Review: After Noah

Recently, I was introduced to a company called After Noah. They are an established store based in London, selling vintage and contemporary furniture, homeware, toys, and gifts. Admittedly, they might not be everyone's cup of tea but I absolutely love stores like this as it allows me to find cute and quirky items that may be harder to find on the high street. If you're really into vintage then this is the perfect store for you and you don't even need to go to London as they have an online store! I was sent a couple of items from After Noah and I highly recommend that you take a look at their website if you like what you see on this post. 

This Pocket Posh Easy Sudoku* is right up my street. I love Sudoku, it's such a relaxing activity and I just love anything that involves numbers. There are several Sudoku books that you can get from the newsagents and, although they still have the same old puzzles in them, they just don't look as appealing as this does. The cover is really pretty and it reminds me of those luxurious expensive notebooks that you can buy, not that I've ever splashed out on one of them myself, and Pocket Posh is such an apt name as well. The pages are very colourful and it makes it a lot more enjoyable to use.

I adore these super cute Alice In Wonderland Sticky Notes*. This little set comes with five sets of sticky notes including some very interesting "When You Were Down The Rabbit Hole..." sticky notes, designed to be used when you've just missed someone and you need to leave them a message. This will fit nicely into your handbag and it would make a cute gift for anyone who loves all things magical!

Glassware is such a beautiful way to decorate a room so I was pretty pleased to get my hands on this Glass Owl Tea Light Holder*. I don't actually use candles or anything of the sort but I figured that this would be a really elegant addition to my bedroom. I'm thinking of filling it up with precious stones or scented beads. Getting creative is where it's at......

Have you visited After Noah yet?

You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter.

Valentine's Day Cupcakes

First of all, Happy Valentine's Day! What better time to bake something yummy than on the most romantic day of the year? I say that as though I actually need an excuse to bake.... I actually baked these earlier in the week so that I could get these baked and tasted in time for this post on Valentine's Day.

I was recently sent a lovely selection of cake decorating products from Bakers Toolkit. Some of you may recognise the very pretty branding/packaging as this is the business set up by Luisa Zissman, the runner up of The Apprentice in 2013. 

Bakers Toolkit stems from a love of baking and they specialise in professional baking and cake decorating products at affordable prices. There is a wide selection of products including food colouring, edible glitter, pearl beads, and ready-to-roll icing. 

I love cake decorating but I always end up buying the same old products from the supermarket because, let's face it, there isn't much choice. With Bakers Toolkit, you can pretty much get everything that you would need to make amazing looking cakes all in one place. The only thing that would top it all off for me is if they did flavourings as well. 

As I have quite a few products to get through, I'll be bringing you all a couple of Baker's Toolkit posts throughout the next few weeks. I've been doing a lot baking posts recently and I hope you all like these alongside my usual posts.

For today's bake, I used Edible Hearts*, Pink Sugar Sand*, Dark Purple Pearl Beads*, and Edible Lilac Cupcake Glitter* to decorate my cupcakes. I stuck to pinks and purples to make my cakes look more romantic. 

Et voila! A lovely batch of cupcakes! Okay, they don't look as romantic as I imagined they'd be but I'm still working on my decorating skills. It's amazing what some pretty cake decorations can do though. 

This was one of the more Valentine's looking cakes decorated with pink sugar sand and edible hearts. I love how princess-y this looks as well The sugar sand tasted incredible, it gave the buttercream icing a really crunchy texture. A little baking tip though, best to decorate as you ice. I made the mistake of taking ages to ice and by the time I added the sugar sand, the icing had already started to harden. The sugar hearts were a bit easier to just push onto the icing and they can definitely make any cake look instantly girly. 

The dark purple pearl beads really stood out and it's actually one of my favourite colours. I find that it's quite difficult to get hold of purple sugar beads on the high street.  

