The G Hotel, Galway and Lush bath treats!

We recently headed off for a break to the G hotel, Galway, a rather lovely wedding present as the G is one of our favourite places to go. The decor of the hotel was designed by non other than Irish miliner Philip Treacy himself- apparently a fan of supermodels, seashells and large silver orbs- which lends an air of the delightfully surreal to most of the rooms. It's recently been upgraded to a five star and really is a lovely break away- good food, an amazing spa and beautiful surroundings.

Champagne Afternoon Tea, Baileys hot chocolate by the fire, delicious dinners, a trip to Salthill, the Galway Christmas Market and general lovely relaxation. Fabulous.
Knowing that I had a lovely big bath to look forward to in the G, I popped into Lush before we left Dublin and picked up a So White bath ballistic (4.20 euro), a Big Blue bath ballistic (3.90 euro) and a Wiccy Magic Muscles massage bar (8.90 euro).
Good news is that all of Lush's bath ballistics contain sea salt, which helps to improve circulation- so, definitely a good idea if, like me, your fingers and toes are always cold.
So White smells divine- like fresh apples:

While I liked this, I wasn't sure whether or not it was the bath ballistic or the hot water that relaxed my muscles..I didn't really feel like So White made a huge difference to my bath.
I did feel better after using Big Blue though- it contains lavender and seaweed and turns the water a delightfully tropical shade of blue, which helps if you're trying to pretend you're in Miami. Check it out:

I would definitely repurchase that one.

Wiccy Magic Muscles massage bar is for sore and stiff muscles and contains cinnamon, cocoa butter, Shea butter, organic jojoba oil, coconut oil, peppermint oil and Aduki beans.

It smells lovely and does indeed soothe sore muscles. Unfortunately, the sales assistant in Lush advised me that it can be used in the bath, as a massage bath bar. He was wrong. So very wrong. As it turns out this is because once in the bath it a) melts, causing the bath to fill with massage oil, which not only renders the massage bar useless as it starts to disintegrate but also means that the bath water becomes a bit slimy and unpleasant and b) the aduki beads come away from the bar and fill up the bath meaning you then have to clean them out afterwards or risk causing a drain blockage. So thanks for that, Lush assistant. Maybe a rudimentary knowledge of your products might be a good idea in future. Since then, I have used the remains of the bar for a regular, non bath massage, which was very nice and much less uncomfortable all round.
Lastly, here's a photo from our spin out to Barna:

Beautiful.

Christmas Cookies!

As is traditional at this time of year, I feel it incumbent upon me to pretend to be a 1950's housewife again and make baked goods. Delicious baked goods, at that. Here are my Christmas Butter cookies, the recipe for which can be found on the BBC Good Food website.

Ingredients:

• 200g Softened Butter
• 140g Caster Sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 300g Plain Flour 

(you could obviously make these more festive by adding in cinnamon, almond extract or whatever else you fancy, I just kept it simple and made them seasonally appropriate with the moulds I used).

Method:

1. Mix the butter and sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon (or, if you're me and have a fancy KitchenAid mixer, use that on a low setting).
2. Then add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and briefly beat to combine.
3. Sift over 300g Plain Flour and stir until mixture is well combined- you may need to get your hands in there to bring the dough together.
4. Some recipes for butter cookies suggest wrapping the dough in cling film and letting it cool in the fridge for 20mins..I didn't do that but each to their own. Mostly I was just impatient to eat some Christmas shaped cookies while decorating our tree.
5. Roll out the dough and cut out into your preferred shapes- I used dough cutters in a tree and angel mould but a star shape would be lovely too.
6. Pop onto a non stick baking tray or grease a regular tray, into the oven at 180C/fan 160C/gas mark 4 for 15 mins or until golden brown, remove from the tray and place on a wire rack to cool.
7. Decorate as you wish. I made these for a girly Christmas get together so I decorated each cookie with each lovely lady's name, as you can see below. I used the Dr Oetker icing pen decorating kit, which is really handy. Be warned though- the icing pens will only work if they've been well heated up- I had to put mine in a bowl of just boiled hot water before I could use them, otherwise they won't flow properly and will result in you shaking your fist at the sky and cursing Dr Oetker, whoever he or she may be. 

