Since my lack of posting and commitment to this blog i have decided to create a fresh new one for the new year..

I am going to be a better blogger i promise :)

I would be delighted if you followed...

New Job New House New Baking!

Well.. I am now settled in a beautiful house in Barnsley with my lovely boyfriend. Finally have an internet connection and a little bit of spare time to get back to blogging! Gawwwd ive missed it! and ive missed reading every one of your blogs with a cup of tea on a Tuesday and Sunday evening!

Its so lovely living with Lee and having my own kitchen, and a beautiful kitchen it is! Ill upload some pictures later in the week of the house when ive had chance to unpack a few more boxes. haha.

Soooo, back to the whole point of my blog... BAKING...I made these little Cupcake bites for a charity bake sale for Lupus at work, Let me know what you think!

Im back with avengance to this blog :) so hello, Again!

Lizzie x

Woah!!

Eeeeesh! Im sorry for abandoning you all these past few weeks, i just havent had the time to sit down and commit to writing an entry.... but here i am :)

Yes sooo last time i do believe it was just before summer ball?! Well... Summer Ball was delightful and the weather stayed nice for us (thank god! it rained all the day before, I was quite worried!) There was lots of pretty dresses, drinking and dancing and general merryment...

I have now moved back to good ol' Bramley, Leeds and have a full time job in an office. Im still learning what im supposed to be doing but once ive cracked that i think ill be orite! Me and Lee are looking for our first proper house together. (even though we've technically lived together for over a year now, but shh dont tell the landlord! aha) I think we're gonna be moving to Wakefield, so its bang in the middle for Lee to get to Barnsley and me to get to Leeds for family visits and work, so watch this space for house hunting time!

I made some cupcakes for the people at work, but as im really shy (yes, hard to believe) i didnt dare take them in, so i took them to my mums house instead. They're Chocolate Orange and Lemon Drizzle, they got the taste seal of approval from my mum anyway... one day ill be brave enough to take them to work, but for now, ill save them for my friends and family and paying customers haha!

Ahhh, im gonna have a little catch up on blogs that ive missed... and its a lot!

It feels good to be back!

x

Bye Bye York St John!

As i have mentioned Uni is now over, I have officially completed my degree. Its a very strange feeling! I dont really know what to do with myself if im honest, ive been building up to this for the past few months and now its here im stumped! anyway.... I thought i would share some pictures and adventures of my time at uni with my wonderful house mates Sarah of SpitSpotSewing and Rachel and of course Lee.

this could be a long one, so.. hold on to your hats!

I left little old Bramley in Leeds sometime mid September 2007 to move to York. Id joined a group on Facebook for my uni (york st John) and had already spoken to a girl who was going to be in the same flat as me in halls. This did not mean i wasnt bricking it when we arrived! The first night we were in halls, there were 6 of us in our flat, we (3 flat members and 2 friends) sat about and drank wine and chatted about ourselves before heading into town for the night. When i showered i had already had a bottle of wine, to myself! wobbly to say the least! It was a fun night and deffinatley helped with the bonding process...

and so onto three years of nights out and nights in, lots of wine, gin, cocktails and cider, throwing up and general merryment and here are a few photos!






Its Summer Ball on Friday so no doubt there will be something interesting to tell you all of from there. sadly there shall be no baking this week as we are all avoiding lovely fattening foods to fit our summer ball dresses!

until next time :) x

Carrot Cake

Ahhhh, finally the work is all done and handed in and Uni is over! but more on that later... I have a cake to share :)

Carrot Cake.

This little beauty went down a storm in my house and only lasted 2days! Luckily when my Dad and his girlfriend came to visit on Sunday there was a piece left that they could share haha. My Dad usually stays away from carrot cake because he finds it dry and isnt a fan of walnuts, but he really liked this and i quote 'much better than shop bought!' (walnuts let it down apparently, but what can ya do?!? ha) I like to think anything home made is better than shop bought but my dad can be a fussy old sausage! Anyway if you would like to try this cake here is the recipe, you can find it here or just follow these instructions :)

• 350g/12oz light soft brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 350ml/12floz sunflower oil
• 350g/12oz plain flour
• 7.5ml/11/2tsp baking powder
• 5ml/1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 10ml/2tsp ground cinnamon
• 5ml/1tsp ground ginger
• 350g/12oz carrots, peeled and grated
• 75g/3oz finely chopped walnuts or raisins

