Pancake Day Recipe

Have you got your flour, eggs and milk ready? Not forgetting the lemon, sugar, Nutella, bananas, even cheese for some of the team (savoury pancakes followed by sweet naturally).  Shrove Tuesday is upon us, but don't worry if you haven't got a clue on where to begin making pancakes, it's an easy recipe that means not a lot can go wrong.  To make 8 large pancakes you will need:

100g plain flour

250ml of milk

1 large egg

Whisk them all together in a large bowl, starting with the flour, then add the egg and gradually add in the milk until the mixture starts to form small bubbles.  To create less mess, either transfer the mixture to a measuring jug or if you have a ladle use this to scoop the mixture into the pan.  With a flat bottomed pan, heat up a knob of butter and let the pan get hot.  When the butter is completely melted ladle / or pour the mixture in and tilt the pan to make get the batter in an even circle.  Once golden brown on the bottom it's time to flip your pancake!  This bit we can't help you with, but the fun is in mastering your technique.*

Once golden brown on the other side, it's time to add your topping and serve, voila - pancakes in minutes.  

What will you be having on your pancakes tonight?

Betty

x

*Betty cannot be held responsible for any pancake induced accidents!

London Fashion Week: Orla Kiely AW12 Tea Dance Presentation

We love it when London Fashion Week rolls into town, there is a certain excitement in the air that's contagious. The first day of LFW certainly didn't disappoint with the Orla Kiely AW12 presentation, forgoing the traditional runway format we stepped into a magical tea dance that had us completely enchanted.  Normally at fashion week we dash around here, there and everywhere, however we sat down on table number 29 and got lost along to the wonderful sound of the 'Silk Street Swing' band for over an hour.  Briony, from 'A Girl, A Style' was our tea dance partner for the evening and we all oooed and ahhhed over the pieces for next autumn winter.  

From an oxblood leather shift dress layered over a chiffon frilled edged peter pan collar blouse to a full skirted organza floral tea dress with a sequin collar; there wasn't one piece of the collection we couldn't see the Betty team in.  The stand out piece was a nude silk and black velvet panelled full skirted round neck dress with capped sleeves and a big black velvet bow sitting on the waist, this has gone straight to the top of our wish list.  Each outfit was teamed with lurex ankle socks and black or gold dancing shoes, a perfect styling tip for the Spring months whilst you wait for the weather to warm up.  The setting was just as beautiful as the clothes with a big glitter ball lighting up the dance floor that was set against the backdrop of Orla's retro graphical wallpaper.  There was also a tea urn in the corner perched on a table littered with cherry Bakewells and Batternberg cakes and champagne being served in vintage cut glasses - Betty was in Tea Dance heaven!

A big thank you to Briony (A Girl, A Style) for taking and letting us share with you her lovely photographs, we were far to engrossed in our tea & cake!

Betty

x

Exhibition: Yayoi Kusama at the Tate Modern

The Yayoi Kusama exhibition opens at the Tate Modern in London today, and we can't wait to go down to take a look.  Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist who's career spans over many decades, born in 1929, Kusama still lives as a working artist today.  

Her work is often on a large scale, and allows the audience to be involved in the piece with installations and performances.  This exhibition showcases her work on a big formats and 'ranges from works on paper featuring intense semi-abstract imagery, to soft sculpture known as 'Accumulations', to her 'Infinity Net' paintings, made up of carefully repeated arcs of paint built up into large patterns'. Look at some of Kusama's Infinity Dot installations below, it looks like something out of of our dreams:

To find out how it's all done and to see the rest of Yayoi's work, head down to the Tate Modern from today until the 5th of June 2012.  Visit the Tate's website here, for more information. 

What exhibitions are you planning on visiting soon?

Betty

x

Image one source

Image two source 

Betty's How To: Valentine Cookie Jar

With Valentine's day a week away, we have started to see the usual over priced flowers and chocolates popping up here and there - whether you love or loathe it, there isn't much escaping it.  Of course here at Betty HQ we love Valentine's Day, any excuse to do a spot of baking and paint our nails pink and red. We don't believe Valentine's Day has to be about your girlfriend or boyfriend, it can just be a nice excuse to let your friend, mum, dad or relative know you care.  We think the Valentine Cookie Jars are the best way of putting a smile on someone's face, with all the ingredients pre-measured in a jar, all your recipient needs to do is following the instructions and within 20 minutes of opening, they can have freshly baked cookies hot from the oven. 

Equipment:

1 x 1L Jar (we got these ones here)

String

Mini Envelope

Brown Paper

Heart Peg (from here) 

Red Glitter Card 

Scales 

Funnel

Ingredients:

175g Self-raising flour

135g Rolled oats


100g Red or pink M&Ms


100g Chocolate chips


65g Light soft brown sugar

65g White sugar


Layer all the ingredients into the jar in the order shown above, make sure each layer is pressed down firmly before layering the next.  Also we would recommend using a funnel to put the ingredients into the jar with, as otherwise it can be a bit tricky and before you know it there's flour everywhere!  

After you've done this, write down instructions of how to make the cookies for your Valentine.  We wrote ours on brown paper and popped them into a mini brown envelope, which you can get in stationary shops under 'pay packet envelopes'.  To turn the jar into cookies, mix all the ingredients together with:

1 x Beaten egg

60g Melted butter

1 x tsp Vanilla Essence 

Roll into balls and bake at 180 degrees for 10 minutes until lightly browned.  Each jar makes between 20-24 cookies.  

