Your easiest luxury Christmas shop ever!

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Have you guys heard of Hello Fresh? They’re an amazing company that sends you boxes full of ingredients every week so you can make gourmet meals from scratch. Forget veggie boxes – this is where its at!

Hello Fresh have come up with a genius idea to take all of the stress out of that Christmas shop this year with their Christmas box! And, you can get £10 off with the code FOODFASHFIT, making it even more tempting! Inside the box are the ingredients you’ll need to put together a delicious meal for 4-6 people, or 8-10 people if you’ve got extended family coming over. It seems like they’ve literally thought of everything!

Included in the box are ingredients to prepare a prawn cocktail starter (my favourite!), plus turkey and all the trimmings, a Christmas pudding – and a cheeseboard! A cheeseboard! Now, that’s Christmas luxury! The food has been sourced from top quality providers, including sausages and bacon from Tom Hixson of Smithfield Market, a free range Copas turkey (which won a Great Taste award), and prawns from James Knight in Mayfair (who holds two Royal Warrants, if you please!).

The prawn cocktail starter is made using delicious tiger prawns, and for the main course there’s a whole host of goodies. For the 4-6 people option, you get a 2.5kg turkey breast, pop-up cooking timer (a Godsend!), cranberry sauce with rosemary, free range Goose fat, sage and onion stuffing with red onion, and gravy with cracked black pepper. You also get pigs in blankets, and a selection of veggies (including red cabbage, sprouts, carrots, and parsnips) to make side dishes like garlic and herb infused Brussels sprouts with toasted pine nuts (recipes included, of course)! Plus, there’s your good old fashioned spuds – which, trust me, will taste amazing with that goose fat! For pudding, there’s another Royal seal of approval from the Christmas pudding makers, Wilkin and Sons, which is accompanied by brandy butter – and you get some mince pies, too.

And, finally, that gourmet cheese board with creamy Wenslydale with cranberries, reblochon, and red Leicester, plus, a variety of crackers.

What, you thought that was it? Nope! This is Christmas, people – time to really push the boat out! You also get some treats to round everything off with – Joe and Steph’s mince pie popcorn, candy canes, Prestat choccies, and table crackers!

I’d say that with all of that, Christmas is pretty much sorted! The Christmas box for 8-10 contains the same products in larger quantities (for example, a whole 5kg Copas turkey instead of a turkey breast). They’re even going to pop in some ideas for the leftovers, too.

The Christmas box costs £155 for 4-6, or £225 for 8-10. But, don’t forget my FOODFASHFIT code, which brings it down by a tenner! You already save up to 35% on the RRP of these items with these economical boxes, and with £10 off, those savings jump even more.

I’ll be testing out a Hello Fresh box or two in the upcoming weeks, so look out for that – and make sure to use that FOODFASHFIT code if you order – its valid on any boxes, even the non-Christmas ones!

Much love for the Powderpuff Girls: my vintage makeover

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I love the vintage look, but I don’t indulge myself very often. See my post on Hush – I work from home, and the postman just isn’t as ready with the compliments as she should be, so I generally slob around with no makeup on, wearing comfy clothes and a dressing gown (actually a Wonder Woman dressing gown – she’s glam, right?).

But when I do go all out, I like to do it properly, and one of my favourite indulgences is a makeover at The Powder Room!

This company offers a selection of reasonably priced beauty and hair services, and I’ve been there twice for makeovers since I found out about them. The first time was for my hen party, and the second was recently, when I had to attend a party for work.

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The salon isn’t that easy to get to on the Tube to be honest, you have to walk about 15-20 minutes from the nearest station, but once you get there it is totally worth it! There’s a lovely atmosphere, cocktails on hand (for £5, not bad!), and everyone is beautiful and happy. Heaven!

When you get your makeover from The Powder Room, they offer you a look book to go through with different hair styles or make up. Both times I’ve chosen the same thing – a pony tail with a quiff, and a cat-eye with red lip for my make up.
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Looks pretty snazzy in front of that Tube sign, doesn’t it? Totally unintentional, but I love it!

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The great thing about this make up is, it lasts so much longer than when I do it – and I can NEVER get my eye liner to flick like that, no matter how hard I try… Sigh. They also use lip liner, which is great – I so need to get one of those. It just makes everything look neater and last longer.

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Here’s a photo of the detail at the back – I’d never be able to get my hair looking like this in a million years… (And this is back at the hotel, after the party, about 12 hours later!)

