Blackberry.

It's getting colder and colder, and it looks like most blackberry bushes have been all but depleted in recent weeks. I saw a lot of people were picking blackberries pretty early this year, while I kept holding off and off, and I'm glad I did.


So these were taken during the final weekend in September, back when it wasn't so cold cold. We actually went back again a week later, this time with Moon's dad in tow, coming home with a much better haul.



A big clearing by our road is pretty much all brambles, they were only small berries really but what a treat!
In my opinion, same goes for raspberries, there's not really any better way to eat blackberries than as they come but I've been pinning away finding all sorts of recipes, the first was a blackberry yoghurt cake, which thanks to a loose base cake tin ended up mainly all over the oven door, and the second were some delicious but kind of over-done apple and blackberry crumble cupcakes, I seem to have lost my mojo when it comes to a few things since we moved, and baking can be added to that list.





I wanted to show off my most recent charity shop find, a Monsoon dress down from £80 to £25 from Blue Cross Witney, sadly the pictures haven't quite turned out how I'd like but I'm sure this dress will be getting plenty more outings so I'm not too worried.


Friends and family have blackberry gin to look forward to this Christmas, it's infusing as I type, and we even tried our hand at blackberry jam, delicious but next year we'll definitely need more blackberries.






I find myself very much transforming into a forager once the blackberries come out, in fact on our trip to Wales last month, I was so excited about finding so many, I even brought a bottleful home and made myself a tart.

Now that it looks like winter arriving far sooner than we would like (why is waking up in 7am darkness now a thing?), I'm really looking forward to crumbles, stews and all that other hibernation food. What are some of your favourite autumn-to-winter recipes?

Winter Warmer: Apple & Blackberry Crumble.

After our brunch at La Campagna at the Drove Orchards in Norfolk, we ended up having a quick nose around the wonderful farm shop there. Eating local seems to be my new thing in more recent months and I love a good farm shop. Being on an orchard meant that the shop was full to the brim with apples. With all different sizes and varieties to choose from, we went for the 'seconds' barrow and were able to fill up a whole carrier bag for just £1, I only filled half a bag but was offered to add more once I'd paid (such lovely Norfolkian hospitality).





Thanks to a few over-enthusiastic blackberry picking trips, the Drove Orchards' farm shop and that silly storm, last week was the perfect time to get to work on perfecting an apple and blackberry crumble.

Usually, I'll put my hands up and readily admit to just picking up a packet of crumble mix, but I was feeling a little more ambitious and figured it couldn't be that hard to make it from scratch, so that's exactly what I did.

Good ol' Pinterest is to thank for the crumble recipe but the guess-work of the filling was all my own. I also added a few rolled oats to the top just to add a little something more to it.



Ingredients
Crumble Topping

• 3 oz brown caster sugar
• 3 oz plain flour
• 3 oz butter
• A handful of rolled oats

Filling

• 3 medium-sized apples
• A couple of handfuls of frozen blackberries
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp sugar

Instructions:

1. Add the flour, sugar and butter to a mixing bowl and cream/blend together until they have a crumbley consistency
2. Add all your fruit to your dish, squeeze over lemon juice and sprinkle your sugar
3. Put your fruit in the oven on a medium heat for around 20 minutes - at the halfway point give it a stir
4. Once your fruit is cooked and your apples have soaked up some blackberry juice, cover your fruit in the crumble mixture - this is where I sprinkled on the rolled oats
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until the crumble is golden

Doll's always so appreciative of my baking.




I was quite surprised by how easy this was to make, and I'm so pleased that I'll be able to put all that extra fruit to use. This will definitely be a staple as it gets colder and more drizzly.
I think if I were to make it again, I'd definitely add a bit more fruit as this crumble was a little flat, it did make four comfortable portions for Moon and I though so I'm a little reluctant to change at the same time.

Do you have any go-to winter warmers now that the nights are drawing in?

Ooo Wah Oh.

I first heard about MUA's Love Heart collection back in the beginning of February, I thought they seemed like a cute idea but never spotted any to pick up. Yesterday, while in Crawley I managed to find about three out of the five available colours in Superdrug. They were similar to colours I already had, which is why I went for U & I, a pastel yellow, which I thought would be good now that Spring is starting to show it's face.

However, and I'm not sure if reviewing things on a blog means you always have to be nice, but I was pretty disappointed. I mean for a £2 price tag, it's not as though it broke the bank, but having used a few MUA polishes, I was expecting it to be alright. Sadly not, the application was pretty watery, and unlike any other polish I've used, it was incredibly streaky and even now, after five coats, I'm still not happy.

