Handmade Christmas Presents

I know we’re probably all a bit jaded about Christmas by now but I wanted to share some of the presents I made this year. I mainly knitted hats (me and bloody knitting hats!) but I made a handful of other things too.

Lemon Meringue Cupcake Beanie was made for my youngest sister, from the The Knit Guru’s pattern

The Yellow and Blue Striped Beanie was made for my sports mad brother in the Clare colours. I put a pom pom on top but didn’t take a picture of that yet. I winged the pattern using DK yarn.

Blue Chunky Hat for Chelsea supporting brother, made from Super Soft Merino Hats for Everyone by Purl Bee.

Creeper Beanie for youngest brother, made using Minecraft Inspired Hat by Jenna La Due

This hat was made for Sarah from Cashmere and Clouds. She loves space and galaxy stuff and I had this planned for months. It’s probably not the best (it was my first time using multiple colours) but I’m proud of it and love the colours I finally picked! The pattern I used was Siouxsie Stitiches Celestial Fair Isle Hat that I modified slightly.

I made this cowl for my best friend using Aran yarn and reverting to my beloved Seed Stitch pattern. I love the off white creamy colour! It was a pattern I made up myself.

I made two fleece Pusheens, one for my brother and one for his friend. They were both double sided, so happy Pusheen on one side and an angrier Pusheen on the other side. This was the biggest time suck, having to hand stitch on all those facial pieces took hours. I thought I’d fly though the sewing up of the body with my sewing machine but I didn’t have the correct needle! I had to handstitch them closed but overall I’m happy with how they turned out. I shall make one for myself, once I stop hating the sight of Pusheen’s face!

For my baby cousin, I knew she’d get loads of presents, so along with one present I got her I made these postcard frames. ‘Made’ being a close term to be honest! Anyway, I bought some wooden frames, trimmed off a small amout of the Puffin Postcards I had chosen and added them to the frame. They’re going to be hung up in her nursery.

Themed subscription boxes are all the rage (like Loot Crate and My Geek Box) so I decided to put together one for my boyfriend. I got the logo of his podcast printed on a mug, made some Lego chocolates, knitted a Cthulhu hat and bought other bits and pieces like socks, keyrings and t-shirt.

            

Here’s a close up of the hat, made using this Cthulhu’s Unspeakable Hat by Finlay Logan

I was also lucky to receive some handmade gifts!

Sarah knitted me some socks!! I loved them, I always thought knitted socks would feel weird and scratchy but these are lovely.

The friend I made the cowl for not only bought me a much needed bookcase but she decoupaged some of my favourite books along the sides and inside! I love it so much, I finally filled the shelves after having to wait a few days for landlord to do work in the house.

And that’s it! I still have a hat to make for my sister, I just didn’t have the time thanks to getting sick for 2 weeks. I also have another project to finish, would should have been done on time but I didn’t order enough material and then the local shops didn’t have it either.

You can find more of my knitting from my Ravelry page if you’re interesting. I’m hoping in the next day or two to start another project (for myself this time!).

Gifts for Bookworms #BEDN

No surprise here, I love books and I love bookish themed presents! I've slowly started to build up a collection of bookish accessories like bags, mugs and clothing and thought it would be fun to share some of the things I've seen online that have caught my eye.

During the week I shared by Books Are My Bag bag collection so here's some more totes! Clockwise from top left: The Great Gatsby from Out of Print Clothing, Go Away I'm Reading from Red Bubble, Books Are My Bag 2015 Grayson Perry Tote (from bookshops if they still have them!), Professional Bookworm from Society6

Wear your bookishness with pride! Clockwise from top left: If Lost hoodie by NerdGirlTees on Etsy, We're All Mad Here necklace by TempestSociety on Etsy, Library Long Sleeved Top by Out Of Print Clothing, To Kill a Mockingbird brooch by House Of Ismay on Etsy.

I could do a whole post about mugs alone! But I limited myself to these. Clockwise from top left: Cats in Literature Mug by The Literary Gift Company, Harry Potter iPhone cover by Primark, Penguin Classic Book Mug, Children Literature Map of Britain by The Literary Gift Company

This is just a taster of what's out there. The best two websites I've come across are The Literary Gift Company and Out of Print Clothing, I had to stop myself from going mad and posting all the things on those sites! Etsy is a great way to buy handmade if you like that idea. But nothing will beat local bookshops! They'll have beautiful editions of classic favourites, exciting new releases and related products like mugs, notebooks, bags and other quirky things. 

