Have You Ever Been In a Room With 10,000 Balloons.....?

This evening Smix & I attended the strangest & quite possibly coolest blogging event yet. Studio Souk in Belfast has partnered with Yelp UK to create a room with 10,000 balloons. The floor and ceiling are covered with them.  

Smix was in his element diving amongst them. 

Studio Souk's balloon party will be open to the public all weekend, with balloon room yoga classes on Sunday as well as selfie competitions with spot prizes. Worth popping in just to say 'I've been in a room with 10,000 balloons'! 

Solo Kitchen, Belfast: Fresh, New, City Centre Casual Dining, Tapas and Cocktails

Solo Kitchen Belfast is a fresh new city centre restaurant combining European and Asian dishes and full & bountiful tapas menu. Solo's sister restaurant, the successful Ambrosia on the Ormeau Road is also owned by Michael Karan, who's vision for casual dining in plush surroundings is based firmly in locally sourced, excellent quality ingredients. 

The restaurant is located on Wellington Place, opposite 'Home', which makes it an ideal location for pre-theatre dining. In fact Solo Kitchen have a dedicated theatre menu alongside their main menu and tapas selection. The menu focuses on traditional European dishes, but also fine dining versions of Asian favourites, such as Biriyani, Tikka Masala and Honey Chilli Chicken.

The tapas menu has over 35 dish options. Stand out delights for me are Solo's Poca Carne (mini steak, peppered sauce, green beans), Calamari a la Paprilla ( calamari sprinkled with paprika & lemon juice) and Mejillones Con Choritzo (mussels, chroritzo, white whine cream sauce, garlic bread). 

Smix and I were invited along last week to try the menu for ourselves. We had just been at Vintage Rocks Hair Salon for a few hours, so we were ravenous! 

To begin I chose the avocado and beetroot salad, which is also available as a main course. The dish is a refreshing start to a meal, with an intriguing wholegrain mustard and citrus dressing. It's a light choice, which is great for me, as give me too hefty a starter and I can't even manage half a main course.

The grill and its sirloin steaks certainly tempted me for my main course, but I decided to go with something a little more interesting. I chose the pork belly, served with wholegrain mustard mash, roasted baby carrot, king prawn, black pudding and candied pecans.  

The presentation was outstanding, and the veg was cooked to perfection. You can see how green the broccoli is, yet it was soft and delicious. It must have been cooked to the exact second! The mustard mash wasn't too spicy, so it went well with the flavours of the pork belly, without overpowering it with spice. The candied pecans were a playful touch, and the black pudding had a devine clove aroma to it. 

The children's menu impressed me with its options of more than just chicken nuggets or burgers. Of course then Smix goes and orders the chicken goujons, but to Solo Kitchen's credit kids can also chose from dishes like honey chilli chicken and steak.

Smix declared his chicken the best he ever tasted, and I'm not sure if it was the long wait at the hairdresser's, but he ate much more than he usually would when we dine out. The children's menu also has dessert choices of a lolly, or icecream. 

My dessert choice was tiramisu. It was beautiful, so much so that I managed to squeeze the whole thing in even after two other courses. The dessert menu is very traditional, so it might be fun to see an Asian dessert choice on there to match the rest of the menu, but that's a very minor 'complaint'. 

Solo Kitchen hope to appeal to the surrounding city workforce, nipping out for a special lunch, or stopping for cocktails and tapas after the office. Their breakfast menu has just launched, being served from 8am-1130am, which would make it worth while taking an earlier train and having fluffy pancakes or a veggie breakfast before the working day begins. All breakfasts come with free tea or coffee, and a refill!

Snixxy Swoons' Big, Chunky, Wooden Statement Jewellery That Won't Cost the Earth

I've blogged about Snixxy Swoons before, but I keep returning to her jewellery as her ideas and ranges change with the season. She's a saved search for me on eBay, and since my initial blog post about her I've bought at least two more lots of jewellery from her. And that's the beauty of her pieces, I can AFFORD to buy a few pieces thanks to her reasonable pricing. You can even make offers on her eBay listings of the price you wish to pay, and you can almost bet that she will include a little extra in your package too. Prices range from £8 to around £20 for the largest pieces.

