BLOGMAS Day 2: Secret Santa Gift Ideas...

Welcome to Blogmas Day 2 lovelies! Secret Santa gifts can often be hard to buy. You often have a price limit and although it's just a jokey kind of thing, if you're anything like me, you'll want to get something that the recipient will get some use out of rather than it just going to the back of a cupboard/drawer, to someone else, or in the bin!

I've taken part in a few secret Santas over the years, mainly within a work environment, but some of you might be doing it amongst friends if there are a lot of you. I've experienced the limit to usually be between 5 and 10 pounds (excluding postage), so I've done a bit of research and thought I'd share a few ideas with you...

Secret Santa Gifts For Girls

1 - These Chocolate And Salted Caramel Marshmallows sound delicious and are handmade in Edinburgh, Scotland! Toffee d'or caramel and dark chocolate are swirled into 6 extra large marshmallows and solar dried with Isle of Sky sea salt. Salt and caramel or chocolate is actually a really nice combination. It can put some people off because they hear 'salt' and just think it's going to taste really salty. However, the truth is that it's often just a subtle saltiness that comes through and you'd be surprised at how nice the flavour actually is. This would be a lovely gift for someone with a sweet tooth and someone who doesn't mind trying something a bit different. You can buy them for £8 from Not On The High Street.

2 - Most people are familiar with Liz Earle and this Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish Christmas Edition Mini Drum would make a lovely secret Santa gift. Plus, it's such good value! It contains a 50ml Cleanse & Polish and a cloth. It's all packaged in a Christmas edition box, with a beautiful blue flower growing out of what looks like a bed of snow. It's a really peaceful and calming image. You can buy this from John Lewis for just £9!

3 - This Twinings 9 Tea Selection with 45 teabags would make a great gift for a tea lover! There are 5 of each teabags in the set and some of the flavours include, Lemon & Ginger Infusion, Peppermint Infusion and of course, good old English Breakfast. There should be something to suit all moods and even help you feel better such as the Orange & Lotus Flower green tea which contains antioxidants. This selection of teas is just £10 from Boots.

4 - These Get The Hint Wish List Sticky Notes are such a cool, novelty idea! These would be good for those beauty lovers or fashionista's who like flicking through magazines and staying up to date with the latest beauty or fashion products. Included are 5 sets of 20 sticky notes that say, 'I want this', 'love these', 'buy this', 'and this' and 'yes please'. You can buy these from Amazon for just £3.72.

5 - The Happy Jackson Headphone Case is one of my favourite products for the girls. I love how funky the case is and I'm sure any girl that uses headphones would love to own this! There is a cord wrap included within the case, so headphones can be wrapped around that to prevent the wires getting all tangled up. The cord wrap then fits nicely inside the press studded, stripy lined case. You can get this from John Lewis for just £8.95.

Secret Santa Gifts For Guys

1 - I think this Driver's Glovebox Kit is such a good secret Santa gift for a driver, especially a male driver as they won't have to worry about remembering anything essential for the car. All handy little bits will be inside this box and the recipient can just pop it in their glovebox for whenever they might need it. There are 10 useful items within this kit, including a snap light, plasters, mini pen and pad, plastic gloves and an ice scraper. For just £8 from Boots, I definitely think this is one of those gifts where the recipient will be glad to have it, even if it's in the glovebox for ages, when they're looking for something and they find it in this kit, they'll remember who got it for them and be chuffed!

2 - I think this Life Hacks Book is definitely something that would keep a man amused for hours. There are 130 hacks which help to solve everyday dilemmas. It includes everything from electric cable management to ingenious cooking methods and much, much more. It even shows you how to enhance your music listening experience with a toilet roll tube! This book is just £5 from Amazon.

3 - I had to include a sweet treat for the guys too and this Belgian Biscuit Selection is sure to please. This is a lovely selection of biscuits that are different to the normal biscuits that you might have all year round. It's suitable for vegetarians and contains 800g of biscuits and wafers in milk, dark and white chocolate coatings. It's making my mouth water just writing this! The biscuit tin is reusable and features a snowy town with a general store, a church and houses. You can buy this gift for £10 from Boots.