I hope you've found some inspiration for the bookworm in your life. Or as a reward to yourself for getting all Christmas shopping done!

All Time Favourite Christmas Ads #BEDN

Even though tomorrow's Blog Every Day in November theme is Christmas, I don't want to wait until tomorrow to post this. The other week I did a spotlight on some of the new ads out this Christmas but sometimes you just can't beat a classic!

Classic Coca-Cola Holidays Are Comin' ad, need I say more?!

The young girl in the Cornflakes ad always reminds me of my sister at that age, even though she wasn't that blonde. In the ad we see her older brother and sister and we used to pretend it was me, my brother and sister in the ad!

Every Irish person will remember the Telecom Eireann ad where the little girl rings Santa, another classic.

I love everything about this ad, the music, the bookish reference, the beautiful snow scenes. And then there's the Irn Bru take on the Snowman which is hilarious.

Horsies! Just from hearing the music alone I can picture the horses going through the snow. Do they still show this ad?

I love the atmosphere in this ad, the stillness and eeriness, the snowy scenes over Dublin and the really clever 'Even at the home of the black stuff, they dream of a white one'. 

I loved the Monty the Penguin ad from John Lewis last year, it really melted my heart!

All beauty addicts probably remember this ad! I love all the women vying for space in front of mirrors or any shiny surface they can find. But the music makes this ad most memorable. 

Another Boots ad, this one doesn't have much to do with what Boots sells to be honest (though they did try and slot in a few shots) but I love the message of this, the idea of a family waiting to have Christmas with one another. 

There's a McDonald's ad too which I love, same eerieness stillness as the Guinness one where they show a McDonald's that is shut and then at the end they say something like 'the best place to be this Christmas...is at home. Merry Christmas'. Or something to that degree. 

Favourite New Christmas Ads #BEDN

Yes, this is a bit early! But's there's a handful of new Christmas ads that I keep seeing on TV and have been enjoying so I thought I'd share here. I'll probably do a post in the next week or two with ultimate Christmas ads.

Of course the first one to share is a bookish one! This one is for Sainsbury's and features Mog, which is one of my favourite children's book characters.

This ad is the reason I love the new Fleur East song (as I mentioned in this post) because I first heard it watcing this ad. I loved Asda's summer ad too, they just pick great songs to go with their ads. This works as it's so happy and upbeat and is just different to most of the ads around.

So I just shared adverts from supermarkets in UK but here's an Irish one from Supervalu, I love the way they've brought together scenes from all sorts of family and friends. I love the board games, the dancing at the party, weighing the turkey on the scales, the woman not knowing how to use the remotes and the friends ewwing from stuffing the turkey. It's just a lovely feel good ad.

To be honest, this Primark ad was picked mainly for the nostalgic music!

I don't think this ad is particularly memorable but Marks and Spencer's ads are always a fantastic production and I love that there's an upbeat song. And the kids are cute in the ad too!

I love the idea of a Christmas School, when the lady says to the Santas 'you need to get your hos in order' cracks me up! The blackboard of how the fairy lights should and shouldn't be and the dog dressed up!

I haven't seen the John Lewis ad yet! Ya, I know, there's always a massive deal about the John Lewis ad but it hasn't been on TV yet and I'll see it eventually. I'm sure there will be other ads out this year that I'll enjoy too. I'm not in full out Christmas mode at the moment, I enjoy seeing these ads on TV but I haven't started listening to music or watching films. But I do want to go all out festive this year!

Winter Wishlist 2015 #BEDN

A few weeks ago I saw Rosalilium's 100 Things to Do in Autumn post and loved the idea of it. Even though autumn is my favourite season, it was a bit late to really enjoy anything in the blog post, so I sat down and made a Winter Wishlist. Just the other day Rosalilium published her 100 Things to Do This Christmas post, which you can check out here. I'm sure there will be some cross over of ideas but here are some of the things I want to do this winter and Christmas!

