Marie Curie Charity Event at Pad Deco

Nothing is more magical than the story of Alice in Wonderland so it was amazing to see how Pad Deco, an interior design and lifestyle store in Cardiff managed to change their store into Alice’s Tea Party with the Mad Hatter obviously present!! All the store workers including the director were all dressed up in some magical fantasy costumes inspired by the classic novel, and of course with any tea party there were obviously going to be cake!!

A cake and a tea cost £2.50 and all the money was going towards Marie Curie Cancer Trust. A link shall be placed at the end of the article for you donate which I hope you do. Cancer affects not only the victims but also their loved ones too. Unfortunately my family and I have had to help family members suffering from the disease and it’s just horrible, so please, even if it’s a pound, it all helps at the end of the day.

While we waited for our tea Dan and I were busy deciding which cake we should have. I haven’t had Carrot Cake in a while so I opted for that, and I’m so happy that I did. I know I say this whenever I make a post with Carrot Cake but I can safely say, without a doubt that it was the best, carrot cake, EVER!! I mean it. It was baked (I think, don’t take my word on this) by the director and the award winning interior designer Penelope Allen who looked about the same age as me. At the age of 24-25 (please don’t take my word on this) she has achieved so much, it’s slightly intimidating for me to see people my age achieving such amazing things while I sit here typing, checking my e-mails every 5 minutes for that all important life changing e-mail that’ll make me a full-time blogger, but alas it hasn’t and may not happen. Whenever I see women like Penelope Allen making a name for herself I’m always reminded of my foundation days where I was accepted between Swansea, Cardiff and Kingston University, my lecturers wanted me to go to Kingston and even today I remember my lecturer telling me “remember us when you’re famous.”

I’m not going to lie those words still haunt me now as I’m still a nobody, a failure, BUT that doesn’t mean I can’t promote or help women who have/going to make it so after all this I look up to people like Penelope and aspire to work just as hard as them.

Anyway…. as I was saying I had the carrot cake and it was the best!! Dan opted for the Victoria Sponge which unfortunately I wasn’t given the chance to taste as Dan wolfed it down with his tea (I gathered form that it was a wonderful piece of sponge) and he also chose the lemon drizzle cake. Lemon Drizzle will never be my first choice cake-wise but if it was put in front of me I would eat it, no hesitation so Dan offered me a taster and I took it. My god it had a lot of zest, from this cake I gathered they used quite a bit while work just uses a drop. I have never tasted a lemon drizzle so…lemony.

Whilst we chow down our cake we started some chit chat with some lovely ladies sitting next to us and it was lovely. The whole atmosphere was lovely, people were coming in of all ages and enjoying some tea and cake in the name of charity. Can’t go wrong there can you.

I hope they raised a tone of money with all the effort they went through and I hope to visit them again soon.

Here is the link for you to donate: https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/donate

xoxo

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I hope you all had a glorious Valentine’s Day! I can safely say I was thoroughly spoilt this weekend with gifts, food and some good company. Dan and I were celebrating our first Valentine’s together so we decided to spread it and make it a Valentine weekend which meant I could spend Valentine Day with loving friends (as well as Dan) and Sunday 15th with Dan alone. So here is how I spent my Valentine’s Day.

Valentine Breakfast
Valentine morning my housemate and I decided to indulge ourselves in a big Valentine breakfast. We bought some orange juice and croissants, as well as crumpets and pancakes covered in sliced banana and blueberries. We also enjoyed some digestives and a bowl of fruit salad. Such a delicious breakfast and so filling. Katrin invited two of her friends round so the atmosphere was merry. We’ve decided to a breakfast like this every month now.

Valentine Gifts
What – Valentine Sweet Cup
Where from – John Lewis
For – Katrin
Dan and I decided to buy Katrin a little gift for Valentine’s Day and fortunately she loved it. A simple little gift but nice nonetheless.

What – Heart-shaped Jelly Beans
Where from – Marks and Spencers
For – Dan
Sweets and chocolates are one of those stereotypical gifts you send on Valentine (along with the roses). Marks and Spencers really upped their game sweet-wise and I thought these jelly beans were adorable! They come in two colours: pink and white and are very tasty.

What – Hook, Line and Sinker Sweets
Where from – Marks and Spencers
For – Dan
How adorably cheesy are these?! As soon as I saw them I bought them straight away. You have to buy that one silly gift for this romantic holiday and this was it. There are three different types of sweets in this pack. One shaped like bait, the other a rod and the last one a fish.

What – Hip Flask that won’t fall over
Where from – Menkind
For – Dan
Dan enjoy hiking up Brecon way in Wales and I knew that he wanted a hip flask but I couldn’t get him some ordinary hip flask so I found this beauty in Menkind that you cannot push down! Regardless of surface!!

