January: Books I've Read

So as I mentioned in my new years resolution post which you can read here. I said that I would try and read at least one book a month due to owning so many that I haven't got around to reading yet!

This month I actually managed to read books 3 altogether which I am really pleased about. Here are the books I managed to read this month/Finish off;

Christmas At Rosie Hopkins Sweet Shop by Jenny Colgan:

I have been a massive lover of Jenny Colgan's book ever since I was introduced to her and read "The Cupcake Cafe" followed by "Christmas At The Cupcake Cafe" in which I then went on to look at what other books she had written and purchased "Welcome to Rosie Hopkins Sweet Shop" and this book is the follow on story set not long after the first book during Christmas time.

What I love about Jenny's books is when reading them you really feel like you can relate to the characters and that you know them on this different level. As I am a slow reader it did take me the whole month to read it.

I do have the next book in this series ready to read but I think because once again its another Christmas themed book I shall save it for December hehe.

The Disney Book:

I have actually had this book since April 2016 when it was first released and over a few months I managed to get through half of the book before I stopped reading it altogether so I decided that I would finally finish it off as I can't stand having half finished books.

Although a lot of the stuff in the book I already knew there were a few things that I didn't and learnt about which was great. This book included a copy of an original cell from the movie Brave and I am so happy with the cell I got as each book has a different one.

The Case of Beasts: Explore The Film Wizardry of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them:

Ever since the movie has came out I have been obsessed with this everything relating to the film its like Harry Potter all over again.

This again was another book that I was given just before Christmas as a present and started reading. I really enjoyed reading this book as it went in to a lot of detail about how bits were filmed, cast costumes, creature design and how the cast felt about each others characters.

The book even included lots of different pouches that included maps, wanted posters, game cards and other bits from the film which were really cool. I am actually hoping to get the wanted posters framed to go in the living room.

So here we are going in to February and I have so many books to choose from right now and 2 that need to be finished! So I am thinking I might use this month to finish these off before starting something new!

Disneyland Paris September 2017 Series!

I cannot believe me and my best friend Emma have had our holiday booked since June last year and now we are finally in 2017 and only 226 days away till our trip.

With it only being the end of January it's still a little early to plan everything that we want to do as the information for the 25th Anniversary celebrations that are on during our visit has not been released yet and wont be until March. But this hasn't stopped us planning rides we want to do, where we want to eat and characters we want to see.

So I thought on the lead up to our trip I would keep you posted every step of the way with a series of posts about all our plans. I have done a couple of posts about my trip prior to booking and once it was booked but I thought I would start a little series of posts.

So far I have the following post ideas;
1. General trip information
2. Rides we definitely want to do during our visit
3. Dinning plans
4. Characters we really want to meet
5. Parades/Shows that we really want to see
6. What I'm packing
7. What is in my parks bag
8. Day trip reports
9. Haul post

I think with my upcoming trip in 14 days it will be best to start this series off the at the beginning of March as when I come back I will be doing some posts on that trip and I don't want things to get muddled up.

Only 226 days and I will be celebrating my Birthday in DISNEYLAND!

Cream Egg Brownies

So with all the Easter goodies now in the shops as soon as January hit the thoughts of making cream egg brownies has now risen once again! After last years epic fail at making them with a packet mix this year I finally decided to take the plunge and cook them from scratch.

Me being me I hate cooking and baking a like but I keep seeing all these amazing treats that I want to make so thought why not just give it a go and why not blog post about it as well! I went and purchased myself an electric whisk as most of the recipes I have found online mentions one and a sieve as that is another thing I shockingly don't own (hides in shame hah).

Ingredients:

185g Unsalted Butter

185g Dark Chocolate

85g Plain Flour

40g Coco Powder

3 Large Eggs

275g Golden Caster Sugar

6 Cadbury Cream Eggs (Halved)

Steps:

1. The first thing that I did when making these brownies were to set my oven to 160c and line my baking tray with baking paper. The reason I decided to line my baking tray was to just make it easier to take the brownies out at the end.

