28 April 2011

Royal Wedding

As I'm sure you all know, tomorrow is the day of the Royal Wedding. My niece has been excited about it for ages now, so we decided we'd have a wedding party.

Shopping today was an absolute nightmare! None of the shops I went to had any Union Jack/Wedding plates or decorations, so we ended up with some floral design stuff and everywhere was manic so I didn't get everything on my shopping list.

I did, however, make these little beauties;




They are vanilla cupcakes with red buttercream frosting. I dusted them with some ruby red edible glitter too.

We're pretty excited for tomorrows events though.

Will you be tuning in?

Laura x
My friend Jodi is doing something I will never have the balls to do; a sponsored sky dive. She's going to be raising money for the Katie Piper Foundation.

For those of you who aren't aware of Katie Piper, she is the strong survivor of an acid attack which left her blind in one eye and in need of numerous painful surgeries.

Taken from wikipedia; In late 2009, Katie Piper established a charity, The Katie Piper Foundation, aimed at raising awareness of the plight of victims of burns and other disfigurement injuries: the charity also campaigns for the specialist treatment Piper received - such as the after-care scheme undertaken in France - to be more widely available to patients in Britain.Simon Cowell is a patron of the foundation, along with her surgeon Dr. Mohammad Ali Jawad.

I would be eternally grateful if you could donate to this charity by sponsoring Jodi here.

Thank you,
Laura x

26 April 2011

Interview with Save Your Breath

 


Save Your Breath are Kris, Tom, Adam, Ben and Bobby, a 5-piece pop-punk band from Wales. Having toured with the likes of Kids In Glass Houses, The Rocket Summer and Fireworks, the band are finally releasing their debut album and I for one cannot wait to hear it! Tom was kind enough to answer a few questions for me to put up here.

How did the name 'Save Your Breath' come about?
Um, we were all jamming together for a while before we even considered that we would need a name. Then it came to the point where we gonna have to play a show and put our name on stuff so we all started just thinking of stuff that sounded cool. We came up with that and thought it was a good name so stuck with it. No massive story behind it i'm afraid!

Who or what inspires you to make music?
Everything really, where we grew up, the people we grew up with and the situations that we've gone through going up. As well as that obviously we all have massive influences musically. We all like a large variety of stuff. We've been influenced by bands like New Found Glory and Saves The Day, but then different members of the band listen to anything from The Cure to Pink Floyd.

If you could cover any song, what would it be and why?
Um, i'm not really sure. In the past we've covered Blink 182 - "Josie", The Movielife - Walking On Glass and New Found Glory - "Ballad For The Lost Romantics" as they were songs that really influenced us while we were growing up. I'd cover most songs by those bands if we had the chance to be honest!

Your debut album 'Vices' is set for release in June. If you had to choose one song that would turn any listener into a fan, which would it be?
Yeah we can't wait! It's been a long time coming and we're excited for everyone to hear it. As far as a song that I would pick......I think I would pick a track that we've named "Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy". I love it!

How has the band evolved since your EP 'Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy'?
Well we have a new singer in Kristian, and to be honest it's the first time we've felt completley comfortable as a band. We feel comfortable playing live together now and then songs we have written for this record we feel are the best we've ever done. It's a great feeling, we really feel like everything has finally come together.

What is next for Save Your Breath?
Well obviously the record comes out, and then we really we will just be touring as much as possible and playing these songs to as many people as we get the chance too. We want as many people as possible to hear this record as possible so we're making it our mission to try our hardest to get it into as many peoples hands as we can.

And finally, is there anything you'd like to say to SYB fans or anyone reading this interview?
Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks so much for supporting our band and being good friends to us. It means the world and it really does allow us to carry on what we are doing. Other than that, if you have a spare moment and some spare change, if you could pick up "Vices" from http://www.saveyourbreath.bigcartel.com/ you would be helping us more than we could possibly explain, we put so much into this record, all off our own backs, so any support we receive from you guys helps out so much.

Cheers!
Tom

So there you have it. It is so refreshing to come across a band that are down to earth and genuinely grateful for every fan they have. Anyone who has read my blog before will know that I'm a huge fan, but without being biased, I strongly recommend pre-ordering their album....you won't be disappointed! Look out for new tour dates coming soon.


 



Follow them on Twitter
Become a fan on Facebook
Visit their site: www.saveyourbreath.net

25 April 2011

Big River

This song has just changed my life.

I love you, dad.




Laura x

24 April 2011

Song of the day

Loving this song at the moment, hope you will to :)




Laura x

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone.

Whether you're religious or not, I hope you enjoy your day. I'll be spending mine in the kitchen cooking a roast dinner for my family (but I can't wait to tuck into the chocolate fudge cake me and Bethany made for pudding!)




