OOTD: Leather and Lace

Dress: Next,  Jacket: ASOS, Bag: ASOS, Shoes: Missguided

Since all of my friends are finally home from uni for the summer, we decided to all meet up to celebrate my birthday! Stupidly I arranged it for the same day at The City Girls blogger event, but nevertheless, I had an amazing trip out! We decided to go to TGI Fridays because lets face it they have the best cocktails. I'm not even ashamed to say I had 3 - if only they were refills haha! 

I treated myself to a full day of home-pampering - I gave myself a mani-pedi, had a Lush bath, did my eyebrows and even had a face mask or two! When it came to getting dressed, I threw on this GORGEOUS lace detail dress from Next. I only bought it a couple of weeks ago and I've already worn it about a dozen times (I love it so much that I even bought it in another colour!). It is made from a jersey material and is so soft and comfy it is unreal! As it was dropping cooler, I paired it with my ASOS leather jacket and ended up looking like an extreme badass! 

Seeing as it's summer, I am making the most of the weather and wearing sandals with pretty much every single outfit. These particular beauties are from Missguided and they go with everything. They would even go with a bin bag if you would dare to wear one! Having a slightly wedged heel, they add a little extra something to an outfit whilst not making you look overdressed. Ideally, I would have finished off my look with a black shoulder bag - but I somehow don't own one! I own shoulder bag in pretty much every colour except black! So that is on my wish list now! I opted for my small ASOS tan satchel as it was big enough to fit my camera in. I didn't wear any jewellery other than my Pandora bracelet as my dress has quite a high neckline and is extremely detailed so I didn't want to detract from it. 

I hope you all had a good evening last night whatever you were getting up to!

Thanks for reading as always!

Love Charlotte x
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100th Blog Post, 500 Followers and Confessions Of A Beauty Blogger

Hello lovelies! I can't quite believe it but this is my 100th blog post! I didn't really know what to write for this post, I thought about doing a 'Charlotte through the ages' sort of thing - sharing photos from my 19 years on earth. But with uni deadlines looming and working 5 days a week, I didn't have the time to sort through boxes of all my family albums. But then I hit 500 followers on Bloglovin' and this just seemed like the perfect idea for a post - letting you in on the behind the scenes secrets of being a blogger! Although if you are interested in seeing what I looked like as a child, let me know and I'll dig out some photos for my next post!

I write 99.9% of my blogposts sat in oversized band T-shirts and pyjama bottoms with my hair tied up in a messy bun - not with a full face of makeup on, wearing my best clothes

I swear that this isn't just me? Who would make that much effort to sit behind a computer screen! Unless I am shooting photos for a makeup look or outfit post, I am definitely sat at home looking like an absolute tramp. 

I don't wash my makeup brushes regularly - sorry!

Truth be told, who can actually own up to washing their makeup brushes on a regular basis? I tend to go from one extreme to another - either washing them all the time or never washing them. Infact sometimes, I've just bought more brushes so I don't have to wash them as often!

I don't remove my nail polish when it chips

I'm one of those girls that loves to have shiny painted nails, but usually when my nail polish chips, I don't take it off until there's just a small blob in the centre of the nail haha!

My bedroom doesn't look like one of those flawless Pinterest posts

My bedroom is an absolute mess! The only area that looks reasonably tidy is my window ledge because that's where I take my blog post photos (although to get there you have to make it through my army style assault course of a bedroom).

I basically wear the same makeup all the time

Don't be expecting any different and exciting makeup tutorials from me - choosing a different shade of brown eyeshadow is as exciting as it gets for me. I have absolutely no idea how to even mix up my looks!

Blogging is incredibly hard work

Even when you're not sat writing a post, you're promoting your posts on social media, replying to emails, taking photos or brainstorming ideas. It often feels like a 24/7 job - I can honestly say that it sometimes gets on top of me and I tend to go a bit M.I.A.

So I've shared my secrets! Now it's your turn! Confess in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x
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Recipe: Banana Breakfast Pancakes

So the weekend is fast approaching and I thought I'd share with you a little treat that I like to whip up now and again. Banana breakfast pancakes! Now I made these last Sunday and had plenty left over for a little Monday morning birthday treat before heading off to work. These were originally a Paul Hollywood recipe that I adapted to make them a little more interesting as his were rather bland (Sorry Paul!). Paul originally said that the recipe makes 25 pancakes, but I find that it makes about 10 decent sized ones.

Ingredients

200g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

Approx. 100g Icing sugar (add more or less to sweeten to taste)

Pinch of salt

1 medium egg

300ml full-fat milk (I use semi-skimmed to make them slightly healthier)

1 tbsp melted butter, plus extra for frying

1+1/2 bananas (or any other fruit; strawberries, raspberries, blueberries)

Method

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl and mix well. In another bowl crack the egg and beat it with the milk. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and slowly whisk in the milk and egg mixture, until you have a smooth batter. Melt the butter in the microwave and mix with the batter. Stir in as much of the icing sugar as you want, until it tastes sweet enough. Add in your chosen fruit and mix well to distribute throughout the batter. Heat up a large frying pan with the extra butter. Once you pan is hot, add 3 lots of batter into the pan (allowing a couple of tablespoons of the mixture for each one). Cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden brown. These are incredibly filling and you'll only want 2/3 at most, but if making for multiple people, repeat until you have used all or most of the batter up (adding more butter to the pan if needed). As the pancakes are cooked, stack them on a plate and cover with a tea towel. Once the pancakes are cooked, serve them immediately and enjoy! I drizzled mine in golden syrup and served them with the remaining banana on the side.

If you make pancakes using my recipe, please Tweet me a photo (@CharrrRoberts) so I can see how they turned out! 

Hope you enjoy, thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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