Has anyone else been to this parlour of perfection? What did you get done? Anyone planning to go in the future? And, has anyone tried the ‘tricks of the trade’ lesson for £60? I would love to try that out!

Visit the boutique’s website here, or check out main site here – they also do events and parties, and they have an online shop as well!

Clarins Odyssey Eye Palette

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One of the hottest beauty products for 2012 is the Clarins Odyssey Eye Palette, four beautiful shades to see you through the festive season! As soon as I saw it, I had to bag one, because I’m a huge fan of blending gold eyeshadow in with a smokey eye during winter, to glam up a classic look for parties. Usually I achieve this with Pixi’s Nude Shade Wardrobe and a tap of MAC golden lemon in the corner of my eye, but I was eager to try something new!

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I had originally wanted to get this from my local John Lewis, but when I walked up to the counter, the Clarins’ lady shook her head ruefully at my enquiry as to the stock – seems like this is a real best-seller!

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It’s not hard to see why – these shades are MADE for the winter party season!

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Adding a touch of glamour and luxury, the palette comes in a pretty little red velvet pouch.

UntitledAlthough I was expecting the case to be metal, it was actually plastic – I guess it’s more practical in the long run and less prone to scratching or denting… The palette itself features a beautiful etched design on gold. Truly a beautiful Christmas item.

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Inside you get four pretty shades – three fairly standard for the ‘smokey eye’ look, and one rather special gold one! There are also two applicators.

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That gold is so complex and beautiful! Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

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I’d heard this had great staying power, but I was still surprised at how smoothly this went on, and how well it stuck to my skin! The shimmer is fantastic, and I cannot wait to try out the smokey eye look with gold featured on the card that came with the set.
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The palette is still available online at Clarins for £30 – but get in there quickly, because this seems to be selling like hotcakes! As an added bonus, if you order from Clarins’ site, you get to pick some free samples with your order – perfect!

Lust List: Hush loungewear for Christmas!

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If there’s one thing I wish I had more of, it’s loungewear. I work from home, so being comfy is my top priority – most days, the only person I’d be likely to impress with my sartorial choices is the postman. My ‘uniform’ mostly consists of a pair of jogging bottoms, a slobby T-shirt, and a dressing gown. So when I saw Hush’s range of luxe loungewear, I fell in love! Well, who wouldn’t?

I already put my order in (whoops!), but while I wait for it to arrive, here are some other items from the range I’m lusting after! The beauty above is the Black Felted Wool Dress (£95), which looks incredibly stylish while promising much cosiness for the winter season. Comfort and style – I love it!

If there’s one thing that has to be on my Christmas gift list this year, it’s this Cardigown. A cardigan crossed with a dressing gown, this is actually exactly the sort of thing I’ve been looking for all these years, without ever really knowing what it was called, or if it even existed! The Cardigown is available here in ‘fog’ (as above) for £85, and is also available in dark navy here. I certainly wouldn’t be embarrassed to open the door to the postman wearing this!

Now, this one might be controversial – I know that before this year, I would have turned my nose up – but harem pants! Don’t turn off your computer in disgust just yet… Harem pants may seem a bit weird looking, but when it comes to loungewear, I promise there are very few styles of trousers that are more comfortable. I first tried some on when I started going to belly dancing classes, and I couldn’t believe I’d allowed myself to overlook them for so long. Forget yoga pants, forget jogging bottoms, these are just the most gloriously comfortable things you can wear on your bottom half, in my opinion at least! My ones are considerably less snazzy than these, as they came from Primark, but I’m sure you’ll agree that Hush’s version is pretty darn stylish. Some harem pants have a really low crotch, and I think that’s what puts people off, but this pair are styled in such a way that you can actually wear them outside the house without fear of ridicule – as the model above so aptly demonstrates! Hush harem pants are available in dark burgundy, as above, charcoal grey, and black, for £49.50.

Last on the Lust List (for today) are these gorgeous star pyjamas! I love the design of these, but I don’t think I’d be comfortable in white PJs (too many spilled tea incidents in my past to relax wearing white, I’m afraid), so I wish Hush would offer some with the reverse design – i.e. white stars on black. Hush have a range of pyjama sets, including the darker set below, priced at £49.50 per set, here.

Hush also offer bundles which give good discounts when you buy sets together, which is a nice touch (and what prompted me to empty my wallet – and I was being so good, too!). Check out the site here, and come back later in the week to find out what I thought of my (first?) delivery!

