Recipe Review - chocolate chip cookies!

Hi everyone, in today's post I'm going to try something a little bit different - I will be reviewing a recipe (Well, duh. I think you can guess from the title...). If you read my post about What I've been reading recently (not that recent now, though!) then you'll know that I got the Australian Women's Weekly Gluten Free Cookbook not too long ago, and I love it! I made a batch of cookies from it today, and I was delighted with the results!

Here is how you make them:
Ingredients 
125g softened butter
110g brown sugar (It doesn't specify, dark or light. I used dark and it worked well!)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 egg
170g gluten free plain flour (I recommend "Bob's Mill" gluten free flour)
2 tablespoons white rice flour  ("Dove's Farm" do this)
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon of xanthan gum
140g chocolate chips

For the glaze:
150g milk chocolate
2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Method

• Preheat your oven to 180°C and line 2 baking trays
• Beat the butter & sugar together until just combined (don't cream them). Add the egg & vanilla.
• Sift in the flours in 2 batches (So it's easier to stir in!)
• Add the chocolate chips (You might need to do some 'quality control'on them at first....)
• Cover the dough, and chill for an hour in the fridge.
• Using wet hand, roll the dough into little balls, pop on the trays, and into the oven!

Just before going in!

• Bake the cookies for 18 minutes of until they're nice & golden
• Make the chocolate glaze by melting together the oil & chocolate. The book says to do it over a pan of simmering water, I did it in the microwave. Just melt it in whatever way.
• Now for the fun bit: once they've cooled a bit, dip the cookies half in their glaze (look at the photos if you don't get what I mean). Leave to cool. Or don't, and eat a warm cookie with melted chocolate.....

Cookies and milk? Yes, please!

So there you have it! Do you have any baking stories or recipes? Let me know in the comments!
Kisses, Rose
xxx

What if.....

Hello everyone!
Today's post is going to be short, sweet, and fun. I am going to basically question... just about everything. Ever. Enjoy!

• What if everyone actually sees colours differently? (So for example, what you see as pink, I see as blue, and Jimmy down the street sees it as yellow?)
• What if there's another country people haven't been to for hundreds of years, but there are still humans living on it?
• What if every freezer in the world just broke down right now, for about a week? (Think of all the melted ice cream....)
• What if a caveman accidently learned how to time travel and just turned up somewhere really random... tomorrow?
• What if drinking tea was thought to make you really sick but no one actually researched it and so everyone just sat there, being scared of tea?
• What if toasters were made of glass, so you could see how well done your toast is?

Well. There you go, people. I think that this is the most random list of anything, ever - but oh well! Next week, I won't be so busy (I hope) and so I'll be able to post something a bit longer and more exciting!!! If you have any interesting what-ifs, or any other ideas on anything, let me know in the comments!
Kisses, Rose
xxx

My travelling bucket list

Hi everyone!
As you know, I love to travel. I have had the privilage of visiting lots of different countries in Europe, but I still have lots of places that I would like to visit. I don't think that I will end up visiting them all, but hey, I can dream, can't I?!
In no particular order, here are a few from my very long list of destinations. The copyright on the photos goes to the people who originally took them. So not me.

1. The Maldives

2. Tokyo, Japan

3. Austria. Especially Vienna.

4.Amsterdam, the Netherlands

5. A safari trip in Kenya

This was a really fun post to write (or type?) and I hope you guys enjoyed it! What places are on your travelling bucket list? Have you ever been to any of the above? Let me know in the comments!
Kisses, Rose
xxx

What I've been reading recently

Hi everyone & happy Monday!
As you all know, I'm a huge fan of reading. I read everything and anything, and it'll all be finished in a very short space of time. However, now that I'm back to school, my afternoons are taken over by classes, homework and studying instead of reading. This gives me less time to read. Sigh. Even still, this post is about the books I've been reading recently (this month). Enjoy!

Here is the little collection I have for you:

The Australian Women's weekly Delicous Gluten-Free Food cookbook
What a long name! This isn't a novel like the others, but I think it deserves a mention.
As you all know, I'm a celiac, which means I can't eat gluten. This cookbook is beautifully designed, and has loads of delicious, creative gluten free recipes. Obviously, I haven't tried all of them, but I've tried about 8 recipes from this book, and they've all been successful!