2. After this I decided I would weigh out all of my ingredients so that they were all ready to be used as soon as I needed them.

3. In one bowl I added my 3 large eggs with my golden caster sugar and mixed with an electric whisk for 5 to 10 minuets until the mixture had doubled in size and become a pale, creamy thick mixture. During this I was also melting my butter and dark chocolate in a bow.

4.Once both of these step are complete and the chocolate mixture has cooled slightly this needs to be gently folded in to the creamy egg mixture.

5. After you need to sieve your flour and coco powder over the top of the mixture as evenly as you can before folding this gently in as well and making sure that when you are finished there is no flour or coco powder visible and it is mixed well.

6. Place your mixture in to your baking tin and cook for 15 minuets before placing your halved cream eggs evenly on the top. Then cook for another 5 to 10 minuets before removing from the oven and cooling for a few hours.

Tips:

1. Melt your chocolate and butter before making the creamy egg mixture because as I found out doing them at the same time might be clever but then you have to wait a while for the chocolate to cool before it can be added to the mixture as it can't be too hot other wise it will start cooking the egs.

2. For me I guess I probably could have cooked them slightly longer because they are crispy on the outside but they were a bit too gooey on the inside.

3. Rather than a knife test I found out online that toothpicks are a really good way to check. If you poke one in the brownie and its covered in brownie its not cooked, if there none on the stick its over done and if there is just a few bits of brownie then its just right.

Next time I give this a go I shall do the test and send some photos.

4. Another thing I learnt was that you need to leave them to cool for a good few hours at room temperature as this is really important for the process of baking them.

Review: January 2017 Tokyo Treat Box

Hi Everyone! I hope 2017 is treating you well so far even though we are only half way through January.

Here is my first review of many Tokyo Treat boxes to come this year and soon I would have been receiving these for nearly a year. What I am excited about is to see how they keep the variances going with these boxes and to keep the snacks different each month which I am sure won't be a problem considering the variety's they have in Japan!

This months theme is Happy New Year which is very fitting with it being the New Year!

As always here is the booklet which they always provide so you can see the full descriptions of the items along with my thoughts and comments below;

Items Received:

This time instead of writing in"Italic" what the products are as mentioned in the little book provided I will just give my own comments along with pictures and a rating out of 5 so here goes ...

Condensed Milk Choco Anpan (5/5)
These are soooo cute! I have been dying to try them since I missed them in a box I decided to skip last year so I was glad to see them making an appearance again. Looking at the packet they look like little bread buns filled with condensed milk and that is exactly what they were and so cute as well! 

Black Thunder - Kinako Flavour (0/5)
I have been wanting to try a Big Thunder bar for ages and when I saw this one was going to be included in the box I was very excited although once opening it and taking a bite I wasn't all that impressed I have to say. I think this could be because it wasn't an original and had a slightly off flavour because of the Kinako? But I wouldn't rush to buy one again.

Super Ottotto Savory Soy Sauce (3/5)
I love it when crisp are included in the boxes and these ones are really cute and shaped like different sea creatures with a soy sauce flavouring. I gave them a 3 because they're something I find quite over powering and not something that I would rush to eat the whole bag like I usually do.

Samurai Japan Chips (5/5)
Woo another bag of crisps included and nothing really exciting about these ones as they're just a simple plain ready salted flavour but tasted amazing all the same.

Sour Plum Fortune Candy (3/5)
After all the other Sour Plum stuff I have previously had from Tokyo Treat and didn't like I wasn't to sure if I was going to like these but the aim of the packet is to see what your fortune would be by choosing a sweet and hoping that you didn't get a super sour one. We have to say we ate 4/6 of the sweets and the sour ones weren't that bad not as bad as I thought they would be.

Pickachu Gummy (5/5)
Pikachu? Gummy? Grape? Win Win for me here, they were so cute as it was a mixture of tails, feet and Pikachu faces that all had different expressions. We got Sad, Angry, Normal and Surprised. 