Mmm. Cookies.

Christmas Tag 2012! Yay!

Yay! Christmas!

The very lovely Aundrea from Dancing With Disaster tagged me to do this really fun Christmas tag, so here goes!:

What’s your favourite thing about Christmas?

There's just way too many things; I love spending the time with family, amazing Christmas dinner, that festive feeling around town with all the lights up and everyone rushing around shopping for gifts, sparkly decorations, Christmas songs (Wham's Last Christmas is my personal favourite, it can be heard on a loop in my house at this time of year while my husband goes slowly insane from having to listen to it. Good times.), seeing friends you haven't met in ages, getting all dressed up for Christmas nights out, and eh, celebrating the birth of the baby Jesus obviously. Ahem.

What’s your favourite makeup look for the season

Smokey eye, false lashes, loads of lipgloss, glittery nails and curly hair! I do love a good solid red lip with gold eyeshadow too.

Real tree or fake tree?

Ah God, I love a real tree, the smell is divine. When I was growing up we always had a real tree so it's a proper happy childhood memory thing. The last few years I've had a mini fake one to save apartment space but this year Hubster and I said we'd buy a decent one- we got a fake 6ft one and a LOAD of tacky Penney's decorations, which we're very excited about putting up this week!

Giving presents or receiving presents?

Giving! I start planning early on what I'm going to get for everyone and make little lists in my phone as I go along..generally I have all of my presents bought by the start of December. Hubster often leaves his 'til Christmas Eve and somehow still always manages to get amazing presents for everyone. No idea how he manages it and yes, I am uber jealous of his present buying skills!

Do you open your presents Christmas morning or evening?

Christmas morning so that everyone can bask in the happy festive glow of presents for the whole day. Also, so that new slippers can be worn throughout the marathon dinner.

Handmade Christmas cards or bought?

Pretty much always bought but I always make sure they're charity cards.

What’s your favourite Christmas movie? 

Elf, It's a Wonderful Life, Love Actually, Home Alone, The Muppet's Christmas Carol, Bad Santa. I love an auld Christmas movie! We're actually going to a screening of Elf in the Lighthouse Cinema next week which should be fun!

I tag Audrey from The Nail Affair and Sarah from RaRa Giggles!

Christmas Gift Guide- Accessories and Sleepwear!

Still stuck for a present idea? Look no further! Pyjamas, sippers, handbags and jewellery- all are ideal gifts for your mum, sister, friends, girlfriend etc. Again, clicking on the description highlighted in grey links you to the website the item is from:

1) Knitted Fairisle Slipper Boots, £12.00, Very.co.uk, warm and inexpensive.
2) & 3) Poppy Pointelle Top, £19.00 and Chrysanthemum PJ Bottoms, £19.00, Monsoon, perfect for wearing all year round- not just for Christmas.
4) Silver Sequin and Chiffon Slip, £65.00, Topshop. Ooh. Pretty.
5) Lace Trim Teddy, £35.00, Topshop. Ditto.
6) & 7) Robin PJ Set, £39.00, Monsoon. Very Christmassy.
8) Slipper Claw Boots, £12.00, Very.co.uk, nothing like a novelty slipper.

