Category Archives: inspiration

Gift Inspiration: Burt’s Bees and Tangle Teezer

03rd November 2016
When it comes to Christmas shopping one of my favourite things to search for and buy is stocking fillers. Building up the perfect bundle of gifts for a friend or loved one gives me great pleasure and today I am featuring a couple of items that would be just perfect for the beauty lovers I know (including myself) and will hopefully serve as inspiration for anyone else in the midst of their shopping too.
First up I bring you the new and limited edition Ginger Spice Lip Balm from Burt’s Bees* (£3.99). The abundance of gingerbread flavoured products at this time of year fills me with joy, I’m currently addicted to gingerbread men and this lip balm manages to embody the scent of my favourite baked good perfectly whilst delivering the excellent TLC one would expect from a Burt’s Bees product. As with all of their lip products this is 100% natural, super moisturising and contains no parabens, phthalates, SLS or petrolatum (and uses recyclable materials in it’s packaging too). As these are limited edition I fully plan to stock up for the next few months and I strongly suggest that you do too, be it for yourself or as a gift.
Second up are some goodies from Tangle Teezer* who kindly sent over two of their compact styling hairbrushes- the Hello Kitty edition and Lulu Guinness lipstick print one. Tangle Teezer is pretty much the only hair brush brand that I use these days. Having really thick hair with a tendency to curl and then knot these are the only brushes that have managed to de-tangle my locks without wreaking havoc in the process. The compact stylers are perfect for popping in to your handbag for sorting out hair nightmares on the move. I kept the Hello Kitty one for myself and gave Mum the Lulu Guinness one and although I can’t speak for her I can confirm mine has come to my rescue several times already.

I think these would make a lovely gift for a hair/beauty obsessed friend and there are so many colours and designs available that there’s bound to be the perfect colour or print for everyone. The compact stylers cost £12.50 for a plain design and £13.50 for the designer ones.

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*post contains PR samples gifted for blog consideration*.

Posted in beauty, christmas, inspiration, review

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Gift Inspiration: Getting Personal with Snapfish

02nd November 2016
As much as I love shopping, or window shopping for things for myself there is actually nothing that gives me greater pleasure than shopping for other people. Hours can pass me by whilst I browse for the perfect present to show someone how much they mean to me and if I find I can add a personal touch to the gift then that’s even better. Needless to say when Snapfish got in touch offering me site credit to test out their new and improved personalised gifts (perfect for stocking fillers might I add) I couldn’t resist.

As soon as I was given the opportunity I knew exactly how I wanted to spend the credit. These last few months have been rocky to say the least and it is only with the love and support of my family and friends that I’m sat at home writing this post today. I’ve received such amazing support both online and in “real life” but it’s that which came from my Mum, Dad, Granddad and Best Friend that really went above and beyond. They’ve seen me through some of the toughest times in my life and I’ve put them through hell over the years and yet their support has never wavered, not even for a second. It went without saying that I was going to create something special for them, a drop in the ocean for all that they have done for me.

For my best friend I decided to make a table-top photo panel (from £9.99) using one of my favourite ever photos of us taken at a wedding a couple of years ago. After uploading my photo I used one of Snapfish’s new embellishments to add a personal touch- cheesy as it sounds life really is for good friends and adventures and we’ve certainly had a few over the last 19 years of friendship!
For my family I decided that mugs were the way forward, stuffed with sweets (my own little touch) to make for the perfect personalised Christmas gift. Again after uploading my choice of photos I personalised things further using the new embellishment tools, picking simple but true statements for my parents and a lovely quote about grandfathers for my granddad.

I was really happy with the quality of the mugs (and price- only £7.99 each) especially as two of the photos came from my iPhone rather than camera and I had worried that this would be detrimental to the quality. I really like the new creative tools on Snapfish, being able to add quotes and images to further personalise an already special gift really added that little something extra and filling the mugs with the recipients favourite sweets was my own final bit of pizazz.

Have you used Snapfish recently? Who would you most likely to spoil with the personal touch?

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Posted in christmas, gifts, inspiration, review

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Handmade Gift Guide: Bumble & Moss

29th October 2016
This year as part of my Christmas gift guides I really want to pop an emphasis on the small businesses that I love and support. This week I’m kicking things off with a shop I have a huge amount of adoration for- Bumble & Moss (who I featured earlier in the year too). I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Tina, the brains behind it all twice now at a local craft market and I can never resist a purchase from her stall!

