christmas pressie.

I've been trying to find a personalised gift for my nephew for a while now and I have just discovered these gorgeous building blocks which fit the brief perfectly!

style off.

The Christmas series of Style Off is now online! Watch Steph and Nat battle it out with some top tips on best buys this Christmas. Here is also a little behind the scene pic of my wonderful assistant Lou and very talented set builder Dan hard at work!

A little bit of Christmas.

Seeing as we were away for Christmas I had to improvise to bring some Christmas spirit to our day by doing the following little bits...

I threaded some chocolate coins together and decorated our hotel room along with some 'clean' socks to act as stockings so that we woke up feeling like it was Christmas.I could not find any Christmas paper so I wrapped our Secret Santa pressies with fabric and made little fabric flowers to decorate each gift. It actually worked out quite well.
It was a rather untraditional Christmas lunch as I ended up having spaghetti bolognese - but we decorated each place setting by turning a small Christmas bauble into a vase with some leaves and a pretty flower. This afternoon we went down the beach for a Christmas swim so could not resist taking a picture on the beach!

Mhong Christmas.

Whilst I was trekking in Sapa, northern Vietnam, with the Mhong tribe ladies, I decided to do a small photo shoot incorporating some of their traditions to create a Christmas table set up. Here are some of the behind the scene images.

Mhong ladies, Tee, Sa and Chiang who inspired the idea of the photo shoot.

Tee, at the age of 52, cutting down some bamboo for me.

Here I am cutting the bamboo to the right length, it looked a lot easier when Tee was doing it!

Plaiting fern leaves to create a Vietnamese style Christmas reef.

Whilst breakfast was being cooked I sewed Merry Christmas onto some muslin, which is traditionally used to make clothes once it has been dyed. The young girl next to me also helped thread all the coins together.

Muslin drying after being dyed indigo, ready to be made into the traditional clothing.

Hanging the Christmas reef and threaded coins which are traditionally worn on the headresses of the Mhong tribe.

I will post the final pics of the set up shortly.

missing christmas.

Being abroad is brilliant but I have to say I am missing all the lead up to Christmas.. so I went online to find some Christmas inspiration and cheer myself up.

1. Living ect had this gorgeous picture of stitched doilies - which are such a simple yet effective idea.. maybe I could do something like this for Christmas day to bring a little festivity to the table.

2. Elle Decor's recommendation of the reindeer place mats is super cute.

3. Christmas would not be complete without me trying to attempt one of Donna Hays recipes and these chocolate candy cane cookies look super yummy!

behind the scenes.

Last week I went back to the beautiful location house in Henley to work on the Homesense Autumn / Winter collection with the fabulous Abigail Edwards. It was my first Christmas shoot of the year and by the end of the week I was covered in glitter and had eaten my body weight in chocolate. So all in all... a good week!

Abi & I balancing a stack of pillows.

This was one of my favorite shots - I just wanted to sit down and start typing.

All hands on deck for the chocolate shot!

My shoes featured in a shot.

Abi and I beavering away.

Christmas!

No time for hide and seek!

The Art Directors.

It all got a bit too much for some.

christmas dinning.

Add drama to your Christmas dinning with these gorgeous oversized flowers from habitat. Here is a little illustration of an idea I had for a Christmas table with an impact. I love the contrast of cerise on a white background - what are your plans for your Christmas table?

cutlery, table runner & bird place settings all from Rockett St George.

it's that time of year again.

I have never understood why Christmas adverts and decorations hit the high streets before we have had halloween! However I just came across these cookie cutters and just had to share them! I think they are great what a perfect way to serve tea and biscuits! Now I just need to set an afternoon aside to make them.