For the icing:

• 350g/12oz icing sugar
• 50g/2oz soft butter
• 5ml/1tsp vanilla essence
• 150g/5oz cold cream cheese
• Walnut halves

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170ºC/Fan 150ºC/325ºF/gas mark 3.
2. Lightly oil three sandwich tins and base line with baking parchment.
3. Place the sugar, oil, and eggs in a large bowl and beat together with a wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth and thickened. Sift over the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger then fold in until well mixed. Fold in the carrots and walnuts or raisins.
4. Divide the mixture between the prepared cake tins. Bake in the middle of the oven for 30-35 mins or until golden, risen and the middle bounces back when lightly pressed. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. For the icing: Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl, add the soft butter and vanilla essence. Use an electric whisk on low, to beat this until it is well mixed. Add the cream cheese and briefly beat together again until just combined. Don’t over beat or it will become runny.
6. When the cakes are cold, peel away the baking parchment. Divide the icing between the three cakes, spreading it evenly over the top of each. Stack the cakes one on top of the other. Top with the walnut halves and cinnamon. Store in a cool place.

enjoy! x

want to know me a little better?..

Ok so i was tagged in this by the lovely Jo from But Enough About You...and here we are :)

So first thing is to post the 8th picture from the 8th folder in your documents.

Oh thank god it was a semi ok picture! haha. this is of me and my bestest friend Sadie on a night out just after we returned from a week in Magaluf. I wish i was still this tanned! I miss Sadie a lot, we dont live in the same city anymore due to University and now im moving back to Leeds from York shes moving from Stoke to Leeds to Manchester, im hoping theres at least a month of crossover time that we will both be in the same place so we can spend some quality time together. Although we do have a night out planned for the 29th of this month which should be good! Last time we went out together, i got so drunk i knocked myself out on the toilet of a night club and was escorted out by a bouncer who had to hold me up outside until a taxi agreed to take me home. I was later diagnosed with concussion! im such a classy bird!

1. What shoe size are you?

a very average size 6 :)

2. Where do you work?

Currently no-where, ive been living the student bum life for a month now, although i have a few interviews lined up for next week for a proper job so eeek! fingers crossed!
3. Favourite piece of clothing you own?

My go-to favourite item of clothing is a checked shirt that i love! hmmm i wonder if there is a picture lurking anywhere with it on...nope! boo.

other than that on a more dressy note my little black dresses my favourites as staples of my wardrobe..

4. Your favourite blog?

Ooo i have a few, i recently discovered But enough about you, i look forward to her posts they make me giggle! I also enjoy Thaw, which is a novel via a blog, a strange concept but i enjoy catching up with that every now and again and really like the original-ness (not actually a word is it?) of the idea.

5. Do you have any pets?

Not currently... HOWEVER! me and the boy are planning to buy a dog soon when we are settled, we even know what hes going to be called... Harry! (and when hes naughty he shall be called Harold!) and this is the type of little doggy we want: (as im allergic and they're hypoallergenic! and adorable! win win!)
6. How many siblings do you have?

Just little old me (although my dad was married before he met my mum and had me, his previous wife had a son, James. Whilst i was little he used to spend a lot of time with us but one day my dads ex wife got really funny about him seeing us any more and i havent seen him since. Although (feel free to skip this btw!) i found out via my nan who James was still in touch with that he had joined the army and was in Iraq (this is back in 2003?) so i wrote to him a couple of times, then when i knew he was home i called to his house which isnt far from my own he wasnt there but i left my mobile number with his mum. Turns out hes a bit of a dick to put it bluntly and wasnt that interested in knowing me at all. and my general attitude toward it was i dont need a bother ive never known or had but heres a couple of pictures of me, my dad and him when i was tiny.. and for pure amusement here are some more baby pictures of me ha!

7. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?

Australia, i have never been but i would love to!

8. What were you doing before this?

my last ever university essay about repression of sexuality in Dracula. bore!

9. Your favourite food?

is currently Jalapenos. from the jar. yes i know im strange!

