Top 5 Best British Mince Pies

[Ad- gifted product] In America, we do not have mince pies. The first year I came to England, I really didn’t understand what these were. People spoke about mince meat, so I assumed it was a weird sweet meat pie that English people eat. It turns out, it’s really not, and instead is a fruit, sugar, and sometimes alcohol filled pie with a buttery crust, made and eaten around the winter holidays. Mince pies are really an interesting take on Christmas Cookies, which we are big on in America. There are also many, many different types of mince pies, so Dann and I took the time to rank our favorites.

Neither of us are fans of dry crusts, instead in the mindset that the crust of a pie should deliver the filling to us, without hampering the flavor or trying to be something that stands on it’s own. Our favorite pies are more filling focused, with the crust taking a back step.

Mince Pies

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Night out at Chihuly: Reflections on Nature at Kew Gardens

Glass blowing is something that I have always found beautiful in a lot of ways. Dann says it’s because we see nature in glass as it almost shows movement and shaping in a way that we, as humans, compare to the world around us. When I was younger, my parents use to take us to a glass blowing studio, where a family friend would blow glass into bubbles and shape them or make stained glass windows. It was always so interesting to watch. When I saw that Kew Gardens was having a Chihuly collection, full of beautiful glass work which mimics nature, I just had to go along.

With Dann and my brother in tow, we went to their last night session, exploring the gardens completely light up, showcasing the glass work on a cool autumn evening. Arriving at Kew Gardens, which we’d never been to before, was a simple task. There was a short queue into the exhibition, which is nearly entirely outside. Once our tickets were checked, we were face to face with the first piece; a giant blue, spiky glass orb-type thing, that we had seen on all the advertisement, especially the images on the London underground.

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PippinPrints Printable Halloween Decorations Party Pack | Review

[Ad- gifted Product] When it comes to the holidays, it seems like everyone has the same type of decorations. Shopping around at local stores, you’ll find very similar designs and Halloween looks. When browsing PippinPrints, I came across some sophisticated Halloween designs that I had never seen before! This Halloween Printable Party Pack is full of loads of files that can be used to print out your own invitations, decorations, food-related items, etc, and keep your house classy, unique, and cute.

Printing your own bunting and decorations can be super efficient if you’re in a pinch and cannot get out to get your own decorations or products. It’s also a great way to find exactly the design and idea you are going for, all matched together in a lovely kit of similar designs that you can use to theme your home. I was drawn to the Halloween Printable Party Pack because of the watercolor aesthetic and went with the orange pumpkin/spider inspired design instead of the black and white ghost design. I felt adding a bit of color to my decorations were the way to go.

PippinPrints Printable Halloween Decorations

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Coconut Bowls & Spoons | Review

[Ad- gifted Product] When it comes to sustainability, finding a way to take discarded items and make them into something usable is an important part. Many, many resources are just discarded instead of made into something new and useful. Global 1st has taken discarded coconut shells and turned them into unique, hand-crafted bowls and spoons that add a lot of character to any meal.

Coconut Bowl

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Archie and The Lawlor Cat Hotel | Book Review

[Ad- gifted Product] Often we wonder what our pets get up to when we are away. I personally only have one pet, a British Shorthaired cat called Pancake, but when you have an entire hotel full of cats, only mischief can be found when the humans go home to sleep! Archie and The Lawlor Cat Hotel is a children’s chapter book, for eight years and older, that tells tails of Archie, the head cat running a hotel.

Written from the point of view of Archie, this book does a fantastic job of looking at humans from their perspective. Noting various humanistic interactions, Archie tells you what he thinks of them (humans are staff) and how he sees cats in society (royalty, basically). He also takes you on all of the nighttime adventures that the other cats at the hotel have. From gambling to going out fishing, there is a lot that happens when the lights are switched off. This hotel is full of rotating customers, appearing whenever their humans go on vacation, so you are getting a look into one week of the cat’s adventures, with quite a few regulars at the hotel and a few newbies in the form of young kittens.

Archie and The Cat Hotel

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