Official

I decided the other day to make Happy Little Places a tad more official.  Allow me to introduce my shiny new business cards.  I created my own design using Easy Print and all for free. Thankfully they lived up to their name, as it really was super easy.  I uploaded my logo, input the text I wanted, as well as the cute little house image and voilà!  I'll be cracking out these beauties at any future networking events.

What do you think of the design?  Do you have your own business cards for your blog?  

Claire x

3 / One Pic Wednesday

Now that we've done all the major decorating and furniture building in our master bedroom (which I promise to reveal soon). I've instantly moved onto the finishing touches.  I've had my heart set on a little perfume vignette much like the one above and so I've made it my task to recreate it.  The foundation for this look is a beautiful mirrored vanity tray and so I'm currently trying to hunt one down.  I think it also gives me the perfect excuse to add to my perfume collection ;-)

Claire x

I came across this pic on Pinterest and unfortunately could not find it's original source. If you happen to know then please point me in their direction. Apologies!

Monday Motivation

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It certainly is!

Claire x

Hello August

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Gosh, July went crazy-quick.  Are you ready for August?  Do you have any exciting August-based plans? 

Claire x

#UpInYourGrill

Love food? Love drink? Love music?  Then you best get yourself down to the latest offering from B.Eat Street, Manchester. 

#UpInYourGrill has set up shop for 10 weeks at Brownsfield Mill on Tariff Street in the Northern Quarter.

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Hosting a delicious selection of street food vendors and cocktail makers. This is my new favourite spot for a post-work Friday night or a Saturday date night with the husband.

Last Friday's beautiful Manchester weather (yes those three words are being used in the same sentence!) certainly helped make our decision to head over to the Northern Quarter. We arrived around 8.30pm and there was a little queue to contend with.  Thankfully the queue rapidly disappeared and we wandered down a rustic stone path into this grounds of a run down warehouse.  Extra bonus points to B.Eat Street for the very on-trend location. 

We had our priorities straight and headed directly to the first bar for a glass of thirst-quenching cider.  Next up, food.  There were rather substantial queues for Solita and Reds True BBQ but the jerk chicken of Eat and Sweet had caught my eye.  I opted for a jerk chicken split (jerk chicken on a dumpling roll) and was not disappointed.  The ridiculously tender chicken was coated in a tangy and spicy jerk marinade and the soft dumpling wasn't as heavy as I'd expected.  It went down a treat.  

After refuelling on a gin and tonic (it wouldn't be a Friday night without one) we headed to Holy Basil for some 'Bang Thai-dy fries' covered in Thai Green Curry sauce. Unfortunately the chips were a tad dry and I would have added much more sauce, given the option - it was just too yummy. The feel-good sound track was provided by HomoElectric and had most people tapping their feet or head bopping at some point.  

Fab night and very cool vibes all round.  I'd definitely recommend this if you're looking for something to do in Manchester on a Friday or Saturday evening.  #NoExcuses

Claire x

Manchester's Roastin'

Wednesday evening found me braving the roasting-hot streets in order to wander down to the Deansgate Locks area of Manchester in search of magic beans.  Feeling much like Jack and the Beanstalk, I found some in the shape of ManCoco's coffee beans.  

A host of bloggers and coffee fanatics alike were invited to learn more about Manchester's very own micro coffee roaster.  The friendly and coffee-passionate Stuart Bromley was already in full swing when my plus one and I stumbled into his hidden coffee oasis.  (We'd got a little lost - oops.)

The little demo area was super cute and can be hired for events

ManCoco makes sure it's green beans are traceable and ethically sourced and they import from all over the world.  We were lucky enough to sample a selection of beautiful beans from Ethiopia, Peru, Colombia, Rwanda, Uganda and Indonesia.  We were encouraged to taste the coffee in it's optimum state and learnt a bit about the art of 'cupping'. Stuart was the perfect showman and slurped his coffee to perfection.

Getting my 'cup' on and Stuart demonstrating an expert slurp

I'm certainly not a coffee connoisseur and so some of the beans produced a flavour a little too refined for my English-tea-tastebuds but I did notice the difference in the beans and came to pick a favourite (Peruvian Chirinos Churupampa - if you're interested in the details).

ManCoco sell direct to both consumers and retail and Stuart shared some exciting details that he has in the pipeline for smaller coffee taster hampers, which sound perfect for gifts (Christmas in July anyone?) The event was pulled together by the friendly folk at MediaCom with the support of The Co-operative Electrical Shop and my plus one even won the very generous raffle in the shape of a new Delonghi Coffee Machine!  

Claire x

Photo of me taken by Chloe Hesketh using my camera phone

Monday

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Eyes down.

Claire x