4 - I think the Large Biscuit Pocket Mug is my favourite product for the guys. This would be fab for someone who works in an office or has their own desk and has regular cups of tea at work. Or it would be great for someone to just use at home, due to the handy biscuit pocket! The mug is made from ceramic and is dishwasher safe, so it's a well made mug and not something cheap that will break easily. You can buy this mug from Amazon for £8.99 and there are also images on there so you can see what kind of biscuits will fit in the pocket.

5 - This Teatool Teabag Squeezer is a handy little gadget that I can see men loving and it is likely to prevent those drips as you transfer a teabag from a mug to the bin. It really squeezes the teabag out and is one of those novelty gifts that actually has a job. I think this is a gift that will definitely be appreciated by a tea lover. It's just £6.99 from Find Me A Gift.

Have you got a secret Santa gift to buy this year?

Don't forget to like, comment and follow to keep up to date with the rest of my Blogmas posts :).

Thanks so much for reading lovelies!

Gem XxOo

Images are courtesy of Not On The High Street, John Lewis, Boots, Amazon and Find Me A Gift.

Alternative Advent Calendars (For Everyone!)...

I've seen a fair few posts showing alternative advent calendars recently, especially beauty ones. I've been thinking about doing a post like this for a while, so I thought now would be the perfect time as the 1st December will be here before we know it! I've gone down a different route and not included any beauty advent calendars but calendars that are a little bit different.

1. 12 beers of Christmas contains 12 craft beers created by award winning UK Microbreweries that have all been approved by the Best of British Beer tasting panel. The name suggests that the beers are designed to be drunk during the 12 days of Christmas which starts on the 25th December and ends on the 5th January. However, I do feel that as it's sometimes so hard to find unique advent calendars and even gifts for men, that this was too good an idea not to include. Of course, it could be used whenever really, so it could be started 12 days before Christmas day if you really wanted. The beers are delivered in a robust card Christmas tree, with each beer securely held inside. You can also include a message on a gift card for no additional cost if you wish. This is available from Not On The High Street for £49.50. There is another beer themed advent calendar on that website that is for the full 25 days in the run up to Christmas but this is a little bit more pricey at £115. Another option would be to hand make something like this whether it be bottles of beer in a crate with numbers covering the top or a handmade box. It might work out a little cheaper if you can get a good deal at your local supermarket. Overall, I think this is a great idea for a boyfriend or husband that drinks and likes to try different beers!

2. Advent Christmas Tea Gift Set contains a collection of 25 tea bags packaged in individual paper envelopes. The packaging for the tea bags are super cute containing Christmas themed quotes, sure to get you in the spirit for Christmas. The teas are sourced from well-known British tea companies, which I love! You can choose which flavours you want to be within the advent calendar, so you can match the calendar to the taste of the person you're buying it for. Although there are 25 individual tea bag packages, they aren't mounted like a traditional advent calendar but you can order a gift bag or a gift box with the calendar if you would like one. They are pre-made but I love that the company that makes and sells these are willing to work with you if you would like specific colours, designs or text. I love tea, so something like this would be right up my street. I'm sure there are plenty of tea lovers out there who would agree! You can get this from Not On The High Street for just £19.50 (edit: the exact advent version of this set doesn't seem to be available any more as of a couple of days after this post was published. The link I've included is for basically the same thing).

3. Lebkuchen Schmidt Advent Calendar is a luxurious biscuit advent calendar that is really rather special. It contains 25 biscuity treats that are packaged in individual boxes within a larger box that forms the calendar. There is a rip along section towards the bottom of the calendar that you open and the gorgeous little boxes appear showing their number. As you take boxes out each day, another box drops down with another number so you can just pick the corresponding number for each date in the run up to Christmas. It's such a lovely advent calendar and would appeal to so many people, both male and female. Who doesn't like a nice biscuit with a cuppa tea?! This is available for £35.99 from Selfridges.

