Living for the Good Life: September 2015

I'm unashamedly a bit of a property nerd in the sense that I get overly excited at anything to do with property selling, renovating, and particularly interior design.

Sit me down in front of Homes Under the Hammer, 60 Minute Makeover, or Escape to the Country and I'm happy as larry. But most of all, my not-so-guilty pleasure is flicking through home magazines, especially 25 Beautiful Homes, and cutting out my favourite looks and sticking them into what I've made my 'Home' inspiration scrapbook. The plan is to keep this book until I own my own house and can truly bring to life the looks I've cut out and kept, but for now it serves as good dreaming material and I thought I'd let you have a sneek peek into it...

Just to make it even more nerdy, I categorise it into rooms and areas, such as kitchen, bedroom, living room, and so on. I even have baby room and conservatory...the geekiness is real...

As you can see above, I even add little notes alongside some of the images.

Like I said, 25 Beautiful Homes is my all-time favourite magazine to use for this - it's literally house porn.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've recently moved and so it's been a dream for me being able to decorate exactly how I want. There may or may not be a bedroom tour post coming up in the near future so see if you can spot any inspiration or overall themes and tastes that I've nabbed from my scrapbook.

Con Amici is really one of the only places to go to eat if you're in Denbigh, and is where I tend to meet up with one of my bestest friends, B. It's an Italian bar and kitchen that offers delicious food at decent prices.

We headed in, were seated and offered both the main menu and the lunchtime specials menu. I rarely look at lunchtime special type menus wherever I am because for some reason I always find they're mostly, if not entirely, full of meat-based dishes, and being a vegetarian that's no use to me. However, I was pleasantly surprised by Con Amici's offerings.

We both opted for water to drink, and deliberated over the menus for much longer than necessary.

Mine and B's problem is that because we rarely get to see each other, when we do, we could talk for Britain. It usually takes the waiter 3 times of asking if we're ready to order before we actually are.

We finally decided to both have exactly the same dishes. Feeling greedy, we opted to have a starter and went for the 'dolcelatte e noci aranchini', described as dolcelatte cheese & walnut risotto balls, red wine poached pears, frisee lettuce & grain mustard dressing.

I'd had this starter before, a long time ago, and remembered how impressed I was by it.

It's a really grown-up dish flavour-wise, and one that I've never noticed in any other Italian restaurant I've been to. The flavours are intense, and the risotto balls are gorgeously gooey, pairing beautifully with the poached pears. I was nearly tempted by the bruschetta, but then I thought that you can get that pretty much anywhere and so wanted to go for this more unique dish.

For main, we went for one of the options on the lunch time specials menu - the 'Gnocci al pesto', composed of gnocci pan fried in garlic butter with cherry tomatoes, black olives, pesto, rocket & grana padano shavings.

Gnocci can be stodgy and too filling sometimes, but this one had a beautiful crispiness to it from the pan-frying, and the portion size was spot on. I can be fussy with pesto because too much makes me feel a bit sickly, but the amount they added was perfect and complimented the tomatoes and olives wonderfully.

We were both stuffed and groaning by the time we'd finished our main, and quickly declined the dessert menu. However, we then proceeded to chat for so long that our main had gone down a bit and we both wanted more and had to embarrassingly ask for the menus that we'd previously shot down so intently.

I was feeling particularly naughty and opted for ice cream, whilst B chose a hazelnut latte.

You get 3 scoops, and I went for two chocolate and one cappuccino.

Unfortunately the chocolate was disappointing, but then I hit the last scoop, the cappuccino, and all was not lost. It was gorgeous - the perfect strength of coffee flavour. I wish I'd of just had all three as cappuccino now!

B's hazelnut latte, like my chocolate ice cream, was disappointing. However, that is mainly due to the fact that we went to Patisserie Valerie not long ago where she had the best hazelnut latte she's ever tasted and so now nothing compares. Maybe there will be a post on that place in the not so far future...

Overall, it was a delicious meal and we couldn't believe how reasonable the bill was when it arrived. Con Amici is our traditional meeting place now, and I'm sure we'll be back again soon.

Check out Con Amici's menus here.

The other day when I was milling around the house I suddenly remembered a long time ago being inspired by HRH Collection's hanging pictures that I'd seen in the background of one of her YouTube videos. They were a mix of designer paper bags and designer dust covers that had been framed and I loved the look of it. I realised I had a Mulberry bag lying around that would work perfectly and so I headed into town, grabbed some supplies and immediately got to work.

The simple supplies you'll need are as follows:

- Scissors

- A hammer

- Picture hanging nails

- A suitably sized photo frame

- Your designer bag of choice

- Optional - Ribbon to hang the picture on if you can't hang it by the frame alone. Luckily I had some Mulberry ribbon that matched the bag - even better.

It really couldn't be any simpler.

I cut the bag in half, and then cut the half I wanted to use down to the size of the frame I'd bought, popped it into place in the frame and then tied the ribbon around one of the clips on the back of the frame. Next, I chose the location on the wall that I wanted it to hang from (which I would later change about 3 times and leave multiple holes in the wall), hammered in a picture nail and hung it.

As you can see in the picture above, I got over excited and wanted to make more so I found a note that had come with my Mulberry clutch which I thought would look beautiful framed, and so did that as well. I think it turned out rather lovely.

