The Nottingham Vintage Fair!

Hey team! Another update from me :D

I have been going great guns with making new YouTube videos, so be sure to check them out if you feel so inclined: http://www.youtube.com/user/hananathebanana

I went to The Vintage Fair in Nottingham (https://www.facebook.com/nottinghamvintage or https://www.facebook.com/VintageFair) on Sunday and it was SO cool! It was in The Albert Hall in Nottingham, which is just up Derby Road. I've performed there with my university choir in first year of uni so I have fond memories of that place!

There were so many people and stalls there. The popularity for these fairs has definitely picked up as they continue! There were also many stalls selling a variety of gorgeous vintage wares. I wanted them all but I limited myself to only spending £20. Entry was £1 for students and £2 for adults. Bargain!

I am naturally obsessed with tea and teasets at the moment. This place was like a haven to me. SO many different stalls selling teacups and saucers and all sorts of cute things! I resisted the urge to buy any though as I will be moving out soon and the new flat doesn't have a lot of space for excess storage. I thought I was very controlled.

I cannot wait to go back there when I have a job and spare money to spend so I can start investing for my tea room! It's going to be perfect :D

There were also a lot of clothes stalls. I have a problem with vintage clothing. Not the actual wearing of it itself, but more because the sizing is very different to what it is now. This means it can be very difficult for me to find something that's affordable (I think spending more than £20 on a dress that someone else has previously owned is a bit of a rip off, unless it's a posh designer) and that will fit me. I tend to stick to the accessories stalls because they're not that expensive and they can be "one size fits all", to a certain extent.

Here is a photo I took (really bad photo btw... I got embarrassed) while I was stood on the stage looking out across the room.

So I bought two things when I was at the vintage fair and they're just jewellery. I bought a cute necklace for £3.50 and some lovely earrings for only £2.50! Unfortunately I forgot the name of the shop I bought the necklace from, but the company selling the earrings included a business card in the baggy, so win!

https://www.facebook.com/madamecherrydesigns

Of course they're both tea-based... What did you expect??

One last tea related purchase that I recently bought... I got yet another teapot. It was reduced on the Urban Outfitters website and I found a 25% code too. Oh, and it was the last one left. I couldn't resist it!

Cutest teapot ever, am I right?? I cannot wait to use it, especially as it has a mesh part included, meaning I can drink loose leaf tea! Yaaaaaay!

Anyway, I shall go and bid you adieu.

teapigs Matcha Tea Review!

Hello!

I was fortunate enough to be sent some Matcha Green Tea from teapigs earlier this week. Because I have been busy with presentations and tonsillitis, I have only just got round to writing my review on this tea! As you may know, I do record tea reviews on YouTube and I will attach it at the end of this blog entry! I also have a discount code for all my readers to get 15% off when buying from http://www.teapigs.co.uk! So exciting!

(c) from teapigs website

Matcha tea, according to the lovely little leaflet that was included in my package of tea, is 100% ground green tea leaves that has many health benefits. One cup of matcha is the equivalent to 15 cups of regular green tea in terms of nutritional benefits and vitamins. teapigs claims that matcha tea can boost metabolism and reports is to be the winner of the best slimming and fitness product of 2011 (voted by "Your Healthy Living" readers), so it's perfect for those of you who are desperate to get your beach body!

The leaflet also boasts of Matcha's "antioxidant power", stating that this tea contains more antioxidants than some of nature's healthiest superfoods, including spinach, blueberries and gojiberries! Matcha tea is also claimed to give you more energy throughout the day and to also relieve you of stress, which would be perfect for me at the moment, while I'm revising for exams!

I could tell you what other people reported when teapigs asked them to sample Matcha everyday for two weeks, but teapigs does it a lot better.

All images taken from teapigs website

So when I tried the tea, I made a cup of it and followed the instructions that were sent to me. I put half a teaspoon of the fluorescent green powder into my awesome cup. I then added a little hot water to it and whisked it until it was smooth and proceeded to top up with more hot water at 80 degrees.

The initial smell of the tea put me off a little bit and I was apprehensive to try it. It smelt like a mixture between seaweed and boiled spinach, but I had no reason to be worried as the tea itself didn't taste like this at all! I have a sweet tooth so I think I would prefer the tea if I added it to a smoothie or to juice, like teapigs also suggests, but the taste of the tea itself isn't too bad at all. It's not sweet enough for my taste, but because it has so many claimed health benefits, I could cope with the lack of sweetness! On the teapigs website, it is also suggested to make the matcha into a shot and to knock it back in one every morning for the health benefits. I would much rather do this too and had I known to do that before doing my video, I would have probably tried it like that in the first place!!