4. Jelly Belly Advent Calendar contains 24 pyramid bags of Jelly Belly beans, a great alternative to chocolate advent calendars. I think it's especially good for those that can't have chocolate or prefer sweets over chocolate. I love this and would be so happy having this as my advent calendar. It looks so well put together, even down to the Father Christmas image on the front being made up of jelly beans. This calendar is just £15 from John Lewis, which I don't think is bad to be honest considering alternative advent calendars aren't always cheap anyway.

5. Wera Tools Advent Calendar is a fab alternative advent calendar for men as it contains tools! However, it doesn't mean that it isn't good for those women who like to diy ;). It contains 24 high quality tools including a screwdriver, bottle opener, Rapidaptor bit holder, mini-check etc. Wera is one of the leading manufacturers of screw driving tools operating worldwide so you know these are going to be high quality tools that will be useful and last a long time. I think this would be great for someone who needs new tools or someone that has just moved into their own house and doesn't yet have any tools. It would be great for so many people for so many different reasons. You can get this from Amazon for £49.95.

6. Personalised Scratch Family Activity Advent Calendar had to make an appearance in my post because I thought it was such a sweet, novelty idea for the whole family to get involved with. The calendar is based on a sturdy piece of card with 24 scratch circles. Each circle reveals a challenge, craft or activity to do on the countdown to Christmas. For those of you that have children that can't have chocolate this is a great alternative that will still make little ones happy. One example of an activity is to have a fancy dress dinner! You can choose to personalise your calendar if you wish for a little extra meaning it will include your family name instead of just saying 'Our Family Advent Calendar'. You can buy this calendar from Not On The High Street for just £8.50. I'd say this would be something that you could hand make for your family and put peelable stickers or paper flaps over the activities, but I think it'd be quite cool for the activities to be a surprise for parents too. That way you can all talk about the activities together based on your first impression of each one and for the price at least you know it won't break the bank.

7. Hotel Chocolat Truffle Advent Calendar is a little bit different to the traditional chocolate advent calendar as it's designed to be shared. There are 24 windows and behind each window are two baby truffles, so 48 in total. The flavours sound amazing, they include salted caramel, gingerbread, mulled wine and cinnamon. I think this is such a sweet idea and I can imagine me and my hubby enjoying this together. I can imagine this being lovely for parents, two friends who live together, siblings etc. This one does contain alcohol in some of the truffles, so you might want to bare that in mind. You can buy it from John Lewis for £26.

8. Fortune Cookie Advent Calendar consists of a 24 day countdown to Christmas with handcrafted fortune cookies made in delicious flavours. Flavours include apple pie, chocolate and chilli and strawberry and mint. The fortune cookies are all free of artificial colours, flavours and preservatives. The company that makes these air dry their own zests, grind their own spices and enjoy creating new flavour combinations, so you know you're getting a good quality product. Each fortune contains a double sided traditional, festive or fun message and you can choose the combination of messages (not the exact messages, so nothing will be spoiled) before you order. The fortune cookies come in individual clear bags sealed with the date at the top and these are all packaged in a larger box. You can purchase this from Not On The High Street for £32.99.

9. Nutcracker Advent Charm Calendar I think would make a great alternative to sweets and chocolates for young girls. It comes as a jewellery box style calendar with a cute little pop up Nutcracker theatre scene which is revealed when you open the top of the box. There are two trays inside the box, each with 12 compartments which hold a silver coloured bracelet and 23 charms. How sweet! I can imagine little girls being thrilled with their new bracelet and being able to add a charm every day in the run up to Christmas. You can buy this from Not On The High Street for £16.95.

I've noticed alternative advent calendars being talked about a lot more this year on Twitter and I think it's great that brands are all trying to re-create their own each year. I remember a time when it was just those simple solid chocolate advent calendars and nothing else. They've come such a long way and it's great and adds another element of excitement to the whole run up to Christmas.

What alternative advent calendars have you seen?

Are you having a traditional chocolate advent calendar this year or something a little bit different? 

Comment down below, I'd love to know!

Thanks so much for reading!

Gem XxOo

*Images courtesy of Not On The High Street, Selfridges, John Lewis and Amazon.

A Day To Remember...

