My blogging return!

I'm back! Remember me? After a blogging break to finish my final uni exams, move to London, start my new job and turn 21 it has been a crazy month. But I'm hoping now everything is starting to settle down I can begin my move back to blogging- I've really missed it!

So in true instagram style I thought what best way to share with you what I've been up to than to share my snaps.

Top row left to right: 

1) My birthday day out to Brick Lane- Rough Trade and All Star Bowling, 

2) Turning 21 on Wednesday

3) The cupcake tower at my parents' party last weekend.

Bottom row left to right: 

1) Cheeky after work drinks to catch up with my girls- Victoria and Rachel, 

2) My gorgeous new room in my new flat 

3) A trip to One New Change's Madison bar- just round the corner from where I now work with incredible views over London.

I'm now a fully fledged south Londoner and can't wait to share my up and coming adventures!

xxx

Insta-Christmas

My good intentions at the beginning of the month towards plenty of posts I'm afraid didn't materialize (bad blogger!), I always forget how sociable and busy December is! I've created this little post to show some of my recent Instagram snaps. 

(1) Our tree is FINALLY up at home, my family gave the goold old excuse of "we were waiting for you to get back from uni before we got it out". We've changed where we have put it this year. (2) This is Bill- my friend Evie's gorgeous dog, he is such a sweetic (and a poser too!). (3) Talking of posers this is my FOTN before my last night out of the term at uni to a 'Greggs' night- basically free Greggs food handed out whilst your drinking/dancing!

(4) Spreading festive cheer yesterday with Evie in our Christmas jumpers, and stuffing our faces with her delicious home-made sausage rolls and mince pies. (5) My Dad's Reindeer cupcake, he's given me the recipe, would anyone be interested in me doing a baking post of them? (6) I decorated the banisters at my uni house with fairy lights- instantly Christmassy!

How are you all spending your Tuesday? I spent this morning wrapping presents with the added 'help' of my cat Ted who just tried to eat the wrapping paper!

Do follow me on Instagram (Racheleprior)

xxx

"Precious and warm, a memory through the years"

Denim shirt and dress: H+M

Leggings: Topshop

Belt and scarf: Primark

Boots: River Island

Bag: Urban Outfitters

Evening all! What a lovely weekend I've had- my family came down to visit me yesterday which was really nice. I opted for this casual layered number that is so comfy! We went to the nearby seaside town Whitstable for a walk along the sea-front and a spot of fish and chips for lunch. As you can see there was barely a cloud in the sky!

My sister on Whitstable beach

After lunch we popped back in the car to Canterbury and enjoyed a spot of shopping before ending up in my favourite cafe- Tiny Tim's Tearooms which is decorated beautifully (which you can see by clicking here) and they sell the most AMAZING cakes and cream teas, I ambitiously had two! It was nice to enjoy the city and the shops from a tourists perspective rather than a poor student popping in for the essentials.

 Alice with the grand entrance to Canterbury Cathedral behind her

Bake me a cake....

Good evening everyone! Something a little bit different from me today.......a little bit of baking. I'm quite the lover of cakes and nothing beats a home-made cupcake! So I thought I would share with you all how to make these delicious (and light) small cup-cakes // fairy cakes.

What you will need:

1) 110g self-raising flour 

2) 110g caster sugar

3) 110g margarine

4) 2 eggs

5) 1 teaspoon baking powder

6) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

(It's a good idea to sift the flour and sugar to get any lumps out and also to help achieve maximum 'fluffyness' in the mixture)

Pre-heat your oven to 160 degrees C and whilst that's warming up place all of your weighed out ingredients together in a bowl. Then with either a wooden spoon (muscles needed!!) or an electric whisk, mix them all together and keep doing so until the mixture becomes really light and fluffy......it should look something a little bit like this:

Then once it has reached this consistency you can start spooning the mixture into bun cases (I find using two teaspoons really useful as you put the mixture on one and use the other to scrape it off). Ensure that an even amount of mixture is distributed between all of the bun cases otherwise some will be bigger than others....about a third full is the right amount.

They don't look particularly impressive but trust me once they go into the oven they rise really quickly. Pop the tray into the oven and leave them to cook for approximately 20 minutes (make sure you check back regularly) until they are springy to touch and golden in colour.

Once they are done, take them out of the oven and out of the tray and leave them to cool on a cooling rack before you ice them.

I iced mine with Glace icing that I mixed up which is really simple to make-

200g sifted icing sugar

55ml boiling water

tiny bit of gel food colouring

*Recipes and method taken from Kate Shirazi's book- 'Cupcake Magic'*

The beauty of cakes is that you can be as extravagant or as simple as you like.....I'll leave it up to you!

