October | 2015 | Tashi Ci

Free Range Thoughts | #MoreThanCute

Posted on October 31, 2015 by tashici

So whilst wasting time at work I came across this article. A father, who was bored of getting is daughters “cute” fancy dress costumes for Halloween. Now I don’t think there is anything wrong with cute but I also like variety! Especially for fancy dress where anyone can be anything they want! I also feel that young children, girls in particular, should have all options available to them!

My favourite costumes from the article was the Daredevil, because I had thought about this costume for halloween anyways but thought Ian would have to do it. So even in my own head I jumped straight to Ian doing it and not me! I also loved the Fire-fighter and the UFC fighter because these are almost always portrayed as male roles.

So for my top 10 MoreThanCute costume ideas:

1 Captain Marvel

I am really enjoying reading the captain marvel series at the moment and just love her character; intelligent, nerdy and ambitious!

2 Thor the Goddess

So Thor is now a woman!!! Badass!

3 Stormtrooper

The new Star Wars is out in December and I absolutely cannot wait! The new stormtroooper outfits are slicker too, I like it!

4 Arrow

I have seriously been enjoying the return of CW’s Flash and Arrow and for me Arrow is so cool and his new costume definitely works!

5 Ellie – Last of Us

The Last of Us is such a fantastic game and Ellie kicks some major butt !!

6 Qidditch player

Being a quidditch player but just be so cool! I would love to give it a try!

7 Fighter Pilot

A fighter pilot is another one of those roles which is usually portrayed as a male role and it is just too cool not to let girls give it a go too!

8 Doctor Who / Missy

Dr Who is getting more and more popular over seas and there are so many costumes to choose from! These are probably my faves.

But how can I not mention Missy! She is making big waves lately and although not necessarily always good, it is halloween!

9 Astronaut

Who doesn’t want to be an astronaut?!?

Also with the realise of The Martian, with strong women roles in it as well, a great time to get your Nasa on!

10 The Khaleesi

Daenerys Targaryen is a women out to save the world whether they want it or not. Way more than cute.

Happy Halloween!

xoxo

I don’t own these photos and the originals are linked if you click on the photo 🙂

Free Range Thoughts | Introduction

Posted on October 26, 2015 by tashici

This is another feature I would like to start. I’m gunna try and do one a month. My hope for this feature is for it to become a medium for which I can share great things that are happening that are also good for the world.

I’m likening it to “your” strawberries (or equivalent; perhaps avocados?!?). They taste great and they are doing you good! But not only are these fruity deliciousness, they are also organic! So they’ve done no harm to anything in order to do good for you! What I’m trying to say is I will share things that are great but also do people good and have done no harm to anyone else in the process. A perfect win win win!!!

I don’t want to tell anyone how they should live their lives so I’m just providing a means of spreading the good stuff about! This also means that I keep reminding myself that there are good things happening and that one day the world will be an all inclusive place. I also believe that I have a rite to help pass on the message for progression and change and not to just be a silent bystander. My mantra for this and for life: take no shit and do no harm. Basically stand up for what you believe in but never do anything to hurt anyone else.

I believe in equal rights for everyone. All sexes, races, religions and sexual preferences all have the right to do whatever they want; so long as they don’t harm others (in my opinion!).

I identify as white, and I believe that I should get no benefits because of this.

I identify as a feminist, and believe that men and women should be treated equally.

I identify as straight but believe that all/any LGBT’s should all have the same rights as I do.

I don’t have a religion but I believe that everyone has the right to practise what they want. (Again within reason, no harming others please!).

I have thankfully had an amazing up bringing and never understood why people were treated different for being who they are. I have now unfortunately seen discrimination and have, very sadly, probably discriminated myself. But this is looking forward and pushing for change and progression! So here’s to the future, equal rights and free range thoughts!!

xoxo

Photo Trip | Antique Shopping in Suffolk

Posted on October 22, 2015 by tashici

Ian and I dropped my brother off and stayed for the weekend back in Suffolk, (Where I grew up). It was so nice to go back! I love Suffolk! It was wonderful to see my parents and all my friends! A couple of my friend have actually got engaged recently so there was a lovely engagement party too!

However, most of our time was spent antique shopping around the Suffolk countryside. It is one of my mum’s and my favourite past times. We travel the distance just to go to our favourite ones, it also means that you get to see great constable skies and pretty rural countryside.

My parents got me into antique shopping. When I was younger I used to dread being dragged around all the antiques shops but slowly but surely I began to fully appreciate all the treasures that are on offer. I think antiques are amazing! It is helping “save the planet” (I use the term loosely), Reduce, reuse, recycle! It often means getting beautiful more unique pieces and hopefully at a reduced cost! A perfect Win, Win, Win!

