Hello my loves,

and welcome to another food related blog post, where I talk all things deliciousness and healthy indulgence. I hope that all of you are very good and that your week hasn't been too stressful! Without further ado, grab yourself a cuppa, get comfortable and let me jump straight into today's post.

Spring is always the time for me where I'm unsure of whether to eat something warm or cold, as it's already getting hotter (as far as you can use the word "hot" in the UK) but it's still a bit cold, so you don't want to eat just a cold salad. That's why I have come up with an amazing spring salad, which you can easily whip up in no time and still has some warmth to it from the cooked quinoa. A really important thing when eating is that you use lots of different colours, because, as the saying, the eye eats before the mouth, and if you just have some lame colours then chances are higher that you won't like it as much. Here I tried to use as many colours as possible and so many different flavours to give you an explosion in your mouth of tastiness.

This salad is full of good things for your body, obviously vegan, gluten free, nut free and refined sugar free.

You will need:

Salad:

1 cup Quinoa
100g Lamb's salad
2 Avocados
1 Mango
100g Cherry tomatoes

Serves: 4

Method:

Either way prepare your quinoa as instructed on the back of the packaging, or soak the 1 cup of quinoa for around 10 to 15 minutes, drain and then cook it with 2 cups of water, bring it to a boil then reduce the heat and let it simmer until soft. Chop up your avocados (cut half of it into stripes for decoration purposes) and the mango into bite sized chunks, and the cherry tomatoes and cucumber into quarters.

Wash your lamb's salad and season with some olive oil and some mixed herbs, by now your quinoa should be cooked too so just add all of your ingredients into a large mixing bowl and carefully stir them well together and season. Pop some into a serving bowl or onto a plate and add the avocado stripes and chili flakes. For the finishing touch sprinkle with some pomegranate seeds.



And there you have it, an easy, quick but yet so delicious salad perfect for spring time. If you don't like quinoa (please still give it a go, because it's sooooo good!) then bake some sweet potato wedges and put those on top, that's what I do some times as well and it tastes phenomenal!

I hope you enjoyed this little cooking class and that you will like this salad, if you do recreate it then please don't forget to send me a photo and tag me on my social medias, so I can see your lovely recreations! And please share this post over on your social medias, and leave me one of your favourite meals in the comments down below, I'd love to know them!

Mary going offline xx

Hello my beautiful friends,

and welcome back to a new blog post of mine! I do hope that all of you are doing really well and that your week has been amazing.

For today's post I wanted to do a kind of "Get ready with me" kind of a helpful post about getting ready for a shopping day. So that's exactly what I'm going to do, so grab yourself a cuppa get comfy and I hope you enjoy.

Starting off with makeup. Now with makeup you can really do whatever you want, you can do heavy eyes if that's your style, or you can go very simple and classic as I did with winged liner, mascara and a nude lip. I wouldn't wear a bright statement lip because chances are not very high that you have a lot of time to reapply it throughout your shopping spree. But if you really want to wear something bright then I'd definitely suggest to go for a matte one, maybe even a liquid lipstick as they really just stay on your lips for ages. And if you're more of a glossy lip girl then I'd say try to find a lipgloss that is not sticky because the last thing you want is to have your lipgloss getting everywhere on the clothes you're trying on. Here I went for a creamy lipstick that can easily wear off throughout the day and still leaves my lip with a hint of colour.


For hair, I wouldn't recommend doing a fancy hair style, as it would just get ruined by trying on different tops, and the last thing you want is to stand there with the messiest hair you probably have ever had. So either way go for your hair just falling down as it is or try a a top bun which you will have to secure really good with some bobby pins, that's what I did for this day, It looks good, classy and chic but you don't have to put much effort into it.


Now onto the outfit, which is probably the trickiest out of all the things. When going shopping it's all about simplicity. So jeans, a simple t-shirt, cardigan if it's cold, a jacket and a pair of shoes that you cane easily put on and off if trying on some jeans, skirts or dresses. When it's warm enough I actually love to wear a dress because they are so easy to work with, you can just quickly chuck it on and off. I wouldn't recommend going for a button up shirt or anything complicated where you will just spend ages in the changing rooms taking off your day wear. For this outfit I went for some simple dark blue jeans, a stripy t-shirt, a black cardigan which you can't see and a jacket.


Another tip would be going for a smaller bag or even a rucksack (or backpack, whatever you call them) so your bag doesn't get in the way.