It's a really simple way to add a bit of unique designer chic to your rooms, and it couldn't be any simpler to do.

Like I said, I've seen it done with dust covers also, but you'll probably get a better effect with the bags due to the sturdiness of them and the cleaner effect they give.

So, if you have any old designer paper bags lying around, definitely give it a go. It literally takes around 5 minutes, if that and it's really satisfying to make something so pretty and luxurious-looking yourself, for only a couple of pounds!

On Wednesday night me and L decided to go out for dinner to somewhere we've been meaning to go to for months, but never got around to it. The entire 3 years I was at university I never once went to The Blackhouse Grill, but always heard good things about it. I think what must have hindered my visiting is the fact that there is only really one main vegetarian option on the menu (bar a salad or two), which is not that surprising considering that it specialises in prime beef cuts and seafood.

The one main vegetarian option they offer is roasted vegetable fajitas, which I'm always a fan of, and so I was keen to give them a go and see how they fare compared to Hickory's, an American-style smokehouse just down the road that I've frequented many a time.

We rocked up around 7.30pm, which is late for dinner for us but seems to be the usual time to dine out for everyone else, and so without a reservation booked we were unsure whether we'd be seated. However, to our luck we we're immediately shown to at a spacious 4-seater table and handed the menus.

We ordered drinks. I deliberated on a cocktail but changed my mind and opted for a fresh juice instead - apple, mint and raspberry - described as 'fresh mint and raspberries lengthened with freshly pressed apple juice and sweetened with honey'. It came beautifully presented, alongside L's choice of Hornsby's cider, which neither of us had ever tried before. It was the nicest cider he'd ever had, and I'm really not a cider fan so I was suspicious, but had a sip out of curiosity, and I have to say it was pretty decent!

Usually I'm a sucker for a starter, however I decided to be sensible and just have a main course due to my tendency of scoffing down a starter and then being full before I've even caught sight of my main.

Of course, I opted for the roasted vegetable fajitas, which came impressively presented and instantly yielded a 'think you've got enough there!?' remark from L.

Naturally, L chose a burger, deciding on the 100% premium beef burger topped with smoked bacon and accompanied with a side of chips and tomato relish. I was feeling naughty and knew I'd be envious of L's chips so I caved in and ordered them as a side.

It was absolutely delicious, and I have to say my fajitas were indeed better than Hickory's!

Overall, I'd definitely recommend the Blackhouse. It was very nicely decorated and furnished inside, with very fast and efficient service, and they even had a live pianist playing. It was a tad noisy, however I think that was mainly due to the very enthusiastic American sitting one table down from us. I'd definitely like to visit again and venture into the starters and desserts. However that's if I ever can make it through a three course meal without feeling like I'm actually going to explode on the spot...

I did a blogger fail and took photos of the place on departure rather than when I arrived so it was dark when I took them, and I also somehow managed to make one of them terribly blurry, so tried to make up for it by taking another one the following day in daylight. There, I confess.

Check out the Blackhouse's menu here.

Yesterday whilst vegging out on the sofa to countless episodes of American Horror Story, my flat buzzer went and it was the delivery guy with a parcel for me. I was confused because I hadn't ordered anything to my memory, but hurried down to collect it anyway. It was a big box and I was now even more confused, wondering what on earth it could be. I ripped it open, half in excitement and half still in confusion, and to my absolute surprise it was a gift, from one of my best friends.

As you know, I've recently moved into a new place (more on house stuff to be posted shortly), and one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world, let's call her B, and her boyfriend, had sent me a housewarming gift of Bottega Rose Gold sparkling wine. It came with the sweetest note attached and I was, and still am, truly overwhelmed. Not only did B and her boyfriend pick my favourite alcoholic drink (which is always important information for a friend to know), but they even picked it by the fact that the bottle is rose gold, which they know I am a massive fan of. I was, and still am, overwhelmed by the gift, but most of all I'm touched by the actual thought behind sending anything at all.

Despite being one of my closest and dearest friends, B and I rarely get to see each other in person due to both our schedules and the fact we don't live in the same place. However, this has never played any part in wavering the strength of our friendship, even through our 3 years of university where she was in London and I was in Chester. Ours is the type of friendship where we can not speak at all for weeks, and not see each other for months, but when we finally do absolutely nothing has changed. We just know we're always there for each other, and I think those type of friendships are the most important. Of all my best friends, B is the one that would do such a gesture of sending a housewarming gift, and that caring and thoughtful nature is one of the things that I love most about her. She could of sent me anything and I would have been equally overwhelmed, because it just shows she's thinking of me.

If you have friends like this, treasure them with all your heart, because they are the ones that will be by your side, through thick and thin, always, and we all need at least one friend like that.

"We're sisters. You're my family. What is you is me."

I've recently moved into a new flat and I will be buying some new furniture to kit out my bedroom with soon. I'm going for a white-based theme and Ikea has been my port of call for that, with it's simply gorgeous yet affordable pieces. Here are some of the items that I'll be picking up - as you can see I'm absolutely in love with the Brusali series!

1. Hemnes Bedside Table. 2. Brusali Bed Frame. 3. Brusali Chest of 3 Drawers. 4. Brusali Chest of 4 Drawers 5. Malm Dressing Table. 6. Micke Desk. 7. Brusali Wardrobe.

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