I haven't really been up to much since returning from my West Wales holiday. I took a bit of a tumble in work, my foot was swollen and blue and now it has cellulitus. Having a blue foot isn't much fun AT ALL and I want it to return to normal so I can go to yoga and get out on my bike now that the days are a bit longer. Silly blue foot stopping my fun.

I have tried to keep busy around the house and have taken a chair in the kitchen to kneel on so I can bake and not be stood up for a long time. (I can stand up again now, the swelling has gone down a lot). I always drool over Claire's fabulous cake creations but she is based in Northern Ireland which is a bit far to go and get a cake if you live in Wales so I tried to make one of my own inspired by hers and this is what I came up with:

Not bad ey? It's a classic sponge cake with blue cream cheese frosting and meringues (meringue recipe here) and edible glitter on top. If you want something amazing you should really hire a professional like Claire. They have all the skills, flair and right equipment. No matter how hard I try my cakes always look a bit shoddy.

I made some lemon curd with all the leftover egg yolks I had after making meringues and slathered that in the middle of a sponge cake, yum! I like the recipe over on Good Food, classic equal quantity recipe and easy to follow. It looks a bit messy but I'm impatient and assembled the cake before it cooled properly so the curd spread everywhere.




If you want to vote in the General Election on the 7th of May you only have until the 20th April to make sure you're registered. Head over here if you want to do that. If you're a student please check that you're registered and have your polling card. Voting switched from household to individual voter registration. Previously universities put students living in halls of residence on the electoral roll but you have to sign up individually now.

I've been lucky enough to see two of my favourite acts live recently. I promised my mum I would get her Paloma Faith tickets for Christmas and they sold out so I begged for tickets on twitter for weeks and managed to get some at face value in the end. The stage was beautiful, I loved her band and the arrangement's on the songs and her backing singers had amazing soul voices. Paloma was funny and as playful as always. She puts on a great show and has more hits that you realise so I would highly recommend seeing her if she's touring in your area or at a festival you're going to this summer. 



I had been looking forward to seeing Morrissey for ages, I hadn't seen him since 2008 in the Roundhouse and I wanted to share one of my musical heroes with Martyn. Unfortunately I saw Morrissey on the day I fell over and hurt my foot and spent most of the show sitting down at the back crying because it hurt so badly. Foot pain was temporarily forgotten when he sang Suedehead and Every Day Is Like Sunday.

What have you been up to recently? Send me your blog links if you've shared something I should be reading, listening to or visiting over Easter. Hope you all have a lovely long weekend!

I'm starting to get really excited about Christmas. I've got Pinterest boards dedicated to it, I've been baking Christmas treats for friends and I've started to tick things off my Christmas food shopping list. You're meant to grow out of this I suppose but even thought it's only the 1st of December I've already bought and wrapped most of my presents and I'm acting like a big kid. I'm going to watch Muppet Christmas Carol tonight and I might even sport a Christmas jumper whilst doing it.

I get a lot of joy from planning, wrapping and seeing someone tearing open their gift and most of all that look of excitement on their face. But with Christmas in mind I can't help thinking about a couple of things I would like Santa to drop off for me. Some gifts on my list are far too extravagant but it doesn't hurt to browse, right?

Don't worry,  I'm not coming over all twee like Jess from New Girl because I've wanted a bike so badly since hiring one in Amsterdam a few months ago. Viking make very similar bikes for around a third of the price so I may treat myself to one in the new year when I've bought everyone else their Christmas presents. To be honest I could stick a bell and a basket on any red bike and be pretty happy with it. I'll be total hipster cliche riding around on one of these...

Some gifts are more practical like the GHD's because my old ones have died and I've lost my favourite Alpha ring from Daisy and would love that to be replaced. I really don't need another dress but this Ted Baker one is so soft and silky and I always go an have a little look at it when I'm in House of Fraser, it's very pretty. Zalando currently have the dress on sale down from £205 to £145.