I think it has actually been saved a bit by the bargain purchase of BeautyUK's Matte Top Coat, which I am happy with.

BeautyUK Matte Top Coat, £1.99, Superdrug
For the price and size, I think this is pretty great, and it goes on really well, with no gloops.
Although 'U & I' does come in undeniably cute packaging, and actually does dry really quickly between coats, it just doesn't have the right finish and I'm left feeling a bit let down. I'm not sure if it's colour, but I have seen a range of mixed reviews for most of the collection. I do believe that you get what you pay for with beauty products, and I know £2 means I shouldn't expect it to be amazing, but MUA do generally live up to a high standard - I love their bright individual eye shadow palettes - and with this being a collaboration, maybe I was just expecting it to be much more.




Have you tried any of the other colours in the MUA Love Heart's range? What did you think?

Kind of just fell into this review a bit, but I'm genuinely a little bit annoyed.

While I'm here, I found this photo that I took on my Blackberry of the newly revamped upstairs to Snooper's Paradise, which I mentioned in my last post, isn't it beautiful? Sorry the phone-photo doesn't do it justice, but I was a bit nervous about full-on papping it.

There's only three days left on my eBay listings if you're interested, you might be able to get a bargain.

TY for the memo.

In case you hadn't noticed, it's apparently Halloween, this is not something I have an issue with in fact I enjoy Halloween as much as any post-student, but everyone seems to be getting in on the act. Maybe I'm feeling slightly bitter because all the people I would usually spend Halloween with are all over the country and I won't be doing anything.

I like scary movies and I like dressing up, I'll also stretch the Halloween theme and express my love for the colour orange, however, when it comes down to 'spooky' cocktails and popcorn, it's a bit strained. I understand that it's all fun but sometimes it's an excuse and it just looks stupid. I'm kind of glad that I'm not participating in Jack O'Lanterns this year, the gunk inside pumpkins stresses me out.

Here are some photos that I took within the space of a less than twenty-minute walk up Dorking high street.






All this talk of 'spookiness' and ghouls mainly means just one thing to me, bonfire night is soon and I will be able to enjoy fireworks.

(via HelloYou Creatives)

I'll end this with an apology for the moan, I'm all for skeleton tights, orange flowers and eating sweets, but I like my popcorn standard and drinks that aren't green, that don't contain every drop of alcohol that's on it's way out of date.

And it's Wednesday, how?

It's funny how a sudden burst of things to do can really get you motivated and make the week fly by - and that's including the two-hour nap I squeezed in yesterday afternoon. It helps today that the sun is out, I always find that if I have things to do, I'm much more likely to do them when it's warm and bright.

I've been full to the brim with idea of how to create more structure within my blog as well as perhaps trying to write both a bit better and about more specific things in one post, rather than ten different things all together.

Yesterday, I had the first face-to-face interview that I've had in ages, probably since the middle of August. I'd like to tell you that it went really well but I really can't ever tell. Interviews are a nightmare; you never know if the person interviewing you has a lot of experience in interviewing (because it is a skill) or even if the person interviewing knows what their looking for. And when they ask you to ask them questions, if you've read up on them and it's self-explanatory you won't need to know anything so you're caught because asking a question can show both lack of interest and lack of knowledge at the same time, even when neither is the case. It seems like a good position though and it's only for three months, plus it's paid, which has been incredibly hard to come by. I'd quite like it, mainly because it will give me something to do and I can tell people what I've been doing and they might actually be interested and not go off into a monologue about how tough the job market is.

This is what I wore to the interview, don't think it's my best, that blazer definitely looks much better with dresses, but that's just my opinion.

What I Wore, 27/09/2011.
Blazer: eBay
Shirt: Dorothy Perkins
Trousers: Primark
Shoes: Primark
If you remember that flyer that I posted last week, I actually got around to putting some up in New Malden today. Not sure how much will come from it, I only targeted the leisure centre and a community centre, but you never know. There's also one up in the window of Noodle Express.


I have a nightclub photography job in the works too - see how I've been keeping the ball rolling this week? - so I've got to get on buying some insurance once the confirmed event dates come through, it will mainly be covering University nights out so things could get sticky, literally.

While I'm here, here are some photos from my phone this week, mainly in and around train stations. Apparently a mysterious 'El Barto' has hit New Malden, who would have thought it?

My interview was in Southwark yesterday and I kind of love that area, particularly the station but some of the café's and shops are quite neat. The office was also in very close proximity to the Tate Modern, somewhere that the pretentious artist in me feels I should visit more often.