#LushEthics Sheffield Blogger Event

Last week I was very kindly invited to the latest Lush event in Sheffield. I was so excited when the email popped in my inbox, I've been so jealous of everyone who's got to go to them elsewhere.
The event was mainly based around their naked products and the reduction in packaging they've managed to achieve. It was incredible to hear how much plastic has been reduced by selling everything with no packaging. I was also so impressed with all the staff's knowledge and passion surrounding the brand.

Life | Paradise Island Adventure Golf, Sheffield

An email popped into my inbox a couple of weeks ago asking me whether I wanted to try out Sheffield's adventure golf. After having a little read about it, I decided not to let my terrible golf skill stop me and replied straight away.

Sheffield | My Top 10 Places to Visit

I've spent over two years living in Sheffield and I feel like I know a little bit about what there is to do in the Steel City. I still have so much more to explore, and am determined to do so in my final few months before I graduate (scary stuff!). I thought I'd share my opinion of the top 10 places to visit in Sheffield. These are in no particular order by the way, I could never choose a favourite.

Sheffield: Brunch at Alyssum Cafe, Crookesmoor

This weekend I took a long awaited trip to Alyssum Cafe for brunch. It's perfectly situated in heavily condensed student area which is severely lacking in some nice cafes, so Alyssum fills the gap perfectly. It is quite possibly the smallest cafe in Sheffield so be sure to get down early if you want a seat (they do offer takeaway though!)

Sheffield | The Depot Bakery, Kelham Island

The Depot Bakery recently moved over to Kelham Island, Sheffield's up and coming area which already plays hosts to my favourite pizza place, Craft & Dough and others that I'm yet to visit, Urban Quarter and The Grind Cafe.

Life: October Catchup

Hello, hello! It's been a busy old month so I thought to keep track of what I'd been up to I'd put a post together to help me remember.

The first week and a half of October began with heading to Peddler Market, a street food market in Sheffield (and a favourite of mine!) that was celebrating it's first birthday.

Life: My Week #1

Posts have been few and far between the last few weeks but the feedback on my Trek posts was so nice so thank you! Getting my phone stolen and then moving back for my third year of university and freshers has been crazy. With minimal scheduled hours actually at university this semester I'm not sure I'm going to know what to do with myself - well except all that work.
My first week back was actually one of my favourite weeks of the year, I popped back to all my favourite cafes and went on my favourite nights out with my closest friends. I polished it off with accidentally catching minor freshers flu so I'm currently feeling sorry for myself. As you can see food was a heavy feature in the past week and long may it continue - I've joined the gym to counteract this!

Steam Yard

Sheffield: Mayfield Alpaca Farm

This is a throwback post to a couple of weeks ago when we'd finally all finished our exams and the weather was beautiful! We decided on a trip to see the Alpacas and other animals at Mayfield Alpaca Farm. Ideally located, only a 15 minute drive from our house it was a perfect. For the reasonable price of £3.50 you can access the whole farm and we ended up having the places to ourselves - I only wish we had bought a picnic. You can also purchase some food to feed the alpacas which they definitely seemed to appreciate as one came bounding up to us rather fast when we shook the bag of food.

Sheffield: Foodie Finds #2

Today I'm bringing you another post about a few foodie places I've been in Sheffield lately (see the first one here). Things may get a bit quiet soon as I'm about to enter revision/exam stress so bear with me.
A couple of weeks ago we took a little trip to Kelham Island, an up and coming area in Sheffield currently undergoing some major regeneration (a geographer's dream). I'd been following Craft & Dough on Twitter for a while and had been craving their reasonably priced pizzas for quite some time.

Current Favourites #1

It's May, where did April go?! Well rather than monthly favourites, here's some things I've been loving lately.

Essie Nail Polish in Cute as Button
Absolutely love this colour, Essie seems to be the only one that's not chipping on my nails at the moment so that's a good enough excuse to go and pick up some more colours. You can see the colour on my nails on instagram here.

Sheffield: Steam Yard Coffee Co

My housemate and I have decided to make it our mission to trial every coffee shop in Sheffield so if you can recommend any pop them in the comments or tweet me @KathrynLouise_.

