Tag: blogmas

The perfect Christmas gift guide for her.

Featured by Charlie-Jane, posted in Beauty And Skincare, books, family life, Home Stuff, lifestyle, Uncategorized

So Christmas is coming up and I’m starting to scan the stores both online and offline for Christmas presents for loved ones. Coronavirus be damned it will not stop us enjoying Christmas and I will drop off presents on the door step wearing a Santa outfit if I have too. Don’t push me I will purchase one Boris. So here are some ideas I’ve had that I would both like for myself and as a gift for someone else!

So first of all I’m going in big. I’m not a materialistic person or someone who expects big gifts but the only thing I want this Christmas is this…

Photo from hotel chocolat

A hotel chocolat velvetiser. Have you looked at them? Not only are they beautiful but a hot drink connoisseur like me aspires for a new tool to master the battle that is making the perfect hot chocolate. Tassimos be gone we all know the new kid on the block is taking the lead. It gently warms and froths and mixes at the same time. Leaving you to do nothing but pour in and pour out! They also come with two snazzy cups for you to share your experience. It also comes in three beautiful colours and it’s a toss up between copper or charcoal for me. You can also indulge in some of the 16 hot choc flavours hotel chocolat have to offer making this the perfect luxury gift. And if you like me enjoy a good hot chocolate this is the way to go!

Next up we have a obvious and affordable choice. Bath bombs. Obviously we have the high street brands such as lush which are king but there are also little small businesses to try. Instagram is crawling with them and if you look on my gram I’ve been lucky enough to try some myself. they’re often very high quality and smell fab too.

My fav lush bath bomb!

An even easier choice now. Feel like you don’t know a person well enough or their very picky? Don’t want to give money? A gift card is the way to go. But where from? Well if into make up and skincare a boots or Superdrug voucher is somewhere you can’t go wrong. They sell all sorts from vegan to high end makeup there’s sure to be something in these places that your recipient will love. If you have a film fanatic on your hand I normally would suggest a cinemas gift card but because we have seen Covid destroy the film industry perhaps a Netflix gift card (yes they exist) or a hmv gift card for people who enjoy physical copies of films is the way to go! If you know your person is a foodie then a gift voucher to their favourite restaurant is always appreciated. If your not sure which one to get there are lots of gift cards that cover quite a few. Also you can help small businesses by asking if they do gift cards for eating out another day too! With moving house being a theme for us this year I know I would love a next/ dunelm or John Lewis voucher! I adore picking my own home bits and I’m very fussy about what I like. Play it safe and if you know anyone planning to move or moving this is the perfect gift to give. If you’re really, really stuck a amazon voucher is great because then someone can buy absolutely anything they want from a game to shampoo, you name it they have it.

Photo taken from wired.com

The way to my heart is through smell. If you want to get in my good books a candle is the way to go. For affordable options head to tk maxx where you will hit the mother load of candles every time. Theirs a scent there to suit every person. Want to support a small business there’s lots of small businesses out their making candles and wax melts! Check previous blog posts and my Instagram for my reviews on them!

A small business I worked with before and have even brought as gifts for others since is am botanical.

Beauty boxes/well being boxes. I love a pick me up and a surprise in a box. Many companies do one off boxes or you can subscribe someone for a few months as a gift. The perfect gift if you hate choosing things out! Take the hassle out of selecting and know you can’t be blamed if something goes wrong!

The contents of a well being box i received to review which screamed my autumn personality and vibes available from http://www.thewellbeingbox.com.

Another fantastic gift which would also be perfect for a anxious mind is a diffuser. There are many diffusers out there small and large depending on what you want to buy. Coupled with the right essential oils you can really help someone relax and they’re also great for keeping illnesses at bay. Many people are scared of candles because of the fire so if you want to give someone a nice scented replacement this is the way to do it! My favourite essential oil smell is lemongrass! Just make sure you check for pets as some oils can’t be used around them!

This diffuser was gifted to me from Smellacloud

My favourite gift every year without fail is pjs and cosy socks. Specifically overly fluffy ones. I love to buy other people cosy pjs too for Christmas and couple it with some chocolate and your golden!

