FOTD // The Feline Flick

I am really sorry to say that I have completed neglected my blog for the past couple of weeks, I thought it was going to be easy to work and blog but it's actually really difficult and hats off to all you ladies that manage it, you're all better women than I am.
I've had this face of the day post hanging about on my laptop for about a month now but I've lacked the inspiration to write and post it. Today though, I just got the sudden urge to blog again and I am suuuu-per happy about it, so here goes!

I started off by preparing my lips with Lush's Sweet Lips Lip Scrub, I don't think they do it in this flavour/scent but they still have many more to choose from and they are wonderful for getting rid of chapped lips. To keep my lips moisturised throughout the day I then applied Balmi Lip Balm in Coconut. I always use the same foundation, Rimmel Match Perfection in the shade "Porcelain". To conceal my under eye dark circles, I decided to go for a heavy duty concealer, Seventeen's Phwoarr Paint. Powder is a must in my make up routine, this time I decided to use Bourjois Healthy Balance Powder. At this stage I need to liven up and put a bit of colour back into my cheeks, I did so using a No7 blush that I have had in my make up collection for far too long. Onto the eyes, I started by lining my tightline with the Rimmel Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil. The only eyeshadow palette I keep in my make up bag is the Make Up Revolution Iconic 3 palette, I dusted the fourth shade all over my lid and then used the seventh colour in the outer corners. I've really been loving felt tip liners at the moment so I used this one from Collection to create a feline flick. Last but not least, to finish off the look I coated my lashes with Maybelline's the Rocket Volum' Mascara. 

The Perfect Sunday

I must admit, I've never been the biggest lover of Sundays. Not until I started working weekends that is. Since this Sunday, probably as you're reading this, I am going to be at work, I thought I'd tell you a few of my favourite things to do on a Sunday, a weekend or just a day off.

Walks 

With the pup and the boy. This is one of my absolute favourite things ever, as I'm sure I've mentioned before. There's nothing better than getting away for the afternoon with your favourite people and usually a picnic in our case.

Lazing About

Luckily, I did have last Sunday off work so the boy and I took to the couch armed with our duvet, lots of goodies and a laptop and that is where we remained for the duration of the day. We watched "Monty Python Live (Mostly)" and You've Got Mail. If you've never seen Monty Python before, I would highly recommend that you spend  your Sundays watching all of them because they are the most stupid, most hilarious thing you will ever watch and it is wonderful. 

Baking 

I don't think this will come as I surprise to any of you but I love to bake. If there's ever a day when I can spend the whole day baking, I will usually experiment and try new recipes. Sometimes they don't always work out so at least I know I will have time to bake an old trusty favourite.

Organising 

I left this one until last because I feel like it may be a bit of a weird one. On Sundays, I like to sit down with my notebook and plan out the week ahead. I'm one of those people that when they have too much going on in their head at once it just gets very full and I begin to feel quite overwhelmed. It's good for me to write out what my plan for the week is, maybe some meal planning and blog posts. 

So there you go, just a few of my favourite things that occupy my Sundays. I hope you've all had a wonderful week & you're enjoying your Sunday. What are some of your favourite weekend things? 

Super Gooey Chocolate Brownies

Happy Friday to you all! It dawned on me last week that I haven't actually shown you guys my favourite baked treat before. They have been featured on a guest post over on the lovely Lizzie's blog but I've never put them on my blog. As they are my favourite thing to bake and by far my favourite thing to eat, I had to share the recipe with you guys.

 I mentioned last night on Twitter that there's nothing more satisfying than having a tin full of homemade brownies. As I'm writing this post, I am so tempted to sneak downstairs and have another one, I will try and refrain from doing so as it's just gone 11pm. If I don't just cut them up and eat them straight away, I put them in the microwave for about 30 seconds, they come out all gooey, warm and chocolatey, like they have just come out of the oven.

I made brownies in my Minnie Mouse Silicone cake mould last week and they were super adorable, I posed a picture of those on Instagram if you fancy a look! However, that didn't turn out to be very practical as it involved baking four individual brownies, so it took about three hours in total. Some of the brownie also got stuck inside so all but one kind of failed. I usually just bake them in a square baking tin, as shown above. I line the tin with greaseproof paper and leave two flaps at either side so it's super easy to lift out of the tin when they come out of the oven. As you can see here, I had to use tin foil this week as I forgot to buy greaseproof paper, it worked fine too though! This recipe makes about 12 portions and I promise you after trying this once, it will be your go to brownie recipe!

Ingredients:

300g caster sugar
3 eggs
200g dark chocolate
200g butter
70g plain flour
1tsp baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4, line a square baking tin with greaseproof paper and grease the rest of the tin with butter. 

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs.

3. In a second bowl, break the chocolate into small chunks, cut the butter into cubes and microwave until melted. Do this in 30 second intervals, stirring in between each to make sure you don't burn the chocolate.

4. Once slightly cooled, add the chocolate mixture to the first bowl. Stir in until everything is completely combined. 

5. Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and fold in gently. Try not to stir the mixture. 

6. Pour into the tin and bake for 25-30 minutes. I find that the trick of putting a knife into cakes to see if they're cooked doesn't really work with brownies as you want them to still be slightly gooey inside. So bake until the edges start to come away from the sides of the tin. 

I hope you'll all give these brownies a go and be sure to tweet me if you do. Happy baking!