my first graze box review - nom nom

I signed up with graze.com to get yummy boxes of healthy treats delivered each week

I opened the box up at work on Tuesday and intended to make it last all week... it was all gone by Wednesday afternoon, oops!

The beach (banana, pineapple and mango)

Cheddar gorge (rice cakes, maize stick thingies)

In my box I had....

Fiery Seeds  - vom

I'm not a fan of seeds at all, I think it's food for hamsters, but I tried these as they were spicy flavour.  The flavour wasn't all that intense so really it was just a box of seeds =( Plus, they were 6 weight watcher propoints - for bird seed!

Cheddar gorge - vom

I thought I was going to love these as I like cheesy things, but it was only the rice cake part that was very mildly cheesy.  Big disappointment - will read the descriptions more carefully next time!  I think these worked out to be 2pp.

Apple and cinnamon flapjack - nom

This was seriously nom.  I've rated it as a favourite so that they'll send it to me again, it was so scrummy I can't explain!  I think these might have been 6 ww pps, but oh so worth it!

The beach - nom

This was really nice too.  When I peeled back the lid the lovely fruity smell really hit me.  the bits of mango were my favourite, really tasty.  Only 2 ww pps. 

Not bad, 50% nom and 50% vom.  The voms weren't that bad, but I'll mark them not to be sent again.  There's plenty of yummier looking bits I want to try.

If you want to give this a whirl you can get your first box for free and your second half price.  Just go to www.graze.com and enter my code - 1Z5QZMB - if you do, I'll get £1 off a future box too =) 

Major lustings for Zara shoes

I don't often shop in Zara as the sizing confuses me and I don't think anything will fit.  Also they only ever seem to have two pieces of anything I like and they're usually both in extra small.  Because of that as far as I can remember the only things I've ever owned from Zara is a pair of shoes and a belt.  But, considering I've now discovered most of the shoes are completely amazing, I don't really care what clothes they sell!

On a recent trip I fell in love with these black cut away heels.  I think they're so classic and glamorous. I've been in there twice to try them on but couldn't part with the £60 they cost as the 4 was a bit tight and the 5 too big and the main reason was because they're suede so would tarnish after one or two wears.

Suede shoes look lovely but they are so impractical.  I wish they made them in a different finish.

My friend fell in love with a pair of shoes too, and unlike me she actually bought them!  I can see why, they are seriously stunning, I'm well jel!

I've heard Zara have quite good sales, so I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for the shoes I liked to be reduced, you never know =)

A little nail art haul - stamping plates

I've been wanting to try nail art stamping for ages but the plates seemed quite expensive.  Also, as is just typical, the images I liked were usually all on different plates!

I found out from daisylovesxo on twitter (and she has a blog) that you can buy sets of nail plates on ebay really cheaply, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.  

I got all of these plates (9) plus the stamping and scraping tools for £7.09 including postage from China.  This is the ebay seller I used.  

There are some very random images I would never use, but lots of nice ones too.  I was a bit disappointed not to get any of the nice bow images I've seen a lot, but I did get a few pretty butterflies.  

So far I've not been very successful trying these out as I didn't know that you can't just use any old nail polish for stamping.  So far I've tried nails inc and models own and they didn't work.  Apparently it's because they dry too quickly.  I've looked into it a bit more and Konad do a range of "special polishes" meant for stamping.  They're quite expensive and seem to come in fairly basic primary colours and black and white, so I haven't made any purchases yet.  

Does anyone do nail plate stamping and can you recommend which polishes I can get that would work?  If not, I might get these from ebay for £6.78 and see how I go.  They're from this seller.

I've also just bought these nail art dotting tools from this ebay seller

They were £2.99 but there are people selling them for much less if you have the patience to bid!  I'm not sure whether they are four of the same tool or whether they will do different sized dots.  Either way, they look pretty!  If they are all the same I'll keep one and give the others to friends - spread that nail art love!

Hopefully with this little lot I'll have some exciting NOTDs coming up soon!