Unfortunately, I didn’t come home with anything this time! Even though there were several things I wish I could pop back for! We also had a look around kind of department store; Snape Maltings, I Love visiting there because they have loads of pretty things and it has a beautiful Suffolk countryside backdrop! If you’re ever in the area I recommend a look around, a walk and then definitely a drink by the fire in the pub! But here are some photo’s from the day:

xoxo

GF Cookbook | Spiced Sweet Potato Cupcakes

Posted on October 19, 2015 by tashici

I have been wanting to bake for so so long! So while my brother was visiting we decided to make a night of it. Jack, my brother chose the music and it just went perfectly! Everything was perfect, what with the spices in the air, the warmth from the oven and the music, it all felt so cosy and autumnal! We listened to Matthew and the Atlas, 2 of their EP’s Kingdom of your own and To the North. I recommend a listen, especially if you want to feel the cosy autumn vibe!

We made spiced sweet potato cupcakes. I wanted to experiment with my cupcakes and the most autumnal vegetable I had in my kitchen was a sweet potato so we rolled with it! I added LOTs of spice because I was really craving a huge autumn hit and the spices made it happen! We also made a brown sugar butter icing for the topping!! 😀

The Ingredients I used for the cupcakes were:

250g Gluten Free Flour mix (If you don’t need to eat GF just use plain flour)
1 tsp Xanthan Gum (If not making GF omit this, it just helps bind the GF flour and gives it a better texture)
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Cinnamon
3/4 tsp Groiund Cloves
3/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg
3/4 tsp Ground Ginger
100g Butter (at room temp)
200g Soft Brown Sugar
2 eggs
100g Mashed Sweet Potato
2 tsp Vanilla extract

Approximate quantities of ingredients used in the Icing:
100g Butter
150g Icing Sugar
50g Soft Brown Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla

To begin I made the sweet potato mash. Cook the Sweet Potatoes at 200 degrees C for about 30-40 mins or until soft.

While they were cooking I weighed out all my dry ingredients. Add the baking powder and xanthan gum straight into the flour.

Then add the spices!!

I then whisked the butter and sugar together. You want to do this for about 5 mins. It needs to lighten in colour, the most whisking you do here the lighter your cupcakes will be! Now add the eggs one at a time to the butter and sugar mix. Again whisk as much as you can stand!

At this time add the vanilla to the same egg, butter, sugar mix. I actually always double the amount of vanilla!! I just feel like it adds a more luxurious feel and I love vanilla!! Mmm!!

Now hopefully the sweet potato is soft enough to mash! Once mashed, add to the eggy, buttery, sugary mix.

Afterwards you want to add about half the flour mix to the wetter mix and whisk away! Then the rest of the flour. If it looks too dry you can always add a drop of milk.

Then put into cases and bake. I bake for 10 mins and then turn them in the oven because I’ve always baked with fan oven so it helps them to cook more evenly.

When the come out leave them to cool. I prepared the icing! I wanted something a little more interesting that plain butter cream but something that would compliment the big flavours in the cakes! so I settled for brown sugar buttercream! I think it was definitely the right choice!!

I made a basic butter cream, with butter and icing sugar and plenty of vanilla again!! Mmm!! But I also added a few table spoons of the soft brown sugar as used in the cupcakes. I also always use salted butter! I just really like the incredibly subtle salt and sugar combo! I think it completely enhances all the flavours! But it is just me!

And then we iced! We had some super pretty little gold toppers which I felt matched the autumn theme! 😀

xoxo

My life in 10 Games | All About Me

Posted on October 15, 2015 by tashici

My brother is visiting at the moment and he, Ian and I went to Manchester’s play expo on Sunday. It was a great day out and gave us many nostalgic moments! I’ve grown up with play stations and game boys almost exclusively. (As a result my gaming education and life has a lot of holes in it! But that hasn’t caused me to love it any less!)

My dad bought a play station original and it was seen as a family bonding experience. Either we would all take it in turns to play or we would all sit and watch my dad play through a story heavy game, often tomb raider! Dad would regularly become overwhelmed with the pressure of my mum, my brother and I screaming 3 different sets of instructions at him and would encourage me or my brother to try it for ourselves. We were so scared that we would force Lara to her death we refused! Especially when dad always played so much better than us! I still haven’t overcome my panic when things start to go down in a game!

We used to live for the play station magazine and that months demos! We fell in love with games that we never got to complete! Some big hitters being : BomberMan. Pandemonium. Medievl. Oddworld: Abes oddessy. Tombi. Gex. Crash Bandicute.

