Life Favourites - May 2015

May has been great - I started my new job role and the month has flown by with a constant to do list both at work and at home. I love May - two bank holiday weekends and its started to feel like summer is maybe coming. I've been loving once upon a time after getting up to speed with the good wife last month. It's like grown up fairytales it's stupidly magical and addictive.

I gave blood for the 10th time this month - it's such an important thing to do and so painless/ easy. If you're thinking about doing it just get on with it. One day you or a loved one might need the blood and you'll be thankful you spent 20 minutes a couple of times a year contributing to such an important service. So many people are unable too due to the restrictions around it so make the most of being healthy and able if you are.

I upgraded to my iPhone 6 this month too - pretty much solely because it's gold. I adore it the battery life is so much better than my old iPhone 5 and the screen is so much better for watching many many hours of youtube. We're about to start selling tickets for our 2015 gatsby ball too which is just the most exciting thing. If you're local to Southampton and fancy an amazing night out email for more details or to buy tickets georgina@thcf.org.uk

Finally internet meet Alfie pup. After Oscar passed away last month it was pretty important to find my boyfriends mum a doggle quickly as he was a huge part of her life. We found Alfie and he's the naughtiest but cutest little bundle of love. He's in no way a replacement as Oscar was just perfect but he's the start of a new chapter for everyone and he's too much fun. Follow me on instagram for stupid amounts of pictures of his very cute face @georginacallen

Georgina x.

Batch Cooking: Tips Post

We have a really small kitchen and no dishwasher so rather than spend the weekday evenings cooking and cleaning and washing up I've started batch cooking up lunches, tea's and sauce bases on a Sunday afternoon. This avoids naughty snacks in the week and is really helping to save money as it avoids no lunches to take to work when I'm out in the evening. Firstly and most importantly you need all the tuppaware. Some (my boyfriend) say I have too much tuppaware but I really disagree. Above I've listed some of my favourites. Tesco clip & lock food storage container £3, £6.50 & £8.75. Ikea food storage set of 17 containers for £3, blue lunch box £3.75, pack of 3 blue lidded containers £2.50, & transparent container with vent £2.75.

Clip and lock tuppaware is necessary if you're taking anything remotely juicy outside of the house. However I find the cheaper push lid storage perfect for freezing and storing prepared food. The tuppawares with the little vents in the top are great for storing soup as you can warm it up in the container without making a huge mess in the microwave.

For me Sunday afternoons are the best time to prep food I do Monday and Tuesday's lunches/ snacks and a variety of sauce bases and dinners that can be frozen. My favorite meals to cook and freeze are anything with beef mince as a base. I like to think I make a mean chilli con carne and it tastes so good out of the pan however frozen and left for a little while it tastes even better. The little meals I make and freeze don't last long in this house but I think a rule of thumb is to scribble the date you made it on a little sticker on the lid and don't leave it any longer than a month before thoroughly defrosting and heating through. I avoid cooking things like poultry or rice in advance as these kind of foods are always rife with bacteria I also think freezing them does nothing extra for taste and they cook up so quickly it's not really worth it. 

A decent tomato pasta sauce made from scratch is a must have for me - my freezer is full of small tuppawares with them in as it's so handy to grab if I'm eating alone to mix in some chicken or tuna and eat over pasta. Takes little to no time and avoids grabbing naughty treats. 

For lunches I always head for roasted veg, bulgar wheat and grilled turkey and a spoonful of the tomato sauce I've knocked up - on a Sunday I can get away with cooking up meals for the following 2 days and then I'll try something else on a Tuesday evening for the following 2 days if I can however we mostly love the veg bulgar wheat combo in our house.

The final thing I'm currently obsessed with is batch cooking and freezing a homemade soup. This is another recipe that tastes better after a little while in the freezer - check out my butternut squash recipe here.I always have at least 3 portions of this stored in the freezer it's the perfect tea if I'm rushing about or going swimming as it's so quick to defrost and warm through and super filling.

Life Lately: April 2014

Last year Steve grew so so many vegtables that I wanted in on the action. Our garden became like a runner bean jungle by the end of it so I thought it was about time we had some flowers to fill the garden. I picked up some snap dragons and sunflowers to make the garden a little brighter. I'm also growing strawberries and tomatoes I now have tiny little shoots and in a few weeks they'll be ready to go outside. In the middle of the month we stayed at Theobalds Park and got breakfast delivered to the room - a drunken order of 'we'll have everything' resulted in the most ridiculously large breakfasts. The sun came out a little on the way there and I finally got some use out of my sunglasses fingers crossed for much more sunshine soon. Adore the 'I love' wine range such a sucker for sweet packaging and it is true I do love zinfandel so much. My auntie turned 50 too and threw a lovely party where the entire family was reunited!