These super cosy bed socks are from perillasocks and are previously gifted

Make your own hamper. You can buy a basket and then fill it with their favourite things. This can be done really inexpensively as well. I often make friends chocolate boxes filled with their favourite chocolates I’ve gotten from Poundland and thrown some tissue paper and they’ve loved the thought and effort!

Hope some of these ideas have helped and I’ll be doing a his and little ones gift list too soon! So that you can get ideas for the whole of your family! Thanks for reading Charlie x

Christmas gift guide- personalised hooray heroes books.

by Charlie-Jane, posted in books, family life, Home Stuff, Mental health

Disclaimer- this is a gifted item sent for this post.

As you have seen before I was previously sent a book for Father’s Day for Elijah too give you his dad as a present! We absolutely loved this book so when they asked us to try another we couldn’t say no! With Christmas coming up and my dads birthday I thought this would be the perfect time to order for my dad something from Elijah they can read together!

So making the book is quick and easy you can customise everything about the characters to freckles and hair styles! You put your family’s names in and have chance to dedicate a page to them too! The personalisation is lovely and makes it a truly unique gift. As well as personalising it you can choose what stories you have in the book too!

Elijah already loves it and says he can’t wait to wrap up for grandads birthday as he’s starting to understand birthdays more. He knows that it is Elijah and grandad on the front too! My dad is quite young so it’s great that he is still able to look his age in the book too which I find is a issue when buying personalised gifts for a grandparent.

These books are fantastic quality and made to last for years! I am excited to give him a great keep sake he can have for years to come and store away for memories as Elijah gets older. Maybe he will give back to Elijah when he is older too!

They sell plenty of different stories and personalised bits so make the perfect place for presents for parent, grandparents or even themselves! Go check them out at

https://hoorayheroes.co.uk or https://hoorayheroes.com

Thanks for reading! Charlie-Jane!

Celebrating Christmas when your a couple.

by Charlie-Jane, posted in family life, lifestyle

When you become a couple a time you never really think about is Christmas. You don’t know who you’ll spend it with and where you’ll spend it. You want to be together but also want to see family. The longer you’re together the more comfortable you become with each others family and it becomes less about your family and theirs it becomes our family and time is spent more equally between family’s. But what do you do when you both want to see your family? Firstly it’s about compromise it’s about taking turns each year and alternating plans. It’s about not over booking yourself so you can see everyone and then spend the day flustered and rushed. It’s seeing people on different days and spacing out time longer and not just spending it all with your family as that’s what you’ve done your whole life. My husband didn’t celebrate Christmas exclusively until he was 19 with me so it’s been odd for both of us to find what works but we’ve found what works for us.

We enjoy shopping for family together and when we both worked we payed half for everyone’s presents except each other’s. We enjoy wrapping family presents together and giving them together. We enjoy being together at Christmas and not a part. I’ve been in relationships previously when I’ve not spent Christmas with my other half and it’s felt wrong and I’d never imagine not spending Christmas with my other half now even if some people have no choice. We just love spending time together over the Christmas season and enjoying being a family together with everyone else. We love cuddling up watching films and laughing with others and eating copious amounts of food. This year we most defiantly are going to spend more of Christmas together as a couple/family and spend at our house and try to make our own traditions. We may pop to grandparents quickly but have invited them to ours as we’d prefer to stay home this year or it’ll be a quick visit and day visit for Boxing Day. It’ll be exciting this year as Elijah is understanding Christmas more so we’ll be able to spend Christmas playing with him and relaxing at home a bit more than running with a screaming infant! What have you all got planned for Christmas?!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

by Charlie-Jane, posted in Uncategorized

Finally it’s somewhat acceptable to officially go into christmas overdrive. The glistening of fairy lights on a tree is something that for some reason brings a warm fuzzy feeling which melts my frozen heart. The time has come to decorate the house and cuddle up under the twinkling of the tinsel to watch films with a cup of hot chocolate.

The presents are wrapped, the tree is dressed and a bauble has already been broken. I am looking forward to this Christmas because Elijah is starting to understand what’s happening. He’s just celebrated his second birthday and is understanding the giving and opening of presents. He can open his presents well and understands there’s something in the sparkly little boxes. We’ve spent this morning looking at the Christmas tree and Elijah is very inquisitive about the tree and the baubles and remembered the ones he made. I’m looking forward to finally taking Elijah to meet Santa and getting to know the magic of Christmas. I’m looking forward to making Christmas cookies, doing more Christmas crafts and activity’s. I’m looking forward to days out and spending time as a family. I’m excited to create more traditions each year which one day Elijah might pass on to his children.

