Hillmount Garden Centre, Bangor: Christmas Gift Guide 2015

Visit Santa

We popped along to  Hillmount Garden Centre, Bangor's Ladies' Night 2015 this evening to take advantage of 10% off across the whole store, as well as many other discounts.

There is a free to view lovely little winter trail of moving figures downstairs

So is it worth making a visit for your own Christmas shopping? 

Well Hillmount is one of those garden centres that sells everything for the whole home too. I don't know if these places are just a middle class, Northern Irish phenomenon, but you'll get candles, Cath Kidston everything, cookware, jams, all sorts stocked there too.  

Also available Yankee & Woodwick

My prime  'oh my word they've got those!' moment was discovering they stock Powder Socks and Accessories. Menary's in Bangor have the socks, but Hillmount have the muffs, gloves, headbands and even the gift bags.

Ladies' night off to a bustling start

If you challenged yourself to do ALL your gift shopping under their one roof, you might just do it. They've a great toy selection for all age ranges, and Smix added to his Christmas wish list rightly! 

Pixar's Good Dinosaur merch in stock

Seatbelt covers for comfier journeys

Crafters and bakers are also well catered for with two healthily sized sections catering to each hobby. 

You are spoilt for choice Christmas decoration wise. They've fake trees, real trees, fibre optic trees and absolutely reams of stuff to put on any of them. I was tickled by these Stormont & Harland and Wolfe baubles, hand painted £8.99 each.

Anyone for a tea pot tree? 

Your sweet tooth is all set with these stocking sized classic sweet packs. 

And finally, something a bit gardeny 

Rodnik Band x Soap & Glory = Match (Box) Made In Heaven

Philip Colbert

For yeaarrrrrs I've blogged about The Rodnik Band, London-based designer Philip Colbert's label and vessel of love. He lives and breathes Rodnik, with design leaning to fashion and homeware avenues, all with a quirky edge.

Rodnik Band Interiors available at Made DotCom

Soap & Glory are another of what I consider 'my' brands. I got into their range very early, due to my love of retro packaging.

Here Is a Blog Post from January 2010 even, about their products. I went S&G crazy. I bought everything they brought out.

I got so into the Soap & Glory range that I eventually sickened myself on it, even before the makeup range had a chance to come out. So I rarely use Soap and Glory now, but I maintain their body butter is the best on the market, and I use their lipsticks as one of the shades is a fab nude lip for me. 

Three cases to choose from. All contents the same. 

So when I saw Philip had collaborated with Soap & Glory this Christmas, designing three of their cases in true Rodnik style, I was a bit conflicted. I don't want to spend maybe £40 on products I don't use now just for the case, but on the other hand they are based on Rodnik couture clutch handbags which can cost hundreds.

Rodnik clutch bags

But here's the best part!  The Rodnik Collab case only costs £18, AND it's part of the Boots' gift store wide 3 for 2 offer. So if I buy two gifts around the same price or more on the Boots site for my friends or family, I can add the Match Box Case to my shop for free!

The clutch the match box S&G case is based on

So is anyone buying this year's Soap & Glory set? Or is it on your wish list?

My pride and joy in my Rodnik Collection- a yellow submarine mac

It Took Me Two Hours to Put Together Smix's Advent Calendar... Was It Worth It?

As a product blog this is a bit useless, as I bought this in Lidl about a month ago and I think they sold out. Plus I can't even recall the price! Either £5.99 or £6.99? That seems a lot, when they don't come with contents, but even after they've been opened you are left with a very cute Christmas village that can be reused year after year. 

So, this morning I set about building the 24 houses. They are all the same shape, so once you get going you speed up, but it still took me two hours. Perhaps if there are two of you making them, 12 each, it would be faster, but I just stuck Netflix on and got folding. 

You have 24 sheets of housing, which are double sided, so you can alternate, or choose an all brown or all blue themed village. You've also gold stickers for numbering the houses and ribbon. 

As with most of these type of craft builds, you'll find it a lot easier if you pre-bend the folds before you try to fashion it together. 

The houses are a good size. I don't want to give away all the contents, but I was able to fit trinkets from Tiger Stores inside, sweets, small sets of battery powered Christmas lights from Poundland etc. 

They actually take up a lot more room than I anticipated. Only the first ten days fitted on the mantelpiece. I don't think I will keep all of them for displays next year. Probably just a selection of whichever ones don't get ripped to bits with the excitement of getting to the insides! 

