Originally published at ceriselle.org. Please leave any comments there.

Since getting my iPad, I’ve had to reign in my stationary habit. Even so, I still have at least 5 notebooks in my office just waiting to be used. (I’m too afraid to write the first word in a nice notebook. Anyone else get that?)

I could have done with one of these notebooks by Archie Grand at the Aussie event though. Perhaps if I’d had the “Bloggers I Met And Liked” notebook, I could have taken down everyones blog address.

They can be bought from Amazon*

Originally published at ceriselle.org. Please leave any comments there.

I was cleaning the kitchen (yeah, its all glamour around here) last night with the radio on, when the new Rihanna song came on.

Sorry, what? California King Bed? Really? A song about a bed?

But then I remembered about my trip to California last year (sigh, I think I need to go again soon) and the epic bed we had at the hotel in Palo Alto.

Oh that bed. So big (I lay on one side, Alex was on the other, and I couldn’t even kick him. I NEED THIS BED), so comfortable, so amazing. Perhaps RiRi has been staying at a Sheraton hotel lately and knows how awesome the “Sweet Sleeper” bed is. Or maybe she bought her own – yes, I looked it up, yes, the hotel chain sells their specially designed bed and linen and yes, if I had €3275 (THREE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE EUROS WTF), there would be one on order to Bristol already.

OK Rihanna. I totally get where you’re coming from. Now, I just need to convince Alex that we need this bed in our lives.

Originally published at ceriselle.org. Please leave any comments there.

(You can buy these map notebooks from inkwhimsy on Etsy!)

Ever wondered if there were any bloggers near to you, but weren’t sure how to find out?

Find yourself in a new city with time on your hands, and wanted to arrange a meetup?

Just plain nosy? (Thats me)

You may like to have a look then at my little project, UK Blogger Map. I’ve been thinking about how useful this would be for a while but it wasn’t until I saw Rose a la Mode’s US version that I realised it wasn’t as difficult to make as I was imagining. A few weeks months faffing, I eventually created the map.

Its pretty simple to use, but here’s an explanation. Fill in the form with as much or as little information as you like. As a minimum, I’d suggest your name, blog address and nearest city.

If you live in a tiny village, feel free to put your location as the nearest town or city that you can get to. Likewise, if you like in a huge city, narrowing down the area would be useful.

It’s manually updated at the moment, but if anyone can give me some advice on making it more automated, that would be much appreciated!

If you have any suggestions or comments to make about the map, please leave them in a comment or use the contact form. The more bloggers who fill out the form, the more useful it will be, so please do pass the link on!

Originally published at ceriselle.org. Please leave any comments there.

Selfridges to me has always been one of those department stores thats a bit special. Debenhams, John Lewis and even House of Fraser are nice places, but Selfridges is more designer, more different. Perhaps it’s because the only Selfridges I’ve been to have been at least an hours journey to get to.

When I saw these t-shirts then, I was first surprised then saddened that Selfridges would cheapen themselves this way.

1 * 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7 *

If you’ve been living under a rock, consider yourself lucky to not know what these slogans mean. “The Only Way Is Essex” is yet another dreadful “reality” show with careful editing and scripting – sorry, structuring to show the “stars” in a certain way.

For some reason, there have been quite a few spin offs from the show, and these £30 t-shirts are just the latest in a long line of self tan, extensions and the infamous “vajazzling”. (Weren’t our lives so much better for not knowing some people like to stick sparkly bits around their lady parts?)

To me, these t-shirts look at best like something sold at Asda for £8.

The “Keep Calm and Carry On” slogan was created at the start of the Second World War, to boost morale around the country. Most of the posters were destroyed at the end of the war, but 60 years later, a copy was found inside a pile of books bought at auction.

The slogan has been used in many different ways and put on so many different items, but this?

“Keep Calm and Be Reem”*

*sigh*

Originally published at ceriselle.org. Please leave any comments there.

So this is the dress I posted earlier in the week. I don’t know. I’m still undecided on it – especially after seeing these photos – but thank you so much for the comments on the post. This is why I love the blogging ~*community*~ and hopefully this week, I’ll be able to show you guys something that I hope will benefit everyone!

Today we are at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) – I’ve not been to an air show in years, but it will be interesting to see the planes there, especially since they are vaguely (very vaguely!) connected to what I do at work. Working in finance, its difficult sometimes to relate the numbers on a spreadsheet to a physical product.

A few videos I’ve liked this week:

This video of a guitar being played was made on an iPhone4. The way that it records video is why it looks like the strings vibrate in this way, but still pretty cool

KITTENS ON DECKS

Sesame Street did a sketch on 30 Rocks. Jack looks far too much like the real Jack!

How were your weeks?

Originally published at ceriselle.org. Please leave any comments there.

My friend Nathan introduced me to Mr B, The Gentleman Rhymer a few weeks ago, and what with the Chap Olympiad being this weekend (so sad we’re not going this year!), I thought this would be a suitable song to share with you this afternoon.

Its about a chap called Timothy that Mr B went to prep with…you’ll probably recognise him…

Originally published at ceriselle.org. Please leave any comments there.

Its unusual that I would buy something from Topshop, but even more so when I’m considering taking it back!

I popped into Topshop last weekend, looking for the stripy maternity dress Jen posted recently. I found one in my size, but it *swamped* me. Which made me feel great for about 5 seconds before I remembered that it was a maternity dress!

