Ten things to do this Autumn.

Autumn is just the start of my favourite time of year. I love that you get that cold wintery feel but minus the wind and rain. (Not that I don't love winter and it's freezing nature.)

1. Stop and admire the scenery. Grab a hot chocolate, tea or your tipple of choice and take a walk. We all get so busy sometimes that we forget whats going on around us, Autumn can quite honestly be one of the most beautiful times of year all the leaves, the trees changing colour.

So take that infamous advice, stop and smell the roses.

2. Ready yourself for the Halloween influx! Make cakes, stock up on sweets and plan that halloween costume. Simple or complex don't leave it to the last second or you'll be a cat for yet another year.

3. Have a bonfire. Toast a marshmallow and warm your hands on the fire. Drink it in and be as cliche as you like.

4. Bake a pie (or buy if you're not the baking type). Apple, plum, throw some cinnamon and spices in there. Top it with some vanilla ice cream and enjoy.

5. Wrap up warm. Buy all the scarfs and gloves you like, goodness knows in England you're going to need them!

Katy xx

My favourite bloggers!

I thought I'd share a few of my favourite blogs. The ones I'll pop to every few days for inspiration on new recipes, creations and just general cheering up!

1. www.abeautifulmess.com

A Beautiful Mess was one of the blogs that inspired me to start Writerbakermaker!
I find that they're posts on photography are great for improving your blogging technique!

Image from Abeautifulmess.com

2. messyla.typepad.com

The beautiful Messyla always brightens my day. I envy Lara's crochet skills, maybe one day can crochet things as beautiful as she does.

Image from messily.typepad.com

3. hellonatural.co

This blog has some incredible natural remedies that I'd be lost with out. I love the holistic ideas they have and I've found their '8 Best Sinus Infection Remedies' so useful to steer clear of painkillers as much as possible.

4. deliciouslyella.com

Reading Ella's blog gives me serious food envy! I constantly want to try out her plant based recipes, this blog has made me remember how much I actually love vegetables and eating well.

Image from deliciouslyella.com

5. www.ciderwithrosie.com

Cider with Rosie makes me smile. Her '10 things that've made me happy this week' posts make me stop and think about the thing that have made me happy. I remember what I'm grateful for.

Image from Ciderwithrosie.com

These bloggers make me smile and remind me where my blog may end up one day.

Katy xx

A little home haul!

So today we popped into town will some home things in mind and I thought I'd pop up a little homeward haul.

Most of these are things we've been hoping to get for a while and have finally went for. 

First stop was new bedding! We've been dying for some new fresh stuff for ages especially something white. When we spotted this in Debenhams we couldn't leave it behind especially as it was in the sale!

It was £45 instead of £90 which is a bargain really for RJR. John Rocha double set. 

I love the bedding. It's just a plain white with a tiny bit of appliqué and it looks simple and clean. 

New towels! We finally went and bought some new ones and we're a little excited about it. The fact that these were on sale for £12 each was even more perfect. We did have white ones and thought they just got dirty so much easer and went for brown instead this time.

A steamer! This is something we've needed for a while now. We don't have many pans and trying to cook vegetables became a little bit of a nightmare.

We were very kindly given some gift cards for Debenhams so that's why we had a little spree.

Next stop was TK Maxx, we were hoping for another roasting pan and found some headphones along the way.

We grabbed this one for just £4.99.

£5 for HeadCandy head phones is the reason I love TK Maxx seeing as a little kitty chewed my other pair in half.

Next stop was Argos for a slow cooker. Another thing I've been hoping to get for this Winter so we can pop things in in the morning and come home to an easy dinner after Uni and work.
This one is 3.5l and £13.99.

Lux is a big fan of the slow cooker. Not sure if she thinks it's for her or if she's just very excited for the box.

This face is saying 'Give me the box lady!'

We're feeling ready for Winter now with our bits and bobs. 

There'll be plenty of Slowcooker recipes coming up soon to get you ready for the cold months. 

Hope you had a lovely weekend! 

Katy xx

Sewing essentials

I've been sewing for quite a while now, I began with the little things like sewing up a hole in a pair of tights or a pocket and have moved on to bigger things like cushion covers and hopefully dresses and skirts soon.

Since I've posted a couple of sewing tutorials I thought a little 'Sewing Essentials' post might be in order. So here are a couple of things that I think every new sewer should have to hand when they get started!

1. Needles of various sizes, and lots of them. You will loose them and never find them again, sometimes even mid sewing.

2. All the basic coloured threads black, white, brown, navy. If like me you have a cat who is obsessed with stealing them you'll probably need extras.