Bonus Snack (5/5)

Who doesn't love a bonus snack? And for once actually one that I could do haha! The little packet include 3 different flavours and 3 different shaped gummy's, one was the bottom for the sushi and one was for the top in banana, strawberry and lemon flavours. The sushi toppers didn't actually stick very well to the bottoms but they tasted good anyways!

Nakayoshi Neru Neru Muscat Grape and Strawberry Flavour (5/5)
OK so I hate DIY candy kits and I can never usually do them so end up eating the contents and chucking the rest in the bin BUT this time I decided to give this one a proper go and I DID IT I MADE IT! And it actually tasted amazing the texture of the Neru Neru was so good and the flavours tasted amazing.

Sakupan Choco Monaka (5/5)
I have never had one of these big panda's before I have had the smaller biscuit ones before in Chocolate flavour so wasn't really sure what to expect with the bigger one and oh my it was amazing its not like a biscuit but like a wafer base with this chocolate moose type filling on the inside and it was so creamy I wanted more.

Fizzy Soft Candy Stick - Orange and Lemon Flavour (5/)
I loved this and its such a good idea. It is a simple chew bar which is half lemon and half orange flavour but when you take a bite and start chewing it and activate the fizzy foam that is inside it actually starts to taste like cola. As you can see from the image on the packaging. 

Frog Family Gummy (5/5)
Grape? Gummy? Cute Frog shapes? What is not to like here these super cute gummy'c come in the shapes of tadpoles, eggs and frogs and the little eggs even have a gooey grape centre and tasted amazing.

New Years Facial Art Mask (N/A)
I haven't actually done this one yet as I am not a massive face mask lover so I've left it to one side for the moment and maybe I will get around to doing it another day.

Rich Taste Calpis Soda (4/5)
So another rather interesting drink once again this month although not as interesting as the cream stew ramune that made want to gag. This months special drink is Calpis which a popular Japanese yogurt drink but this time they have released a limited edition Calpis Soad version.

So after reading it was originally a yogurt drink it put me off slightly after taking a look at the colour and giving it a smell I did take a sip and to my surprise I actually really liked it to start with I wasn't convinced but after a while it kind of tasted like a creamy lemonade flavour. 

Pokemon Stick Candy (5/5)
More Pokemon goodies! These kind of remind me of candy sticks here in the UK apart from they are more fizzy and kind of foam a little. They are classic Soda flavour which is one of my favourite tastes and the other is orange. 

Gilco Cultured Butter Pretz (N/A)
So the reason for my N/A rating is because I decided I wouldn't open these just yet as I still have the tomato ones open from December's box and I don't want them going stale.

One Piece Chocolate Wafer (5/5)
Simply a chocolate wafer with One Piece packaging nothing different about it shape wise just plain and simple but still tasted amazing.

Alfor Chocolate Biscuit - Red Bean Flavour (4/5)
I really wasn't sure what I was going to make of these when I picked them up out of the box due to the flavour being Red Bean which is really weird to me but these tasted amazing and the little biscuits that the chocolate was on top off tasted really yummy. I really liked the cute little ship design each one had on the chocolate.

If you would like to read any of my Tokyo Treat reviews from 2016 then please click on the "Tokyo Treat" or "2016" labels in the label column on the side.

Thanks for reading. I purchased this with my own money and I was NOT paid to review this by Tokyo Treats.

Officially 30 days till Disney!

It is officially 30 days till my weekend away in Paris and day trip to Disneyland Paris the first of two trips this year. I am extremely lucky to being on both of these trips and they will be my last until I get back from Tokyo next year.

Since I wrote my last post about my trip back in November a few things have changed with regards of what we want to try and do during our day in Disney. 

We decided to not book any restaurants as we are only going for the day and don't want to be to restricted to where we can eat although I think we will end up just dinning in a counter service restaurant. When we went in September on a Saturday it was really busy and as I have never been on a Sunday before I'm not sure how busy it is going to be.

