It's all about the food.

June is here and summer is here! For those who have finished University for good, a massive well done! Unfortunately for me, this is only a temporary break and I still have three months to go until I finish the course. So I need to cherish this short break and do as much fun stuff as possible, starting off with eating yummy food - Oh yes. 

Shake Shack is a much raved American burger restaurant located within historic market building in Covent Garden (and in Stratford). It is hard to miss with long queues outside. Having said that, when I went with my friend Tania on a Monday afternoon there was no queue so we must have been lucky! 

It took us a while to decided what we wanted (apart from my heart was set on cheese fries) despite their menu being quite simple - they all sounded delicious it's not my fault!

After much consideration, I went for SmokeShack (£7.25), cheese fries (£3.95) and strawberry lemonade (£3). SmokeShack is a cheese burger topped with smoked bacon, chopped cherry peppers and shack sauce. 

SmokeShack, Cheese Fries and Strawberry Lemonade 

Each burger comes with Shake Shack signature sauce 'shack sauce' which adds a little kick to the burger and you can add more of it for £1. I will definitely add the extra sauce next time I go!

Overall, I was happy with the quality of the burger but was little disappointed with how cold the food was. When you order your food, you get given a little buzzer and it lets you know when your burger is ready. When I went to collect mine, I had to wait for couple of minutes until I got my burger even though it was just sat right in front of me - VERY frustrating when you are starving and you are so close to your food! The weather was nice and summery so I chose to sat outside (semi) but there are seats inside too.

Bzzzz the burger is ready! or not?

After we stuffed our face with burgers, it was time for the deserts. Obviously. 

We headed downstairs to this cute cosy creperie called Creme De La Crepe. It's the cutest little place and it's perfect for both savoury and sweet nibbles.  

Each crepe have cheeky names to it, my favourite is Cheap Date (Mars Bar and baileys) why not?

Alongside their regular menu, they also have 'crepe of the month'. We both went for the monthly special Oh my god! with nutella, fresh strawberries, creamy white chocolate and fresh double cream (£5.25). I mean, OH MY GOD. All the crepes are made with order so they are served nice and  warm :) I love this place, if you can't already tell and I will complete all of the crepes one day! 

Oh my god!!

Always with a cuppa!

It is safe to say I had a very successful 'stuff my face day' and will be returning to both places very soon! Has anybody else been to either of the places? 

Here are the links for both places if you are interested :)

ShakeShack: https://www.shakeshack.com/location/london-covent-garden/#full-menu 

Creme De La Crepe: http://cremedelacrepe.co.uk/ 

How to productively procrastinate

First of all, Happy Easter everyone! Surprisingly, I haven't had any eater eggs yet! (If the Easter cupcakes don't count that is...) 

I wish I could sit in front of the TV all day eating Easter eggs and other confectionary, but as a final year university student that is not an option... Well it shouldn't be anyway. 

I'm sure I'm not the only one when I say the procrastination is the worst enemy yet the best friend when you should be doing work. 

While there is lots of articles and buzz-feeds telling you 'how to beat procrastination', I am going to share with you how to I procrastinate productively! I'm sure you all do these things anyway, but hopefully reading this would be your procrastination today ;) 

1) Paint your nails. This is always on my top list of procrastination. I treated to myself to two eassie polishes; Fiji and Sand Tropez. They are both pastel and great colours for spring :) while I paint my nails with those lovely colours, I let my mind take me on imaginary holidays to Fiji and Saint Tropez...

2) Drink tea out of a very big cup. Those who know me, I love my teas; English breakfast tea, Green tea, flavoured tea, basically anything with word tea in it. Because I drink so much a day, I've  been drinking lots of green tea lately as it has much less caffeine than ordinary tea. There is nothing uplifting than having tea in a pretty cup.

3) and while I paint my nails and drink tea, I would always have my candle (or two or three) lit. This pretty salmon pink ceramic candle is from anthropologie and it has a gorgeous red berry scent. Candles are so therapeutic and relaxing. 

4) reading books. I enjoy reading a lot, and when I start I struggle to put them down. So reading is a big no no when I'm studying. Easy reading books with lots of pictures are more suitable for procrastinating in my opinion. This beautiful book about flat shoes is right up my street (I really struggle to walk in heels!).  

5) Organsing diary. I could sit there all day flicking through my rather empty diary (isn't it pretty?), and think of something to do to fill up my diary - even if that meant I'm planning a day to do uni work, DAMN IT. 

