Banana Buns | Fairy's Tales

Today I am: 32 Weeks

I thought I'd do a bit of a different post today. I haven't always got something pregnancy related to update you all on and I do have other interests. When I created the blog I didn't even know I was pregnant and I was just going to blog my stories of moving to a new city; obviously when I found out I was pregnant I thought it would also be a good place to share those stories too but I never intended for it to be purely bump related!

I love baking, and whilst in Brighton for my birthday weekend we went into a little homeware shop that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of...Burt's possibly?! It had loads of gorgeous homewear bits and they were all reasonably priced! I've been looking at buying a bun tray for a good while but every one that I've seen is close to a tenner which is just ridiculous! I managed to get one in Brighton for £3.99 - bargain. I also got 100 bun cases for £1.99 and a tin to keep them all fresh in; so I was looking for a reason to get my bake on! I couldn't let them sit in the cupboard getting dusty.

I love Banana cake, it's one of my favourite cakes that my mum makes and what with the weather being so warm it's getting harder and harder to keep bananas fresh. They're ripening much too quickly so what better way to eat them? In cake, of course! 

I use an app called "Cook" which is a free app where you can upload your own recipes either privately or share them publically with other Cook users. You can find anything on there, simply by downloading the "recipe books" by catergory eg: British, Baking, Desserts, or you can search for a specific ingredient or recipe. It's a great tool to use although some of the recipes you would need to convert measurements or temperatures but that's nothing a quick google search can't do!

Banana cakes aren't difficult to make, it's just a basic sponge mixture with a few over ripe bananas chucked in but I always like to follow some sort of receipe to make sure the measures are going to work! Here's the recipe I used for my buns.

I intened on making a toffee buttercream icing to go on top but I couldn't find any toffee sauce in Lidl which was annoying. I did however add a bunch of white and milk chocolate chips to half of the mixture for a bit of added je ne sai quoi! It says that this recipe is enough for 12, but I had a lot of mixturre left over so after the first 12 came out of the oven (the tray only holds 12 cases) I popped an extra 4 in! So I'm left with 8 plain banana and 8 chocolate chips! My OCD for even numbers is very happy with that!

The only thing left to do now is wait for the fiancée to come home and tuck in! Oh and the dreaded dishes of course!

What are your favourite cakes to bake? Leave me a comment and let me know!

A Birthday in Brighton | Fairy's Tales

It was my birthday on Thursday 17th July; it was also the first birthday I celerated without my parents! Lee and I ventured down to Plymouth on the 12th to have a little get together with my family, though it's not quite the same as it being on your actual birthday. My sister and niece came up to visit me on Thursday as I was going to be on my own as Lee was at work and we headed into Bristol. We didn't get up to anything exciting but it was a nice day and I got to get lots of cuddles and kisses from my favourite 1 year old. 

Friday was the day though, we (Lee and I) headed to Brighton for the weekend! Neither of us had been to Brighton and all week we were checking the weather forecast which looked gloomy! Luckily someone must have been looking down on us and we only encoutered light rain on the Saturday, the rest was glorious sunshine and heat! We stayed in a lovely boutique guest house called Fab Guest on Charlotte Street, a short walk away from the pier. The room was lovely, though very warm. With an en suite wet room with added ambience from the LED lights - there was supposed to be some way you could play with the lights by downloading an app, however we tried and couldn't get it working. Never mind.

The guest house was full of quote art work like these two that were above our bed.

I especially loved that there were 'F' mongrams everywhere too - it made it feel like it was especially for me, haha! Friday night we had tickets booked (courtesy of mummy) to go to the Komedia Krater Komedy night, neither of us knew what to expect but we were both pleasently surprised! Although the place we chose to sit in was definitely not suitable for someone who's 7 months pregnant, I honestly can say I have never laughed so much in one night! There were 3 comedians, 4 including the compare and there wasn't an awkward silence all night! It was such a great night, and it was really good to discover amazing comedians that aren't plastered all over the panel shows on BBC1 but that are still incredibly talented. If you live anywhere near Brighton or you're planning a visit I would definitely recommend attending one of their comedy nights!