My favourite new necklace

Her latest ranges are space inspired, and the one I loved, her classic insects, but partnered up with decorations of extra little insects on the necklace chain. I absolutely had to have one, and she kindly sent me an earth and bow tie too!  

All on eBay now

Buzzin' about this brooch

Her beautiful moths have been brought through to the spring collection. I own a brooch similar to this. 

So 'seller:misssnix2' is what you want to search eBay for, and that 100% positive feedback rating never lies. Thanks again for keeping those prices keen and ideas fresh!

My little surprise bow tie! 

Zoingo Boingo: The Flexible Fun Pogo Toy That Tempted Smix Away From His IPad & Out to the Garden!

This week we received the new Zoingo Boingo pogo toy from Flair toys, a spin on the traditional pogo stick with a bouncing ball base and bungee cord handle which allows for more movement and the ability to do more tricks than before. With the weather finally picking up it was the perfect time to tempt Smix outside and off his iPad to learn the skill to 'boinging'.

The Zoingo Boingo is suitable for age 8 and up, so Smix is exactly the target range. The toy comes boxed, and you have a guide to inflate the ball base to prepare it for use. This is where we had a little trouble. Initially we inflated it as much as it could be inflated, which made the ball base quite hard and with no give. This was our mistake! Do not over inflate the ball, it doesn't need to be like a football, allow some give in it and it's a LOT easier to get the hang of pogoing on the Zoingo Boingo. Allow for it to be a little 'squidgy'.

One side of the footplate has a lip, put your foot on this side to start

Around the ball base is the foot plate, and you'll see one side has a little lip. This is the side you put your first foot on, then tip, balance and bounce. Smix got the hang of it very quickly (now we had fixed the over inflated base problem) and within the first session he could do 17 bounces in a row.

The Zoingo works best on grass or pavement, and as you'd imagine isn't suitable for indoors on carpet. I'm just happy to get Smix outside at last and off his iPad! The Zoingo Boingo will be on sale  via Smyths Toys for £24.99 or you can purchase now on Amazon.

Here are the M&S 2016 Easter Egg Wonders, to save you Hunting. Cosmic Eggs, Giant Bunnies & a Disney's Frozen Castle Shaped Egg You'll Want for Yourself!

A good proportion of my hits this week come from people searching for  Marks and Spencer's Easter products and finding last year's blog post. So I'm rushing in this blog post with this year's Food Hall bits and bobs so it's up to date. 

There are kids' eggs, fancy pants grown up eggs, even dairy free eggs and hide & seek hunt kits. Let take a look at everything from my visit to the Sprucefield store during the week. 

The fancy eggs, with the crowning glory, the limited edition, £40, purple and gold, regal  chocolate Cosmic Egg. 

I chose the coffee egg for my Dad. Even when I was a child I remember him often buying these little mocha bars of chocolate from M&S, when the only Food Hall was in the city centre M&S in the 80s. 

The passion fruit ganache eggs are out of this world. Slightly bigger than a Creme Egg, but with a scrumptious filling of tropical creaminess. 

Families with allergies to consider can pick up these dairy free eggs alongside the traditional chocolate ones. 

The kids' eggs I chose to bring home were the apple shaped Colin egg, and the chocolate orange Flavour carrot. I'm not always keen on M&S's plain milk chocolate, but the Orange zested version is delicious. 

I also picked the Egg Hunt kit which is on offer right now, half price at £5. 

Here are the other kids' eggs in store. 

There are plenty of egg sets for planning a garden Easter egg hunt. 

Also various sizes of chocolate bunnies to chose from. 

