Guest Bloggers Wanted

As you've probably heard (because I tweet about it non stop and mention it in nearly every post), I'm going to Paris next week, not for long but the week before and after are going to be pretty hectic too. I do have some pre written posts and I am going to schedule them to go up while I'm in Paris. However, I would love to have some posts from a few other people too. I love the idea of guest posts, I've done a guest post on one blog before and I really enjoyed doing it. I also think it would just be fun to do something different, keep things interesting! So here are all the details, I'll also let you know how you can contact me at the end of this post!

• I will be posting them between Monday the 9th of June and Friday the 20th. You can choose whatever day you like and I can work my posts around it.
  
• I'll leave it up to you as to what you would like to make a post on. Something that reflects your blog maybe, to give readers an idea of what to expect from you. If you're a regular reader of In Katie's Corner, you'll know that I post about pretty much everything.
  
• Please don't be afraid to get in contact. I am terrified of no one actually wanting to participate. I was super nervous about my first guest blog post, I was nervous about even emailing to enquire about doing it. It turned out great though.
  

If you would like to help me out on this one, you can email me at katierose.bacon@gmail.com or send me a direct message/tweet me @inkatiescorner. I'm really looking forward to hearing from you and I promise I don't bite!

"Would You Rather" Beauty Edition // Tag

Last week, I was tagged by the lovely Lauren to do this tag so a big thank you to her. I will leave the links of the people I tag to do this below but feel free to join in anyway! 

Would you rather lose all of your mascaras, eyeliners, lipsticks, and lip glosses or lose all of your palettes and eye shadows?

I would much rather lose all of my palettes and eye shadows. I don't use them on a daily basis anyway but mascara is a must for me. 

Would you rather chop all of your hair off or never be able to cut it again?

To be honest, I'd probably prefer to chop it all off. I've toyed with this idea for a few years anyway because I really want my natural hair colour back as I've ruined it with dye. I also feel like if I was to never cut it again the ends would be awful.

Would you rather have coral cheek or pink cheek? 

Pink cheek for me. My cheeks are naturally rosy majority of the time anyway so I never over do it with blush.

If you had $1000 to spend, would you rather buy clothes or make up? 

This is a difficult one, I think it would be clothes though. I feel for me there is such a thing as having too much make up. I know that I wouldn't use half it, I'd find the bits I really like and then put the rest in a box never to be seen or heard of again. Where as I get a lot of mileage out of all of my clothes.

Would you rather apply lipstick as eyeliner, or eyeliner as lipstick?

Hmm, after careful consideration, I think eyeliner as lipstick. A purple eyeliner if I had to choose, maybe I could pull it off....probably not.

Would you rather only shop at MAC or Sephora?

I've never shopped at either (shock horror) but I would have to say the same as Lauren for this one, Sephora. As she said, Sephora has lots of brands to choose from but if you choose MAC, you would be restricted to one.

Would you rather only use one eye-shadow colour or one lip colour for the rest of your life? 

Eye shadow colour, definitely. As I said above, I don't wear eye shadow all that often and when I do it's generally the same ones. I absolutely love trying out different lip products though.

Would you rather wear winter clothes in summer or summer clothes in winter?

Winter clothes in summer. I would rather be too hot than too cold!

Would you rather have dark nails or bright nails all year round?

I wear bright nails majority of the year anyway, they make me happy. So I would have to say, bright nails! 

Would you rather give up your favourite lip colour or favourite eye product?

I would rather give up my favourite lip colour. I cannot wear make up without wearing mascara. I look terrifying.

Would you rather only be able to wear your hair in a ponytail or a messy bun?
With my hair the way it is at the moment, a messy bun. I love ponytails but when I wear my hair in one the boy says it looks like a fox's tail. He's charming, I know.

Would you rather never be able to paint your nails again or never use lip gloss?

I never use lip gloss anyway. I think I own one lip gloss. I do however, always have my nails painted. I had a bad experience with acrylic nails a couple of years ago and my nails haven't been the same since so I always keep them painted.

