Pretty dresses and a few reviews

Isn’t the weather lovely first of all??? I am not sure which weather forecast I saw but I didn’t expect this!

Yesterday we popped into town- we have a wedding to go to in a few weeks time and although I have the dress, I needed a cardi or something, so I wanted to have a look. Anyway, no success there, but Debenhams were having 20% off dresses, so I came away with this:

This morning I went for a 9 mile run. I found it very tough as I wasn’t expecting it to be so warm- I wore a t-shirt when really I should have worn a vest. I also think I was a bit dehydrated- my mouth felt really dry from early on, and then I started to imagine all my blood getting thicker and my heart having a hard time pumping it around which didn’t help things either. Anyway, all done now. As soon as I got home I had an apple and some coconut water, and then after my shower made pancakes.

One with honey pb, one with blackcurrant curd, and one with coconut butter and jam.

Onto the reviews.

Seed and Bean sent me some gorgeous chocolate to enjoy.

Seed and Bean make their organic Fairtrade chocolate by hand in England. Recently they have changed their packaging and I must say that I think it is gorgeous and really eye catching. I also like it when the colours “match” the flavours if that makes sense. Also their inner “foil” wrappers are all home compostable as they are made from cellulose.

They sent me four flavours; Milk chocolate with Sicilian hazelnut and almond, Milk chocolate with Cornish sea salt and lime, Fine Dark chocolate with Espresso, and Extra Dark chocolate with mint.

I love nutty chocolates, and the combination of hazelnut and almond is just gorgeous. The lime and sea salt really impressed me too- I love trying more unusual flavours and this was great- the lime was fresh and zingy.

Andy has been enjoying the Espresso chocolate as coffee is not my thing, but it does smell good (I love the smell of coffee, but do not like the taste).

The Mint chocolate is delicious. Mint and chocolate is a classic combination- I have been having a couple of squares after dinner. The dark chocolates have the Vegan society logo on them, but also the disclaimer that they may contain milk traces.

Holland and Barrett stock them, but they never seem to have a big range of flavours, so if you fancy having a look there is an online shop here.

I was also sent some Viva drinks to try. Now, I would not agree to being sent something unless I thought I would like it (for example I was offered some Quorn products but I don’t tend to eat “fake meats” so declined as I didn’t think I would enjoy them), but when the drinks arrived I was not sure about them as I read the ingredients. They are drinks made with fruit juice, water and herbal extracts, but they also use stevia to sweeten them, and I have not always got on well with stevia in the past.

The first one I tried was the Mind drink, as it was flavoured with mangosteen and pineapple, which I liked the sound of. I liked it more than I thought I would, and I didn’t get the weird chemical/ metallic aftertaste I have had with stevia drinks in the past, so maybe they have the balance a bit better.

The Calm with melon and white peach was also quite nice- pretty refreshing. I am not convinced by the claims of the botanical extracts- I would imagine you would need to consume on a regular basis to glean any benefits, but I am sure they don’t do any harm.

My favourite one was the Detox- the Mint and Lemon flavour was lovely- like a fresh mint iced tea made with real mint leaves. If I was out and about on a hot day and needed a refreshing drink I would buy this, although some might find it quite sweet tasting due to the white grape juice and stevia.

I liked these more than I thought I would. I did find the packaging a bit hard to read- it was hard to find where the flavours were written as it was not immediately obvious.

Finally I was sent the most gorgeous cookery book:

Treat Petite by Fiona Pearce is filled with gorgeous miniature recipes for pastries, cakes, meringues and savoury bites. If you were holding an Alice in Wonderland themed party, or a delicate afternoon tea, this is the book for you!

How gorgeous do the mini macaroons look?

I love that each recipe has a photo and an “actual size” picture too.

I have not made anything from here yet, but I am sure it won’t be long!

Fiona runs a blog, Icing Bliss, which I urge you to check out as it is filled with beautiful photos of afternoon teas and delicate cakes.

Right, I had better get on with some real work! I have been excellent at procrastinating today (in a good way I suppose- I have ploughed through tidying, dusting, cleaning bathrooms and the kitchen, loads of washing and catching up on blogs from the past week) but now I have run out of other things!

Do you like getting dressed up? Personally I do not like it at all. Tights are my nemesis! Finding the right size is hard, and even the short length ones end up under my rub cage, and then I always manage to rip them when I put them on/ when I go to the loo.