I Predict a Pussy Riot

Recently, for one reason or another, I've become fascinated with Pussy Riot.

For those of you who don't know, Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist punk rock protest group. They staged provocative guerrilla performances in public locations, which were then edited into music videos and posted on le inter-web. They performed about themes like feminism, LGBT rights and opposition to the policies of the Russian President Vladimir Putin who they say is a dictator (and let's be honest, he really is!) and links between Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church. 

Plus, lets be honest, they wear pretty cool balaclavas! What's not to like?







Anyways, the whole reason they got thrust into the spotlight in recent years is because of what happened to the women of the group. In March 2012, three of Pussy Riot's members were arrested, those being Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich, who were denied bail and convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" and sentenced to 2 years in prison. Two other members of the group, who escaped arrest after protests, reportedly left Russia fearing being arrested themselves!

Their trials therefore generated loads of support form many countries, with many suggesting the opinion (that I 100% agree with) that they were only arrested in the first place as they're feminists! Which is obviously unacceptable. However, Putin blatantly doesn't feel the same way, saying they "got what they asked for". Hmmm, yeh right!

Fortunately all the women were released as of December 2013, but are unfortunately still subject to abuse from people's ignorance. They were even attacked at the Winter Olympics in Sochi!!

Anyways, the whole point to this blog post isn't to pressure my opinions on to you, rather I see it as an obligation to help educate those who don't know about Pussy Riot, as in an age where feminism is being criticized more than ever, it's imperative to show our support to those campaigning for equal rights for women!

I know this isn't much like any of my other posts, so sorry if its not what you were expecting, thought I'd shake things up as this is a subject I'm truly passionate about!

All the best,
The Titian Mermaid :)

The Best Way to Waste a Sunday

Anyone who knows me at all will tell you that I'm a massive film fan.

I LOVE everything about movies, from witty scripts to intricate costumes, every aspect fascinates me :)

Now, I'm not one of those girls who only likes rom-com's, or who will only watch a film with Ryan Gosling in (although who doesn't appreciate that!)...I like to think that my movie taste ranges from horror, to rom-coms, from psychological thrillers to artsy indie films. I'm not one to discriminate!

I've loved films ever since I can remember. My love of them stemmed from my childhood, where, every Friday night (without fail!), me and my family would all sit together and watch a movie. It's always been the perfect way to unwind after a full on week, and get in gear for the weekend.

Anyways, here are my top pics 35 must see films!

1. Notting Hill
2. The Little Mermaid
3. Scream
4. Like Crazy
5. Blue is the Warmest Colour
6. Before Sunrise
7. Psycho
8. 10 Things I Hate About You
9. Trance
10. Girl Interrupted
11. Clueless
12. Room with a View
13. The Scent of a Woman
14. A Place in the Sun
15. Fight Club
16. American Psycho
17. Twelve Angry Men
18. Perfume
19. Rear Window
20. Forrest Gump
21. It's a Wonderful Life
22. Casablanca
23. Apocalypse Now
24. Fargo
25. Trainspotting
26. Donnie Darko
27. Million Dollar Baby
28. Jaws
29. Valley of the Dolls
30. Scott Pilgrim vs the World
31. Roman Holiday
32. Sweeney Todd
33. Headhunters
34. Grease
35. A Clockwork Orange

I feel like anyone would love to see at least one film from this list due to the sheer diversity of these amazing films! So if you watch any please let me know!

Until next time!

Why should my makeup go cruelty free?

Hello All!

Something very close to my heart, and that I'm honestly very passionate about, is the elimination of animal testing. My reasons for this are broad, first of all, I obviously love animals, I feel I have a true bond with them. However my other reasons are more on the philosophical side, and stem from the idea that animals should have the exact same rights as humans, as humans are animals themselves!! I won't bore you going into the deep details, but maybe one day I'll do a post about it...

As a massive beauty lover myself, this is something very close to my heart...

I understand that many may disagree with what I'm saying, and I don't mean to offend anyone, these are just my opinions! I want everyone to know that I'm not trying to impose my views at all, and of course people who do use animal tested brands aren't bad people, I'd just like people to know more about it :)

Anyways, I feel that those who aren't cruelty free allow themselves to become ignorant, mainly due to the fact they don't understand the torture animals go through. Others are also lazy, and decide not to go cruelty free as it may inconvenience them, or because it would mean they couldn't use their favorite brand of makeup anymore, I'll admit I used to be like that! But that doesn't mean your view can't change! Most don't understand that animal testing isn't just spraying perfume on a bunny to see how it smells, rather animal testing includes burning, poisoning and numerous forms of torture on these innocent and vulnerable animals (I wont go into the gory details). Popular makeup brand that test on animals include, M.A.C Cosmetics, Chanel, Lancome, L'Oreal and Bobbi Brown just to name a few.