1. Make homemade gingerbread lattes

2. Go to carolling service

3. Knit some decorations

4. Decorate gingerbread houses with friends

5. Take pictures if it snows

6. Go to a Christmas Market

7. Make pine cone Christmas tree decorations

8. Make German Christmas cookies

9. Watch Christmas DVDs

10. Donate to charity (St, Vincent de Paul Giving Tree or a shoebox appeal or donate canned foods)

11. Make homemade Baileys

12. Make Christmas jumper

13. Celebrate 10 year anniversary with my boyfriend

14. Make a snowman if it snows

15. Board game night in

16. Christmas nail art ideas

17. Watch Late Late Toy Show

18. Cosy fireside night in knitting

19. Christmas house warming party

20. Make Christmas CD and playlist

21. Go ice skating

22. Make gingerbread cupcakes

23. DIY Snowflake mobile

24. Watch classic Christmas film in cinema if there is special showing

25. Have fun enjoying time with friends and family

26. Make a nice Christmas Day dessert

27. Do a Photo Every Day challenge for a month

28. Light some cosy seasonal candles

29. Send Christmas cards to friends

30. Read some festive books!

I'm sure I could go on and on, but I'd love to concentrate on these. I'm excited now to have things to look forward to doing! I've made a Pinterest board which you can see below, with some links to ideas for the stuff listed above. Let me know what you're looking forward to doing this winter in comments below!

Follow Breige's board Winter Wishlist 2015 on Pinterest.

December Wrap Up

Last wrap up of 2014! I had a nice December, busy at times but not manic, which was nice. Here’s some of the things I got up to and enjoyed

Socializing- December is always a busy month for people! This month I went with my boyfriend, cousin, her boyfriend and their friends to Morley Cheeks to their all you can eat wings and ribs night, met up with people back home at Christmas in various different places but the biggest was a large group of us having dinner at an Indian restaurant, my usual knit club meet ups, New Year’s Eve with some wonderful new friends in Manchester and a trip to London, where I went to The Ice Kingdom at Winter Wonderland.


Crafting- A lot of Christmas presents! I made a Christmas stocking for my new cousin, a shawl for my mother, a scarf for my boyfriend’s mother, a doughnut pin cushion for a friend and made a bunch of printed bags for people (but didn’t take pictures of those). My Dad also made my knitted birds into a mobile for my new cousin.


Receiving- Some wonderful gifts! I got a camera from my parents, which will hopefully help improve the quality of some of my pictures. I got some great gifts from people, including books, a hand knitted hedgehog, a hand knitted snood, some Tube themed notepaper, a beautiful hand stitched flamingo ornament and loads of wool shop vouchers (most of which has already been spent!).
          

Wearing- My handmade flamingo Christmas jumper!!


Finding- Paddington Bears. For the release of the new film, there were 50 bear statues designed by different celebrities scattered around London. I only found 4 (I swear I circled Covent Garden 3 or 4 times trying to find the second one there with no luck!) but it was fun to spot them!


Listening- To Christmas music. My favourite song this year being Feliz Navidad!

And that’s it really. I’m really glad I started making these wrap up posts as I can easily look back through the months and see what I’ve done. It always gives me a chance to reflect on what I did for the month and sometimes when it feels like I’ve done nothing, it turns out I’ve done quite a bit. Hope 2014 was good for you and Happy New Year!

Christmas Nails with Rimmel Glitter Bomb

I bought this polish at the beginning of October and grabbed it off the shelf straight away! It’s Rimmel Glitter Bomb in Midnight Mistletoe. I just loved the colour combo and glitter is just perfect for Christmas. I knew I wanted to put it over white so I chose the Rimmel Rita Ora in White Hot Love.

The Christmas Tag!

I think I can safely say we’re well in the Christmas swing of things at the moment! Lovely Chloe from Nurse Fancy Pants tagged me for this and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in!

What is your favourite Christmas movie/s?

Home Alone! I do enjoy that, though I don’t think I’ve watched it in the past year or two, which is a shame! I’ve also enjoyed Elf, Muppets Christmas Carol and Die Hard, but honestly I’m not a huge film person. My favourite is probably one we had on VHS years ago, a short animated film called ‘On Christmas Eve’. There’s not talking in it but it’s beautiful and two years ago I managed to find it on DVD and I kept it a secret from my siblings until I made them sit down to watch it!

Do you open Christmas presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning?

Morning all the time! My mother would never entertain the idea of opening presents before Christmas morning (or in the case of our birthdays, on the actual day), and to this day I still can’t open presents before the time! It makes it more exciting anyway to wait.

Do you have a favourite Christmas memory?