I also picked up this dress, and was pleased that it fitted me, but I’m not sure whether its actually flattering and age appropirate (ugh, what a phrase) I’m 28 in September, which makes me feel ancient, and while this dress is cute, I’m not sure if a nearly 30 year old should be wearing such a cutesy print? Does that make sense?

Another possible reason why I bought it is that while I was browsing the sales racks at Topshop, I passed by two girls and one said to the other “Shouldn’t she be at Evans?”. I was a little stunned – I was probably the largest person in there at the time and the only person who was near these girls, but who says that sort of thing, out loud, in the middle of a shop?! Its nearly two weeks since it actually happened, but I am still quite – not angry or upset anymore, but annoyed I guess that someone thought it was OK to say that sort of thing in public.

I am not usually a fan of Topshop for the way they target an audience (whoever thought the above picture was a good choice was crazy, which was removed yesterday from the site apparently [sorry, thats a Daily Mail link]) but if these are the sort of people they attract, I think I’ll shop elsewhere – I’m too old for high school bitchyness.

So, keep or return?

Originally published at ceriselle.org. Please leave any comments there.

Saturday was my Race for Life event. Unlike other years, I was doing 10K, and unlike other years, the weather was crap. Both of these things combined meant that I didn’t enjoy the event as much as I have done previously. Its been at least 13 years since I’ve done any sort of cross country running in long wet grass and muddy puddles (oddly, it was always my “time of the month” when it was Cross Country time!) and after the second kilometre or so, we had a heavy rain storm which made me thankful I had my contacts in instead of wearing my glasses! It drizzled for the rest of the time, which was not fun. The course was poorly marked out as well – there was one girl who kept taking so many shortcuts and I still kept catching her up! I considered cheating like that, but I didn’t see the point – why bother?

I did the run in an hour and a half, which I’m not that pleased about – I think with more training and nicer weather, I would have been speedier, but I have a time to beat next year now I guess!

This might sound really obvious, but the 10K is more for the runner who is a bit more competitive, which is the opposite to what I’ve found with Race for Life events previously – an event thats about getting your friends together, having fun and raising money.

Despite all of this, I actually want to start running properly – actually getting out was fun for once, despite that I can barely walk now!

I love doing Race for Life, and I’m already looking forward to next years. I’m not sure yet if I want to do the 5K or the 10K – theres enough time to decide!

If you’d like to throw a little money my way for completing the 10K, my sponsorship page is still open for the next month or so. My target was £250, but I’m already on £400 – I’m so happy, thank you so so so much!

Originally published at ceriselle.org. Please leave any comments there.

Bloody hell.

So when I signed up to do the 10k, 6 weeks seemed like such a long time.

But being out of the house for 12+ hours a day plus busy weekends plus I really like sleeping meant that I’ve had very little time to actually train.

And now, it’s almost the big event and I’m feeling the fear now.

I’ve bought new trainers and a new sports bra. (I’ve then gotten very stroppy that my trainers cost £20 but the bra was £37. THIRTY SEVEN POUNDS for what is basically a really elasticated crop top. See, stroppy)

I’m so so happy that I’ve reached my sponsorship target (thank you so much if you’ve donated!) but I would be ecstatic if I could raise much more than that! You can still donate on my sponsorship page – it’s quick, easy and you get to see some silly photos of me. What more do you want?

(I am truly overwhelmed by the response to my sponsorship page from people on Twitter – many of whom I’ve never met. Thank you thank you thank you. You guys are seriously amazing :))

Originally published at ceriselle.org. Please leave any comments there.

I’ve seen mentions of the “Fairy Hobmother” from Appliances Online before, but hadn’t really paid attention until I recieved an email after commenting on Becs blog post about stroopwafels. She was sent a voucher for Amazon and bought a stroopwafel maker. Stroopwafel. Strooooooooopwafel. Its a satisfying word to say, and a very satisfying thing to eat. There is a Welsh company called Tregroes that makes them in the UK, I ate SO many when I was at uni, but now I live the other side of the border, they’re not so easy to find (although Waitrose sells the individual ones. YAY WAITROSE I LOVE YOU)

Ahem. Waffle tangents. With my voucher, I thought it would be a good idea to build up my baking collection – I don’t seem to have much to bake with, only to make fairy cakes. I can’t remember where this recipe came from, but its pretty bloody good.

• 115g butter (plus a bit more to grease the pan)
• 115g chocolate (broken up)
• 300g caster sugar
• Pinch of Salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 140g plain flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 100g chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180ºC / 350ºF / Gas Mark 4. Grease and line a 7 inch square cake tin.

Place butter and chocolate in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until melted. Think about how wrong it would be to taste this butter/chocolate goo. Manage to resist.

Remove from the heat, then stir until smooth and leave to cool slightly.
Stir in the sugar, salt and vanilla extract. The sugar (unsurprisingly!) really starts to thicken this up.
Add the eggs, one at a time, and stir until blended.

Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the mixture and heat until smooth. There is no good way to take a photo of sifting flour.

Stir in the chocolate chips. Mmmmmm. I put some white chocolate, lumps of Dairy Milk and some of those Caramel Nibble things in.

Oooooooooh. Wipe the dribble off your keyboard.

Pour into the tin. Clean up by licking the bowl and spoon.

Bake in the preheated oven for 35 – 40 mins until a cocktail stick inserted into the centre comes out almost clean. Leave to cool slightly (or until you can’t resist any more)

Nom.

I’d love to hear what your favourite recipes are…perhaps the Fairy Hobmother is listening in…