Christmas Crafts :: Inspiration

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

If, like me, you have a somewhat unhealthy obsession with crafts, glitter and handmade trinkets, Christmas really is the most wonderful time of year.

If you can't throw sequins on something and call it 'customised' at Christmas, when can you?

I think I have mentioned in a previous post that I have a few Christmas craft tutorials up my festive sleeves for you, but before that, I thought I would share on of my favourite Christmas things with you.

Every year, about October/November time, when the festive itch scratches, I start to look at homey magazines. Throughout the year I'm a More, Reveal, Look, Glamour kinda gal, but come winter, I start to feel a real need for this 'grown up' magazines, with their tips for good housemaking, recipes and craft tutorials.

Over the years I have racked up a few of these Christmas edition magazines. I'd suggest if you buy one, to keep it til next year because lets face it, a brushed felt robin decoration is going to be the same in 2011 as it is in 2017, non? Also, they usually retail around the £4-5 mark, which for a glossy mag, is pretty pricey I think.

I really love flicking through these. I always try some of the little projects (and sometimes fail- I actually made a video last week on how to make a 3D Chocolate Crispy Tree, but it was a total disaster and never made it to YouTube!) and always take decor inspiration from them.

I urge you to don your hat and scarf, skip down to your local news agents, grab a bag of maltesers and a Christmas magazine and immerse yourself in the festive cheer of it all.

What do you do to get yourself in the Christmassy mood? Also, I feel like I've typed the word 'Christmas' about 5,000 times!

Toodlepip!

xx

Ebay Hearts :: Organising Jewellery

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

Since last weeks 'Ebay Hearts' feature was so well liked, I decided to make it a regular thing- Yippee!

This week I have lusted over charming, shabby chic ways to display, organise and store jewellery.

I love jewellery. I don't have a tonne of expensive jewels, I'm more of a cheap 'n' cheerful kinda gal. If it twinkles I'm happy. I often think it's a shame to stash everything away in drawers and boxes and love to display my favourite bits and bobs, so that I can enjoy them everyday and add a touch of glamour to my dresser. Of course, there are the few pieces that you don't want out and about, and for those I have a solution too!

All pictures are taken from www.ebay.co.uk.

THIS JEWELLERY HOLDER is multifunctional and super girlie. You could pop your studs in the mesh parts and hang your dangly earrings on the little hooks. I would also end up draping bracelets over the swirly wires at the top too. I love that this has little hinges, so that if you fancy changing things up a bit, you can fold it, pop it in a drawer and not begrudge it taking up all you space.

THESE LITTLE BASKETS are super duper sweet. They are the kind of things that I would have on my dresser with my jewellery with the best of intentions of keeping organised, but would end up chucking all my trinkets in. I don't know about you but I have all sorts in my jewellery box- a memory stick with my wedding photos, floral badges, bag charms, coins (why?), Baby Glitter's hospital wrist band and more. These little wire jobbies are pretty enough to scatter around your room to collect all those lovely little bits of life. Failing that, candle holder anyone?

Is this the cutest RING STAND you have ever seen? You all know my obsession with birds, so this definitely floats my boat.

If you look carefully you will see that it is actually a teeny tiny bird pond with itsybitsy birds sat round it, probably chatting about how pretty your jewels are. I'd scatter my sparkliest cocktail rings in there and struggle to choose which to wear.

Finally, this MIRRORED DRAWER SET is very similar to one I currently have and I must say, I loves it! It's great to display all your most pretty of things, but those heavily bejewelled butterfly dangly hoops that you think you ought not to have bought? Store them in here and nobody ever need know your secret love for them. Tehe.

I do hope you liked my ideas to organise your jewellery. I might do another one at some point with less girlie options (think muji acrylic drawers etc), but I figured that since these are all the things I really love myself, you might enjoy them too!

How do you store your pretties? Do you have any requests for next week's Ebay Hearts?

Toodlepip!

xx

Magic With The GlossyGirls

Aloha Sprinklerinos,

Last week, after a rather weird journey, Zoe and I hotfooted it down to Waterloo to board that most magical of wheels- The London Eye.

Having never been on it and wanting to for just about forever, I was almost delirious with excitement!

Playing with my new camera- slow shutterspeed, speedy hands, happy LouLou!

This was snapped by Zoe and her swish camera. She's a wizz!

Little Festive Market nearby- tres cute.

This snap and the one above are from the GlossyBox Facebook Page. Do go and say 'hi'. 

I won't write too much because I plan on making a video about this (just as soon as I'm not plagued by this awful fluey thing) and showing you all the footage from the evening. My photos didn't come out as well as I would have liked (I think I needed a tripod, but who lugs one of those around in their handbags?!), but I did do a lot of filming so if you keep an eye on my YouTube channel, you won't miss out.

I met some fantastic new ladies, caught up with old chums and had some really interesting chitchat with the GlossyTeam. I have to take my hat off to them, they are so lovely, so knowledgeable and knew all of our names! You might be thinking, "of course they know your names, you have blogs and whatnot", but I was pretty impressed. I was even asked about Baby Glitter, which I thought was very sweet.

We had champagne, canapes, two rotations and lots of talk about what's coming up in GlossyWorld. I'm pretty excited for the Men's Boxes. They'll be quarterly and contain 7 products. I don't know about you, but most the men in my life (oerr that sounds a bit wrong! I mean like my Husband, Dad, Brother's-in-law etc) like to look after themselves, so this will be a welcome product.

If you'd like to have a mosey around GlossyBox for yourself, HERE'S their website. (Defo have a look, I've just seen the male model for the men's box- hubbah-hubbah!)

Are you a GlossyBox Gal? Have you tried any of the other beauty boxes on the market?

Toodlepip!

xx