Versatile Blogger Award

Hello everyone! Firstly I’d like to say thank you to Bethany for nominating me! Make sure you check out her blog, she does amazing fashion posts and looks at upcoming trends which are great for outfit inspiration. I hope you enjoy the ‘facts about me’, I’ve tried to choose interesting and original facts so you guys can get to know me a bit better :)

About the Award:

In case you don't know, the Versatile Blogger Award is to 'honor those bloggers who bring something special to your life, whether every day or now and then', when nominating you should 'consider the quality of writing, the uniqueness of the subjects covered, the level of love displayed in the words on the virtual page and the quality of photographs, as well as the passion displayed in taking them.' 

The Rules:

-Show the Award on your Blog

-Thank the person who nominated you

-Share 7 facts about yourself

-Nominate 15 blogs

-Link your nominee's blogs to let them know 

Facts about me:

1. I am half Norwegian on my Mum’s side, but I can only say a few phrases in Norwegian and I’ve only visited the country once, when I was younger, but I’d love to go back there at some point. I also celebrate Christmas and open my presents with my Norwegian family on Christmas eve because that is when Christmas is celebrated in Norway.

2. I’m in my final year studying English Literature at University and once I graduate I want to work in Retail Buying.

3. I’m moving to London later this year which is sooo exciting, I’ve wanted to live in London for so long now so I just hope it lives up to my expectations, (i.e. drinking cosmos every day and basically living the life of Carrie Bradshaw from SATC).

4. I moved around a lot growing up and I’ve probably lived in around 15 different houses so far, and been to a few different schools in different areas of the country, which means that I’m a pro at moving now and I find it quite easy to talk to new people.

5. If I could only buy my clothes from one place for the rest of my life it would have to be ASOS, I am literally addicted to their website, and I constantly have about 100 items saved in my wishlist that I will never be able to afford *sigh*.

6. I love listening to R&B, my favourite albums at the moment are X by Chris Brown and Aquarius by Tinashe – if you like old school, chilled R&B, you should defiantly check out these albums! (If you're interested, click on either of the album titles and you can check out the songs on SoundCloud).

7. I’m a huge film buff and I love watching horror movies and playing horror games; myself and my big sister have a tradition of drinking white wine spritzers and watching horror movies whenever we see each other (I know this sounds like a strange mix but it's so much fun, you guys should try it!). 

I hope that these facts have helped you to get to know me a little better. 

Here are my nominees:

- Kate Louise Blogs

- Sarah Justine Style

- Salt and Chic

- Rachel Coco

- Alphabeth

- BubblyBeauty

- Grace Takes Photos

- Suzie Shrestha

- it'sEvelina

- Amy Elizabeth

- Life's Open Pages

- Fashion Confession

- Eimante

- Drugstore Dreamer

- Storybook Apothecary

Sorry if you’ve already been nominated guys.

I’m looking forward to your responses ladies, make sure to let me know when you have posted your response and leave comments below :)

Tam x

A Summer Wedding

Hello Everyone! Last month I had the honour of being chief bridesmaid at my big sister's wedding, it was an absolutely beautiful day and I can honestly say it was the best wedding I've ever been to (even if I am slightly biased) so I thought I'd show you some pictures taken on the day to give some wedding style inspiration to anyone planning their own wedding. Enjoy :)

The wedding was held at Stockbridge Farm Barn in Sherborne which was the most beautiful location for a summer, countryside wedding. The inside was very rustic and was decorated with twinkly fairy lights and bunting which made the venue look so magical. The crockery was vintage and mismatched which suited the venue perfectly and every guest had their own miniature teacup and saucer which was so cute and kitsch! There were also vintage looking cake stands filled with little cupcakes and scones and wedding favours of little paper bags filled with old school sweets, everything was delicious and I probably ate far too much cake and sweets for one person.

The grounds of the barn were absolutely stunning and even though there was a torrential downpour the day before the wedding, thankfully it was beautifully sunny on the day which made for some lovely pictures of the venue.

Our hair and makeup (including the bride's) was done by a lovely local makeup artist called Kirsten Sare, her website is www.kirstensare.co.uk; if you are from the Dorset area and are looking for a make-up artist or hair stylist for any event then I would definitely recommend you look at her work.

What The Bridesmaids Wore

Dresses - Lipsy (Similar Here)

Seamless Tights - Pretty Polly

The whole day was perfect; it was a quintessential English wedding in the countryside and I'm so thankful that I was involved. I hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures and hearing about the day.