Would you rather shave your eyebrows and have none at all or sharpie them in everyday?

After seeing all the pictures of celebrities without eyebrows, I'm going to say I would rather sharpie them in everyday. I'm not particularly fond of the thought of either though, if I'm being honest. 

Would you rather live without make up or nail polish?

Even though I previously said that I always need to have my nails painted, I think I could hide the disaster that is my nails. I really enjoy trying out new make up though, and I enjoy applying it. Also, there are some days when I need make up to make myself feel a bit better. So I would much prefer to live without nail polish.

Phew, that seemed like a lot of questions. I had lots of fun answering them though, so thank you again to Lauren for tagging me and I am going to go ahead and tag Kirsty, Cait and Jemma! 

Doggie Day Out #2

I have made one of these "Doggie Day Out" posts before, which you can find here. I was hoping to have made more of these by now but alas, that did not happen. I'm sure we'll be taking the pup lots of fun places of the summer so I should able to share those trips with you. Last week we took Max to The Gearagh, which is about 40 minutes outside Cork City Centre. We gave him a travel sickness tablet again three hours before we left and he was perfectly fine, maybe you guys don't care about this but you know, just in case any of your dogs aren't too good with travelling, this might help someone! It was a really warm day and for some reason I decided to wear a jumper, I do not know what possessed me to do that, or the thought process behind it. I let Max off of his lead, he walked beside or in front of us, the whole walk. There weren't any other people or dogs around, if there were I would have put him back on his lead while the came by. Not because he's vicious or anything like that, he just likes to go up and sniff everyone, say hello but you don't know how people feel about dogs and I don't want to make anyone nervous. This is a very picture heavy post so I hope you guys enjoy looking through pictures of our day! 

I love this picture, I wish he wasn't kind of blurry but he was running towards me.

Excuse his puppy butt, his tail was cut off when he was a young. :(

We found that he liked to walk on the path and not on the grass.

Still following the path..

So that was our day. On the way home we brought Max to Brian's house for the first time. I was very proud of him for being so good off the lead and really good in a new house. I probably sound crazy but he's my pup. As I'm writing this it is currently pouring down with rain, which is meant to continue into the weekend so our plans of going somewhere this weekend have been put on hold until we get back from Paris. I hope you guys have a fantastic weekend though, whatever you're doing!

Strawberry Blondies

It's that time of the week again, that time where I share my favourite recipes with you guys. It's my favourite time of the week and these are definitely my favourite posts to make. So I hope you all enjoy reading them, and hopefully give them a go! I'm always looking for new recipes to try so if you ever have any requests feel free to tweet me or leave a comment and I shall spend my time perfecting and tweaking recipes to make the best one. This week I bring you, the Strawberry Blondie. Now, the name is debatable, I could call them "White Chocolate & Strawberry Brownies" because Blondies aren't always made with white chocolate and generally use brown sugar but when I think of a Brownie I think of rich, dark chocolate so I feel that calling these Blondies is a bit less misleading. Also, you can barely taste the white chocolate, so if you're not a lover of white chocolate, do not worry, you can still try these! 

You can change the recipe to include all different types of berries. If you would like, you could also add some chopped pieces of white chocolate. Feel free to use brown sugar instead of white if you prefer a more "authentic" Blondie taste. These were also super easy to cut which I was really surprised by, I cut mine into 12 bite-size pieces (they may be slightly bigger than bite-size, I'm just greedy/I have a big mouth) and they tasted fantastic, if I may say so myself.  

Ingredients:

120g butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs 

120g plain flour
200g white chocolate
100g strawberries 

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 and line a square baking tin with baking parchment. 

2. Melt the butter and white chocolate together. (You can do this in a microwave just make sure to keep an eye on it as you go.)

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Then add the butter and chocolate mixture.

4. Slowly sieve the flour into the bowl, folding it gently into the mix.

5. At this point, add in the strawberries and any other things you would like.

6. Pour into the tin and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown. (Mine are slightly too brown on some parts as you can see, oops.)