My favourite product so far is definitely the lilac edible glitter. I have never used edible glitter before but I love it already! It looks so pretty and magical. It takes a little while to get used to it, I think I put too much glitter in some places and not enough in others but hopefully I'll do a better job next time! It also adds a nice crunch to the icing, although not as much as the sugar sand does. Bakers Toolkit offers a vast selection of glitter colours and I'm determined to own them all at some stage! 

I'm really pleased with how these have turned out and I've already got a few ideas as to what I'm going to do for my next baking adventure!

Happy Valentine's Day!

New Things #3

PocketBac Anti-Bacterial Hand Gels  - Yes, I'm one of those people who has to carry anti-bacterial hand gel wherever they go. It's not a bad thing though, there are so many situations where you can't easily get access to water and soap. For those of you who travel on the London Tube a lot, hand gels are a must! PocketBac do some great smelling ones.

Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser - I've seen a lot of people raving about this product but as I was quite happy with my skincare regime, I never considered buying it. However, I was lucky enough to win one in a blog giveaway a while back. I tested this out for a few weeks but I'm not using it anymore, more details will be revealed when my review goes up!

Frilly Socks - I've been lusting after these Topshop frilly socks for ages and ages! All my current socks were getting a bit old so it was the perfect excuse to get myself some new ones!

Sweet Treats - These aren't chocolates and I'm not entirely sure what you would categorise these into. They are yummy crispy wafer balls filled with coconut and almond filling, sprinkled with desiccated coconut. They taste incredible and I urge you all to try these! I found these in the supermarket but I have a feeling that they're usually easier to get hold of during the Christmas season.  

The Body Shop Products - I used to be the biggest fan of The Body Shop but I don't shop there too often nowadays. However, I'm really excited to try some of these products out which I didn't actually choose myself, makes it a bit more exciting!. The Camomile Silky Cleansing Oil is one that I've wanted to test out for a while now and I've started incorporating it into my morning routine. 

Balance Me Rose Otto Hand Cream - I won this in a Twitter giveaway the other week. I've never used anything from this brand before so I'm quite keen to give this a go, hopefully I'll like it!

Linderella's Lust List - Valentine's Day 2014

The 14th of February is just around the corner. Some people love it, some people hate it, some people could not care less. 

My view is that, if you're single, there is nothing wrong with treating yourself to a few cute goodies on Valentines Day. And if you're in a relationship, there is nothing wrong with dropping a few hints. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's Valentine's Day wish lists so do leave a link below if you've done one!

1. Collar Heart Jumper - I've been loving Oasis clothing lately because so many of them have cute collars. I love wearing collars. This one looks (kind of) romantic with all the hearts but it's not too OTT. I really like this creamy brown colour, it's subtle and easy to wear. 

2. Heart Cake Cases - I'm a keen baker so these would be great for making some romantic looking cupcakes.

3. Strawberry Gift Set - I love the smell of sweet strawberries and The Body Shop captures the smell perfectly. This is such an adorable gift set, the packaging is ultra pretty! I really want to try the EDT from this set. The rest is just a bonus.

4. Hearts Stanley Mug - I went through a phase at one point where I was obsessed with buying new plates, bowls, mugs etc. That phase is now long gone but I do like some new crockery every now and then. 

5. Tan Bear With Pink Ears - This is going to sound lame (because I'm not 12) but I absolutely adore this teddy bear!! The pink paws and pink ears are so cute!

6. Clinique Superbalm Moisturising Gloss - Everyone wants kissable lips on Valentine's Day. I love glossy lips and this product claims to moisturise as well! Bonus! I'm lusting after the Raspberry shade. 

7. Milly Scarf - It's no secret that I have a little obsession with scarves and when I came across this one, it was love at first sight. It's just so pretty! This one also happens to be called Raspberry as well! I definitely need to get this at some stage!

8. Lush Lots Of Love Gift Set - I've only ever bought one Lush product and that was Snow Fairy in November. This gift set looks lovely and I'd love to try out these products, especially the Prince Charming shower gel. The massage bar looks delightful too.

Are you lusting after any of these products?