What I'm wearing:

Top - Zara
Jeans- Zara
Jacket - River Island
Shoes - Deichmann
Lipstick - Urban Decay Revolution lipstick "Naked"

That's going to be it for today guys, I do hope you enjoyed it and found it helpful. If you did like ti then please let me know that by leaving me a comment down below and sharing this post over on your social medias. I'd also love to know what your staple pieces for going shopping are so leave me those in the comments down below as well. See you next time.

Mary going offline xx

Hello my beautiful friends,

and welcome back to my blog! I hope you're all doing well and that your week has been fantastic. Let me jump right into today's post, shall we?

So for today I decided to do another makeup review as I just love to write them, and I love testing out new products myself. I really hope that these posts help you out too, if you might want to try something out but are not 100 per cent sure, I hope I can provide you with your desired information.


Starting off with my opinion on the packaging, it's gorgeous! Literally one of the most beautiful ones I have ever seen. There's a mirror included which is always good for touch-ups or makeup on the go. As you can see it's a silver reflective material and comes with this cute little velvety pouch to store it in. It actually also comes with a Kabuki brush, but I forgot to include that one in the photo, which, to be honest, is really not good. It's so itchy and when I used it with the highlighter it literally felt like I was scraping of my skin, and I was really surprised about that because with high-end brushes you would expect them to be high quality and soft, so I wouldn't recommend using that brush.

Now if you're not familiar with the "Glowing Gardens" range by Dior, then you should know that this is their SS2016 collection, which is just stunning. The Collection includes the Lip Glow in "Lilac", Rouge Dior Baume in "540 Passiflore", Rouge Dior in "667 Rouge Pimpant", Rouge Dior Billiant in "668 Brise Bise, a 5 Coleurs Glowing Gardens Eyeshadow Palette in "451 Rose Gardens", Diorshow Colour & Contour Eyeshadow and Liner Duo in "157 Iris", Diorshow Pro Liner in "072 Pro Taupe", Diorshow Fusion Mono in "841 Roseé and lastly the Diorskin Nude Air Glowing Gardens Illuminating powder in the shades "001 Glowing Pink" and "002 Glowing Nude".



After that lot of information let's get onto the actual product. I have the shade "Glowing Pink" and as the name would suggest it's a pinky highlighter. I do have to say that it is very shimmery which I didn't expect it to be when I saw it online but when you swatch it or wear it you can definitely see particles of shimmer on your skin. On my very first impression the shimmer put me off of it, but after a few hours of having the swatch on my hand I liked it more and more and in the end I fell head over heels for it. So I'd definitely suggest swatching it in store and leaving it on for a few hours before you say it's not for you, even if you don't like noticeable shimmer, you might get pass it as I did.

As it's a highlighter with a pinky undertone I thought that it would be very noticeable and look like you've got a stripe on your cheek and had to blend it in really well, but in fact I barely had to blend it in, the texture is soft as butter (somewhat a gross comparison, I know, haha) which makes applying it a million times easier. Speaking of application, I actually like to use my fingers for doing so, as I think that no brush picks up any of the product, might just be my brushes as I don't have a suitable, good quality brush for highlighter, but if you don't like using your fingers then try a fan brush they are brilliant for applying highlighter in the right places (Zoeva do really good ones.)!






Now highlighter is my favourite part of doing my makeup so I love this one being very intense, so it's definitely not one to say it's very natural, but whilst it being very intense it kind of manages to look somewhat near natural at the same time, it just makes you overall appearance looking ten times healthier than it did without it. Overall I would 100 per cent recommend this highlighter to everyone out there, it's perfect for the Spring and Summer season as everyone likes to look like they are lit from within and glowy, which is exactly what this product does. So if you're birthday is soon and you still have a gap to fill on your wishlist or you want to splurge on something and treat yourself with something super luxurious then try it out, it's so worth the money and it will last you a lifetime!

That's going to be it for today guys, I hope you enjoyed it if you did then please let me know that with leaving me a comment down below, also make sure to leave me your suggestions for future makeup reviews. If you want to do me a favour then please share this post over on your social medias and check out my other blog posts!

Mary going offline xx

Hello my loves,

and welcome back to my blog! I hope all of you are doing well and that you had a great weekend. To further relax yourself, why don't you grab yourself a cup of tea, lean back and let me jump straight into today's post.

Today I am going to talk about some topic, which I haven't done in a while because I had a feeling that not many people seemed to like it, but then again I'm writing this blog because I want to and I should write about what I want, right? So today's topic is all about attitude.

