EuroQuest: Day 11 - German Scout Camp/Cologne

Hi everyone! So it was our last day at the Scout Camp so after we cleaned up and packed our bags we were faced with the challenge of finding our way back to the train station. We decided it would be a great idea to walk through the woods to get back into town and it didn't take us long to realised we were lost after the path we were following disappeared. Jenny then took the lead and led us on 'Jennys Magical Mystery Hobbit Tour' which eventually got us back on the track and to the train station.

As we were waiting for the train to arrive the heavens opened for the first time on the trip and at first it was so nice because in most places it was around 30 degrees but then it got heavier and it turned into a mad scramble to find shelter. Our rain jackets were at the bottom of our bags because we didn't think we would need them so made makeshift shelters using our bag covers - well we are Girl Guides after all!

After several train journeys including as usual a sprint to the train after we realised we were waiting on the wrong platform we finally arrived in Cologne. There were so many shops in the station! There was a whole shop selling different things all made out of jelly sweets which looked amazing! I was very tempted to buy something but I didn't think it would still be in one piece by the time I got home! We then wandered into a clothes shop which had loads of really nice but cheap clothes and shoes! I got a dress and a top (which I'm still waiting for the weather to improve to wear) and Hayley found these shoes which were amazing and they were so cheap she had to get them!!

After our little shopping break we headed to a restaurant to get some food because we were so hungry after a day of travelling. The restaurant was primarily pork and had an amazing interior design. As the two veggies on the trip Evie and me decided that we would both order a macaroni cheese from the snacks menu and then share a portion of chips and some hash browns as we assumed being from the snack menu it would be small portions but oh how we were wrong! I don't think I've ever felt so full and neither of us could finish it all!

We then headed to the hostel and it was so nice! I was sharing a room with Frances, Evie and Hayley and as we got to the room we found the door literally wouldn't open. We were pushing against it with all our force but it would budge. Some guys in the room next to ours came out to see what all the noise was and apparently we were opening the door all wrong because you had to do something first with the key. Our room so so nice (once we finally got in!). We had a balcony and a proper walk in shower! This meant we could wash stuff and hang it over the balcony to properly dry rather than just hanging it over the bars on the bunk beds!

If you want to see more I filmed a bit of what we were doing so you can check that out here:
The video is a montage of several clips and pictures throughout the time we spent at the Scout Camp in the Harz Mountains and in Cologne as apposed to these blog posts which a split by day.

SCOUT CAMP VIDEO: COMING SOON

COLOGNE VIDEO: COMING SOON

Christmas Gift Ideas - Mistle Toes

Hi everyone! So it's nearly Christmas now which is super exciting so I've decided to write another gift idea post. Again I saw this on Pinterest (and this blog) and though it looked so nice and I'm always one for little pun!

It's so simple to make all you need is:

• A nail varnish of your choice
• Foot cream (although I used hand cream because I couldn't find any foot cream when I went out shopping)
• Cellophane (or a square bag if you know where to get them!) 
• Stapler 

The first thing you need to do is make your bag (obviously skip this step if you already have a bag). Simply cut out a rectangle from your cellophane and staple the edges together leaving enough at the bottom to make a base otherwise you won't be able to fit your stuff inside!

Then simply put your nail varnish and foot cream in your bag and you're pretty much done! If you want to go that little bit further (I didn't!) you could find some fake snow or glitter and put it in the bottom of the bag to add to that Christmassy feel!

Now you have two options here! You can either make your own Christmas mistle toes banner to go around the top (which is what I did) or you can save re-size to your needs and print the picture below which is the one I made!

Once you've got your banner all you have to do is staple it in place and your done! 

Hope you are enjoying these slightly different kind of blog posts & let me know if you make one and how it turned out for you! Thank you for reading! 

Christmas Gift Ideas - Reindeer Hot Chocolate Cones

Hi everyone! Now I know they say you should never start something with an apology but that is exactly what I'm going to do. I am really sorry that the pictures aren't great quality because they were taken with my phone rather than with my proper camera but I do have a reason for this!!! I've downloaded the blogger app on my phone so I can now write my posts on the go which is a real life saver! I'm currently writing this sat in Nero drinking a nice hot chocolate if you wanted to know! Which leads me onto what this post is all about....

I saw a picture on Pinterest (which was linked to this blog post here so you should check that out!) of these Reindeer hot chocolate cones and thought it was such a cute idea and looked so easy to make I just had to give it a go. It's basically a reindeer made from hot chocolate powder and some other things but it makes such a nice little present and I mean - who doesn't like hot chocolate!!

So there are a couple of things you will need to make this:

• Cellophane (Or a coned clear bag - which if you know where to get these from please please let me know because making the cone is honestly the hardest part!)
• Plate or something round
• Sharpie/pen
• Scissors
• Sellotape
• Hot chocolate powder
• Mini marshmallows
• Googly eyes
• A pompom
• A pipe cleaner/printed out/hand drawn antlers
• Elastic band or some way of fastening it
• Superglue

Okay so the first thing you need to do is make the cone (if you already have cone bags you can skip this step!). Place your plate near a corner of the cellophane and draw around the top arch and then cut this out.

Now try and roll this sort of triangleish shape you have just cut out into a cone. This might take a while (it took me ages!) but the important part is to make sure there isn't a gap at the end of the cone because you don't want your hot chocolate powder all falling out! Once you've made this conical shape put tape along all the edges and the point to make sure everything stays in place.

This can get a bit messy! You have to pour in your hot chocolate powder into your cone and depending on how big the cone you made was will depend on how much powder needs to go in. The first one I made was way too big and needed 4 servings of powder in there but these ones I have photos of only needed one!

Then pour your marshmallows on top. Again just put as many in until it looks right!

Now secure the top of the cone with an elastic band and make sure it's tight because you don't want your powder spilling out the top either!

Okay so now we are at the fun part! Stick on your googly eyes just at the top of the powder part. Even if you have ones with peel off backs that self stick you may still want a little bit of superglue on there especially if they have to go in a bag to be transported!

Then stick on your pompom nose! Ideally this should be red but we didn't have any in the house and I didn't have time to go out and buy any so I just used orange which doesn't look too bad?!

The picture I saw had antlers made out of twisting a brown pipe cleaner around the elastic band but I didn't have any so I improvised! I simply googled 'simple outline of antlers' and clicked the first result and printed that out. I then attached these again with superglue!

And voila! That's your reindeer hot chocolate done! I hope you thing they look as cool as I thought they did and enjoy making them! I hope you enjoyed this slightly different kind of post and let me know if you try it out and how it went! Thanks for reading!