Rating: 5/5

The Apple Tart Of Hope (by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald)
I read 'Back To Blackbrick', which is also by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, quite a while ago. Whilst this book has been out a while, and I've been meaning to read it for just as long, I never really got around to reading it. I'm glad I did, though!

The book is about a girl called Meg, who lives in Ireland and then moves (reluctantly) to New Zealand with her parents. She leaves her friend Oscar behind her, and they're both really sad to see each other go. A new girl moves into Meg's house, and makes friends with Oscar. Then, Oscar dies.  No body is found, though and Meg is certain he's still out there.

Note- the 'Apple pie' part of the title is because Oscar made delicious apple pies. Lots of people ask whenever I tell them about this book...
I really enjoyed reading this book and would definitely recommend it.
Rating: 4.5/5

What was never said (by Emma  Craigie)
This book made me cry! It took me only a day to finish this short little book, because it was just... amazing.

This book is the story of a girl called Zahra. She moved from Somalia to Bristol and many chapters give us flashbacks to her life back in Somalia - the beautiful trees, her family, and the sad war. The main topic of the book though is that Zahra, along with her (adorable) little sister Samsam, are trying to escape from 'the cutters', and the horrible practice of FGM. For obvious reasons, the book isn't overly
detailed in certain parts. Zahra addresses the book to her her sister Rahma, which I found a bit confusing at first, but I copped on quickly enough.

Rating:5/5 (My favourite of this collection!)

Birthmarked (by Caragh O'Brien)
I'm not sure how I felt about this book. The storyline was great, I think, but the way it was written was slightly disappointing.

Here, we follow Gaia Stone, a 16 year old midwife living outside the Enclave city, in the future. The people from outside the Enclave must deliver a quota of babies to the Enclave every month. These babies are then raised by parents in the Enclave. However, this also leaves parents from outside the Enclave without their own children. When Gaia's parents are arrested for seemingly no reason, Gaia must try to find them, using a combinaion of a hair ribbon given to her that has a variety of strange symbols on it, and sheer courage. Sounds good, doesn't it? Sadly, Caragh O'Brien doesn't give it enough 'oomph' to turn it from the 'meh' level to the 'omigod I need this book in my life!' level. Gaia isn't that easy a character to relate to, and there are many loopholes in the book. I won't explain these in detail, in case any of you want to read it.

Rating: 3/5
I'd love for one of you to read this one in particular, because I'd love to know how other people feel about rhis book.


So there you go! Have you read any of these bnooks before? What did you think of them? If you have any book suggestions, please leave them in the comments below!!!
Kisses, Rose
xxx

It's been a while...

No, I don't really know what possesed me to put an
airplane view photo up here...

Hello!
It's been a while, I know. I've read this kind of blog post before, wondering how on earth some one can stop blogging for so long, and then just turn up. Out of nowhere. Yet here I am, doing exactly the same.

When I started this blog, I thought I'd post at least once a week. That failed. In march, I went off on a holiday that was over a week long, came back, and thought, "Thats it. There goes my blogging life. T'was nice."
However, I still really wanted to post something. So today, I finally am. Are my readers still there? Hello?

In other news, I had an amazing Summer. I kind of travelled Europe, visiting England, Denmark, Estonia, Russia, and Switzerland. Let me know in the comments if you'd like a post about any if them. Or anything else, really.

I think I'll leave you all there. I'll post again soon, I hope. Until then,
Kisses, Rose
xxx

20 Reasons to be Happy!

Hello, Everyone!
Today, it is 'I want you to be happy day'. Don't believe me? Google it. So because of that, I'm doing a blog post that will (hopefully) bring a smile to your face (If you aren't smiling already!) - I'm going to give you 20 resons to be happy!

1) It is nearly Easter
2) It is nearly St Patricks day
3) Somebody out there is probably laughing so hard they could cry right now. Why aren't you?
4) Did you smile at someone today? If so, then you could very possibly have made their day
5) You have great goals and dreams!
6) Your favourite foods exist (Chocolate, I'm looking at you)
7) Everything bad that happened yesterday is over. Forever. No need to look back.
8) You have friends who really care about you
9) Lush bath bombs
10) Baby ducklings
11) You can read this. That makes you so much luckier than millions of others out there
12) Some people completely recovered from cancer today!
13) There is only one you on this whole world
14) You have a beautiful smile
15) It is also 'If pets had thumbs' day
16) People are 20% prettier than the person they see in the mirror
17) Your blog is amazing (If you have a blog!)
18) Somewhere in the world, there is a lost dog poster with a picture of a cat on it
19) Your home country is amazing! (Especially if you're living in Ireland...)
20) Those days that you have that just get better and better

There we go, only a short post for today. Happy 'I want you to be happy' day, and  bye!
Kisses, Rose
xxx

Ps- Continue down in the comments :-)

My February Favourites

Hello everybody!
I'ts nearly the end of February. Which is completely crazy. It was new years day like... yesterday! So today, I'm going to show you my February favourites. This is actually my first favourites post on this blog, so I'm really excited to begin!