9) Ornate Stud Clutch, £35.00, Miss Selfridge.
10) Small Leather Satchel, 252.59 euro, DKNY (Brown Thomas have a fairly amazing selection of DKNY bags at the moment, there's a dark green beauty in there that I have my eye on but I'll be waiting 'til the sales!)
11) Bright Pink Matinee Purse £75.00, Ted Baker (I have one of these purses in gold and it's rather lovely so I can definitely recommend one of these).
12) Beaded Iridescent Clutch, 48.62 euro, Asos.
13)  Personalised Initial Wash Bag, 26.27 euro, notonthehighstreet.com.
14) Cambridge Satchel Company Satchel, 194.46 euro, Asos.
15)  Metal Corner Book Clutch, 34.73 euro, Asos (comes in green too, a very cute and unique item and not too expensive).
16) Lulu Guinness Fifi Dolls Face Clutch, 368.09 euro, Asos. You can't beat a bit of Lulu Guinness but granted this is very pricey..spending the same amount for a large handbag like the one from DKNY is easily better value but it obviously depends on the taste of the recipient too!

17) Michael Kors Rose Gold and Crystal Watch, 331.97 euro, Asos. Michael Kors watches are really popular for a reason- they're very lovely. They are also quite pricey.
18) Jeweled Bunting Necklace, 13.89 euro, Asos. This is so cute and such a great price!
19) What Do You Link Necklace, $43.99, Mod Cloth. This is rather funky but you will be facing a nasty shipping tax if you're ordering outside of the U.S.
20) Soft Mint Faceted Bauble Necklace, $44.00, Pree Brulee. Ditto the shipping tax, but look how pretty!
21) Amethyst and Rose Quartz Cocktail Ring, 91.63 euro, notonthehighstreet.com. This is really beautiful but you need to know the finger size of the person you're buying it for when ordering, which is a bit annoying. Self gift option maybe?!
22) Flower Earrings, 12.00 euro, Oasis. Oasis have lots of beautiful and relatively inexpensive jewellery items at the moment- lots of nice options for stocking fillers or to go with your Christmas party dress.

Christmas Gift Guide- Novelty, Home and Stocking Fillers!!

Novelty gifts- the way to go when you have absolutely no idea what to get for someone, need to get a secret Santa present or have a loved one who eh, loves novelty things (seamless introduction). Some of these would be great as stocking fillers too, such as the fox socks or the owl mirror. Personally though, I wouldn't be getting the likes of the bat keyfob as a stocking filler, even though it is small enough- I know it's super expensive, I just thought it was too cute not to include! I think some of the home stuff would be particularly well received by anyone into their home decor or those who appreciate quirky but completely unnecessary household items *cough, dancing cat speaker, cough*.
Again, clicking on the names of the items highlighted in grey will link you to the websites I found them on.

1) Fox Toe Ankle Socks, £3.50, Topshop.

2) Metallic Ballet Flats, 34.73 Euro, Asos.

3) Hopes, Desires, Quips and Scribbles Notebook, 26.39 euro, Ted Baker.
4) Racoon Hottie, £8.00, Topshop.
5) Paul Smith Bat Keyfob, 62.51 euro, Asos. I know it's stupidly expensive, but look how cute he is!
6) Gold Owl Compact Mirror, 16.67 euro, Asos.

7) Wonder Woman Mug, 2 for 20 euro (in which case I recommend you get the "Queen of F***ing Everything" mug too, I have both and they're both pretty amazing), Urban Outfitters.co.uk.
8) Paddy Fox Cushion, £26.00, Asos. Ridiculously cute and should go fabulously in most homes. The owl version of this is lovely too.
9) Antique Table Mirror, 32 euro, Urban Outfitters. This would be beautiful on any dressing table.
10) Dancing Cat Speaker, 53 euro, Urban Outfitters. You plug your ipod in and you can have this little guy dance away to your favourite song. AMAZING. The possibilities for hilarity with this are endless.
11) Robot Salt and Pepper Set, 14 euro, Urban Outfitters. Kitsch heaven.
12) David Bowie Mug, £5.99, Truffle Shuffle.com. You can't go wrong with a Bowie mug, I always say.
13) Rob Ryan "My Home" Cushion, 53 euro, Urban Outfitters. Famous for his illustrations, especially on his cards, this would make a lovely addition to any home.
14) Upcycled Vintage Pinup Side Plate, 39.41 euro, (cup and saucer also available) Not on the High Street.com. Retro loveliness.