Me and my brother did get a game boy colour each. Mine was yellow and I got Pokemon yellow and his was blue/real and he got Pokemon blue. I then got gold and he got silver and plenty of other Awesomes games which meant for a while I think everyone thought they were sewn onto our hands.

My brother then got a play station 2 which was also for everyone to play. He then got a pa3 but he’s always been pretty good at sharing, in fact for Christmas last year he got his play station 4 and he because I was moving out he sent him with his PS3 and as many games as I wanted!!

So here is my life in only 10 games!! (Click photos for links):

1 Tomb raider

Where it all began. Hours and hours of family entertainment where we were the best team!

2 Pokemon yellow

I got to carry round Pokemon in my pocket and show ash how to be a true Pokemon trainer.

3 Spyro year of the dragon

My first ‘open world’ adventure

4 Harry Potter and the philosophers stone

My first game! Which captured everything the films missed from the books. All the classes and ghosts and the maze like quality of Hogwarts.

5 The urbz

The first game I was truly better than my brother. It was the Simms but cool in my eyes!

6 Simpsons hit and run.

A game that combined the laughing quality of the Simpsons and playing a game with your brother for hours!

7 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Recaptured my love of gaming to a high level! One of the best story games I had played since tomb raider and hours of hilarity and frustration of my first online gaming experience.

8 Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

Everything tomb raider was with a funny filthy male lead. Capturing probably what I missed with tomb raider.

9 Sid Meier’s Civilisation: Revolution

Me realising I love board games! I was good and this game quickly and just never seem to get board of it.

10 Tomb Raider.

The first game I have “100% ed” enough said I think.

Cannot wait for the next Tomb raider to come on to PS4!!

Keep gaming!

xoxo

I don’t own all these photos and the originals are linked if you click on the photo 🙂

Welcome to… | October ’15

Posted on October 6, 2015 by tashici

so there’s this thing I like to do. I have this brass and glass photo frame and each month I print of different photos and picture, often from my pinterest to decorate it. I got the frame from a boutique shop in Woodbridge, my home town but the make is Nkuku. I love the way it’s fluid and keeps up with what’s going on in my life. My hope is that at the start of each month I will update it and also put the pictures and photos in a blog post!

So to start October off some pictures that I’ve been pinning…

Also Some photos…

These are the pumpkins Ian and I carved last year, Jaspa and Steve.

This us on our way to our quiz night looking all happy and autumnal.

This is a throw back to halloween 2010. Robyn and I made our own ears very quickly after school for a last minute fancy dress.

I am super excited for Autumn and Halloween!! and here is the finished frame in all it’s October glory:

xoxo

I don’t own all these photos and the originals are linked if you click on the photo 🙂

Bucket full of Sunshine | Every Little Helps

Posted on October 6, 2015 by tashici

I think the easiest way to stay happy is to appreciate as much as you can.

There is so much beauty in life that people tend to miss. Maybe because they don’t see it, maybe because it is easier to miss it or maybe because things in their lives are so bad they can’t see the beautiful.

When I was 11 and about to move up to high school my friends and I decided that we wanted to stay the exact same as we were then. I’m not saying that everyone should stay the same, in fact change is really good for you! We meant it in the sense that we were happy. We were the perfect mix between child and teenager. We understood all the pressures and responsibilities ahead of us and we would tackle them when we had too but we wanted to enjoy life! We wanted to be able to jump in the puddles on the way home and to enjoy cloud gazing. We knew that there was a balance that was needed, between growing up and staying fun.

I then got to high school and was getting wayy too happy and overexcited about next to nothing (probably jacket potato for lunch or something) when people almost started making fun of me for it. My tutor stepped in and said’ “Simple minds, simple pleasures” which then fuelled their taunting. He immediately stopped everyone and spoke to us all about finding pleasures in small things as he has never met anyone as happy as me and maybe everyone could learn from me and he felt he was. I then felt so proud that I could do this and that I had inspired people and felt again that I never wanted to change that.

I think if you can find magic and happiness in somewhat insignificant everyday things you will be happier in general. It makes sense right? because if everything makes you happy, you will gain more happiness and that will hopefully outweigh all the rubbish! They say that is takes 3 acts of happiness to outweigh a ‘sad’ act. So clearly if you have more things that give you happiness you can outweigh the sadness much quicker and keep it away!!

I’m not saying that it’s easy. And I’m not saying that sometimes there will be days where there isn’t a lot of happiness in your life unfortunately but hopefully sooner or later you will be able to find something to make you happy!!

People have found better ways to say this and one person in particular is Richard Curtis as well as every other wonderful person who worked on the film About Time! If you have not seen it I highly recommend a watch! And bring on life!

xoxo

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