Discovering new places to feed my inner foodie is always something I enjoy so when The Waterfront Restaurant at Wyboston contacted me to review their new menu*, I jumped at the chance.
I actually used to live close by to Wyboston and never knew
this place existed. Tucked behind the spa and the golf course is a restaurant
with a beautiful view of the lake. It’s the perfect setting for a tranquil
evening or a date night for two.
Chris and I decided to treat it as date night and got into
our glad rags and were pleased to see we didn’t look over dressed in the
setting. We were seated by the maître d at a table looking out over the lake
and could see swans taking off into the sunset which added to the atmosphere of
a lovely evening.
We were treated to a three course meal and had been
preparing for it all day with our bellies ready for food. For an appetiser we
started off with fresh bread with balsamic oil and tapenade. The olive bread and
onion bread tasted delicious, even just with a bit of butter.
For starter Chris chose the ham hock and as the cheese fiend
I am, I opted for the goats cheese fritters with celeriac salad. As you can see
the presentation was gorgeous and they tasted incredible.
There was so much to choose from on the menu but we decided
to choose the chef’s specials as they were a bit different to your average
dish. I chose the chicken with cannelloni and a side of salad whereas Chris had
the lamb and a side of veggies. Again the presentation was beautiful
and the portion sizes were just right that we had room for dessert - the most important course of course!
In between all the eating I drank prosecco and Chris drank
beer. The ale on tap wasn’t really to Chris’ taste so he soon went onto larger
which he thoroughly enjoyed.
Dessert was just incredible – Chris having the tiramisu and
me the sticky toffee pudding. I know sticky toffee pudding is more of a winter
dessert but the heart wants what the heart wants and I was by no means
disappointed. The sponge was rich but light at the same time and the toffee
just oozed gorgeousness, especially with the chill of the vanilla ice cream. I
was in heaven and feeling suitably sleepy! We were also presented with a
complimentary glass of champagne each which went down perfectly with dessert.
The Waterfront made for the perfect date night setting for Chris and I and we really did feel relaxed, taking in that wonderful view and eating beautiful food.
We will definitely be returning very soon and will most likely book into the spa next door before hand as it really does look incredible on the website!
On Friday evening, Queensgate invited me to a rather exiting event they had planned for myself and a group of bloggers' and put us to the test with some fun tasks in the shopping centre.
We were all set tasks that were tailored to our blogs so when I saw Paperchase was part of my assignment, my inner crafter leapt with joy! But before we went on our spree, we were filled in with all the exciting things that are coming to Queensgate very soon, whilst we sipped our cokes in what was actually a pretty nice meeting room! Well done Mc Donald's.
We have a NYX coming to Queensgate on 26th June so keep your eyes peeled for that as I've been told there's a pretty exciting opening happening! There's also rumours of MAC coming too which I know will excite a lot of you.
If you're a foodie, you'll be pleased to know there's also a food court coming, which fills me with pure delight. My ever growing food baby will be most pleased and I can't wait to try ALL the foods!
Another thing to note is that late night shopping isn't just on a Thursday, it's Friday too! Plus parking is free after 5:30 pm so winner winner for all of us office workers.
Anyway onto the tasks at hand.. My first stop was Paperchase, to find out all the best selling summer must haves.
There were so many beautiful themes for Spring summer like this Wild Blossom collection that was so romantic and dreamy!
I then stumbled across the Lets Squawk collection and was instantly drawn to the Blogger's Journal that has everything a blogger needs to organise their schedule, post ideas and more. I so have to go back and grab this!
Another lovely theme was Get Awaywhich instantly mademe think of holidays and the seaside. Paperchase have certainly upped the anti this year with lots of homeware included in their range like candles and cushions.
The straw that broke the camel's zebra's back for me was the Serengeti range. I mean, who doesn't want a zebra stapler in their life!? The lovely sales assistant Jack and I were both swooning over the scent of the black amber candle and how we basically wanted everything in the shop!