Doc Martens
For Christmas, I got these doc martens from my aunt, and I love them! They took a while to break into, unfortunately and so my feet were really sore, but now they're really comfy, and I wear them everywhere. Plus, they're red. Who doesn't love red doc martens??? I wear them with everything. Well, actually I don't, but I wear them a lot, and I love them so so much!!!!

Simple Moisturising Facewash                        

Onto something a bit less exciting than my docs, I've started using this Simple moisturising facewash this month, and I really like it. It lathers really well, and it also is really gentle on my face (unlike the facewash I was using before this!) So I would definatly reccomend this to... everyone. I got it in superdrug for about €3, which is really good value because it comes in a big 150ml bottle.

Body Shop body butter (Strawberry scent)

As you might know from my Winter Handcreams post, I recently got a strawberry scent body shop hand cream. I decided it was a bit lonely, so I got it a matching body butter. My skin gets really dry in the winter, d this is perfect for it! It feels kind of balmy, so unlike other body butters I'm not all greasy after putting it on, plus it smells great. Thumbs up from me!

Yankee candle Summer Scoop

Even though its only February, I'm really excited for Summer so when I saw this in the shop, I decided it might make Summer come quicker, at least weatherwise (The weather has been really stormy here recently). Inevitabley, it didn't change the weather. It does, however, smell like heaven in a jar. I bought the little sampler size (as you can see) but its nearly gone so I'm going to have to replace it with one of the big jars that they have soon.

Pig Phone Stand

For €2 in Penneys, this is the cutest, funnest thing ever! Basically, its just a little pig and it sticks to a hard surface. You pop your phone against it, and boom. This is so useful for youtube, netflix, anything really. I think they do them with little men as well as pigs, if thats what you want.

Glasses

The last, although really the biggest  thing I got this month has been my glasses. As it happens, I'm kind of very blind and I need glasses for reading and distance. So earlier this month, I got two pairs. My first pair are red and black with a little floral pattern on the inside, they are by Replay and I got these to match my docs. My other pair are by Red Or Dead and they're brown toroiseshell and I wear these ones for school usually. I was really nervous at first that people wouldn't like my glasses, but thankfully they do, and it is so great to be able to see properly!

That's everything then in my February Favourites. Do you have any of these? Do any of you wear glasses as well? Let me know in the comments! See you next week...

Kisses, Rose

xxx

(Triple) Leibster Award Tag!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Hello, everyone! Sorry for not posting in ages. Up until now, I've only used my phone to work this blog, and now google keeps on coming up about my cookie settings whenever I try post anything (If anyone knows how to fix this, tell me!!!) so I couldn't reply to or post comments. But now, I've gotten access to a (not great tbh) computer, so I can post again!!! Yay!!! In this time that I've been away, I have been nominated for the Leibster Award. But, not once. THREE TIMES!!!! So, here we have the triple leibster award. I have been nominated by Martins Virtual Blog, Teenage Tanglewreck, and Emma from Just a happy teen. Thanks, all of you! Now, after my long intro, lets get started!!!

By the way, if you are tagged below then here are the rules that you and I need to follow:
-Link back to the person that tagged you
-Answer all 11 questions and attach this photo (Its up there)
-Tag 11 bloggers who have less than 1000 readers
-Ask them 11 questions
-Let them know you tagged them through social media

Martins Virtual Blog was the first to nominate me, so I'll do his questions first. Here we go:

Lets get started!

Question 1- Best thing about the country you live in?

I'd say that the best thing about Ireland is... probably the amazing culture we have, and the Irish language. And you can't forget the Late Late Toy Show... 2 and a half hours of a grown man playing with toys every Christmas, on the TV. You won't find that anywhere else!

Question 2- What makes you smile? Why?