Finally I had to include the quote on the top right of this picture it just sums up everything in life when you're nearly 25. It's such an odd age where you're completely torn between being ready for some painting and house buying but in the same sense you still want to spend spare money on going out and drinking shots. Social media is literally split down the middle at this age too one day it's all babies and weddings and the next it's drunken anecdotes. All the while it's hard to really work out which side of the fence you want to sit on haha probably just me but being in your mid 20's is very confusing.

Eurovision Party Planning

Watching the eurovision every single year with friends/ family has been in my calendar for as long as I can remember. When I went to university in 2008 I luckily found a girl with just as much of a love for it and we've been holding eurovision parties every year since. This year it's my turn to host for the first time in my little home and I'm so excited making little preparations I thought I'd share them here.

The Basics:
Firstly you need to know that the only way Eurovision works is to be as tacky as possible. Each person coming pays £2 to have a country at the end of the night the winner takes all. You need to dress in the flag/ flags colors of or national dress of your country. You also need to bring a food/ drink item from that country for everyone to enjoy. We have face paints to further add to the festivities. We play our own drinking game but if you're looking for rule idea's - this site is pretty good. I've created a small Facebook event for people to watch the songs and pick their countries in advance - it's also a good way to get the eurovision fun going for the eurovision sceptics amongst your friends.

Decorations:
You need all the bunting to really get your home in a eurovision mood. Party packs have all the flags in their collection for a reasonable price. My favorite is this mixed european flag bunting perfect for showing off everyone's choices. You can pick up rice paper fairy cake toppers from eBay which make a great centrepiece to a buffet - I picked these up for just £3.50.  Flag topped cocktail sticks are also a great way of showing the origins of the food you've prepared you can buy them but I'd recommend just printing lots off and making your own with cocktail sticks. I've ordered a 5x3ft Hungarian flag as they are my country of choice this year and also a large mixed european flag for decoration both from eBay. The best bit really though is making everything yourself. I'm going to print lots of flags to make my own bunting and food flags

Dates: 
Semi Final One - Tuesday 6th May BBC 3
Semi Final Two - Thursday 8th May BBC 3
Final & Party Night - Saturday 10th May BBC1 8pm

Score Cards: 
The BBC will have their scorecard up after the second semi final to download and print off here. The radio times also do one each year. We like to make one from scratch with our own criteria and do scores /10 for costume, sex appeal, song, staging & dancers. Then you have an overall score /50 for each act.

Only a week to go! If you're having a party and making plans please tweet me @georginacallen I need more #eurovision2014 tweets on my feed!

Home Obsessions: Vintage Jars

I've had my eye on this vintage look glass jar for ages - it came in at only £8 from B&Q  and looks so pretty on my dresser full of cotton wall pads. It's also meant that one of my ikea drawers is now free for my ever growing hair product collection. 

I can't stop buying pretty glass jars at the moment they're so handy for storage and just an extra bit of glamour on a dressing table or shelf.  These are my favorites at the moment.  

Glass Jar £6.99 H&M --- Glass Vase £6.99 H&M --- Vintage Collection Coloured Glass Vase £9.09 Dunelm Mill --- Korken Jar £0.80 Ikea --- White Lace Vase £11.99 The Range --- Glass Tealight Holder £1.50 H&M

Butternut Squash Soup Recipe

I'm a little bit obsessed with butternut squash soup at the moment - I can't get enough of the stuff so after a few weeks perfecting my own take on it I thought I'd share. The best thing about this soup is you'll have most of the ingredients in your cupboard or fridge already the only addition to my shopping list has been the butternut squash itself and some light creme fraiche for the top.

Ingredients: 

1 butternut squash

1/2 cauliflower 

2 onions

Vegetable stock cube

Chilli Flakes 

Creme Fraiche

Fry Light Spray 

Method: 

• Deseed the butternut squash and cut into small cubes. Lay out on a baking tray, cover in a teaspoon of chilli flakes and fry light and roast for 45mins (until the cubes are soft and starting to go golden) 
• Whilst the butternut squash is roasting fry 2 finely chopped onions in some fry light
• Cover the onions with 1 pint of stock and season then let it simmer
•  After about 20 minutes add the cauliflower or other vegtables of your choice
• Once the butternut squash is cooked take out of the oven and add to the pan
• Let all the ingredients simmer for another 10 minutes or so 
• Take off of the heat and let the soup mixture cool down
• Blitz the lot up with a hand blender 
• Serve with a tablespoon of creme fraiche and an extra sprinkle of cracked pepper

It's really the easiest recipe and there's something so wholesome and warming about a homemade hearty soup. I make a batch up on a Sunday afternoon which can be frozen and used throughout the week. This recipe makes 4 portions and is so handy to have tucked away. What I love about it is that you can swop the cauliflower for other root vegtables that you might have to hand. Grated carrot is brilliant and sweet potato makes the whole thing much more filling. 

