Madame Squirrel's Weekly Report 8

Last week I: 

wore my lucky cat t-shirt... 

had my hair cut and coloured...

*this picture has been instagrammed like crazy

My hair, believe it or not, is actually meant to be blonder *sigh*. Even though the colour is not what I wanted, I've got used to it and I don't really mind it now. My hair is also shorter which hurt *first world problems* but I did need a lot of dried straw cut off...I was starting to look a lot like Worzel Gummidge with dreadlocks.

saw 'We Are The In Crowd' at the O2 Academy Islington ...

Lovely gig. Check. Lovely band. Check. Lovely music. Check. 

 *The fact that I'm calling all these things lovely means I was probably far too old to be at this gig in the first place.*

As you can see it's been a bit of a slow week mainly due to the fact that I'm going on holiday THIS friday and I gotta save me some pennies (or just spend them on expensive hairdressers that don't listen to me; either/or!) 

What have you all been up to? Tell all!

Love
Madame Squirrel.

P.S Big fat smoochies and hugs to my lovely new followers...I really don't deserve you!

Madame Squirrel's Weekly Report 7

Wow, this is a bit late. Yes, sorry about that. I haven't been feeling like myself recently, but I know it will pass. Self- pitying aside though I did have a lovely week!

Last week I...

watched my cat do this...

I thought cats weren't meant to eat dairy. But then again my cat doesn't realise that he is a cat, so I think that's fine...

was quite happy my cat wasn't around to see this...

Yes that is a blue tit in my living room! My friend suggested that he was a sign from God telling me to stop making a tit of myself; she is quite the stand up comedienne. 

accessorised to the max

I have developed an obsession with mint coloured everything (I'm still looking for the perfect mint jeans). I tried to do space inspired nails...this was the good hand. I also think that everyone will agree that dotty socks are awesome.

received a lovely goody bag from Kleenex which showcases all of their new beauty range. 

Yep that is my tweet in the Kleenex advert in Now Magazine. Quick fact: most of my embarrassing stories do involve pants.

ate food and drank tea (shocker)

How on earth did that picture of sangria get in here?!...I would never drink that during the day while walking round Camden Market (actually I would and did). I also had a lovely lunch with the mothership at The Cape, delicious char sui pork buns at Ping Pong and drank rose tea and ate cherries in the sunshine. 

took a cupcake decorating class with The Cocoa Box

I was very lucky to receive a two hour cupcake lesson for me and one other person as a christmas present last year. The class was really fun, I learnt lots of tips for making the perfect cupcake and I really enjoyed working with sugar paste, something I hadn't really used before. All in all I would definitely recommend cocoa box cupcake classes for any cupcake lovers out there. The Cocoa box also teaches cookie decorating and chocolate making classes just in case cupcakes aren't your thing.

What did you all get up to last week? Anything exciting?

Love
Madame Squirrel.

Madame Squirrel's Weekly Report 6

This week I...

Have been looking after Robo Cat:

The mothership is currently on a cruise with my aunt and nan so I'm looking after the house and all of our animals. As you can see my pets are perfectly normal.

Took pictures of my own face:

(Well hello massive forehead, someone should really get you a fringe)

After my blog wisdom post I've decided to show y'all my attempts at the tutorials I mentioned. Here's a glimpse at my (poor) version of the smokey eye...post to follow.

Took my dad to the theatre:

My dad had a big birthday recently (I won't say what birthday it was as I don't want to risk my life) and to celebrate I took him to see Noises Off at the Novello Theatre. For anyone who hasn't seen Noises Off it's a play within a play (playception?) and it is belly shaking funny. I felt a bit sad that the actors in the play that I recognised, I only knew from television or film, yet looking at the programme they had performed in double the amount of plays. I think it's a shame that most actors or actresses are only 'known' from new media opposed to their acting accomplishments within the theatre.

Ate too much food (again):

After seeing Becky's picture of her pancake breakfast on her twitter @lifestyleflash_ the monsieur and I made and ate 6 pancakes...each. I will blame Becky for any obesity which may occur from following her twitter and reading her (very lovely) blog lifestyleflash.

Following the eating of 6 pancakes (I did insist I only ate four but Monsieur Squirrel kindly corrected me) I decided to be really healthy and make dark chocolate chip cookies sprinkled with sea salt (recipe to be posted later this week!).

So in one day I had eaten pancakes, made chocolate chip cookies and then I went to consume my weight in sushi. Hi! Sushi at the Camden Lock have a secret menu (it isn't that much of a secret, you just ask for it) where you can eat 'all you can eat' sushi for £16. 

