Scrumptious EASY cookie recipe

As I write, I am sitting in my kitchen with the yummy smell of cookies baking wafting around me. I have some already cooling on a rack and some more in the oven... HEAVEN!

I just thought I'd share with you a recipe that I came across for truely easy cookies that I came across online and have baked twice now - both with great results.

The recipe I have used is: Jasmine's Easy Chocolate Chip biscuits

Here is a photo of the first batch I tried last week. They don't LOOK massively enticing, but trust me - they TASTED amazing and didn't last long at all. I gave some to my parents, my sister snaffled a lot and I hid 5 to give to my friend for a taste test. I think it's safe to say they went down a treat!

The recipe is slightly vague about things like temp. and how long to bake so I read some of the comments and went for Gas Mark 4 and just baked until golden around the edges, which ended up being anything from about 15 - 25 mins. I prefer to have my cookies with quite a bit of bite so you might want to bake for slighlty less time.

I used the exact amounts from the recipe, I ignored the "cup" of this and "cup" of that and just followed the grams and it worked brilliantly. Don't be scared at how stiff the dough is before you add the egg (it didn't look right to me) because one the egg is added it loosens up a lot.

The only other thing I changed was to leave the chocolte chips out till the very end (after the egg was added). I did this so I could split up the batch and make different flavours from the same dough. You can make anything from 25 - 30 cookies from this recipe, so splitting it still gave me a good amount of each flavour and let me try new things without wasting a whole batch if it didn't turn out.

So far I have tried:

• Milk Chocolate Chip
• White Chocolate Chip
• Milk Choc Chip & Peanut Butter
• Oats & Cinnamon
• Milk Choc Chip & Hazelnuts

They have all been very yummy and approved by my expert panel of testers! haha! My personal favourite is the Milk Choc Chip & Peanut Butter!! I always love that flavour combo anyway and it just works so well with this recipe. I didn't use measurements for the flavourings, I just added what felt right. It is really easy to see what looks/smells right.

If you have any other suggestions for flavours I could try or if you give this recipe a go and love them as much as I do - let me know!

My Saturday Project

I am being a bit lazy today - I can't really be bothered writing a step-by-step guide to what I did so here is a photo version! It is all pretty self explanatory. What I will say is that:

A - it did take a lot longer than I expected to strip it back to the bare ottoman because whoever had it befor me was lazy and kept putting new layers of material over the old grotty one beneath! It was rather disgusting! Safe to say that I found 3 layers of material, a million upholstery tacks/staples/nails and the wadding could have crawled into the rubbish bag with no help!

B - I should have bought a spray primer to layer underneath my matt cream spray paint, but I thought I would have enough cream to completely cover the pink. It was 90% there, but I could still spot bits I wasn't happy with. That being said - to most people it probably would have been ok, but I am a perfectionist. I used a spray paint because I wanted to keep as much of the detail in the weave part as possible. I used normal paint on the inside because it was a lot cheaper and I didn't have enough spray paint anyway. If I had had any spare spray paint - I would have given the inside a light coat to finish to hide any hints of brush strokes.

C - I would have preferred to use a big piece of foam for the wadding instead of loose fibres, but I didn't want to wait another day to finish the project and I didn't have foam in my studio. It doesn't really matter either way, but to make the top more of a seat I think it would have been preferable.

So... I had all the materials (apart from the spray paint, which was £7) already and I bought the ottoman from a charity shop for £3. Do you think it was worth £10?! The only thing I haven't yet replaced was a little handle for the front which I doubt will cost me much, but will finish it off nicely.

One of my FAVOURITE dresses...

Anyone that knows me, knows I love a dress... or two... or hundred! I have built up quite a collection over the years with anything from charity shop finds to vintage, high street to designer making appearances.

This is the first of my favourites from my collection. I will also be showing you an amazing Vivienne Westwood number and a vintage gem when I can find the time to photograph them!

This little number is actually a high street buy from the Pearl Lowe range at Peacocks. I have to say that as far as celebrity endorsed high street ranges go - this was definately a winner in my humble opinion! I have many dresses from the range, but this one in particular works for me everytime. It is a very 40's looking tea dress which is beautifully cut and has lovely little floaty sleeves (hidden by my cardigan), a waist cinching belt and has a ladylike length.

I think the main thing I like about dresses in general is how the outfit built around the piece can completely change the overall look of the dress. This dress I have worn everywhere! I have been to job interviews in it (which were successful I might add - perhaps its a lucky dress), been shopping in it, spent lazy days in it and also dressed it up for a few nights out. It can look anything from quirky retro to quite edgy with the right styling! 

I love how you can were dresses with bare legs and sandals in the heat of summer or layer them up with tights, knitwear and scarves for winter. Belt them, add jewellery or change your accessories to update your look and I genuinely find the right dress THE most flattering and feminine outfit a woman can find.

So here you go - a dress that I love... what do you think?