Eat Happy:Great Salad Ideas For Smouldering Hot Days

The thing about hot days is stodgy carb-loaded food just won’t do. You need something light and tasty without the calories, especially if you’re trying to live a healthy lifestyle.

I absolutely love salads, I don’t use dressings which means my salads need to really be very tasty on their own. Most people do still raise an eyebrow to what one may call rabbit food, but I can honestly say I have not had any problems getting people both young and old to eat my salads which I am very proud of.

Maybe its all of the colours and flavours that come from foods that not many people think to put together. So here are four of my favourites.

Rainbow Cauliflower Cous Cous for two (10 mins preparation time)

Half a cauliflower (Only florets)

1 Pomegranate

1 small can of sweetcorn

1 fresh sweet pepper

1/2 Cucumber

Blend the cauliflower raw until it looks like cous cous (you can buy it already prepared in Tesco). Add in the pomegranate and sweetcorn.

Finely chop the cucumber and sweet pepper and add it in to the other ingredients and mix together.

The second salad is a very fresh and light classic salad with a twist.

Orange and Sweet Pepper Classic Salad for two (10 mins prep)

1 Gem Lettuce

1 Sweet Pepper

1 Orange (Blood oranges are lovely if you can get them or grapefruit)

6/7 Cherry Tomatoes

1/2 Cucumber

Roughly chop the lettuce, halve the tomatoes and slice the cucumber. Peel and cut the orange – I always cut the segments to take off the skin for a sweeter taste without the pith – Then I slice a sweet pepper to add into the salad.

Last salad in the plate is more like a garnish because it has a stronger and spicy taste.

Beetroot, Chilli, Avocado and Chive salad for two (5 mins prep)

1 Cooked Beetroot

1/2 Avocado

1 Chilli (heat according to preference)

Chives

Chop the beetroot and avocado to roughly the same size. Finely chop the chilli – make sure you take out the seeds first – then chop some chives to garnish.

My last salad also packs a tasty punch.

Apple, Celery, Grape and Chilli salad for two (5 mins prep)

1 Braeburn Apple

Handful of Green Grapes

2 sticks of Celery

1/2 a Chilli deseeded

Roughly slice the apple and cut the grapes in half. De-string and chop the celery, finely chop the chilli and add it together.

It really is easy to keep cool and stay healthy while keeping food fun and tasty. Why don’t you give these salads a try and tell me what you think. Tweet me @LBDesigners your pictures and perhaps you could have a go at making a tasty salad and I will retweet them and maybe even add them to my next post.

So stay active and healthy and Eat Happy.

Shop Happy: How to Keep Your Cool on Steamy Hot Summer Days

The thing about being a curvy, nearly 40 year old blogger is I’m not going to tell you to walk around in your bikini top and tiny shorts unless you’re at home or 20 something. Not because we can’t rock tiny shorts and a bikini top, but because we really shouldn’t even try…We did it the first time round, or at least the second.

So how does a demure, curvy, nearly 40 year old keep her cool on a hot and steamy summer day. Well first you’ve got to have the right outfit for the job.

Melissa McCarthy Seven7 £56 ($74)

Melissa McCarthy Seven7 £74 ($98)

New Look £15.99

 

On particularly hot days I always go for light colours because they really do help you keep cool. I like a longish sleeve to keep my arms properly covered and protected.

A great choice would be this Melissa McCarthy Seven7 top, it is light and flowing and still have the layer effect which I do love and the sleeve is long enough to cover the arms- I also use factor 30 most hot days, but days like yesterday, the hottest day on records so far, I use factor 50.

I do like shorts, but as an older woman I won’t go near tiny shorts because well I’m not 25 even if i do still look it. These white shorts are fantastic, also from Melissa McCarthy Seven7. They are a great length, and they’re great for hot days, especially if like me you have big thighs that rub…I know, I said it, its the curse of the curvy person, and it hurts. So it has to be shorts, jeans are just too much for hot steamy summer days.

All clothes from Melissa McCarthy Seven7 clothes come in sizes from 2 up to x4 which is fantastic, and about time that someone made beautiful clothes for curvy ladies.

Sandals are a definite must, and these are really cute from New Look. I love the crochet detail and the colour which highlights the darker blue detail of the top.

So what about accessories. No outfit is finished without some cool accessories. Well I’ve gone for Peacocks accessories for the earrings and necklace. I love that they are statement pieces and really affordable. On the line of affordable, I chose this blue and white M&Co bag on eBay with a bidding start of £5 – usually if you’re a cleaver shopper you could get the bag for around £9 [ TOP TIP: Do not start bidding until minutes before the auction ends]

M&Co on Ebay Bidding start £5

Peacocks £4

Peacocks £6

 

So that is my outfit for a hot and steamy summer days. For more top tips on fashion, shopping economically and where to find great deals follow me on Twitter @LBDesigners and Instagram @Labonitadesigners.