To begin with, many people don't know where their attitude comes from, does it come from me? Or is someone else responsible for how I see different things, how I act and how I speak? When really it's a mixture of both of these. Confused now? Let me explain: The way you act, the way you speak, the way you think surely is influenced by the people surrounding you, by your friends, family, enemies (if you happen to have some!), and most importantly by society.

Society plays such a big part in our lives these days, that some people let it choose their attitude. Society has actually planted a really wrong picture in our head, with its masterpiece of a wrong story that influences everyone around the world. Everyone has to be skinny, has to wear monochrome clothes, is not allowed to do this, is not allowed to do that, has to think in a certain way and is not allowed to be their true self. And when you do happen to be any different than what society says, then everyone stares at you like you're an alien.

I, myself, have some real life experience with this type of staring and not following the lead. Back in the day, when I used to actually worry about what other people were thinking about me and worrying about not being as they wanted me to be, I was concerned about society ruining me. I mean, let's be honest, when you're a teenager, and already controlled by hormones, the last thing you need is the world telling you that if you don't follow the lead, and don't do as everyone else, you won't be good enough. That's actually the worst someone can tell a teenager, but that's exactly what I was told, and did I listen? No, I didn't because I never understood the concept of being like everyone else, I mean there is only one you in this world so why not be unique?

Of course being a teenager and not listening to what others tell you, others hating your for what you are and getting bullied because of being you is not pretty. But really, I wouldn't change a single thing now thinking back. All of these experiences made an impact on who I am today, and the outcome of being myself, not listening and being unique is an incredibly happy and strong woman.

But before we get to the real good stuff, let me tell you what happened a few months ago. Basically school was getting more and more stressful with every second, I had some drama in my family going on and let society influence me. I knew it wasn't right, but I fell in kind of a winter depression, as you call it. And that was the time were I started being really unhappy with myself, with my outta looking and my attitude. I felt like not being enough for anything and was near a break down. But then there was this little girl inside of me, talking about how much I've been threw already and how I caught myself every time. This little girl inside of me was my saviour, I caught myself at the right time, and told myself that I had to change something, that this wasn't going to be my attitude! And that's what I did.

Ever since, I just see everything differently , I don't take things for granted anymore, I don't let other people tell me what to do, what in their opinion is better for me, because only I can say what's good for me and what's not. And even then if I might have done a mistake I don't beat myself up, mentally, instead I learn by it. That's life, people. Making wrong decisions is part of living a happy life, there is no such thing where you only make right choices and are happy because of that. If something doesn't work, don't tell yourself that you're not good enough for it and let it drop, no, continue doing it until you succeed. Now transfer this attitude to everything in your life, be who you are and be unique, then I can guarantee you, you will be happy.

Now, that's going to be it for this topic today. I know it's very deep, but I just felt like throwing this out there, and tell the world, although I have to say I was a bit unsure of writing about my past, in the end I'm glad I did. I do hope that you liked reading something different to my usual beauty and fashion posts, and please let me know if you can rely to this, and don't hesitate to leave me your stories in the comments down below! I'd also love you to send me an email, and please share this post over on your social medias!

My happy, encouraging song: Fight Song - Rachel Platten



Mary going offline xx 

Disclaimer: I do not own the picture above. All rights reserved to Google.

Hello you beautiful bunch of people,

how are you? Well besides that the weekend always pretty much flies by like a fly I'm very good, especially since my birthday was on Friday. I am in no way writing this blog post to show anything off, I personally love watching those kind of videos on YouTube because I'm a nosy person and I love seeing what other people received, bought and what they use it for. I might do a video on this too, but for now let's get started with the post!

My mum is literally the best, she surprised with my best friends. We drove with a limousine for an hour and cruised around the city, afterwards we went to a cocktail bar and just celebrated my 18th birthday like you should. It was absolutely amazing, I can't even find the right words to describe how amazing it was. Those four girls mean everything to me, I love them so much! They are my heart, my soul and my brain. I don't know where I would be without them nor what I would do without them. There's this special bond holding us all together, this very unique friendship is like no one else's, and I will be forever grateful for this friendship!

But let me stop that dramatic speech of mine, because this is something where I think the adage "A photo says more than thousand words" comes in very handy and fits perfectly, so get yourself a cuppa and enjoy the photography.