7. Wait until completely cooled to cut into pieces and then all that's left to do is eat them! 

** When I make brownies/blondies, I line the tin so that there are two baking parchment flaps over two sides of the tin, so that when I remove from the oven I can pick it up using them, straight from the tin and transfer onto a wire rack. I hope this made sense, I'll be sure to take a picture next time! 

May Favourites

I have no idea where the first half of the year has gone. I am excited for it to be June though, 11 days 'till Paris! Here are a few bits that I have been loving in the month of May! 

No7 Hot Cloth Cleanser - I picked this up in a No7 gift set at Christmas so it's only 50ml. However, I have used in since then and I'm just now coming close to finishing it. It also came with a muslin cloth which I used to polish of the cleanser. It feels really luxurious and leaves my skin feely squeaky clean. It's already a bargain at €12.95 but if you managed to pick up one of the No7 vouchers that are always floating around, it would be a steal.

SEVENTEEN Gel Colour in Azure Amore - I'm going to have a full review of this nail polish, along side the Rimmel Salon Pro ones (which should be up next week) because I have a lot to say about them. In short, I absolutely love this colour and I have found that it's a great colour for my toes as it has lasted over a full week.

Soap & Glory Clean On Me - I usually wouldn't spend more than a couple of euro on a shower gel but this stuff is just too good. It's the only shower gel I've ever found that you can actually still smell on your skin afterwards. It has the signature Soap & Glory scent, so nothing too crazy and not completely overpowering.

Taylor Swift // Wonderstruck Perfume - I got this for my birthday in November and I don't think I've used any other perfume since. I think it's going to be completely perfect for summer though as it does have a super fruity/sweet smell. Which I adore in a perfume.

Gilmore Girls - Everyone's seen at least one episode of this in their life right? This has been my television show addiction for the month of May. I don't like to describe tv shows because I never do them justice but basically, it's an American Comedy/Drama based around the lives of a Mother and her daughter. It is absolutely hilarious and seriously feel good. I love when a show can give me such strong feelings towards the characters and Gilmore Girls certainly does that for me. The boy also loves this so we spend hours watching it and it never fails to make us laugh or shout at the laptop screen.

So, those are the things I have been enjoying in May! I would love to know what you guys have been loving, do you have any TV show recommendations? 

Seven Happy Things #3

Good Sunday afternoon to you all! I spent the majority of the week with the boy, so that has been my main source of happiness this week. Although, I've been in a strange mood for the past two days and haven't really felt like posting anything, so I didn't. I do have a fun filled week of posts for you all next week though, which I am really happy about.

• My Monday was spent taking lots of blog posts and watching Fawlty Towers, if I remember correctly. Not too shabby. 
  
  
• Late night watching of Shrek happened on Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning and it was great. The film was made twice as funny due to me being extremely over tired.
  
  
• I had the most amazing nap on Wednesday afternoon, after an intense morning of cleaning. 
  
  
• Every Thursday there's a quiz in a bar called the Woolshed, it's free to enter and no limit on team sizes. The boy absolutely loves quizzes (he's also really good at them) so we decided we would head along to that. 
  
  
• After a week away, I came home to the pup on Friday and that made me extremely happy because I missed his squishy little face. 
  
  
• Yesterday, the boy and I decided to take the pup somewhere nice for the day. These are my favourite days. 
  
  
• Sunday has rolled around again and today I am happy because I am going to spend the day with my two favourites. 
  
  

I hope you guys have had a lovely week and the weather has been as nice as it has been here, wherever you are. Tomorrow, I am heading up to Dublin to see McBusted so I am extremely excited for that. Do you guys have anything exciting happening in the week ahead? 

Best of Summer Lips

 I seem to be sticking to a Summer Lipstick theme this week. I have had a root through my make up bag and pulled out my favourite summer shades, ready for the coming months. I hope I did okay with the pictures for this post, I tried my best!