Saturday morning we headed for Bill's - I'd made reservations, and thank god I did! It was so busy, but the food didn't take too long to arrive thankfully, because we were both starving. We both went for the Bill's Breakfast which was really lovely, although there were 2 fried eggs each, and I can't eat runny yolk so Lee got 4! We both opted for beans to go with the breakfast; who even has a full English withough beans?! The beans however, were an extra £1 which I wasn't too pleased about. I'll let them off though, because they do the worlds largest pots of tea! £1.95 for this huge pot and it was all for me!! I got three cups out of it and there was easily another 2-3 cups left in the pot, I obviously could in no way have finished the lot. It was really good tea though, I'd love to know where they get their tea bags from..maybe I could buy some from them!

We had a walk around some cute little independant shops where I bought some cute little homeware bits and pieces with my birthday money. You know you're getting old when you spend birthday money on kitchen and bakeware! We then found our way to the highstreet shops and shopping centre where we found some baby bargains in the Next sale - we hadnt realised the sale had started on Saturday, if we had we would have got there earlier, but we managed to get some nice things. Including a red and white t-shirt that says "GOAL" on the front in age 12-18 months for Lee as it's Bristol City colours - although if it's Bristol City maybe "GOAL" isn't really applicable ;)

My feet started to ache after that so we headed back to the hotel, via the beach where I had to rest for a bit. We had fun throwing little pebbles and trying to get them to bounce off a bigger one. It sounds sad but we're so competitive with each other it was hilarious! When we arrived back at the hotel we found a card, some fudge and a bunch of roses for my birthday! Lee had told them that we were celebrating my birthday weekend so this was really lovely of them.

Lee and I love the 2p slot machines, in fact it's a problem. If ever we come across an arcade we have to go in, Brighton Pier was no exception! On the Friday we arrived we popped in and managed to win a little telephone box and taxi from the 2p machines! We got so caught up in trying to get the damned things out I think we used £3 worth of 2ps! Haha. Then on Sunday, our last day, we decided we'd go for the tickets to try and win something! We managed to get 153 tickets and won a Monsters Inc mug...we won't go into how much we spent there but it was fun and that's all that matters. 

This has been such a long post and I'm sure I've missed out loads but I hope you enjoyed reading! Speak soon

Summer Coolers | Maternity Clothes | Fairy's Tales

Today I am 28+2 weeks

I was going to do this post on Wednesday, but after an accident with a hot chocolate last week and one of the dresses I had to wait for it to come back from my mother-in-law! Luckily the stain is pretty much almost out, good enough to wear and hopefully after a few more washes it'll be all gone! Yay.

Anyway, these are just a few pieces that I've been wearing since the weather has been warm(er) and currently all but one of these items are now in the ASOS sale! 

First up is this lilac skater dress with a pocket. It's a speckled material which I couldn't quite capture in the photos. I'm not usual a fan of high necked anything because it's just not flattering on my boobs, but with the slight round neck it isn't too high and I really like it. I bought a size 10 which is a little looser than I would like, but with my ever expanding belly at least I know it will last me all summer long. It was £25 but is now currently £12 in the sale and comes in 2 colours! (Link)

This is said "hot chocolate dress" absolute disaster! Luckily for me it was the very last dregs of the cup! I was just about to throw the cup in the bin and was slurping the last sip and it went everywhere! All the way down the dress. Horrific! Thankfully my mum had a hoody with her that she wasn't wearing so I chucked that on top and hid away from the world! Again I bought this in a size 10 which is a bit big on me. I thought this dress was going to be very similar to my Elephant Print dress, however the material of this one is much lighter and more flowy (is flowy even a real word?). It's also higher in the back with a sweetheart neckline. There is a double insert over the boobs which you can just about see in the pictures, doesn't quite reach the bottom of mine! It sits just under my nipples, but that's not a dress fault. This dress was originally £20 - comes in 4 different colours and now starts from £10! Absolute bargain, I'm tempted to buy all the colours! (Link)

Lastly is this combination. I bought this red stripe dress from Primark quite a while ago. When I bought it I could wear it as a dress by it's self (it's not maternity so there's not much give in the material) but as my bump has got bigger I've been pairing it with these scalloped edge linen shorts. These are so comfortable with an under bump maternity band in a silky material so it's really lovely and soft! Although the shorts in black are still full price on the website the same shorts in white are £10! I originally wanted the white pair anyway but thought better of it. If the hot chocolate episode was bad, who knows what would have happened with bright white shorts! (Link Black Link White)

I hope you enjoyed this and it gave you some sort of inspiration of how to keep a little cooler in these summer months!

