AUTUMN TAG

I love autumn, not as much as winter, but autumn is still great and everything is pretty. I saw this Autumn Tag on someone's blog and thought it was such a great idea that I would copy it, basically... (I have edited some of the questions to make it easier for my English ways).

1. Favourite autumn lip product?
As everyone knows I am a self confessed lip balm addict and I get super dry lips all your round but especially in autumn/ winter time I obviously have a million lip balms on the go at one time but my favourite at the moment is obviously Burt's Bees because that is the best and it can be worn under lip gloss or lip stick to stop your lips drying out; dark coloured lip sticks are also perfect for this time of year, the one  I am currently using is the Intense Colour Lipstick in Infatuated (Shade 7) by Accessorize which I bought on a super-quick Superdrugs dash for Halloween but I have completely fallen in love with it as it is the nicest colour EVER and I want to wear it 24/7 (I will write a full review later at some point in the near distant future).

It looks more burgundy in the tube but actually comes out as quite a brightish purple colour

2. Favourite autumn nail polish?
Any dark red is a perfect autumn colour and this year I have gone for the Barry M Matte Nail Paint in Burgundy Crush; dark purples, dark reds and greys work well in autumn. I really like matte top coats all year round as well and they work with any colour.

3. Favourite autumn drink?
It has got to be either the cinnamon or gingerbread latte from Costa- very autumn/ wintery flavours (I like Costa A LOT I go there far to much and my Costa points card is not a valid excuse to go there so much).

4. Favourite autumn candle?
Yankee Candle Spiced Orange- I absolutely love this, the orange and clove scents are perfect together; I don't actually own this candle as the scent can get really strong after a while but it smells amazing in the jar.

5. Favourite autumn accessory?
My current favourite necklace is my Orange Calcite necklace which 'aids learning, study, memory and increases energy' as it goes with everything and I do believe that stones have powers; my father calls it the 'Stone of Education' because he thinks he is funny.

6. Favourite autumn clothing item?
This isn't really an autumn-specific clothing item but I am really loving my lace top from Topshop as it has the cutest little collar and looks amazing under any and every jumper.

7. Favourite seasonal movie?
I can't think of any autumn movies apart from Halloween ones but every year my friends and I have the Halloween sleepover where we basically just eat a lot and scare ourselves shite-less; it has become a tradition that we watch Trick 'r Treat every year even though it is awful but I will choose it anyway for my favourite movie purely due to tradition.

8. Favourite Halloween food?
At the moment I am completely in love with cinnamon whirls from Sainsburys they are the greatest food in the world and I would live off them if I could.

9. What is the strangest thing you have ever dressed up as for Halloween?
For Halloween I was a Sith Lord from Star Wars purely so I could walk about with my Lightsaber (yes I have a Lightsaber). This year I went as the three peas in a pod from Toy Story 3 with two of my friends, took a lot of effort explaining to everyone why we were dressed entirely in green. This year I also dressed up as a bearded lady as I had a dress I wanted to wear and I had a beard from when I was Joseph in the church Nativity.

10. What is your favourite thing about autumn?
Basically the fact that it is nearly Christmas and I enjoy being able to wear coats, hats, scarves, gloves and thick jumpers all the time.

HALLOWEEN NAILS

This Halloween was an interesting one, a bunch of us went to my best friend's house and about an hour in she sliced through her hand in the gap between her thumb and first finger when carving pumpkins- typical. I'm not exagerting when I say you could see the flesh inside her hand but she ended up having to go to hospital and sit in A&E for two hours. She ended up with three stitches and can never give a thumbs up properly again whilst we all had to hang out in her house without her. It was a surreal event but typical for her.

Last Halloween (2012- party on) was the first time I'd celebrated (is that the right word?) Halloween properly for quite a few years. Last year was the traditional all-black look but this year I decided to mix it up a bit more.

Part of my look this year was nails. Nails are fun, you can paint them different colours fitting for every season and I was sadly overly pleased with mine this year. I decided to go for the alternating colours which I haven't done in a very long time (alternating nails were the bomb in year 8).
My Halloween look was an obvious choice, a mix of my new Barry M black matte and an old one- from the Boots own brand range from last Christmas in Emerald green. The green comes out much lighter than in the bottle and is also very thin so you need a good few coats before it will work properly. Matte black and glittery green are perfect for mixing up your nails a bit and making them look a bit more interesting and unusual.
There's not much to say really apart from I painted them alternating and it was very Halloween-y but I'd only done one coat so it lasted about a day and they were not looking good five days later. Nails are a quick-ish (depending on if you don't smudge them or not) and easy look and you can always find something to go with every outfit.

ROSIE'S WONDERFUL PUMPKIN CUPCAKES

My cakes

My brother's cakes

 

Hello and welcome to the first ever blog post of 'Cooking with Rosie'. In today's post we are going to be exploring the wonderful world of Halloween, starting with 'Rosie's Wonderful Pumpkin Cupcakes' (jk I'm making cupcakes that look like pumpkins and my mother and brother are 'supervising' so that they can play with the icing and make sure I don't burn them like last time- also they want to eat the mixture). Enjoy!

For the cakes (makes 24):
1. Find your trusty recipe book- here is mine, I got it when I was very young and it is actually brilliant for fairy cakes
2. Collect your ingredients
For this recipe you will need:
125g (4oz) of self-raising flour
125g (4oz) of butter
125g (4oz) of caster sugar
1tsp of baking powder
2 eggs
1tsp of vanilla essence
3. Set your oven to 190oC/ 375oF/ Gas mark 5
4. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl
5. Beat the eggs and then add to the bowl along with the butter, sugar and vanilla essence
6. Whisk until creamy and drops off a spoon
7. Fill up 24 cake cases and cook for 20 minutes
8. Eat the remaining mixture
9. When golden, remove the cakes and leave to cool

For the icing (ices 18):
1. Once again, find the new page in your trusty recipe book
2. Collect your ingredients
For this recipe you will need:
7tbsp of icing sugar
3tsp of water
1 drop of food colouring (for this design I will be using a drop of red and a drop of yellow)
Black icing pen (to draw the design onto the cake)
3. Make sure your cakes feel emotionally ready to be iced (we actually left the cakes and iced them the day after so they would be nice and fresh for the Halloween sleepover but also it was easier time wise- e.g. we couldn't be bothered)
4. Stir the water and icing sugar together in a bowl, make sure your icing is thick before you add the food colouring as the food colouring will water it down quite a bit
5. Add the food colouring, add a little if you want a light colour and more if you want it darker
6. Ice your cakes
7. When dry, decorate with the pen, if using something else (e.g. sweets) then decorate when still wet
8. Admire your work while eating the rest of the icing, Instagram it