Christmas Tree O' Christmas Tree...

How lovely are your branches...

Christmas All Wrapped Up

My car is completely snowed in so I have been housebound for the last two days. Because of this, I've had a little free time & have gone all out this year with the wrapping.

The look is expensive but the reality was FREE! That's right completely free... well, apart from the cellotape. Do you like? I have actually wrapped most of them in off cuts of wallpaper. The offcuts were from left over rolls from decorating.

For the decoration, I asked a local DIY store whether they had any swatches and I fell lucky when they gave me a swatch book filled with tons of scraps which they were throwing out (some of these were amazing: flocked wallpaper etc). The ribbons were mainly bin ends from my ribbon supplier.

If you go to any haberdashery and ask for bin ends of ribbons, they will normally be able to sell you these at a much cheaper cost. The decoration is mistletoe (I used some spare plastic mistletoe that I had in from a greetings card design). But fresh is best - You can pick up a bunch from your local fruit & veg stall on the market for a few quid.

Merry Christmas!

Colour Co-ordinating Bookshelves

I have been the proud owner of a colour co-ordinated book shelf for years & am quite pleased with myself for that too. I started doing it when I was at school (I have always been a bit anal about neatness / colour & having everything in it’s correct place). When people come round to the house they are always drawn to the book shelf and almost always comment on how neat & tidy my books look but don’t quite understand why. Then I proudly tell them it’s because they are colour co-ordinated. The normal reaction is to ask how much free time I actually have. But it’s surprising how quick it is to organise your books in this wonderful array of colour co-ordinated neatness & it will change your life. You will get a certificate smile when people comment on your books (and they will because it looks cool).

I have been overwhelmed with work (Christmas cards are flying out) & my baby girl, Lilly, is learning to walk so tidying tasks really have taken a back seat. Part of Lilly’s morning routine after breakfast is to take each book off one by one and place onto the floor which is where they stay for the rest of the day. I'm quite happy with this as it gives me roughly half an hour to catch up on emails whilst she happily occupies herself with the task. At the end of the day I rush around tidying up, putting the books back on the shelves in a rough colour order. After weeks of doing this, my gorgeous feature of a book shelf (pre-baby) is looking very dishevelled & rather scruffy (post-baby). Re-organising it has been on my to-do list for a few weeks now and moves ever closer to the bottom of an ever expanding list (mummy hood & business running is not easy when done together).

But alas, I have been inspired by Blah Blah Blahg’s recent post to move this little task to the top & get things done once & for all. This weekend I plan to get organised and colour co-ordinate my life. Pictures to follow...

Last Posting Date For Christmas Cards

To ensure Christmas cards arrive with you before Christmas, our last order date will be Monday 21st December. Orders must be received before 1pm on this day to enable us to post in the last post before Christmas. That's only 12 days left (eeek!)
Royal Mail's last first class post for the Christmas holidays is Monday 21st December 2009.

Coulson Macleod Prints

Pheweee It's been a busy week. But I wanted to post about these beauties before I sign off for the weekend. I first read about these beautiful prints at Design Sponge & noticed that they are also fellow sellers on notonthehighstreet.com. I have wanted to post about their stuff for ages.

I LOVE every single one of these handmade limited edition prints from the Love Collection by Coulson Macleod. Each one is handmade and makes for a beautiful heartfelt & unique gift.

If I absolutely had to choose - this would be my fave & is most definitely on my wish list:

Fabulous news is that they are offering free UK P&P on all orders.

Have a happy weekend!