therealjlow got married | Cake tasting

In honour of the end of The Great British Bake Off in the UK I thought I would rewind the time a little and share some photos of Josh and mines cake tasting back this Summer.

I’ll admit this is not us but those Gilmore Girls but to be honest we took cake tasting and the whole wedding process in the same way that both Lorelai and Rory would.. with a whole lot of humor and a whole lot of cake….

The lovely Boo, Aka Rebecca Fiedler cake-baking extraordinaire! She may hate me for including a photo of herself but shes beyond awesome and lovely and somehow made the most amazing four tier wedding cake in the entire world! If you follow the link above (there is a strange photo of me there, don’t judge.) but then most importantly the cake! Soon I will hopefully get to share the wedding cake in all its professional photo’d glory!

So I wish I could tell you exactly all I learnt but primarily, I learnt I love cake, a lot! Our final choices were chocolate (I want to say on the bottom layer), the middle was Lemon and the top Carrot and finally a regular Victoria sponge.

Becky, who is crazy talented offered us several options during the tasting including different sponges and icings, all created separately I believe its actually practiced to try the icing first but we were pretty happy mixing and trying different combinations!

The final cake turned out perfect! Becky spent a crazy amount of time perfecting it even waking up at about half four in the morning to make the cream cheese frosting and assembling some of the cakes. She was a complete super star and I have had the most amazing comments from the day as to how wonderful the cake was!

Have you all ever attended a caked tasting? And stay tuned for more cake photos soon!

 

Happiness is |In the Countryside

Happiness is . . . 

A couple of weeks ago I sat in my empty house while Josh was out in the garage and I had a plan to start writing a really quick, simple post entitled happiness is . . and then fill in the blanks. That week it was clean work surfaces as I realised simple things create the biggest rewards and this week past it was from the simplicity of a bike ride.

Its funny how you can see those closest to you everyday and think you know their happiness inside out but whilst we were cycling I got to see Josh in his most happiest and relaxed state and that is out cycling, a really well loved past time of ours we have finally brushed off the cobwebs and are taking back out to our new countryside and believe me seeing Joshes happiness gave me the greatest happiness this weekend.

Not to mention how much I needed the headspace of that ride! All I can say however is this, bring on the summer filled with bike rides and space for recollection!

What have you done this week for happiness? Leave your comments below as I’d love to hear how you find your daily doses of happiness!

The Weekend | podcasts, videos and words to learn by

Wherever we are in the world and in our life sometimes you need a little inspiration, some guidance and a whole lot of guilt free/ judgement free therapy. This week I’m sharing three inspirational and forward thinking ladies who have rocked my 2016 world so far and the lessons that I have loved to learn from them.

Man Repeller, Monocycle

http://www.manrepeller.com/2016/01/leandra-medine-podcast-episode-10.html  

Image property of Man Repeller

The Man Repeller website is my natural go-to on most weekends and week days on the train. I love how they take fashion, make it amusing when it needs to be and share ideas and thoughts less spoken about in high fashion. Recently they have branched out into podcasts and YouTube interviews.

I’ll be honest; I started with an Alexa Chung interview after adoring Alexa’s British Vogue videos on The fashion industry & The Future of Fashion series but then I found that Leandra too had been interviewed. These podcasts however, are about real life and even Leandra’s fears, great to listen to when you are feeling adrift.

From her interview my ultimate favourite quote was this … “It was so easy to write for myself. I could publish what I want and nobody could . . . edit out all the funny jokes and curse words.” Never was a truer quote than this for why most of us headed into blogging!

Tweet: @ManRepeller, @LeandraMedine

10 rules for brilliant women

Image property of Tara Mohr

Tara I found via the ever incredible Jess Lively. These 10 rules are perfect for re-purposing yourself and centering your vision, great bite-sized nuggets to take action on.

“Let other women know they are brilliant.” Let them know what kind of brilliance you see, and why it’s so special. Call them into greater leadership and action. Let them know that they are ready. Watch out for that subtle, probably unconscious thought, “because I had to struggle and suffer on my way up…they should have to too.” Watch out for thinking this will “take” too much time — when the truth is it always has huge, often unexpected returns.

Tweet: @tarasophia

http://www.taramohr.com/10rules/

Be Brave, Harriet Minter

Image property of The Guardian

Harriet Minter is the Editor for The Guardians Women in Leadership section. From this section she delivers a weekly email to your inbox all about women and of course in leadership, there is an awful lot of inspiration here! If that interests you at all then I really would suggest signing up! This week she talked about having a support team and concluded with an idea which I have always believed in. People come in and out of our lives for a reason and when you’ve learnt what they needed you to they leave. It’s not a bad thing but instead, a life thing.

I have loved this email, to the extent that I even tweeted her and it was there that I found this video below with her speaking at a TEDx event on being brave and on finding a safe place to fail. Both of which are two things that have recently felt more prevalent to me, so take a watch she is incredibly funny as well!

Tweet @harrietminter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NnTAlk2vdk&app=desktop

http://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership