Lady Bug Says ... Gluten Free Banana & Chocolate Muffins

Evening Lovelies.

I thought I would share with you a super yummy recipe today. Since changing to a wheat free diet I have been testing lots of baking recipes out to see if they are just as yummy made with wheat free substitutes.

This has to be one of my favourites, adapted from this recipe

Ingredients

200g Dove's Farm Plain Gluten Free Flour

1/2 teaspoon Dove's Farm Gluten Free Baking Powder

1 teaspoon Dove's Farm Gluten Free Bicarbonate of Soda

1/2 teaspoon Salt

3 Large Mashed Bananas

150g Caster Sugar

1 Egg

75g Melted Butter

75g Chocolate Chips or Chocolate Chunks

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a baking tray with 12 muffin cases

2. Sift together flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt

3. Combine bananas, egg, sugar and melted butter in a bowl. Add the sieved dry ingredients and mix until smooth.

4. Mix in the chocolate chunks

5. Spoon into the muffin cases and bake for 25-30 mins or until golden.

They are my favourite breakfast treat at the moment :)

Lady Bug Says ... A Midi Moment

Happy Sunday!

Hope you have all had a lovely weekend and the obligatory relaxed Sunday. Mine has included birthday celebrations with my Dad and family and a yummy brunch with the in-laws today. Basically a lot of food! Now that its freezing and raining I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to blog my outfit from Friday.

I love this knitted midi dress but I don't wear it nearly enough, in fact the last time I wore it was nearly a year ago in a practically identical outfit! If it ain't broke why fix it!

Steve Madden boots, TK Maxx £35, Black cami, Primark £2, Black body con skirt, H&M £3, Knitted midi, H&M £7, Faux fur gillet, Primark via charity shop £2

Necklace, Jewellery shop in France £12 & Ring, Primark £2

Outfit total - £63

Lady Bug Says ... Nails Inc Magnetic Polish

Evening Lovelies.

Hope you all had a fab week and have some great plans for the weekend. It is my Dad's birthday tomorrow so I'm looking forward to going out for a yummy meal tomorrow night and celebrating with him and the rest of my family :)

Just a brief post from me today, I recently won a lovely little Twitter giveaway that Zoe over at The London Lipgloss was hosting and received a Nails Inc magnetic polish. I've been wanting to try a magnetic polish for a while now so pretty pleased with it!

The effect is really pretty and does happen instantly, almost like magic! The only downside would be the tip wear, after less than 18 hours (most of which were spent sleeping) there was real noticeable wear.

Lady Bug Says ... My Sarenza Favourite

The answer to all the above would be a big YES!

The lovely people over at Sarenza recently announced that a spot on their much coveted ambassadors programme had become available and they would like interested fashion bloggers to apply to fill the space!

Of course being slightly shoe obsessed I couldn't miss out on such a great opportunity so here goes with my review of one of my favourite pairs of shoes (many made the not so short shortlist!) from the Sarenza website.

I've made a fairly practical choice, but I guess I'm a fairly practical person! If I'm going to have a lovely pair of shoes I like to be able to vaguely walk in them!

Hence why I love wedges! The perfect combination of comfort and that extra bit of height (lord knows I need it!) wins me over every time. Largely because anything over a 3inch heel leaves me doing a damn good Bambi on ice impression!

These camel lace up booties are pretty much wedge perfection and you know they will earn their keep! Simple enough to wear to work with your trusty skinny jeans and blazer, dressed up with a pretty dress for the evening and not going to kill your feet wandering around the shops :) Oh and the hint of leopard print is guaranteed to raise a smile and stand out from all the other booties! I'm also slightly in love with how the boots are cut, thank you for not emphasising my cankles!

I can see the gorgeous camel suede lending itself to being worn throughout the Spring and into Summer (a British summer anyway!), I like to get a fair bit of wear out of my shoes!

Off I go to buy suede protection spray and dream of camel clad feet!

Lady Bug Says ... Comfy Weekends

Evening lovelies!

Hope you have all had a fabulous weekend. For once I feel like I had a productive one, usually I get to Sunday evening and think 'what on earth did I achieve this weekend?!' but I managed to get a load of things crossed off my to do list which is a great feeling.

I was mainly organising things at home, so comfy warm clothes were in order, but presentable enough for a little trip out to Dunelm Mill which has just opened up dangerously near my work!

Excuse the moody look on my face, it was bloody cold outside! I'm also trying to get used to seeing photos of myself in glasses, I have been a contact lenses wearer for many years, but have recently changed lense type and they don't seem to agree with my eyes!

Suede booties, Primark £12, Leggings, H&M £7, Rust tunic, Primark £6, Chunky knit cardigan, Primark £8

Necklace, Christmas gift from the Mr, Ring, Matalan £5

Nails, Models Own 'Slate Grey' with Models Own 'Champagne' tips

Lady Bug Says ... Matalan SS12 & Their Biggest Ever Giveaway!