6) Last but not least - having bubble bath. This is my all time favourite thing to do. A bit of pampering can never do you any harm! This bunch of carrots is a lush way of creating bubbles in your bath this Easter :) it's re-useable and all you have to do is to swirl them around in the bath! It had very refreshing citrusy scent, containing lemon and grapefruit oils; and many other natural ingredients :) 

There you have it, 6 steps of how to procrastinate productively! Or you could just call it an unproductive study day! My message would be... If you are going to procrastinate, do it properly. 

I would love to know what people do to procastinate when they should be working ;) 

Brunching kind of a day

My friend Charlotte and I went for a spot of brunch the other day, and some delicious cup cakes!!, so I'm here to share it ;)

We went to Primrose Hill, which is 5-8minutes away from the Chalk Farm station on Northern line. 

First we went to a cafe called Greenburry Cafe, which has a cute bike with basket parked outside its cafe. 

They serve breakfast until mid afternoon, as well as lunch and they all sounded delicious!

As neither of us had any lunch, we both opted for the breakfast. Ta-dah!

You get 2 eggs, a sassuage, portobello mushrooms, few rashes of bacon and roared tomatoes all on sourdough toast for £10.55. It was just the right amount for both of us. We went there just before 14:00 o'clock but the place was packed with no where to sit inside, so we sat outside. The staff were very friendly and they didn't forget about us sat outside when it was quite busy inside. If you are going as a group, I recommend you to book a table :) here is the link to the cafe where you can check out the menu and decide what to have before you get there ;) I cannot wait to visit there again and try something else! 

http://greenberrycafe.co.uk/

After we filled out tummies with savoury yummieness, it was time to get something sweet to balance it out. We went to the bakery called Sweet Things, which is few minutes walk down the road from the Greenberrry Cafe. It's a cute cosy bakery with amazing cupcakes. The whole shop filled with the smell of freshly baked cupcakes and it was juts gorgeous. 

There were too many delicious looking cupcakes and I could not settle for one so.... 

Got myself a platter of six min cupcakes - PROBLEM SOLVED. They were all very delicate with detailed decoration. I opted for, Easter chocolate cupcake, Oreo, Strawberry Cheesecake, Toblerone, Malteser and Salted Carmel (in clock wise direction from the cupcake with Easter egg on top). HEAVEN ON EARTH.  They were all incredible. It was £12.65 for this platter, which I think is a little pricy for cupcakes. Next time i'll just get one normal size ;) 

They take orders for celebration cakes, and do cupcake classes so if you are interested, check out the link. 

http://www.sweetthings.biz/the-shop-bakery

I had a lovely day with my stomach filled with satisfaction! Cannot wait to discover many more of hidden gems in London :) Does anyone have any suggestions? 

Ideas for handmade Christmas gifts

It's I hope you all have had a very merry Christmas :)! Now Christmas is over, and for those who are thinking about next year's Christmas (363days to go guys!) I'm going to share with you what I did for gifts this year!

I hand made (more like decorated) Snowman mugs and Christmas decorations out of felts and I'm going to show you how I did them because they are super easy to do! 

First of all the mugs. I went and got myself coup of plain mugs from John Lewis. They don't have to be from John knows, as long as they are plain and you can decorate on them any mugs will do. 

Decide what design you want to decorate your mugs with - this will help you decide what colour pens to get :)

Then I bought some porcelain painter pens from hobby craft to decorate my mugs! They sell glass painter pen in the same package so make sure you buy the right one! Alternatively, a lot of people use sharpie pens to decorate so you can use them too :) it is recommended to use oil base sharpie but I couldn't find any! 

I decided to decorate mine with snowman, as it's christmassy enough but you can use it throughout the season with the frozen hype and all ;) 

I gave it little arms for hugs too ;)

As I am a tea lover, so I drew tea bag tag at the back :) also I added my friends name at the bottom to make it more personal. 

Once I have decorated the mug, I left it to dry for four hours before baking it in the oven (160C*) for 30 minutes as instructed. Depending on the colour you use, the instruction may vary. I bought an orange pen to do the nose but this pen didn't need any baking :)  after 30 minutes, leave the mugs in the oven to cool down with oven to prevent suddenly cooling and cracking. 

And there you have it! Personalised snowman mug! I think this is a such cute and creative idea for gifts you can give in any occasion, not just christmas :) 

For the second half of my present, I made felt Christmas decorations to put into the mug. These are very easy to make too and I'll give you step by step guide of how to do the style of stiching I used, called blanket stitch. 

I chose gingerbreadman and reindeer as my two decorations, and I looked for ideal shapes online to use as my templates. 

I bought my felts from hobby craft , 50p each sheet (12x9) 

I managed to make four reindeers from once sheet, and four gingerbreadmen from one sheet too. You need two exact pair to make one whole one, and make sure to decorate the face etc before you sew both of them together. 