I'm going to try and perfect a more summertime soup recipe as the weather gets a bit warmer but for now this is my go to dish to cook up on a Sunday afternoon. 

Weekly Food Shop - Tips & Tricks

I moved out of my parents for university in 2008 and whilst there I was a damn awful food shopper. A large supermarket was on my doorstep for the majority of uni life so I popped in all the time - never doing a proper weekly shop and in turn spending a fortune on very little. Then over a year ago I moved in with my boyfriend and took to being domesticated like a fish to water - sounds silly but I really do enjoy it. When we first moved in I don't think my food shopping skills were all that good if I'm honest however over the last 12 months or so I really do feel like I've come into my own and each week feel like I've gotten more for less money. I thought it wouldn't hurt to share a few of the tricks I've learnt that keep the bill down and also allow me to feed a boy with a stupidly high metabolism a lot of protein rich foods on a budget. 

In Store Shopping

If you're shopping in store - write a list. It may sound simple but the weeks I forget this and wonder about aimlessly always cost me more. If you know your local supermarket write the list in order of how you travel around the store - it makes it a lot easier and means you stick to it without going off course. 

Check out the 'world foods isle' foods like coconut oil, coconut milk and all the spices are often 25% of the price of the same item in the oils & spices isle. Not only are you saving a lot of money but the flavourings in the curry powders and chilli spices are so much richer. 

Don't always grab the offers - often you can get 500g of XX for £1 in the middle of the store but if you take a look down the nominated isle you can get 500g of XX for much less! Ignore the centre of the store and walk down each aisle as you would normally. Sometimes the offers are better but all the offers in the middle are in the nominated isles too so you can make a far more informed decision when you're looking at all of the mushrooms not just the £1 ones on the end. 

Sign up to the store loyalty card - don't let these cards determine where you shop but sign up to them all. They mean coupons in the post and the chance to rack up points to take off your shopping later on in the year. They cost nothing and if you're going to shop there anyway - make the most of the point incentives it's surprising how quickly they add up. 

Online Shopping 

The best thing about moving into a new house and starting the weekly food shop journey was signing up for all the online shopping - most supermarkets have very generous discounts when you sign up for you first at home delivery. Waitrose for example currently have £70 off your first four shops and most supermarkets have at least £10 off the first online order. Wait until something juicy comes along and sign up! 

Mix it up - I tend to mix up where I shop online dependant on the offers and the kind of thing I'm going to buy that week. If I'm stocking up on cupboard items, sauces & tinned goods I'll head to Asda as I find they offer me the best value on staples like tinned tomatoes and toilet rolls. However if I'm looking to fill my freezer with meats I'll head to waitrose or sainsbury's as I find the quality is much better and I find the value (3 for £10) on par with the competitors. 

Delivery saver options - if you're shop loyal and you know you're going to get deliveries from one store for the next few months sign up to deals like Tesco's delivery saver. For as little as £7.50 a month you can get all the deliveries you like on nominated days saving you a fortune in the long run. Waitrose have free delivery over £50 too which is a really reasonable as you're more than likely to spend this much on a weekly shop.

Overall tips 

Don't be store loyal - it really doesn't hurt to shop around and I think being store loyal is the worst thing you can do. I have my favourite supermarkets (tesco in store & waitrose online) but I still pop into Asda to pick up tinned tomatoes every now and again I just know I wouldn't buy my fresh tomato's there as I don't find they last long enough to be worthwhile. Each area has better stores than others too I've been too some Tesco's that are horrible to shop in however my local one is lovely. I personally can't stand Aldi and I don't find it cheap enough to withstand the lack of service and range however some friends love it - find what you like and shop there.

All the supermarkets are cheap! The main thing I've learnt over the last year is that the ad campaigns mean nothing - all the supermarkets have good deals and a lot match each other now anyway. Just be savvy and remember the deals aren't always cheaper and don't buy into a 3 for 2 on soft cheese when you only want and will only use one soft cheese - you're effectively just paying double which you'll throw away 66% of! 

