OH dear oh dear.
Turns out that my promise to keep this blog up to date and post at least once a week was a pure lie… I for one am shocked and appalled at my lack of effort.
Anyway, I am back now, but it really is anyone’s guess as to how long I will stick around (next post, December 2014?? Who could say!!)
So what has been going on since my last (boring) communication with the world?!!
Here are my updates in a nutshell:
• Got made permanent at work
• Moved into my very own flat with the delightful Deonne :)
• Lost another stone
• Started going running (enjoyable)
• Booked a holiday to Turkey with the girls (Woop so excited!)
• Started baking lots of cupcakes and have now been dubbed the cupcake queen. Thinking of taking orders :)
• Oh, I made my blog public again…I think? Not that it matters, no one will ever read it!!
So a fair bit has happened and I must say I am fairly content with life at the moment. As soon as Bradley Cooper becomes my boyfriend (sure to happen very soon, right??), things will be fabulous.
Anyway, I am boring myself right now so its over and out from me. Hopefully my next post will have some kind of delicious topic (don’t hold your breath though!)
Love Lauren x
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
I love pink
Well my dear blog readers (aka no one as my blog is private, duh), you know I adore a bit of baking, especially when it’s for a fantastic cause, so last Thursday night saw me whipping up a storm in the kitchen once again, this time in aid of Breast Cancer Care.
Friday 28th October was national Wear it Pink day, where people, businesses, shops, groups etc were encouraged to wear something pink to work, and donate £2 for the privilege. Of course, me being quite the pink lover (the colour of this page says it all really!), I jumped at the chance embrace the theme (think pink top, pink bracelet, pink nails, pink lipstick…you get the gist.), but I thought why stop at clothing, why not make some cakes and sell them at the office to my sweet-toothed, cupcake loving colleagues in order to raise even more money?!
So I set about making cupcakes, a victoria sponge and some chewy white chocolate cookies, but these were no ordinary cakes. No no my friend, it is fair to say that I cracked out the red food colouring, meaning my creations were not only delicious and beautiful, they were pink to match the day’s theme!
Here is a snap of my beautiful pink cupcakes!
Cool huh? They went down an absolute storm, and by the end of the say I had sold all 30 cupcakes, 1 massive victoria sponge (sliced up in to about 14 bits I think) and 15 huge cookies!
The total we raised on the day was £141.09, and I think about £40 of this was from cakes alone so I was so pleased with that :)
I love raising money for charity, but when you can raise money but doing something you really love, that’s even more rewarding. Everyone said to me that my cakes were delicious, and some even said that I have missed my vocation in life and should open my own bakery haha! I would go that far, but I will be sure to keep on baking, and if they are lucky, I may even bake some more cakes to bring in for my colleagues next Friday!
Love Lauren x
Friday 28th October was national Wear it Pink day, where people, businesses, shops, groups etc were encouraged to wear something pink to work, and donate £2 for the privilege. Of course, me being quite the pink lover (the colour of this page says it all really!), I jumped at the chance embrace the theme (think pink top, pink bracelet, pink nails, pink lipstick…you get the gist.), but I thought why stop at clothing, why not make some cakes and sell them at the office to my sweet-toothed, cupcake loving colleagues in order to raise even more money?!
So I set about making cupcakes, a victoria sponge and some chewy white chocolate cookies, but these were no ordinary cakes. No no my friend, it is fair to say that I cracked out the red food colouring, meaning my creations were not only delicious and beautiful, they were pink to match the day’s theme!
Here is a snap of my beautiful pink cupcakes!
Cool huh? They went down an absolute storm, and by the end of the say I had sold all 30 cupcakes, 1 massive victoria sponge (sliced up in to about 14 bits I think) and 15 huge cookies!
The total we raised on the day was £141.09, and I think about £40 of this was from cakes alone so I was so pleased with that :)
I love raising money for charity, but when you can raise money but doing something you really love, that’s even more rewarding. Everyone said to me that my cakes were delicious, and some even said that I have missed my vocation in life and should open my own bakery haha! I would go that far, but I will be sure to keep on baking, and if they are lucky, I may even bake some more cakes to bring in for my colleagues next Friday!
Love Lauren x
Friday, 9 September 2011
I love flying....
Ok, well the title of this is clearly a lie! But whilst I dread the mere thought of cruising through the air at 600 miles an hour, 34,000 feet about the earth which is just clearly NOT natural, it doesn’t mean I don’t go on lots of flights to enjoy a holiday or two at some stunning far flung destination.
Apart from the sheer terror of take-off, the trauma of turbulence and the distress before landing, the thing I hate the most about flying is the pure discomfort. Being stuck not only in the worlds most cramped seat, for 10 hours is one thing, but having to sit upright and try to sleep really does not make for a pleasant experience. Now sadly, I am not one of these fortunate folk who can afford the extortionate amounts it costs to fly in business class, so we mere mortals have to be inventive when it comes to providing ourselves with in-flight comfort (you don’t get free pillows and blankets these days people).