As you might be able to tell by the photos I just couldn't stop smiling and still can't seem to get this big grin off of my face, because I am so lucky to have all those amazing people in my life, I have to thank all of you, if any of them is reading this, for this very special day, that you made so special and for being a part of it, I love you all very much.

I hope all of you liked having a sneak peak into my life, and that you will share this post over on your social medias, it would mean a lot to me! If you have any good birthday stories to tell, then make sure to leave them in the comments down below, I'd love to read them!

Mary going offline xx

Hello my beautiful people,

and happy spring time. As it's officially spring time now I thought what better opportunity to take a few shots for a "Get ready with me". So get yourself a cuppa get comfy and enjoy!

Makeup:

For my complexion I used my usual Nars Sheer Glow Foundation and mixed in a little of my Makeup Forever Ultra HD Foundation Stick, to give it a bit more coverage as my skin isn't looking its best at the moment.

For eyes I used a lot of palettes, as you can see, you definitely don't need that many! If you have anything similar to these shadows I used then let me know in comments down below so I can check it out. I used the shade "Combust" from UD Naked Smoky palette as my transition shade to make sure that all of the additional shades will blend better. For an all over the lid shade I used "Chopper" from the UD Naked 2 palette, and finally to further deepen the crease and to make the look a bit more interesting I added the shade "Rule" from my self-made Mac palette. For "liner" I used the shade "Whisky" from the UD Naked Smoky palette on an angled brush. Then I just added lots of my favourite mascara, you know the drill, my Benefit Roller Lash.

Brows are very important to frame the face so to fill them in I used the shade "Frisk" from UD Naked 2 Basics palette and set them in place with the L'Oreal Brow Artist Plumper in Dark. Spring is all about the pinks and all about the blush, so for that I took my Sleek Blush by 3 palette, and took the first shade called "O.C California". To set all of my makeup into place I took my Rimmel Stay Matte powder and to add some glow back I used my Sleek Contour Kit in Light.

For the finishing touch on my lips I used the Rimmel Kate Moss lipstick in 38 and the Clarins Instant Light Lip Perfecter in 2.







Outfit:





Shirt - Primark
Jeans - H&M
Coat - Zara
Shoes - Deichmann


Now that;s going to be it for today, I do hope you enjoyed this little spring post, if so then do make sure to let me know that in the comments down below. Also make sure to share this post over on your social medias, I'd love you to come back for my next post next Sunday!

Mary going offline xx

Hello you beautiful people,

and welcome back. I hope the lot of you are relaxed due to the Easter holiday. Speaking of Easter that is our subject for today's blog post.

I came up with two recipes for very delicious treats which are super easy and simple to create and don't require a lot of ingredients. So get comfy, take a piece of paper and pen to write your last minute shopping list and enjoy.

1. Easter Nests with self-made Easter Eggs


Method:

Nests: 

Melt the dark chocolate in a glas bowl over a saucepan with boiling water, keep stirring until it's completely melted. Stir in the puffed Quinoa until everything is combined nicely. Scoop the mixture, approximately one tablespoon, into some muffin cups and put them either way in the freezer for 10 - 15 minutes or pop them in the fridge for half an hour.

Easter Eggs:

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until everything is combined. It might look not sticky enough to form with but leave it to set for  around 10 minutes. Separate the mixture in 3 or 4 bowls, and add food colours of your choice. Then take a teaspoon full of the mixture and form into little egg shapes, pop them on a tray and into a freezer for 20 minutes or until set.

When everything is set and ready, put a few eggs on the nests and they are ready to serve!

Tip: When you form the egg shapes make sure your hands are wet, this way the mixture sticks together much better.






2. Delicious Rocky Road - Healthier Version 



Tip: The sultanates are our substitute for the marshmallows, if you fancy some then definitely check the vegan marshmallows out, but as this is a healthier version we are using sultanates.

Method:

Melt the dark chocolate and the butter over a saucepan with boiling water. After everything is melted stir in the golden syrup. Crash your biscuits in a sealed bag, but be careful not to hit yourself with it! Pop them into the mixture as well as the sultanates and mix until combined. Pour everything in a baking tin lined with grease proof paper. Melt some vegan white chocolate and drizzle it over the mixture to make it look prettier. Refrigerate for 2 - 2 ½ hours.

Ready to serve!




That's going to be it for today guys, let me know if you create any of these for Easter tomorrow. Tag me on your social medias and let me know if you liked this post in the comments down below!

Mary going offline xx

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