it like I had been a lot of things. Things got really busy for me, I had hospital appointments, moved house and then had a lot of uni deadlines. So much happened in such a small amount of time that I just didn't have spare time to blog. Hopefully that can change soon and I can keep it regular again. I'm back in California again, I arrived Saturday and will be staying over Christmas and new year. I really wanted to spend Christmas with the bf this year so I bit the bullet and decided I would, even though I'm really going to miss my family and pets (Christmas is awesome with them). I've already received a few early Christmas presents one of them being the ciate mini mani month, where you get a mini nail polish every day leading up to Christmas. I was going to do a blog post/countdown with them but as it's already the 10th December and I've seen others doing the same, I think I might just do one whole blog post at the end of the month. The other gift I received which I was really excited about was the Andy Warhol NARS palette. I'll do a separate post in a few weeks time once I've had time to play with it. I didn't bring my dlsr out here with me, so I'll be using my iphone to take pics (it's better quality than my digital camera!)

I've been up to quite a few things since my last post, I managed to get tickets to the paralympics which was absolutely amazing being in that stadium and hearing everyone singing God Save The Queen. I was so glad I got to be a part of it, the Olympic stadium was so nice just to walk around. 

I also went to see Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie at the o2 arena, probably not most peoples taste in music but I love 'em! The show was amazing. My sister is now living in Canary Wharf so I was able to stay there the night.

Last night, we stopped off at one of the Christmas tree places out here, we picked out a really nice tree. Just have to decorate it now, I love real trees they smell really nice and fresh and gets me into the Christmas spirit. We're planning on going to Disneyland for a couple of days just before Christmas, I'm such a geek when it comes to Disneyland! I'm hoping we'll be able to get one of the special Disneyland Candy Canes they give out each year.

Do you have anything special planned for Christmas?

Take me out to the ball game!

Wednesday evening I went to LA to see my first ever baseball game at the Dodgers stadium, I've wanted to go to a baseball game for years. I wouldn't say I'm a big fan but I do enjoy watching it on tv and I find it much more interesting than football (English football). The tickets we got were purchased from Stub Hub which is a great website where people who have season passes and can't make it on a certain day will sell their tickets, the total price for tickets was $16 for two. Bargain! 

It was kind of a last minute decision to go to a game and I hadn't brought my Dodgers tshirt that I'd bought a few months back so I went out last minute to find a new one. I didn't find any women's shirts sadly and all the men's smalls were gone too, so I had to settle for a large kids shirt haha! Maybe it was juniors? I'm not sure but it definitely wasn't an adult size.

The front of the shirt just says Los Angeles with the number 22 underneath. The back has a big '22' and the name 'Kershaw' which is the guy who pitches for the Dodgers. I tied a knot on the side of the tshirt to tighten it a little and I think it looks a lot better this way than just a big baggy tshirt, I just paired it with some grey shorts from American Eagle and pair of blue and white Ralph Lauren espadrilles

If you've ever played rounders in school, baseball is pretty much identical. There are a few differences, like the bat is bigger and longer and instead of batting with one hand you use two. It's quite easy to follow and if you don't understand just look at the screen or ask the person next to you ;)

The most fun is in the crowd, someone started a wave and it went around the stadium about 5 times in a row. They also do a kiss cam and some guy proposed to his girlfriend on it, then they have a dance cam. Just watching everyone is really fun. 

As usual with sports arena's the food was overpriced but the Dodger Dog I had was so good and I couldn't go to a baseball game and NOT have a hot dog.

For my first ever baseball game and the price it cost to go, I had an awesome time. Not only that but it ended well with the Dodgers winning, yay! It was so much fun not just to watch the game but interacting with the crowd. I'm hoping to go and see the Dallas cowboys this weekend as they're in the area for practice and all games are free :) 

Have a good weekend! 

Linnet Bird Loves: Olympic Pop Tarts

I found these while shopping in Wal-Mart a few days ago, it's been ages since I even had pop tarts but I spotted these and bought them as I just love the Olympics and I thought it was a good novelty way to get into the spirit of the games. They taste great too!

These are for the USA team with the white stars and red in the middle, I think they look awesome. Red, White and Blue are the same colours as the British Flag too, so I can cheer on both teams. I'm so proud of Team GB, we've managed to win more golds than the Beijing games and have beat our Target of 48 medals which is one more than the last games. In fact we're guaranteed another SIX medals, one in the Sailing and 5 in the Boxing. I'm hoping some of those will be golds. It's been a long time since we've done this well, I always remember us coming around 10th place. 

I've always been a huge fan of the Olympics and was looking forward to these games, especially because it's in my home town. I'm originally from West Ham which has the same post code as Stratford (They created a new one specifically for the Olympic Park) and I'm so glad the West Ham football club are going to get the stadium after the games. Unfortunately I come home just after the games end, which means I won't even get to see the Mountain Biking event which is happening in the field's behind my house :( I do have tickets for the Paralympics though, which means when I get home I'll be able to go into and see the Olympic park before the games officially end, yay!!! 

Go Teams GB and USA!

First OOTD!

A few weekends ago I spent the day in Santa Barbara along the pier and had lunch at a really nice place overlooking the water called longboard's Grill. If you're ever visiting the pier is amazing, and on Sundays they have lots of local artists selling their art along by the sea front. I decided to wear this cream dress from H&M that has flowers stitched into in on the left. You can't see the bag I'm wearing in this photo but I'm doing a what's in my bag post soon, so you can see it there :) The sunglasses are Marc by Marc Jacobs and I just wore a pair of O'neill sandals with it. 