Lovesick - Apocaliptic - 110

Revlon ColorBurst Balm in Lovesick - Such a gorgeous bright pink shade. It's easy to apply, definitely the easiest of the three in terms of application. It also lasts the longest. It does have a very distinct peppermint smell though, so just be wary of that.

Rimmel Apocalips in Apocaliptic - This might just be my favourite lip colour that I own. I usually wear this when I have a very nude eye look. It can be quite hard to apply but the doe foot applicator makes it a bit easier. I do find this quite long lasting and it definitely leaves a stain on the lips.

Rimmel Kate Matte Lipstick in 110 - I wore this pretty much exclusively all last summer. It is a lot brighter than the photo above shows but I am absolutely in love with it. It's not the most moisturising lipstick out there but I don't think that would be expected with a matte lipstick. It does tend to pick up any dry parts of your lips so make sure to prep them before you wear this!

Be sure to check out my Summer Lipstick Wishlist and let me know what your favourite summer lip shades are! 

Mint Chocolate Cookies

I was having a particularly off day last Sunday and I decided the only thing that would make it better was a batch of homemade cookies. I love After Eights, I think that's the best way to explain the chocolates I put in these cookies, I picked up a  packet of "Mint Cremes" in Aldi to use in this recipe, you can use any variation you like. I think some plain chocolate chips would also be great in these cookies. I managed to get 12 large cookies from this recipe and I ate the majority of them myself. When I make them again I think I'll hide the chocolates inside the dough as some of the chocolate on the top slightly burnt. Also, don't forget to chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour, the colder the dough, the bigger the cookie. Happy baking!

Ingredients:

125g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
1 egg
1tsp vanilla extract
125g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
1tsp bicarbonate of/baking soda
3tsp milk
200g After Eight/Mint Cremes

1. Mix together the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla with an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes.

2. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda and begin mixing with the wet ingredients. 

3. Add the milk in a tablespoon at a time until the dough begins to form. 

4. Leave to chill in the fridge for at least an hour. 

5. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease well with butter. 

6. Take about 2 tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Press in your chocolates (I packed as many chocolates as I could into these cookies) and place on your baking sheet.

7.  Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from baking sheet and place on a wire rack to cool! 

Summer Lipstick Wishlist

I've decided to do something a little different for this week's Monday post and share with you my lipstick wishlist for summer. I don't think I included enough coral colours in this post..

1. Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm // Audacious 

2. Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter // Juicy Papaya 

3.  Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick // In Love With Ginger 

4. Bourjois Colour Boost Lip Crayon // Orange Punch

5.  MAC // Lady Danger 

6. Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet Lipstick // Hot Pepper

What lip products will be finding their way into your make up bags this summer?

Seven Happy Things #2

So, we've made to the end of another week. Nothing huge has happened, still the same ol' same ol'. It hasn't been the best of weeks for me, I've spent a lot of it worrying about things that I don't have the power to change, (which I can tell you now has done me no good) and being messed around by the people that can change them. However, I have had some good moments this week and it's only 19 days until Paris, so I've got to keep keeping on!

• Monday was a pretty chill day. I got lots of blog posts written up and had cuddles with the pup.
  
• Brian finished his exams on Monday so Tuesday was a fun filled day! We had lunch at his favourite place, Jam then we went to Rumleys Farm (I took lots of pictures, a post shall be up next week) and we finished our day by going to the Drive-In Cinema to see Bad Neighbours.
  
• Wednesday came to an end on a high note as we got 99s with flakes, my favourite.
  
• Last week, I commented on a Totally Sacha video in which he made a rainbow cake, I asked him a question about eggs. On Thursday, I got an email from him telling me that he was unable to reply to my Youtube comment so he tracked down my email address. I just thought this was the nicest thing ever and I got the answer to my question about eggs.
  
• Friday evening I had the boy's apartment to myself, so I made myself something yum for dinner, (salmon and couscous) had a major pamper sesh and snuggled up on the couch to watch the Graham Norton Show (which if you follow me on Twitter, you will know I enjoyed immensely)
  
• Yesterday morning, I had tea and toast in bed with the boy while watching Gilmore Girls.
  