We've tried (and loved!) Ink & Water which I've written about here. Next on our list was technically Tamper Coffee but as the weather was so lovely we changed our minds and went for Steam Yard as they have a nice outside bit, unfortunately the bit we sat in was shaded but it was still amazing to be sat outside in April!

Lifestyle: A weekend in the Peak District

Last weekend I took a little trip to the peaks with my parents. We stayed in a little village called Longnor which had all the essentials, a shop, pub, fish & chip shop and a tearoom.
Unfortunately the cottage although advertised as having wifi hadn't been installed so the work and blogging i'd planned to do over the weekend had to be abandoned (shame!). Other than that the place we stayed was absolutely lovely, I took the attic room with the ensuite as the downstairs room had the bigger bed. There were no blinds so I rose with the sun (early!) meaning I was on breakfast duty - croissants (!!).

Belated Mother's Day Afternoon Tea

This post has got later and later in the making but it's finally here. I didn't get to go home for Mother's Day as my Mum was picking me up 3 days later for my Easter Holidays. Somewhere I've been wanting to try for ages is Jameson's Cafe and Tea Room, it's a couple of miles away from where I live in Sheffield so is easiest accessed by car as I can't get a direct bus. Therefore I thought it was the perfect opportunity to go last Wednesday.

Sheffield: Recent Foodie Finds

Blogging took a bit of a (extended!) hiatus over Christmas, then exams etc. but that didn't stop me from eating out (a lot).

The Great Gatsby
Following my return to Sheffield pre-exams at the end of January, I was treated to a meal out at The Great Gatsby. Having not been back since my first year for food I was excited to get a decent burrito. Burritos aren't the most photogenic foods and alas I only had my iPhone. Whilst I went for the Chipotle Chicken, my parents went for the Pulled Pork. There were smiles all round accompanied by very full stomachs - and I was ready to attack my exams. (If only I could have had a cocktail...)

Sheffield: The Wick at Both Ends

Catch ups with my flatmate from last year seems to always revolve around food! Next on our hit list was The Wick at Both Ends, found tucked between the student bars on West Street.

First up were cocktails, of course!

Sheffield: The Common Room

Pre-Bestival and Post-Birthday I headed up to Sheffield to check out my new student house and try and make it more homely. I also met up with one of my old flatmates, Zoe. It has become a tradition that when we meet up, we go for food so sticking with tradition we headed to somewhere we hadn't ventured before. The Common Room on Division Street describes itself as a 'unique and edgy American sports, pool bar and diner serving renowned pit grill bbq'.

A Bank Holiday Weekend Part 2 ft. Hardwick Hall and The Peaks

Sunday and Monday of my Bank Holiday Weekend included the most amount of National Trust properties I've been to in the past 3 years. We used to go to loads when we were younger but then I decided it wasn't 'cool' in my teenage years. I'm now really interested in them (am I getting old?) and the weather was pretty good too which always makes it better.

We started at the Workhouse in Southwell where my dad did try and leave me behind as part of infirm residents (ha ha he's a comedian.) It was really interesting especially as I'm currently studying a module about the Welfare State so it felt like a mini field trip. I would recommend the audio guide as the rooms don't really have much in them and it gave a good insight into what it was like (pretty horrible if you ask me - but supposedly better than other workhouses).

Sheffield: Mud Crab Diner

This restaurant has been on my list to go to ever since I walked past it in Freshers Week. I finally got to go this week with my flatmates, Zoe and Rachel. The inside is nice and the menu looked quite promising - see here. The water comes in a Jack Daniels bottle.

Sheffield: Fancie, Ecclesall Road

It was a long, stressful week last week with the impending presentation for me and placement for my flatmate Rachel. Not only was Rachel going on placement but also leaving us for a month which meant a visit to Fancie was in order.

Having only briefly walked past in the first week of university, it had been on my list of places to visit. Rachel, of course, being the social butterfly that she is had been before.

After much deliberation over the cake menu. We decided to split a Chocolate Truffle and Banana & Sticky Toffee as we couldn't decide and hot chocolates with cream and marshmallows (obviously).