Laura x

22 April 2011

Good Friday

I'm pretty OCD when it comes to my routine and planning my day, so when people change my plans at the last minute, it kind of annoys me. I need to realise that sometimes it can be a good thing, though.

I wasn't really looking forward to today because my 'plans' for this morning weren't exactly something I wanted to do, but they got changed at the last minute and my day ended up being pretty good!

After an unscheduled nap, I went out into the garden and finished weeding the rockery before putting up the fairy lights and butterfly solar powered lights, then I planted seeds and rearranged the ornaments. The ornaments look a bit crowded and the rest of the rockery looks a bit bare, but once the flowers start to grow I think it will look beautiful.







Me and my dad started the garden this time last year but we never got a chance to finish it because he passed away. I finished it on my own, mostly for my dad, but I also found it quite therapeutic...it gave me something to focus on and helped me get through my grief.
Easter Sunday was the last time I saw my dad, so I'm feeling a bit sad at the moment and I think having something to throw myself into is helping again.

After that, I made cornflake cakes with Bethany and Chloe. We put mini eggs and a fluffy chick in the middle of each one so they look like nests. We're growing some cress too. I love doing activities and art & craft stuff with them, I never did anything like that when I was a kid.

Now me and Chloe are snuggling up on the sofa to watch some Doctor Who! We have episodes 7-13 to watch in preparation for the new series kicking off tomorrow! Then we're all off to my nanna's for dinner, which brings me to the question; why do we eat fish on Good Friday?

Laura x

21 April 2011

WANT.





I found this little fella in the pet shop & I really want to keep him! Someone buy him for me?

Laura x

18 April 2011

Blink-182 reschedule European tour dates

(taken from blink182.com)

FROM MARK, TOM AND TRAVIS: It is with heavy hearts that we have to announce our planned 2011 European Summer tour has been rescheduled. When we booked the tour last year, we were confident that we would have the new album out before the summer. Turns out we were mistaken as the album is taking longer than we thought and won't be out till later this year. We hoped we would have some new songs to play rather than do another 'greatest hits tour' which you all saw last summer. As much as we know our fans would be cool with that, we feel that we owe you guys something new when you spend your money to come see us. Frankly, it's what needs to continue for us to remain vital. The three of us are working very hard to do what we set out to do when we re-formed... get a new blink-182 album recorded. Apologies to all of our fans who have bought tickets and were looking forward to the Summer shows but we'll be back soon with the rescheduled dates in summer 2012, have a new album out and be able to play new songs for you all. Thanks for all of the continued support and understanding. The rescheduled dates are on our website (www.blink182.com) and are listed below.

NEW UK/IRISH DATES ADDED: Onsale date is Thursday 21st April 2011

For those of you whohoped to see the us at Oxegen and T In The Park festivals this year, we're very sorry that we won’t be there as we were looking forward to playing them so much. However, we’ve added Dublin,Belfast and Glasgow arena dates listed below onto next summer’s tour so we can see our Irish and Scottish fans.

Tuesday 12 June, 2012 - Dublin, o20818 719300 www.ticketmaster.ie

Wednesday 13 June 2012 - Belfast Odyssey Arena - 028 9073 9074/084427774455 www.ticketmaster.ie

Wednesday 20 June 2012 -Glasgow SECC - 0844 4999 990 / gigsinscotland.com

RESCHEDULED DATES –June/July 2012

UK Dates

Thursday 07 June 2012 -Birmingham NIA - 0844 338 8000 - Tickets still valid from Friday 01 July 2011
Friday 08 June 2012 -London The O2 - Tickets still valid from Monday 18 July 2011
Saturday 09 June 2012 -London The O2 - Tickets still valid from Tuesday 19 July 2011
Friday 15 June 2012 -Manchester MEN Arena - 0844 847 2000 - Tickets still valid from Friday 8 July2011
Saturday 16 June 2012 -Birmingham LG Arena - 0844 338 8000 - Tickets still valid from Friday 15 July2011
Sunday 17 June 2012 -Sheffield Motorpoint Arena - 0114 256 5656 - Tickets still valid from Thursday7 July 2011
Tuesday 19 June 2012 -Newcastle Metro Radio Arena - 0844 493 6666 - Tickets still valid from Tuesday12 July 2011
Tuesday 10 July 2012 -Cardiff Motorpoint Arena - 029 2022 4488 - Tickets still valid from Saturday 16July 2011
Wednesday 11 July 2012 -Nottingham Capital FM Arena - 0844 412 4624 - Tickets still valid fromWednesday 13 July 2011
Thursday 12 July 2012 -Liverpool Echo Arena - 0844 8000 400 - Tickets still valid from Monday 04 July2011

Original tickets will be valid for the rescheduled dates. For further information or queries regarding the re-scheduled dates please contact the ticket agent where you purchased your tickets.


