WNW: Advent Calendar Bracelets

What's new today is my advent calendar bracelets. You'll need to get in quick with an order for these as my order books close on Friday

I love how these look on!

They're a cute charm bracelet with 24 links in it, and a charm to add onto each link (with a lobster clasp so you can add the charm in yourself) - so each day you get to open up a new charm and add it to your bracelet.

The charms are on clips so they're easy for you to add

You have the option of ordering these either wrapped individually in tissue paper - so there's a parcel to open every day, or in a traditional style advent calendar with windows to open. These are also made by me and are super cute!

Look at this adorable box!

The charms are half Christmas themed charms, half generic charms. You have a choice of colours, red, blue, purple, pink, turquoise, mint green, black, white, grey.

If you want any charms in particular - you just have to let me know

Don't forget to order these ASAP! It's nearly December! 

MIM: Lace Chokers

Hi and welcome to another Made it Monday - we'll be having a look at my lace chokers today - I love how these look, they'd be great for Christmas as well as just year round use.

A blue, red and burgundy lace choker

They're a simple piece of lace that have had a piece of ribbon threaded through the middle of the lace. The ends are fastened with ribbon clamps, and a lobster claw fastening.

The back of a lace choker, showing the ribbon clamps and fastenings

An extender chain means these have a bit of wiggle room with the sizing, meaning they fit a wide variety of sizes, and I can always add extra extenders if you need a bit more room.

Navy blue and white lace choker.

I can also add a charm in the middle - for a little bit of added extra sparkle.

Red and white lace choker with a snowflake charm - so christmassy!

Currently I have red, burgundy and navy colours in stock - I'll maybe add some more colours in the future - let me know what colours you'd like to see!

Three different colours to choose from!

SS: HM Hair

Today's showcase Saturday is more for the local folk among you - my wonderful hairdresser Helen over at HM Hairdressing in Calne.

My beautiful hidden hair colours.

She does my wonderfully crazy hidden rainbow hair and is always up for a challenge - which I love! She's also great with the kids (I met her at our local breastfeeding group! Boobie Buddies!) having three of her own, and Littlest Princess loves get her hair cut with Helen.

Littlest Princess having her hair cut for the first time

Mr P also has his hair done there - his hairs longer than mine! But I don't have any adorable photographs of him having his hair done.

Littlest Princess after her first ever haircut

So next time you need a chill and a revamp of your hair, head on over to HM Hair - I love taking a few relaxing hours out of my day to get pampered!

TBT Spoonie Bracelets

It's throwback Thursday time folks!

Today, we're going to be looking at my spoonie bracelets. I freakin love these bracelets, because they mean so much to me. As you'll know if you're a regular reader, I suffer from various chronic illnesses, and as such, declare myself to be a spoonie. (If you're unfamiliar with the term, check out  Christine Miserandino’s post about ‘spoons’ in her blog about having Lupus.)

One of the things that really helps with chronic illness is knowing that there are people out there who understand you. I have a smile on my face every time I post out one of these bracelets, because I know they're going out to someone just like me. As such, I designed these bracelets to be super comfortable, and easy to wear, even on a high-pain day, or a day when you're struggling with sensation. If you want to find out more about how these are made, check out this blog post I did a while back.

They come in a range of different colours, with different meaning behind each colour. Although of course, you can just choose a colour because it makes you feel special.

• You can get a cute blue bracelet, if you suffer from chronic fatigue (or M.E.) as it's also known - like I do! #spooniebuddies
• Fibromyalgia sufferers can get this funky purple version.
• Have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome? I've even got a zebra stripe to fly your flag with!
• Pink is famously the colour for breast cancer awareness, it's also the colour for breastfeeding awareness - so if nursing is the thing that's sucking all of your spoons, this is the one for you.
• Mental illness can also be really draining (again, I know first hand on this one) - and this bright green bracelet represents that.
• Or perhaps you'd like one to represent anxiety or OCD? Then it's the turquoise bracelet that you need
• Last but not least, there's this gorgeous glitter version available too!