Hi there lovelies! It's been a while since I last blogged, but those of you that follow my blog or follow me on Twitter will know that me and Si got married in September, in Cyprus! The few weeks prior to us flying out were manic as we were putting the final touches to everything and making sure everything was organised. Not only did we have our normal holiday things to pack, we also had our wedding things to pack. So as you can imagine it was all go!

Here I am blogging to you as a married woman! :). It's taken me a little while to get back into planning my posts and getting back into the swing of things. Post wedding/holiday blues occurred for a while, for a few people within our party actually, but you just have to think that there is plenty more to look forward to and get back to day to day life.

I didn't want to just start blogging about random things without mentioning the wedding and sharing a few things with you as obviously I was blogging about wedding related things beforehand so I thought it'd be nice to finish it off post wedding :).

Here are a few snaps from our special day:

I thought I'd share a few things that I brought for our wedding that I didn't want to share before the wedding or couldn't just in case anyone who was coming saw things on here. The main reason for me wanting to do this is to provide ideas for those planning their wedding as I know it can be really overwhelming thinking about where to start and narrowing down choices.

Firstly, I thought I'd show you the gifts I brought for people within our wedding party. We stuck to the traditional people that gifts are usually brought for, so we had my mom and Si's mom, my dad, our two bridesmaids and our two witnesses (not sure if it's traditional to buy for the witnesses but we found a lovely gift idea that we wanted to give).

These are the mother of the bride and mother of the groom gifts. We'd read somewhere that it was traditional for the gifts to be from the bride, so we thought it would be nice to follow this (aside from the witnesses gifts which are from both of us), so when looking for gift ideas I tried to look for things that were a little bit different.

For my mom's gift, I wanted it to be something from the heart and really personal. I found gift ideas online showing a nice message sewn onto a handkerchief. I liked the idea and to make it even more personal and special I made it myself. I purchased a couple of nice, vintage handkerchiefs from Ebay for a couple of pounds from an auction and I made a few notes of what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. It took me a little while to get the right wording but when I did I started to sew using purple thread to match our wedding colour scheme. I have a little sewing kit of my own so I didn't have to purchase any of that, I just had to use my imagination. I brought a couple of handkerchiefs which was a good idea as I messed up the first one, so luckily the second one went well :). I was really happy that I'd made it myself and my mom thought it was a lovely thing to do, especially with it being so personalised and unique. I brought the silver gift box from Card Factory for just under a couple of pounds I think it was and the handkerchief fitted perfectly within it.

The mother of the groom gift was a little bit harder to choose. Pinterest was really useful when it came to looking for wedding party gift ideas, so I spent quite a while having a look around on there before I started searching the Internet for gifts. It narrowed ideas down so it wasn't so daunting in regards to where to start looking for gifts. I'd definitely recommend it for any type of gifts you are looking to buy or make. I found this keyring on Etsy, both me and Si liked the wording and again the personalisation of it. I started communicating with the lady who makes these on Etsy and described exactly what I wanted, mentioning that I'd like purple and ivory beads to match our colour scheme and my name and the wedding date in purple too. She was really helpful and made the keyring to my exact specifications. We loved the finished result and the mother of the groom loved it too! The keyring cost me £17.47 in total, including shipping from Canada to the UK.

I found these mirrors for my bridesmaids on Not On The High Street. I wanted something practical that they could use, that was personal to them but something that I could say thank you on too. I found these initial mirrors and liaised with the lady who makes them regarding the letters that I wanted along with the colour of the letters and hearts, what colour stitching I wanted, the message I wanted etc. It was so nice to hear that she was willing to work with me in regards to what I wanted. Buying the gifts was one of the most fun things we did during the planning of the wedding, I think it's because we found such lovely ideas and companies who were willing to work with us and provide exactly what it was that we wanted. The two mirrors cost me £27.03 including delivery to the UK and they are gift wrapped free of charge. They start off at £9.90 and the price increases depending on what mirror colour you want and also the amount of words you'd like on the mirror pouch. My bridesmaids loved their gift and I hope they get lots of use out of it!

