Quirkmas/Bakemas - Homemade Ferroro Rocher

I know I said I wasn't going to post everyday and I'm fairly certain I won't but my lovely dad found the mini cake cases I was searching for and I decided to post up my second Quirkmas post! 
I also thought about calling it bakemas - I'm just winging it now. 

Someone I know took this recipe from pinterest and I messed
It's a totally customisable recipe and there are plenty of variations online if you don't fancy the ingredients in this one.

Homemade Ferrero Rocher

I'll get straight to the ingredients because it really annoys me when I have to scroll through endless paragraphs to get to the ingredients......

1 Bar of Cooking Chocolate (Melted)

- I opted for dark chocolate because it contained no dairy, use any kind you fancy. You could also use chocolate spread.

2 Bars of Weetabix (Crushed)
Blanched Hazelnuts (Dipped in Chocolate)
- If you cannot have nuts, the hazelnuts aren't essential, I just added them for experimentation. 

My ingredients are also essentially the instructions!

1. Crush the weetabix in a bowl - I used a wooden spoon to crush it, feel free to use the utensil of your choice!

2. Melt the chocolate - I opted for melting on the stove with a low heat, feel free to use the microwave!

3. Add the melted chocolate to the crushed weetabix bowl and mix until all of the weetabix is covered.

 
If using hazelnuts,Leave a small amount of melted chocolate behind.

No Hazelnuts

4. If you are not using hazelnuts, take a spoonful of your mixture and place it into your small cake cases and repeat this process until your mixture/supply of cake cases is complete! 

Using Hazelnuts

5. Dip a hazelnut into the leftover melted chocolate and then begin to assemble your chocolte and weetabix mix around your hazelnut. When you are happy with your assembled piece, place it in one of your small cake cases. 

6. Repeat this process until your mixture/supply of cake cases is complete. 

When you have finished

7. Place your small cake cases on a tray and place the tray in the fridge.

8. Leave your Ferroro Rocher in the fridge until set - mine took about 20 minutes to set, it may vary for others.

9. Enjoy!

My batch certanly do not look elegant and they probably aren't a patch on the real thing but they are very tasty!
The hardest part was the concentration it took to assemble them without dropping them! 

Judges Verdict

Me: "A bit rich but yummy!"

Mum: "A success story!"
Aunt Lynda: "They are lovely, bring some on Christmas Day"I may add other judges as I share them out! 😂

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Quirkmas? Let's try it.

So, a few years ago on my old blog I decided to attempt blogmas and I totally sucked. If you can be bothered going back far enough in my archive I think I still have the posts live and you can see for yourself just how terrible they were. I was in a creative rut and trying to make myself do something creative every day by putting up a post. I was also trying too hard to do the same types of posts I was reading and the vlogmas videos I was watching.
  That was counterproductive as forcing creativity conditioned my brain to be unimaginative and my post were all crap! 

This year I'm going to attempt my own little Quirkmas. I doubt it will be every day and it certainly won't be groundbreaking but it will hopefully be fun or interesting to read. My December has some quirky elements to it, as does my Christmas Day so I should be able to come up with something to write about!

I quite often end up chasing my tail at this time of year, as do most people I guess, so it is quite nice to be starting off the month of December on a day where I've mostly been sat in my room listening to music and brainstorming ideas for blog posts/baking. 

I think I've mentioned in other posts that I play a brass instrument so I'll be doing that throughout the month. Normally I would tire of the repetition very quickly but when it comes to the festive season I actually find it therapeutic to play and read the same music. The sound that comes out of my instrument may not always be exact or consistent, but the process is and I find it comforting. 

I'm waffling now, which is what I tend to do when I'm  veering off plan and just typing thoughts.

Back on plan, I started the gift buying process yesterday, I'd temporarily forgotten it was St Andrews Day when I filled it with Christmas activity but I did spend the day in the city centre taking in all its beauty - admittedly when I wasn't hiding from the rain.

I got a few quirky things for myself, a primark Christmas Tree dress - I'll use that in another post and these little festive flamingo earrings which were from Boots.

Next post, if I remember to do another one before the end of the month 😂, will probably be baking related. 

Until then, Happy Quirkmas to all and to all a good....Saturday.

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Quirky Faves: Autumn 2018

The first time I typed the title of this blog I typed Summer 2017, I'm off to a great start!

I love Autumn. Nature starts charging it's batteries and takes a bit of time out to rejuvinate before bursting to life again in Spring.
That's a really healthy reminder sometimes, to take some time to recharge and not to burn out.