Halloween spider hat tutorial

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This Halloween, I decided to challenge myself to make part of my outfit. I have a some specific rules about my Halloween costumes – firstly, that I don’t wear wholly pre-packaged outfits. Nothing off the peg for me, thanks! Thirdly, it has to be scary, or based on a Halloween theme. I guess this is pretty European-centric of me, because I know in the US, Halloween isn’t restricted to spooky costumes. But I love spooky things, so I’m always up for dabbing on the fake blood! Thirdly, I try to dress up as a different version of myself – this sounds very weird, but by that I simply mean that instead of dressing up like a specific person or character, I instead try to imagine what I would wear if I was a witch, vampire, or whatever. I’m sure a lot of people do the same thing! Last year I actually broke this rule when I dressed up as Morticia from The Addams Family, but hey – rules are meant to be broken…

As I’ve been doing this Halloween thing for a good many years now (ouch, how old am I?) I’ve already cycled through the obvious candidates – zombie, witch, vampire. So this year I decided to confront my fears head on and go as ARACHNIA! SPIDER WOMAN. Very scary. Mostly, it’s because I had seen these amazing cobweb style hats, and I wanted to wear one… Unfortunately for me, they were all pretty expensive, so I decided to make my own version. Startlingly, I really didn’t need to buy much in order to make this – but then again, that’s because I’m a failed craft nut, who had bought too many supplies and never used them.
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So, here is what you need to make your own cobweb hat! Halloween hat tutorial

Supplies:

  • Sinamay hat base – any colour, round
  • Black felt
  • Pins
  • Wooden skewers
  • Black paint
  • Paint brush
  • Black embroidery thread
  • Needle
  • Hairband
  • Scissors
  • Plastic spiders

Method:

    • Cut your skewers in half – they form the arms of the cobweb. Also, cut off the pointed tipsHalloween hat tutorial
    • Paint your skewers black – you might need several coats of black paint to get rid of all the streaks. This gives them time to dry while you continue with the rest of your project.

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    • Cut your felt a little larger than your hat base, then pin in place.

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    • Sew the felt onto your hat base with the black thread.

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    • Once you’ve covered your hat base with felt, you can either attach the headband now by sewing it on, or wait until you’ve constructed the cobweb. Either way, it can get fiddly! When you want to attach the headband, pin it in place, then use your thread to secure it in two places onto the base.
    • Time to make the cobweb. Your skewers will be arranged in the classic spokes pattern, like this.
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      So, now you sew each spoke onto the hat using your black thread. Sew in two places to make it extra secure – just loop around the skewer, back under, and around again, almost like sewing on a button. You might find your cobweb looks more even if you sew four skewers on at the compass points, then fill in the gaps afterwards. Also, remember to leave a small gap in the middle so that your skewers don’t sit on top of each other. Place a plastic spider on this at the end to hide the gap! Before you add in your final skewer, though, grab your black embroidery thread bundle, and tie the end carefully onto the end of your final skewer. Then sew on as the rest. Tying the thread on at this point will make it less fiddly to attach!
    • This rope demonstrates how to arrange the black embroidery thread onto your spokes to create the classic cobweb effect. Taking your embroidery bundle, weave the thread around the skewers, creating a loop over each stick to keep in place. This is tricky. You need to keep the sticks pulled apart so that the thread stays tight across the loops. Even so, you’ll find that it’s very difficult to keep everything looking tight – but that’s part of the homemade charm, right?

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  • At the end of the sticks, tie your thread off, then trim the end. If you haven’t attached your headband, do so now.
  • For some optional final touches, add in a fake spider in the centre of your web to hide the spokes, and add another, smaller spider dangling from a thread at the front of the hat!

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So, that’s how to create your own cobweb hat! Here’s a slightly better picture of the hat with the spider in the centre!

Halloween hat tutorial

Anyone going to give this a try next year?

