Audrey

Noooo not Audrey Hepburn! Today is/wouldve been my Grandma Audreys birthday, she died about 11yrs ago and every year on this day I like to remember her and what she was like. I know I talk about my Grandparents alot in this blog so I wont go on about it but I just thought i'd share a few memories of her with you.

She was very different to my other Grandma, she was a tall, strong and very ballsy woman who my mum would describe as "firm but fair" She was the kind of lady who you respected! You wouldnt mess with Grandma Audrey!

She was a very spontaneous lady and sometimes i see alot of her in my sisters character. Always ready to go somewhere and do something and a bit bossy! (sorry rachel) She joined us on our childhood holidays to Norfolk and she'd always be up for paddling in the sea with a tea towel on her head that she'd made into a hat to keep her head from getting sunburnt!

Grandma Audrey was the kind of person who would go to a hotel and take all the biscuits, tea, sugar, coffee and in her kitchen she has a basket full of them! She'd say "well ive paid for them so im having them"

I remember going to see Fame and Me and My girl with her at the theatre and she told me to leave my sweet wrapper and rubbish on the floor for the cleaners "it'll give them something to do" she'd say.

My sister and I would stay at her house and one of us would get the real bed and the other would get the camp bed, Grandma Audrey sat on the edge of the camp bed once and it collapsed and to a 9 and 11yr old it was absolutely hilarious! In the room was a shelf full of the secret seven and the famous five books, my uncles football trophies and some beano and bunty books that were left over from their childhoods, its strange how much I remember, I can even remember the smell of the house, it was "soapy" like most grandmas houses but it seems to be a nostalgic smell, ive smelt it in marks and spencer on a few occasions!

Anyway, I just thought id share a little bit about her and my memories of her and I shall raise a glass to her later on and wish her a happy birthday, cheers xx

Gifting

I love buying gifts but when I have quite a few to buy, I panic! Luckily I dont have a big family, and I dont have lots of friends to buy for so I get the pleasure of being able to put alot of thought into what to buy the lucky chosen ones! I have to buy for, about, 10 people, all together, which isnt too bad, in my opinion!

Some are easy to buy for, easily pleased with whatever you buy them, others are so difficult I get to the point where I feel like just buying them ANYTHING to tick them off the list, but then I get that feeling where I feel really bad for buying them something they might not like and I dont like wasting money or being known as a rubbish gifter!

Most of the friends I have to buy for have similar taste to me, with the exception of one, but that person has so many hobbies and interests and a whole array of likes and loves that they have become the easiest person to buy for! - I have to stop myself from going overboard, they could potentially become very spoiled!

Trawling the shops and not knowing what to buy is a burden, its stressful and theres no need for it!

Tips:

LISTEN, dont just hear what people say, if they say they like something, really listen and see if you can get ideas about what someone might need or want and get ideas that way. For example, I heard my friend say she wanted a toast rack, just as a passing comment in a conversation, I remembered what she said and bought her one for her birthday, she liked it, mission accomplished!!

LOOK
Have a look at what people have in their homes, what kind of dvds are on the shelf, do they have lots of photos around the place, have they got a certain colour scheme running through their living rooms, do they have favourite artists/designers. What's their style? take inspiration from this. You'll probably find that you come across things they would like more often, when you are in shops or browsing the internet.

Secret Santa or the £10 challenge are also popular ways of making sure everyone gets something. I've never been the biggest fan of Secret Santa, mainly because i'm picky and if I dont like something that someone has bought me I feel bad and annoyed that im stuck with something rubbish that someone clearly hasnt put any thought into and afterall "its the thought that counts"

Heres a few cheap and cheerful secret santa ideas!

Chocolate Spoon moulds, great for stirring in some hot milk and making hot chocolate fun

Spicy Chocolate

Egg Cup and Soldier cutter














Getting personal is another nice way to gift, especially if you have friends with unusual names or there are children you buy for with unusual names that you may not find in gift shops on the bedroom door signs or the mugs. Look on handmade and bespoke websites.

You can buy lovely santa sacks on Amazon or you could get crafty and make your own stocking.

www.notonthehighstreet.com
www.etsy.co.uk
www.seekandadore.com

Gift Responsibly!

x

Holidays are coming... Holidays are coming

Winter is just around the corner, and the only way to spend it is wrapped up in lots of layers or by hibernating inside and entertaining yourself at home!

