Christmas gift ideas - DIY hamper

The run up to Christmas is hard enough without having to worry about what individual gifts to buy each member of the family, especially with the days zooming by and the big day approaching faster than you can count. This is where my idea of a personal hamper made in your very own hands falls into place. I loved the idea of this as soon as I saw the beautiful baskets made by various people I know previously in the past and this year, I knew I had to gather the goods and get working on a distinctive hamper with all my mum's favourite things topped with the glitz and glamorous decorations. 

What you'll need: 

- A Basket

- Tissue Paper

- Shredded Tissue Paper

- Decorative items of choice

- Cellophane

- Ribbon

- Scissors

- Sellotape

The preparation is simple enough, buy a basket from any local warehouse or bargain shops, top up with your own preferential decorations which can be bought from most card and birthday shops and then be rearranged according to the size, shape and angle of the products as you start to add them into your hamper. Then once finished, give yourself time to perfect the cellophane, which does require patience and a steady hand as it can be tricky to hold it into place as you wrap it around the complete basket, which is where the sellotape comes in (there are also tutorials online you can search). Once that is done, tie the top with the ribbon of your choice and either curl the ends of that or like I did, cheat and buy a ready made bunch of ribbon to stick on. 

It's an easy creation which may look like it's taken a huge chunk of your time up but truth be told, it hasn't at all. It adds to that novelty and excitement of buying gifts but not to just wrap and forget about, to include in the hamper which becomes greatly admired and appreciated by your loved one with the effort and thought you have put in. You can make it as special as you want to and set a theme according to what the person enjoys and what their hobbies are (e.g. beauty, food, gardening). It's the unique touch to the hamper that makes all the difference to fabricate the perfect present. 

Products/items featured:

After Eight Chocolates - Morrisons

Mini Bucks Fizz and Chocolate Set - JTF

Beauticology Foot Cream Set - Asda

Yves Rocher Cocoa and Pistachio Nut Handcream - eBay

Body Butter Set - Bodycare

MAC Smoulder Black Kohl Eyeliner - eBay

Shea Shower and Moisture Christmas Set - The Body Shop

Cupcake Candle - Primark via eBay

Pink Sweet Candle - Primark

'To My Mum' Card - Asda

Basket - B&M's

Tissue paper (both shredded and sheets) - Card Factory

Decorative Bows - Card Factory

Star Tinsel - Card Factory

Ribbon - Card Factory

Cellophane - JTF 

As you can see, I'm not professional, nor does it look like anything a professional would produce but I am pleased I have succeeded in my plans to design the hamper and hopefully my mum will be happy with the final piece of her which will be sat under the tree on Christmas day. I hope it will be useful to at least one of you to get that last minute gift quickly sorted!

Lots of love...

Grandma's Surprise 70th

It was my grandma's surprise 70th party last weekend. I can't believe it's been a week already and I've only just gotten the chance to blog about it with my daily schedule now being packed with holiday preparations! We'd had the party planned for 4 months and managed to keep it secret right up until the day which made it even more enjoyable seeing her face when she walked in, even if she did have her suspicions. 

It was such a fab night, everything went to plan and it couldn't have gone any better. I was so happy with how it turned out and had so much fun; all the hard work and effort put into it was well worth it. The one thing I loved the most was decorating the room because I was the one who had arranged the theme for the party and it was brill to put the ideas I'd had in my head into the room to make it look super pretty in pink (and silver) and I just thought I'd share some of my photos of the night with you. 

We had a mixture of balloons; some dark pink and light pink happy birthday's and some white/pink and pink/white 70 balloons and each one went with a light or dark pink heart depending on the matching colour and one silver one with a mixture of pink and silver ribbon. For the ceiling we had pink hanging 70's, some swirls saying 'happy birthday' and some pink fan decorations, all from eBay (aka the best, most handy place ever!)

ON THE TOP LEFT - The lovely 'Happy 70th' bunting // ON THE TOP RIGHT - The silver tablecloth //
ON THE BOTTOM LEFT - The pink tablecloth // ON THE BOTTOM RIGHT - The gorgeous
 bouquet of flowers we bought my grandma.

Each table had a mixture of pink and silver tablecloth with a few scattered light and pink rose petals, multicoloured '70' confetti and pink and silver 'Happy Birthday' confetti.

ON THE TOP LEFT - The Guestbook // ON THE TOP RIGHT - The Photobook //
ON THE BOTTOM LEFT - The doilies // ON THE BOTTOM RIGHT - The food labels.

We also had the guestbook made on eBay and it was blank inside for people to write their comments/messages to my grandma, although we completely forgot about it as we were dancing the night away so only a few people actually wrote in it. The photobook was made by me and it was an extra present for my grandma to take her back on a journey of her 70 years, from being a little girl up until now and all the events that happened in between.

The doilies were bought from Poundland but I thought they were so nice and detailed for a pound and they were silver so it matched in with the theme which was a bonus. The food labels were made on picmonkey and was actually my Auntie's idea but I got the job of designing them because apparently I'm the one who 'is extremely creative'.

Now onto the best part, the food...

I'm sure you all know the basic party food must haves so I'm not going to go into detail about that but what I did think stood out was this lovely cupcake stand with chocolate and strawberry flavoured cupcakes. I love anything that looks girly and vintage, so this was certainly one of the highlights. Not to mention the cupcakes were very morish. 

My grandma's cake was absolutely gorgeous both taste wise and appearance. The man who made the cake also made my 18th birthday cake and he puts so much tiny detail into it that we couldn't not get in touch with him this time round. All we did was send him an example of what we wanted from Google images and voila, here you have it. The shoes and the handbag were just a little extra because they represent my glamorous grandma who's young at heart.

My outfit for the night was a Missguided dress I was bought for my birthday which I am going to include in a haul post. I'd been looking for a bodycon dress with jewels or studs on for so long to wear for the party and to take away on holiday with me and when I finally saw the dress which matches all my desires, I had to have it and luckily my darling mum offered to buy me it.

My makeup for the night was the usual mascara and foundation, although I never need much mascara on because my eyelashes are huge. The eyeshadow was a mixture of shades on the L'Oreal Color Riche Eyeshadow Palette Timeless Beige and it was my mum's that I borrowed. I wanted a smoky look and this was such a perfect match to the colour I was going for, I used the brown and the silvery shades. I think I'll definitely be investing in one of these palette's or something similar for my holiday.

Me and the birthday girl.

ON THE LEFT - Me with my bunch of flowers my Auntie and Mum bought me for my contribution towards the party//
ON THE RIGHT - Me and my best friend, Chloe who it's always lovely to spend time with.

Me and my beautiful Mum.

ON THE TOP LEFT AND RIGHT - Me and my Brother, Harvey //
ON THE BOTTOM LEFT - Me, my Brother and my Mum //
ON THE BOTTOM RIGHT - Me, my Auntie, and my Mum.

As you can see we're such a normal family! But I wouldn't change them for the world.

Lots of love...