Here's the finished article, and we can vouch that they taste great!


What do you like to do for Valentine's day?

Betty

x

Inspiring Monday's: Nadinoo

If you have got your copy of Betty you will know that we are smitten with Nadia Izruna of Naidnoo.  With her final pay packet from her previous job, a leap of faith and her needle & thread, Nadinoo was born.  With fabrics from Liberty of London heavily featured in previous collections, Nadinoo is taking inspiration from the past and making something with a modern feel, that quite simply, we love!  We talk about ice cream, stitching doll’s clothes and drinking cocktails with Nadia.

We love Nadinoo, tell us more about it and how you started.  When did you decide to that you wanted to go into fashion design?

I have always had a great love for clothes ever since I was a little girl. My Grandma’s neighbour first showed me how to sew on her old singer when I was 9 years olds, we made tiny clothes for all my dolls which I thought was magical. I finally got my own sewing machine at 18 when I was ready to pursue a career in fashion and I can’t say I’ve ever looked back!

What has been your favourite part about setting up Nadinoo?

I think the daily interaction with our lovely customers has to be top on the list, their kindness and appreciation for our clothes is always so rewarding! I adore getting to know them and hearing stories of how they have enjoyed wearing our dresses.

Who is the Nadinoo customer, who are you designing for?

The Nadinoo girl is everything I aspire to be; creative, fun, carefree with great ambition and lust for life. We have created three adorable characters that we design for, helping our customers identify with a personality that suits them. Their names are Pixie Fleur and Lula. They have evolved every season becoming three unique moods and personalities. Designing within this enchanted world allows me to build a story for every garment giving it life and character. This season Pixie has taken on a little tomboy roll ready for mischief and adventure. Lula is up to her usual tricks luring in the boys with her girlish ways and come untie me bows. Fleur is lying amongst the flowers watching the clouds go by while her dress floats and dances in the wind…

Have you got any advice for our readers who want to set out and start their own business in the fashion design field?

Design and make clothing that you truly love and enjoy every process along the way. If you need more skills and advice there are so many good blogs, courses and helpful books on the market with great sewing tips. There is so much pleasure in finishing a garment knowing that it was once only fabric and thread.

 What has been your favourite collection or design?

I’m always designing for the now so I tend favour the current collection I’m working on as it fully captures all that I’m in to at that point. Today this happens to be the AW11 collection, which is vibrant and takes inspiration once again from my favourite animal - the Bird!

Tell us one thing about you that we should know?

That I adore what I do and feel so proud of all that Nadinoo has achieved so far!

What inspires you and motivates you?

Old photos of my grandmother, pretty furniture, fabrics, vintage silhouettes from markets or old films... My head is always working away churning ideas and new designs that are just bursting to come to life. I think inspiration in itself motivates me to design new collections which it turn keeps Nadinoo going.

The video above was directed and produced by blogger Carrie Harwood from Wish Wish Wish and showcases Nadinoo's AW11 collection in the most charming way.  

Nadinoo's AW11 collection is available online here.  We hope you like it as much as we do!

Betty

x

*All images are courtesy of nadioo.com

Norman Parkinson: An Eye For Fashion

There has been a lot of talk of David Bailey over the past few week's, however during Bailey's time at Vogue another iconic photographer was also working there: Norman Parkinson. Parkinson was in residence for the magazine between 1945 and 1960 as a portrait photographer.  Whilst you may be familiar with some of Parkinson's more iconic shots, such as a model sitting on an ostrich (our favourite), what you may not be so familiar with is the images like the one above, that are on display at the M Shed in Bristol.  

His assistant from the early 60s, Angela Williams, was helping the photographer downsize for a move to Tobago many years ago and acquired boxes of prints which Angela has spent the last 15 years archiving.  For a look at 60 rare photographs taken by one of the biggest era defining photographers of his time; head to the M Shed in Bristol.  'An Eye For Fashion', is now showing until the 15th of April 2012, for more information you can visit the galleries website, here.

We love Jean Shrimpton in this photograph, if only we had an occassion to wear that hat...

Have a lovely weekend Bettettes, and wrap up warm!

Betty

x

Jean Shrimpton 'Plain Girl' 1963, wearing James Wedge © Norman Parkinson Limited/courtesy Norman Parkinson Archive

Betty ♥'s Instagram

We are hooked.....we love everything about it!  No, no, we are not talking about Miu Miu (for once), we are talking about Instagram.   For those of you who are wondering what we are talking about, Instagram is an app that allows you to take photos, and put one of many lovley filters over the top of the image, and then share it with your followers.  Users can then like and comment on each others photos, which we think is our favourite part.  We started using it last year and for some unknown reason forgot all about it, until January this year.  Since then we have dusted it down and started snapping everything that captivates us whilst we are out and about.  Our Instagram handle is @bettymagazine, so make sure you follow us to keep up to date with our movements here at Betty HQ.   Here is what we have been up to over the past couple of weeks, as you can see we are craving Spring with pastels catching our eye everywhere we go.  

Are you on Instagram or is there another sharing photo app that you love just as much?  Let us know, we would love to see all your images!

Also congratulations to Nijabird, who won our Tatty Devine name necklace competition!  We did it the old fashioned way and pulled it out of a hat, thank you to everyone that entered and keep checking back for new competitions.  

Betty

x