And an artistic photo of the sunglasses lol 

A weekend in Vegas

I got back from spending 3 days in Las Vegas on Sunday night/Monday morning, pretty sure it was about 1am when I finally walked in the door. There were a lot of conventions in Vegas this weekend so what would usually be a 4 hour easy drive took 9 hours! It was the worst drive ever and the 15 is the only road you can take to get out of there. But other than that I had an amazing time! 

Las Vegas might just be one road but you can literally spend a two week holiday there. When I visited for the first time last year in August I really underestimated the size of the strip, assuming the road would just be a 2 lane street. Well it turned out it was 8 lanes wide and incredibly difficult to cross. The hotels look so close together, and they kind of are.... Except it took me an hour to walk five hotels down! The monorail is highly recommended. We had really good weather this weekend although I doubt Vegas ever has much bad weather, it was around 40 degrees c. We stayed at the Treasure Island which is next to the Mirage and opposite the Venetian. We arrived at 2am and I was so ready for bed at this point. 


On the Friday we did some exploring up and down the strip, I found the most awesome shop in the MGM Grand called the television shop, if you love the Dexter series or The Big Bang tv show, I think you'll love this store. I can't get enough of Dexter so I bought some blood hand sanitizer which might sound a bit gross but I love weird stuff like this, and an I <3 Dexter tshirt. 

I drank so many margarita's along the strip I think it dehydrated me! Kahunaville at the TI is a great place for drinks, they give you an extra free shot and put candy worms in your drink, and of a night the bartenders do a show which is pretty impressive and at the end everyone gets free shots. 

Friday night we went on the Venetian Gondola's, I thought it would be nicer to do a night time ride outside rather than in the daytime heat. While on the boat we got to see the Mirage volcano erupt and the clock tower show. After this we took a trip to downtown and Fremont Street, the original Vegas. You know the iconic neon sign of the cowboy that you always see in older movies ft Vegas? Well that's here. Fremont Street used to be a real road with about 2 lanes but they've since covered this so the entire thing is a walkway and covered it with a gigantic round screen. 

This is a much more laid back area of Vegas and not as glamourous as the strip but I thought it was awesome to see where the hustle and bustle used to be back in the day. I tried a fried twinkie in one of the casinos, tastes a bit like funnel cake and way better than it sounds. They have $5 blackjack here too, which I played at the 4 queens casino. Our dealer was really fun too and it was a nice relaxed atmosphere in there. One thing I love about Fremont Street is that they still have the quarter one arm bandits, meaning you win in quarters and can pull the arm instead of just pressing a button and getting a paper slip. 


I had one of the best Margarita's ever in a place called mob bar, it was made with strawberry and fig infused tequila and was literally amazing. I paid $5 for it and was much more impressed than the $17 yucky one from the Venetian.

Bad Venetian Margarita

Nice Mob Bar Margarita

I spent Saturday morning by the pool and a giant margarita (there were a LOT of margaritas on this trip). The pool at TI isn't the best, there's no theming what so ever and it's pretty small. The DJ at the pool was great fun but I think it's a shame there's not more going on, with a pirate theme there is so much more they could do with it. I had tickets for Cirque Du Soleil Mystere for the night so before we got ready for that we took a trip to Margaritaville which is somewhere I'd wanted to go for years, the food was pretty good here.

Last year when I was out here I missed the Bellagio fountain show so made sure to see it this time. It doesn't last very long but it's a nice show and worth seeing. I always loved that one scene is Ocean's 11. 

The Paris makes for a nice backdrop

Watching the fountains

Winning!

My winning ticket
The Mystere show was absolutely amazing, and I'd recommend it for anyone wanting to see a Cirque show for the first time. This was their first Vegas production and is one of the cheapest, I'd love to go and see O or Ka now after seeing this.

Kahunaville is situated just outside of the Mystere theatre and as we were coming out the bartender cocktail show was starting so we got ourselves some free shots and ordered a Big Kahuna which is a cocktail made with dry ice to give it the smoking effect. 

On the Sunday before we left we went to the Paris hotel for champagne brunch at their buffet. The Paris is by far my all time favourite hotel in Vegas, everything about it is just so pretty and I love how they've painted the sky on the ceiling to make it seem like you are always outside and in a small village town. The buffet itself was amazing, my favourite thing was the made to order crepe's. You get a glass of champagne with your food too which was really nice, I don't usually like champagne but this was nice.

In line at Le Village buffet

I'll leave you with this photo of me inside a table ;)

Have you ever been to Vegas? What did you think? Do you have any plans of your own this summer? :)

Island Margarita by Slatkin & Co

Back in March I purchased this candle from Bath & Body Works and it's still going strong! Margarita's are one of my favourite cocktails and this candle has such a nice tropical smell. Don't worry there's no tequila smell with it, it's just a very fresh and fruity summer scent. The thing I love most about this candle other than it lasts a long time, is that the smell stays in the air for days. If you don't burn this candle for 2 or even 3 days the room still smells amazing. Bath & Body Works has a variety of these kinds of scents in store and online right now, another of my favourites is the mango and peach. These aren't available in the UK but if you're visiting the states be sure to check them out. You can also check to see if yankee candle has any similar tropical summer scents.