So we have finally decided on the rides that we want to do whilst we are there as we will be restricted due to only being there one day but we have chosen to try and do;

• Tower of Terror
• Crush Coaster
• Ratatouille
• Rock N Roller Coaster
• Big Thunder Mountain but this really depends on the wait time as its been really busy recently
• Indian Jones Roller Coaster

Whilst we are there Space Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean will be closed for refurbishment but not to worry because I am back in September so shall be able to experience these new updated rides then although I have rode them before. I am hoping to maybe squeeze a ride on Phantom Manor and Its A Small World but literally only if we have time.

Similar to my last trip there there will be a lot of travelling through the night :( but least this will be broken up with a nights stay in a hotel before spending the day in Disney and making our way back home.

We leave Bristol at 02:00 am to make our way down to the Dover to catch the morning Ferry over to Paris and we are set to arrive at our Hotel's around mid day although Check In isn't until 3pm which worry's me a little so I am hoping that maybe our rooms will be ready before then but who knows. 

Once we have checked in as mentioned before we will head off in to Paris central for the afternoon before spending the evening in the Disney Village doing probably 90% of our Disney shopping so we don't have to take it around the parks.

We are very lucky that the Disney Park is open until 21:00 pm and the Studios is open until 19:30 am during our visit so it means in total we will get a full 11 hours in the park so will be interesting to see what we manage to get done. 

When we are there it will be Season of The Force which will be amazing to see all the new shows and parades but also great to see Disney Dreams and Magic on Parade for the last time before they change over for the anniversary.

So here we have it all our plans so far for our Disney day along with taking loads of photos on our Instax ;) but before I go I will do a "What I'm Wearing" post followed by Trip Reports and Haul post once I am back!

Top Movies of 2016

I love looking back at the last 12 months deciding out of the many movies that were released in 2016 which of them will make my Top 10 for the year. Its hard because often I will write my list and then remember a movie that I had totally forgotten about whoops!

So here we go in no particular order my top 10 movies for 2016;

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

When I found out that JK was going to be doing another movie and she decided to base it off one of the school text books I was over the moon and so began the countdown to the release of the film. 

I instantly feel in love with this movie it was like being back in the magical world again but this time surrounded by new faces and places it was amazing. I am obsessed with the movie and cannot wait for it to come out on DVD. Plus Eddie was the perfect choice to play Newt.

Me Before You

I have never read the book before watching this and all I had heard was great things about the book so it is currently on my bookshelf waiting to be read but the film is incredible the one screen chemistry is just perfection. Yes at the same time its such a sad movie but it was very well done.

Zootopia

Although its name was changed for the UK release it will always be Zootopia to me. Disney have done it again with this movie that is doe sure full of meaning and moral stories about being able to do anything you want even if you are a bunny ;) I just love the characters, settings and the hidden Easter eggs in this animation.

Moana

I can honestly say its been an amazing year for Disney with both they're animation and live actions movies and the latest Princess instalment didn't disappoint. Just the whole movie had that feel good feeling with a cracking soundtrack that has been on repeat ever since!

Finding Dory
The long awaited Finding Nemo spin off did not disappoint! Who doesn't love Dory, Nemo and Marlin? And after 13 long years we finally had what everyone was waiting for and it was perfect and had such a great range of new characters! I love Gerald haha!

In my opinion I think it was actually better than Finding Nemo!!!

Captain America:Civil War

I LOVE Captain America he is one of my favourite superheros from the Marvel series and I have loved pretty much every Marvel movie but this one just tops it for me and is my favourite. What I love about they're movies are they aren't over the top serious and have so much comedy in them as well. Especially the scene at the airport where they are fighting Spiderman and Ant man just crack me up. 

Divergent Series: Allegiant
Best one out of the series so far in my opinion and just a great collection of movies that I could re watch over and over again and never get bored. I love how the dynamics change in this movie and how the story takes a different turn unlike the other movies. I cannot wait for part one of the final movie to come out although I'm not 100% sure if its this year or next?

I just love Tris and Four together!!!

Secret Lift of Pets

I have been waiting for this movie since I saw the original trailer way back in 2015 and have always wondered why it had taken them so long to show it in the cinemas but once it was released I was very excited to go and see it. Who doesn't love a movie about pets? And what they get up to when they're parents aren't home! I wonder if they will do a second one!