I'm probably rubbish as favourites posts, I think I've made two lacklustre attempts but I thought I'd give it another go, maybe seasonally. Which would work well, as I'm also terrible at having an upload schedule.

Here's some of my quirky faves this Autumn.
I'm not sponsored by any companies, authors or locations I have mentioned below.

Books

  

Yes, I am a 29 year old woman and yes there are two unicorn books in this section. I've said it before, I'll say it again, I dig unicorns.

This Summer/Autumn some of my favourite reads have been

Be More Unicorn: How to Find Your Inner Sparkle by Joanna Gray
When The Curtain Falls by Carrie Hope Fletcher 
The Little Book of Unicorns: Unicornucopia by Caitlin Doyle

You can find all of my Quirky Reads posts here

Monki Midi Skirts

I've built up a steady collection of these since I first discovered Monki last autumn.
I fall in love each time a new quirky pattern is released - I don't buy every one I see but I've been reaching into my wardrobe for these again and again. 

Shoes

Another Monki purchase, I don't normally wear mustard but when I saw these I knew they belonged on my feet.
I don't wear alot of corduroy either but I love these.
They are super comfy and they fit like they were designed for my feet.
Great for walking through crunchy leaves! Not so much on a rainy day but there are other shoes for those days! 

Pumpkin Spice Lattes

Pumpkin Spice Lattes! I don't actually like coffee and I have a dairy intolerance but thankfully this can be customised!
I discovered I enjoy lattes when I can't taste the coffee so I've been having them with soya or coconut milk and the occasional shot of caramel or vanilla.  I discovered a few weeks ago that Pumpkin Spice Latte's are amazing! Another reason for Autumn to be my favourite season!

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Quirky Reads: Be More Unicorn - How To Find Your Inner Sparkle.

Having recently been made redundant and finding myself back in the routine of job searching, I've experienced a dip in my internal and external sparkle.

Be More Unicorn: How To Find Your Inner Sparkle by Joanna Gray was just what I needed to remind myself that the best way to find magic is to believe in myself and create it.

When my mother handed me the book, she knew it didn't need a hard sell. I dig unicorns. Maybe it's because I'm Scottish and the unicorn is our national animal?

Some parts of the book were a useful reminder embrace opportunities to be magical, fabulous and playful but other parts taught me the importance of digging a bit deeper into who I am both on the inside and the outside to become more graceful, enigmatic, fierce and fulfilled.

I'm a firm believer in following the advice of my Unicorn Decision Making Pen which quite often encourages me to Chase a Rainbow but often I fail to spot the rainbow or even look for it because I think I know better.

In the spirit of Being More Unicorn, I'm going to chase more rainbows when they present themselves.  In the meantime, I may embrace the magic around me by taking in a sunset or two, gazing at some stars or taking a walk in the rain - if this uncharacteristically tropical weather ever breaks.

Be More Unicorn: How to Find Your Inner Sparkle is a short but gorgeous read offering a healthy dose of escapism and encouragement with all the glitter and enthusiasm you need to sparkle and shine. 

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A Mile A Day....Or Close Enough

Hello! I've been pretty silent on my blog for a while.
My batteries have been charging.

I forget sometimes when I'm charging my devices throughout the day that my brain is the most frequently used device I own and needs the same care an attention to work at full capacity.

I'm keen to get a bit fitter than I currently am, not in an I must be skinny, I will now document my trip to the gym every day, but I do spent alot of my day sitting and I'd like to be a bit more active, and climb a few flights of stairs or a hill without needing a good 5-10 minutes to recover.

I'm going to combine my shoe diary with my attempts to get out and do some exploring on foot.   

According to the internet - and who am I to argue with the internet? - there are 2000 steps in a mile, I initially set my target at 3000 but found that I was exceeding it so I moved it to 4500.  A few days ago I managed over 18,000 but I did an uncharacterisitic amount of walking that day so I won't get too cocky!

My aim is to have more adventures an hopefully, in turn become more adventurous!

Today's Shoes 

These super comfortable beauts are Beach Athletics, I think I bought them from the Saltrock website.
If there is a day for stripey and colourful shoes - why not Tuesday?


Steps:7,152

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Mental Decluttering

I believe Lorelai Gilmore - my resident go to guru for anything in life really - said it best when she said: 

‘My Brain is a wild jungle full of scary gibberish’  

I can relate! I often end up with a foggy burned out brain because I’m trying to make it do or remember too much at once.

