Pin It Forward!

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I bloomin' love Pinterest. It is one of my favourite time wasting websites - everything is so pretty, and I quite often spend a weekend morning in bed browsing the app and pinning away. There is SO much on there, and every time I log on, there's something new to admire.

Gradually I'm getting more and more of my friends into it - my friend Rachel is starting up her own wedding hair and makeup business, and I keep emailing her Pins of awesome hair styles and pretty makeup techniques - I think she's a convert. Weddings and parties are a great use for Pinterest because it's somewhere to put all your inspiration and ideas - I used it a lot for my big birthday party last year and I know a couple of brides-to-be with bulging Pinterest boards.

If I'm going to be totally honest though, the thing I spend the most time browsing on Pinterest is FOOD. One of my first boards was entitled 'Get in my Belly' and it's still my favourite one to go through, especially when I'm on a diet like I am now. I'm basically living vicariously through all of these beautiful pictures - it's pretty much food porn. And dieting isn't so bad when you have a collection of amazing recipes stored away to use when you fancy a treat - because even if you are being very, very healthy, the occasional treat is super important or you will go insane.

If you like cheese, peanut butter and caramel, you'll probably like this post.

one | two | three | four | five | six

seven | eight | nine

ten | eleven | twelve

thirteen | fourteen | fifteen | sixteen

To celebrate officially launching in the UK, Pinterest had a party a few weeks ago (I am still dreaming about those cake pops) and also kicked off their Pin It Forward campaign. Selected Pinterest-addicts are talking about their favourite boards, and then introducing another fab Pinner. Pinning It Forward, you see what they did there? If you aren't part of Pinterest you can sign up here - and you totally should.

I'm introducing Jeska from Lobster and Swan. Her blog is full of beautiful photography and her Pinterest continues that dreaminess - her Live Beautifully board is stunning and I adore her Fashion Theatre one too. Sigh.

I would love more people to follow on Pinterest - are you on there? What are your favourite boards? Hit me up!

Help me make a wedding cake?

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My Evening Dress

Vivien of Holloway
This post is not actually about dresses, but it seemed wrong not to include at least a COUPLE.

So. I love a challenge, but I always get to the point a little bit before when I’m like ‘Ohhhh dear. What have I let myself in for again?’ My birthday, last year, I was all like ‘I AM GOING TO MAKE A MILLION CUPCAKES’ and then it was 6pm and I was still icing cakes and everyone was due to be arriving at 7.30 and I hadn’t even got to the venue yet... it may have been a mistake. They were awesome cupcakes, though!

My latest challenge is also cake related, and it’s not an eating challenge, although as I type that I find myself thinking that I should seek one out. I think I’d be awesome at it.


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Nope, my challenge is actually to make a tiered wedding cake for my friend Gemma’s wedding in September. I’m pretty excited about doing it but it’s slowly dawning on me that this is actually quite a… well, a challenge. I think I’ve written challenge about eighty times in this post. Making a wedding cake isn’t as simple as making a birthday cake because being slightly messy and charming is fine for a birthday, and as a rule for life (slightly messy and charming is how I like to describe myself on dating profiles) but everyone knows – EVERYONE – that messiness has no place at a wedding. Weddings HAVE to be perfect.

No pressure, then.

Here’s the plan: a three tier round cake. The bottom tier will be 12 inches across and lemon flavoured. The middle will be 10 inches across and almond flavoured. And the top will be 8 inches across and chocolate flavoured.

I’ve been googling and Pinning like crazy for inspiration and I’ve found some really good tips on assembling cakes and ensuring they’re well supported, cool icing options and even how many they serve.


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However, what I have yet to find is the perfect sponge recipe for each of these sizes. My standard 8 inch sponge recipe is going to need some tweaking to stretch to a 12 inch and honestly, I don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to tweaking recipes. So I’m appealing to you. That’s right, YOU. I’ve seen you all out there with your beautiful cake making skills, and sure, you were really nice about those deformed penguin cupcakes I made a while back but now I am begging for your advice because deformed penguin cupcakes aren’t going to cut it this time.