This weekend i've seen every department store Christmas advert (Personal fave is the John Lewis advert) and the Coca Cola advert which means tis, officially, the season to be jolly (fa la la la laaaaa), but im not quite in the spirit yet, its only the beginning of November!! I, personally, think that christmas is drawn out too long, as soon as it hits October, BHS get all their tat out and as Halloween and Bonfire night breeze on by we are bombarded with everything festive, as if santa came and vomitted all over town.

I am led to believe that Advent Calendars are most peoples favourite way to start celebrating this time of year. I dont remember getting advent calendars with chocolates in as a child, I just remember there being a picture behind each window and im sure my sister and I took it in turns to open the windows. I wouldnt mind, but im sure I wasnt a deprived child, from a deprived family! I often felt a bit like I may've missed out but after tasting cheap advent calendar chocolate I quickly decided I wasnt that bothered!!

This year I have decided to make the Advent Calendar into Advent Bunting, I have bought some sweet shop paper bags with christmas trees on and i've painted some wooden pegs gold and will attach 25 bags to some string and fill them with treats or christmas jokes/riddles/festive surprises for my housemates. Im hoping this turns into a fun little treat and gets us all in the christmas spirit and may even brighten up those cold dark mornings when we have to go to work!

You can buy the Sweet Shop paper bags on ebay, I got mine for about £1.50 for 100 bags, the pegs cost me £1 from poundworld for 48, and I will probably get some treats from there too,  you can get jokes/riddles online and write them on little cards which are also quite cheap, so its cost effective festive fun meaning more money to spend on real pressies!!

Stop! Wait a minute Mr Postman ...

Does anyone still handwrite letters to their friends and family? Do any of you receive post that isn't bills? I absolutely love getting a hand written letter or writing one for someone else. I understand that email is quicker and easier and the information you divulge in a letter is "old" by the time the person receives it but I, personally, think its one of the most wonderful ways to communicate with friends.

I left university about 6 years ago and when I left I kept in touch with my best friend Kelly by writing letters and popping them in the post to one another. I came across one that was in a box when I moved house a few months ago, it was written on green and yellow paper and in an orange envelope, even the fact is was on coloured paper made it more interesting than receiving the same information by email. Its a funny read! Now she lives in Dubai and we communicate on whatsapp everyday because its easier and quicker, we mainly talk about what food we are eating that day or what we want to do when we grow up, but I have her address so I am planning on putting something in writing soon which i'm sure she will enjoy!

I used to write to my Grandma because she felt the same way about handwritten letters, I haven't lived in the same town as my grandma since I was 6 so writing to her was always a fun way of communicating and my mum used to remind me to do it especially after birthdays and Christmas to thank her for whatever she had given me. I used to have to do it in pencil so if I made a mistake I could rub is out and then when i'd finished it I could go over the pencil with a pen! Now i'm a rebel and I use pen straight away! When I moved to the middle east she would send me copies of "Shout" magazine because I couldn't buy it over there and she'd always stick a letter in to tell me her news. My dad decided to buy her a fax machine so that we could communicate faster, which was still quite nice because I could still handwrite the letter it just wouldn't take 3 weeks to get to her! She was, almost definitely, my favourite penpal!

I suppose people sometimes associate letter writing with love, ever written a love letter? even to a friend? Love letters don't have to be about romantic love, even just a quick letter to tell someone you are thinking about them can be a really lovely thought. I used to have a game with a friend called "name 3 reasons" It came from a TV programme called Married Single Other where the couple would say to one another "name 3 reasons why you love me" and they came out with really silly, but lovely things to say to each other. If you don't have a partner do it with a friend, you might get some really surprising stuff out of them, or just silly answers that make you laugh, we wrote them in letters once and stuck them on our fridge as a reminder, I think I still have mine somewhere.

If you have a friend who has hobbies, make your letters themed, if they have favourite colours, use that colour pen, make it fun and enjoy it. If you aren't very creative, just go to paperchase and pick out a nice card that is blank inside, you can get some lovely pens in there too, the pen is also very important! Showing gratitude or doing something for someone else will lift your spirits during these cold winter months, and when you get one back you will probably feel like this ... 

The next time you think about emailing your friend who lives overseas, or writing a birthday card to someone, get yourself a lovely pen and some nice paper and handwrite it! 

These are good pens!!

xx