Here are a few things I’ve been doing recently to ‘Mentally Declutter’ that I’ve found really helpful. 

Colour Coordinated Apps

I changed my phone background from a brightly coloured picture of Beaker from The Muppets (sorry Beaker, I love you) to a photo of a rainbow above a loch that I took on a recent trip. It’s much calmer and makes for a great backdrop. I’ve colour coordinated all of the apps on the phone so that all the same or similar colours are grouped together and everything sits on two screens rather than four or five. Colours that don’t match anything else are grouped together in folders.
It sounds silly but it makes looking at my phone less distracting and I’m less likely to get consumed in nonsense on the way to whatever task I originally planned to do.

At The Very Least Lists
I can’t remember where I originally read this idea, I think it was someone else’s blog, when I remember or find it I’ll come back to this post and credit them! Rather than To Do lists I’ve started keeping at the very least lists and it’s made me much more productive. I tend to find on To Do lists I aim to high because I’m throwing on literally everything I need to do. With an At The Very Least list, I break things down into smaller more manageable chunks and stop myself from trying to do 80 things at once.

Delete or file old emails
I’ve semi managed this on my personal emails but I occasionally let that lapse. I’ve really focused on doing it with my work emails though. A few weeks ago I went through and either filed or deleted anything that hadn’t already been filed or deleted right from my first day to the present day so that only things that are outstanding or new remain.  It’s been a massive declutter for my brain as well as my inbox and has helped me be more relaxed and responsive as I navigate my way through the day.
 

Personal Task Management
I’ve always used some sort of task management tool for work or study related tasks but I can quite often let personal things slip because I haven’t kept track of them in a structured way. I’ve now put a task management app on my phone and have three boards, Creative Projects (primarily blog ideas, story ideas, thoughts to develop into something creative) Working on myself (haircuts, medical & dental appointments, thank you messages to relatives after Birthdays and Christmases, things to be paid) and Doing Things For Others (voluntary commitments, things I’ve offered to do). I’m forgetting important things less and getting better at following up. With a bit of luck I’ll get better at keeping to a blog schedule and not end up posting once every three months!

I forget sometimes that my brain is my biggest place of work and creativity and needs to be kept fresh and tidy otherwise it will just get clogged up with junk and lose sight of what should be consuming my brain space and what can float on by. 

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Morning Brew Review

*This is not a sponsored post, I just really enjoyed the tea and wanted to write about it*

I've always been a bit picky when it comes to hot drinks although I've recently discovered that I'm quite into quirky tea!

I was doing a bit of shopping on my way to meet a friend on a freezing cold day - to give her a two month late birthday present, I digress - and wandered into T2. 

I'd been in before about year or so before, bought some fruity tea that didn't really float my boat and never really ventured back in, but on this freezing cold day I wandered in and the friendly staff member encouraged me to have a small cuppa while I browsed - I poured myself some Green Rose and began to look around, I knew there were a lot of flavours but I'd never realised just how many!

I spotted the explorer flasks and after a chat with another friendly member of staff I decided to go for one - I've since bought a teamaker too and both are amazing.

I bought a few flavours to go with the flask and the person serving me asked me if I wanted some tea to drink in my flask - given how cold it was, I said yes and asked for some more green rose. 

I've been trying to get myself into the habit of taking something hot in my flask with me with I leave in the morning for work and decided to do a little Morning Brew Review.

Flavour: Banana Bake

Smells like: A local bakery preparing bread and cakes for the day (with a hint of banana)
Tasted like: Freshly baked banana bread.
Transported me to: A quirky coffee shop in my day dreams, I've possibly read too many books about characters who own coffee shops. 

Flavour: Toasty Nougat

Smells like: Toasting marshmallows over a campfire
Tasted like: Somewhere between a toasted marshmallow and s'mores.
Transported me to: An adventure into the woods, with a crackling fire, someone in the background playing guitar and gazing up at the stars.


Flavour: Green Rose

Smells Like: A warm day with nature doing its thing. 
Tasted Like: Tropical fruit
Transported me to: A park or a beach, catching rays of sunshine, very welcome on a cold day!


Flavour: Creme Brulee

Smells Like: Hazelnuts

Tasted Like: A plate of fresh hazelnut cookies
Transported me to: My kitchen, well the kitchen of my day dreams, where I'm an epic baker who could whip up a plate of cookies with ease - reality not quite as impressive. 

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