Easter Weekend Photo Diary.

My Easter Weekend was quite varied, beginning in London followed by New Malden, Epsom, Dorking and home again. All of it all resulted in eating everything, maybe even more so than Christmas(!) It was a good weekend for discovering new things (hello, coconut oil) and spending time with friends and family.

It wasn't all that great for taking photographs though, which I blame entirely on the weather - and maybe a bit of a lack of planning when it came to popping into London. We were there to watch Punch Drunk's The Drowned Man in the evening and really could have been more productive prior to 5pm rather than going all the way to East London just to pop to The Diner - that burger though...!
The Drowned Man was wonderful and like nothing I've ever seen before, I might write more about that later.








We finished up our Friday night with a documentary about honey badgers before setting out on Saturday morning to visit our friends Matt and Tom - I'm already looking forward to a proper catch up next weekend! Saturday evening brought us a Johnston family party, which I wish I'd taken more photos at, I think I definitely will for the next one.


Dessert-spread.
Sunday and Monday were fairly similar, we placed pretty high in the pub quiz on Sunday night - beating Pete from Dry the River and his team, apparently we actually share a local, Newbury is weird. We mooched around Newbury Food Festival on both days, rain or shine, you can't keep me away from free samples of artisan(ish) food.

Monday was much nicer weather-wise and my Gran and sister popped over for a visit, which was lovely as although I saw them a couple of nights before, they haven't been over here in a while.


Big and beautiful Leonbergers. ♥





Unfortunately the rain meant my delicious pulled pork tortilla from Tacada got cold pretty quickly, still, such nomz!


I made beetroot-crust pizza, it looked neat but didn't add or take anything away. Much extra faff compared to my usual homemade pizzas.



We won some wine! Fingers crossed for as good result this week, we're quizzing like pros lately, 3 weeks running!



Cupcakes feat. edible lego.



Guess the number of olives in the jar. My guess was 586.







Granny Johnston confirming what I have always known - I'm from a family of cat-botherers. ♥
All in all a quite a quiet one, I just keep telling myself that 'April Showers Bring May Flowers' but I'd much prefer to be out and about without a coat or umbrella in-tow. Rain makes me quite nervous, I'm afraid I can't quite embrace it.

Rainy Day Rhubarb Crumble.

All this rainy weather does not make for a very active, go-getting Ruth, I'm afraid. So after a pretty powerful start to this month blogging-wise that I'm quite pleased with, things have slowed down a fair amount in these parts.

I do try and take advantage of these lighter evenings but find myself getting tied up with Great British Menu and then it's cold and dark. It's safe to say, I can't wait until Summer(!)

That said, a couple of weekends ago, the miserable weather provided a great excuse to do a smidge of comfort-baking. A household favourite, rhubarb crumble cake, funnily enough, using my own recipe. I'm trying to snap as much as I can but I'm not really feeling it, I quite like these though, and a selection from the Easter weekend which I'm yet to share - stay tuned!




I love finding a recipe that just means adding to something simple, all you really need for this is a basic sponge base.




Baking has actually become a bit of a work-out since my stick-whisk decided that it couldn't handle cake-mix.



Rescuing daffs-season is over now but it was pretty cool to have some homegrowns decorating our home for a bit.



We had enough rhubarb left over to make a couple of tiny crumbles, well, it would be rude not to!


Not too shabby! ♥


I dunno, there's something about this miserable weather that makes me grateful for a lie-in on a Saturday morning and curling up on the sofa of an afternoon and catching up on new TV shows - our current favourite is Fargo, have you seen it?

Adventures in Graphic Design.

Since just after Christmas, I've taken on a lot more 'graphic design stuff' at work and I suppose I've felt a bit weird about it for a time now because it's not something I ever really considered as an option before. That said, I bloody enjoy it.

Here's where I think having a blog can be a really wonderful thing, I can express myself creatively and ultimately it doesn't matter all that much. I can change my header and background and the way I do things and it either looks better or it doesn't but nobody really cares. Obviously it doesn't work quite the same way when doing things 'for someone' but it really has helped me practise.

That's why, and I'm a bit nervous about it, I'd like to share a few things I've worked on with you. I've just given my blog a little spring facelift and changed a few things too but I'm quite proud of these things. Sure, they're just silly emails and flyers but I'd like to think a little part of me can shine through with them in terms of style and tone.





It's not like I want to jump head-first into freelancing or anything but I've been thinking that it would be cool to take on a few side-projects. Depending of course on whether there's any consensus that I'm even any good, it would be good to know what you think.

Review: Maybelline Baby Skin Primer

I've had this sitting in my drafts for quite a while now. I feel like I'm actually enjoying blogging again and want to make a bit more of an effort to upload slightly more varied things like I used to.

God knows it's been a long time since I talked anything beauty, but truth is, I haven't had the time to faff with this kind of thing. I'm pretty out of touch, I haven't really read any magazines in ages and I don't really read that many beauty blogs anymore either. I don't even really paint my nails that much any more, which has not helped with not biting them. These are all things I'd like to at least change a bit, so here we are.


I picked up this Maybelline Baby Skin Primer as a replacement for my wonderful Collection 2000 Primed & Ready. What can I say? Wokingham Superdrug was out of stock of my usual and this one was on offer, not very brand-loyal. When I initially made plans to write this, it wasn't going to be kind, but we're around a month down the line and I don't hate it. I don't recommend it, but I don't want to completely slate it either.



I had initially found this to be a little greasy, it didn't do all that much priming and my foundation felt slippery. That said, using it now, it's fine, it just works much better if you only use a tiny amount.

For an extra £2 more than Collection 2000's Primed & Ready, I wouldn't say it particularly offers anything different. They are both adequate if you're not willing to fork out for Benefit's Porefessional, from my point of view anyway, and the Baby Skin Primer has lasted well. I don't think I would buy it again, not at full price anyway. It does a good job of blurring pores but I think my BB cream does quite a bit of work to help it out with this too.

From a packaging point of view, I think I was definitely swayed by the pretty colour combination, but when it comes down to copywriting it's not that cool. The fact they've had to put a disclaimer about being 'only for adults' is pretty stupid, why'd you call it 'Baby Skin' then?

I dunno, maybe this is a little negative. For a drugstore product, it's fine, it can be greasy but it can also do its job, just not much better than another primer that costs less. I suppose it depends on whether you're more about brands or saving pennies, I would say when it comes drugstore brands there's not all that much difference that can be made.

Have you given Maybelline's Baby Skin Primer a go? What did you think?