I love DIY

Bonjourno!

As you may have noticed, my blog is an utterly random array of things I love (well, and hate, but I don’t think a blog called ‘Lauren Hates’ would be a terribly appealing read!)

So today I just wanted to do a little post about my interior designing skills! As you know, I love anything shabby chic, vintage or Cath Kidson esq, but I really do not appreciate the insane price tags that come with purchasing these delicious items, so I have taken to creating my own in order to create the style I desire but actually have enough money to survive (aka go down the pub).

I have spoken about my love for sewing, but sadly there are some things that you just can’t sew, so (aaagggh too many so’s!!!) how else can I go about turning my home in to a cute little vintage dream? Well, being an expert in all things shabby, I know that if its cute, white, and rough around the edges (that sounds like a man I would like to meet!) then it’s in, so how do you go about creating the perfect piece?

My sister had a really ornate but black mirror, but as black is not in keeping with the country cottage vibe, I decided that I would paint it for her and see if we could ‘shab’ it up a bit.

Literally, all I did was masking tape up around the mirror, get some white emulsion and after 2 coats of paint (and a fair bit of mess later), the only thing left to do was to sandpaper and rough up any bits that protrude or stuck out to make it look like old wear and tear…and here is the end result!
Cute eh! With my quick dry emulsion, I would say it only took a few hours! You could do it so anything, mirrors, photo frames, shelves, furniture, the world is your oyster. So if you see something that you think is cute but doesn’t quite have the vintage factor, just do it yourself!

Top tip: Keep an eye out at boot sales. Items are dead cheap but you could make them look uber expensive :)

Also, here is an updated pic of my room, hope you like!
I am getting a pine bed frame on Wednesday, which I will be sanding down and painting white, so hopefully that will look awesome!!

Until next time….

Love
Lauren x

I love an overreaction

Having read on Twitter about the earthquake on America’s East Coast that happened the other day, I was expecting to see pictures of devastation to rival that of the earthquake in Christchurch or the Tsunami in Japan, but what greeted me was, to be honest, nothing short of a disappointment. Now, I hate major disasters as much as the next person, but if you are going to cause such a drama and splash a story all across the internet and TV, at least give me something to look at. Here are some of the images of the ‘damage’ that the 5.8 Virginia earthquake caused:

Wow, a few bricks on the floor and a broken jar of Dolmio? I for one am surprised that nobody was killed (please note my overly sarcastic tone). I would say, this earthquake has had nearly as much publicity and air time as the New Zealand quake, but literally pales in comparison! Here are some photos of devastation caused in Christchurch, where 181 people were killed.

How many people were killed on Tuesday in America? That’s right, a big fat zero, so why such a fuss? At least some of the less dramatic Americans saw with the reaction what I see, and decided to poke fun at it too! Here is my favourite viral pic:


Even people on Twitter have started to poke fun at the clear overreaction …..My two favourites are:

@geek3point0: President Obama has just confirmed that the DC earthquake occurred on a rare and obscure fault-line, apparently known as 'Bush's Fault'.

@Supajoe: This east coast earthquake is obviously divine retribution for Jersey Shore

Hahaha. Yep. Jersey Shore is terrible. Take that as payback MTV.


But seriously, maybe America needs to stop this melodramatic behavior, after 9/11, you would think they would actually be able to distinguish between the serious, and the downright stupid!
Anyway, rant over for the day! Bank holiday weekend, bring it on woop!

Love,
Lauren

I love the internet

Even though I know how big the internet is, I am often still amazed by its power.

Take the recent riots for example. It seems that some of these thugs did try to organise the chaos via the internet, and clearly, it worked. The message spread fast and hundreds of would-be rioters gathered in force to do battle with police. But that was not the extraordinary thing. What amazed me was that via twitter, hundreds, maybe even thousands of people opposed to the mindless violence spread the word and got together to help with a mass clean-up of the devastated areas of London.