I smile over almost anything. Simple things like being with my friends, or getting a comment on this blog are great! In fact, being told something motivating in the morning keeps me smiling all day long!

Question 3- Do you have any pets? Pictures?

I have a cat, Ella. She is lovely but is constantly hungry! 

And I have Guinea pigs. Billy is the small one, Bobby is the poofy hairy one :-)

Question 4- Who is your favourite artist? Name their album. 

To be honest,  I go through phases when it comes to music, I'm not really a dedicated fan of *person*. Right now, though, I really like Zayn Malik's new song Pillowtalk. He doesn't really have an album yet, so there we go!!

Question 5- Favourite blog to read?

As for the big bloggers, I really enjoy Louise sprinkle of glitter. I'm not sure about smaller bloggers because I don't read enough to be honest! (If you are a small blogger, let me know in the comments. I'd love to check out your blog!!!!)

Question 6- Where in the world do you dream of living?

Paris!!! I'd love to spend time living in London as well, though. 

Question 7- what are you most proud of?

Never failing an exam (yet!)

Question 8- Do you bath or shower?

I shower.... I would much rather have baths, though.

Question 9- Tea or Coffee? 

Herbal tea. That's not an option there, though, so I'll just say normal tea.

Question 10- Name 5 ways, 2016 will be your year.

I'll visit lots of new countries, I'll improve my math and chemistry grades, I'll think less negatively, I will buy less cute things in shops junk I don't need, and I'll eat better. I hope...

Question 11- Favourite memory at age 11?

My friend (let's call her A) and I used to clean the school library, and wash up after painting class at school. We missed lots of class. And it was a lot more fun than it sounds!

Teen Tanglewreck from Teenage Tanglewreck was next to nominate me, so here we go: set of questions number 2:

Question 1- Have you ever left your home country? If not, have you ever been interstate?

Yes, I've left Ireland lots, but have never been outside Europe! And there aren't really states here, because Ireland is so small... so yeah. I've been to Northern Ireland, England, France, Spain and Holland.

Question 2- If you could have any job and everyone gets the same amount what job would you love to have?

To be honest, I really don't know. I love to dance, bake, blog and read, so a job should be invented where all of those combine!!!!

Question 3- What would a day in your life consist of?

Usually on a weekday, I get up at 7:00 to feed the pets, get changed, have breakfast, then I leave the house at 8:10 to go to school for half past. School ends around 4:00, sometimes I'll have things on afterwards, if not then I go back home, study or do homework, have dinner and finally relax!

Question 4- If someone met you for the first time what is one word they'd use to describe you?

Quiet, perhaps, I don't open up easily to new people most of the time. Then once they know me, I'd probably be described as a dreamer because I always go on and on about things that will more than likely never happen!

Question 5- Whats your biggest fear, not something like spiders but something like not being able to have children?

I'd hate to have something bad about me spread around everyone or a secret leaked. I'm also scared of dying while my children (If I have children) are still young.

Question 6- Whats something you so only for yourself?

Well, I blog, I'll sometimes treat myself to a delicious sweet treat, and I set myself high goals, if that counts.

Question 7- What do you think is the perfect age to get married?

I haven't a clue! Late twenties, early thirties, I suppose?

Question 8- Whats one thing you have a natural talent for?

I'm pretty good with languages, learning and writing with them. Or at least thats what I like to think... (I speak fluent English, Irish and Esperanto, I know some basic German and I learn French at school!)

Question 9- Do you have a best friend that you know you'll be best friends forever?

 I have a small group of very close friends and I think (I hope!) I'll always stay friends with all of them!

Question 10- If you could live in any country where would you live?

Ireland!!!!! I would like to live in France for a while someday, but Ireland, I think is my forever home.

Question 11- What out of school activities do you do?

Ballet, Jazz and hockey! I love the dance, but running after a ball with a wooden stick in the freezing cold wearing a skort isn't really my forte! (I'd love to be good at it, though)

My last nominater (Thank you!!!) was Emma from Just A Happy Teen. Here we go again, people:

Question 1- What is your favourite animal and why?

Cats, definately. They're so beautiful and elegant but really low maintenance. Sorry, any dog lovers. 

Question 2- What did you want to be when you grew up when you were 5?

I remember wanting to be a ballet dancer, a childminder and a teacher all at once!

Question 3- Would you rather live in the city or the country?

