It’s Competition Time! Cake International Show Ticket Giveaway

In my That Was The Week That Was post on Sunday I mentioned that I had some exciting news coming up… And it’s time to share it with you!

Recently, Eat Sleep Bake Repeat has been getting a lot of interest from the media and press. I’m very lucky to have been invited to a number of radio stations to talk about the blog. My first appearance is going to be on Wednesday 5th March at 12pm on BCFM 93.2 (a local Bristol radio station). I’ll be baking something delicious to take along and chat about, and the recipe will be posted that day. I’m still open to ideas as for what to take in – feel free to give me any of your suggestions!

I’m also very pleased to announce that I’ll be attending the Cake International Show at the ExCel Centre in London, which is running from 10th April – 12th April 2014.

They’ve invited me along as a blogger to visit the event, and… drumroll… Have offered me 5 pairs of tickets to give away to my lovely readers!

Cake International is a Sugarcraft, cake decorating and baking show. There are exhibitions, demonstrations and tips from renowned experts such as Mich Turner, Claire Bowman and Annabelle Jane, to mention a few. You can learn lot of new and exciting skills and even enter your own creations into competitions! It’s perfect for both proessfionals and home bakers alike – there really is something for everyone whether you’re already an established baker or you’re just looking for more ideas.

For more information about the show you can click here.

All you need to do to win the tickets is be following this blog, follow me on Twitter at @KimberleyParr and comment on this post to tell me which day you’d like to attend. It’s THAT easy! Remember to include your email address in the comment post.

Winners will be chosen at random on Friday 28th March. Good luck!

January Sales And Birthday Treats

I’m not going to lie, I’ve done well in the January sales. I have a little tradition of going shopping each year, normally on the 27th December, and picking out a few pieces for my birthday presents. It’s hard for my friends and family to buy my birthday presents, because being so close to Christmas it’s easy to duplicate. So people tend to give me money and I go out and treat myself!

Most years I do struggle, not only with the sheer hell of the volume of people in the sales, and rummaging through the tat, but this year I had a list of items I was after in the sales. At the top of the list was a pair of knee high boots. I’ve been looking for a good pair for years, and struggle to find any which fit me properly around the calf and come the right height up my calves so as not to make me look dumpy!!

I got some great bargains in New Look and was treated to some non-sale items in Dotty P’s by Mike for my birthday.

Below are some of the items I purchased and links to the websites.

Black boots from Debenhams

Tan boots from Debenhams

These were both cheaper in store – I’m not sure why they’re more expensive online. The black boots were £50 and the tan boots were £57.50.

I needed some thick jumpers as we’re going skiing soon, and also for general winter wear, and these were a bargain from New Look.

Nude jumper (I also bought this in burgundy)

Black jumper dress

Hoody – I actually bought this in a bottle green, but they seem to have run out of it in that colour on the website. The drawstrings have earphones attached to them, if you like that sort of thing!

I thought these tops would be perfect for layering up in the cold weather

Mike treated me to this GORGEOUS bag from one of my favourite stores, Oliver Bonas…

… Plus these items from Dorothy Perkins

Didn’t I do well?! No more purchases for… Well, a very long time now! Maybe I should add “curb shopping habit” to my New Year’s Resolutions?!

Have you snagged any bargains?

The Big Five-Oh

So, I’ve done it! I’ve reached 50 followers. And, amazingly, it’s not just friends and family who are following to be nice , most of you are actual strangers, real people who like my blog! Who’d have thought it?!

Thank you so much to everyone so far who has been supportive and encouraging of this blog, I really do appreciate your comments and feedback.

I promised I would do a giveaway when I got to 50 followers so I will! A free nail varnish to a deserving reader in one of my favourite shades. All you have left to do is ensure you are a follower (some people have had problems following, just scroll riiiiiiiight down to the very bottom, and enter your email address), then either ‘like’ or comment on this post or the original giveaway post.

I’ll pick a winner at random this Friday.

Good luck and thanks again!

K x

Christmas Giveaway – Thanks To You All!

This blog has only been going for two weeks, and already I have 40 followers, many of whom regularly comment and ‘like’ my posts.

I hope you’re enjoying the blog so far. I’d be really grateful for any feedback of what you like/don’t like and what I can do better!

As a little thank you to my current and future followers, I’m doing a giveaway of one of my favourite nail varnishes. All you need to do is make sure you’re following my blog, whether by email, WordPress or Bloglovin’, then comment on this post.