Speak soon, 

Fai x 

Bump Update | Fairy's Tales

I see these little question bump update things everywhere; the first I saw of this kind was on Anna Saccone's blog. I think all the questions are the same with all of the blogs circulating so if you have one be sure to leave me a link, I'd love to read them :)

How far along: 27 weeks today 

Total weight gain: I've not weighed myself/been weighed since my 12 week scan so I have no idea. I don't feel like I've got bigger anywhere other than boobs and bump though.

Stretch marks: Not currently. I've been slack with the oil and moisturiser though, I'm sure it'll happen at some point

Best moments this week: Not anything baby related but on Saturday me and Lee took a trip to Lyme Regis - a seaside town that my family used to visit all the time as I was growing up. It'd probably been 10 or more years since I last went there. The weather was lush and we had fish and chips 

Miss anything?: Not really. I didn't drink before getting pregnant nor was I going out every weekend. Life is pretty much the exact same as it was. I've been incredibly lucky 
Movement: Quite a lot. I've had my whole arm kicked off my belly whilst I was resting it on top. I experienced some mental movements the other day, I think he was having a rave! It was ridiculous

Gender: Won't know until s/he's here! Yay 

Labor signs: I hope not. 

Symptoms: I've been so lucky the whole way through this pregnancy. Lee and I were talking about it on Saturday when I was telling him I just don't feel too hot and every pregnant woman I know is moaning about the weather! He said "The only symptom you've had is getting a bump" and he's kind of right! I don't want to be all cocky about it, anything could happen. And an easy pregnancy doesn't neccisarily mean an easy labour!

How do you feel?: I feel fine. Not experienced any crazy up and down hormones or mood swings - if anything I've been more calm and collected whilst pregnant than I ever was before!

Belly button in or out: Neither, it's just completely flat most of the time!

Wedding ring on or off: Well, we're not married yet, but the engagement ring is on still, as are all the rest of them! 

E.L.F haul | Fairy's Tales

Today I am: 26 weeks 

Hi everyone, bit of a different post today. I had a bit of a splurge on elf (eyes lips face) makeup. I bought a brush belt from them years ago and still receive emails from them about their offers and such and so I took advantage of 50% off all their makeup! As you can see I got quite the box full and including P&P it came to under £20!

I've not used their makeup before but there were a few things I was desperately after and would have bought from other brands, but with 50% off I thought I might as well give their products a try. 

This is my haul: Mineral Infused Face Primer - £6.95, Blush Pink Passion - £3.95, Daily Brush Cleaner - £3.95, Studio Makeup Mist & Set - £3.95, Studio Matte Lip Colour Rich Red - £3.95, Baked a Eyeshadow Palette Texas - £10.00 (all those prices are the full price - as I say I got 50%)

The main thing I was after was a primer, brush cleanser for spot cleaning and a makeup setting spray. 

I must say I am incredibly impressed with the brush cleaner, it comes in a 60ml bottle, so not the biggest one on the market but it really does the job. I have gotten sooo lazy when it comes to cleaning my brushes, I never used to spot clean them but would always deep clean with fairy liquid but water bills are expensive and I feel that if I can spot clean them daily then a deep clean isn't needed as often. It is anti-bacterial too so not only is it getting the residue of products off the brush it is helping to keep the nasty bugs that live on your brushes at bay. It also smells really lovely.

The primer I'm still not 100% convinced on yet! I have dry skin but for some reason no matter what I do makeup slides off my face. A lot of people with dehydrated skin or dry skin find that their makeup sinks into the skin throughout the day, mine just wipes clean off with the slightest touch! It's annoying for me, and it's annoying for the fiancée because he will undoubtedly get some form of transfer of my face onto his, or his clothes! Also because I'm so pale it looks like he's forgot to rub in his moisturiser, it's pure white on him! I don't feel that the primer necessarily helps the foundation stay on my skin and it feels a little slimy when first applied, but if left to sink into your skin before putting your makeup on it does leave your skin with a nice soft feel. The down side is if you don't give it time to soak into your face it makes the foundation application really streaky...we'll have to wait this one out a little longer to see my full verdict.

The makeup setting mist...oh dear, well first things first it stinks, I don't know quite what it smells of. Apparently it has Aloe, Green Tea, Cucumber and vitamins A,C & E in it. I think maybe it's the green tea that makes it so potent; or it could be my pregnant sense of smell. It also tastes really vile so, when applying hold your breath and avoid the lip area! I made this mistake the first time I sprayed it, it went on my lips and so I got a good old taste of it which lingered for quite some time. Like the primer, I'm not 100% convinced that this is helping my makeup last any longer, so I will give it a little bit more time. It is nice and refreshing though and I think you could use it through out the day if you're one of those people whose complexion gets a bit dull as the hours go by.