Once you have sewed halfway through, Insert ribbon at the top so you can hang them :) carry on sewing but leave a small gap in the end to stuff it with cotton. 

I have used blanket stitch to sew them together, and here is a step by step guide !

Create a starting point. Have both parts together, but only put a needle through the top sheet. 

Once that's through, go through the bottom sheet, making sure it goes through the same point as the top sheet. 

Before you pull the thread tightly, put a needle through in a loop to create a secure starting point. 

Then pull tight! - here you have the starting point. 

Once you have a point, go through both sheets together like so,

And put a thread behind the needle before you pull it tight. 

Carry on using the same technique, and it will start to look like this!

It's important to keep the same distance between each point. 

When I finished, I wrapped it in a cellophane bag with a candycane :) this cellophane bag came with the ribbon as it's supposed to be cake pop bags but it worked out quite nicely :) 

Put this little bag inside the mug and there you have it! I am looking forward to playing with my porcelain pens and be creative! 

Did anyone else give handmade gifts this year? 

THE BIG EASY Lunching

I have heard many good reviews about THE BIG EASY before, and I've been wanting to try ever since I walked past it by chance.

The big easy is an American Bar.B.Q Lobstershack that also has a bar inside! 

There is one in Covent Garden which I went to, and another one in Kings Road.  The place is located in one of the side roads in Covent Garden so you cannot spot it straight away, but once you are on the right road, it is hard to miss with its red 'big' sign!

As soon as I walked in, I was greeted by very friendly staff and cosy interior, both made me feel very welcome :)  I didn't book a table, as it was just two of us and lunch time but I recommend you to book a table if you are going as a group! It started to get very busy within 30 minutes of being there. 

Pretty much everyone there was indulging in their lobster shack ( did some stalking and peeking) so I was determined to get mine! Everything on the menu sounded heavenly that I took me a while to decide! 

I was feeling greedy and wanted some starters as well as the main, and I spotted this Lunch, pre theatre & late night menu for £10 and was surprised by the generous pricing and what was included in, and so I went for it. For £10, You could get a starter and a main or a main and a desert with a free drink of your choice!
I opted for crispy calamari for a starter and lobster roll and fries for main and strawberry daiquiri , because why not?!

Strawberry Daiquiri

Crispy Calamari 

Lobster roll and fries 

They also have an incredible bar with variety of drinks, I would love to come back here for drinks as well!

The impressive bar 

I will definitely be coming back here to taste this again, and to try out the lobster shack, which appeared to be the most popular one! I would recommend this place to anyone looking for a new place to try out or to anyone really!

They are now taking bookings for new years eve as well :) 

http://bigeasy.co.uk/#home

Has anyone been there before? or have any recommendations? 

Hallowe'ening

This year, I decided to go all out celebrating halloween, as this is a last halloween as a student - just scared myslelf there. 

I started with painting my nails in spirit of Halloween. I used Leighton Denny Colour & Go Monochrome to paint my nails black as a base. I then used Barry M's white nail art pen to draw lines and Jack's face from Christmas before nightmare. I used Essie's all in one base as a topcoat. 

I managed to do my left hand on my own but asked my friend Neelam to the other and she's done a great job! 

We were both proud of our end product and I took a photo with Jack's mug at the end! 

This put me in a very Halloweeny mood, so I proceeded with next thing on my Halloween to do list - pumpkin carving! 

I cannot remember the last time I carved a pumpkin, but I remember it not going so well.  I thought it was only fair for me to follow the theme and carve Jack's face on the pumpkin too, but didn't realise how difficult might that be and until I stabbed a knife through the pumpkin. 

I did the lid in a zig zag star shape to make it more prettier which was quite challenging to do for me. 

Then I had to scoop out the inside and it smelled really bad. 

Instead of making pumpkin soup or pie, I threw the inside away in the bin. I just couldn't see myself doing anything with it to be honest with you! 

Then I drew the face on with a biro to guide me when cutting the face out. 

To minimise the mess, I wore a bin bag on my legs to crave to face, shame I didn't take photo of that... 

Here is the end product! Mine is on the right, and Neelam did the one on the left. 

After this was complete, we had one more thing to do. Dress up for Halloween. I dressed up as a zombie house maid with half Mexican Skelton make up (credit to Neelam) 

I burrowed a simple black dress from my friend, and with her permission, I sewed on the apron and the collars , which you can't really see in the photo. I even made the little maid headban as well! I feel that I have put a lot of effort into it and I had a great fun because of that. 

Deciding what to wear and the makeup was definitely my favourite part of the Halloween and I cannot wait for the next year! 

I hope I have given some ideas to people for Halloween :)

What did everyone dress up as? Did you go trick or treating?