• Aaaand, it's Sunday again. More food and Gilmore Girls. (Sunday will never be exciting, I'm sorry.)

What have been your highlights of this week?

My Hair Care Routine

I love trying out new hair products, I'm still searching for the perfect combination of things. I'm very fickle when it comes to shampoo, hence why there's not one mentioned in this post. I find my hair gets used to shampoo so I have to change what I use quite frequently. I would recommend the L'Oreal Elvive Re-Nutrition Shampoo, I used it in conjunction with the matching conditioner (which I have mentioned below) and it worked a treat for about a month, always leaving my hair soft and shiny. 

L'Oreal Elvive Re-Nutrition Nourishing Conditioner - I've been faithful to this conditioner for about six months now, it leaves my hair super soft and smelling like I've just come out of the hairdressers. 

Dove Hair Nourishing Oil Care Leave-In Spray - I mentioned this in my April Favourites so I won't blabber on about it for too long. I spray this in the ends of my hair when its wet, it has worked wonders on my dry ends. 

Boots Ingredients Coconut & Almond Leave-In Conditioner - This is my holy grail hair product. After I shower, this is the first thing that I spray on my hair as it makes it much easier to brush through  It's cheap and cheerful, coming in at just under €2 but I find it better than any other products that have claimed to leave your hair "tangle free".

Argan Oil Hair Treatment - I use a drop of this oil on the ends of my hair when I come out of the shower. Again, it really helps with my damaged ends and eliminates a lot of unwanted frizz! I avoid using too much of this stuff because it can leave my hair feeling greasy when I overuse it. I picked this little bottle up in EuroGiant for €1, this made me ridiculously happy as argan oil treatments can be quite pricey. So if you're from Ireland, I suggest you go pick some up! 

What are your holy grail hair products?

Furry Friend Tag

This will be my very first tag post, I am super excited about it because it's always fun to try something new and I get to tell you more about my favourite (and the cutest) puppy in the world.

1. What is your pet's name? 

His name is Max. Or Maximus as I wanted to write on his dog tag.

2. What kind of pet is it and what breed? 

He is a dog, a Jack Russell Terrier to be exact. 

3. How long have you had your pet friend?

I've had Max for nearly three years now. 

4. How did you get your pet?

A family friend's dog had puppies but she was too young to understand how to look after them so at four weeks old, Mum brought him home for me to look after. I fed him milk through a syringe for a couple of days and stayed up all night with him. He slept in any boxes or containers I could find and put beside by bed. His last bed was my washing basket.

5. How old is your pet?

He's nearly three now. The picture above was taken when he was about 12 weeks old and the one below was taken on one of his first days at home,

6. What are some quirky things about your pets personality?

He is extremely independent, although I think that's pretty common with most terriers. He likes to follow me round the kitchen while I am baking or cooking, standing directly behind me. He's not the most obedient of dogs, he will go to sleep in his own bed but manage to find his way up onto my bed in the middle of the night and snuggle himself up to any warm part of my body or in between the boy and I. He isn't very fond of small dogs, anything his size or smaller. He absolutely adores bigger dogs though. We also have a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Ollie and Max thinks he is his best friend. 

7. What does your relationship with your pet mean to you?
Absolutely everything. He's wonderful, I really do not know what I would do without him and Ollie. He can be a real pain but I'm sure I annoy him just as much. There is nothing more comforting than a cuddle with a doggie. Max and Ollie have been two of the biggest comforts to me in the hardest of times.

8. What are some of your favourite past times with your pet?
During the summer, or when the weather is nice, Brian and I will take Max out somewhere nice for the day. This generally involves a car ride and Max gets car sick, although we have remedied this problem with travel sickness tablets (we give him 1 human travel sickness tablet about 3 hours before we leave and it works a treat). The last time we took him on a big long walk, I let him off the lead for the first time. I've always been really anxious about this because as I said, he is not an obedient dog so I thought he might run off. He didn't though, as soon as I called him he came running back.

