Christmas reindeer
This small brushed silver reindeer (the one on the right of the picture) is a really apt accessory to use as part of your Christmas home decorating.
The reindeer would look perfect on the hearth or mantlepiece, or used as part of a Christmas table centrepiece. At only £8.50 from Graham and Green, it’s a bit of a reindeer bargain – and even more so if you buy before midnight on 30th November, as all items have 20% off.
Cheery red Christmas wreath
A wreath is traditionally hung on the outside of house doors at Christmas and, although many are made up of seasonal greenery, such as holly and ivy, we rather like the look of this striking red berry wreath.
The large 32cm wreath has been decorated with lots of different sized red berries, with a few green leaves and a sprinkling of fake snow. It would provide a cheery welcome on your door to visitors arriving in the cold, winter weather.
The cranberry Christmas wreath is £24.99 from Not on The High Street.
Lots of high street stores are offering shopping discounts at the moment, to help the cost of your Christmas shopping go further. Laura Ashley currently have a 3 for 2 offer running across lots of products, including home accessories, Christmas decorations and gifts. So you could buy three presents and only pay for two, or buy two presents and have a free gift for yourself!
Here are some of our favourite home accessories that are included in the offer.
The set of four ruby red rose design napkin rings, which would look great on a dining table, are £18.
The small optic glass storage jar is £16 – we think this would be lovely filled with sweets or chocolates for a Christmas gift.
The True Romance three tier floral cake stand is £32.
The cream butterfly floral embossed pillar candle is £12.
The adorable elephant doorstop is £22
The heart shaped chalk board is £15.
For more special offers and shopping discount to help your Christmas shopping be less painful for your bank balance, check out the Top 10 online store discount post on FreshDesignBlog.
Unusual salt and pepper set
If you love all things nautical and sea inspired, then you’ll love this sea urchin salt and pepper set.
Made from fine bone china and with the full look and feel of sea urchins, this condiment pair simply need to be gently shaked to apply salt or pepper.
The china sea urchin salt and pepper shakers would look lovely on your dining table, or make a good gift and, at only £8.50, they seem very reasonably priced. You can buy them at Milk and Honey.
An advent calendar is a traditional way of counting down the days to Christmas and is a lovely way of marking the impending Christmas season.
Advent calendars started off life as being filled with Biblical nativity images and telling the traditional story of Christmas, through opening one numbered window on a pictorial image each day. Whilst many good examples of these are still available for those that prefer them, the life of the advent calendar has expanded to include lots of options with non-religious imagery. Additionally, gone are the days of simply opening a window on a cardboard image, as many advent calendars include a chocolate treat each day.
If you enjoy counting down the days to Christmas, whether on your own or with children, then there are a host of advent calendars available to suit all budgets. To save the expense of buying one every year, some are designed to last year after year and there are some great options that you can customise with your own treats and goodies.
Here are our 10 of our favourite advent calendars.
Large felt advent calendar
Hang this on a wall or door and fill the numbered pockets on the hanging felt advent calendar with treats of your choice.
£20 from The Orchard.
Fairtrade chocolate advent calendar
Behind each door of this nativity themed advent calendar, there’s a delicious Divine milk chocolate fairtrade heart.
It’s £3.95 from Ethical Superstore.
Get crafty and make your own advent calendar!
Make your advent calendar extra special and personal by making it yourself. This Buttonbag kit contains all you need to create a stylish fabric calendar.
The Buttonbag Make Your Own Advent Calendar kit is £14 from John Lewis.
Reindeer advent calendar
This red wooden reindeer advent calendar features numbered drawers which can be opened each day throughout December.
The Gisela Graham reindeer advent calendar is £19.99 from The Gifted Penguin on Amazon.
Advent calendar house
The windows of this nicely designed advent calendar house can be filled with sweets or chocolate.
The advent calendar house is £40 from John Lewis.
Unusual pixie calendar
This unusual Maileg pixie advent calendar is a special Christmas decoration to use in your home year after year, as well as being a funcational form of advent calendar. The pixie girl’s dress has a series of numbered pockets on it that are big enough to hold a chocolate, sweets or message.
The pixie advent calendars measure 150cm in size and are sold by Chamomile Barn for £66.
For chocolate lovers, Hotel Chocolat have a range of delicious sounding advent calendars available, including the Ultimate Dark Chocolate Advent Calendar (the red one) and the Ultimate Milk Chocolate Advent Calendar (the white one).
Also available is a children’s advent calendar, one for teens and over, and an ultra gorgeous luxury truffles to share advent calendar.
The ultimate chocolate advent calendars are £17 each, with the others priced at £12 and £22 from Hotel Chocolat.
Christmas train
All aboard the Christmas advent calendar train! The carriages of this wooden train are packed with numbered drawers, which can be opened one by one during December.
The train advent calendar is £35 from Not On The High Street.
