Inspired Look: Lydia Martin | Teen Wolf

Outtake: looking into an imaginary crystal ball

Jumper - H&M

Skirt - Asos (similar)

Tights - Primark

Boots - Primark

Watch - DKNY

I really love TV shows. It's no secret. Who doesn't love TV shows? One of my absolute favourites is Teen Wolf and one of my favourite characters on that show is Lydia Martin. Not only is she a really interesting character but her hair and her outfits always look amazing no matter what the situation is. Which is kind of cool and I'm slightly jealous but oh well. 

I found this jumper in the sale section of H&M a few months ago and I got it for a stupidly low price. I had seen it beforehand and it was one of those situations where you want the clothing item but just never get around to buying it. So needless to say I was really happy to have found it in the sale.

While watching season 4 of Teen Wolf, I saw that Lydia wore the same/a similar jumper in one of the episode, except it was cropped. After having a "omg I have that jumper" squealy moment (and also showing my brother who watches it too but didn't seem to care, funnily enough) I calmed down enough to think of maybe doing an inspired look blogpost, once sweater weather arrived. So here we are! 

I want to point out that the outfit is Lydia Martin inspired, not the hair and makeup, although I do love her looks (future blogpost maybe?). I did put a small side plait in my hair, similar to this one, because she does have a lot of different plaited/braided hair styles, but nothing too special. And I have done a separate blogpost on the makeup look that I did for these photos, so keep an eye out for that.

I paired the jumper with a simple, black skater skirt that I bought from Asos a few years ago and tucked it in to give the cropped look without having to chop up my jumper. Lydia rarely wears flat shoes, but I don't own any boots that have much of a heel hence why I am wearing flats. 

I'm quite proud of how the outfit turned out and it's definitely something I would wear. It's not too dressy and not too casual which is always good. 

Do you watch Teen Wolf? Who are your favourite characters?

Sausage Lasagna

This is by no means a traditional lasagna. Just pointing that out. But I love to experiment with food i.e. I don't have all the ingredients to make what I want so I substitute a bunch of stuff and hope it turns out well. And this is one of those cases where it didn't go horribly wrong! We didn't have mince but we did have sausages, so I thought 'why not?' and sausage lasagna was born. (Or maybe it already exists, but this is my version). I would also like to mention we used far too many sausages, but it was either that or throw them away the next day or so. This recipe isn't difficult but it is a bit time consuming, so if you want to make it easier go ahead and use premade béchamel sauce. I just love how homemade béchamel tastes, which is why I chose to do my own. As per usual, feel free to adapt whatever you want! 

Ingredients: 

Tomato sauce:

Sausages

Peas

1 small onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 1/2 tubs of passata

1 tsp of oregano

1 tsp of basil

1 tsp of sage

Olive oil

Salt & pepper to taste

1 tbsp sun dried tomato paste (optional)

Béchamel sauce:

750 ml milk + a bit extra

1 tsp parsley

a few bay leaves

1 small onion

4 tbsp butter

4 tbsp flour

Rest:

Lasagna sheets

Mozzarella

Parmesan

Serves 6

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Cook the sausages and then put on some kitchen paper to drain off any excess fat. Once they are cool, chop them into discs (or however you want them) and set them aside. Defrost the peas and set them aside as well. Pour some oil into a saucepan and then cook the onions until translucent. Then add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes before adding the herbs. Pour in the passata and season to taste. Add sun dried tomato paste if you are using it. Let the sauce cook for about 10 minutes, meanwhile start on the béchamel sauce. Put the milk, onion, parsley and bay leaves into a saucepan on medium - low heat. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Drain it and keep the milk in a separate container (throw the onion and herbs away). 

Melt the butter in a saucepan and then add the flour. Stir for about 2 minutes before slowly adding the herb infused milk. Add a bit at a time and keep stiring with a whisk. It will probably look horrible and you will think you have messed it up and will be tempted to throw it away. DON'T. Just keep adding milk and stiring. If you run out of milk, just add normal plain milk until it becomes a nice smooth sauce. Turn off the heat and set the sauce aside.

Add your peas and sausages to the tomato sauce and give it a good mix. Let it heat up for a while but not too long otherwise the sausages will go soggy.

Now it's time to assemble the lasagna! 

1. Start with a thin layer of tomato sauce in your oven proof dish

2. Put the lasagna sheets on top of that layer of sauce going in the direction that is shown in the photo

3. Add some béchamel sauce and some mozzarella 

4. Put more tomato sauce on the layer of béchamel, then add more lasagna sheets going in a different direction to the first layer of lasagna sheets. Keep alternating with each layer

5. The very last layer will be lasagna sheets and then béchamel and cheese (mozzarella and parmesan this time). At this point, you should have used all of the tomato sauce. 

Bake in the oven for about 35-40 minutes and then leave it to cool for a while before serving, so that it doesn't collapse. We didn't do this step because we were starving.

Enjoy!

Soft & Smokey

I'm usually the kind of person who doesn't bother doing their makeup on Sundays (ok sometimes I just don't bother regardless of what day it is), but my dad wanted to take us out for dinner so I decided to do something nice with my face for a change. I've been experimenting with using more eyeshadows in the crease of my eye and it actually doesn't look too horrible, so that's what I went with. I also chose a bright pink lipstick because who said autumn is all about dark colours?

I feel like photos of my favourite ever eyeshadow (MAC's Sable) never do it justice, it's so much prettier in real life so go and swatch it if you can! 

Face:

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer in Cool Medium 2

Manhattan Soft Compact Powder in 0 Transparent

Eyes & Eyebrows:

MAC eyeshadow in Charcoal Brown:

 to fill in my brows

Hema Eyebrow Gel:

to set them

NARS Pro Prime Eyeshadow Base:

all over my eye lid and crease

MAC eyeshadow in Charcoal Brown:

 blended through the crease

MAC eyeshadow in Dark Brown:

blended in the outer part of the lid

(add more, blend, repeat)

MAC eyeshadow in Sable:

all over the lid and on the lower lash line

Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette Blackout:

 on the lower lash line
MAC eyeshadow in Naked Lunch:
in the inner corner of the eye, as a highlight

Benefit They're Real Push Up Liner:

on the top lash line and smudged with a brush

Maybelline Mega Plush Mascara

Lips: 

MAC Chatterbox lipstick