Matcha tea by teapigs gets a thumbs up from me! I'd like to try it in smoothies and juice too and when I do, I will make another blog post about that experience and how it differs from drinking it as a normal tea.

If you would like any more information on matcha tea, teapigs has a wonderful section dedicated to it on its website: http://www.teapigs.co.uk/tea/matcha_shop#matchatab-intro

To claim your 15% off at http://www.teapigs.co.uk, all you need to do is use the code BLOGGERS12 at the checkout when you make your purchase! Unfortunately this discount doesn't apply to gifts or to special deals due to the fact they're already discounted!

You can follow teapigs on Twitter: https://twitter.com/teapigs
You can also "like" them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrinkRealTea
Another thing you can do is go on the teapigs homepage and sign up to their newsletter which will keep you up to date on all things in the land of teapigs!!

Go and show them some love! Thank you for reading this extensive blog post! I hope you didn't find it too boring and that I've inspired you to get some matcha tea!

New hair?

I guess I've not really done much this week to post about! If you're subscribed to me on YouTube (and why aren't you if you're not?? Just kidding :D ), you will see that I have been on a role with posting videos on there at the moment! For those of you who know me, I hate doing university work, so any chance I can, I will find an excuse to procrastinate big time!!

But yeah... This week at uni I have had two assessed presentations. One was for German about low-skilled immigrant workers and the other, which was today, was about whether xenophobia (fear of people from another country) was becoming the norm in France or not. Yeah... compelling, I assure you. Anyway! I've had to do these two bloomin' presentations with tonsillitis! I went to the doctors on Wednesday for some antibiotics or something and the doctor (who was very attractive!) said that because it was viral tonsillitis (yeah my tonsils weren't attractive at all...), he couldn't give me any antibiotics for it! I struggled on through... I wasn't really that ill to be fair but seeing Christine recoil from me after seeing my tonsils made me realise that they can't have looked healthy!

I have recorded two new tea reviews, if you're interested. Both for Twinings tea and I put a sneak-peak at what is to come in the tea review world with my teapigs matcha May post in my last tea review so go and check them out if you'd like!

So at the end of my last entry, I said that I was going to go and colour my hair! And here is my new hair :D

 Click here for a makeup tutorial for this look

It's a lot of blue, a bit of purple and even less pink. It's just quite fun and very different to what I did with my hair before. I like it!

Then I wanted to do a makeup look to match my hair! This is when I went to the doctors so he probably thought I looked seriously overdressed for someone going to the doctors! Click here for the makeup tutorial!

But that is how uninteresting my life has been this week! I know... So sad isn't it? Hopefully next week will be more exciting. I'll try to remember to take more photos anyway so you have something more to look at apart from my (beautiful :P ) face.

I hope you're all well!

Tea and Granny Squares - Not just for old ladies!!

The boyfriend wants a blanket so I decided to oblige, whip out my crochet hook and get going on making granny squares! They're all different styles, colours and sizes so it's going to be interesting to put together but hey... It'll be like a blanket made up of sample squares!!

Just a sample of the squares I've made so far. I've got some more that I've not taken photos of that I've made since being back at university.

I've been back at uni, as I said, and it's the final push before I'm fully graduated and can finally focus fully on my dream of owning a tea room! I keep finding teapots and buying them, ready to decorate my tea room with! I just recently got a new one through and it's gorgeous! I won it off of eBay :) £8 bargain, including P+P!

Here it is added to my teapot shelf! I have 5 teapots now, which may not seem like many but hey, the collection's been going on for less than a year!! I also decided to treat myself to a T-Shirt from the Tea Appreciation Society (http://www.lovetea.co.uk/) I love it! I got a men's T Shirt and it's so comfy and baggy! I never want to take it off :D

Speaking of tea (and let's be honest, when do I not??) I've filmed another tea review for you to see! It's not the longest tea review and I recorded it just before I went to bed.

I also contacted teapigs as they asked for UK-based blogs to email them to ask about Matcha May. So, I will be getting a sample of Matcha tea (details to come in the related post) to review etc. How exciting is that??

Right, I'm off to colour my hair :D

Over a Month??

Hey all!

