Whaletail Cafe Lancaster

 This Easter weekend I visited Lancaster with my family and we headed straight to Whaletail Cafe for lunch as it's perfect for Vegetarians and Vegans. When we arrived the first thing I saw was the yummy looking cabinet of cakes!

There was so much choice for main courses and all sounded yummy!

The cafe was busy which was lovely and I loved the little touches like the daffodil on the table and the little play area for children.

I went for the Wild Mushroom and Walnut burger with Stilton mayo and it was really yummy, my Dad has this too.

My Mum and Grandma went for the Cashew nut, Aubergine and Lentil Rissoles with yummy salad and they both really enjoyed it.

The only disappointment of the visit was that everything was so yummy that we were too full for cake. However, all four of us shared this delicious Vegan carrot cake. I loved it so much that I asked my Mum to make it for my birthday coming up soon from the Whaletail cookbook which is available to buy. I will definitely be returning when I'm in the area again.

My Christmas Tree

I don't know about anyone else but I'm feeling very festive already this year! I'm eating Christmas Tree shaped crumpets and Stollen bites with my Christmas Spice candle lit. I couldn't resist getting myself a Christmas tree and putting it up. It's actually pretty exciting because It's my first proper Christmas tree in my own flat. I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite finds.

I got the tree and lights from B&Q after much deliberation,

I also got these two 'origami' decorations which I thought were a little bit different. This little santa and snowman are from B&Q too.

Another two of my favourites are these two from Sainsbury's.

Finally, these three are from the range. I like the matte white ceramic of the tree and the snowflake and just thought the heart was adorable.

As you can see I went with a white theme, it wasn't intended but it just happened to be that all the decorations that stood out to me that were a little bit different happened to be white. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I will of course add to it over the next few years.

Alton Towers Scarefest

 

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Me and 3 friends went to Alton Towers on Thursday and stayed in the Splash Landings Hotel for the night meaning that we had two full days in the park.

On Thursday we arrived and after a delay getting into the car park we got on the monorail and took a relaxed attitude, we had a look around at the Halloween pictures and did some picture posing and grabbed some food.

This relaxed start didn't pay off too well on a busy day in half term and we only made it on about 4 rides. We then went to check into the hotel which had a lovely pumpkin display at the entrance. The theme of the hotel and the room was water and the beach, Our room had a beach carpet with sand and sea and my favourite touches were the pineapple lamp and the shaped shower gels. We had a room for four which contained a double bed and then bunk beds which I had kids activity packs on (none of us are children but it was a nice touch).

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After freshening up we headed back into the pack for our pre-booked slot in the Scarefest mazes at 7.45. Unfortunately, the time slot didn't seem to make a difference as we were waiting to get into the first maze 'The Sanctuary' until about half 8. However, Once we were in there it was a scary experience! The theme of the maze was based on the ride 'The Smiler', an institute to correct you and make you permanently happy, it seemed the procedure had its side effects as when we were walking around (with our hands on the shoulders of the person in front of us), we were jumped out at by demented patients who liked to chase us, breathe on us and generally terrify us all. We then moved to the next maze 'Terror of the Towers' but unfortunately were asked to leave a couple of minutes in due to technical difficulties. There didn't seem to be as many actors in this one and we were asked to leave again before the end. We had hoped to get on a ride in the dark before the park closed at 9 but due to delays that wasn't possible and we headed back to the hotel.
The hotel had entertainment available but we chose to retrat to the room and we enjoyed playing with the smart TV.

Friday was an overall much more successful day, we started with the hotel breakfast which had lots of choice and was good. We then checked out and upgraded our park tickets from the previous day for only £6 each, we also recieved a hotel fasttrack ticket for all the popular rides (except smiler).
Keen and earlier than the previous day we got started with our fasttrack which worked out brilliantly, we got on 10 rides before even stopping for lunch. We chose then to queue the 2 hours for the newest and most anticipated 'The Smiler'. I'm so glad to say that I've ridden it as well as all the other big rides but it was so terrifying with it's 14 loops and the two unbelievably high elevations that I have to say I didn't enjoy it as I was just too scared. When it was dark we went on a few more rides and our final and 13th ride was Oblivion in the dark which was much scarier than in daylight, it was nice to see a proposal at the top too!

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Of all the rides I think my favourite was Thirteen which we went on twice, I had also not been on Nemesis- Sub Terra which was very surprising and I got suitably scared at the end when someone jumped out at me. The fasttrack and the success of the friday along with a pleasant night in the hotel made it all a very good experience.

West Midlands Vegan Fest 2014

This weekend my Mum and I took a trip to Wolverhampton for the Vegan Festival 2014.

The first thing I was taken by was that it was a bargain at only £1 to get in, there was two whole floors of stalls, there was also talks and cookery demonstrations but we chose not to go to any. The stalls sold snacks, cold food, clothing and other goods. There was also a seating area with live music and hot food available.

Our plan was to browse all stalls before deciding on what to have for lunch, we then planned to go back for the things that we wanted to buy. This worked well until all this beautiful cake that we saw had sold out, there was lots of other alternatives thankfully!

For lunch we decided on a veggie burger, I had mine with 'cheese'.

We then went to one of the stalls and shared a giant chocolate twist!