Even blogs, which do not have such a wide readership as Twitter and Facebook have been proven to muster support and get something done about a situation.

I was having my daily (uhhh more like hourly!!) catch up on Mail Online earlier, and came across a story in which mother of 2, Nancy Atkinson-Turner used her blog to foster public opinion and force a retail giant to bow to pressure and finally apologise to her for accusing her of shoplifting. Having been falsely accused to pinching shampoo from her local Tesco Extra, all Nancy wanted was an apology from the store manager. But when weeks passed and she had heard nothing, she took to her blog to have a bit of a rant about the way in which she had been treated. She thought perhaps her friends might read it, and pass it on to a few others, but she was not prepared to find that just a 24 hours after writing the post, she had accumulated over 60,000 hits and hundreds of supportive comments. The next day, Tesco called her up and told her an apology letter and a voucher to compensate her was on its way. It seems blatantly obvious that Tesco only apologised to Nancy because their misdemeanour was being circulated to a wider audience and they didn’t want to look bad. Blog pressure. I like it!

This got me thinking about marketing. It just proves what a useful tool social media has become, not only for the masses to spread awareness and organise mass opinion in to mass action, but for businesses too. Promoting a service or an event has become so much easier with the use of online marketing. One click of a button and your message is out there, for hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of people to see, so why not use it to your advantage to promote yourself? Nancy showed that even something as simple as a blog can be turned in to a platform to get your point across and gather support, so I think businesses, especially smaller ones would be foolish not to use social media to their advantage!

Everyone should have a blog. Even if no one reads is (like mine ), it is still somewhere to voice your thoughts and opinions, and if you can’t be bothered to write long posts like me (by now you will have figured I like to ramble on a bit!!) then why not try Twitter for a micro blogging experience. It is clear that achieve a lot with the pesky 140 character limit! you can tweet me @LaurenPrater

Love
Lauren x

I love....

Amen!

I love things like this, little mantras that actually make you stop and think for a second. I know better than most that life is unbelievably short, so I for one am going to start making the most of it. I am going to have a think of what I want to accomplish over the next year, perhaps I will make a list and see how many I can tick off :)

Love
Lauren x

I love.....being lazy

Oh dear. Looks like I may have missed a few week’s worth of blog posts (MONTHS I hear you cry!)….

I know you were panicking that I may never return (ok fine, no one actually reads this but you get my drift..), but I am back now so you can breathe a sigh of relief and look forward the next few weeks of witty, hilarious, interesting and informative blogging. That is if I actually remember to write anything. Hmm.

So I’m sure everyone is wondering what I have been up to during my extended leave of absence. Well if you think I have been sewing, making stunning creations and growing my Cath Kidston imitation empire, you would be wrong. I have been so busy just working and going to the gym (SAD) that I am ashamed to say my sewing machine has been gathering dust for some time now. I need to find some time to make a few more cushions and perhaps start selling them on eBay, I know I could become some sort of eBay queen and make a stack of dosh but I just can’t really find time to sit down and sew at the moment! I just need to make a bit of time and then I’m sure I will be making my millions just like dear old Cath. Wishful thinking eh!

So, in a nutshell, this is what I have been up to whilst I have been AWOL from the blogging world:

· Weekend trip to Dublin. Highlights include drinking lots of Guinness, eating a Guinness pie, visiting the Guinness Factory (sensing a theme?), hanging out in Temple Bar and basically loving the craic.
· Gymming. A LOT. I am trying to get healthy so at the moment I have been going to the gym a fair bit. At few weeks ago, I could run for 1 minute on the treadmill and have to stop due to pure exhaustion, (Lame), but now, I can run for 8 whole minutes! Quite an achievement for a lazy so and so like me!
· Camping trip to the New Forest with my besties Laura, Tom, Rowanne and Andy. Saw many cute ponies, drank copious amounts of wine, stealth mode in darkness, sat on a roof terrace by the beach in the blazing heat and basically chilled out to the max. Oh and witnessed Colin Farrell having an asthma attack and being carted away from the campsite in an ambulance at 1 am (Not the real Colin I must stress...)
· Started reading the New York Times bestseller ‘Skinny Bitch’. Put off of fizzy drinks, sweetner and meat/fish for life. Still have half the book to read. Scared.