 Tam x

Recipes: Chinese Yakisoba Stir Fry

Hi everyone! I thought I'd share another recipe I've been loving recently. I've been trying to eat a lot of protein and vegetables at the moment but it's sometimes difficult to eat tasty food that's also good for you but this is one of my go-to recipes that delivers on nutrition and flavour. I hope you enjoy :)

Ingredients (for 4 servings):

2 tablespoons of canola oil

1 tablespoon of sesame oil

2 skinless chicken breast fillets, cut into chunks

2 cloves of garlic

2 tablespoons of Asian-style chilli paste (you can leave this out if you don't like spicy food)

Soy sauce to taste

Half a medium head of cabbage

1 onion

2 carrots, cut into matchsticks

2 pounds of cooked yakisoba noodles

Pickled ginger to taste

Method:

Heat 2 tablespoons of canola oil and 1 tablespoon of sesame oil in a large skillet or frying pan over medium to high heat. Put the chicken and chopped garlic into the pan and fry for about a minute. Stir in the chilli paste and continue to cook for a further 3 to 4 minutes, or until the chicken has browned. Add the soy sauce and simmer for 2 minutes. Finally, set aside the chicken mixture into a bowl. In the hot pan, stir in the chopped cabbage, onion and carrots until the cabbage has wilted and reduced in volume. Put the chicken mixture back into the pan with the cabbage, add the noodles and cook until the noodles are tender and the chicken is completely cooked. Serve immedietly and garnish with the pickled ginger.

Let me know if you try out this recipe and what you think :)

Tam x

Day Trip To Cheltenham

Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend :) It was such beautiful weather in the UK that I didn't want to waste it sitting inside the house, so on Sunday I went to Cheltenham to soak up the sun and do some last minute, pre-holiday shopping. If you've never been before I would definitely recommend you take a trip there, there's a huge range of shops, including some amazing high end stores on the promenade which I love going into just to lust at items I could never afford (Karen Millen is my favourite for this). There's also some beautiful areas to walk around with gorgeous, Georgian houses and amazing parks.

One of my favourite places to go at the moment is Whole Foods in Cheltenham, it's basically a massive supermarket and restaurant which only sells really healthy, organic food and produce. As I'm trying my best to eat really healthily, we decided to go to there for lunch which was AMAZING! I had brown rice sushi with salmon and avocado, I'm obsessed with sushi at the moment and it was honestly the best sushi I've ever had!

I also needed a few bits for my holiday so went I went into Boots (the one in Cheltenham is massive and has two floors) just to buy a few essentials and I also bought a gorgeous sun hat from Accessorize, I actually first saw it in Tanya Burr's 'Summer Fashion Haul' video and thought it looked amazing so I'm so glad I managed to find it. I'll put a link in the 'What I'm Wearing' section below so you can see it on the website.

I took a few pictures on the day which I'll put below, so I hope you enjoy them!

What I'm Wearing

Hat - Accessorize

Sunglasses - Urban Outfitters

Necklace - Newlook

Crop Top - Newlook

Skirt - Missguided

Shoes - Newlook

Bag - River Island

Let me know what you guys got up to this weekend
Tam x

Recipes: Spanish Fish Stew

Hello everyone :) I thought I'd post something a bit different today and share with you one of the recipes I've been loving lately. If you're trying to be healthy this is a lovely meal to have with salad or you could serve it with some crunchy ciabatta bread. Of course you can switch up the ingredients to make it less spicy (take out the paprika and cayenne pepper) or replace with chicken if you don't like fish.

Ingredients (for 4 servings):

A handful of parsley

2 cloves of garlic

Juice of 1 lemon (or bottled lemon juice if you don't have and lemons)

3 tbsp of olive oil

1 onion, chopped

500g of floury potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes

1tsp of paprika

A pinch of cayenne pepper

A tin of chopped tomatoes (Italian tomatoes are the best)

1 fish stock cube

A tin of chickpeas

200g of peeled, raw king prawns

500g of any white fish chunks of your choice (I use cod or basa)

Method:

Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a large pan and throw in the onion and potato. Cover for 5 minutes until the onion has softened, then add the remaining oil, garlic and spices and leave to simmer for 2 minutes. Pour in the lemon juice, tin of tomatoes, half a can of water and crumble in the stock cube. Season with a little salt, then cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the potatoes are soft. Stir in the prawns and chickpeas and place the chunks of fish in the pan so that they are covered by the sauce. Reduce the heat, place the lid back on and cook for around 8 minutes, stirring once or twice so that everything is heated evenly. Once the fish is cooked through, remove the heat and scatter with chopped parsley and serve!

Nutritional Information:

Per serving

328 kcals

39g protein

33g carbs

11g fat

2g sat fat

5g fibre

5g sugar

1.92g salt

I hope you liked this recipe and let me know if you try it yourself :)

Tam x