Right now, I live in the city, and I love it. I want to live in the city when I'm older, too, because there are so many people and shops, and the city atmosphere is always busier than a small country town.

Question 4- Why is your best friend your best friend?

I don't exactly have one best friend, but with all of them, I suppose we were all just too unique for everyone else! And we just kind of steered towards each other, I guess.

Question 5- What is the most awkward thing you have ever done?

Ever? I've done so many awkward things, it'd be impossible to say. Recently? Well, I called my friend thinking I was calling my aunt yesterday, and I asked if she could pick up some underwear for me. I don't even know this friend very well....

Question 6- What are you spectacular at?

I'm good with languages,writing and communicating with others. Usually.

Question 7- Describe your personality in three words:

Shy (until you know me!), Daydreamer, and ambitious.

Question 8- What subject do you hate in high school?

Math. And chemistry. I'll get to drop chemistry next year, but I'm kind of stuck with math forever. And even then, i'll never know what the value of x is. Uggghhh.

Question 9- Do you like Valentines Day or do you think its a scam?

Well, I've only ever spend Valentines day single, but when I was little, I loved it because I could make multicoloured glittery hearts and hang them all around the house!

Question 10- What do you hope of the future?

I hope to be happy, to help lots of people, and to be remembered. Pretty general, but I haven't a clue what is in store for me so this is my little goals thing, I guess!

Question 11- What is your favourite flavour of ice cream?

Well, I was once on holiday and I went to this weird and wonderful ice cream parlour and I had the most amazing sea salt (I know!) flavoured ice cream. Then my holiday ended and I had to go home. I haven't had sea salt ice cream since. Sad face :-(

There we go, now. All questions done! Phew! I nominate:

Alice from Alice Eastburn

Talkative Girl from Talkative Girl

Sinead from Sinead Oc Beauty

Kathryn from In the depths of dreams

Bri Nicole from Bri Nicole

Foreverdreaming from All things sweet

The pretty things from The Pretty Things

Scarlett from All the little things

Liv from Livs Beauty Blog

Reyna from Reyna

Mae from Sweet as Mae

And here are your questions:

1) What is your favourite season?

2) What was your least favourite age to be?

3)  If you could learn a new language, what would it be?

4) What shop do you buy most of your clothes from?

5) Whats your favourite board game?

6) Why do you blog?

7) What was the first thing you did this morning when you woke up?

8) What was the best holiday you ever went on? 

9) If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be?

10) Do you have any pets?

11) Do you play any sports?

That's it for now! I promise to post more often, and please leave a comment down below!!!

Kisses, Rose

xxx

My favourite handcreams for the cold Winter!

Hi everyone!
Sooo... this Winter is really cold. And I hate coldness. At the beginning of the month, and the end of last month, it wasn't that cold, it was rainy. But now, it is full on freezing cold, which I hate! One of the worst parts about this awful weather (apart from just being cold!) Is that my hands get really dry, chapped and itchy, which is horrible. So, I use hand cream, but I find that lots of hand creams are too light for how chapped my hands get, in other words - they're for Summer, not Winter! In today's post, I am going to share my favourite handcreams that really work in Winter. Enjoy!

                                   
Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream intensive moisturinsing hand treatment

 Even though its a bit on the pricy side, this handcream is great for putting on your hands at night, you really notice a great difference when you wake up! I keep this one next to my bed to remind me to use it, because I am the worst for remembering to moisturise my hands at night. The only bad side of this is the smell, it isn't good at all (to say the least..). You can get it here on the Elizabeth Arden website.








 Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Concentrated Hand Cream

 

This hand cream is great for budget-ness, and you apparently you get over 200 applications with it! It is very concentrated, so you only need a small amount. This cream has no scent, and yet again is great for overnight use, although I usually put this cream on in the morning. I got it in boots, here it is on their website.








The Body Shop Hand Creams

As you might know if you read my Secret Santa Gift Guide, I got the body shop'd coconut flavoured handcream for Secret Santa. I loved it, so I went back and got the strawberry and mango scents as well! These all smell amazing, I actually can't pick a favourite. They aren't as moisturising as the other two, but they still work, and they smell just sooo good. You can buy the strawberry, the coconut or the mango on the body shops website.


That brings this post to an end... if you have used any of these handcreams, or want to recommend one to me, then please let me know in the comments!
Kisses, Rose
xxx