Now the 'all you can eat' sushi concept is common in the United States but I have never seen it here; let's just say I made the most of it as did the Monsieur. 

The only problem with the restaurant was that we were immediately kicked out after we'd paid the bill! I usually wouldn't mind but the people we went with we hardly ever get to see and they are some of our favourite people in the whole world, we were quite affronted to say the least. Still sushi = gooood:

So today I'm not feeling too clever...turns out that eating that much food in one day isn't a good idea. 

If you want to make me feel better (cheeky I know) why not check out my eBay items that end today in under 4 hours (eek)!

I hope you've all had a wonderful week and are having an even better weekend!

Love 

Madame Squirrel.

Madame Squirrel's Weekly Report 5

This Week I...

Ate my weight in food:

Check out that grilled cheese sandwich; it was too good.  As always, I burnt my lip as I refused to let it cool and ketchup is lethal when it is the temperature of the sun. 

Tips for the best grilled cheese sandwich:

-use a non-stick frying pan.

-butter the outside of the bread.

-cook it low and slow for 8-10 minutes each side. 

It will damage your arteries but it is so worth it. 

I managed to cancel out my artery damage by eating a lovely salad (as you can see from the photographic evidence) that my friend made (manages to omit that the aforementioned salad contained cut up chicken kiev). I then redid the artery damage with a fried egg and bacon sandwich (I think the fact it was made with gluten free bread makes it healthy though right?). Note: I did not eat all these items on the same day but I would if I could.

I am also completely and utterly addicted to chilli rice crackers...I need to find a supplier that can provide my fix for a lot less (Waitrose Y U so expensive?).

Had to include a standard photo of the easter eggs I received (they are mostly destroyed now).

Enjoyed making some easter treats: 

Classic Chocolate Cornflake Nests:

Recipe:

Mini eggs (obvs)

Cornflakes 75g

Dark Chocolate 100g

Golden Syrup 4 Tbsp

Butter 50g

*Melt butter, golden syrup and dark chocolate in a non-stick pan.

*Eat at least 6 mini-eggs while waiting for the melting to occur. 

*Stir in cornflakes. 

*Add mixture to cupcake cases (will fill about 12).

*Eat most of the mixture off of a large wooden spoon. 

*Make a nest shape and plonk in mini eggs. 

*Leave to cool and set for 30 mins to an hour in the fridge. 

*Nom them all.

Admired my beautiful new clutch from warehouse; come to mama!

Got my bake on cupcake style: 

Stay tuned for a post on these raspberry jam vanilla rose cupcakes (that's a mouthful) next week. 

I hope you have all had a choctastic Easter weekend :)

Love

Madame Squirrel.

Madame Squirrel's Weekly Report 4

This week I:

Sat in the sun and had some 'me' time:

Yes I was painting my nails while reading 'The Beauty Myth' by Naomi Wolf: I have a feeling that may be irony in its highest form.

Went into London.'You sound like you're from Landan' (mega-points for knowing what film that's from): 

I had a meeting with a recruitment agent on Tuesday(the job hunt continues...)and afterwards I had a wander around the shops in the glorious sunshine.

 I had to visit Liberty to have a stroke of their fabrics as I'm a liberty perv and I also acted like a tourist and took snaps of their beautiful flowers. 

I bumped into this 'jean'ius pug (sorry) in Oasis and resisted buying the vintage big cat print skirt in Topshop Oxford Circus. It was so nice but for £48 I had to leave it behind. If anyone knows where I can buy similar fabric so I can D.I.Y my own skirt please let me know!

Ate and baked some spring eats:

I am obsessed with Heston from Waitrose's earl grey hot cross buns (if you hadn't guessed; I love tea!) and they go perfectly with a big mug of earl grey (of course). I also baked some spring inspired cupcakes for Monsieur Squirrel's neighbour who turned 95 on Saturday! 

Admired the spring flowers:

I am so lucky that I don't need to go too far to admire all that nature has to offer at the moment. The tulips are in my future mum-in-law's english country garden (I hope one day to have fingers as green as hers!) and there is cherry blossom just everywhere!

I hope everyone's had a lovely week. I did plan on posting all the goodies I've bought recently; but alas I've lost my camera cable so that one will have to wait for the time being. I also wanted to say thank you to everyone who reads/follows and comments on my little blog; it means a hell of a lot to me :)

Love
Madame Squirrel.