My One Black Friday Shout Out: Free Shipping & Free Mystery Gifts on The Hand Drawn Creative's Etsy this Weekend

I think I'm turning into a grumpy old woman, as the Black Friday offers have rolled into my inbox all week, for  the day after our non-existent Thanksgiving, they've gone straight in the electronic 'trash can'. They didn't have Black Friday in my day!

I decided to give one small business a special Black Friday shoutout, and that's Neal at Hand Drawn Creative. He's my fellow mid-century loving, Bangorian, and I'm ever in his debt blog post wise as he made my The World of Kitsch banner heading for me for free.

Before you accuse me of being one of those pains in the arses of the creative collect, I did NOT ask Neal to throw something together for free, he actually approached me with the design he took upon himself to doodle up one day. Of course I adore it! I've had it printed on various things including chocolate and my own t-shirt!

 As you can see from the top image there is free shipping all weekend, and free mystery gifts.

Neal's store has a variety of prints in different genres, but my absolute favourite is the range of renderings of 70s & 80s Fisher Price toys. We kept some in my parents' attic, and I bought some at car boot sales such as the boat bus in this print.

We already had Smix when these prints came out, but my brother & wife are expecting their first child, so I've sent them a selection of the prints for their home.  

Take a look and take advantage of the Black Friday weekend. 

'Grotto Off 2015'! First Stop Ards Shopping Centre

'Grotto Off' doesn't have a very appealing ring to it, I am aware of that, but just in case we end up visiting a selection this Christmas, we might as well post about our visit today, at  Ards Shopping Centre.

Ards Shopping Centre always put on a good show. Their yearly 'mountain' display is immense. There have been DJing elves and the infamous 'Puffing Billy' who I captured in 2010 on video.

We pitied those working in stores in earshot of that song, on loop, all day, every day for over a month. The woman at the till of the butchers' definitely had a thousand mile stare on the go. I could imagine coming in one day to find her with a kebab skewer in each bloody ear due to her aural torture. 

Apart from being impressive, the whole grotto set up is hard to beat. Free visit, free chocolate lolly for each child, and one free photo printed instantly for you. So no monetary outlay, and no having to wait around for an hour, or even call back another day to claim your Santa photo. 

Ards' grotto was actually the first ever Santa visit had, December 2007, a month and a bit after he was born. 

Baby Smix 2007

What a little Christmas pudding! 

So we were in the centre after school today, and the queue for Santa was tiny, so we both paid him a visit. 

Smix's smile betrays the fact that I was the one keener to see Santa! He was just after the lollipop! 

So yes, first grotto experience of 2015, how did it weigh up?  Score is out of five snowmen.

Display- ⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️

Actual rating for Santa-  ⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️

Price- ⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️ 

Gift (free on this occasion remember)- ⛄️⛄️⛄️ 

Photo quality- ⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️ 

Photo Gift Option- ⛄️ 

Queue time- ⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️ 

Christmas 2015 Has Arrived in Marks & Spencer's Food Hall

Tis the season to eat all-y! Christmas has arrived in Marks & Spencer with  3 for 2 offers across party food as well as gifts & beauty departments. Stock up now, freeze and avoid the crazy rush in late December.

I called into the Belfast city centre branch to pick up some of the Christmas food that's just hit the shelves. 

There are lots of party food favourites back in store, with some cute additions like mini chicken buckets and chorizo cups. 

Again Marks and Spencer are partnering with Shelter with their Christmas lunch products. You can eat & be merry while also helping the Shelter charity. 

The orange and clementine juice tastes like childhood Christmases with a baby orange in your stocking from Santa. 

Christmas dinner is my all time favourite meal, so I'm glad M&S have a sneaky pre-Christmas roast turkey dinner for one. 

The glitter poinsettias caught my eye.  

That is one big walnut whip. The hot chocolate flakes are part of the 3 for 2 offer on Christmas trimmings. 

My favourite part, the party desserts. They are all mix and match on 3 for 2. 

This is a nifty little idea. Ice your own letter to Santa. I don't quite know the logistics of how Santa reads it if it ends up in your stomach, but we can put it down to Christmas magic. 

They've a range of Christmas crisps on a two for £2.70 deal. I have to be honest and say I wasn't keen on these parsnip ones. 

More from the lunch selection, very cute mini traybakes. 

Stunning macarons you have there, M&S. 

I wish I had picked up this parsnip drink now. Can't imagine what it might taste like!