To live in a peaceful world how can humans be doing this to their fellow animal? We can no longer allow the human race to corrupt the innocent, naive and vulnerable in our world. We cannot call ourselves harmonious people if we allow destruction to continue in our world, so if this post can make at least one person understand the true consequences of our actions, then I will be happy! :)

On a lighter note, I though I would list a few of of my favourite cruelty free brands:

• Anastasia Beverly Hills
• Barefaced Mineral Cosmetics
• Bare Minerals
• Barry M
• ELF Cosmetics
• Eyeko
• Illamasqua
• LUSH
• Milani
• Model's Own
• NARS Cosmetics
• NYX
• Sigma Beauty
• Smashbox Cosmetics
• Soap & Glory
• Sonia Kashuk
• Stila Cosmetics
• Suki
• Tarte Cosmetics
• The Body Shop
• Too Faced Cosmetics
• Urban Decay
• Victoria's Secret

...And that's just to name a few! For more brands look at the Peta website, they are very helpful!

Sorry if this post was a bit full on, but I just felt that as a beauty lover it was something I had to speak about.

All My Love

The Titian Mermaid

xoxo

How To: Make a HOMEMADE Pizza Cake

Hello All!

I though I would do something adventurous this week, so I attempted to make a pizza cake! I've seen all the hype about this BEAUTIFUL looking dish, so I though why not?! I would like to emphasize how homemade this, as I am definitely not a professional cook...plus I kind of made up the recipe as I went along! Anyways, I hope you enjoy, and please let me know if you attempt this!





Step 1: So, the first step is to make the base of the pizza, yum! You will firstly need to gather all of your ingredients.

Here is what you will need for the base:

• 400g of Bread Flower
• 50g of Margarine
• 1 Tablespoon of Sugar
• 2 and a half Tablespoons of Salt (less if you prefer)
• 1 packet of Yeast
• A splash of Olive Oil
• The tiniest splash of Milk!
• And around 250ml of water, make sure not to add too much!

Step 2: Next, get a big bowel, and mix all of your ingredients together (add them one by one in the order as listed above) and mix together until you get dough in a ball shape like mine!

Then, put this ball of dough into the fridge for around 30 minutes.

Step 3: Whilst leaving your dough in the fridge, grab a cake tin, and line it with brown paper, and then cut it, and fiddle until it fits nicely. 

Next, butter up the brown paper, so that when the dough is cooked, it slips out of the paper nicely.

Step 4: Take your dough out of the fridge, and split it into 4 smaller balls of dough.

Then, take your first ball of dough, and roll it out onto your board, adding flour throughout the process to make sure the dough is nice and doughy, and not too sticky! Make sure you roll it into a spherical shape, and not too think, so it can nicely fit onto the base of the tin (similar to my picture).

Step 5: Take your next ball of dough, roll it out, and add it to the corners of your cake tin, leaving you with the base structure of your pizza cake.

Step 6: Grab a tomato sauce of your choice, and add it to the bottom layer of your pizza cake. Then get some mozzarella, cut it up, and then add that on top of the sauce. 

Step 7: Grab your next ball of dough, and make your next layer of pizza, and add more tomato sauce and mozzarella. 

Carry on doing this until you have no more balls of dough! (But make sure that you have enough dough to make crust for the top layer of your pizza cake)

 Step 8: Make sure you have used up all your dough, and if you have any extra you can make a mini pizza as a cherry on top of the cake (like mine)! And carry on adding loads of cheese and LOADS of sauce!

Step 9: Put your almost ready pizza cake in the oven for around 35 minutes (or until you think its ready, with the cheese bubbling) at around 210 C

Step 10: Take out your delicious pizza cake, wait for it to cool down...and ENJOY!

All the best

The Titian Mermaid

xoxo

First Things First...

Hello All!

I'm very new to this whole blogging thing so sorry if I'm bad at it! But i'll give it my best shot...

First things first I guess I should tell you a bit about myself...so where shall I begin?! Well, my name is Lara and I am just your typical kinda gal! I am currently studying for my A Levels, and taking Drama, History and Psychology, and having a hoot! (sarcasm intended) and I am looking to blogging for my creative outlet, which allows me to maybe talk about things other than UCAS and how not going to university can ruin your life (yeah right!) Anyway I hope you enjoy reading my little rants about things in life that I find interesting!

Anyway...I assume you are all dying to know about the title of my blog, I can already hear you asking "Does this girl really think she's a mermaid? She wishes" or maybe "OhMy, this girl must have gills!!!!" Well, to clarify any confusion, and to put all your minds at rest, sadly I am not a real mermaid (although I do wish I could splash around with Flounder and Sebastian #notsoindirectLittleMermaidjoke). I am although, as if you hadn't already guessed...a Little Mermaid fanatic! Plus, in case you didn't know, Titian is a brownish-red hair colour (basically another word for ginger) which is the colour of my hair. To cut a long story short, the reasons behind my 'ginger denial' (not that there's anything wrong with being ginger!) is that when I was younger I was teased for looking like Garfield, and like my hair was on fire. So to make me feel more confident about my hair my lovely father instructed me to tell these silly sods where to shove their opinions, and to tell them of my actual hair colour [Titian]! That's me below just incase you were wondering who that weird chick was!

In my blog I just hope to talk about any wonderful randomness that may occur in my life, and I hope that it may even bring a smile to your face!

Until next time cheerio friends
Your Truly
The Titian Princess