Hello again! 

As you saw in the last post, myself and my boyfriend carved pumpkins together as a Halloween activity, and to spend some quality time together without having to splash out on cash. 

Well, once we'd carved the pumpkins we scooped out their fruit, and I then made some Pumpkin and Apple muffins. They're so simple to make and taste delicious, a real treat for those cold autumn nights! We found that they went really well with custard, and made a cake with the left over mixture to be served with custard as a tasty dessert. 

First of all, here is the recipe: 
Ingredients 
2 eggs, lightly beaten 
125ml vegetable oil
300g self-raising flour
250g caster sugar
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 
250g pumpkin purée
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
250g de-cored, finely chopped apples (small squares) 

Equipment:
Muffin cups/tray
Blender
Whisk
2 Mixing bowls 
Weighing scales
Measuring jug

To make the pumpkin purée I simply blended the pumpkin that I had scooped (without any seeds amongst it). However, you can buy canned pumpkin in supermarkets. 

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, spices, bicarbonate of soda and salt.

In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, pumpkin purée and vegetable oil.

Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture; stirring it just so that it is moist. Then fold in the apple squares.

Grease up the muffin cups/tray with butter or lard. Spoon the muffin mixture into the cups/tray.

Bake in the (preheated) oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until you can insert a sharp knife or skewer into the muffin and the knife/skewer come out clean. 

Allow the muffins to cool and remove them. I used a plastic spatular to do this. 

There you go, delicious pumpkin and apple muffins! Here are some photos of us making them: 

I hope you enjoyed reading this and you find this recipe helpful!

Louise x 

Hello everyone! 

As Halloween is almost here, me and my partner thought it'd be good to carve pumpkins together. None of us had done this before so it was really nice to have a go at it together. In addition to this, where I am in the country it was chucking it down with rain today so it was lovely to be able to do something new inside and without wasting a lot of money! It's also our 3 year anniversary in 7 days, so this is the first of a few little 'spending quality time together' activities :3 We both found that it was surprisingly easy to do, maybe that's because we're adults so shouldn't find it hard :p Here are the pumpkins: 

They're now glowing in my room as Autumn decorations, on Halloween night I will put one at the end of our drive to invite trick or treaters :) 

I also got these lovely flowers from my boyfriend when he came over today:
 

I will be posting ideas for things that couples or even friends can do together during the cold, autumn and winter season. I hope they help :) 

Louise x 

Hello there! 

Now that I've got used to blogging every day, the fact that I didn't yesterday feels really weird. It feels more like a week than a day. Then again, that could be because today has somehow dragged more than I can remember a day ever dragging. Yep, that makes sense. I think it's dragged because I'M NOT IN PAIN PEOPLE! I HAD A WHOLE DAY WITH TINY AMOUNTS OF PAIN HERE AND THERE AND I WENT OUT WITHOUT ALMOST COLLAPSING AND GUESS WHAT I  RAN UP THE STAIRS TODAY. Thing is, when you're in constant pain, everything takes ages to do, and you have to keep resting. Thus, as you've probably experienced at some point in your life, doing nothing can make the day go very quickly ... especially when you can't sleep at night due to pain so wake up at around11am. I must admit I was woken up at 10am today by my brother. I think my body was catching up on sleep - yesterday was also pretty exhausting with all the anxiety of my visit to the specialist consultant which I will tell you about now. 

The consultant I saw was a very understanding and very experienced man, he is in fact the honorary gynae consultant at Guy's hospital in central London, and he now sees outpatients at a hospital near me, which is where I saw him. Let's start from the beginning. I handed him my two a4 pages of recent history and general, every day problems since my body rejected its last option of 'simple/controlled' treatment of Endometriosis. After asking a few questions about what I'd written, previous treatments I'd tried etc, he felt my stomach and womb. After doing this examination, he confirmed that my womb is still tender, therefore there is still a problem going on despite my recent operation to cauterise the Endometriosis on it. He then explained to me what was going to happen.

First I had an ultrasound scan, which I'm pretty used to as I've had several since I was 16. This time it was to check for cysts which could have been caused by the Endometriosis or any abnormalities. The lady who gave me the scan found that I had small cysts and that the lining of my womb was very thick as my cycle has not been working the way that it should recently. 