The most disappointing product of the lot is the eyeshadow palette. When I opened it I was in awe 

The colours look incredible, especially the top 3 on the right, lovely lilac pink and 2 rose gold shades, and when swatched they looked really promising

But to get any colour pay off you have to use your fingers, they are hopeless if you try and use a brush. As you can probably see the amount of dust all over the palette in the first picture, that is purely from just trying to get any amount of product onto a brush. Because they looked so pigmented at first I used a MAC 217 to apply the light champagne base colour but there was nothing happening. I've used them with and without a primer underneath and I've used a MAC 239 to try and pack the colour on, and still to no avail. Dipping your finger in and patting it onto the eye is the only way to get the lighter shades to show up and with the darker crease shaded you have to do the same to get the impact of colour and then blend with a 217 or 224 to buff the edges and create a nicer shape. I am so gutted about this, I'm just glad I didn't splurge a whole £10 on it! I much prefer my old trusty MUA palette (which unfortunately is hitting pan - hence this purchase)

All is not lost however the pink blush is really nice, although it is more matte than what I was expecting. On the website it looked as if it was going to have a shimmer through it, but it is a nice colour, if a little powdery, and transfers nicely onto the cheeks. I use my Real Techniques "blush brush" to apply 

But the piece de résistance is the Matte Lip Colour in Rich Red! Holy moly, this is gorgeous! As with most red lip colours it comes out on my lips as a slightly fuchsia-esque colour (I have highly pigmented lips and each lip colour looks different on different skin tones, for others it may be more of a true red) but this is so gorgeous. It comes in a wind up pencil, akin to those Revlon lip crayons (I forget their name) however it is on the smaller side, which for a shade this bright is probably an advantage as you can get right into the corners and draw a really lovely Cupid's bow, however with the more neutral shades I feel it might be a bit of a faff as it would probably take much longer than necessary to apply. It gives a semi-matte finish to start with and then dulls down into a true matte shade. You can see it freshly applied in this photo.

I must admit I did apply a lipgloss over the top which was a bit of a mistake as it started to bleed after an hour or two. That and I couldn't really test the lasting power properly because the gloss made it slip so it came off when I was eating and drinking. I will definitely update you on this lip product though because I absolutely love it!

You can purchase these products from www.eyeslipsface.co.uk. All these products were bought with my own money, I am not being paid or sponsored to review these products 

Thanks for reading, hope it wasn't too long and boring.

Until next week! 

Fai x 

My Favourite Baby-Buys | Fairy's Tales

Today I am: 25 weeks

What a surprise, it's been another hiatus - last week I was on holiday, and whilst the thought of writing a post on my phone was there, the signal was terrible and my phone battery lasted about 3 hours before it needed to be charged!

Today I thought I would share with you some of my most favourite baby buys that we've picked up. As we don't know what we're having obviously all of this is unisex.  It's been a nightmare trying to find unisex clothes, and a lot of the time me and Lee skip to the boys section because you can find a lot of stuff in the baby boy department that really could suit anyone! I'm also not a baby pink fan at all, so even if we found out that we were having a girl I would have stayed clear from that anyway!


First up is my MOST favourite piece we've bought  I don't know why I love this so much but I find myself looking at it all the time, I just can't help it; the little characters are so cute and I really like the black and white monsters - aahh they're the cutest!!

 

 

 

Sleeping bag - TK Maxx £12.99

 

Secondly is this little 2 set from Mothercare - annoyingly I prefer the Daddy suit to the Mummy one but hey, beggars can't be choosers! These photos are true to colour, if you follow the link here the photos do not do it justice at all! I can't remember what size we bought this in, it's either newborn or first size. Different shops call it different things, all I know is that it says up to 10lbs - so we should hopefully get a good wear out of them...although if the baby is anything like me (I was almost 10lb born) we might not get any wear! I still love the colours though. Beautiful

Primark

These bibs are a little bit girly, but I saw the cow print on on a hanger by itself in Primark and I wanted it immediately, unfortunately they came in a pack of three with the black and white leopard print and the pink...whatever that is...tiger I assume? When I was taking photographs of these I took them off their little hanger and it looks like I got a bargain without even realising! The price sticker said £3 but there was a faint red line through it and a solitary 1 next to it...so maybe I got them for a pound? Who knows, it was ages ago and I doubt we still have the receipt for them! We did also buy some of the same bandanna style bibs in stars and stripes with red white a blue, thankfully they won't be worn together so it won't look like we're pledging allegiance to another nation's flag!

