The Baking Tray: Recipe Segment.

Today's Recipe: Easy Bake Cookies.

Easy bake cookies with a home made stamp!

I have always been one for wanting to bake tasty treats, but it is finding the time to do so. For my mums birthday last month i picked her up a stand mixer. This item is a must buy for any baker as they save so much time and are so easy to clean. So to try out her new gift, i decided to bake these cookies with the following recipe that i found and wish to share with you!:

CREATES: 1-12 cookies  PREPARATION TIME: 15mins COOKING TIME: up to 10mins

You will need: 

• A tray (two if you wish to do two batches at the same time)
• Scales
• Bowl 
• Mixer (if not available use a wooden spoon)
• Sieve 
• Grease proof paper (or butter) 

Ingredients:

• 125g of softened butter
• 125g of caster sugar
• 100g of light brown soft sugar
• 225g of self raising flour
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 100g of chocolate chips. (200g is you've got a sweet tooth!) OR replace chocolate with fruit such as cherries or raspberries or nuts to make peanut butter cookies :-)

Method:

1. preheat the oven to 180°C   / Gas mark 4

2. cream the butter and the sugars and once they have creamed, add the egg and the vanilla extract.

3. Once that step is done, sift in the flour and add the salt. 

4. Stir the mixture till it is of a dough like consistency, half way through mixing, add the chocolate chips. 

5. Grease the baking tray or add grease proof paper, then roll the dough into small balls (walnut sized) and place them on the baking tray around 2 inches apart.

6. Place in the oven, if you wish to have 'gooey'/ 'doughy' cookies, leave them in for around 7-8 minutes. If you prefer a more golden and baked cookie, leave in for around 10 minutes. 

and Voila! sweet smelling cookies that taste delicious in 6 simple steps. If you want to add a stamp to your cookie, the one used was picked up from Marks and Spencer's and the cookies were stamped when they were removed from the oven and were still soft!.

I hope you have enjoyed today's blog and that it has been useful to some of you! If you have tried this at home, let me know how it goes in the comments as i'm curious to see how they turn out when not using a mixer! 

Follow/comment if you like what you are reading as i plan to do 3 blogs a week (maybe more!) 

Thanks for reading,

Katie xox













ITEMS:
SHEF STAND MIXER- £64.99 amazon.co.uk
HOME MADE STAMP- £2.80 marksandspencers.co.uk

Valentines

Today is the 13th of February which means tomorrow is...... Valentines day! 
For some, this is a daunting day where you are constantly reminded that you're single whilst others couple up and exchange gifts and go out for dates. However, it doesn't have to be a day of being 'forever alone', why? because its a day to express how much you love people, and that doesnt just have to be the boy/girl you have a crush on. There is no limits on who you can tell that you love them, it could be your parents or your siblings, a family member or friend. For me as a child growing up, my grandma would send me and my sister valentines gifts, it would be so exciting to wake up to cards and gifts at the door. So make someones day no matter who they are by sending a card or buying them a gift to show them how much you care ♥♥♥♥

Here are my top 5 gifts and cards that I have loved this Valentines Day

1. The Pug Of Love 

I absolutely love this gift, this was given to me from my boyfriend and I love it so much. If you are pug obsessed this would be a great gift for both your girlfriend or boyfriend. They come in two sizes from Sainsbury's this is the smaller version which retails at £5. If I remember correctly the larger size pug is £15 (maybe £10 now!?) 

2. Notebook

As a new blogger, this gift is now an essential for me, an easy way to note down blog ideas when on the go, which for me is most of the time! This notebook is a lovely design and its a perfect size to fit in my bag. I'm not sure on the price but it can be picked up from Waterstones :-)

3. Otter Card

When I saw this card on Etsy, I thought it was the cutest thing. This is a cute play on words to send to someone on valentines day, and would definitely make someone smile! ☺

The link to this awesome card will be at the end of the blog!

