Crafty - Paper Tassel Garland

A couple of weeks ago we had a little party for my birthday.  I didn't really want to go all out with a theme or loads of decorations, but I thought it might be fun to make these super easy paper garlands to add a bit of a party feel inside and out.

I've been lusting after this one that Emily has in her office for ages so decided that it might be fun to do something similar for the party.

I had a search online and found some good tutorials like this one on Boho Weddings.

I'm excited about trying more of them with some glittery paper and other colours.  Super glad I'fe figured out how to make them, as they seem to be super expensive to buy online!

Have you every tried making one?  What is your party go to item to dress up the house a bit?

Santa Claus is coming to town

I'm a bit of a fan of Father Christmas decorations. I like the fact that there are so many interpretations of Santa, St Nicholas and papa noël and I love the ways that he can be portrayed.

As mentioned before I really like to stick to traditional decorations and not so much of the cartoon Santa fan really.  I am so in love with our new hanging Santa from cath kidston which we bought this year and my favorite decorations are the Father Christmas on top of our tree (no angels or stars here) and the standing Father Christmas that I bought G last year as one of his Xmas prezzies.

This year on our annual shopping trip for new decs we fell in love with the snowy, rustic Santa with the shovel.  We had to take him home so I decided to give him to G as an early Xmas prezzie this year.

They now sit either side of the tele and are treasured Christmas additions to the family.

It Christmas time

The fireplace with our traditional Jack Wills stockings, 

new mantle piece garland, and the compulsory Poinsettia

We have very traditional hearth decorations and two gorgeous looking Father Christmas characters that stand beside the television, but when it comes to the tree decorations there are no rules.  Our hanging decorations all have meaning, however naff they are they go on the tree, so long as they were given to us by someone special or we bought them to remind us of a special moment.

One of our favourite traditions is to collect a Christmas decoration from our holidays throughout the year.  Each year the collection of our special, meaningful decorations grows. This year we had a Despicable Me decoration from our honeymoon and a wee Scottish Tartan Bagpiper from Edinburgh to add to the tree.

As another tradition we head up to The Gardening Club garden centre at the top of our road each year a couple of weeks before Christmas.  We think about what we need to add to our Christmas collection and have a wander around their Christmas wonderland.  This year we picked up a gorgeous mantle piece garland and a red berry wreath for the front door.

Cute Angel from our gorgeous 4 years old cousin last year

Our much loved artificial Christmas tree from Homebase

G helping fill the trolley with new Xmas goodies and
deciding whether this year we need a real tree or not.

Star decoration lovingly made by Bean and knitted Santa decoration (new this year) from Cath Kidston

Pretty Vintage

Back in September we threw a fantastic Vintage party for Bean's 30th.  We went for 1940's themed party with bunting, tasty finger food from M&S, a Gin Bike and a dance session.

We hired the local village hall and brought in a fantastic dance teacher/DJ for the evening, Salsa Dance Parties, who lead us in a brilliant charleston, jive and lindyhop dance session before cranking up the tunes for some cheesy party dancing.

The absolutely stunning photobooth from The Vintage Photobooth Company was probably the highlight of the evening.  We hired in the 1920's Vintage booth which was so beautiful and the double prints meant that Bean got to keep a memento from the event.

We decided to dress up a vintage bike that we have and make it into the Gin Bar for the evening, with pretty paper cups, stripy straws and a collection of Gin accompaniments.

We all dressed up in Vintage 'get up' with G and me donning our best and really getting into the theme.

When planning a theme for a party it's often the little things that can make the difference.  

• Think about the venue and how it matches your theme - village and church halls work well for vintage, whereas a room in a manor house would work well for a masquerade ball or a cocktail party.
• Ask guests to dress up as this will automatically bring the theme to life.  Providing a few props for guests to use is a nice way to help guests out if they struggled with an outfit.
• Continue your theme through to your food and think about the type of food that you have been eaten in that era, country etc.
• Think carefully about your music - an ipod playlist with well selected tunes will set the theme just as well as a DJ.
• Make your own decorations - thinks like paper bunting, paper pompoms and balloons are a really cheap way to dress the room.

Frame of mind

{18th July 2013}

I have always loved the way that you can group pictures together on a wall in a collage.  I think if you get it right it just makes a wall pop.  The above image is the collage wall that I have at my parents house, I was firs inspired to do this about 5 years ago after seeing the idea in a changing room in Monsoon.  It used to look so good, and over time I have taken frames away and it has diminished.  I to get this looking beautiful again so that I am inspired when I return home.

The main plan is to also create a collage wall in our living room for our wedding items.  We have the letters 'N' '&' and 'G' and a gorgeous coordinates print that my sister bought us as our engagement present which will fit perfectly on a collage wall.

Now for some of the collage walls that I am taking as inspiration....

Collage wall in Blackbird Tea Rooms, Brighton