Why not Tweet me your outfits for a hot and steamy summers day and I will retweet as many as I can. So until the next time keep cool and Shop Happy.

Shop Happy: 3 Steps to a Better Shopping Experience

For me personally, shopping used to be a traumatic experience. I absolutely hated going shopping because if I am honest, I didn’t know how to shop. I didn’t know about dressing my shape, or what colours suited me.

I didn’t have a clue about fabrics, cuts and shapes. All I knew was t-shirts, jeans, and jumpers, in black and grey with a little blue thrown in there.

Even going out was not a happy time for me, what could I wear – I had this wardrobe full of clothes that either didn’t fit me, look terrible on, made me look even worse if that was possible at all – but then I met Joe, and my world changed.

Joe Alvares is an amazing man and the Editor in Chief at Ikon London Magazine, a celebrity, fashion and current affairs online magazine, and he gave me a job – yes, a real life “Devil Wears Prada” experience, happening to me – except I’m a writer not his assistant. (Thank you so much Joe.)

I was so happy to have been given a platform, and an opportunity to learn how to write, to explore a world that seemed so far away from my everyday, normal existence, but I would never have guessed what would happen next.

I had always thought I would be writing current affairs, and to be honest -I am pretty much allowed to write about whatever I like, with little interference providing the piece is well balanced, and fits in with the magazine. But then one day, Joe asked me to cover London Collection:Mens, and I panicked, WTF was I going to wear?

So I took my savings, £300 and I had to change my wardrobe and make me look like I belonged in the world of fashion, and I learnt that in order to really look good, you have to shop for your shape.

One of the dresses bought for LCM, worn in Cannes 2016. I would never have worn patterns before buying this dress. WEARING:Ariella (dress), Jimmy Choo (shoes) Mango (jacket) 

Like me, most women don’t really know what shape they are or what types of clothes actually suit their shape.

We can spend hours trawling shops or on the internet just looking for something we like, in the hope that it will fit us properly and is of a good quality too, without even a second thought to whether it actually suits our particular body shape or not.

To help you cut out the hoping and praying that the clothes will suit you, I’ve put together a really quick guide to your first step in taking back control when it comes to shopping.

In doing so you will cut down your clothes shopping bill, reduce your trips back to the shop to exchange the things that don’t fit or look right, and get rid of the unwanted purchases stuck in the back of your wardrobe because they just weren’t right for you.

So here are my 3 easy steps that I recommend you do before you go shopping again – I promise it will make all the difference to how you shop and getting it right more often than not.

Step One- Work out your shape.

For this I would suggest using the body shape calculator by shop your shape.

Step Two- Identify the style of clothes that suit your shape.

You can check out our Pinterest which has a variety of examples of the styles to suit your shape.

Step Three- What’s in season – find your look

This is the fun bit, check out current trends on the catwalk that way you will always be in fashion no matter whether you choose vintage or current trends.

You can also do this on our Pinterest SS16 and AW16/SS17 boards.
Once you’ve followed these three steps you will be ready to go shopping. So why not have a go and Shop Happy.

Next Time in The Shop Happy Series: How to Get The Labels You Want at a Budget You Can Afford.

Film Review: Warcraft

Warcraft is an excellent adaptation of the popular game, World of Warcraft. Written by Charles Leavitt and Duncan Jones, and also directed by Jones, this film really is an enjoyable fantasy film.

Set on Azeroth, this peaceful realm is about to encounter a battle that will leave them fighting for their lives when a fearsom Orc hoard invades the planet. The Orc’s are escaping their dying world and have passed through a magic portal to invade planet Azeroth and take it over at any cost.

Travis Fimmel plays a great warrior, Anduin Lothar, who alongside Garona, played by Paula Patton, a half Orc, half Draenei slave that has been outcast by the Orc’s and has no clan to call her own. An unlikely duo that are to become Azeroth’s heroes.

From the other side, the Orcs are being led on this conquest by an evil Orc sharman called Gul’dan played by Daniel Wu. Using a dark magic, he leads the Orcs on this invasion to eliminate and destroy the peaceful humans and take Azeroth for themselves.

Durotan, a fearless Orc warrior fights only to save his family and his clan, but when he begins to have his own reservations about Gul’dan he makes a choice that could change the outcome of Gul’dan’s plans, the fate of his clan and the existence of the human race, but at what cost, and will making alliances save them from Gul’dan’s dark magic?

