The English Mademoiselle Diaries

So over the weekend I caught up on the Great Sport Relief Bake Off, and as part of one of the episodes they made Eccles cakes, now either my memory failed me or I have never had these brilliant baked goods. So to entertain my curiosity of this baked treat I made some using my mum's trusty Delia Smith cookery book and adapted the recipe to the allsortment of ingredients in out house at the time...

Ingredients:
For the Quick Flaky Pastry:
255g plain flour
175g butter
a pinch of salt

For the Filling:
75g butter
150g demerara sugar
150g currants
1tsp of cinnamon or more in my case

Method:

To make the pastry, weigh the butter, then wrap it in a piece of foil and freeze it for 30 minutes.
Then sift the flour and salt into a bowl.
Remove the butter from the freezer, and grate it in to the flour and salt. Stir/cut it in with a knife.
Mix in a little cold water to create a dough, and chill in the fridge for 30minutes.
Pre-heat the oven to 220°C.
Now for the filling! Melt the butter and sugar together in a pan, then stir in the currants and cinnamon.
Roll out the pastry, and cut in to circles.
Place some of the filling in the middle of the circles and create parcels.
Make 3 slits in the top of the pastry and brush with milk and sprinkle with caster sugar.
Bake for 15minutes.
Eat with a cup of tea as with all baked goodies!

XO, Miriam

P.S. Did you know I am on instagram? @ englishmademoiselle

This stems from many things: experience at secondary school, pop culture and a recent #fbloggers chat. I want to talk about body image, and our perceptions of beauty and what is normal within blogging and the fashion industry.

Now, I must admit I am not exactly big nor am I stick thin, but as someone who struggles to find shops that cater for my slimmer build I think it is time we questioned the uneven production of clothes sizes. Please discuss this and feel free to criticise my point of view I am being curious about the industry that I am interested in.

Within Blogging

I find that being skinny has a stigma attached to it, and that people ask questions and make judgements about your personality about your size internally but never to you:

She doesn't represent a 'real' woman

Now I know the above comment is slightly sexist and that boys have their size questioned along with their muscle tone, but I find that generally women are more judgmental about the way people look. There are skinny bloggers and there are normal bloggers, I must have missed when being slim became abnormal. I will give you an example: I was charity shop shopping with my friend earlier after a coffee, and she said "you go look at your freakishly small clothes while I look at the normal one" now from her I don't mind as we do occasionally laugh at the sometimes comical size difference, but I didn't know being small, slim or skinny was freakish or weird.

"THERE ARE SKINNY BLOGGERS AND NORMAL BLOGGERS"

But juxtaposed to this are bloggers who consider themselves to be bigger saying I need to be skinny to create #OOTD posts. Number 1: no you don't need to be skinny or smaller than you are, there is always someone who will be a similar size that will take inspiration from your blog. Number 2: but if you want to lose weight that is a personal thing that you can share with your readers but not just to create a different style of post.

The is also the Pro-Ana community on blogging platforms such as Tumblr, which although most people oppose them I think are okay, I have scrolled through the tag recently, and yes the people there suffer from eating disorders but they are finding other people like them to help them through it, and if one of those people recovers and tells the others then it might just help. Non? But on the other hand there are posts like this:

I also find that if you are smaller you are just another fashion blogger in a sea of many.

My last comment on blogging: You don't have to be skinny to blog, you can be who ever you want to be, just so long as you are happy doing what you do.

My Experiences

I know I have already talked about one personal experience in this post but there are a few others I think I ought to mention. At secondary school in about Year 8 I was called anorexic, now being 12 I thought nothing of it, but now looking back I cannot work out if it is meant as a compliment or an insult about my then very skinny body shape?

The second it that I found that it is okay to insult smaller people because the have "nice bodies" but if you insult a bigger person it is instantly bullying and must be dealt with. It doesn't make anysense to me, or maybe its because I am small.

I also find it a real struggle to find anything in a size 6 or 8 in things I like, there seem to be less of these sizes made, esspecially for tall gals like me shops assume that because you are tall you should be size 10+ hence my preference for Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch jeans.

One quick note on models: can we stop saying that ultra skinny models aren't real women?