I spent far too long in Paperchase but with zero regrets and have to say a huge thank you to Jack for showing me all the wonderful ranges in store. Paperchase have just started doing their own craft workshopswhich is super exciting. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they hold one in Queensgate for us all.
Next up I was challenged to find three summer essentials I couldn't live without and made a b-line for Oasis.
I'm soon heading off on my holidays and when I saw these block heeled sandals I thought they'd be perfect.They're just the right heel height to transition from day to night and are super chic, going with pretty much any outfit. The mirror detailing on the inside of the heel gives them a great edge too.
Swimwear is another must have essential for any summer holiday and I fell in love with the print of this bikini in Oasis. The palmhouse bandea is the perfect beach bikini and paired with this matching jumpsuit I've since found on the website, it makes for a perfect holiday outfit.
Running low on time, I popped into Marks and Spencer's for my final summer essential which just had to be this bag. Taken from the Indigo Collection, this duffle bag is the perfect companion for a summer traveller. Teamed with a straw hat and some denim, this bag is just gorgeous and I've been lusting after it ever since! Everyone needs a great bag for summer and this is the one for me.
Before I knew it, the clock had struck eight and like Ciderella, it was time to leave the Queensgate ball. There were so many other shops I would have loved to venture into like Tiger, Accessorize, Lush and River Island but time ran away with me.
We'd all been to different shops, so it was exciting to hear what everyone else had got up to during the event. The burgers were well received as this was the only time we stopped the chatter!
We finally parted ways at around 10:30 and all agreed it had been a fantastic event but the excitment didn't stop there as we had been very kindly gifted a goody bag each from various Queensgate retailers.
I received so many lovely goodies from the likes of Tiger, Carluccio's, Lakeland, Body Shop, Boots, Paperchase, Lush and more. I can't wait to try them all out and feature them in future blog posts!
So that leaves me to say a HUGE thank you to Queensgate for inviting me to their event, it's one of my favourites I've attended and I can't wait to see what's in store next for the shopping centre!
I also vlogged the event so be sure to check out the video for more insight on how the evening went!
Are you excited for the new stores coming our way?
I’ve decided to do this post as I could’ve killed for
something like this when I started out blogging but I must mention that I am by no means an expert.
Enhancing photographs is something many other
bloggers' do and when I first started out, I desperately wanted to know how to
do it and to do it well.
This post is a very basic and beginner friendly tutorial on
how you can edit your photographs.
The programme I started out using is called Pic Monkey and fortunately
it’s online and free, meaning
it’s accessible anywhere and available to everyone. It’s also very user
friendly.
If you’re a follower of my Instagram, you’ll know I lovea flatlay and creating pretty photographs. For me I like to make the colours a little bit more punchy, add a bit of brightness and clarity but everybody has their own taste and preference which reflects in their style of photography.
As you can see the image above is well lit thanks to my studio lighting but the colours are lacking just a little but Pic Monkey will easily fix this.
Next hover over the edit button and then drop down to
computer to open your file.
From there you want to click the magic wand icon and scroll
down to Boost.
I typically increase the boost on my images to around 12%
but have a play around for yourself to decide what you think looks best.
Next I like to play around with the brightness and highlight
settings. Click on the basic edits button at the top and drop down toexposureand again play around with the
settings to get your desired effect. Sometimes I like to use auto correct for
easiness but again it really just depends on what style you’re looking for.
With this image I cracked the brightness up just by 2 and dropped the shadows down to -1.
You could leave it there if you’re happy but I like to make
my images really crisp so I tend to go onto the sharpen tool next and play
around with the clarity. I usually bump it up to 23% but again it depends on
the image and the look I’m going for.
From there I’m done and as you can see the difference is subtle but effective.
When it comes to editing photographs I’ve taken out and
about, I start off with the same process of boosting the colours and changing
the lighting. Typically with a photograph like this one, I will increase the
brightness and/or the highlight.