Ring-a-bling-bling - a jewellery haul

I've been feeling like I don't have enough rings to choose from, especially gold  toned ones, so I've been trying to add to my collection

These are the rings and other jewellery I've bought over the last couple of weeks

H&M - £3.99 for both

H&M - £3.99 for both

H&M - £3.99 for both

H&M - £7.99

Primark - £2 (I think)

New look earrings - £3.99

New Look bracelet - £4.99

New look neckalce - £6.99

New look neckalce - £6.99

I'm also thinking about buying all of these rings from asos, but I missed the end of the look 20% discount code, so I might hold out for a while!

Butterfly wings to carry my things

Meet my gorgeous new mini bag

It might not be able to transport much more than cash, phone and a lipstick, but I can over-look a silly little detail like practicality for such a beaut! 

It was £25 from Topshop and I am in love 

Weight watchers update

It's been a while since I mentioned how my diet's going, so time for a little update.  I'm up to week 11 and I've lost 10lbs in total.  Depending on what you're like yourself and how much you weigh, you might think that's anywhere between amazing and highly disappointing!  Seeing as I'd like to lose at least three stone, it's somewhere in the middle.

Some weeks I've lost two or three pounds and others I've put it back on because of nights out feasting and boozing, so all in all I'm happy to be 10lbs lighter than back where I was when I started (or possibly even heavier).  The main thing is that I haven't given up despite the cheating and weeks when I've put on and the sole reason for this is that I've been going to the group with my friend.  I'm sure I'd have stopped bothering weeks ago if I was going on my own!

Here's my latest round up of things I've been eating and low points foods I've discovered.

Prawn noodle chow mein - 10pp

Made with 1/2 pouch Blue Dragon chow mein stir fry sauce (4pp per pouch)

Tesco light choices bombay chicken - 9 points

It doesn't look as appetising as on the box!  It tasted quite nice for a microwave food

Home made Weight watchers blueberry muffins - 4 pp each

Like a doughnut I took a photo of the mixed ingredients but not the finished product!

You can find the recipe here

Tesco New York thin style burger (from the freezer) - 2pp each =)

M&S apple and cinnamon popcorn cakes - 2pp per bag

Ice cream bars

In my opinion much more satisfying than chocolate and less points =)

Skinny cow mint choc - 3pp

Bounty - 4pp

Wispa - 3pp

Chicken in creamy sauce with potatoes and veg 

15pp but a massive portion and proper yummy!

This jar from M&S (well half of it between two) made the sauce mixed with weight watchers cream

Grilled Sea bass with lemon, roasted butternut squash and peas - 6pp 

This has got to be the yummiest dinner I've ever had for so few points!

Mango frozen yogurt bars - 1pp each

(you heard right, 1pp!!)

I picked up two new cookbooks at weigh in today.  The one on the left isn't new out, but it's new to me.  I believe it came out at the end of last year when the propoints plan was new and I've been trying to get a copy for ages!

I'm a bit of an obsessive and have already built up quite a collection of weight watchers books (and I have a bookshelf full of slimming world ones too!).  I really need to make an effort to make more recipes from the books because they're really nice.

My top tip if you're doing the pro points plan - you can buy last year's books written for the old plan and update the points values - they're published on the weight watchers website here

If you're also dieting and blogging about it, please leave me your link so I can see what you're eating too! xx

My giveaway winner is....

Thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway.  After spending what seemed like ages gathering them all into Excel and working out who had tweeted or linked on their blog I had a total of 118 valid entries.  I say valid as there were a few I decided to disqualify - some people clearly don't read the rules and just commented their contact details without a hello / goodbye / please / thank you or even "enter me", let alone recommending a blog they though I'd like! I'm sorry I find that just plain rude, so those people won't have a chance to win.

But hey ho, that means more chances for my lovely followers who left me pretty new blogs to look at and comments to make me smile =)

So without further waffle, the winner is entry number 97....

It's Lisa from It is all about creativity! You might also know her from twitter @Lisap3123

Congratulations Lisa, I hope you like your prizes!  I'll tweet you now with the good news!

Thanks again to everyone who entered and to all the lovely people who follow, read and comment on my blog.  It's much appreciated and makes me happy!