Eat before you go - again I think it sounds obvious but the amount of times I skip breakfast and head in on a weekend morning is silly. I always end up leaving with cheese dippers and iced coffee - make sure you're not famished or your bill will be an easy £10 more than it would be if you are full and shopping sensibly. 

I hope that's helped somewhat if anyone has any other tips I'd love to hear them I'm always on the look out for more tips and tricks to make supermarket shopping more savvy and bearable. 

Non-Beauty Buys - Storage & Home

White Wicker Heart - £1.59 The Range

Heart Tea Light Holders - £2.99 The Range

Kupol 2 Pack Storage - £5 Ikea

SKURAR Candle Holder - £2.50 Ikea

Acrylic Lipstick Storage - £2.25 eBay 

I've been majorly MIA from Magpie Obsessions over the last month or so but am now determined to get my mojo back and get back into it. Life has kind of taken over and most of May has been a whirlwind of trying to sort out two naked calendar photo shoots with the girls for THCF. The photo's look unreal and I can't wait to share them in September when our official launch is planned! In the meantime I've also been sorting out my finances so have put beauty spending on a bit of a back burner so really haven't had all that much to write about. However it's now all in order and I'm more than enjoying my time spent in boots at the moment oops. I've also been attempting to reorganise my dressing space so when it's all complete I can fully share my storage finds. I just wanted to share some of my favourites on here now whilst I test out some amazing products I've picked up recently :)

A Catch Up with Life - End of November

Left to right, top to bottom - Stephen's Mini Christmas Tree, Christmas Jumper, Night out, Baileys, Onesies at work for Children in Need, Trapped in the Closet happened, Sleepy Doggle, Spice Jars, Statement nails, Bear Hat, Christmas Jumper, Customising shirt, Deirdre geek glasses,  Kissing reindeers as desk decorations, Organising my life in labelled glossyboxes, new phone case, love at ben howard, my wallpapering master glass in works 'you can do it' class, night out, essie bikini so teeny and technic carnival nails, mini black and decker chocolates, ben howard, like milk to a baby, Stephen's tree again. 

I thought it was time to do a life catch up post for a few reasons - one life is about to get ever so Christmassy and I needed to tie up some instagram love before it gets out of hand. Two I have some exciting news - I put the money down for my first little rented house with a boy on Friday. Aaaa as you can see I'm already buying things like spice jars haha and there will be lots more home related stuff to come - we don't move in until the end of December but I can not wait and am just so excited to start this chapter!

Long Lodge Weekend.

Having just come back from the best long weekend away I wanted to share some pictures with you all. Myself, the boyfriend and 5 friends drove down to Devon on Friday to stay in a gorgeous lodge complete with hot tub for three nights. On the Saturday we had amazing weather and climbed Britains biggest waterfall. Lots of alcohol and cocktails were consumed and many hours relaxing in the hot tub. It was the most beautiful weekend with so so many laughs. 

We stayed here in Ladram Bay in the Marine Lodge - highly recommend it already want to go back next summer it's so pretty in Devon. 

Wife Weekend in London Town.

I took Friday off of work and headed to South Acton to spend a few nights with my wife. After living with Miss Holly Salter for three years there is still and I think always will be a huge wife size hole in my life. In halls she was next door to me and in every house we lived in after that she was just next door to me. So to celebrate our four year anniversary I went to stay with her and catch up massively.

Thursday night was 2 for £5 rose wine spritzers, spaghetti bol and so much catching up we didn't even put on the television. Saturday morning we got up weirdly early headed to Westfields had latte's, laughed at the ridiculous iPhone5 queue and spent far too long in the Models Own bottle shop working out which colours we didn't have. Then I lost my Wahaca virginity which was crazy good food.

After a little stop back at her house we made our way to Waterloo for drinks with our long lost friend Jim Gooch - turns out Jim Gooch was nowhere to be seen but MA Student James Gooch joined us - he drank whiskey on the rocks we made the most of 2 for 1 cocktails and drank the entire menu. My friends from school James and Jack also popped in for half a pint before running off for their train. A little tipsy we picked up chips and made our way home to watch crap TV we'd recorded.

It was literally the most perfect weekend. Topped up by the boyfriend picking me up from the station with a sandwich and red bull - exactly what I needed, haven't laughed as much as I did this weekend in so so long. The reason I love Miss Holly Salter is when offered 2 for 1 cocktails the suggestion anything but two each just seems ludicrous :)

So back in my own bed I am already looking forward to my next wife weekend. It was just perfect and I miss her already.