I have wanted to write this for a while, I feel I ought to say that I don't mean to offend anyone I just don't understand the stigma attached to being smaller. I also want to apologise for using the word skinny so much, but I think slim is considered to still have some nice curves (just me?)

xo, Miriam

P.S. What do you think? Tweet me at @coffeechanel

I didn't meet anyone in my year at school who hasn't watched Mean Girls including all the boys, such a pity we had school uniform as I am pretty sure quite a few of us would have followed this rule.

ON WEDNESDAYS WE WEAR PINK.

Mean Girls, Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging and Wild Child were my film bibles as a tween and young teenager even if they weren't entirely accurate, they were good films and gave people like me hope in a clique filled secondary school!

So in honor of the fact that Mean Girls is turning 10 on the 30th of April of the year I have created a very pink outfit, using my pink checked shirt from Crew and my sisters lacy skirt from H&M, 10x preppier than Karen Smith and Co. ever would. I just wish I had my new Chelsea boots when I took these photos last weekend, they would have matched perfectly, especially with some frilly socks!

There are certainly perks to being that same size as my sister, I get to wear her clothes!

Now I really Must get back to studying if I am ever going to pass this course, wish me luck *cries at the amount of deadlines I have* no but seriously I must go and study!

XO, Miriam

P.S. How do you wear pink? and will you be celebrating the 10th anniversary of Mean Girls?

P.S.S. I know it is a Sunday ;)

I find that on those rainy days spent indoors with a duvet, hot chocolate, and a good book, there is always certain songs/artists that I gravitate to. Songs to block out the sound of rain on the window panes, and songs to just sit and listen to, and ones that remind you of days spent exploring new places.

So here are my Top 7 Songs (7 is my lucky number) for rainy days:

Number 1:

Orelia Has Orchestra - Suggestions

Number 2:

Lianne La Havas - Au Cinema

Number 3:

Lorde - Buzzcut Season

Number 4:

Plain White T's - Hey There Delilah

Number 5:

Coldplay - The Scientist

Number 6:

You Me At Six - Loverboy

Number 7:

Trent Dabbs - Counting Sleep

XO, Miriam

I am sad to say that this is not mine, and that I have only worn it once. It is actually my boyfriends and if you have seen my other recent posts you will know he has another gorgeous watch neither of which I can keep for myself, I joke I wouldn't want to. Anyway you can't tell the time that well on it but the penny you see inside it is REAL, and from 1927, pennies were huge back then! And all I can think of is that similar coins would have been being produced by the mint during the time frame in which Downton Abbey is set.... must find a new addiction!

xo, Miriam

I have re-discovered the wonder that is Bastille over the last few weeks along with some other amazing artists, who's lyrics will probably become blog titles over the next few weeks and months. It can't just be me who finds a new artist every week of the year and can't stop listening to them. Anyway the point is that these are some of my favourite outfit post photos I have even taken using the timer because I was dancing by myself and singing as loud as possible, because you have to when you are home alone right? Right?

Ahh a normal pose, but just you wait!

I picked up the cute panda printed tee in the sales from Urban Outfitters, and I have loved it ever since! I have worn both the blazer (old school uniform) and the skort (Zara) in posts before but I couldn't help myself and just had to share this outfit, plus I haven't worn them together so it counts right?


I learnt this from a Micheal McIntyre show on telly a few weeks back, say "prune" instead of "cheese" in a photo and you will pout...

Can we just take a moment to realise how long my legs are?

PANDAS! You don't understand my love for these creatures I mean just look at them, also Google Baby Pandas!

The peace sign with my fingers means smile in Japan!

XO, Miriam

P.S. I know the calender is last years, I haven't got a 2014 one yet....

If you follow me on twitter you will know that I have an exciting trip later on this year to India, that is all you get to know for now until I have paid it all and am on my way to the airport (don't quote me on that). I have been watching JacksGap YouTube videos for a while now, and I have enjoyed their rickshaw run videos, and the title of this post comes from the song played at the end: In a perfect world by The Sam Chase.

The temptation to get on this train to London Waterloo was unreal!

So today is a Thursday *OMG 1 more day to the weekend* I managed to roll out of bed and create an awfully nice outfit, if I am allowed to say so? I pulled on some jeans as I so often do on a college morning then I pulled out this sheer shirt with amazing cuff and collar details!

XO, Miriam