As many cafés and restaurants as the city centre and the west end of Glasgow have to offer, one of the perks of my parents coming through for a visit with the car is heading out somewhere a bit more random to eat. As always, I selected an Indian and kept to my beloved southside and headed out to Curry on the Hill in the Shawlands area. 

What really drew me to this place was the massive menu with no shortage of veggie options. There was plenty or curries, naans, rices and a generous continental selection if there's a member of a group not really up for a curry. 

And what makes me recommend this place highly is that the food was absolutely gorgeous (the decor was also super stylish). For starters I went for vegetable tempura which was on the average side however the sweet chilli sauce which came with them was one of the best I've tried. For mains I had a patia curry with vegetables (they have a vegetarian section but the main curry section allows you to have veggies, or fish, of prawns etc) which is a sweet and sour curry (which I loved and was my first time trying).

I also ordered a garlic and coriander naan which was perhaps the beautiful thing I've ever eaten. 

The restaurant also gives itself an edge by providing entertainment. The night we were in (Saturday) they had a magician who went round the tables once they had finished up their main course. This maybe isn't my personal choice of entertainment. We were trying our hardest to be polite and laugh along but despite how good the guy was (which he was) we were stuffed from our meals and truthfully wanted our beds! Thankfully the guy only did a few tricks and could sense that we needed our beds (he had been at the table behind us for ages and they were all howlin from laughter). If you're reading this you were really good, but we really needed the bill! 

It's not every day that I get to travel further into the southside for a meal and it can make me nervous getting to pick as I always want it to be somewhere good when my parents are down but this fitted the bill perfectly perfectly. And I'd recommend it 100% times over. 

Lots of love! 

When I went vegetarian back in 2011 I realised that - aside from meat - a few other foods would disappear from my diet. I was aware of by-products and realised that Haribo would have to be left out my diet and I also realised that Id' have to check cheese packets for rennet. However something I never imagined having to be careful with was my drinks order. 

I wouldn't say I'm a massive party animal, but I do like a drink and have a fully stocked wine rack in my kitchen. This wine rack is actually made up of spirits - mainly rum - as that is usually my poison of choice and spirits aren't the hardest drink to find vegan friendly. However some other types of alcohol such as wine (another favourite of mine, make mine a pinot grigio), cider (good for drinking with a meal) and beer are a little bit more tricky. 

In the most recent issue of VeganLife magazine* there is a two-page article from Oliver Conninham sharing his knowledge on the beer industry. Alcohol itself is usually vegan friendly (I mean vodka is made from potatoes, cider from apples etc) however it's the ingredients used to filter the drink that are usually not vegan friendly. In the case of beer this ingredient is isinglass, which comes from fish bladder. This is used to help give beer a clean, clear and crisp look. Or as Moor Beer, who were interviewed for the article, state it only as accelerates the process and they prefer to leave their beer to filter naturally. Mechanical filtration is also another option, one that is used by Camden Beers. 

However, vegan or not you've probably spotted the rise in the amount of cask beers on the market. These are run by smaller independent breweries who concentrate on peculiar flavours. As filtration can remove some of the flavour in preference for appearance they choose to leave beers with that musky colour. The Scottish BrewDog were mentioned in the article (are they available outside Scotland? They're doing really well here and brewed not far from where I grew up) and I've been aware for a while that their Dundee branch has a salad marked out as vegan (albeit it it is pretty much just leaves...) and that some of their beers are vegan. 

The only thing to be careful with cask beers is that some companies are a fan of creating creative flavours, which may use honey or something else derived from animals. But the base is free of filtration and is vegan suitable.

The article also mentioned the London Vegan Beer Festival as a starting point. And also mentioned are the various craft beer and ale festivals - such as the London Craft Beer Festival - which are more vegan friendly than your usual beer festival. 

As mentioned earlier I'm a bigger fan of spirits and only pick a beer on occasion. However it's good knowledge to have on stand by and I would encourage any vegan or vegetarian to double check their brands (as it's not always on the label, you usually need to contact companies directly). 

N.B. I get a subscription to VeganLife for free as part of their blogger outreach campaign. 

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e.l.f is a brand that has been on my radar for years. Despite their popularity amongst bloggers - including cruelty-free bloggers - I only bought my first batch a month ago. I had been saving up money in the past few months because my old flatmate moved out and I wanted to ensure I'd be okay by myself. But I found a new flatmate and, well, something needed to happen to that money. So...to the e.l.f website it was!

Unfortunately quite a lot of products were out of stock (boo) so I bought about about £30 worth of products (even though I was willing to drop quite a bit more). But anyway, here is my quick review on what I did buy. 