10. Do you have a middle name?

I have two. Anne and Margaret. Anne my mums mum and Margaret my Dads mum

11. Your favourite websites?

Blogger, Topshop (to fake internet shop, put everything i want in my basket then scare myself by looking at the total. fantastic way to kill time!) Texts from Last Night, i can spend literally hours on there laughing my head off!

12. Who do you tag?

Sarah @ SpitSpotSewing

'Our Story'

Ok, so i know ive already posted today and i also know that i said i was bogged down with work, but during one of my many distracted moments i was looking through my reading list and read a thing called 'our story' on But Enough About You's blog. I was originally going to wait till the weekend to do my own story but i cant think of a more lovely distraction than doing it now...

So the idea is you tell a story of you and someone special to you... Then to write about how you met, their 3 top likes, 3 top dislikes and finally your favourite thing about that person.

So here goes...

Lee

Lee was one of the first people i met on my course on the first day of university, he was the only one stood outside a room that i had just spent ages trying to find, so i quite bravely (im rather shy) asked him if he was there for Film and TV. I cant quite remember what he said but i remember immediatley noticing his strong Barnsley accent. I dont think much more was said between us outside the room, but once inside with everyone else i clung to him like glue! the lecturer informed us were were going to do some 'ice breaking techniques' and i died inside! thankfully Lee was my partner and we had to interview each other... I remember laughing a lot and talking about the Queens middle name. I think it had something to do with my royal sounding name... Elizabeth Anne Margaret! bahaha! We immediatley got on and formed a bond with a lot of laughter! We were in to some of the same things and formed a playful hatred of a boy with a Fall Out Boy t-shirt on (although i secretly liked them! Guilty pleasure haha) and in our breaks from workshops we used to walk into town for Greggs!

Lee was the person i sat with in lectures and played hangman with during the very boring ones! we didnt really see each other outside of university but i used to text him a lot! (especially at 3am when i was drunk, never anything cringeworthy just telling him i was drunk i think!) I used to tell him about my drunken mistakes and he jokingly judged me for them! He literally was a best friend!

During the summer of first year i didnt really have much contact with lee aside from him texting me to say 'you've just dissapeared from my most texted list, hello :)' and also a text to say he'd passed his driving test (finally! bless him :P). When we got back to uni we met up and went for a walk around town (probably called to greggs) and talked for ages! We started to see each other outside of uni and he came over to watch TV quite often. Then one night when all my housemates were going out and i was poor, i invited him over for tea and movies. He still moans about the food i made him (a rather experimental and extremely spicy spag bol. i used to throw anything in my meals to see if it worked 9/10 it didnt! and id go hungry haha) We had some alcohol and watched a whole load of comedy DVD's and after my 3rd bottle of wine i dont remember the night. But i do know we woke up together in the morning :S. I was so worried that it was going to ruin things between us and i didnt see him for a few days.

The next time we saw eachother we went to scarborough and i remember listening to the Kings of Leon album Only by The Night all the way there and back. I really wanted him to kiss me on the beach because it was dark and romantic (i might add that we set off to scarborough at 6pm on a cold october evening!) when we got back he came in for a brew and went home. I think that night we realised that there actually was something there.

November 22nd 2009 - we decided to not see other people and December 20th 2009 we became an official item! I love Lee more than anything in the entire world and we are planning to live together officially from September onwards and i literally cant wait! He makes me the happiest girl ever!

His Top 3 Likes: His Guitar, Fizzy Slush (from the cinema), Film Making
Top 3 Dislikes: Cake (shocking!), cartoon students (not really sure! haha) and staying in the house alllll day.

My favourite things about lee is: his ability to make me smile even when im crying, his silly pet names for me Lizby and Lizbon etc haha and his whole wonderfulness in general!

and here are some pictures of our adventures:

This was before we were an 'item' on a night out around York.at Christmas time! 2008 again before we were officially an itemA Daytrip to the seaside. have no idea of the date.. possibly Feb 2009Our First Holiday to Newquay, Lee showing off because he won and Crazy Golf, April 2009Another seaside trip. Blackpool June 2009Making snowmen for my 22nd Birthday January 2010Seaside trip for Valentines Feb 2010on the beach in the rain Feb 2010Latest adventure a weekend away in Blackpool, April 2010

We like the seaside! ahha