Birthday time....

Today was spent beginning my birthday celebrations for my 20th which is on Tuesday (more on that in a sec!) I went out for a little lunch with my family on the Pier at Southwold a seaside town about 30 minutes from where I live. Followed by afternoon tea at my grandparents' house.

Now if you look really closely you can see that beneath the 'Happy Birthday' (iced on rather badly by yours truly) it says Diamond Jubilee - because this is actually meant to be a Jubilee cake! We bought it from Sainsbury's to be my birthday cake as the crown and bunting were just too cute to resist. Plus my birthday is only a day after the Queens! Adding on a little icing made it slightly more personal. 

Below- Mummy P, Me and Granny

         - The Southwold Pier sign

         - Cake and me 

Anyway the reason for starting the birthday celebrations early is because on the actual day on Tuesday I'm off to Bath with my boyfriend Reiss and then on down to Devon so it made sense to celebrate with the family at the weekend. So excited for our little holiday although it does mean there will be a little break from blogging but I'll be sure to take lots of outfit pictures/touristy snaps and do lots of posts when I'm back to make up for it (fingers crossed everyone please for the weather to cheer up a bit!).

How do all of you normally celebrate your birthdays?

Now I'm off to pack, any tips on how to cater for all weathers without taking my whole wardrobe?! xxx

What it means to be British

I have honestly been blown away by this weekend, despite the weather not being the best we Brits all still put on a marvelous show of celebrating with dear old Liz her Diamond Jubilee. Being a self-confessed monarchist I've loved every minute of the celebrations- the rather soggy flotilla down the Thames, the Jubilee concert (#giverobbrydon/garybarlowaknighthood) and a poignant memorial service this morning.

Every-where up the length and breadth of the country we have been enjoying what it truly means to be British- our love for street parties, BBQs, cake, tea and uniting (oh heck I'm getting all soppy!). Today we had some friends over for a little party and I thought I would share with you some pictures from the day!

 The house with our bunting up!

 Inside the party tent avoiding the rain

Royal themed Brownies (spot the Corgi!)

 Patriotic

Pimm's anyone?

Also was it just me or did anyone else get the hairs on the back of their necks stand up when Gary Barlow and the Commonwealth Band sang 'sing' seriously amazing moment.

How have you all been spending the Jubilee? xxx

My week....

Hi everyone, hope you are all enjoying the bank holiday weekend and fingers crossed the weather hasn't ruined your plans too much! It's been a funny old week for me- working at the beginning of it and then coming back to uni on Wednesday.

As all of my friends had finally finished their exams I decided to head back to Canterbury to celebrate with everyone the end of our second year before we all head back to our homes all over the country. I also came back to pack up my room and tidy the house I've been renting with my friends Alice & Tom, we were e-mailed a 6 page list of what required cleaning!!! It's definitely safe to say I am sick of the smell of cleaning products! Has anyone else had to do such a deep-clean for their house?! My stuff has finally all been packed and is waiting in a large heap for my Dad to come and pick me up tomorrow. It's really sad to think I'm not going to be here for almost 3 months!

Anyway, here are a few snaps of my week-

1) Left pic- This is my friend Zoe and I before we headed out on Wednesday night (and the return of my favorite denim shorts!)

2) Top right pic- On my way back to Canterbury on Wednesday I was passing through Stratford Westfield going past the Samsung shop when I saw loads of people in one corner of the shop so being the nosy parker I am I went in to see what they were all doing...and then who should walk out to advertise the launch of the new Samsung phone but PIXIE LOTT.... I was completely amazed and quickly got my phone out to take a picture of her (she looked even more gorgeous in real life, the pic doesn't do her justice) also her boyfriend Oliver Cheshire (model and complete hottie) was peeking out from behind the scenes! Very surreal moment for a wednesday afternoon, my boyfriend was very jealous when I told him I'd seen Pixie!

3) Bottom right pic- Sadly I didn't make these beauties but I couldn't resist showing them to you all, aren't they so cute?! I saw them on a website called Baking Mad who had lots of different cake ideas for the jubilee weekend. I am loving the patriotic atmosphere in England at the moment and Union Jacks appearing on everything, sadly I missed a Jubilee Street Party in my village yesterday but apparently it was really good. How are you all spending the Jubilee?

Anyway that's it from me for now, and I just wanted to share with you all this awesome track 'No Hope' that has been released from the Vaccines new album 'The Vaccines come of age'- I can't wait for it to come out!