Summer Fruits and Berries Rasul at Bryn Meadows

Morning all!

A spa day is always a welcome treat but after the last few weeks I was so excited to have been invited to Bryn Meadows Spa to try out their Summer Fruits and Berries Rasul offer.

This included the Rasul Mud Room Ceremony with a geranium and grapefruit scrub and a choice of mud, use of the poolside and leisure facilities for 3 hours with the usual robe, towel and slippers, followed by the Summer Berries afternoon tea with unlimited tea or coffee and a glass of Pimms.

To say I was excited was an understatement, I was looking forward to forgetting the world outside of the spa for a few hours and embracing the relaxation.

The Mulberry Bar at the Celtic Manor Resort

Have you heard about the fabulous new bar in the Celtic Manor?

The new Mulberry Bar opened recently and we were invited to go and check it out. Having visited Celtic Manor previously for afternoon tea and spa weekends we couldn't wait to see the new bar and see what it had to offer.

Image from the Celtic Manor

The Celtic Manor Resort Summer Berry Afternoon Tea

Hey all!

Happy National Afternoon Tea Week! I mean, this week is only second best to Christmas in my opinion. A week dedicated to afternoon tea?? How British and how delightful!

We were super lucky and were invited back to the Celtic Manor Resort to try their new Summer Berry afternoon tea - we were obviously never going to say no but especially not when the treats looked this beautiful!

Spectrum Collections Event

Morning all!

If you're a follower of our Instagram and Twitter accounts (@thecsigirls) you will have seen we were invited to the Spectrum Collection event in Cardiff last week,

It was my first time at the Tramshed so it was great to visit it and see the type of rooms it has to offer, we were in Tramshed Tech which was a gorgeous room. We were both instantly wowed on arrival and were suitably impressed all evening!

Honey Bee Beautiful

Hello there!

Just before Christmas I was invited to an event in Miskin Manor for the relaunch of Honey Bee Beautiful, a local company in Wales who sustain their own bees and make beautiful artisan products from them.

HBB was founded by Catherine, who previously had a successful career in law which she gave up to pursue her love of beekeeping. If you didn't know, bees are EXTREMELY important. They have a massive job in the ecosystem for pollination and it is said that 1 in every 3 bites of food comes from pollinators like bees (I don't know the source of this but I've seen it many times!) so we really need to appreciate them and look after them more.

Firework Displays South Wales 2015

Hey All

I don't know about you but I love Bonfire Night. I love just going to watch firework shows!! I always find it a struggle to find what's going on so thought I'd share some of the one's I know about in South Wales and some things we've done before!

One I've heard the most about but I'm still yet to make and won't be able to this year either is Sparks in the Park. This is held in Bute Park behind Cardiff Castle and is on 7th Nov this year. Tickets are available online for it. It's meant to be such an amazing show one year I'll make it.

Caerphilly Castle  is another great display which is being held on 31st Nov. Another one I won't be able to make. If you really love fireworks you could go to both of these. This is a free one!

Ponty Big Bang  is one I used to go to when I was in university! It's on the 1st Nov in Ynysangharad War Memorial Park Pontypridd. It's a ticketed event which can be bought beforehand from.

Newport is bringing back it's display to Rodney Parade for the first time in 10 years. This one is being held on 5th Nov. Tickets for this one can be bought from Rodney Parade Office.

Swansea Bonfire Night Party is being held in St Helens Ground on 5th Nov. This sounds like a great event and has music as well. 

So that's some of the official firework displays. The last few years I've been up to Caerphilly Mountain on Bonfire night to eat the AMAZING Caerphilly mountain snack bar burgers and watch all the smaller firework displays across the valleys!

Are you going to watch fireworks this year? Does anyone know if there are any in Cardiff Bay?

Love M

xxx

The Angel Hotel Abergavenny

Hi all!

One of my Christmas presents was a voucher to go to the High Tea in the Angel Hotel in Abergavenny. I've heard a lot about this place a lot from when I used to work near there and lots from other friends and bloggers who have been.

I was really looking forward to it and I can tell you it didn't disappoint!

We were taken to a dining room where the china was so beautiful! It was all matching and perfectly placed, totally ideal for afternoon tea.

I wore my new black Ralph Lauren dress as its really smart but still chic - I love the leather edging to the V on the neck and the pockets, and it's also got plenty of room for cake!

And considering this amazing stand of food wasn't even all of the food included in the High Tea it was a good idea!

Just look at all of the beautiful pastries, delicate cakes and really cute sandwiches - I couldn't stop staring at all of the food but also couldn't wait to tuck in either.

Let's start with the pastries - coronation chicken, prawns, salmon, beef and stilton as well as cheese scones and quiche. I was totally loving this part as savoury food is my fave.

This was all absolutely divine, I managed to restrain myself from shoving them in one after another but as our time slot was 3pm I was so hungry it was difficult! Some of these also came out warm, it would have been rude to eat them cold right?



Next up we went through the sandwiches - egg mayo, ham and mustard, salmon, and cheese and onion. They were all really nice and the crusts were removed meaning the fillings were right up to the edges, something I personally think is vital in a sandwich!

The last tier was the cakes themselves. For every other level on the stand we had one of each of the pastries or sandwiches, for the middle level of cakes they were all to share or split between us which was fun!

There was tiramasu cake, custard slice, raspberry ripple sponge, lemon roulade, chocolate brownie, profiterole and biscuits. I can't begin to tell you how gorgeous these were, and although they were sweet they weren't overpowering and the lemon and raspberry were so real tasting.
We didn't manage to finish these because there were so many to eat but they do allow you to take home a box of everything that you can't manage!

Apart from the stand there was also a mini trifle each (I can't cope with jelly so I just ate the cream off the top..!) shown below:

There was also a warm scone with jam and cream brought out to you when you were ready for them. I am slightly ashamed to admit that I didn't manage to eat these at the hotel so we brought both of these back home with us and ate them later on. For the record, they may be the best scones I've ever eaten (not including my mums - eating them straight out of the oven is different!) but they really were GOOD.

Aside from the food there was also the tea menu, it's fabulous and super extensive. It is also seemingly unlimited for the duration of the 2 hour slot and I started with a lovely black tea (needed the caffeine for my 3pm slump) and then followed it with a Moroccan mint tea.

They were also really good and I would love to go back and find some more, if I wasn't so thirsty I would have been more adventurous with my tea choices.

I would 100% recommend the High Tea at the Angel Hotel in Abergavenny, it has a wonderful selection of cakes and pastries for everyone and the tea range is outstanding.

The menu for the Angel Hotel can be found here, and the prices for the Afternoon Tea is £21.80 and the High Tea is £26.80. It would be a great mother/daughter day, catch up with friends and family, and I did also see a sophisticated hen party there too!

It gets a full recommendation from me, have you been to afternoon tea at the Angel Hotel? Have you been to any others in South Wales that you would recommend?

L xxx