So, help – I need a sponge recipe with quantities, cooking temperature, cooking times etc that will be suitable for a 12 inch cake and a 10 inch cake (8 inch cake, I’ve got you covered). HELP ME. Because otherwise this is going to happen.


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GIVEAWAY: Cake decorating cookbook!

I have a cheeky giveaway for you today! A while ago on Where Are My Knees, I took part in a Baking Mad campaign to make some low fat brownies - they're pretty awesome, you should make them.

Anyway, the Baking Mad team have given me this cookbook to give away to one of you. I've had a flick through and there's some awesome cakes in here - how amazing does that polka dot cake look? I have a big baking challenge coming up soon (more on that in a couple of days) and so can use all the inspiration I can get.

Don't forget to check out the Baking Mad site too, there are lots of recipes and tips on there such as for the perfect (low calorie!) Victoria Sponge, how to make cupcakes and also lots of recipes for kids

To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post with the following details:
1. Your email address, twitter handle, blog name... basically a way that I can contact you easily.
2. Follow me on Google Friend Connect or Bloglovin and let me know which in your comment
3. To be entered you must do both of the above but for extra entries you can Like me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter
4. You can also tweet something along the lines of Don't miss out on @essbeevee's giveaway at http://bit.ly/10O4s2S - you could win an awesome cookbook!
5. Do all or some of the above before 7pm 26th May 2013. Any entries after this point won't be counted!

Space oddity.

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I was going to start this post with something like 'Nerdy confession alert' - but you guys KNOW I'm a total nerd, right? It's not really a secret. But even with that widely known fact, when I admit I kind of love Doctor Who, people are sometimes a little surprised. I guess it is pretty nerdy, and to be honest it's often pretty awful, yet I have to watch it every week. If only to feel ultimately irritated by it. Also, I miss Tennant.

Amy Pond was a terrible companion but goodness, I wanted her hair. Not being born a redhead will forever remain a huge unfairness of my life. Clara is, so far, a little more likeable, and although her hair is very lovely and bouncy, it's her insistence on wearing short dresses and opaque tights that has me penning this post. Because, gosh darnit, I just want every item of her wardrobe.

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Sidenote - is it HER wardrobe, or does she raid the Tardis wardrobe every time? If so I find it kind of creepy that all these companions are prancing around in these old clothes. Who did they belong to? Most of these people are probably dead! And surely no one, but no one, would want to wear anything from Rose's era. PunkyFish needs to stay in the early 2000s, no?

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ANYWAY. The internet has jumped on Clara and her awesome wardrobe and has done a pretty good job of tracking down exact matches to some of her clothes. But most of them are sold out or incredibly expensive so instead I'm just going to show you how to mimic it, a little. This is basically a thinly disguised wishlist because I WANT ALL THESE THINGS.

  
Dresses: River Island, Topshop, New Look
 
Leather Jacket: H&M, ASOS

Satchel: Zatchels (real leather) or eBay (faux leather)


Boots: Bronx Ankle Boots or Topshop
To be honest, I think if Clara raided my wardrobe for tonight's season finale, no one would blink an eye. All the reds! All the black accessories! It's not so much about stealing her style, I think she's stealing MY style...

Turn on the charm for me tonight.

I have to combine this dress with a modesty panel. MODESTY PANEL. Isn't it kind of a gross expression? It's so utilitarian and middle aged. I feel like Boob Hider is a much better expression, really.

Boob Hiders are a necessity with much of my wardrobe. I have so many clothes that I put on and am like ‘Who is this designed for?!’ Surely displaying one’s whole bra is not a good look for anyone, no matter how large or small their rack? This dress comes to mind - indecent without a top underneath! The worst are those dresses that just don't work with a Boob Hider. Like this one. It's the PRETTIEST, but a vest top kind of ruins the effect. But without it, it's basically just a whole HEY! OBSERVE MY BOOBS! kind of thing and usually, that's not what I'm going for.

Necklace & Dress - Dorothy Perkins

Perlato Court Shoes c/o Spartoo Shoes

Nails - OPI Can't Find My Czechbook

Boob Hider & Tights - Primark

I'm loving these shoes at the moment. They're kind of sensible and dull, but they're the perfect height for work and the pointy toes make me feel secretly badass because if anyone pisses me off, I will kick them and DENT THEIR LEGS. That's how I roll, these days. Leg denter. Boob hider. Those are my trademarks.