The little Pandora charm is not only super cute it would also remind me of my trips to Nash Point lighthouse and Portland Bill this year. My final pick had to be some books. I always get books for Christmas and these are extra special books. Each book is bound in cloth with covers designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith. I think books make the perfect gift because as Moz once said 'There's more to life than books, you know. But not much more.'

I know it's not December yet but it's pretty close and I'm excited about Christmas. 32 days until Christmas everyone!! The day were you can sit in your PJs and watch The Muppet Christmas Carol whilst polishing off a selection box with no guilt. I've been trying to make a lot of my Christmas presents this year, I've bought all my Secret Santa gifts and I've only got a few things to tick of my list for the family so I think it's time to treat myself to a few festive gifts.

I've got quite the list of things I want to get on pay but I narrowed it down a bit:




I'm on the hunt for a Christmas day dress and this one from Ark (who also sell things like Criminal Damage Womenswear) fits the bill. Demure enough to wear when the family visit but still fun with the lace detail.

The cute necklace is from Punky Pins. I've already got a cute deer necklace and snow man earrings on the way from them but I'm tempted to get this necklace too. They also sell lots of personalised gifts which would make great stocking fillers.

I've wanted a Crown and Glory bow for a long time, I love these cute little ones but hey, it's Christmas so I may as well get a giant green one to go with my red dress.


I can't believe I've never read A Christmas Carol, I watch so many Dickens adaptations but I've never really taken the time to read this. I've got a kindle so I can get a copy for free from Project Gutenberg but I do love this clothbound classic version which is available from Penguin. I might make a start on reading this on the coach to London and back tomorrow.

How adorable is this Christmas pudding purse?! I don't need it but it's so darn cute and it's perfect to pop in a clutch bag for a party rather than taking your huge purse with all the receipts and loyalty cards in.

We don't have any children in the family so the decorations at my house are a little subdued now. Long gone are the days of garlands hanging from the ceiling and tinsel everywhere. I still want to get into the Christmas spirit and spruce my house up a bit but my mum wont let me get any decorations that aren't cream or gold so I'm going to get make some Christmas paper chains like these ones from John Lewis  for my room.

I've been in bed for most of my Sunday so far (the best way to spend a Sunday) watching some of my favourite Halloween/witch themed movies. Hocus Pocus and Bedknobs and Broomsticks have been on so far then I'm hoping to move on to the really scary stuff when it gets dark and we hopefully have the super storm that has been promised tonight. I'm missing out on fancy dress party fun this year because I'm going for a weekend away but it's one of my favourite times of year and I still want to celebrate. I will be indulging in all things spooky and it's a good excuse to get some sweet treats in right?

I've put together a little list of Halloween goodies to get you in the mood:



The kitsch personalised necklace comes from Heidi Seeker who also stock some other cute vampire and skull themed glittery Halloween treats which are a perfect way to subtly celebrate All Hallows' eve.

If you head over to the Original Attire Facebook page you can be in with the chance to win a £100 voucher to spend on the Heart by Nana Judy range which is where the skull jumper above is from.

I will be travelling up to Birmingham on Halloween to watch Suede so I will be getting a copy of Frankenstein for free to read on my Kindle to pass the time on the journey and get into the spirit of things. Many books, especially classics like Frankenstein, are available under public domain licensing and have been converted into e-books for your reading pleasure. Have a look on Project Gutenburg for free titles. You can also buy the rather lovely hard copy in the picture above from the Clothbound Classics range.

If you want to join in with some Halloween fun but aren't a fan of dressing up Zara and Forever 21 have some great bat themed accessories.

We love to decorate the house here at Chez Southgate, we carve pumpkins and my brother gets his impressive Nightmare Before Christmas collection down from the attic. This year we treated ourselves to Witches Brew and Candy Corn Yankee candles.

I love these cute slipper style shoes from ASOS, 16 year old goth me would have been obsessed with them too. Very Beetlejuice.


I hope you have a lovely Halloween, if you went to a party this weekend leave me some links to your fancy dress costumes as I would love to check them out. Loving all the Breaking Bad themed ones this year.