After this, I was given an injection called goserelin by the consultant in my stomach. This injection will send my body into an artificial menopause. Thus, the hormone that feeds Endometriosis will no longer be produced, therefore Endometriosis cannot continue to grow or cause pain during this time. To counteract the injection, I will be taking HRT as of tomorrow to reduce the side effects of it, which are menopause symptoms. I can't quite believe I'm going to be taking HRT at 18 either. 

This injection is being used as an indicator, to find out if it is the Endometriosis carrying on to cause me pain or another illness. If the injection stops the pain, it is the Endometriosis, if it doesn't, it is another illness which is existing alongside Endometriosis. So far, I have been a lot less painful as was explained just now. I have not had any of the 'nerve' pain which has disabled me a lot recently and I've only had bits of Endo pain here and there. I COULD just be having a good day, as they do come around every now and then. Let's hope it's the injection doing its job. 

Now, the injection is only temporary. In fact, it's only for 6 months. I will have the injection every 4 weeks for 6 months, after that I will have to stop and cannot have it again. In 3 months I will visit this consultant again and we will review how effective the injection has been. If the injection has taken away the pain, we will decide how to deal with the Endometriosis for good, for example (most likely) through surgery. 

For now though, I can focus on starting my job next month and hopefully living a pain-free life for 6 months :D It sounds pathetic but I will make the most of every day if this is the outcome. I'm ecstatic that I've had this injection well in time for me and my partner's 3 year anniversary at the end of October, and of course for starting work. Now that I'm not taking Naproxen, I can also enjoy a drink every now and then. However, not a lot still as drinking while on this injection increases the risk of osteoporosis (darn it!). 

For the record, here's a picture of my wonderfully bruised stomach (from the injection): 

Thank you for reading!

Louise x

Hello everyone! So today I tried making bath bombs for the first time. I did mess it up a little as I added the citric acid way too late (forgot to add it at the start!) they also did not like baking moulds at all so I had to re-do the ones that were still mouldable. Anyway here they are, they're pink which you can't really see in this picture (I will upload a new picture tomorrow in the daylight to show you) and smell of mixed spice. I'm going to call these my Christmas cookies xD Don't worry, they WILL get better, and there will be more scents and colours evolving :) Also, they do work! :D 

Tomorrow I will be bringing you a health update, as I am seeing the specialist consultant to find out what is going to happen to me next in order to fight this illness. 

Soon I will also be starting to do monthly book reviews, as I feel that this blog is now ready for my literary madness :') 

Thank you for reading! 
Louise x

Hello all, I wasn't sure what to blog about today so I thought I'd venture into a secret love of mine which is home decor. As the weather has become very cold recently I thought I'd share with you some lovely Christmassy home accessories and cosy items! I've included the price and where you can get them from :D

Ah, I feel all warm and fuzzy already! Thank you for reading as always, if you liked this post please share! 

Louise x

... Then buy it! I got this for the first time in August when I was on holiday to try it as I'd run out of moisturiser. It's only ... wait for it ... £1! The thing is, it's better than a lot of more expensive products that I've tried. It's really improved the softness of my skin and it is incredibly easy to apply, as although it is thick it has a silky, smooth texture. Plus it smells gorgeous! If you're on a budget but desperately need some moisturiser/body butter, or simply want to try something more affordable/different, I strongly recommend this! I use the cocoa butter scent but it also comes in other lovely scents such as raspberry and mango as you can see above. I often find that cheaper products like this are often better for our skin as they contain less ingredients, therefore less harsh chemicals that could potentially damage our skin. I've recently seen it in shops that sell 'bits and bobs' and in Poundland. Let me know if you try/have tried it, and if it works for you!

