PRETTY YOUNG THING

I was recently invited to have a sneaky peek at the Brand New Homesense store opening in Stafford as was so excited to check it out. I thought i'd share my experience. I'm a huge fan of Homesense and lucky to have a really big Homesense in Shirley which isn't too far away. The new Stafford store is about an hour away from my house, it's such a lovely store and the staff were really nice. It's on Queens Retail Park in Stafford which is a really good retail park with a huge Next, Mothercare, New Look and many more really good shops to check out. 

Homesense is an amazing homewear store, if you haven't heard of Homesense before then it's basically a TKMaxx for the home. They stock everything from notebooks, candles, pillows, throws, furniture and much much more. 

They stock a huge range of different designers and have amazing products and brands at really affordable prices. 

The new store in Stafford is huge! Its over two floors and there's just so much to look at! I love all the bright colours and furniture for the summer! They had so many different plants and flowers to add that pop of colour to any home!  The store is really spacious and tidy, really easy to look around and find lots of amazing goodies for your home. 

Homesense offer really competitive prices on lots of designer pieces. I picked up a few bits as I was kindly given a gift card to spend. I picked out a Kate Spade notebook for £4.99, some faux peonies for those instagrams! I also got a copper candle which has a citrus scent which smells amazing!! And finally I got a watermelon oven mit! As you can see they stock a wide variety of products, there's something for any home. 

The store is sectioned into different areas for living room, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen etc to make it really easy to find what your looking for.

I had such a lovely time browsing the new store and getting to shop before the shop even opened to the public was really fun! Thanks so much to Homesense for inviting me to check out your new store. 

Visit the Homesense website to find out where your local store is!

Many of you may know but the Balti is believed to have evolved in Birmingham in the 1970's so what better dish to enjoy when visiting the city. There are so many balti houses in Birmingham. 

I decided to cook my own balti today, this is the first time i've ever made a curry.  I thought it was going to be the hardest thing ever but I did it and it tasted so good. Heres the recipe I followed below. We got some naan bread and poppadoms and had a right feast it was soo good. 

Heres a great feature over on the Travelodge blog about foods from Birmingham 

https://www.travelodge.co.uk/blog/featured/birmingham-local-delicacies/

ingredients: 

chicken thighs x4 boned and skinned

cooking oil spray 

1 medium onion sliced 

1 red pepper and 1 yellow pepper, thin slices 

1 tablespoon of cornflower 

150g fat free natural yogurt

 1 tablespoon of curry powder ( mild or medium) 

2 garlic cloves ( thin slices)

227g chopped tomatos 

fine chopped coriander 

sea salt and black pepper 

- spray a large frying pan with low fat cooking oil spray and bring pan to a medium heat, once the oil spray has dissolved add onions to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes until the onions are soft and browned off. 

- whilst you are cooking the onions start to trim the fat off the chicken thighs and cut into desired portions, I like my chicken in smaller pieces. Season as desired. 

- Add the chicken and peppers to the pan with the onion and cook for about 3 minutes. 

- In a bowl mix together the cornflower and 2 tablespoons of water, add the yogurt to the bowl and mix together. 

-sprinkle curry powder over the chicken and vegetables, add the garlic and cook for around 1 minute. 

- pour the tomatoes and yogurt mixture to the pan, also 150g of water and then the coriander. 

-Bring to a simmer and cook for 25- 30 minutes. The chicken should be cooked through and tender and the sauce should be thick. 

I followed this recipe from: bbc good food

* I was gifted a voucher to pay for the ingredients for this post, I have not been paid for this feature. 

All Images from Pinterest 

I'm trying to do a few more personal, lifestyle posts on the blog. I feel my blog is kind of lacking the originality that it once had. Recently Clint and I have been looking at moving out and getting a place together. I think we are just looking at renting for now so we can start our own lives together. The thing with renting is you are quite limited to the changes you can make so finding somewhere thats clean and modern enough is proving difficult. I have been spending alot of time on Pinterest looking at white beautiful bathrooms and vintage style kitchens planning what our home will look like. 

For my dream bathroom so money is no object i'd love a simple white suite, so that if I redecorate I could keep the same suite, i'd love a bath and a separate shower. There's some really gorgeous showers nowadays, they are sleek and fashionable. UK Bathrooms have some really lovely suites and furniture to create that dream bathroom. I would need quite alot of storage space as I think we would be looking at a small house or a flat for our first home as it's just the two of us but I want the bathroom to be tidy and not cluttered so drawers and units would give us that extra storage that we need. Now for my dream bathroom i'd want a jacuzzi bath and a massaging shower, there's an interesting article here on Showhome about how the demand in recreating a home spa experience has increased. For our first bathroom its going to be all about how we accessorize, i've spotted a gorgeous chevron shower curtain in Asda and will probably stick to white and silver accessories so if we move house we can bring them with us. I want it to look clean and not cluttered so I'm not going to go overboard with accessories just the essentials.