First off I was in need of a new primer anyway. Despite my love of high end primers I decided to give the Mineral Primer a chance, and I was impressed. It's certainly not as good as some of the high end primers I've tried but this one certainly takes the leads in my favourite drugstore primers (so if you have to stay high street, this is the one I would recommend). I'm also currently in the market for a full coverage foundation so picked up the HD Mattifying Cream Foundation. This was about medium coverage but it had a very good finished and the consistency was easy to blend. I'm still in the market for something thicker and this isn't as long lasting as I'd like. However I do reach for it when I'm filming a You-Tube video when I'm only concerned about how I look for the next twenty minutes. 

Then I moved onto colour. I'm making more of an effort to expand my colour range so I forced myself to not order the first colour that 'spoke' to me but pick something that I didn't own already. Last Halloween I spent a lot of time trying to find random colours the night before which was just a pain. Since I'm also planning to get into cosplay this year I decided that I needed more colours to have on standby. I picked up one of their Mineral Lipsticks in Party Pink which is a very natural shade which has actually become my go-to daily shade (you do need to wear a primer with it though, my favourite is Too Faced). However I also purchased one of their regular lipsticks in Classy which is a very bold lavender-pink shade which just doesn't suite me. However it does fulfil my goal of having a wider range of colours just encase there is an occasion (or costume) where lavender lipstick is required (because other than the colour I do like it). 

I also picked up an eyeshadow pallet in Party Purple, not with the intention of wearing it regularly but just having a purple eyeshadow on stand-by. However, this is gently pigmented and what you end up with is a gentle smokey purple eye which I have found myself wearing when I'm going out at night. If you want a vibrant purple look this isn't what you're looking for, but just a tint if purple? This product will be right up your street. 

The final colourful product I purchased was the nail polish in Passion Pink. This colour is extremely different to what I already own (it's raspberry with a shimmer through it) and my eye regularly glances towards it when I'm deciding which colour to paint my nails. However you must wear a top coat with this as the staying power does leave a lot to be desired. 

I also purchased the cream eyeliner in gunmetal. However this is the first cream eyeliner I've ever owned so I'm not sure how to review this. I used to wear cream and gel liners as opposed to liquid when I was still performing in dance shows as they stay on the lid a bit easier,but it belonged to the make-up artist and I never got the name of the product. It does however work quite well as a grey cream eyeshadow, so if like me you're finding it a bit weird applying this as eyeliner you can still get use out of it (maybe I just haven't found the correct brush yet?). 

Have you ever tried anything from the e.l.f line? Which product if your favourite? 

Aside from making my yearly Christmas cards, crafting isn't something that pops up much on mo'adore. It is however something I enjoy on occasion but I don't get much time to do it and I prefer 'crafting with purpose' as in making Christmas cards or something for fancy dress or cosplay (my first cosplay will be in two weeks, and there will be something hand made in it). But I know some people who are really into crafting who make craft after craft. I prefer to stick to making things I'll get use out of. 

So when I was invited along to #hillarycraftoon* with Hillary's Blinds (who make fabrics) and The Crafty Hen Parties (who host craft parties) on their final stop as part of their Craft Roadshow, I was excited about having a bit of an excuse to get my craft on. I didn't know what we'd be making but I was excited about possibly picking up some tips for any future (and seldom) craft projects (such as crafting a particular Pokémon in the near future). 

At the event the girls from The Crafty Hen gave us a guided tutorial on making a notebook cover and a stuffed bird using the fabrics from Hillary's Blinds. The notebook cover was simple enough and I'm proud of how mine turned out (plus I got to play with a glue gun). I've been meaning to pick up a new blogging notebook for a while and I reckon I can put my purse away and use this one for recording thoughts on various products. 

Making the bird was a bit more challenging. I had never crafted a stuffed animal of any kind before this event so it was a bit of a challenge. Thankfully I was sitting next to Sinead of Wee & Twee so I was able to take some pointers off her (and had her turn my bird inside for me as I just couldn't quite work it....). I was in the end quite proud of my bird. It clearly is a bird however there's a few holes along the edge of the stitching (I should have done smaller stitches much closer together). My bird is also quite squidgy as I was scared stuffing too much would have made the bad stitching go more awall and I'd have stuffing falling out!

Both crafts I made now sit proudly between my windowsill. As for crafting more in the future, well, it's likely to remain something I do now and then. But it gave me a bit of practice crafting my own pieces so I'm less likely to muck-up my own craft attempts! 

P.S. Thank you to Joe Blog's for putting this together and to Hillary's Blinds and The Crafty Hen Parties for being great hosts. All photos from the event are now on the mo'adore Facebook page.