Dirty in the 'Diff

Hello!

Today I'm making cocktails (well not today because it's 2pm on a Monday) but this cocktail is special as it's been designed for Dirty Martini's Cardiff opening!

Dirty Martini opened it's doors to us here in Cardiff in an exclusive opening party on Friday night, the place itself is pretty nice inside, I'm not one to go out-out, I rarely do dressing up and can only walk in flat shoes so it's probably not a place you'd find me haunting regularly. The music was a little too loud for me because I'm secretly an old lady who likes to be in bed by 9pm most nights but the drinks were good!

We were offered complimentary drinks until 8pm but due to it being crazy busy I actually only got to try one of the Cardiff Cocktails (one of any of the cocktails on offer actually) made especially for us here in the 'Diff and it was the one which I was sent the equipment to make for myself - Red Dragon. It's a good cocktail so no real complaints ;)

Red Dragon is a martini made from Brecon Botanical Welsh Gin (keeping it local - I likeeee) and Hibiscus liqueur, with teapot bitters, gomme syrup and blood orange syrup, topped off with a snap dragon flower. I was given what I needed to shake and stir my own Red Dragon but was meant to add fresh raspberries, lemon juice and egg whites (nope).

I added lemon juice but couldn't bring myself to chuck an egg white in there, but when I tried the Red Dragon professionally made in Dirty Martini it didn't bother me at all, it just gave it the little foamy top that it was meant to have.

Well... I don't own any sort of cocktail glass so i made mine in a tiny glass tea cup! Ha!

I had tons of fun making my own cocktail at home but the Dirty Martini crew definitely make a better one than me!

Thanks for Dirty Martini for inviting me to the opening night, I wish you every success here in Cardiff and maybe I'll be back in sometime because I HAVE to try a Merlins Cup ;)

X

LUSH Spooktacular!

Hey,

I've pretty much shared LUSH Halloween things on my blog every year since I first moved into a place where I actual had a bath I could bathe in (houseshares + bathing = ew no thx) and why should this year be any exception? My Hallowe'en house decor is all up and I'm prepping for a weekend of classic and cheesy horror movies.

As soon as the LUSH website had to Halloween treats up I immediately put in a big purchase:

2 x Autumn Leaf
2 x Lord of Misrule bath bomb
1 big bottle of Lord of Misrule shower cream (my ultimate fave thing ever)
1 Mosters Ball (which I've already used and forgot to photograph - oops!)
1 Pumpkin and 1 Sparkly Pumpkin
1 Boo bath melt
and finally a chunk of the Fireside soap!

I avoided the Magic Wand soap as I'm not massive on orangey scents and the Fireside sounded more appealing to me. I also avoided the Goth Fairy shimmer bar as I would def never use it and it was pretty expensive for a teeny tiny little bar.

Autumn Leaf - this is by far my fave product out of the whole range! Alot of people describe it as a 'cut grass' smell but it totally don't get it. To me it is bergamot and that is just my fave smell ever. Please don't ever leave leafy!  

Sparkly Pumpkin - I wrote a Sparkly Pumpkin review 2 years ago , it has a little cinnamon stick piece on it. I actually got gifted on of these by LUSH aswell at an event and they are perfect for breaking in half and getting 2 uses from.

Boo - this little dude is actually part of my Hallowe'en decorating this year and is sat on my fireplace (it's inactive so he won't be sliding down it!). I'm incredibly excited to use him - but after the 31st!

Pumpkin - this bathbomb I've used now. It's a fast one and fizzes off almost instantly. 

Pumpkin bath bomb - the water, as you can see, is left a beautiful bright orange and the actual scent was vanilla/cinnamon - my whole house smelt amazing even until the morning!   

Fireside soap + Lord of Misrule shower cream - I'm actually using Fireside as a little mini fake-fireplace in the bath. The smell wasn't anything to shout home about it's just vanilla to me but it looks wonderful! And LoM is my fave scent ever from LUSH and I am just so happy that this is being kept on sale until Christmas. If you love herbally, incense type smells then I urge you to go and pick one up! 