Up To Seven

This was a gift from my Mummy, whilst we were on holiday last week we made a trip into Bath (a little tip for if you visit Bath; don't go into town before 10am because nothing will be open) we walked past a lovely little shop with the cutest little knitted strawberry hats in the window, it was closed when we walked past first but we made sure to go back there. It's a little independent shop called Up To Seven, selling handmade and organic clothing. There were some gorgeous pieces in there, and I chose the hat because we've been really struggling to find little hats and then mum treated me to the babygrow too. I love the colours and the pattern in this, it's definitely something a baby of either sex could wear.

3 set - TK Maxx £4.99

 We have a lot of animal and jungle themed items in our stash but we couldn't pass up on this. This was found in the boy section of TK Maxx and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to get it, just for the monkey on the front of one. This is in 6-9 months so we'll have a while until baby can wear it but I couldn't leave it in the shop! I call Lee "Monkey", I don't know why, or even where it came from to be honest but I just do, so we've sort of been calling the baby "Monkey" as well. For £4.99 I thought this was a steal! The other 2 pieces are just plain, with a bright green and then a stripey one, the front one is the only romper with an applique on it.

And last but not least, let's end with a piece for Mummy!

ASOS

 I bought this dress from the maternity range for £17.50 - it's currently only available in a size 8, but they do EXACTLY the same dress in their standard range here and the Curve range here so you've got plenty of choice! I love this dress, it's such a sturdy thick jersey material and it holds it's shape really nicely. I assume there may be a little bit more material in the maternity version of the dress but if you really like it a size up in the "normal" dress would work too!

Bump at 25 weeks

Channelling my inner Marilyn here ;)


Thanks for reading! Speak to you soon!

Water Baby 'Bloom' Pregnancy Drink | Fairy's Tales

Today I am: 22 weeks 

It you're anything like me, remembering to take your vitamins is a bit hit and miss! I was really good with it up to 12 weeks, I started taking Pregnacare vitamins as soon as I got the positive on the pregnancy test but they really upset my stomach...I won't go into detail! I later learned that my sister started taking them and it made her really sick too. I've read that some vitamins aimed at pregnant ladies can contain laxatives to ease the symptoms of constipation, so althought there are benefits of the extra vitamins they may also have some other things your body certainly won't benefit from. Especially in my case as I haven't really suffered from constipation at all!

In my pre-booking in session at my first midwife clinic they actually supplied us with a multi-vitamin free on the NHS which I took every day up until 12 weeks and then a few wees after until the pot was finished. Although the guidelines say that it is most important to take Folic Acid in the first 12 weeks, of course you can carry on taking them as long as you want. It's believed that Folic Acid actually helps with mood swings and acne, in fact I used to take Folic Acid tablets way before I was pregnant.

But as I say, sometimes remembering to take that little tablet slips your mind completely; so when I saw this drink in a little Goodybag aimed at mummy's to be (that my sister kindly gave to me as she's already a mummy and didn't really need anything from it) I was really intrigued! 

We all know that getting enough hydration is important to us pregos too so this is the added bonus of making sure you're drinking and getting all your Folic Acid needs and other vitamins and minerals too. 

This drink was Cranberry flavoured, when I opened the bottle it smelt divine! It smelt so fruity and summery, however the taste did not live up to the smell. My sister suggested that maybe the lack of taste may be to prevent any reaction in ladies suffering from morning sickness. It didn't taste awful; in fact it didn't really taste of much, just like a weak juice. If you like weak juice you may enjoy it more than I did but I'm a half cup of squash to half cup of water girl! They do do a Citrus flavour too which I would love to try as I am a great lover of citrus drinks as opposed to berries so it would be interesting to see what the flavour pay off would be like with that! 

All in all though, I think this is an amazing product, the flavours could be enhanced but I think that May just be down to personal preference. In fact it won the LBP (Loved By Parents) award for Best Maternity Innovation 2013 so I can't be the only one thinking this is a great product. 

You can find out more information on their website www.mywaterbaby.com and where to purchase!

*I received this product in a Goodybag, I am not being paid to review this product I just wanted to let people know it existed*