The winner will be selected at random once I’ve reached 50 followers. Good luck and thanks for all your support so far!!

Kim x

Payday Pizza – A Stonebaked Experience

In our house, we try to eat relatively healthily. Most of the time. Which is not easy when you have a serious baking addiction. We try to cook meals from scratch using fresh ingredients and don’t really have many takeaways.

The one time we make an exception is on payday!

Once a month we treat ourselves to a takeaway pizza from our local takeaway.

This is not your average pizza takeaway though. In our opinion it’s the best pizza takeaway this side of… Well… Italy, I guess. None of your deep-pan mass produced pizzas here, it’s all about the stone baked. Yum scrum.

Cafe Grounded is actually, as the name suggests, a Cafe! In fact, it’s a group of 4 independent cafes in Redfield, Bedminster, Horfield and Brislington in Bristol, UK.

The cafes all have a daily menu, including specials. Their lunchtime panini and sweet potato jackets are the bomb, and they have an amazing range of stone baked pizzas which cater for every taste. The cafes, if you eat in, have a great environment and often have live music. They are also licensed so you can have a beer or two with your pizza!

Anyway. These pizzas. Man, they are good. They do an awesome deal Sunday – Wednesday. Buy a large pizza and get a free garlic bread (more like an Italian focaccia) PLUS a salad. We normally get a Red Rocket (mozzarella, caramelised red onion, sun dried tomatoes, capers, olives, rocket and Parmesan) which for a large is only £11.75. Between the two of us we struggle to finish off all of that food so sometimes have cold pizza for lunch the next day – a bargain for 3 meals!

If you are too lazy to leave the house (we often are!) they deliver for an extra £2 and the food is always piping hot on arrival.

And that’s exactly what we did a few nights ago to treat ourselves following payday. Hence – Payday Pizza! We actually had it whilst putting up our christmas decorations (I talked about our decorations in my post “O, Christmas Tree”).

We have been visiting Grounded for a few years now and have never had a bad meal. If you are local to Bristol it’s a great place to eat or have a coffee so pop along and see what you think!

Check out their website, menu and special offers here

**This post is not sponsored, I just genuinely love Grounded’s food!**

O, Christmas Tree!

This evening I thought I’d share with you our 2013 Christmas decorations. We moved into our new cottage a few months ago and are slowly working through each room, decorating it to our style. I’m sure there will be many more posts to come about that!

One of the rooms we are almost done with is our living room and we’re just putting together the finishing touches. We have painted one wall a golden mustard colour and the rest of the walls are a pale grey.

Most years we buy a real Christmas tree. But as lovely as they are, we found that spending £50 a time for a real tree wasn’t very economical. So we did a bit of research and found the Eiger Christmas tree from B&Q. It’s 7ft 6 so you need a decent height ceiling. The tree is a very realistic colour and the branches are in proportion and look even. There are different shades of green and textures within it to make it look a little more realistic.

The Eiger tree has a nice, sturdy base and is easy peasy to put together. It’s also great to store – this is our second year of using it and it’s just as good this year as last!

Even better, it’s currently on offer with 40% off – it’s normally £70 and is reduced to only £40!! Snap it up quick, it’s a fab deal. Find it at the link below:

http://www.diy.com/nav/christmas/christmas-trees/classic_trees/7ft-6in-Eiger-Christmas-tree-12959170?skuId=13469876

This year we have gone for a pink and silver theme. We used soft white fairy lights around the tree (we needed two packs as it’s a fair sized tree!), then used various pink, silver and clear baubles and decorations. My favourites are probably the multicoloured spotty baubles or the crystal drops (these were a bargain from Asda last year – check out their range this year too as they are really reasonable).

http://m.direct.asda.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-ASDA-Site/default/Search-Show?cgid=AD050904

I also had to add some of the Lindt Christmas tree chocolates which Mike treated me to yesterday – these must be the best Christmas chocolates ever!!

I love to have lots of fairy lights around, so hooked them around the picture frame. I think these look so pretty, what do you think?

To finish it off we added our cheeky, happy, stuffed reindeer who has seen us through a few Christmases now. Lola our bulldog is desperate to eat him up!

All that was left was to pop on our nice warm log fire and prepare to feel festive… Perfect.

The countdown has begun!

How have you decorated your home?