Lazy Days

My days off these days tend to revolve around family, cooking and shopping. Is that a bad thing?! Ventures to the park with Carl and his little girl Ella have become a regular occurrence in the life of moi. These were taken on a recent outing to Marlay, which has such lovely grounds, a quaint little food market, and a resident peacock. I also nabbed a bit of rhubarb on a shopping expedition and toyed around with making all sorts of rhubarby goodies. I was so sure that I detested rhubarb, it's unfashionable tartness completely ruining it's reputation, but upon experimentation, I have become quite fond of it. It doesn't help that I produce many a rhubarb dessert in work, and obviously I have to taste what I make, so I think I have been kind of forced to like it. Done the right way, it can be an amazing ingredient in desserts. The trick is to sweeten it with quite a bit of sugar. :) I made some meringues for a family dinner and topped them with cream, rhubarb compote, and a rose and orange syrup made from the rhubarb juices, reduced down with orange and rosewater to produce a gorgeous magenta hued syrup. It was such a simple dish to make, and rounded off a weekend dinner perfectly.

The makeup shopping ban I mentioned in my previous post has come to a halt. I caved and bought some goodies. I like to think of them as necessities, but I can't keep making excuses for myself now can I?! From working 16 hour days in work I have come to realise that wearing expensive makeup for that amount of time, in a hot kitchen, is both ridiculous and wasteful. Although many may argue that makeup is not really necessary for this kind of situation, the full coverage loving shallow me would rather not leave the house at all than don a bare face. Shallow I know. I have quite patchy skin, and I feel more comfortable with smooth, even toned skin. Who doesn't?! I'm not trying to convince you all (or myself) that it's ok to go out without makeup, as I have many a time, don't worry like, but for work, it's a different story. I decided to try out L'Oreal's new BB cream, a bare skin beautifier, which promises to mimic the texture of perfect skin. Skincare and coverage?! Me like. The whole BB cream hype came about yonks ago, but now every brand on the market seems to be pulling out the stops to launch their own version. I also bought the ever lovely Bourjois Healthy Mix, a staple in my collection and one of my favourite foundations, an inexpensive drugstore product that I reach for time and time again. The Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer has also made it's way into my shopping bag and into my collection, after hearing mass amounts of hype about this product in the blogging community, I decided to give it a whirl. So far, I am very impressed.

I also received some goodies from the lovely Vicky as I won a giveaway she had a while back. I am now the proud owner of MAC's Impassioned and Pop Cream blush from Topshop, two products I absolutely adore at the moment. I'll do a separate post on them! Thanks again Vicky. :)

I am aware this post has been another ramble, and forgive me if you really don't like these, product reviews coming soon :) And for those who are interested in the foodie pictures, very special post coming next week!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend :) x