FOOD: Homemade no-bake chocolate biscuit cake

Recently, I've been making the most of my kitchen and trying my hand at the typically house wifey antics, whilst Dann plays with tools and builds things. A couple of weeks ago I decided to treat him to my mum's infamous Chocolate Biscuit Cake as he was working so hard on our garden. (note here that when he realised he was getting a treat, he worked extra hard!)

Anyway, to cut a long story short, he loved it. We also took a few slices to a friends house, and they loved it too. And I took some into work for my boss's birthday and they loved it as well. 

So, I've decided to share my recipe, so you can love it too. 

The recipe is pretty much based on one from Ocado, but I finish mine slightly differently.

LIFESTYLE: The amateurs guide to refitting a kitchen

As you all probably know we recently bought our first home. If not, you can ready a little about our experience here.
As part of our purchase we decided to completely refit our kitchen. The house is a bit of a project. It was quite dated, and honestly the style and colours where not to our taste at all.
Within three weeks of moving in we started ripping out our old kitchen - as you can see it wasn't the prettiest of kitchens on our first day! And we really dislike yellow now!

LIFESTYLE: Why our cats are indoor cats

Meet my two boys - Archimedes and Dante.

They are like my cute furry little babies that cause havoc around my home.
Archimedes is three and Dante is one. They are not related. They are both boys. They are both indoor cats.
I know this can be a real bone of contention for some people, especially animal lovers who believe that all animals should be allowed to live and play outdoors where they originated; and to a certain extent I do agree.
I'm an animal lover, because let's face, it they tend to be better than humans. Yes I eat meat, I do however beat myself up about it on a monthly basis, but I also believe that humans weren't meant to be herbivores, or we wouldn't have developed teeth with the ability to chew meat, such is the circle of life.
I believe that captivity to a certain extent is required to keep some species alive, because unfortunately there are some wicked people in the world who will kill a species to extinction because of an unfounded belief in the properties of their organs - i.e. rhinos. Rhinos are still being hunted for their horns, yet the mineral properties and composition of their horns is the same as a human finger nail. So really the poachers should be donating their own finger nails for Chinese medicine.

Anyway, I do also believe that sometimes it is better for animals to live indoors rather than outside, which is why our cats are indoor cats. They have both always been indoor cats. Archimedes is quite happy about this fact as he is quite a cautious fellow and is mostly afraid of his own shadow. Dante is slightly more adventurous, but is also very daft, even within our home.

LIFESTYLE: Tips for buying your first home

So as you may or may not know, I've just bought myself (with the help of my husband of course) a lovely family home.
At 25 (Dann is 29) we're pretty pleased with ourselves to have our shit together enough to buy a place that is ours.
I'm not going to lie, it is a pretty scary thing, and we actually feel more like responsible adults in £115,000 of debt than we did when we got married! But it doesn't need to be a completely daunting experience.
I thought I'd share some of our hints and tip for buying your first home - and share some of the images we had taken by Radian who interviewed me for their blog about our buying experience.

BLOGGING: Illustrated Teacup is changing direction

I've recently had a little break from blogging so posts have been a little sparse at the beginning of June - I was on holiday too but I kind of lost my mojo a little.
Anyway, whilst on my blogging break I had a little think about the direction of this blog.

I love writing about tattoos, and judging from my top ranking posts, you love reading about them too, but I also want to share other parts of my life. I guess it comes down to the future.
My home and dream is to start a family soon, and I want to be able to blog about our adventures, so I've decided to start that transition now.

I will still blog about tattoos as they are a huge part of my life, including new tattoos, interviews and conventions, but I will be posting a lot more lifestyle, fashion and beauty posts, and eventually some family orientated posts too. Think Love Taza, with a tattoo twist (I'm kind of in love with this family)!