Evening lovelies.

Hope you are all well and looking forward to the weekend, I have a massive to do list all ready for it, I am determined to be productive.

Anyway, recently Matalan sent me their gorgeous SS12 look book and I thought I would share with you the pieces that I am sure will end up in my wardrobe!

I have already been stalking the Matalan website waiting for this top to be available to buy!

Matalan are also currently running their biggest ever giveaway, you have the chance to win your energy bills paid for 2012 plus a £600 Matalan shopping spree! All you have to do to enter is shop either in store on online at Matalan and make sure to swipe your Reward Card, simple as that! You can find out all the details here.

Don't forget to enter my blog birthday giveaway!

Lady Bug Says ... New Years Resolutions 2012

Afternoon lovelies. Hope you are all having a nice weekend so far!

I am one of those cliche people that make up (and largely don't stick to) New Years resolutions every year and this year will be no different. I think its nice to have realistic things to aim for!

Last year I set myself the following resolutions, this is how I got on with them!

Get Fit - Well I did do a fair bit of cycling and attended zumba classes for 3-4 months. Once my body decides to behave itself I hope to get back into a routine and exercise more.

Take part in a charity sporting event - Unfortunately not :( I did make a fair few charitable donations last year though so pleased I still contributed in some way.

Become more organised - My filofax got used alot! I seemed to slip with being organised when it came to blogging though, another thing I hope to improve on this year.

Get a proper skincare routine - Ummmm, not quite! Though I did get the Liz Earle cleanse and polish kit for Christmas so hopefully that will kick start me in the right direction!

Sort out my wardrobe - Yes! I had a much needed clear out and 3 massive bin bags full of clothes went off to the local charity shops and I have a big box of items to photograph and list on Ebay.

Worry/stress less - Well this hasn't been the greatest year for me worry wise! I think having bad health that I can't seem to control has made it a lot worse. But I am determined to work on this is 2012

This year I am going to TRY to do the following!

Eat my 5 a day! - I eat fairly well and do like fruit and veg, but realistically only get maybe 3 of my 5 a day. So lots more healthier snacks at work for me!

Worry less/ more positive thinking - I failed on trying to overcome this last year and really want to work on it this year. I need to stop thinking of the worse case scenario and start being more positive!

Read at least 1 book a month - I used to be a complete book worm, but recently I don't seem to have time for reading. I received a Kindle for my birthday back in October and still haven't finished the 1st book I downloaded on it!

Take a photography course and learn how to use my camera properly - I have had my new camera for a while but still haven't really ventured away from the auto settings! Seems such a waste to have all those extra functions and no idea how to use them!

We will see this time next year how I got on!

Lady Bug Says ... 2 Years Ago Today! Blog Birthday & Giveaway!

*GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED*

Evening lovelies!

Source

Well doesn't time fly! 2 years ago today my little blog was started and has slowly grown into something I am really proud of! I honestly appreciate every person who takes the time to read my ramblings and am grateful for all the opportunities blogging has given me.

As a little thank you to all my lovely readers and commenter's I will be doing a giveaway in the same style as I did on my 1st blog birthday :)

1 lucky reader will receive a surprise bag of goodies that I personally love and think you will too! There will be a small runners up prize too :)

The Rules!

1. All you have to do to enter is be a follower of my blog and leave a comment on this post with the words 'Please enter me!' and your email address.

2. For a further entry you can tweet the following ' It's @ladybugsays 2nd blog birthday and she is having a lovely goody bag giveaway! http://bit.ly/w6TJ9K '

3. Please leave an additional comment to let me know you have tweeted.

4. The giveaway will close on Friday 10th February at midnight GMT.

5. The winner will be drawn randomly using http://www.random.org/

6. The giveaway is open internationally!

Best of luck everyone!

Lady Bug Says ... Clothes Show Goodies

Sorry for the continued blog silence!

I am still ill though hopefully I will be on the mend soon. Will be a lack of outfit posts for a while, being ill has made me completely lose my appetite and therefore I have lost weight and none of my clothes fit properly! At least now I have a good excuse to eat lots of chocolate to get the weight back on!

I thought I would finally show you all what I picked up at the Clothes Show back in December.

Snuggliest jumper possibly ever! Internacionale, £13

Faux leather a-line skirt. Apparently destined for Primark, £5

Me & Zena necklace, £12 & Chunky silver necklace, £5

Models Own were offering a goody bag when you spent £10, so I picked up a few nail varnishes (one for my blogger secret santa) and a loose eye shadow. The goody bag was better than I expected, think the only thing I wont use is the orange liner!

Barry M were also doing a £10 goody bag which I split with my Mum

Glossybox were offering 2 boxes for £10 so my Mum and I got a box each and picked our favourites to keep. The also gave out discount codes for a free box which I used to pick up the Christmas box, worth getting for the nail varnish alone!

Just a selection of random things put in some of the many goody bags that the magazines and various people hand out.

I was fairly restrained this year!