STEAL HER STYLE - KYLIE MINOGUE If you were watching The Voice this week, you couldn’t fail to be wow wow wow wowed by Kylie’s drop dead gorgeous gold number. We can’t all be as beautifully perfect, tiny, slim and dinky doo as Miss Minogue, but we can wear gold dresses and still look fabulous!

Hers was Stella McCartney. Ours is M & S. Scoop Neck Jacquard Prom Belted Dress, £89, Marks and Spencer.

GIVE IT A WHIRL Juicing You can’t fail to have heard all about the latest diet/detox craze – juicing. Not blending, juicing…totally different. So forget high calorie smoothies and think more about a blend of cucumber, pineapple, beetroot, carrot, kale, lemon and spinach. Sounds not great, but I’ve been doing at various points over the last few years and I assure you, it tastes great, and it feels like goodness in a glass.

You can go too far of course. I’m clearly not a nutritionist but from what I have read, and how I feel in terms of my energy levels, I wouldn’t do it purely juicing for more than two or three days at a time, but to get rid of the bloat, give yourself a spring boost and lose an inch or so, it’s just the ticket. I have numerous pairs of jeans that I couldn’t squeeze into without feeling slightly Miranda Hart-esque. They all fit now. With room. No muffin top. I promise.

The juicing evangelist, Jason Vale, has been at the helm of the juicing phenomenon. He gained fame and notoriety for his juice based diets, claiming that swapping junk food for juice helped him overcome severe asthma, psoriasis, eczema and hay fever as well as helping him to lose weight. I did mine for three days and lost probably around 5 lbs although I cheated slightly. The diet didn’t say that you couldn’t have two gin and tonics, two Ryvita with houmous and a couple of stolen chips from my son’s tea, so I went with my ‘gut’ on that one!

The five day juice cleanse is endorsed by the likes of Beyonce, Ashton Kutcher and Sarah Jessica Parker but not all nutritionists and doctors are fans, so don’t take my advice (what would I know?), take theirs. Or maybe take note of Gwyneth Paltrow’s experience. She lasted 10 days before she started hallucinating (as you would) and went on to slam the diets in the press.

Three days worked for me but I’m not living in La La Land, I’m a pretty down to earth girl and I know when enough’s enough!

Balance for everything and everything in moderation. A juice a day is perfect for me and the odd naughty is fine now and again. We’re real women, not glossy celebs, but we can feel good and look good without damaging ourselves.

You can find out more about the Jason Vale juicing phenomenon at www.juicemaster.com WEBSITE OF THE WEEK www.sofeminine.co.uk I’ve been a fan of this website for many years, primarily because whenever I google something girly-ish, Google always seems to return this site with a find! It’s chock full of articles, tips, news and advice on fashion, entertainment, beauty, health and wellbeing, relationships, food and drink and it has it’s own forum for real women to swap notes on all of that stuff!

A fabulous little coffee break browse!

COCKTAIL HOUR Cocktails don’t just have to taste good, they have to look spectacular, mostly. It’s all about effort to make people feel special and well looked after. Don’t worry, plenty of time to slosh wine in a glass later but for any cocktail time, I think things should be special, elegant and a bit decadent. They need to have the ‘wow’ factor. The ‘Oh my goodness!’ factor, so knowing that, you won’t feel too bad about putting an extra special wee bit of effort into this one. It’s worth it! Rhubarb and Custard Cocktail: Ingredients For the rhubarb syrup 85 g caster sugar 300g chopped rhubarb For the cocktail 100ml vodka 100 ml rhubarb syrup 1 length rhubarb 30 ml advocaat 75 ml lemonade Method: 1.To make the rhubarb syrup, put the caster sugar in a saucepan with 75ml water. Heat very gently, so the sugar disappears but the water doesn’t bubble. Tip in the chopped rhubarb, cover with a tight-fitting lid and increase the heat a little so it begins to boil. Simmer, covered, for about 5 mins until the rhubarb is very tender but not disintegrating.

2.Turn off the heat, and tip the pan’s contents into a fine sieve over a bowl. Use a wooden spoon to gently squeeze the rhubarb so that you get all the juices, but no pulp. Tip back into the pan and boil rapidly for a few mins until just syrupy. Pour into a jug – you should have about 125ml. Leave to cool completely. Any leftovers will keep in the fridge for up to 1 month.

3.Chill 4 cocktail glasses with ice or in your freezer. Shake the vodka and 100ml of the rhubarb syrup together with ice until mixed and chilled down. Make small shreds of rhubarb using a vegetable peeler and place into iced water – this will make them curl up.

4.In a separate jug, whisk together the advocaat and lemonade with more ice to lighten. Divide the vodka and rhubarb mixture between the glasses, straining through a small sieve to catch the ice.

5.Carefully pour 25ml of your advocaat mixture into each glass over an upsidedown spoon (the mixture should float on the surface of the vodka syrup mixture). Drain the rhubarb shreds well and use to garnish your cocktails.