I'm certainly not buying as many clothes as I used to so why do all my wages still disappear each month? It's because I've replaced clothes with my other favourite things: books, music, make up and trinkets.


Things I love right now:

1. Books

I've made my way through the first four Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire books and needed a break because they are so depressing  (I'm still upset about the Red Wedding) and I have been reading lots of fantasy by people like Neil Gaiman. I bought a few new books that are a little more light and fun to read on my commute and I'm thoroughly enjoying the mad world of Jenny Lawson in her book 'Let's Pretend This Never Happened'. As you can see I've got quite the pile building up and this is only half of my 'to read' books as I'm always picking up cheap copies on eBay and in charity shops.
I love taking a few minutes before bed each night to unwind fill in my Listography book, I certainly don't want my Mum reading some of this so it may need to be moved from my bedside table. Don't fancy her browsing the list of men I've kissed, how embarrassing! I could have done with about three pages for listing my favourite bands and books though.

I had such a lovely day yesterday. The weather was perfect for a stroll so I headed to Newport to do shopping and walk around the lovely Belle Vue park. It was the first time in ages I've been able to go out without a huge coat and scarf. I even got to wear my sunglasses (£2.99 in New Look, bargain) because it was so bright, such a gorgeous Spring day.

I didn't just spend my bank holiday weekend eating cake and drinking rum, I did some cultural things for a change too! I visited the lovely Hay on Wye which I have been to many times before but the world famous literary festival was on this time and I had an amazing day. I actually ended up spending most of my day at HowTheLightGetsIn, the world’s largest philosophy and music festival which was at the other end of the town from the main festival site.

I went to a discussion called What's Left Now? with Phillip Blond, Peter Tatchell, Diane Abbott and Jamie Whyte. They talked about lots of issues surrounding 'The Left' including its successes and failures and where it needs to go in the future, all very interesting!


I also managed to visit many of the towns book and antique shops before we left and picked up a book about which is a selection of letters that the six Mitford sisters sent to one another. I have always found the sisters fascinating so I can#t wait to get stuck in. I also bought The Earth Hums in B Flat and a book of poetry by Keats.


I could have come home with so many more books, I had to restrain myself. I also managed to go to Shepherds for an ice cream (if you ever go to Hay you HAVE TO try it) and some freshly made Welsh cakes mmm.


Me and my friends stopped off on the way home for a walk, they all climbed to the top of the hill but I was slipping and sliding my my pumps. I'm not suited to the country and have no sensible clothes but the views really were spectacular and I would love to go back. I think this was somewhere in between Abergavenny and Brecon, not far from my home at all. I really need to explore my surroundings more.





So sad that all the celebrations are over now and it's back to work like normal. Just spontaneously planned a trip to Manchester to see Maximo Park to cheer myself up after a bit of a post Jubilee/holidays come down. 

I had a wonderful bank holiday weekend in the city of Manchester with my friend Emma and celebrating two of my best friends birthdays in Cardiff. Happy Birthday Sarah and Laura! Here are some of my photos from my trip to Manchester...




I went to Manchester Museum where I looked at all the minerals, the John Rylands library (bit of a busman's holiday) and for a dance in 42nd Street.


I really enjoyed the People's History Museum, there were a few mentions of south Wales Chartist and socialist past which I loved and there was a strong focus on labour history and women's involvement in it. Well worth a visit if you are in Manchester.


Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, back to work now *sigh*

How do you spend your days off? I wish I could be more adventurous but Tuesdays are always my lazy days.

I'm trying to read more books written by Welsh authors at the moment, Submarine is amazing and I would really recommend it.What have you been reading recently?
Also is anyone watching Great British Bake Off? How cute is Rob? He can come and bake me a cake anytime he wants... Heat magazine seem to be thinking the same things as me too. I really like Joanne from Essex and I hope she is the winner. Jo has a blog here where she posts recipes of things that she has made on the show if you wanted to take a look.

Looking forward to a weekend without work and getting back on track. I've made quite a few lists of things I need to do before term starts again at the University.