I love walking through the town at night under the beautiful Christmas lights and getting a festive hot drink. The town feels happier when Christmas is near and less scary in the dark lit up under a warm glow. This year I’m planning to stay home and enjoy being a family. We always go to others houses and although I love spending Christmas as part of big happy family I want to experience one where we can relax and take it at our own pace. Where people can come ours and relax. Where we can say when dinners on the table and not have to avoid drink all day due to James driving. A Christmas where we get to choose what to watch and relax all day. We’re looking forward to Elijah receiving his gifts and opening them slowly. I’m looking forward to perhaps taking Elijah to the park and rewarding it with a hot chocolate and a film. We will enjoy Elijah playing with his toys and getting to be a kid again. We will enjoy going to others houses and spending time with friends and family while giving the gifts you’ve put lots of thought and love into! I’m so excited for this Christmas so here’s to Christmas 2019 being everything we want it to be.

Being organised at Christmas

by Charlie-Jane, posted in Uncategorized

Now that Halloween is over and done with we will be packing away the decor and getting ready for Christmas. There’s nothing better than lighting your first Christmas Yankee candle if the season which I’ve already got chosen! But one thing we always do around the Christmas time is stress. We stress over who we’ll see and when, if we are hosting or being the guests. Many people don’t enjoy Christmas as they have to yoyo around to so many family members houses they cannot enjoy the day.

This year I’m staying put. We decided it’s not worth the stress we will stay in and have Christmas dinner at home. We always go to family’s and end up at 3/4 different houses a day and not only is it exhausting and tiring it’s also a bit rude it’s like thanks for the presents now I look like it’s all I came for as I’m on to the next time slot! When you have a kid it’s even harder of course they love the attention but they get very tired and angry as they don’t want to stop playing and miss anything.

Organising at Christmas for me is looking after myself and not getting all stressed and uptight. Who knows I might really enjoy Christmas this year if I just try to relax. Here are some organising tips I’m going to live by.

Don’t stress Christmas presents, buy what you like for people and if you think someone will like it then that’s all that matters. Don’t bankrupt yourself and don’t worry if something’s on the cheeper side it’s all about giving and spreading joy not the cost. Also slowly buy things before Christmas to one save a big cost at once and also so you are organised and know you have everything in time.

Make plans in advance even if it annoys family talking about it. You need to make plans in advance if you have a lot of people to see.

Try not to over book yourself. If you do that you’ll end up stressed. I will do the Christmas present drop offs on Xmas eve for those I don’t see on Christmas Day or day after Christmas as I always have done. I feel like Santa and it’s something I enjoy but this year I won’t be doing as many stops.

Great lists on what you need to buy, gift ideas and food shops. Being able tick of what you’ve brought is such a great feeling. I love my Christmas planner I’ve had for four years and this year I’ll need a new one, it is so helpful for not only knowing what I’ve brought but also what I’ve spent and wrapped so I can budget.

Wrap and label presents as you buy them. Saves the stress of wrapping everything quickly and also if you want to give people their gifts early you can just put them in a bag and if you go.

Any time sensitive presents need to be sorted well in advance. I’m making a little photo book for my grandma and nan so I need to get the family together before hand to take photos. We’re doing this ourself as we have good cameras and a tripod so would prefer to take ourselves at the park. Obviously we have to arrange a day all my family can come and then have to send to be put into a book or on a canvas So we’d need extra time. If your planning anything hand made and not shop brought you could be waiting a while at Christmas so it’s best to buy well in advance.

If you’re dieting try not to be too strict. But also don’t go to mad. Buy a few Christmas snacks and don’t restrict your Christmas dinner but don’t pig out for days. Your essentially going to get snacks for Christmas it’s inevitable so this year don’t eat as you get them stretch them out over the next few weeks/months. The foods not going to do a runner. You may think this isn’t organising but sometimes you need to organise what you buy so you don’t go crazy!

Buy yourself a gift. When your buying other people gifts you forget about yourself. See a nice bath set or cosy pjs you’d quite like buy them. Sometimes we need to treat ourselves and a bit of retail therapy is just the way. After all that shopping you deserve it.

