A speedy way to chill your booze

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.

You know the feeling: It’s a beautiful warm, summer’s day, you’ve been stuck in a stuffy office all afternoon and that cold beer or glass of perfectly chilled white wine is just waiting for you to get home, but horror of horrors, you’ve forgotten to put the bottle in the fridge so it’s going to be lukewarm at best.

Well, I’ve got a brilliant tip to make that first sip absolutely sublime. All you have to do is wrap the bottle in some wet kitchen roll, stick it in the freezer for 15 minutes, and Bob’s your uncle, your beverage will be ice cold.

Disclaimer: I’ve got no idea if you can do this with wine that has a cork but it’s fine with screwtops and regular bottle tops.

Verdict: a no-fail way to speedily chill your tipple of choice

Does the Phillips Lumea Precision work?

So, time to report back on the Phillips Lumea Precision and whether it’s actually removing any of my leg fuzz.

When it first arrived, courtesy of Amazon, I was absolutely terrified. I’ve had electrolysis years ago, the pain of which was akin to having a red hot poker applied to my skin so I was more than a bit apprehensive about using the Lumea. However, I’m glad to say that it didn’t hurt at all, not even on the highest setting…more of that later.

The instructions say you have to shave the area you’re zapping first, which is fine if it’s the legs but it goes against everything I’ve ever been told when it comes to the good old tache but I’ve decided to do the legs first to see if I respond to the treatment before moving onto the facial area.

Phillips Lumea Precision

Basically all you do is hold it against your skin until the light goes green and then ping, the laser zaps the hair via the light, which travels down the hair root. It took about 1o minutes for one lower leg (done in front of the TV) and it says 5 minutes for the bikini line, which I’m yet to try. There are five intensity levels but I use level 5 as I’m yet to experience any pain. Perhaps I have a high pain threshold after all.

You have to leave two weeks before each treatment and it can take three months to be hair-free but after two treatments, I can already feel a difference. The hair on my legs is still sprouting but usually it would feel stubbly 24hrs after shaving but I’m getting at least 2 days of smooth legs before needing to shave again.

It’s so easy to use there’s a part of me that wonders whether it’s actually working or not but I guess only time will tell. I expect to see a dramatic improvement by July so I’ll report back then.

Verdict: so far, so good

Evernote – an app you definitely need

Ever since I bought my iPhone two years ago I’ve become a bit app-obsessed, which in turn is feeding my anal retentiveness a treat. When my daughter was born, I had an app to record her feeds and sleeping habits and I even have an app to record what I spend each month (used sporadically as it’s too traumatic to regularly see what rubbish I spend my money on).

Then a few months ago, Evernote was recommended to me. Essentially, it’s an online scrapbook that you can use on your PC or phone and is 1000% superior to bookmarking web pages.

How it works

Say you’re searching for holidays on the web and you’ve found a particular hotel you like, you simply click on the icon below (you have to add it to your task bar first) and it clips the page and saves it to your Evernote folder. Or maybe you’ve found a brilliant chocolate cake recipe or a frock you like; again, all you have to do is click on the elephant icon and it will clip the page for you so you can go back to it at a later date.

It syncs to your desktop, iPhone, tablet etc and has a super-speedy search function so if for example you want to search for that chocolate cake recipe, it will bring the page up in seconds.

I have the same app on my iPhone and it has a brilliant function whereby you can take a picture of something you will need later, such as a bus timetable and it also saves it to your Evernote folder, which can then be viewed on your PC or Mac too.

I now clip a good 50% of the content I view online. Geeky, it may be but it’s free and it makes my working and personal life a little more organised, which in my book has to be a good thing.

Verdict: an essential app and it’s free!

Red, pimply arms? Try Flexitol

For years I’ve been blighted with these horrible little red pimples on the tops of my arms. I’ve tried exfoliating, blasting them with cold water and slathered on various lotions and potions with very little effect. The skin surface usually improve during the summer thanks to the sun but the red pimples never completely disappear.