I spotted many Easter items amongst the biscuits and buns. M&S always have a wonderful selection of fancy hot cross buns each year. The fudge ones are a must buy, and the addition of mini mocha hot cross buns this year is a stroke of genius. The offer is two for £2.50 and you can mix and match flavours within that.

Personally I haven't gotten into the way of sending Easter cards, but if you do, M&S have a bright and breezy range to choose from. 

Some more biscuits to choose from. I also imagine there will be Easter themed cakes closer to the actual Easter Sunday. 

Finally, the M&S website also has some non-food gift ideas for the celebrations.

Taste The Streets of Tokyo- Unveiling Yo Sushi's 100 Piece New Menu

Our favourite restaurant has a brand new menu sampling the tastes of Tokyo. The 100 piece menu has new favourites to find, as well as hot and cold delights to investigate. The menu comes in the form of a zine, with underground arts of the city highlighted.

The menu launched throughout the UK yesterday, and we called to our Belfast store to try the new dishes. 

Smix eats pickled ginger by the handful! 

Here are some of the dishes they served for us. 

Clam

Seabass

Ama Ebi

Jewel-like raw tuna

Okonomiyaki

Dynamite roll

Finally here is a round up of all the new items to browse for yourselves. 

Smix Brix's Minecraft Yo Sushi 3.0

My son's favourite restaurant is Yo Sushi! He's aged 8 and loves cucumber maki and prawn nigiri. When I was 8 I didn't know sushi existed, never mind being better with a pair of chopsticks than my parents. In fact the first time I had sushi was 2007, in Dublin, when I was pregnant with Smix; maybe that's why he loves it? 

He love love loves Yo Sushi! Belfast and one day decided to build the Belfast store in Minecraft. In Autumn he built version 2.0 which I blogged about.

When he heard Yo Sushi! Belfast had emailed me inviting us both along to try out their new Tokyo menu experience, he decided he would make Minecraft Yo Sushi! 3.0 to show them on the night. 

The third generation Minecraft restaurant now has lights you can switch on and off, and switches to halt the sushi train (minecart) beside your booth. You can see the minecart swooshing alone round the track in the photo below. Inside the cart is a little chest you can open to reveal your dish. Pretty cool!

So tomorrow night is our rendezvous with Yo Sushi! Belfast and we both can't wait. I'll be sharing all the juicy details of the new Tokyo menu, what's hot and if any are not. 

A Quick & Simple Blog about a Quick & Simple Product: Technic Lashitude Mascara.

Technic Makeup range is a cheap & cheerful and should be an option to experiment with even for those of you are are premium beauty addicts. Their price points allow for a buyer to purchase something they might only use once, like glitter for a Christmas party, OR a product in a colour they aren't sure would suit them.

For example say you've seen a trend for a very smokey, dark eye, but you aren't convinced it would suit you, or if you could have the skill to apply it in their set place. Instead of spending £20 on your favourite premium makeup brand's smokey eye set, you can trial the effect with a little £4 Technic palette. Who knows? It might turn out you like the Technic product more than the £20 premium palette you've been using, because the price may be low, but he pigmentation and quality of the makeup is great.

Another thing Technic's pricing allows, it means they are the patron saint of forgetful travellers! If you've packed for a weekend city break and you've forgotten to bring your blusher or your eyeliner, then head straight for a Technic stockist and paint that bare face for less. 

Technic kindly sent me their Lashitude Mascara to try out. It promises three things- volume, length and definition.

The wand is spot on the type of wand I like for mascara. A soft plastic end with bendy bristles that don't soak up and clog with mascara product.

It goes on well, makes a considerable difference and doesn't clump too much. 

With Lashitude mascara : without Lashitude mascara

I used it for a week and it did the job, but personally I'll go back to my Boots' No.7 mascara for daily wear, and maybe keep it as my cheap and cheerful or handbag mascara.  

Should you want to buy it and try it too  this website has Lashitude for £1.65, a saving of £3.99 off RRP.