What – Blue tie-dye Orchid
Where from – Tesco
For – me from Dan
I’ve been wanting this blue orchid for such a long time! Every time I pass Tesco to go to the gym I always linger by the Tesco window just to have a look because they’re so pretty. You can imagine my delight when Dan presented me with this lovely plant.

What – Hotel Chocolat Dipping Section
Where from – Hotel Chocolat
For: Both of us
I bought this for us Christmas time as part of Dan’s food hamper and we enjoyed it so much that we decided to have it again for Valentine’s day. It comes with a white chocolate and normal chocolate dip as well as 4 dipping options; marshmallows, hazelnut chocolate balls, chocolate chip biscuits and plain biscuit sticks. The dipping options don’t really cover the dip itself so we also added some digestives into the mix. Yum!

What – Bento Boxes
Where from – Paperchase
For – Me from Dan
I love my bento boxes. I meal prep for work every day so I do require bento boxes but Dan did take the time to think which one I would like. He chose lime green and pink coloured boxes since pink is one of my favourite colours and lime green matches my toaster. He chose a floral design because I’m a professional floral photographer. It’s the thought that went behind it that impresses me.

What – Vulpix Plushie
Where from – EBay
For – me from Dan
This was the biggest surprise from the weekend! He remembered a conversation from 2 months ago when we were discussing Pokemon and I said my favourite was Ninetales and I had a quick look at the plushie which unfortunately does not look nice. At all. So we had a look at Vulpix and I commented on how adorable he is. 2 months later I forgotten about the conversation, but Dan didn’t. I’ve never been so speechless after receiving a gift. I still haven’t taking it out of it’s wrapping because the presentation is so nice.

What – Homemade Carrot Cake
Where from – My mother’s Kitchen
For – me from mam
My mother is the best baker this side of Wales. She has her own small independent business and it’s growing so fast with no social media help, just from word of mouth! Her carrot cake was absolutely delicious especially the vanilla cream cheese on the top. She also made the carrots herself.

Valentine Trip
On Sunday Dan and I went on a trip to Bath as part of our Valentine Weekend. We would have had tea and cakes in the Pump Room but the queue was unfortunately too long but it wasn’t long until we found a little cafe hidden from the public (check tomorrow’s post for more details).

We spent most of the time walking hand in hand and enjoying the sites. From Bath’s beautiful park to the impressive cathedral we saw it all, and luckily everything is in one area so we didn’t have to wander far.

Some of the shops in Bath include Octopus, which is home of the most eccentric home ware you will ever find and December 25th which is a Christmas shop open all year round!

I have thoroughly enjoyed my Valentine. It was perfect from Saturday morning to Sunday night.

Mother’s Birthday

Mother’s birthday is actually on the 29th however since I live in Cardiff working full time and she lives back home there is no guarantee I would be able to celebrate with her on the actual day.

I treated her to a meal at Pettigrews, Cardiff. It’s our favourite tea room. She opted for the Chicken Soup and dumplings while I played it safe with Farmers Ploughman’s. For dessert I devoured my favourite: Carrot Cake, while mother had Bara Brith then we had some tea; English Breakfast for her, Angel Peach for me.

Then came dinner which became another three course meal.
Starters was a variety of Italian bread with oil and vinegar.
Lunch for her was chicken pasta while I opted for pork loin with mash and beans then for dessert chocolate cake with ice cream for me while mother had hazelnut and vanilla ice cream.

Long story short: we’re pigs.

My Week through Vsco #1

My first ever post on my new blog, how exciting!! Let’s start with some introductions shall we?

My name is Rhian: Photographer with seven years experience and a fashion, lifestyle and manga blogger. I used to blog under the name fashionphotoandfilm (previous blog fashionphotoandfilm.blogspot.com), however I abandoned the blog, or took a hiatus so to speak due to incredibly rude comments by Romwe.
But alas, a company will not stop me from sharing my story and journey with you my dear dear readers.
I was lucky enough to get this week off from work and boy, what a week I’ve had!

Saturday I attended my first ever Comic Con and I can safely say it will not be my last. I’ve never felt more safe or more relaxed in my life. Everyone was incredibly friendly, polite and happy to help. Bought one or two products which I shall blog another time.

I’ll be completely honest I spent most of my week eating. On the Sunday my partner took me to Ed’s Diner in the Bay. We ordered BBQ Chicken, cheesy chips and breaded mushrooms. On the Monday I gorged on some Japanese cuisine in Mt Fuji. Tuesday I went to a little tea room in the outskirts of Bute Park in Cardiff and feasted on Farmer’s Ploughman’s and Carrot Cake.

I won’t bore you with my ramblings, here are some mobile photography of my week and I hope you tune in soon for my next article.