A decadent diet dessert

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When you’re on a diet, sometimes all you can think about is what you can’t eat. Sugary treats, cream – desserts in general, really. Low-calorie puddings tend to consist mostly of jellies, fruit, frozen yogurt, or cake bars – which are okay, but not always the sort of thing that sends you to that comforting, cozy, little sugar-high paradise that you seek when you’re feeling deprived. However, it is possible to find some low calorie desserts in the supermarket that definitely taste like a treat, and look like one too – and better yet, they don’t break the bank. I’m talking, of course, about toffee cream meringues! UntitledChocolate, cream, toffee, and a heck of sugar, all for 130 calories? Yes, please! These cost £1.09 for two at Tesco, and you can also buy a similar product from Marks and Spencer (which tastes better – crispier meringue – but naturally, costs more). Since I discovered these, I’ve scoffed my way through one every night for four days, and I’m not sorry at all – they are delicious. Separate the delicious halves of the shell and eat them like buttered toast, with a cup of tea, in front of the telly. The best post-workout snack I know…*

* I don’t know much about post-workout snacks. But hey, toffee cream.

Glitter and glimmer: Effie Trinket’s reaping nails

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I’ve always been a tad lazy when it comes to nail varnish – if you call lazy sticking to plain colours! Nail art and decorations always felt a bit beyond me, but when I saw Effie Trinket’s amazing reaping nails in The Hunger Games, I knew I had to try and replicate it for my Hunger Games party costume! While my finished nails look nothing at all like Ms. Trinket’s, I am actually really pleased with the effect that I came up with – glittery gold over festive fuchsia, just right for the holiday and party season coming up! Glitter and Glimmer nails

To achieve this effect, I layered two coats of Fuchsia Hype nail varnish by Bourjois, and allowed to dry. Then, using a makeup sponge, I patted over bronze Glimmer by Topshop three times – once over the whole nail, second just the top half, and the third time, just the tips – making a graduated effect where the bronze shade was much thicker towards the end of the nail. Then I covered the whole lot with Saffron London’s gold glitter, and finished with a top coat. Honestly, this is probably the most complicated thing I’ve ever done to my nails – but it definitely wasn’t difficult, it just involved a lot of stages and layers. I used to find that my nails took so long to dry if I applied more than one coat, but these days it seems like formulas dry quicker, so it’s not as much of a pain as it used to be…

Anyone else tried to do an Effie on their nails? What did your end results look like? And, if anyone gives this a whirl, let me know!

Kickbox Fastfix: A Review

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If you’re a Jillian fan, or have used her 30 Day Shred or Ripped in 30 videos, you’re probably really used to Jillian’s 3, 2, 1 method, where the circuits are all very structured around strength, cardio and core, and involve a set number of each before circling back around for a second set. This structure is one of my favourite aspects of the workouts – because you always know where you are and what you’re supposed to be working on – but it also means that very often, her workouts can seem stale or samey, as they’re based on the same general principles.

Kickbox Fastfix really throws something new into the mix with kickboxing moves and a new approach to the workouts that left me feeling energised and ready to commit to a new workout style – at least, for a while! There’s a fairly hefty introduction, explaining the form for all of the kickboxing moves, which I reckon could be the downfall of quite a few impatient would-be kickboxers. It’s a little frustrating having to work your way through this tutorial – burning no calories, really – before you can get stuck in with your workout, but you really can’t skip this as you’ll have no idea what’s going on when you eventually begin! I’ve only watched it once, but I managed to pick up the moves easily just from this first run through.

The second point is that you need some body co-ordination to be able to pull this off without a lot of practice. I personally do not consider myself to be the most coordinated person in the world, but I can get the hang of workout sequences and rhythms after a few goes – my husband is not so lucky, and spent a good few minutes of his workout staring at the TV in puzzlement. The sequences can be very long, involving multiple styles of punches and kicks before starting back at the beginning, and I also found that some of them could be simplified rather easily, which made me wonder whether there was a reason Jillian had set them up the way she did to start with. For example, it’s much easier to memorise on the fly ‘jab, jab, hook, hook’ than it is ‘jab, hook, hook, jab’ – and if you’re repeating on a loop, there’s no real difference – or is there? Regardless, I reckon anyone can master these eventually, but it might take a little longer for some people.

I definitely enjoyed this new approach from Jillian – it’s nice to have something in my collection that doesn’t fall back on the old 3, 2, 1 approach, which I can bust out if things are feeling stale. Davina’s kickboxing DVD was always a favourite in our house anyway, so I’m glad I’ve got Jillian’s version, too! The workout consists of three levels, each about 25 minutes long, which means there’s a decent amount of variation – and it’s not too taxing to tack one level onto the next to create a longer workout, either.

Let’s face it, nothing makes you feel more bad-ass than a bit of kickboxing – and Jillian is certainly the queen of fitness bad-assery!

Kickbox Fastfix is currently available in region 1 only, from Amazon.co.uk.