The BFG
This is just such a good feel film for any age and there is just something about watching this movie that makes me feel really happy and cheery. I loved reading Roald Dahl books as a Kid so when I found out they were releasing this as a live action movie I was over the moon. I loved how the BFG actually looked like the actor Mark Rylance he just looked so good.

The Conjuring 2
I absolutely love The Conjuring and I love a good horror movie as well so when I found out they were doing a Conjuring 2 with the same cast playing Ed and Lorraine Warren I couldn't wait and to then find out it was based on one of my favourite stories "The Enfield Haunting" and was going to be filmed in the UK it made it even better! Another movie where I actually think it was better than the first one and made me jump so many times in the cinema.

There are still so many movies that I loved in 2016 and that didn't make it in to my Top 10 list but this year these are some of my favourites, What movies have you seen this year that you really enjoyed?

Planning Tokyo: Rough Costs

Finally I can now say I am going to Tokyo next year without people going "well 2018 is a long way off but how exciting".

As it is Joel's 30th birthday next year we decided we wanted to do something extra special and what a better place to go than Tokyo considering its somewhere we have both wanted to go for a very long time. I managed to persuade him to let me have two days at Tokyo Disneyland so I could visit both the parks and cross another one off my bucket list.

We are planning to go in November 2018 for 10 nights with Joel's birthday falling nicely in the middle of our trip. So far with regards to planning we have only worked out the costs for our hotel, flights and park tickets.

Flights are going to be about £450 per person flying early in the morning from Birmingham Airport as this is the closet to us that fly's to Japan Tokyo without having to go all the way to London.

The hotel we are looking to stay at has been recommend by my lovey friend Sabrina and also a few other bloggers and what is great is the hotel does offer a free shuttle to Disney so I will have to make sure that we get that booked up as soon as we get there. The costs of the hotel is looking at £794 for the both of us which isn't to bad but prices could change.

Our park tickets we are buying in advance because it will make it a lot easier on the day to have e tickets than to wait in line to purchase them. Only annoying this is that with Tokyo Disney you cannot hop between the parks unless you have a 3 day ticket where as with the 2 day tickets you have to declare which park you want to do on each day. These are costing us £91.30 each!

Other than this we haven't got much else organised as cannot book certain things until later on in the year which will be the point where things really get exciting and the planning begins! So these are our rough costs at the moment and obviously me being me I have already got ideas of what I want to do when at Disney which I will post near to the time ;)

Happy New Year 2017: My Resolutions

Happy New Year EVERYONE!

Wow here we are already in 2017 and I just cannot believe how quick 2016 has zoomed by and it has been an amazing year with a few ups and downs but overall its been a good year. With it being the new year I thought I would start my first post of the year telling you what my goals are which I hope to achieve after failing massively at 2016 haha.

So here they are;

1. Fit back in to my size 10 clothes

I have to say this is probably one that I mentioned last year haha but I failed at it and it just got to the point in the last month when clothes shopping I realised how unhappy I was with the weight gain and that its time to do something about it.

2. Get back in to my gym routine

I have been going to the gym for the last 4 and half years at least 4 to 5 times a week and in October I just hit this brick wall where I wasn't bothered anymore and wasn't enjoying myself. It hit December and I just stopped going and decided that I wanted a break which I really appreciated because I went a few times at the end of December and I really enjoyed it! Now to get back in to the 5:20am alarm call (groans).

3. Read at least one book a month

I have a habit of buying books by my favourite authors and then not reading them or taking months to finish them. So my aim is to read one book a month and then to do a blog post about it. So you can expect to see my first book blog post at the end of January hopefully ha.

4. Post another 100 posts on my blog through 2017

When I starting writing this I noticed that during 2016 I managed to post 100 times which is amazing considering the lack of posts through 2015 and 2014. I want to keep this up through the next year.

5. Drink more water and cut out fizzy drinks and unhealthy foods

I think it says it all really hehe. I drink far to many fizzy drinks and not enough water along with all the unhealthy food and food portions I have it's time to cut back and change my habits.

What are your resolutions or goals?