The Garden Kitchen | Easter picnic

  

Let us just take a moment to appreciate how beautiful this looks, I could eat it all over again, it is making my mouth water just looking at it. The Garden Kitchen is located in Holden, Clitheroe. It is a bit out of the way but it is so peaceful and tranquil, the long winding country roads make it ever more the adventure. 

Here is the menu with what will come on the bench, you have to book in advance and pay a £5 deposit each, the easter weekend was very busy for them and we were super lucky to get a space, the atmosphere was warm and the staff were very inviting. The restaurant is located next to the Holden Clough Nursery where a variety of beautiful plants and shrubs are sold. We were a bit early so we bought some beautiful flowers for the garden at home. 

Here are some more pictures of the picnic, they come served on this adorable mini picnic bench, which is a delight for the eyes, it makes you feel like a little kid all over again, although the complementary Prosecco soon makes me grown up all over again, the variety of colours and adorable pots used to hold the cakes gives sense to the name The Garden Kitchen, the walls are adorned with garden tools and are securely attached, just had to check to make sure I wasn't going to be attacked by some shears.

Firstly I decided to indulge in the food as opposed to the cakes, it seemed like the sensible thing to do.

This is the mini goats cheese and spring onion quiche, I have to admit I'm not the biggest fan of quiches so I was initially prepared to swap it for something else with my sister, but to my surprise I actually really liked it, I'd even say it was one of my favourites, it was just the right temperature nice and warm, just what was needed after the brisk breeze from outside. It had a lovely texture and was cooked to perfection.

Excuse the crumbs, food blogging is hard when there are an aray of foods to try, this was the shredded lamb shoulder and Redcurrent En Croute, once again this was another warm element of the picnic bench, this tantalised my tastebuds, the lamb was so soft, and practically melted away in my mouth, unfortunately there wasn't a lot of the redcurrent but it was still scrumptious none the less.

These were the selection of the duo of open sandwiches on Artisan bread, the bread was of a good consistency as wasn't too dry like I feared it may have been, I think this was wiltshire ham and garnished with some salad and mayonnaise.

Here is a view of all the scrumptious desserts, I want to eat them all over again, they just look extremely appetising.

I took a picture of the prosecco we had because it was so yummy, and I will be hopefully be buying a bottle or two in the future.

Another of the sandwiches was cheese and pickle and the cheese was amongst some of the best I have ever tasted, I was thoroughly impressed, even better you can buy quite a bit of their produce in their little shop, so clearly we purchased some cheese, and will be trying to recreate this at home.

The toasted hot cross bun was lovely, would have been nice if it had came with a little butter, I'm sure if I would have asked I would have been able to but like I have said it was so busy. 

Doughnut was a little too doughy but there was enough choice in everything else that it didn't bother me too much.

The fresh scone was a little dry and I'm putting it down to the fact it was so busy so a lot of prep will have to have been done in advance, but the cream and raspberry jam were so yummy I could've just ate them alone and would have been more than happy.

The orange juice was a refreshing accompaniment to the sandwiches, although I also opted to get some water so that I wasn't over-run with all things sweet. 

Chocolate Mousse 

Here is the chocolate mousse, it was very sweet a little too sweet for me after eating so much, but definitely delicious, I think I started to get a sugar rush from all the sweet treats. 

Sadly I was too full to eat this shortbread but my sister ate hers and was very happy, I hadn't expected it to be quite as filling as it was but it definitely made me realise my eyes are bigger than my belly when it comes to food.

They had the cutest little glasses for the orange juice and fell in love, was delighted to find out that you could in fact purchase them from their shop. I'm not entirely sure what I'll be using them for though, I just couldn't bare to leave them behind in all honesty. 

ALL GONE

I may have had to roll home at this point but it was completely worth it, would definitely recommend to anyone who want to treat themselves, it isn't the cheapest but you definitely pay for the quality with most of the products being locally sourced. 

If you would like to know more here is their site:

http://www.holdencloughnursery.com/hcl.aspx?pg=garden-kitchen

Find them on Facebook, where they show the special edition benches:

https://www.facebook.com/gardenkitchenholden?fref=ts

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Super simple DIY | Drinking bottles to vases

Real flowers make me so happy, look how pretty they are, and my little Buddhas match the colour scheme perfectly.

If you are like me then you do not like to throw something away if you think it could have a use or is simply too pretty to be thrown away. Not only is this a great way to recycle but it is a wonderful way to add a personal touch to your home.

I have previously done this DIY with real flowers but being a student I cannot always afford to splurge on flowers as much as I love them it just is not a viable option.

So this is when it came down to looking for fake flowers, places like ikea, Dunelm mill and garden centres will usually have a selection, it was just a case of finding the right one for me.