It was my mom that first suggested maybe getting the witnesses a gift and so when I started looking for personalised gifts for them it was between a mug or a pen. I thought the mugs would last longer and be of more use. I found a company on Ebay that sold these and I asked if I would be able to have the witnesses names in purple as they were orange on the website. There was no problem with this being done for me. I just had to tell them the witnesses names, our married couple surname and the date of our wedding. As you can see they have the hearts at the top for females and hats for males. In total, it cost me £15.58 for the two mugs including postage to the UK. They are thick, well made mugs, so you know they will last a long time and you don't have to be ridiculously careful with them. I thought they were really good value to be honest, considering they are personalised too. Our witnesses weren't expecting a gift, so it was a nice little thing for them to have to remember what they did for us on our special day.

I found this frame for my dad on Etsy. It's such a fab website with so many ideas, it's easy to get carried away and spend a good few hours on there. As soon as I saw this, I knew it was what I wanted to get. This was actually from the USA and favourite was spelt 'favorite' on the website, so I asked if this was able to be changed due to us living in the UK and we spell it with the 'u' here. Again this was no problem and they said they often have people requiring the different spelling so it could be easily changed. I just had to tell them what I wanted written at the end, be it with love, love, from etc, my name and our wedding date. The frame cost me £28.71 in total, including shipping from the USA to the UK.

There are a few other things that we brought for the wedding which were bargains or were too beautiful not to share, so I thought I'd include a few extra links (for those items I could find that were still available to buy) just in case you wanted to take a look :)...

Bridesmaids Purple & Ivory Bouquets

White Butterfly Place Name Cards

Dark Purple Men's Ties

Disposable Cameras

Ivory Wedding Dolly Bags

Bridal Clear AB Crystal Swarovski Elements Necklace, Earrings and Bracelet Set

Bridesmaid Clear AB Crystal Swarovski Elements Necklace and Earrings Set

Clear AB Crystal Swarovski Elements Hairpins

Cancer Research Wedding Favours

Everything above we brought ourselves but we were lucky enough to be offered the chance by Vistaprint to design our own thank you cards. I had seen some thank you cards on Ebay that I liked, but when I went to purchase them they had sold out so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for me to re-create the design I'd seen for our personal thank you cards.

The wording that I used was similar to the wording on the cards I saw on Ebay. Our theme was purple and butterflies so I found an image on Vistaprint that related to this and just moved the image and words around on the card until I was happy with it. They have various images to choose from so you're sure to find what you're looking for. The cards would have cost me £27.78 including postage to the UK and that was for 30 personally designed matte cards and 30 white envelopes.

The website has lots of products that you can design including Christmas gifts and business related products. In terms of the thank you cards, you can choose to have folded or flat cards and then there are endless designs that you can choose from. You can add images, change the colour of the text, change the size of the text etc, there are lots of tools available to design the perfect card for you. As many past brides or brides to be will know, as soon as you mention the word 'wedding' some prices can be sky high. So this might be a good option if you're on a budget as you can control your costs depending on the cards that you design.

The cards I designed were blank inside, meaning I could add my own personalised messages. However, you can write on the inside of cards on Vistaprint if you wish. I chose for my cards to be matte and when I received them I was happy that they turned out exactly as I'd designed them, the colours, image and wording were spot on. Sometimes when you see pre-designed cards online it says in the small print that colour can vary from what you see on screen. With Vistaprint this isn't something you have to worry about. The cards are of an excellent quality and it was a pleasure writing my cards out to send to people. The only issue I had was that I received 10 envelopes with 30 cards. It was meant to be 30 envelopes so I used the live chat option on the website and told the representative of my issue. This was sorted out straight away and an apology was made saying that it was a mistake and that I should have received 30 envelopes. Another order was made there and then for me and I received the correct amount of envelopes a few days later.

I can't believe after so much planning and organising that our wedding is now over and that we've been married nearly two months on the 9th November :), it's gone so quickly!

I hope you've enjoyed this post whether you were just curious about our day or looking for ideas yourself! Don't forget to like and follow if you like my blog and posts and want to read more :). Feel free to leave me a comment, they make my day and I reply to all!

If you're currently planning your wedding, what sites or bargains have you found?

Thanks so much for reading!

Gem XxOo

First Christmas In Our New Flat...