3.Pins and lots of them. They will be easily lost and you will always need about a million more than you think you need. Similar to bobby pins. Somehow they will mysteriously disappear over time until you're left with a single lonely pin which is useless to you.

4. Scissors. Pinking sheers. Fabric scissors. Sounds like a lot of different types right? You'd be surprised. I have strictly fabric scissors and will get crazy if someone uses them for other purposes. Same with my pinking sheers (the zigzag ones) specific to fabric.

A little added kitten in there too! She loves to play with anything sewing related.

5. Tape measure. Another one of those things you'll probably lose every other day. But a good tape measure will always come in handy even for the littlest sewing projects.

So get started and I'd love to see what you're learning or trying out! I want to give Crochet a go!

Have fun!
Katy xx

Tips for Journalism Students

These are probably things you'll hear from your tutors or family friends or just strangers on the street who hear you mention aspiring to be a writer. But after nearly 3 years of studying I thought I'd share a few tips for budding journalists I've picked up along the way.

1. Start a blog.

Not to blow my own trumpet as it took me until 2nd year to start my blog but I can't imagine how valuable this blog is going to be when I'm applying for jobs. My lecturers mentioned blogging but it didn't hit home until I was anticipating final year that this could be essential in my writing development.

2. Work experience.

As part of my course I complete 20 days of work experience for one module in final year. But if yours doesn't or even if you're only thinking about studying Journalism work experience is so valuable, connections and even some writing experience can help so much in the future.

3. Write, write and write even more.

This is where your blog comes in handy, even if you write once a week you'll be developing your writing and improving. You might not notice it immediately but look back 6 months later and see that change. Take any chance you can to write it'll pay off in the end.

4. Make as many connections as you can. 

Whether that be your lecturers, guest lecturers, people you meet on work experience or just people you happen across in life that could be useful. Don't be afraid to introduce yourself and ask questions. The worst that can happen is they say no and the best can be incredible things. These are the people and places where you'll get your jobs later on.


Most of all work hard and keep going, journalism can be hard but if you work your butt off it will pay off.

Good luck!

Katy xx

Chocolate Brownie Recipe

Oops sorry for the lateness of this post we had some lovely guests so it's going up a little late.

Sooo... I decided to make chocolate brownies! Tumblr can be such a torture when you're scrolling and up pops something like delicious looking chocolate brownies.

So I whipped out my cookbooks and tweaked a recipe slightly and make these!

Ingredients:

150g Milk Cooking chocolate,
175g Butter,
300g Caster Sugar,
130g Plain Flour,
3 Eggs,

Butter and flour your baking tray or alternatively butter and line with baking paper and preheat your oven to 175' degrees.

Place your butter and chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pan of boiling water. Don't let the water in the pan touch the bottom of the bowl as this might burn the chocolate. Slowly let this simmer until your chocolate and butter are smooth and shiny.

Weigh out your sugar and slowly stir into the melted butter and chocolate mixture. This will go quite thick but don't worry there will be eggs soon.

Next weigh out your flour and fold this into your mixture. It gets tough towards the end but keep string until it's completely combined.

Next measure out 3 eggs into a jug or mug and slowly add to the mixture. It won't look good to start with but I promise it tastes great!

Once you've added all the eggs pour into your baking pan and put in the oven for 25-30 minutes.

Keep an eye on the top as you might need to pop some foil over the pan to stop it from burning. Once your brownie looks flaky on top and still a little squishy in the middle take it out and leave to cool.

My recommendation is this brownie is best enjoyed with a (big) scoop of Vanilla ice cream while it's still a little warm.

Perfect for a cosy evening in.


Enjoy! Katy xx

First Wedding Wednesday!

I thought I'd do a little update on how things are at the moment seeing as how something big happened lately...

G and I got engaged!

It was magical and perfect and we weren't quite sure what to do afterwards so we took pictures.

We wandered through Jesmond Dene too, admired Autumn appearing and looked at Pets Corner with the quit adorable goats.

I adore my ring and can't stop staring at it, G did so well and I think it's about as perfect as I could have imagined. 

I have tons of ideas for the big day and have started compiling them all on Pinterest (if you want to follow and see what my ideas for the wedding are click the link in the sidebar). We're both falling on a November date and hopefully in about two years once we've finished with all our commitments like university and apprenticeships and have had enough time to save up. 

It will definitely be crafty and with lots of DIYs so be prepared for lots of DIY posts and updates on the planning process between my usual posts. 

This is, fingers crossed, my first post of #blogtober so stay tuned for more posts!

A very excited Katy

xx