What do you think of the new LUSH range? Have you tried any? I've picked up a bunch of the Christmas range too which I will be sharing next month so stay tuned!

Our LUSH here in Cardiff is actually reloactin up the road to a bigger premises where it will have a LUSH Spa! I am SO excited - gotta start saving the pennies to treat myself to one of them!

X

Destroy Your Denim.

Oh Hey!

It's getting pretty freakin' chilly outside now, I absolutely love Autumn weather where the sun is low and shining, the sky is blue but it's cold outside.

Earlier this year I went to a Vintage Kilo sale, these are where you pay £15 for a kilo of clothing and everything is in massive bins and on huge rails. The place is packed full of people and it's basically a fight to to find something half-decent. It's described as 'vintage' but it's mostly stuff from 2003, the queue to pay is so long that you slowly lose alot of interest in things you picked up and promptly dump them along the sides. I did however manage to grab myself a lush little Levis ladies denim jacket from either the late 70's or early 80's which had a gross stain on it. I managed to somewhat get most of the stain out but the fit is great and I've been after one since forever so I was in. It was the only thing I picked up and came to just under a kilo so I got it for £13.

Sure enough after it's first wash I had sewn my Stay Home Club back patch onto it. Granted it needs an iron out but I love it and it looks pretty swell to me! 

Even though it's cold I pretty much still only live in dresses but now I just wear tights and boots instead of trainers and bare legs. I do love a good layer up with chunky knits, scarfs and a bobble hat - I got this cute little peach one from H&M for £4.99 last year.

X

But Why I Love You I'll Never Know.

You could say I've fallen out of love with blogging.

I started doing 'cowbiscuits' in 2010 after a 'bout of scrapbooking left too much mess and I discovered I could do it mess-free online. I inistantly loved it, I religiously posted every 2 days, I went over every post looking for grammar and spelling mistakes and (without being one of those people) not many people were doing it and I was inspired! I gained a fair few 'followers' and felt awesome about the whole thing! In 2011 my whole life turned around when I moved to Cardiff, I was left for 2 months with no internet and began working a job that left me physically and mentally incredibly exhausted. I was officially out of the blogging loop and fell behind as the blogging world grew.

In 2013 I started 'cowbiscuits' back up and realised how much I missed it and loved it and continued pretty solidly until last year where I flitted in and out or writing posts, making VERY poorly made videos on Youtube and felt very sluggish in a fast-paced world where blogging is all about editing perfectly crisp photos, page views using click-bait titles and how much money and free shit you can get. No tea, no shade but this is not for me.

I don't get involved in any 'blogger chats', I pretty much detest the term 'blogger' - it makes me cringe (sorry 'bout it). I do miss MY blog - not because I think I'm class, or because I think any of what I write about is worthy of anybody bothering to read but I miss being able to vent onto a page wether it being able to just copy and paste some pics of things I love from Etsy or post about my fave facemasks - I miss my little scrapbook.

I fucked up college pretty heavily and went right into working but at school my favourite subject was English Language and I went on to do my AS level of this at college where I got a B - but due to enjoying partying a little too much and not being arsed to even attend most lessons, I quit. I'm not bitter about it at all, I am SO thankful for the way my life has panned out, I've gained alot of working experience from shit jobs which has furthered who I am today and what I do today - I just actually enjoy writing! It makes me happy, it is a little hobby which sadly I've left behind. I want to do it, I can't always be bothered to do it but I know it makes my soul a little happier.

This whole Summer I've had feral kittens living in my spare room where I take most of my blog pictures, write my posts on my iMac and generally have an officey vibe. The little monsters have DESTROYED my spare room so I'm blitzing it and semi-re-decorating it now I've (hopefully) finished fostering until Spring. Don't get me wrong I LOVE doing it but damn those tiny kittens are messy! I'm hoping this will help me get back into my writing mojo, having a clear space to do it (depsite this post coming to you live from my laptop while I'm in bed after a 4 hour day-time nap).

So basically what I'm saying is: I'm sticking with you cowbicuits, I was just having a breather from you.

If anybody reads anything I write then I'm truly flattered but this is my little getaway and I'm feeling content just by writing it :)

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