hellooo,


so yesterday I had another fit of creativeness and a longing for iced tea, and this was the result. I searched in Google a recipe for iced tea, and this was one of the first results which had a high rating, so I decided to give it a go. it was soooo worth it, it is delicious. I have added a few things to the recipe to make it more to my taste, but you can leave them out if you want. Here's how you make it:

ingredients:

2 teabags

2 cups of water

the peel of 1/4 of a lemon/orange

12 teaspoons of sugar

MAKES 12 CUPS

*I say cups not ml because it genuinely depends on sizes of glasses you have*

  



sterilise your bottle before you put anything in it, to get rid of any nasty germies, by pouring boiling water in it. 

 

put 2 teabags in a measuring jug or pitcher and then add the peel from your chosen citrus fruit (I 'spect you could probably use lime instead of lemon or orange if you wanted). I didn't have any lemons, limes or even oranges lying around, cos i'm not exotic enough *sniff sniff* so I used some juice from a jiff lemon instead, which worked just fine. 

 

 

If you pour 2 cups of water straight into the kettle, then you know that when you pour the water into the jug, there is the right amount. once you've boiled the water DON'T POUR IT IN STRAIGHT IN, leave it to sit for about 30 seconds, so that it isn't too hot. then leave it to stew for 5 minutes.*you can add the sugar here if you want*

 

 

then discard the teabags, pour it into bottle, and seal it straight away.

 

 

leave it in the fridge until it is cool. don't drink it before this time unless want a drink that is all lukewarm. If you make this in the summer, you'll especially want it to be nice and cool, so you can also add ice cubes. to serve, you fill the glass about 1/3 full and top up the rest with water. then, add 2 small teaspoons of sugar. I think that next time I make this, I will put the sugar in as it is stewing so that it dissolves better, although I didn't do that for this batch and it's still fine, so don't worry about it! 

 

 

then kick back in the sun and be all tumblr.

 

I hope that if you make this, you enjoy it as much as I did. I think it only keeps for 2-3 days, so I'd drink it sooner rather than later. I already have quite a few ideas for how I could use this handy little recipe, for example a summer tea party. picture lots of cake, iced tea and bunting and fairy lights in the trees.

sounds pretty close to heaven to me!

poppy xx

 

Non-school uniform days

Faced with an unexpected and rapidly looming non-school uniform day, I was once again forced to take a long hard look at my wardrobe. As most secondary school girls will know, one cannot wear the same exact outfit twice without being judged by mean faux-popular girls and spoilt rich brats. Therefore, as per usual, I was reduced to a quivering mess of turmoil when I found, as always, there is nothing in my wardrobe which has not been worn to school before, or that doesn't look like it belongs to my 5-year old cousin.

What does a girl do when faced with an outfit (or lack of outfit) dilemma? Answer: head straight on over to Primark, which I proceeded to do with great haste. After quickly skimming the children's section and finding nothing, I sadly headed upstairs to the womenswear section. let me explain my situation to readers baffled as to why a nearly-15 year old still looks in the children's section. I am one of those awful people who will buy anything that looks vaguely alright, and since I don't have a whole load of money or self-discipline right now, I try to stay out of the way of things which may tempt me. Also, I find the number of clothes really overwhelming and I just DON'T KNOW where to start!

Since we had a non-school uniform last Friday, I noticed that literally every girl in about 2 tutor groups were wearing THE EXACT SAME THING! I'm not sure whether it was coordinated, or if it's just some extraordinary new fashion shift I had no idea about (it wouldn't surprise me). Every single one was wearing black skinny jeans, converse and a denim jacket with the sleeves rolled up. it was really weird, I felt like I was gate-crashing some strange and exclusive meeting.

As I am a part-time metaphorical sheep, I jumped on the bandwagon and bought me myself a nice pair of black skinnies for only £7! combined with a lovely charcoal ribbed vest with lace edged straps and my denim jacket, I was sorted. the only problem was that while I found my lovely new outfit, I spotted about 10 other items that I fell in love with. in my mind, that was a cause for immediate action, and so after school the next day, I once again hurried along to Primark to spend another afternoon revelling clothes that i'm not going to buy. In fact I actually went into that changing room 4 times in 2 days. that's got to be some kind of record!

To my embarrassment, it was the same guy at the fitting room as the day before, the guy who knows that I only buy about one thing out of 10. he literally beams every time he sees me. it's actually a bit weird... anyway on the second day I bought some darn cute lifeguard-style shorts, that are red with white piping. I have literally lived in them since, even if that means having to stay in my bed or cocoon myself in a blanket in front of the TV, its worth it cos I feel so athletic and summery (kinda ironic I know)

so now I have my outfit, and all I have left to do is to hope that some new fad hasn't been born since
wish me luck,
poppy xx