I was going slightly overboard with Photoshop in 2011 when I last featured this dress, wasn't I?

You can wear the crown but you’re no princess.

I really like navy, but it’s actually a colour I hadn’t worn much until recently. When I got this navy dress in the Dorothy Perkins sale over Christmas, I had great fun teaming it with different colours to create different looks. I love it with red accessories, when I fancy going a bit nautical (I can’t believe I haven’t done red tights yet) or my cranberry tights and cardigan, for a pretty jewel-toned ensemble. But I’ve done the slightly nautical look recently on here, and the last time I wore this dress I teamed it with cranberry tights, so here’s another version.

A little while ago, Amy said something that stuck with me about the old adage ‘Don’t wear navy and black together’ – basically, it’s fine, as long as you do it SUPER deliberately. And she's totally right - more than once I’ve grabbed a cardi or a pair of tights out of my clean washing pile and only realised later that it was navy, not black – so uncool. So I was like ‘RIGHT. I need to be ultra deliberate today, otherwise I will look like a FOOL.’ The result is, actually, a pretty sensible, tame ensemble, but it was perfectly suitable for a day pottering around London on two separate birthday things, where I socialised with people I didn’t know all that well (and in those situations sometimes I don’t want to go all crazy and bright coloured, you know?).

Although, as I was leaving, the heavens opened, and I swapped my neat little patent pumps for sensible brown boots, and I’m not sure WHAT the fashion rulebook says about navy and black and brown together. Nothing positive, I’m sure.

Oh yeah, and also, I’ve lost nearly two stone since the last time I posted this dress on this blog which is pretty bloody gratifying to see.

Dress - Closet via Dorothy Perkins

Cardigan - Red Herring via Debenhams

Belt & Tights - New Look

Betty London Flat Shoes c/o Spartoo Shoes

Dressed for success.

Do you remember this post? Well, I did it - hooray! However, due to polka dot clashing issues I'm not going to be wearing the dress in question at the wedding in question, but that just means an excuse to buy a new dress. OH NO. Lord knows THAT'S my least favourite activity.

Here are a handful of my dream dress 'n' shoe ensembles - how amazing is that dress in the middle?:


Dresses: Topshop, Goddiva, Topshop
Shoes: New Look, Melissa, ASOS
The below ensemble may win out, though, as I tried the dress on yesterday and fell a bit in love. Black and white stripes with red accents may be a teeny bit emo, but as my iPod is basically constantly playing My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco these days, I guess I AM a little bit emo.


Dress - Debenhams, Court Shoes - Blink, Bag - New Look
Oh, I love wedding season! So many good excuses to SHOP. Have you got any occasions for dream dresses coming up?

But there ain't no sunshine in his song.

I had all these plans for a crazy, social bank holiday weekend but in the end it was rather a quiet one. Nice, though – lots of time spent with my family, an awesome baby shower and lots and LOTS of sleep. I also tidied, which is VERY important. By the time Bank Holiday Monday rolled around I was feeling a little bit edgy though – the nights out that I’d had planned had been scuppered by poorlyness and really? I just wanted a drink.

That’s where having buddies who live within 10 minutes walk comes in handy though, as I met up with Sha and Russ and we went for a boozy picnic in Verulamium park, thanks to our local M&S. The olives and chorizo? OMG.

We’d all originally had plans to do constructive things that day – I was going to catch up on all my blogging and finish watching Broadchurch (don’t spoil me!), whilst Sha had been planning to upgrade her old Samsung for the new Samsung S4 at Carphone Warehouse. But unfortunately neither of us made it, as after the park we wandered to a beer garden for a bit before all watching Game of Thrones at their flat, because we’re cool. And suddenly it was 10pm. Ooops.

I’m wearing: Dress – New Look (original post) | Shoes – Primark (similar: Timeless Flat Shoes)  | Sunglasses – H&M | Necklace – Benita Blue

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