All my Christmases where spent at my Nana’s house, a tiny cottage in the middle of the countryside, it was always pretty cramped. I remember one Christmas, it was so so stormy, the power went in the house from Christmas Eve until St. Stephen’s Day. There was lots of fires (and probably lots of fighting that I don’t remember!) and on Christmas Day my mother went down to her mother’s summer house to finish the cooking (as there was a gas oven there) and discovered the electricity was working there, so we all packed up our presents and went to spend the night down there! It seemed like a massive adventure at the time, even though we only went a few miles down the road! Then there was 2009 Christmas, first time we got snow in ages! It was great to play with my younger siblings out in the snow.
                    

Favourite festive food?

Hands down, Vanillakipferl! I only make this Christmas Eve, using Rachel Allen’s recipe, they’ve become a tradition in our house. Out of a Christmas dinner, the ham is my favourite and probably the favourite in all the house. Not a fan of traditional Christmas goodies like pudding, cake or mince pies. Raisins? No thanks!

Favourite Christmas gift?

Probably my V-Tech computer, I loved it so much! I did melt the front of it a tiny bit by getting too close to the fire! I’ve always enjoyed getting books for Christmas and a lot of the time I got very nerdy gifts, telescopes, microscopes, an atlas, other science kits. I got a Glo Worm one year too.

Favourite Christmas scent?

Never really thought about this much before! Smell of a real Christmas tree is lovely and I like cinnamon and vanilla scents too.

Do you have any Christmas Eve traditions?

Christmas Eve is BIG in my house, it’s become a thing over the years. Because there’s always so many of us at dinner, my mother starts cooking Christmas Eve. I also do some baking, making mince pies and the vanillakipferl that I mentioned above. My mother also makes her home made Baileys. There’s music playing, presents are being wrapped, lots of family, friends and neighbours are popping in and at midnight, we have a mini feast of ham, gravy and potato stuffing (which my boyfriend thinks is weird, but come on, you can not have enough ham at Christmas time!). It’s just a lovely atmosphere and something I look forward to every year.

What tops your tree?

Oh dear, I have no idea! I’m never involved with decorating the tree at home. Growing up, we never had one, as my Nana’s house was tiny and cramped with all of us as it was! I’d hazard a guess that it’s an angel opposed to a star, I can see my mother insisting on an angel. My favourite decorations though are the Lego Santa, snowman and Christmas tree we’ve had for years as well as the mini TY Beanie Baby angel hanging on the tree!

As a kid what was the one extravagant gift you asked for but never got?

Honestly, I don’t think there was much I never got. As a rule, we weren’t allowed to ask for bikes, they were reserved as birthday requests only and we were only allowed to list three gifts in our letters to Santa. I do remember always wanting one of the bears that you could decorate with markers and it would wash out, but can’t remember if I ever asked for them!

What’s the best part of Christmas for you?

Spending time with family and friends, especially now that I’m living abroad. Christmas Eve is my favourite time and I love just hanging about by fireplace with all my family. Also, the local annual carol singing is something I look forward to doing with my family, never taken too seriously and is always a bit of fun.

My Favourite Things About Being a Child #BEDM

Another one of the Blog Every Day in May prompts. Today’s one is about the best things about being a child. So I decided to make a list of some of my favourite memories.

-Imagination. Being child, you have so much more imagination. I used to pretend to be a gymnast, doing cartwheels and balancing on things. And you the warning they used to have at the end of the TV show Gladiators? About not replicating anything at home? That message was totally for me as I used to pretend I was playing Gladiators. I used to have a playhouse out the back of my house and my friends and I would bring down all sorts of things, old telephones, books, blankets and play all sorts of games. Or sometimes we’d stay inside and do things like pretend to be hairdressers.

 

-Computer games. Yes, I LOVED computer games when I was a child. My Dad was given an old Amiga computer and a ton of games of floppy disks. I still have hankerings to play Zool, Rick Dangerous and Switchblade. Then we got a Super Nintendo, we had so many cool games but unfortunately we gave it away once we got a PlayStation. Still regret that as I want my own SNES!

 

-Christmas. Now, Christmas can be fun as an adult and you can certainly enjoy it but Christmas was so much more magical as a child. All that excitement!

 

-Taping songs off the radio. Ah, kids these days will never know the agony of radio presenters talking at the beginning and ending of songs and ruining your recording! A friend and I took it a step further and recorded our own radio shows on tapes! I really wish I still had a copy of that today.