Merry Christmas to you all! I know I'm a bit early but there's not long to go now, so thought I'd get it in there :).

Those of you that follow my posts on here and/or follow me on Twitter (@GemsGemz86) will know that me and Si moved into our first flat together earlier this year. So obvs it's our first Christmas here :). It's been really exciting buying our first lot of Christmas decorations, decorating the place our way, doing our first proper full Christmas shop (we did used to help mom out when we lived with her), wrapping presents and putting them under the tree and creating our own traditions :). I thought I'd write this post and show you how we have decorated the place for Christmas and show you a few of the things we have bought.

So this is our living area with just the Christmas lights on and where we have the main decorations going on. So the tree was my first real tree, Si has had one previously with his family. It smelt gorgeous and looked lush when we first got it and set it up. We bought it on the 30th November and approx 2 weeks later it had died. It was a nightmare and we were pretty gutted about it! We got the tree from a local garden centre and there was some sort of guarantee on the trees there, so Si rang them up and they said if we returned it they'd exchange it. Si's mom took him to return it and I cleaned up the mess. When we had it up, I'd clean around the tree and a couple of hours later the floor would be covered again. It took me two hours to clean up properly whilst Si was returning it, filling one medium bin liner with piles of needles and then I hoovered the rest up, having to empty the hoover twice in the process. Some of the little bleeders had dug themselves into the carpet, so to do a good job and get rid of them all as best I could, I had to get down on my hands and knees and pick them from the carpet with my fingers :/. Not a pleasant experience I must say :/. Luckily, Si managed to get our money back and my mom's friend was giving up her artificial Christmas tree as her daughter had given her hers so mom brought that one up to us and we've now got that one all decorated (I took all the pictures in this post before our real tree decided to die, so I thought I'd just stick with them saves taking them all again :)). I think if we ever get a real one again (not in any particular rush we've both said ha), then we'll get one where the needless don't come out...I bet they are pricey though! The lights around the TV are just a pack of coloured lights that were £1 from Poundland and the ones on the window are those I used to have in my bedroom back at my moms, Si got them for me and they were £20 from Wilko's.

We have some of the traditional decorations on our tree like beads, coloured baubles (we decided to go for a red and gold theme), bows, stars and of course chocolates :), but there are some baubles/tree decorations that are a little bit different, so I thought I'd show you those a little bit more closely...

The glass bauble with the beads inside was a couple of quid from a local garden centre called Garden Land. It was the same garden centre we got our tree from. I thought it was so cute! The special couple bauble was also from the same garden centre but it was a gift from my mom :). It's a money box bauble! The star decoration was also from the garden centre and was a couple of quid. I wanted to get a few items for the tree that were unique, so everything wasn't all samey. The red and white baubles were from a PDSA charity shop, they were new stock and were about £3.50 for a pack of six, we got two packs. The Santa hat and the stocking decorations were from Poundland (the hat was on its own and the stocking decoration came in a pack of four). Lastly, the reindeer decoration came in a pack of six for £1 and were from Discount UK, which used to be our old Woolworths (I miss that shop!). At the top of our tree we have...a star! What do you go for? A star, angel or something else?

We also have a few more decorations and lights around the flat...

The Merry Christmas garland was £1 from Poundland and we found the lights in a back room of our flat when we moved in :)...ta very muchly to whoever left them here!

The snowman and the Santa were £1 each from Poundland (they light up), as were the Xmas letters (everything else is normally on the window sill but the candle holders Si got from work and the bowl and pot pourri was from Asda :)).

This set of lights was just £1 from Poundland. They don't look very bright in the picture, but it's cosy of an evening with them on :).

This is a window decoration and it is hand made. I got it from Birmingham Christmas/German market this year for £3.50. It's a lovely, unique decoration and sparkles when it catches the light.

We also got a few things for our dining table for Christmas (me and Si usually have Christmas at moms but as this is our first Christmas in our own place, we wanted to have it here and cook for my mom and sister, so they are coming to ours :)), aswell as a few other Christmassy bits and bobs...