My sister flew to Las Vegas on Monday (lucky mare), and before she went she was talking about wanting a neck pillow for the flight. I thought this was a genius idea so we decided that I should use my sewing expertise (ahem) to make her one. If you want to know how to fashion your own in flight neck pillow out of some fabric and the inside of a cushion, keep reading.
So to make this delightful pillow, you will need:
· Any cotton fabric of your choice
· Stuffing from the inside of an old cushion
· Thread to match
· A sewing machine (although it could be stitched by hand if you don’t have one)
· Scissors
· Pins
· A needle
· A pen
Oooh take a look at my old school sewing machine. Cool huh. I may as well be living in the 50’s. This beauty can only do a running stitch. No zig zagging for me! But it serves its purpose I suppose!
Ok so firstly you will need to pick your fabric. Rowanne chose a charming mint green material with small flowers in pinks, purples etc. Fold the fabric in half so the nice sides are facing inwards (rough edge on the outside) and lay flat on the table. Use a pen to lightly sketch the shape of your pillow; think a thick boomerang!
Once you have drawn your shape, cut it out. Once you have done this, you will have 2 shapes that look like this (you have 2 because you folded the material in half, remember?)
So now you need to line these shapes up, with the good sides facing each other. Use your pins to pin them together so when you are sewing, nothing moves out of place. Take this pinned piece and use your sewing machine (or hand sew using a running stitch) and sew about 1 centimetre from the edge nearly all the way around, leaving a gap big enough to get your hand through when you are stuffing! Turn the shape inside out so that the good side is now on the outside and you should have something like this!
Unsure why this is sideways, but you get the gist, right?
All you need to do now, is stuff the pillow with your chosen wadding and then stitch up the gap by hand. This can be a little tricky as you must turn the open edges inwards and do a looping type stitch to make sure the pillow is sealed with no rough edges (Blimey, that’s so unclear…I’m presuming no one will have a clue what I mean haha!)
And voila!! You should have something that looks a bit like this! (Yes, I know one side is chubbier that the other. I don’t care. It looks stunning)
Hope Rowanne had a nice sleep on the flight. Considering I also made her a matching eye mask, she should have slept like a baby!
Love,
Lauren
xx
Apart from the sheer terror of take-off, the trauma of turbulence and the distress before landing, the thing I hate the most about flying is the pure discomfort. Being stuck not only in the worlds most cramped seat, for 10 hours is one thing, but having to sit upright and try to sleep really does not make for a pleasant experience. Now sadly, I am not one of these fortunate folk who can afford the extortionate amounts it costs to fly in business class, so we mere mortals have to be inventive when it comes to providing ourselves with in-flight comfort (you don’t get free pillows and blankets these days people).
My sister flew to Las Vegas on Monday (lucky mare), and before she went she was talking about wanting a neck pillow for the flight. I thought this was a genius idea so we decided that I should use my sewing expertise (ahem) to make her one. If you want to know how to fashion your own in flight neck pillow out of some fabric and the inside of a cushion, keep reading.
So to make this delightful pillow, you will need:
· Any cotton fabric of your choice
· Stuffing from the inside of an old cushion
· Thread to match
· A sewing machine (although it could be stitched by hand if you don’t have one)
· Scissors
· Pins
· A needle
· A pen
Oooh take a look at my old school sewing machine. Cool huh. I may as well be living in the 50’s. This beauty can only do a running stitch. No zig zagging for me! But it serves its purpose I suppose!
Ok so firstly you will need to pick your fabric. Rowanne chose a charming mint green material with small flowers in pinks, purples etc. Fold the fabric in half so the nice sides are facing inwards (rough edge on the outside) and lay flat on the table. Use a pen to lightly sketch the shape of your pillow; think a thick boomerang!
Once you have drawn your shape, cut it out. Once you have done this, you will have 2 shapes that look like this (you have 2 because you folded the material in half, remember?)
So now you need to line these shapes up, with the good sides facing each other. Use your pins to pin them together so when you are sewing, nothing moves out of place. Take this pinned piece and use your sewing machine (or hand sew using a running stitch) and sew about 1 centimetre from the edge nearly all the way around, leaving a gap big enough to get your hand through when you are stuffing! Turn the shape inside out so that the good side is now on the outside and you should have something like this!
Unsure why this is sideways, but you get the gist, right? All you need to do now, is stuff the pillow with your chosen wadding and then stitch up the gap by hand. This can be a little tricky as you must turn the open edges inwards and do a looping type stitch to make sure the pillow is sealed with no rough edges (Blimey, that’s so unclear…I’m presuming no one will have a clue what I mean haha!)
And voila!! You should have something that looks a bit like this! (Yes, I know one side is chubbier that the other. I don’t care. It looks stunning)
Hope Rowanne had a nice sleep on the flight. Considering I also made her a matching eye mask, she should have slept like a baby!
Love,
Lauren
xx
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
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
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
Friday, 26 August 2011
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
Thursday, 25 August 2011
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
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
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