Then it was time to go back and buy! Here is our haul:

My favourite stall of all was the Harper's Bizzarre candle stall, there was so much choice but we decided the yummiest was Bakewell Tart, Praline Ice Cream and my Mum bought Jaffa Cake for me, it's amazing! We also bought some recycled glass christmas tree decorations which I loved but they're all wrapped up until decorating time.

yaoh had 'buy one get one free' on everything so my Mum picked up some lip balms and bubble bath, we also both got a free sample of Mimi's Miracle foot scrub.

After tasting a sample we got some chocolate coconut milk from KoKo and we bought two tombola tickets and got some wine and some pickled onions!

We bought some Chicken Soup and Cheese and Onion Ten Acre crisps and then actually picked up some free BBQ and Sweet Chilli ones.

There was a few raw chocolate sellers there but our favourite was Sweet Revolution and we picked up these two bars.

Lastly, something really interesting to taste was the Egg Mayonnaise sandwich filler which was made from pasta and chickpeas, it was pretty good.

Whilst in the mood and in Wolverhampton we popped to Holland and Barratt to pick up a sos roll and some frozen bits.

I'd not tried the Country Pies before and they were really lovely and indulgent on a cold evening. I also really wanted to try the Booja-Booja ice cream as it's only made from water, cashews, agave syrup and cocoa. It was really lovely, I'd say as good as Ben&Jerry's!

The Autumn Tag

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As I'm loving Autumn this year I thought I'd give the Autumn Tag a go.

1) Favourite seasonal drink from a coffee shop?
As I don't drink coffee I go for the seasonal hot chocolates, I like the Costa Black Forest hot chocolate and any Hazelnut hot chocolate. This year I'm looking forward to trying the Salted Caramel hot chocolate at Starbucks.

2) Accessories- Scarves, Boots or Gloves?
I never pull the gloves out intil it's snowing really but I love wearing boots all Autumn and Winter. I also love wrapping up in a scarf so I couldn't choose really.

3) Favourite music in Autumn?
My music choices don't really change by season but Bastille is great for those cosy nights in and nearer Christmas I love Kelly Clarkson's christmas album and Micheal Buble's.

4) Favourite scent of Autumn?
Well again, I stick to my Benefit Carmella perfume all year but the scents I do use more moisturisers/ shower products in the colder months so I tend to smell like Lush Snow Fairy or Cocoa Butter moisturiser.

5)Candles- Favourite scents?
My favourite is always vanilla but I also love christmas spice candles. My current favourite is a Homesense Grapefruit and Champagne jar candle, doesn't sound Autumny but it's great on a cosy evening.

6) What do you love most about Autumn? 
If you hadn't guessed already, Cosy nights in with a blanket, pyjamas, the heating on and candles and lamps lit. It feels even better to be in watching TV when it's raining outside.

7) Favourite Make Up look?
Not much changes for me apart from going for a darker lip and the occasional smokey eye.

8) What are you most looking forward to about Autumn?
Going out and about and putting on my boots, a coat and scarf and picking up one of those seasonal hot chocolates. I love being out in the cold and coming into the warmth for hot drinks and a warm meal.

Feeling Autumnal

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For some reason this year I am so much more excited for Christmas and Autumn than ever and here are some of the things that I love about Autumn-

Pumpkins

Wrapping up in scarves

Wearing my rabbit onesie

New Bambi pyjamas

Soup

Candles

Wrapping up in a blanket

Hot chocolate

Roast dinners

New mug

New coat

Cushions

Wearing boots

Lush baths

Staying in a warm bed in the mornings

Christmas decorations in shops

Lush Christmas

Yesterday was the launch of, for me, one of the most exciting things about Christmas- the Lush Christmas collection 2014 was launched!

Before we get on to that, there is also a Halloween collection which is pretty exciting too. We were talked through the two new oblong bath bombs- The Sparkler and Northern Lights, The Wizard bubble bar and the gorgeous Sparkly Pumpkin and the amazingly shaped Fairy Ring Soap.

Then I took a look at my favourites- the bubble bars. There are lots of gorgeous glittery additions like the christmas pudding and the snow angel which is half bath melt and half fizzer. The cute penguin and candy mountain are back! There is also a cute new hedgehog and the beautiful Star Light Star Bright bath melt (not pictured).

Having said the bubble baths are my favourites it wasn't actually those that took my eye the most this time. As a all time Snow Fairy fan I actually fell in love with the new Hot Toddy shower gel which has a rich spicy scent not unlike mulled wine. Santa's Lip Scrub also caught my eye as it has a more balmy texture than the other lip scrubs, great for the winter months. It also has a great cola taste.

Something else that caught my attention this year that normally wouldn't is the soaps. I rarely used bars of soap but on smelling Yog Nog I was in heaven, the creamy, spicy scent is so beautiful. Snowcake also caught my attention as it looks so beautiful.

On to the bath bombs and fizzers- again, these wouldn't normally catch my attention as I love bubbles and always think they'd be drying. However, Lush fizzers leave the skin feeling so soft that I had to give them a go! Again there are lots of fun christmas additions, many with glitter! The Butterbear was a winner with me as I love the butterball, I also think the Christmas Pud is so intruiging! The Shoot for the Stars bath bomb caught me with it's incredible scent of honey (not pictured).

Lush were great hosts- look at those tasty looking cake pops!

Lush very kindly let us make a Christmas Wish List of 3 products to take away with us. I chose Hot Toddy Shower Gel, Shoot for the Stars Bath Bomb and Santa's Lip Scrub. I also purchased a Butterbear and some Yog Nog Soap.

What do you fancy from the new collection?