Tried and Tested: The Baileys Diet

I made the arguably ill-advised decision to join Slimming World for the first time a week before Christmas. I thought it would spur me on to be a little more careful about what I ate over the festive period and give me a head start on my New Year’s resolution to shift some timber.

In my first week, I was mostly very well behaved food-wise (apart from a massive piece of chocolate fudge cake and about 26 jalapeno poppers at a friend’s buffet) and lost 2.5 pounds. A great start, but then came Christmas itself and the diet went out of the window. I was conscious of the amount I was eating, which meant I didn’t scoff as much as I have done in the past at Christmas, but I didn’t deny myself of anything I wanted and the main thing I want at Christmas – since I don’t drink it at any other time of the year as a rule – is Baileys!!

So every evening for five days, the one thing I consumed unregulated was Baileys – as much as I wanted, no holds barred – since my boyfriend’s mum and I had three bottles between us at hand (although we didn’t manage to polish it all off!). When I went for my post-Christmas weigh in last week, I discovered I’d gained 4.5 pounds, weighing more than I did when I started the diet! Now I’m not saying it’s entirely the Baileys that’s to blame but I think that is definitely the main culprit, with a bit of cheese and chocolate following closely behind.

Since my last weigh in, I’ve managed to get back on track at little more and now the New Year is here, I have officially started the Slimming World diet with gusto – no more excuses or Baileys to set me back!

Getting Crafty Part Two

This Christmas, my friend Emma and I decided to make each other presents. Emma is really creative when it comes to this kind of thing (see the  ‘Getting Crafty‘ post for a peek at her amazing Sock Critters). I, however, am rubbish when it comes to this kind of thing. My creative ability stretches as far as words and even that talent is debatable.

Anyway, I agreed to give the whole homemade Christmas thing a go, so we arranged to meet on Monday to swap gifts. In typical Jenny style, I left it until last Saturday afternoon to begin thinking about and creating my present. So at 5.30pm, I was pacing around Hobbycraft, getting more and more stressed about what I was going to make. I’d already decided to make Emma some of my favourite chocolate fudge for Christmas but also wanted to make something for her that wasn’t perishable, and in that aspect I was, quite frankly, stumped.

At 5.45pm, the tannoy called out that Hobbycraft was about to close in 15 minutes – my panic levels rocketed. Eventually, I grabbed some decoupage paper, expensive ‘glossy glue’, and a cardboard box in the shape of a chest and headed off home, determined to conquer papier mache.

The task was actually surprisingly easy. I papered the box without it looking like an absolute nightmare. I was pleased with results and wanted to share them with you.

I started out with a cardboard box…

I applied the glossy glue to the box, then stuck on strips of the decoupage paper, then applied glue over the paper to give a glossy finish.

I then stuck some pictures of dogs in clothes on the inside lid of the box (the main thing Emma and I have in common – a fetish for dogs in clothes), and then made chocolate fudge (soooooo tasty but surprisingly easy to make – plain choc and condensed milk), bagged it up and placed it in the box – et voilà!

Emma loved the present (or, at least, she was kind enough to lie to protect my feelings 😉 ) and I was just relieved it wasn’t a complete disaster!

Move over, Kirsty Allsopp!