Then I read about using Flexitol heel balm to treat this skin condition, which Googling reveals is called keratosis pilaris.

I’ve been using this cream for years on my poor old cracked heels but it never occurred to me to try it on my arms. The balm contains urea, which is supposedly brilliant for this skin condition and I have to say, although cynical at first, it definitely works. I’ve been using it for a few days now and my arms already look better (now to tackle the dreaded bingo wings).

I’ve also just shelled out on a Phillips Lumea laser hair removal gadget so I’ll report back on it’s effectiveness in a few weeks.

Birthday cake update……

So, an update on my daughter’s birthday cake.

I had the best of intentions but I’ve been forced to admit that a baker I am most definitely not. Put it like this, I won’t be entering The Great British Bake Off for a few years yet.

In the end, I called on the talents of my mum who came to my rescue with a fabulous sponge cake, which I decorated with pink vanilla icing and sugarcraft butterflies.

Thankfully, it looked and tasted pretty good although there were a few comments from my guests who had read this blog and were expecting something a little different.

The moral of this story is don’t run before you can walk or in my case admit your failings and head to M&S next time for a ready-made birthday cake.

Easy-to-make bunting – all you need is a stapler and fabric

I do love a bit of bunting. It’s probably very passè these days and you’re supposed to hang bits of dead twigs from frayed string or something equally dismal but follow my easy guide to making fabric bunting and I guarantee it’ll put a smile on your face.

I’m reasonably handy with a sewing machine but having watched BBC2′s Sewing Bee last night, I realise I’m a total amateur in comparison. Luckily this bunting doesn’t even require a needle let alone a sewing machine and it still looks fabulous.

What you need is the following:

• A stapler
• Fabric
• Pinking shears (basically scissors with a zig zag blade)
• Bias binding or stiff ribbon
• Triangle-shaped template
• Pins or safety pins

It’s reasonably important that you use pinking shears as they help prevent the fabric edges from fraying. You can get them from most craft shops but eBay’s probably your best bet or Hobbycraft.

Like most people, I don’t tend to have tons of spare dress fabric knocking about. The fabric in the bunting pictured came from Hobbycraft and is sold in what they call a ‘fat quarter’ pack and is approx £7-£10. Again, eBay is good for fabric especially if you like Cath Kidston type patterns.

Instructions

1. Make your bunting triangle template from thin card or paper. Mine measure 8in x 10in but you can make them any size you fancy.
2. Pin the pattern to the fabric and cut around it with the pinking shears.
3. Pin the fabric triangle to the bias binding and staple it.
4. Carry on until you run out of fabric.

It really is that simple. Of course you can make as many lengths of bunting as you want and it is washable as long as you either handwash it or pop the entire bunting in a pillowcase, tie a knot in the top and put it in the washing machine.

Verdict: so easy, a toddler could do it

Is my daughter’s birthday cake going to be the ruin of me?

This could be a disaster. Fool that I am, I’ve ditched the sensible option of buying my soon-to-be-one year old daughter a ready-made birthday cake and instead I’ll be spending Thursday and probably Friday night crying into the buttercream and ringing my mum for help.

For my son’s first birthday I made a monkey cake that I sweated blood and tears over. At 3am the night before his party, as I looked at my creation and hoped it wouldn’t make the children scream in terror, I swore I’d never make a birthday cake again but once I’m on a mission, nothing can deter me.

This is the now-famous monkey cake (should add here it was my husband who made the monkey’s face more child-friendly. Before his intervention, it looked positively evil) :

Initially, I was going to make a good old Victoria Sandwich and cover it in royal icing but that’s bound to go wrong, so I had a look on Pinterest and found this beautiful cake here: http://www.mycakeschool.com/blog/pretty-petal-effect/

It looks fancy but doesn’t look that difficult. It’s simply a case of piping the icing onto the cake and then spreading with a spatula (I may well regret these words later). The site is brilliant for novice bakers.

I’ll check back with the finished product so you can all laugh yourself silly at be suitably impressed.

Verdict: I have a slight inkling I’m punching above my weight here.