Of course, if you want a colour which is not readily available in stock, please don't hesitate to get in touch via my etsy shop or my facebook page - it may take longer than my usual 2-3 day turn around, because I'll have to order the elastic in, but I'm always more than happy to make customised designs.

You also have the option to purchase matching earrings with these. Although these don't have the 'comfort' value of the bracelet, they're a great way to make a statement on one of your good days.

What helps you remember to always keep a spoon in the bank?

TTT: Spoonie Tips

Hi All and welcome to another Top Tips. As you all know, I'm a chronic illness sufferer - I suffer with M.E./C.F.S. which is a condition which involves chronic pain and chronic fatigue amongst other things. I'm about 10 years into being ill, and I've pretty much got it managed these days, although it's always a learning curve and can definitely throw me some curve balls. Here are my top tips for dealing with chronic illness.

This is my purple spoonie bracelet 

1. Organisation! It's my top top tip as it were... if you know what you need to do and how much energy each task is going to take it's a lot easier to manage those tasks without overdoing it. If you know you need to do the washing up, sort the laundry and send some emails then you can do the washing up, then send the emails, because that's a sat down activity, and then sort the laundry.

My spoon charms are one of my favourites

2. Pacing! Take breaks when you need them, don't feel bad if you need to take 5, or even 10 in order to get back on your feet. It's not always possible, so when it is, make the most of it!

My spoonie keyring can be personalised with any word or name

3. Communication! Tell people how you feel, let the people closest to you know when you're having a bad day - they can help! For too long I tried to deal with everything on my own, but I've learnt that the people who love me want to help.

My spoon jar is the perfect gift for a spoonie

4. Know your limits! Know when to say no to things. If someone asks me to join them on a half marathon, I'm going to say no, if they ask me to help them move house, I'll tell them I can help with packing tips, but not with physically moving them. I let my wonderful husband take Littlest Princess swimming on his own most of the time, because I know it drains me too much for the rest of the day.

My green spoonie bracelet and earrings

5. Do some things that are just for you, even at the expense of doing things that you feel are things you 'must' do. When you have limited energy it's easy to feel you have to spend all of that energy on doing the chores, but over a long period of time, that will destroy you. If all the energy you have left can be spent on doing the washing up, or on having a sandwich.... have that sandwich!

Zebra stripe spoonie bracelet.

SIS: Christmas Outfits

I designed these Christmas outfits last year - and I totally adore them.

Lovely gold Christmas outfits

They're made with gold fabric, the skirts are circle skirts - and the gold stars are appliqued onto a vest for the younger sizes and a long sleeve T-shirt for the older sizes.

Gold stars are appliqued onto the tops

They're perfect if you love your kids in matching outfits, and they come with little matching headbands in gold too. Utterly adorable.

Lovely gold headbands to match

You can catch them on my Etsy store for £15 each, or you can drop me a message to ask about personalisation.

An extra shot of this one, cause she's gorgeous

FF: Littlests Birthday Party

At the end of last month Littlest Princess had her birthday party. I often say that organising her birthday parties is my favourite part of being a parent - this one was no different.

Pictures of Littlest Princess were displayed in 'Cutie Marks'

She'd asked for a My Little Pony themed party (which to be honest, I knew was coming) and she asked for a Princess Celestia dress. Of course she had to ask for the one costume that isn't commercially available, so several metres of rolled voile hem later, I'd managed to make one.

Her Princess Celestia dress and headband

I also made her a Pinkie Pie cake (I'm grateful she didn't ask for a princess celestia cake - I think that might have been a bit beyond me).

Pinkie Pie Cake!

We made 'cloudsdale' cupcakes which turned out totally perfectly adorable, and Littlest Princess helped to decorate some shaped biscuits.

These cupcakes taste as sweet as they look!

The little ones had fun playing with all of the new toys, and even the grown ups dressed up, well, Luthaisea and I did - and we let the kids have glitter tattoo 'cutie marks'. A good time was had by all.

Aunty Luthaisea painting a glitter tattoo on Littlest