I got these gummy paper strips for £1 from Poundland and there were loads in the pack and four different designs. I was unsure of what to do with them at first but loved the designs, I didn't know whether to make a garland for a wall, above a door or what, but when playing around with them I created this little decoration for the back of our dining table chairs :) makes it that little bit more Christmassy!

I loved this salt pot when I first saw it at Garden Land. It was only £1.99 and I thought it would look good on the dining table on Christmas day. I didn't bother getting a pepper one aswell as no-one here really has pepper on their meals and I'll just use this for Christmas, put it away and bring it out again every year. I think this is actually a pepper pot as it has three holes instead of two, but they didn't have any with two holes, so I think people must have already snapped them up. I got a few disposable items for Christmas evening when we have sandwiches, a few bits of party food, cheese board etc. These plates were £1 from Discount UK.

The napkins were £1 from Poundland and the cups were £1 from Discount UK.

I wanted to make some home made Christmas cookies/biscuits so I picked these cutters up for £1 from Discount UK. I also picked up a pack of two festive table covers for £1 from Poundland. I love the whole Nordic style, so I couldn't resist.

Sticking with our red and gold theme this Christmas, I picked up four place mats for £1 each from Discount UK and a pack of 4 drink mats for £1. Also at Garden Land, I got these two festive Yankee Candle wax tarts (Christmas Eve and Apple & Pine Needle), they smell amazing! They were £1.25 each.

There were also a few bits that I've seen about that I liked the look of and either haven't had the chance to pick up, saw such items after we'd bought all of our decorations and we didn't want to go over the top or my local stores didn't have the items available but I still thought they were worth mentioning and there's always next Christmas :).

I saw so many of these types of trees in my town centre but as it was our first Christmas in our new place we needed a main tree let alone any side trees ha! So we gave a tree like this a miss this year but I think they are beautiful and definitely something we'd look into getting next year as an extra to our decorations. This particular type is from Garden Site and the price ranges from £37.99 to £72.99 depending on the size that you want. I'm not sure if you have a Discount UK store near you but I've seen some in there during the run up to Christmas (couldn't find an image on their website to show you) and again they range in price. Do any of you have a tree like this?

I think it will be cute to have something like this for next year. We're getting married in September 2014, so this will probably be something we'll look at getting for next Christmas knowing me and Si :). It's sweet! You can personalise it with any message and it's only £12.99 from Gone Digging.

Me and Si love travelling, so we'd love something like this for our tree. It's £5.95 for one from Not On The High Street and you can choose from black, cream or green. I know over the years we are going to probably build up a nice little collection of unique Christmas baubles and decorations!

Lastly, I'm sticking with the Nordic/Scandinavian theme with these lush items from Tesco. The nearest Tesco to me don't have these items in for some reason. Tesco have quite a few lovely Christmas items to be honest, they are all on their website, I think I need to get to a bigger Tesco to see their full range though. These two items are fab and would look lovely in our front room, fitting in nicely with our theme. The cushion is £10 and the throw is currently £16.65.

Such lovely items don't you think?

How do you decorate where you live for Christmas?

Have you bought any new decorations this year?

Thanks so much for reading!

Gem XxOo

Images courtesy of Garden Site, Gone Digging, Not On The High Street and Tesco.

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee 2012...

As you are all probably aware by now, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee is fast approaching. I know of most celebrations taking place around an extended weekend at the beginning of June (2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th). Some people like to go all out for things like this and hold street parties, house parties etc. Me or us as a family aren't having anything like that, unless something comes up, but we will probably watch some of the celebrations on TV and might even raise a glass or two, he, he.

I have been sent quite a few emails and press releases with items that you can buy to help you celebrate the Jubilee in some way or another. I have also found quite a few items myself, just casually searching the net. You'll be surprised what people think of to sell at times like this, but hey, if there's money to be made...

I thought I would share a few of my favourite items that I found, just in case you are looking for something to buy to help you celebrate at a party, at home, or simply want to purchase something that you can look back at in the future and remember buying such item for this occasion.

Beauty:

Picture courtesy of Find Me A Gift.