4. Good Morning Gorgeous 

I saw this gift whilst walking through my local Marks and Spencers, and i thought it was such a nice travel mug. This is because it has a 'bamboo' feel so is extremely light weight and nice to hold. 'good morning gorgeous' makes this a nice gift for girlfriends/boyfriends as its a nice sentiment to keep with you whilst on the go ☺♥

5. I love Ewe

This card was given to me from my boyfriend, and it instantly made me smile. (as you can see i'm a sucker for puns) cards like this are so pretty and can easily be kept as a reminder on a noticeboard or would look great in a scrapbook and not just look like you've left your valentines day cards out for too long! You can buy this card and similar ones at Paperchase!

...and there you have it!

my top 5 valentines day gifts and cards. 

I hope you have enjoyed reading this post as I enjoyed putting this together. If you would like too see more posts like this, follow me on here/twitter and let me know what kind of things you would like to read! ☺♥

Thanks again for reading, wishing you a lovely Valentines Day.

Katie xo


Items:
Otter card-
 http://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/119882505/valentines-day-card-anniversary-card-to?ref=sr_gallery_2&sref=&ga_search_query=valentines+otter&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=GB&ga_search_type=all&ga_facet=
Bamboo travel mug-
http://www.marksandspencer.com/Marks-and-Spencer-Bamboo-Travel/dp/B003YEFJ6E?ie=UTF8&ref=sr_1_2&nodeId=3973948031&sr=1-2&qid=1392330749&pf_rd_r=0HNNGJMSMXNRM19X8DTH&pf_rd_m=A2BO0OYVBKIQJM&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=3973948031&pf_rd_p=321381387&pf_rd_s=related-items-3

DIY dip-dye!

Like many of us, we get bored of our hair and one way to change things up a bit is to either cut it or dye it. In my case i did not want to lose any length but wanted something doing which would make a complete difference. After carefully reading reviews i decided to go ahead and DIP DYE my hair!!! 

My first thought being 'am i crazy?!' the second being to get over myself and just do it. So the next day i went to my local chemist and picked up 'Jerome Russell BBlonde cream peroxide 40 volume and 12% lightener which retails now at £1.69 (The Bottle) and then to mix with this 

the Jerome Russell BBlonde powder bleach 100g lightener. (The Box)

which retails at 3.99. So both products are a much cheaper alternative to going to a salon! 

When at home, i got my mum to help me apply the bleach (as i had a lot of hair) but i would advise seeking help as it can be a quite tedious process and you would want to get all of the bleach on your hair at the same time to avoid it developing faster in different places!

To create a softer dip-dye look instead of a blunt line across your hair, the best way to do this is by using a comb. This is helpful as it reaches all the strands of hair and is more 'random' so creates a nice blended in look.

Once the bleach has covered the amount of hair that you wish to be blonde, use either tin foil OR cling film to hold in the heat. If you are not confident with not being able to see the colour developing, i would recommend 'easy meche' which you can buy on Ebay for around £5.00 for 100 strips. These allow you to see how the bleach is coming along on your hair. 

I would not recommend however, keeping the bleach on your hair as long as the bottle suggests. But to check every 5 minutes to see how the colour is developing. I know every individuals hair is different but when doing mine, the bottle suggested nearly an hour! when in fact it took around 15-20 minutes. But to avoid any disasters... keep checking! 

When i was satisfied i took off the tin foil, and washed my hair with baby shampoo as it would be much softer on my newly bleached hair. And Voila! 

There you have it, at home dip dye for less than £10. I am no way a professional hairdresser, however i have picked up a few do's and dont's along the way. Remember every individuals hair is different, so your experience may differ from mine!

Thanks for reading, and i hope i have helped those who are 'shall i, sharnt it?' just like i was when i decided to do this to my  hair. 

Katie xo

clean slate.

Welcome to my blog, named simply 'La vie est belle' which means 'life is beautiful' in French. Because hey, i'm not the most imaginative person to create blog names. However, life is beautiful and because of this I want to share my life with you. By doing reviews on products in which I use, clothes I buy and other things I would like to recommend to everyone. I have only just started, but I have loved looking at blogs for years but have only just plucked up the courage to do one of my own! So if you like what you see comment/follow (if thats what you do here!) and I will get back to those who do and hopefully the content/layout will improve as I start to understand this a little bit better.

Thanks for reading, I will try my best.

Katie xo