Madame Squirrel's Weekly Report 3

Sorry that my weekly report is taking place on a Monday; I was avidly watching eBay last night as the items I sold came to an end...exciting stuff! Anyway here are snippets of what I did last week:

Last week I... *warning an instagram picture heavy post

Took Cassie for a lovely walk and enjoyed the sunshine:

Cassie seemingly breaking the space time warp continuum/ aiming to get me covered in pond water the cheeky pup!

Bought some beautiful daffs, the epitome of Spring:

Made this recipe: Sorry I didn't take any pictures of the finished dish but it was gone before you could say nom!

Went for a weekend away to Milton Keynes; who knew Milton Keynes could be so exciting!

Monsieur Squirrel and I...

Went to Woburn Safari Park:

I think the goat and I are getting as much enjoyment from this as each other.

Pick up a penguin. Don't. It's not allowed.

Drank Tea at Tea Monkey:

If you like tea and live near Milton Keynes (or London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Bath...turns out it's a chain); Tea Monkey is where it's at! We drank cherry rose tea and rose petal leaf tea...so delicious. We both felt calm and peaceful afterwards. Monsieur Squirrel did anyway as he'd just had to wrestle me out of H&M 5 minutes beforehand!

Ate and Drank at Turtle Bay :

My mum grew up in Trinidad so we had to try this Caribbean influenced bar and restaurant. The chain (there's also one in Southampton) is owned by a Trinidadian couple so there were lots of delicious Trini influenced recipes on the menu including the most beautiful flaky roti! We may have also made the most of their cocktail happy hour!

Flew Eagles (yes, eagles!) at The Birds of Prey Centre in the Shuttleworth Estate:

I have a feeling Monsieur Squirrel may lose this staring contest-that's McCoy the Bald Eagle btw!

I also bought a few cheeky purchases again (oops) but I'll do a post about them later this week.

I hope everyone got to enjoy some, if not all, of the lovely weather the U.K's been having.

Love

Madame Squirrel.

Madame Squirrel's Weekly Report 2

This week I...
Purchased a few cheeky items:


I met up with an old school friend (she writes this awesome blog: Chestnuts & Cedars) in the lovely city of Reading (that may or may not be written in sarcastic tones; about Reading not my friends blog). We had a lovely time in Primark, well I did; my friend had never been to Primark and was slightly shell-shocked by losing her Primark virginity. She did make a cheeky purchase though so all was not lost. Internet shopping wise I may have purchased this Zara underwear dress.

Picture from Zara.com

I'm thinking of wearing it with a long black slouchy cardigan which will hopefully detract from the fact it looks like/is underwear!


Received a lot of books:
I decided to have a splurge and buy some of the books that have been sitting in my basket for a long time on amazon.co.uk. I love receiving books, I can't wait to tuck into them (I am aware that they aren't sandwiches). Somebody pointed out that as I have the kindle app, why didn't I just download them. I do like the kindle app. and although I use it for holidays and long journeys I do find that there is nothing better than snuggling up, turning real pages and indulging in the smell of ink on paper. After reading The Tuesday Girl's amazing post '10 things I hate about Kindles' I have a feeling there are a lot of you out there who may agree with me! Books vs E-readers what are your thoughts?


Made Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie:
I made this even though my glands were the size of golf balls...no exaggeration; I've been making people feel them all day.(Is that weird?). To see how it went (the pie, not my glands) read my post here.


Visited The Royal Landscape:

Picture from The Royal Landscape of Virginia Water

I took my lovely Mum (or as I call her, Moo) to The Royal Landscape near Windsor. It's Mothers' Day today in the U.K so we went for a walk with our cocker spaniel, Cassie.

Meet Cassie! *insert ridiculous cutesy noises here*

We were lucky, the sun came beaming out just as we started our walk. Lovely! Not so lucky or lovely; my mum got caught short and had to do a wee behind a bush. Random I know but if you know my mum, not uncommon. And she did it on Royal property as well; it is no wonder I turned out how I did! Not that I go around weeing in public or anything... 


Anyway, what was I saying, ah yes; if you haven't been to The Royal Landscape I really recommend it if you're near the Windsor area and like to take in the air (and wee behind bushes). There are so many lovely walks as well as the beautiful Savill Garden and a lovely cafe and gift shop.


As it's Sunday I'm settling down to watch Homeland and as it's a no insertion fee weekend on eBay I've put a few items up on there:http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/cass_cass12/m.html?item=280847482197&sspagename=STRK%3AMESELX%3AIT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649&_trksid=p4340.l2562


How has everyone's week been?


Love
Madame Squirrel.