If you are going all out and want to make yourself up to be ready for a Jubilee celebration, then this is a great little item to make you stand out from the crowd. It's called a Union Jack Lip Tattoo and it's really inexpensive at £2.99 for one tattoo. I have worn lip tattoos similar to this before and you will be surprised as to how long they actually last. You can eat and drink and it will stay on. It is easily removable at the end of the day with a baby wipe :-).

Picture courtesy of Feel Unique.

I don't personally use nail wraps for the simple reason that I can't seem to get them right on my nails and it always looks silly. So, I thought I would include these for those of you that like nail wraps. However, I did create this look last year for Kate and Will's wedding and I just used regular nail polish. I may try to re-create it again this year but I am going to have to get a white nail polish as my last one has run out. I just wanted to express that it can be done both ways; with nail polish for the more artistic amongst you and nail wraps for those that don't feel they can do nail art or need something quick and easy. The nail wraps have a lot of advantages: they require no drying time, they don't chip and they are easy to remove. With nail polish you have to be patient and steady handed to do the nail art, you have to wait for each colour section to dry before you do the next, there is a possibility of the design chipping and then you have to have nail polish remover to get it off. The option is yours :-). These are £7.99.

Fashion:

Picture courtesy of Sainsbury's.

I thought this earring trio was soo cute and perfect for the occasion. I am loving the heart and crown ones the most! They are £3.50 from TU at Sainsbury's. If you have a local Sainsbury's that sells clothes and jewellery, head down there and you should be able to find these :-).

Picture courtesy of Not On The High Street.

As soon as I saw these bracelets I fell in love with them. They are Limited Edition Jubilee bracelets and priced at £24.95. They are so my style and I adore them! I say 'them', because you can choose from different fabrics and different charms. You can even have more than one charm for a little extra. In regards to the charms, you can choose from the Queen's crown, the Queen's carriage or the iconic double-decker bus. Simply gorgeous!

Decorations:

Picture courtesy of Noo Noo Design. Picture courtesy of Snugglebox.

The above two decorations are ones that have taken my fancy from the huge amount of decorations there are out there for the occasion. These are ones that I would choose if I were having a party to celebrate the Jubilee. I love the style and simpleness of the bunting. For 3 metres of this it is £12.50. I am a huge lover of cushions anyway and have a few different ones on my bed just for decoration. The above cushion is one I could see fitting nicely among my collection he, he. I was thinking it might also be nice if you are having a garden party and have the budget to buy a few of these and scatter them amongst the chairs you have for guests to sit on :-). I thought it might add a nice touch. They are £15 each.

Food and Drink:

Pictures courtesy of Find Me A Gift.

If you're not having a party or celebration as such but still want to feel involved, I think these Royal Family Tea Bags are ideal to have a lovely cuppa whilst watching the celebrations on TV :-). I'm a sucker for cute, unique things like this. They come in a pack of five for £6.99 and are a classic tea blend with Assam.

Picture courtesy of Sourz.

If you're over 18 and drink alcohol then this might be something you'd want to buy at any time, let alone to celebrate the Jubilee, he, he. Sourz have bought out a Limited Edition flavour to coincide with the Jubilee and London Olympics...Spirited Summer Berry! Yum! Aswell as drinking this as a shot, you can also make cocktails out of it, see here for some recipes :-). I know in Asda it is £9 at the moment, but it is available at the majority of large supermarkets, where the price usually differs in each one.

All of the major supermarkets seem to have offers on aswell for the Jubilee, so if you are having a party or a get together with food, you should be able to get some good offers from your local supermarket :-). I know Morrisons have an offer on where you can get 12 burgers, 24 sausages, 36 white baps and a bottle of ketchup all for £10. I know this as it's my local supermarket. They also have other party food ideas and Union Jack printed plates, cups, napkins and bunting for really reasonable prices. Co-op, M&S, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose all have offers on to name a few supermarkets. However, I am sure all supermarkets are going to try and get in on the act, so I'm sure you'll find some good bargains whichever supermarket you go to :-).

I hope you like my favourite Jubilee celebration ideas and there's just one last thing to say...let's hope it's gorgeous weather and happy celebrating!

Much Love,

Gem XxOo