Specialising in botanical style jewellery worthy of a fairytale (with a dash of Poldark inspiration thrown in for good measure) Tina’s pieces make for the most wonderful gifts. I’ve popped together a little collage featuring some of my favourites but please do check out her Etsy shop to see the full scale of what she can do.

If you live in the North Somerset area as I do then also make sure to check out the Bumble & Moss facebook page as there are lots of local markets and events happening in the run up to Christmas. I shall be popping along to the next HAVE market to see what’s new from Tina- keep an eye on my instagram for a look on the 20th November!

Don’t worry if you’re not based in the UK by the way as you can have your items shipped internationally- there are a few botanical pieces winging their way to America as I type.

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Posted in christmas, craft, gifts, inspiration, jewellery, review, shopping

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Gift Inspiration: Meet The Wedgies

24th October 2016
I have a lot of love for instagram, it’s a wonderful platform for finding friendship, inspiration, support and generally awesome things. A couple of months ago I came across a brand that really caught my eye- Meet The Wedgies and I’ve been following their adventures ever since.

Wedgies is a shop selling handmade wooden doorstops. Based in the UK the company also has strong ties with Sri Lanka where each of their fair-trade Wedgies are hand-crafted.

You might (quite rightly) be wondering by now how on earth can one be so enthused by a doorstop? Well, these aren’t your ordinary doorstop. With inspiration coming from the modern, retro, cool, un-cool, famous and non-famous sources each product packs a massive punch of personality and makes for the perfect gift idea for anyone with a sense of humour.

Meet Yoshi, kindly sent to me c/o Wedgie*. Slightly sinister gaze aside I am besotted with my wooden Geisha. Each Wedgie comes with a character description and Yoshi came with the following: “Your wish is her command. She lives to serve and will do anything to please, as long as it involves holding a door open. #geisha”.

There is a Wedgie for everyone on the site, from Carl for the fashion lovers to Dereko for the footie fans. Wediges cost a reasonable £9.50 each with courier delivery costing £4.50. And for the record, these are seriously high quality pieces of wood, you 100% get what you pay for in both design and execution. Pick up a few of these as part of your Christmas shopping and dare people to guess what you’ve bought them (a chocolate coin to anyone who gets it right on the big day!)

You really need to be following Wedgie on social media (facebook|twitter|instagram) for both the hilariously quirky adventures of the existing Wedgie characters and for some seriously exciting new arrivals coming soon.

Which Wedgie would be your wooden BFF?

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Posted in brands I love, christmas, gifts, inspiration

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New in Books

21st October 2016
Growing up there was a huge emphasis on books in my life. From endless bed time stories from well loved classics to my Sunday afternoon ritual of browsing through anything factual that caught my eye. That’s never left me, to this day there is still something utterly irresistible about a brand new book so when the postman delivered a couple of new releases from Penguin Books a great deal of excitement ensued.
The first book to arrive was the V&A Fashion Mash Up, a A Penguin Random House X V&A Collaboration. This is the perfect book for fashion fans of all ages and features stickers, pop out outfits and 6 press out models so you can create and combine outfits from designers including Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood and Chanel (to name just a few). Tapping in to current trends the book also contains 5 instagram backgrounds so you can snap and share your creations. This book launches on the 27th October and in the run up to Christmas I predict a sell out! I’ve been loving this on a rainy day, the perfect distraction from every day life and the chance to relive a few childhood memories.

The second book is equally as exciting. I think everyone I know has a soft spot for The Nightmare Before Christmas and this commemorative edition (celebrating the twentieth anniversary of it’s release) is truly spectacular (spooktacular?!) Written and illustrated by the iconic Tim Burton this is one beautiful book that will appeal to adults and little people alike. I’m not ashamed to say that I’m hanging on to my copy tight, ready for when I have a little person of my own to read to just as I once was. This book is available now from all good book retailers- Amazon, Foyles, WH Smiths and Waterstones etc.

Do you have happy memories and associations with any particular books? I would love to hear about them in the comments.

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Posted in books, fashion, gifts, inspiration, review

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