Here are some of my favourite drinking bottles, Arizona tea and lucky beer. The Arizona ones work particularly well because they have a wider rim so allows for a much fuller floral arrangement  

These are the flowers I chose from Ikea they didn't fill the bottles up as much as I would like so I may be buying more in the future. They were purchased from ikea for £2 each and came to £18 which when you think about it is probably about the same price as a good bouquet that will only last for a short while.

This is what it looks like when it is done, was hard to photograph it without a cluttered background so I ended up just taking a picture of it on the floor, like I said it is super easy and a great way to recycle old bottles, I have seen it be done with glass coca cola bottles, Jack Daniels bottles and of course champagne bottles, which is a great way to keep a memorable bottle and make it look effortlessly chic.

Let me know what DIYs you like to do, I always love hearing great ideas.

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Estée Lauder Haul

I have heard a lot of great things about Estée Lauder in particular their double wear foundation, which I had heard endless good things about, particularly for someone like me who has a lot of redness in their skin and often has breakouts, I wanted something that was better for my skin, I have tried endless amounts of brands and I always start happy but after a while I tend to fall out of love with the product.

I really want to like this product since I have heard such good stuff about it, if it doesn't work for me I do not know what I will try next, I'm not fussy I have loved both high end and drugstore. I am looking for the one that works best for me, I have combination skin and get most of my breakouts on my chin, it is beyond frustrating, it seems no matter what I do it doesn't clear up, I'm in definite need of a holiday, so the sun can do its work.

I initially only went into buy a foundation and possibly a concealer but ended up leaving with a lot more than I had intended on purchasing, I do not doubt that they will last quite some time particularly the powder and the serum, but whenever you buy a lot at once it always seems so much worse.  

The woman was lovely admittedly but I just hate when they try to oversell the things to me, let the product speak for itself, I'd rather not be sold something I don't want like the whole skin care range, I like variety and buying a lot from one company just doesn't work for me, unless the product is so amazing that I cannot live without it.

Although I did like the way it was packaged because when I got home I felt like it was christmas, what person doesn't love unwrapping things, I swear I think some people actually have an addiction to this, particularly the sound it makes when you first rip it.

This is the pressed powder, I have tried both loose and pressed in the past and pressed is just so much easier and a lot cleaner because there is little to no fall out from the brush, as a lover of wearing black clothes it was never pretty when I spilt half the contents of it down me, it always meant outfit change.

The packaging is very luxe and definitely drew me in a bit more, what can I say I'm a sucker for packaging, when something is pretty it makes me want it even more.

It's very much about creating something desirable and Estée Lauder have succeeded in delivering a beautiful finish.

Double wear powder in Cool bone

Can be bought here

The shade I got was in cool bone to match the foundation, as using a different brand I felt it may ruin the aesthetic of the foundation and didn't want it to look cakey or orange. I wanted it to look as natural as possible since I have a fairly light skin tone sometimes particularly drug store foundations and powder have peachy orange tones to some of the lighter colours or even worse do not have a shade that would be compatible with my skin tone. 

In the shade cool bone:

This is a high coverage foundation is perfect for my troublesome skin it helps to give a much more even skin tone, it claims to be durable and to stay in place throughout the day, I agree to a certain extent, although it tends to move slightly around my nose because of dry skin, but seems to stay well on the rest of my skin. My main drawback is that it doesn't have a pump so I either get too much coming out or none at all, I know I could very easily buy a pump but it would just be a nice touch to have one already that matches nicely with the rest of the bottle.

 In the shade cool bone:

The Double wear foundation in cool bone 

Can be bought here

This is the double wear concealer and I am not entirely too sure how I feel about this, I have been applying it with a brush so maybe that is why it doesn't feel as creamy as I would have liked it to, I think maybe using my hands the body heat would help it to be more transferable and overall give a better finish.

It is incredibly hard to get a picture of it with the true colour, I assure you it is not this dark and is suitable for my skin tone.

Double wear concealer  (1N extra light)

Can be bought here

This product is the idealist and it is a serum that is used to improve the overall appearance of the skin I wasn't entirely sure how to describe it but under the product information on the Debenhams site it described it as this "This fast-acting serum is proven to significantly reduce the look of blotchiness, past blemish marks and discolorations. Instantly, skin looks fresh and radiant. 79% of women saw an improvement in the look of uneven skintone. Skin looks noticeably clearer, brighter and more even-toned. Oil-free formula is proven gentle and effective for all ethnicities."

I agree that it goes a sort of radiant fresher looking complexion which is a great start before applying makeup because you will probably find yourself using much less makeup.

Idealist even skin tone illuminator Can be bought here

I definitely recommend when purchasing foundations to get it matched properly, they offer a great service, and allow you to return your product for up to 30 days at Debenhams counter if the product isn't working for you so you don't have much to lose if it isn't suitable.

One thing I would say with them being a bit on the pricey side go somewhere like Debenhams or Boots so that you can get some loyalty points and that will hopefully make your next purchase a bit more affordable.

If any of you use these products let me know what you think of them in the comments below, I love hearing how different people use the products in a different way.

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