 

-Smash Hits. I LOVED that magazine! So much so that a cousin and I made our own version called Mashed Bits.

 

-Jumble sales. In my neighbourhood, every now and again kids would decide to sell some of their toys and set up a jumble sale on the wall of their garden. There was always such excitement about nabbing a bargain! Also, once a year my school would do a big jumble sale, it was like the neighbourhood one times 100!

 

-Spending so much time outside. Nowadays I don’t like to spend that much time outside but as a child I could spend hours without going inside. Saying that though, I could also spending hours in my room reading as I was am a massive bookworm.

 

-Fat Frogs. Apple Jacks. Postman Pat sweets. Desperate Dan bars. Banana Bubbles cereal. When Freddos were originally Taz bars, Starburst were Opal Fruits and Smarties came in tubes with collectable tops.

 

-Henry Hippo money box

 

-Zig and Zag. And kids TV in general. Art Attack, Live and Kicking, Power Rangers, Animaniacs, TOP 30 HITS!

 

-Toys in cereal

 

-NOW That’s What I Call Music CDs. My first being NOW 36. I still have it!

Christmas Tree Nails!

Merry Christmas everyone! I meant to post this one earlier but got caught up in pre Christmas madness. Here’s some nails I did the other week (I’ve actually kept my nails bare for Christmas Day as I just didn’t have time to do them!).

Hope you had a great day!

YouTube Pick of the Week

A short one this week!

I posted one of Jimmy Fallon and The Roots with Christina Aguilera a few weeks ago and this is a very cute one with Mariah Carey! To get you into the festive mood.

Chandler is possibly my favourite Friend (though I have a soft spot for Monica as we’re pretty alike) and just cracked up at this Moves Like Chandler video. And then I discovered the Chandler Dances on Things tumblr. Could it BE any better?!

This video takes the piss out of the Science, It’s a Girls’ Thing video that the European Commission released earlier this year.

Finally a video for Egg Nog! I’ve never had it before but I plan on using this recipe to make some. Yum!

Snowflake Nails

Another holiday nail look! I wanted to post this earlier than now but never got the chance. I hope to write a blog post about that soon enough.

Anyway! I love the look of snowflake nails. I previously linked Behind Green Eyes black and gold snowflake nails but I love her stamped ones as well! Makes me really covet a snowflake stamping plate. I love Lynnie from Lyndar the Merciless two versions as well (here and here). So I decided I needed to hop on the snowflake nail trend!

Products Used

Blue- Essence Sure Azure (old style bottle, not made anymore)

White- Model’s Own Nail Art Pen in White

Sparkly top coat- Essence Night in Vegas

Christmas Pudding Nails!

Yay it’s December! I’ve been excited for Christmas for a while now and last night I decided to get into the swing of things especially for The Late Late Show. So I put on my new Christmas jumper and did my nails!

I love Christmas puddings as a Christmas symbol (but not to eat!). Two years ago I made myself a Christmas jumper and put a pudding on it. For this nail art design I was inspired by the lovely Lynnie on Beaut.ie (also found on her own blog Lyndar the Merciless)

Colours Used

Brown- Catrice Ulimate Nail Lacquer in CO2 Reggaeton (Cucuba Limited Edition)

White- Art Club

Red- Art Club

Green- Art Club

Black- Wet n Wild in Black Cream

Top Coat- Colour Club

I have a few more Christmas nail ideas which I’ll hopefully get down. I saw a great snowflake design on Behind Green Eyes which is inspired me, check it out here!

Rimmel Precious Stones Nail Polish

I was like a magpie when I first saw these online, I knew I HAD TO HAVE THEM! There’s two shades, Diamond Dust which is grey and silver sparkles and Ruby Crush which is red and gold (maybe silver, it looked gold in some lights, but silvery in others!) sparkles. They are so densely packed that you only need two coats to get an even cover, so no undercoat colour is needed.

Diamond Dust, with flash, which shows the underlying steely grey background, with the silver sparkles on top.

Without flash

Ruby Crush, with flash

Without flash

I’m in love with these colour, perfect for Christmassy nails. And I would love if there was a dark sapphire blue and an emerald green version. Oi Rimmel, sort that out and I’ll snap them up straight away!

I got mine on ASOS, where there’s 30% off Rimmel at the moment. AND free worldwide delivery! What’s stopping you?!