Nativity 3D calendar
If you love a good old fashioned and traditional calendar portraying the real story of Christmas, then this 3D popup nativity advent calendar brings the Christmas story to life.
It’s £8 from Amazon.
Create an advent village
This wonderful set of wooden advent houses is each individually numbered and can be filled with a gift. You can arrange them how you like – placed together, or dotted around your home.
The advent village set is £59.99 from The Contemporary Home.
Polar bear wallpaper
This ultra cute wallpaper features a lovely polar bear design and is perfect for use in children’s rooms or a nursery.
Unlike some children’s animal or character wallpaper, it’s not overpowering – the subtle wallpaper has a cream background with a delicate turquoise polar bear on it.
The polar bear wallpaper is by Turner Pocock Cazalet and is available to purchase from Wallpaper Direct for £70.50.
Needlepoint and cross stitch designs
Hot on the heels of her previous books, Sew! and Make!, comes the latest offering from designer, Cath Kidston. Her new book, Stitch! focuses on homeware items and accessories that you can easily make using needlepoint and cross stitch sewing techniques.
There are 30 simple projects in the book, covering everything from cushions, seat covers and pillows, to bags, purses and even a rug. The colours and designs are typically Cath Kidston-esque, although you can of course choose your own thread and fabric colours if you wish. All of the designs are very easy to follow and there are useful images showing the finished item, as well as what it should look like at various stitching stages.
The book is suitable for stitchers of all abilities. If you’ve never done cross stitch or needlepoint before, you’ll find the first 30 pages massively useful, as there’s plenty of information about what you need to get started, how to do basic stitches and how to put the finishing touches to projects (there’s no point in sewing the front of a cushion if you don’t have a clue how to make it up into a useable cushion, for example). A stitch guide for advanced stitchers is included too.
As you’ll no doubt be inspired and raring to go when you read this book, there’s a great free gift project to get you started. This in the form of the vintage garden flowers purse – as seen on the front cover of the book – which is relatively quick and easy to sew and put together.
I’m in the middle of another sewing project at the moment, but I’ve already got my eye on a number of items which I’d like to do next – I love a lot of the cushions in the book, with my favourites being the bargello cushion and the electric flower cushion, plus the needlepoint rug. The cowboy picture would be great for a boy’s bedroom and the sailboat design (which is on what has to be the oddest item in the book – a candleshade?!) could easily be adapted to form a picture too.
If you love creating handmade items for your home, want some new inspiration and ideas and something to keep you busy through the darker winter evenings, then this book is the perfect solution! For those of you thinking about Christmas, then it would be a great gift idea for any crafters or sewing addicts.
Stitch! By Cath Kidston, photography by Pia Tryde, is published by Quadrille, rrp £15.
Mixing bowls are on my mind at the moment, as I need to get making my Christmas cake this week – have you made yours yet? The flour section of the baking aisle in Sainsbury’s was looking decidedly depleted at the weekend, so I suspect Christmas cake baking may have been the cause for the rush on flour!
The large bowl I tend to use for mixing up my Christmas cake is big and heavy, so I really like the look of these Nigella Lawson mixing bowls which are made of melamine and are no doubt lighter. I love the fluid shape of them too.
The largest bowl is 32cm by 26cm by 11cm, so a decent size – there are four bowls in total and they graduate down in size to 15x12x6cm for the smallest bowl.
With the four different sizes, you’ll be well equipped for all your baking needs. The BlissHome Nigella Lawson living kitchen melamine mixing bowls are £41.40 from Amazon.
As well as the classic cream colour, they’re also available in blue (£46.84), black (£38.68), red (£38.68) or a colourful mix of red, green and white (£41.40).
Create snowflake shadows
Pop a tealight candle in this glass candle holder, light the flame and watch as delicate dancing snowflake shadows are created.
This lovely candle holder is perfect for a seasonal home accessory. The tea light holder is surrounded by layers of silvery snowflakes which almost look like they’re floating in air.
Although small in size, they make a lovely decoration and create a fantastic display as the candle flickers in the dark.
Sold by Red Lilly, the snowflake tealight is £8.95. If you like the design, then a matching Christmas snowflake bauble is also available.
If you’re planning on redecorating a boy’s bedroom and are looking for a quick and easy way to transform the room, then this pirate bedroom set package is a great idea.
Babyface has put together all the items you need to create a pirate scene decorating theme in your child’s bedroom. The bedroom package includes:
* A pirate duvet set (available in single or junior sizes)
* A pirate quilt
* Pirate quilted pillowcase
* A skull and crossbones cushion
* Pirate treasure map rug
* Pirate curtains
* A pirate aundry bag.
In addition to pirates, other bedroom set packages available that will probably appeal to boys include a nice aeroplanes room set, the around town room set (with lots of cars and vehicles) and the Mckenzie room set.
Girls are likely to love the bubbles room set package, the dolly mixture room set and the ultra pink Rosie roomset.
All of the roomsets are available from the Babyface store, which specialises in children’s bedding.