Louise x 

Hello there and Happy Sunday to you! This is just a (very) quick post to let you know that LouCesca now has a page on Facebook! Here you will be able to help me to know what works and what doesn't on LouCesca with the power of the notorious 'like' button. It also means that we can generally be much more interactive, introduce LouCesca to a wider audience and hopefully build a community! Please do 'like' this pa

Hello! Today I mostly lounged around feeling rather ... ill. However, with the help of my boyfriend I managed to get out and get some bubble bath making supplies! I didn't need to get a lot as I already have the lavender fragrance from making the soap. I will be putting the bubble bath into 100ml bottles, decorating them and giving them to my friends and family as Christmas presents, hopefully along with other festive soapy treats! If anyone's wondering when I plan on selling my products (if you knew that I was planning on that) ... I won't be doing it until the new year. For now I'm simply trying things out and showing you all what I do. This bubble bath is lavender and honey. I do apologise for the pink colour, I bought the right colouring for purple (or at least the packet said so!) but I'm guessing it came out pink as the bubble bath is pearlised? Anyhow, that's what this learning process is all about! It smells gorgeous and I assure you that it will look gorgeous once I've decorated it! Below are some pictures of me making it taken by my younger brother. I'll also put the prices of the products I bought today and where I bought them.

Bubble bath base 1 litre - Hobby Craft - £4.29
Red/Blue soap and bubble bath colouring: Hobby Craft - £3.29


As always, thank you for reading! 

Louise x 

Hey! I recently upgraded my phone to a HTC One Mini, after having put up with a £5 Samsung for a long time! This is because on my previous contract I had a Blackberry, which of course broke. My boyfriend pays for my phone contracts, and was going to move to o2 as they offered a pretty good deal on the HTC One Mini, and got 30% discount off of the tariff as he works for Waitrose. However, Vodafone called and offered unlimited texts, unlimited calls and 4GB internet with the HTC One Mini, PLUS 50% discount making the bill just over 20 pounds! We were astounded by this offer so of course accepted. 

Now for the phone, which despite its name is not so mini! It is a dream. Everything is just how I want it, with a news feed based on my interests on the home page, a simple navigation system and an excellent camera. The recent photos on my blog of the soap and gifts were taken by the phone. It's also visually stunning as you can see! On top of this, the Beats Audio feature is brilliant for watching videos and listening to music. And, of course, the most important part - the ringtones are simply magical :') 

THEREFORE, it's a 5/5 for both Vodafone's Customer Service, its value for money and for the HTC One Mini! I would definitely recommend both the phone and network provider. :) 

Louise x

Hellooo! It was my Mum's Birthday yesterday, so I thought I'd share with you what I bought her incase anyone needs some Birthday or even Christmas gift inspiration :D 

First up, I know my mum loves Sanctuary Spa products. I wandered into Boots and saw that not only did they have loads but all products were on a 3 for 2 offer! Whilst scanning the gift set section, I realised that the majority of them had some sort of moisturiser in them and not much of their bath products, so I decided to mix and match a little to get a decent amount of everything :) 

First up, I bought this set of Body Butter and two Soufflés. I like this set as you get a lot for your money. This cost quite a hefty £15.00, but wait, it's worth it when you get to the end! 

Next up, I picked up this very reasonably sized body wash. There were LOADS of different varieties of body/shower washes so in the end I opted for the basic one as you can't go wrong with that. It's also better value as the others had less product in them. This cost £5.50. 

I then thought I'd get something a little different. It's the smell that my mum loves about Sanctuary Spa so I thought why not get her a body spray?! This way she can wear the gorgeous smell on her skin and clothes after having enjoyed the other bath and body products. There's also a lot of product in this so it was a buy that will last long. This cost £6.50.

Now, with the 3 for 2 offer these cost 21.50 rather than £27 which I think is a pretty good saving :) I know this is still a lot to pay for a gift if you're on a budget, but it's great considering that this is quite an expensive brand! If you wanted to do a cheaper shop of Sanctuary Spa, you could buy three products like the body spray and body wash rather than throwing in an expensive gift set. :)  Also, Boots do 3 for 2 offers across a whole load of their products, for example Soap and Glory, No7, the lot! Go in there for a gift treasure hunt! 

Next up I decided to give her some of my soaps, as she absolutely loves lavender. First of all I gave her a good sized bar for washing, then some small pieces for her drawers and then a piece with 'mum' carved into it to stand in her room. Thanks to the lavender fragrance her room and drawers will smell lovely!

Thank you for reading, I hope that this post has helped some of you with your Christmas/Birthday gift hunts!
Louise x