So it's been over a month since I last wrote a blog post here but I didn't think anything interesting had happened so I have nothing to report! Uni's been very stressful and my time management is horrible so I've been working my bum off on various assignments!

I did have time to record a teapigs tea review video! It's not got many views and no one's left me feedback yet so I don't know whether to keep recording them or just leave it at one video and admit defeat...

I also coloured my hair again. It's purple and pink now, which is pretty aces! The above picture is me dressed up as a Russian aristocrat for a murder mystery party I went to! I actually won by guessing the murderers correctly! The horrendous French accent on the CD was hilarious, especially as some of the people at the party were French too!!

My housemate Christine and I also celebrated the handing in of her 4th assignment in 3 weeks! We couldn't be bothered to mix the amaretto with the coke for each glassful, so the teapot got a different use! And you can't use a teapot without the teacups! We're so classy...

by Paul Carr

I also sang in a concert! It was called "Last Night of the Spring Proms" and the NTU choir sang with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. We were frequently told that it was a "once in a lifetime opportunity" and we performed a world première of Paul Carr's Ave Maria! He dedicated it to us and was apparently very moved by the performance we gave. 

I'll try to be more regular with the blog posts from now on!! 

Bakewell!

My parents came to visit me last week and we went to the gorgeous village of Bakewell, which is located in Derbyshire. I absolutely fell in love with this beautiful place and I didn't want to leave! I decided for definite that I want to open tea rooms when I'm older and my parents actually support my decision, which is amazing.

So, onto the photos! We were blessed with gorgeous weather when we went to Bakewell, so that may have influenced, or at least encouraged, my love for the place. It is situated on the River Wye in the Derbyshire Dales and, according to Wikipedia, it is the only town included in the Peak District National Park. Every photo included in this post are my own :)

I just loved seeing the row of seagulls sat on top of this apartment building! There was another building next to it that looked the same and also had seagulls sat up there!

"This attractive medieval five-arched bridge built around 1300 is one of the oldest in the country and still carries main road traffic over the River Wye." (Fowkes, 2001)

And, of course, what with Bakewell being famous for its puddings and tarts, I had to have a cup of tea and a slice of Bakewell tart! It would have been criminal otherwise! I have included a link to a recipe for a Bakewell tart for those of you who don't know what one is! Just click here to go to the recipe :)

This was in the window of the tea rooms we went to for our tea and tart. You're able to post a tart to anywhere in the country, which I just thought was awesome! The café was called The Bakewell Tart Shop.

This tea cosy and stacked teacups were in a window of a cute shop, and I decided that I had to take a photo, along with the photo underneath, which was also in the window of the shop!

There was a craft fair on in the scout hut on the day that we went there so Mum and I made a beeline for it, as I get my love of crafts from her! On one stall, a company called Diamond Lil's was selling adorable hairclips and brooches. I wanted to buy them all but in the end I settled for this gorgeous little gingerbread man hairclip!

But yes, that was my summary of my day in Bakewell. It's such a beautiful place. If you have the opportunity to go, make sure you let me know so I can come with you :P I'm just joking! But seriously, you should go if you can. It's gorgeous!

Excuses, excuses...

Heya! I know, I have no excuse for not having posted yet in the month of February and I judge myself highly for it so don't you worry! I do have some excuses though and you'll see in this picture-filled blog just what I've been up to during my absence.

I went to Exeter two weeks ago to visit the boyfriend as I had a week off of uni! It was so lovely to see him again and we had a lovely time together. We went to the Quay in Exeter and I had a cream tea! When in Devon...

That is a cream tea for one... Look at the size of that teapot! It's absolutely massive. Perfect for a tea lover although I did think I was competing in a tea-drinking contest. The weather was gorgeous though which made the quay look so beautiful.

I also rediscovered my love for crochet when I was in Exeter! The boyfriend was on teaching practice all day so I had to entertain myself somehow and who would choose to do uni work? I've made myself a hat and 3 headbands at the moment.

Oh I also changed my hair colour. I bleached my roots as they seriously needed doing, which is why I'm blonde in a picture. It didn't stick around for long though although I did love the blonde! The green I had in my hair before didn't completely come out so I'll have to wait a month until I can rebleach it and hopefully get it completely blonde :)

My main excuse for not updating sooner is because of all the uni work I have to do but I promise to keep on top of it more!

I hope you're all well and had a lovely Valentine's day and Shrove Tuesday!