German Dates

Saturday 23 June 2012 – Neuhausen ob Eck - SouthsideFestival
Sunday 24 June 2012 – Scheessel - Hurricane Festival
Monday 25 June 2012 - Essen – Grugahalle – Ticketsstill valid from Friday 24th June 2011
Tuesday 26 June 2012 – Frankfurt – Festhalle –Tickets still vaild from Monday 20th June 2011
Saturday 30 June 2012 -Berlin – Zitadelle – Ticketsstill valid from Wednesday 22nd June 2011
PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE IN BERLIN
The tickets for the three headline shows above are valid for the rescheduled dates in 2012 but you may also return your tickets to the box offices for a full refund.

Czech Republic Date

We will no longer be performing at the Prague City Festival 2011 but tickets will remain valid. However, those fans who wish to only see us and are not interested in seeing the rest of the bands are able to to change their current tickets for a ticket for the Prague City Festival 2012 at which we will appear.

Friday 29th June 2012 - PragueCity Festival in Prague-Holesovice, Vystaviste venue
This will be the only chance to see us in the Czech Republic.

It will be possible to change the tickets from 2nd of May 2011 till 2nd of July2011. The offer of an exchange is valid for all tickets sold after the Blink 182 2011 show announcement (ie for alltickets more expensive than 590czk /or Euro equivalent). The exchange appliesonly to www.ticketportal.cz (email: help@ticketportal.cz) and www.tickets.de chains.


Italian Dates

Vivo Concerti andD’Alessandro Galli regret to inform Italian fans that the Blink 182 concerts scheduled for 27th June 2011 at Mediolanum Forum in Assago(Milan) and Lucca festival scheduled for 28th June 2011 have been postponed. The new dates are as follows:

Tuesday 3rdJuly 2012 – Mediolanum Forum – Assago (Milan)
Wednesday 4thJuly 2012 – Lucca Summer Festival

All tickets already purchased for the shows on 27th June and 28th June 2011 will not be valid for the rescheduled dates in 2012. The tickets must be replaced with new ones. When applying for a reimbursement, it will bepossible to buy tickets for the new dates. The deadline for replacing or reimbursing tickets is 12th July 2011.
People who bought tickets on line on www.ticketone.it will receive an e mail from the e-commerce divisionwith all the details for the reimbursement.

Luxembourg Dates

Unfortunately we won’t be able to perform at the Rock a Field Festival on 26th June 2011. We are currently working on our options and will get news about a date for Summer 2012 to our fans as soon as possible.

Wilton





It's amazing what you can do with the right equipment! My Wilton nozzles arrived this morning and I created these beauties!

So wish this was my job.

Laura x

17 April 2011

Check Me Out!

I finally finished making the cake I was asked to do and I'm really impressed with it!

Its for an 80th birthday, so this is what I came up with;


Its a lemon sponge with lemon buttercream and strawberry jam filling, absolutely delicious! I'm more impressed that the icing is completely smooth, its the best i've ever managed to get it.

Laura x

Cupcakes!

I made some chocolate cupcakes last night and they were amazing!
The frosting didn't turn out quite how I expected but it tasted lovely.
Now I just need to concentrate on the lemon sponge I'm making for an 80th birthday!

Cake appreciation below;








16 April 2011

Happy Record Store Day!!

Did anyone get anything cool?
I need to get a new needle for my record player, but I'm pretty gutted I missed out today. I'm hoping I can go charity/thrift shopping next weekend to pick up some records. Saying that though, I still have Adele - '21', Ricky Valance - 'Tell Laura I Love Her' and Everly Brothers - 'All I Have To Do' waiting to be listened to.
If you did manage to get something awesome today, leave a comment or let me know via Twitter.

Laura x

15 April 2011

Hmm.

Does not getting mad about things make me more patient/understanding/stronger or just a push over?

Laura x

11 April 2011

"Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering."


Laura x

OMG!





I found these in my local Asda today and can't recommend them enough!

A few people have told me that American chocolate is disgusting, but these Extra Creamy Milk Chocolate Hershey's Kisses are heavenly! They're somewhere in between Lindt and Galaxy. If you can find them, definitely treat yourself!

Laura x

10 April 2011

Never be ashamed of what you feel.



“I have come to realize that just making yourself happy is most important. Never be ashamed of what you feel. You have the right to feel any emotion that you want, and to do what makes you happy. That’s my life motto.” - Demi Lovato.



Laura x