I’m sure I have done a lot more than this, but sadly I have not the will nor the energy to divulge. Hopefully I will update my blog at least once a week, but don’t hold me to it.

Ciao Amigos.

Love,
Lauren xx

I love cupcakes - UPDATE!

I ended up making the cupcakes round my sisters flat last night, was so fun! The red velvet-ness was not as velvety as I had hoped, but they were yummy all the same, and the cream cheese toppin g was incred! Here is a photo of Rowanne loving a bit o' frosting.....


Anyway, I don't have a picture of the inside of the cupcakes, but they were gorgeous and red (obviously hahahaha)! We decorated them with cute little pink sprinkles that I bought from Sainsbury's...I love making things look pretty!

Here are our cakes woo!


We gave them to my best friend Laura for her birthday, along with one of my home sewn bags...she loved them! I would definatley recommend making gifts for people instead of buying something; its much more personal and makes giving that little bit more special!

So sleepy today, not in the mood for a long post, but I'm sure I will think of something amaze to write tomorrow :)

Love,
Lauren x

I love cupcakes

So I’m sat here trying to engross myself in a powerpoint presentation, but distraction has driven me to search online for delish cupcake recipes.


I found a recipe for Red Velvet cupcakes! YUM. Not sure how many people have heard of Red Velvet cakes as I think they are more of an American thing, but I personally heard about them years ago when I watched that ever so intellectual reality show ‘Newlyweds’, starring everyone’s favourite couple Jess and Nick (yeah right..)







They had a Red Velvet wedding cake, which to be fair looked 10 out of 10 yummers. I couldn’t actually find a good picture of their exact cake, so here is a random picture of a slice of Red Velvet cake (we can just pretend that this is the exact one they ate, yeah?)



Looks yummy right?



Well you too could be chowing down on some Red Velvet cake tonight like I will be, if you just follow these ever so simple (?) directions…




Red Velvet cupcake recipe




6 0g unsalted butter, at room temperature
150g caster sugar
1 egg
10g cocoa powder
20ml red food colouring (preferably Dr. Oetker's as red food colourings vary in strength)
½tsp vanilla extract
120ml buttermilk
150g plain flour
½tsp salt
½tsp bicarbonate of soda
1½tsp white wine vinegar


For the cream cheese frosting:
300g icing sugar, sifted
50g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g cream cheese, cold





Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/gas mark 3.



Put the butter and the sugar in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy and well mixed. Turn the mixer up to high speed, slowly add the egg and beat until everything is well incorporated.



In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a thick, dark paste. Add to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until evenly combined and coloured (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula).



Turn the mixer down to slow speed and slowly pour in half the buttermilk. Beat until well mixed, then add half the flour, and beat until everything is well incorporated. Repeat this process until all the buttermilk and flour have been added. Scrape down the side of the bowl again. Turn the mixer up to high speed and beat until you have a smooth, even mixture. Turn the mixer down to low speed and add the salt, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. Beat until well mixed, then turn up the speed again and beat for a couple more minutes.




Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 mins, or until the sponge bounces back when touched. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.




Meanwhile for the cream cheese frosting: Beat the icing sugar and butter together in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 mins. Do not overbeat, as it can quickly become runny.



When the cupcakes are cold, spoon over the cream cheese frosting on top.








Man that’s long. Anyway, I’m off to Sainsbury’s soon to buy the ingredients, hope they turn out well! Maybe if you are lucky I will post a picture of these beauties after I am done later.

If you make them too, I hope you enjoy!



Love,
Lauren x