9. What are nicknames that you call your pet?
We call him Moo more than we call him Max. I can't remember how this started. I also call Ollie, Ollie Bear or just Bear.

I will leave you with a picture of my two favourites. Brian didn't like Max, or any dogs for the matter, until about 2 years ago. Now he loves him (thankfully). I hope you guys enjoyed this post, I might make another telling you all about Ollie, if you would like. 

Do you guys have any furry friends?

Viennese Whirls

Before I get into telling you all about these delightful biscuits, I must address the fact that I called these "Viennese Swirls" in Sunday's post. Swirls, Whirls, all the same in my head apparently!
I can't actually say that I got to try these, I gave half to a friend for her birthday and the other half were gobbled up by my Mother within minutes (you think I'm exaggerating, I'm really not). However I was informed that they were "the nicest gift ever" and "better than Mr. Kipling's ". I decided to use this recipe, although I found that a lot of them were the same so it didn't matter too much.

These do require some attention in the piping department, other than that they're very simple to make! I almost broke my piping gun twice making these. I should really invest in some ordinary nozzles and piping bags. You by no means have to be an expert but I find them quite time consuming, if you're not hugely bother by what they look like, you could just make them into ordinary circles, I'm sure they would taste just as good! The biscuits  can be as big or as small as you would like, just make sure each biscuit has a buddy the same size. I managed to get 16 Viennese Whirls from this recipe, I think I made about 35 biscuits but a few didn't make the cut. I will definitely be making these again and sneaking some away for myself this time. Happy baking!

Ingredients:

250g butter, softened
50g icing sugar
50g cornflour
250g plain flour
1sp vanilla extract

50g butter
100g icing sugar
1tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment or grease with butter. 

2. In a large bowl, mix together the butter, icing sugar, cornflour and vanilla extract. 

3. Slowly sieve in your flour. I found that the mixture wasn't as thick as most dough but that's the way it's meant to be, so don't worry about it (like I did).

4. Place the dough into your piping bag fitted with a medium size star nozzle and pipe into swirls.

5. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until slightly golden at the edges. 

6. To make your icing, place the butter, icing sugar and vanilla in a small bowl and whisk together until smooth.

7. Leave your biscuits to cool completely before filling. Spread some jam onto the flat side of one biscuit and about 1 teaspoon of buttercream on the flat side of another then sandwich together.

8. Sift a little icing sugar or drizzle some chocolate over the top, if desired! 

My Top Picks // Floral Patterns

I absolutely love writing these posts, it cures my need to go shopping and creates a wishlist for me. I adore most things with a floral pattern, mugs, bedding, notebooks and most importantly, clothes. Here are some of my favourite items for Summer 2014! 

1. Floral Collared Skater Dress // Boohoo, €28

2. Floral City Dress // Topshop, £40

3. Blue Floral Print Zip Trim Skater Dress // River Island, €51

4. Floral Print Green Pleated Dress // ROMWE, €29.95

5. Black V-Neck Floral Print Playsuit // Topshop, £37

6. Black Floral Print Playsuit // New Look, €24.99

7. Tea Flower Godet Skirt // Topshop, £22

8. Floral Print Belted Pleated Skirt // ROMWE, €20.22

 9. Navy Floral Print Casual Shorts // River Island, €25

10.  Lace Floral Print Runner Shorts // Topshop, £35

11. Black Floral Print Shorts // New Look, €17.99

12. Black Floral Print Running Shorts // New Look €14.99

13. Gold Tone Clustered Flower Necklace // River Island, €20

14. Black Tapestry Floral Chelsea Boots // New Look, €10

15. Mint Green Rose Garland Hairband // New Look, €4.99

16. Black Floral Print Purse // New Look, €7.99

As always, I hope you guys saw a few bits in this post that you liked. Maybe not too many, I don't want to be responsible for any damage done to your bank accounts! My favourite pieces are 2, 7 and 12. I have been eyeing up number 14, the Chelsea Boots for quite sometime now and they are currently in the sale (dreams do come true).
Which items have you added to your wishlist?