Top Boxing Day Sales Picks 2015

I thought I'd spend this lazy sunday afternoon picking out the best bits from the Boxing Day Sales, popping them on my WantFeed then making a little post for you all. All these bits caught my eye when I was having a snoop through the online stores, so thought I'd share them with you! 

Marble Print Portable Phone Charger - Urban Outfitters, from £40 down to £20

Eat! The Quick Look Cookbook - Urban Outfitters, from £17 down to £10

Blue & White Embroidered Duvet Cover - Anthropologie, from £148 down to £89

Gold Monogram Mug - Anthropologie , from £8 down to £6

Watermelon Door Mat - Urban Outfitters, from £50 down to £25 

Crisp Linen Candle - Urban Outfitters, from £20 to £12

Cream Chunky Cable Knit Hat with Faux Fur Pom Pom - Oliver Bonas - from £16 down to £12

Better On Toast Cookbook - Oliver Bonas - from £16 to £11

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and you're still scoffing down Quality Street and drinking prosecco! 

Last Minute Wrapping Ideas

I am totally in love with my wrapping this year, it's totally Pinterest inspired and super easy and inexpensive to do! So, if you're struggling for last minute wrapping ideas, this one is perfect for you! 

Just pop to your local garden centre for some sprigs of a christmas tree! There'll without a doubt be parts of trees that have broken off - a very kind man who was sorting through the broken trees at my local garden centre cut off a branch for me! It cost me nothing! 

The brown paper was from the post office for only £1.50. The candy canes was £1 from Sainsbury's, as were the tags and the string! 

Very simple, but effective - and still all very possible this close to christmas!  

Making Mince Pies

One of my favourite festive past-times is baking mince pies. I really enjoy making the pastry from scratch and sharing them out to all my friends and family. I love taking a little box of them whenever I visit someone! The recipe is below... 

You Will Need :: 
8oz Self Raising Flour
6oz Butter (cut into cubes)
1 tbsp. Caster Sugar
1 egg (separated)
Zest & Juice of half an orange
2 (or 1 large) jar of Mincemeat
Caster Sugar & Orange peel strips (optional) to decorate.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
Sift the flour into the bowl, rub in soft butter until it resembles breadcrumbs.
Dissolve caster sugar in egg yolk and add 2 teaspoons of orange juice. 
Add this to the flour mixture, along with the orange rind and mix together to form a firm dough. 
Roll dough on a floured surface until a quarter of an inch thick. The dough is quite sticky, so make sure you move it in between rolling! Try to handle it as little as possible, the more contact the tougher it will get. 
Use a big circle cutter for the base and whatever shape you’d like for the top! I love using stars or snowflakes, as shown. If you want a complete 'lid' on your mince pies and don’t want any mincemeat showing, make sure you poke a hole in the top on the mince pie to let air out whilst cooking.

Then, place these in the oven for 15 minutes, until golden brown!
Take out and immediately sprinkle caster sugar on top. The pastry is suuuper short so they can be tricky to get out of the tray, maybe let the cool and harden a little first (I had a few crumble on me this time round!)

Make yourself a cup of tea, pop on a christmas film and enjoy! 

Winter Wonderland

 On Wednesday, Henry & I took a trip up to London for a visit to Winter Wonderland! Our friends are in the Fulltone Productions Houseband so we went along for some mulled wine, beer and some damn good music. They're at the Mirror Bar every night, go and see them, you will not regret it!
We spent the evening bundled up in hats and scarves, sipping on beer, mulled wine and hot chocolate, eating pizza and then jiggling it all about with a few stomach churning rides! If you want to beat the crowds go on a weekday, but go at nighttime to see the light twinkling!

A short but sweet post, I just wanted to document a cute date night with the mr. ♥  

DIY Herb Garden Markers

Today I thought I'd pop up a DIY christmas present idea up. It's super simple and quite quick at easy! 

These are markers for herb gardens. Perfect for anyone who's got green fingers and likes to grown their own herbs! 

You will need: 

Polymer Oven Bake Clay

Letter Stamps

Rolling Pin (Or something similar, I used a milk bottle!)

Oven 

How to do it: 

- Set your oven as your clay packet instructs! This will vary, so make sure you read what yours says. 

- Cut your clay into equal pieces and roll them with your hands into long sausage like shapes. Don't make them too thin and make them long enough so they'd poke out of the top of a flower pot. 

- Then, flatten these out with your rolling pin and square off the corners. I made sure the top was square and the bottom had a point - but you can make them however you like. 

- Gently press in the stamps at the top end to spell out your chosen herbs. 

- I popped one test one in the oven to make sure it all worked, then you're good to go. Roll, stamp and bake! Make sure they're laying flat on an oven proof tray. 

I added a few personal touches to make it an even sweeter gift. They are a little delicate, but package and wrap them well and they'll be fine! 

Let me know if you make them! I'd love to see your snaps.