Overall just enjoy Christmas and the season try not to worry about pleasing everyone and just relax because it’s all about the memories and nothing else.

Christmas/ Birthday gift guide for a 2 year old.

by Charlie-Jane, posted in Uncategorized

With Christmas and elijahs birthday fast approaching I thought I’ll start shopping early to stop the panic and it being so hard on the bank all at once. Separating some gifts for his birthday and some for his Christmas I’m almost done just a few more gifts to get so here’s a few bits I’ve got. If you’re stuck this might help you out with some ideas!

Ive already got Elijah a leapfrog Ice cream cart and three pop up books and also a magnetic drawing pad. I’ve been wrapping the gifts as getting them so they’re already wrapped and ready for his birthday. I brought the icecream cart as I think it’s a good learning toy to teach him about sharing and it’s a good game to play together to use the imagination. The pop up books as boy loves a book and a magnetic drawing pad as I’ve waited forever to get him one. I’m planning to get him a eisel for Christmas and some little figures and cars as stocking fillers. I may get him a scooter or balance bike but I haven’t decided.

Play-doh kitchen set with moulds and kitchen bits. Elijah loves play doh and gets it out almost everyday. He loves his little kitchen so I thought when I saw it it’s the perfect thing to get as he can make his own fake food!
Elijah has a few puzzles but not many. Elijah started to really like dinosaurs and animals recently so I got this lovely collection of puzzles we can do together and he’ll love the finished result.
For some reason my phone won’t rotate this photo but oh well! This book is from a range of books he already has where you pull apart to see more things. Elijah loves interactive books at the moment and it’s teaching him to explore . He also loves vehicles so this book I know he’ll love.
For some reason I saw this in tkmaxx it’s official Disney and is moana I just think it’s from a different. Country perhaps and that’s why the name is wrong. Oh well the kid loves his “onana” do I thought I’d treat him to the toys and he doesn’t have a toy boat yet that doesn’t belong in the bath!
Kinetic sand. Kids love playing with sand and Elijahs no exception when I saw this at a ply group I was sold because Elijah could finally play in the sand without rolling in it and drowning his clothes, my clothes and the house in it after he’s done playing in his sound box. This has things he can mould and explore and the perfect rainy day activity.
A counting book with flaps. Elijah loves flaps and lions so I brought this only as it had a lion on it. I want him to learn to trace the numbers so he one day can learn to write them. A long way of but good to start and play young.
Elijahs a long way of learning to write but I got this book so he can try copying and tracing when he’s older. I will do it and he can watch and when he’s older he’ll work it out however long that may be I brought it as it was on sale and I thought perfect for when he’s nearing school age and until then there’s lots of items that start with the letter you trace!
A cash register! Elijah loves pressing buttons and had a go on one at soft play and loved it. I thought this will be great for make pretend play and something he’ll grow to love. A lot of gifts I buy are stuff he’ll like later on in the year as he gets a lot that he can play with now and not later. He has a basket for his shopping also included. My friend is buying him a trolley so he’ll poop himself with the idea of that!
Magnetic play board. Elijah can learn how magnets work and move them around. He lives stickers so may like magnets.
Bath crayons because everyone can be a Picasso.
Puzzle book. This looks great fun and we love priddy books so much. The puzzles look quite easy and is a book at the same time. The bits are cute and colourful and well no doubt have lots of fun.

Afternoon tea set. Elijah already has one but it’s terrible and bits are missing. I brought this lovely sass and belle set and had to take it out to show how cute it is! It’s run so can use to have water or squash and wash up! Can use for teddy bear tea party’s and when he has guests over. I’m so excited for him to open this one!

Alot of things are marketed age 3. I feel bad know my son enough to know he no longer puts things in his mouth unless it’s food so he’s pretty good on that front. So long as you watch him with things with age restrictions I see no problem and it’s probably just a insurance or in some cases packaging thing. I’ve seen Elijah plying with similar to a lot of these things markets 3+ since younger than now and had no problem. Most of these toys mummy needs to play with him anyway which I don’t mind atall. Not a few more bits to buy and I’m all done. Next thing to find a massive monster truck car as boy is obsessed with massive cars. Brownie points if it has a lion on it!