The kingdom is guarded by the Guardian, Medivh, played by Ben Foster, a powerful protector with great powers, and an unlikely hero in the form of a young man called Khadgar who renounced his vow as a Guardian, but who also has powers that he will use to protect the humans and Azeroth from the Orc invasion, and any other enemies that show themselves.

But will the Guardian’s help be enough to save Azeroth and the humans, or will these two be the hero that they claim to be, or is one a wolf if sheeps clothing?

As far as game adaptations go, this film is one of my preferred attempts. The great thing for me is the fact that you don’t have to be a gamer to enjoy the story, especially as I have never played the game.

I can’t tell you from a gamers point of view as to whether it has kept the integrity of the game, or how similar the story is to the game, but as a film it makes a great watch to be enjoyed by all ages (PG13).

I do love fantasy/action films, and while this film may not be “Lord of the Ring”, it has its own stand alone value. It has heart, it will keep you gripped from the very beginning until the very end, an end that is not only sad but unexpected.

I would say this British born director is definitely making a name for himself and one to watch. Having already had success with Source Code and now Warcraft, I for one cannot wait to see what Duncan Jones will come up with next.

I would definitely recommend this film. It’s not quiet Lord of the Rings epic fantasy but It is visually enjoyable – well written and well directed. Yes there’s a lot of CGI, but you don’t lose the film or the story. There are beautifully shot battle scenes, magic and mystery, alliances and betrayal, everything you want in a good fantasy/action film. This film gets a well deserved 3.5/5

 

Film Review: Misconduct

Film Review: Misconduct

Well what can I say. This film is an epic fail even with such a stella cast of titan actors like Anthony Hopkins and Al Pacino. I can’t believe that I’m about to say this but I really did not enjoy any part of this film. I did the “watch it three times” mantra, and usually I am such an optimist I can find something good about a film, and I really do try, but there was nothing there for me.

Written by Simon Boyes and Adam mason, Misconduct is a thriller that is really too complicated to be coherent about what was going on. It is basically a young ambitious lawyer (Josh Duhamel) has the case against a big pharmaceutical executive (Anthony Hopkins) and finds himself involved in a lot more. Death, betrayal, who-done-it with more twists and turns than Lombard Street in San Francisco.

There was a strong start – intro with stories about a pharmacuticles company who’s drugs are killing people, owned by tycoon Arthur Denning. Then an argument between him and his very young wife Emily Hynes played by Malin Akerman, who then goes missing and is presumed kidnapped after Denning receives a text of her battered face.

Denning responds by calling in a specialist security firm and Jane Clemente played by the lovely Julia Stiles.

Jump back a week and we met the ambitious lawyer, Ben Cahill and see that he had a connection to the missing wife of the executive he is prosecuting, he was her ex lover.

He is now married, although there’s distance and apparent problems in the marriage, and now this excellent lawyer working for the Charles Abrams, played by Al Pacino, who seems reluctant to prosecute Denning. So does she know who he is, or is this genuinely just a coincidence that she contacted him, or something far more sinister?

Alice Eve plays Charlotte, Ben’s wife, as a character she looks more like a psychopath zombie and gave a performance that made you feel uncomfortable just watching her.

Lee Byung-Hun plays The Accountant, a Korean-biker-assasin who spends most of the film running around stalking Cahill.

It is all far to confusing, making this thriller hard to watch. If you blink and miss a bit it can throw you off the whole story, then it becomes difficult to follow. Now i’m a bright girl my IQ is 150, but if I found it hard to follow, is that a film for the masses?

I persevered as long as I could and found myself losing it about halfway through the film, then pottering around on social media, making coffee, unnecessary trips to the loo and starting dinner and I completely lost interest in the film and the plot.

Can we blame the acting…nope, no way. We are talking the crème de la crème of actors. My biggest disappointment has to be the fact these two heavyweight actors Hopkins and Pacino met in such a disappointing film. That first meeting really should have been a cinema classic, not a blockbuster bust.

I am honestly gutted, this is by far the worst film from Anthony Hopkins and Al Pacino and I would hate this to be the first and last time these two meet on screen before the big director in the sky calls them up.

I am hoping this is one off for director Shintaro Shimosawa, known more for co producing films like The Grudge, Grudge 2 (US remakes), and for writing the screenplay Repentance. Misconduct is his first directing attempt, hopefully things will get a lot better.

I can’t in all honesty recommend this film because I was personally unimpressed, however, this is my opinion. It may be something that you may fall in love with, different critics have had different feelings about it, but for me sometime simple is best.