When taking photographs indoors and with indoor lighting,
this can sometimes give an orangey tone to the photograph like this one, so
I’ll then go ahead and edit the colour temperature, enhancing the blue tones to
level out the colour.
And finally I felt like adding a bit of vignette to this
photo to give it a bit of depth and atmosphere. This is found in the effects
area again and is called dark edges. As a preference I like to go for low intensity and a large size.
And here's the before and after:
Here's a few other examples of my edits:
So my edits are pretty basic and rather subtle but for me it's all about enhancing what I feel is already a lovely photograph. The great thing about photography is you can experiment and cater to your tastes so if you like highly edited photographs - go for it!
There are lots and lots of other great features on Pic Monkey that you can use but these are what I used to get me started.
I've since moved on to using other programmes as I love to
experiment and try out new techniques but I still come back to Pic Monkey for quick and easy edits.
Anyway I hope this was helpful to some of you wondering how to get started with editing your photographs. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments or if you have any tips or tricks on how you edit your photographs comment those too!
So because I'm daft and my husband is equally as daft, we decided to have a crack at filming The Accent Challenge...
Neither of us are brilliant but I'm particularly horrific at accents, beginning almost every one by saying "ooh!" "aah!" or "ohhhh" at the beginning. Regardless, I hope it amuses you and enjoy:
Spring beauty products are a whole new ball game in comparison to what we used over winter. Say hello to spring pinks and floral scents that'll pep us up and make us feel radiant.
I've recently gotten a lot more into liquid lipsticks. Their longevity and easy application makes them a true dream and a low maintenance lip. My top three of the moment are Revlon's Ultra HD Matte Lipcolor, Max Factor Lipfinity and Rimmel London Provocalips. I went for a shocking pink shade called "I'll call you" from Rimmel for those days when you want a bold lip and not have to worry about touch ups. It comes with a "lock and shine" end too which gives a really lovely shine. The lipfinity shade is "always delicate" and comes with a second stage in a balm like texture that also gives amazing shine. This lipstick in particular has incredible longevity as having worn it to the dentist, it did. not. budge. The Revlon shade is seduction and is the perfect pinky nude with a velvet matte finish which feels lovely on the lips.
I've also been loving brows. No surprise there really and I've been testing out the Soap & Glory Archery 2 in 1 Brow crayon and setting gel. I really love the shape of the pencil end, giving a really great shape to my brows but I can't say I've used the brow gel a whole lot.
Onto lashes as lets face it, you're make up just isn't complete without them! I've been loving the Rimmel London Wonderfull Extreme Black mascara as it gives awesome volume to my lashes and doesn't clump either. It has argan oil in the formula too so I like to think I'm giving my lashes a little boost of nourishment each day!
And finally onto lotions and potions... I recently discovered the Neal's Yard Wild Rose Beauty Balm which has worked wonders on my skin and in so many ways! This one pot wonder can be used to cleanse your make-up off, moisturise, condition hair and nails and so much more. My most recent use for it is to apply it to elbows and knees before fake tan to combat those tell tell dry tan areas. I am obsessed with this product, being my life saver for desperately dry skin and keeping my beauty regime in check and it's organic so even more kudos. Oh and did I say it's amazing? ha!
Keeping with floral scents I move from wild rose onto Néroli & Orchidée Body Milk from L'Occitane. This beautiful scent is spring in a bottle and makes me feel so fresh and cheery. As a body milk it's a light and thin consistency which is perfect for warmer days or when you don't want to feel like your smothered in think moisturiser. The scent lingers for hours and I adore it.I'll definitely be picking up the larger size next time.
So those are my spring favourites and I feel they're a bit late now that the weather is getting warmer. Is May still spring or the beginning of summer? Regardless I hope you enjoyed and if you've been using any of these products yourself, let me know your thoughts in the comments!
