5 meaningful & lasting gifts ideas

*This post contains affiliate links  After the year we have had, for many. of us, our priorities have changed, for me personally, less is always more and finding gifts for friends and family that are meaningful, practical and reusable is key. So I thought I would share a few fun and unique last-minute gift ideas. 1. Affirmation cards from Mal Paper This 52 affirmation card deck is to help inspire daily affirmation practice and this small change can help you start the day the right way and encourage happiness and productivity. I also love how pocket size friendly this is and could make the perfect gift for friends and family (or even yourself) who have been struggling a little bit over the past year.  2. Natural Acacia Wood Mug from The Clean Market I'm in love with these beautiful handcrafted acacia wooden mugs and I have ordered myself another 3 so I can have a set of them. If your looking to make your kitchen a more sustainable and plastic-free space then these mugs are perf......

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Talented Jewellery makers + giveaway

*Hersey and Son kindly provided the necklace for a giveaway. The other jewellery designers mentioned are my own recommendations The one thing about Jewellery is the longevity it can offer, it can be not only beautiful but a very sentimental gift at the same time and one that can last for years. I still have some necklaces my mother gave me when I was 12, so that's 23yrs ago and they are still going strong. I also have pieces my friends gave me from school, which are very sentimental to me considering I no longer live in South Africa. Jewellery is also very creative and with so many independent makers, local to the UK as well as small family-run businesses, I thought I would share a few that I really love at the moment. Baked by Lou Lou is a Cardiff local and the owner and creator of Baked by Lou, a really unique collection of jewellery and homewares with bold shapes and prints which are made by hand and fired in a kiln or oven. Her pieces are really fun and colourful......

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3 Christmas Colour Palettes For Decorating Your Home

I love the silver and grey shades I came across at Ideal Home Show The Winter season inspires a myriad of colours to redress your home with. Typically, with Christmas and New Years crowning the season, you may feel like wanting to add that extra celebratory sparkle to your home decor.  Gold, silver and reflective materials are all welcome on the tree in tinsel and bauble form, so why not extend this into the colour palette for your home? By co-ordinating the eye-catching with the cosy, you can create a homely, festive feel within your home this holiday season. From the classic to the contemporary, we’ve compiled three Christmas decorating colour palettes for your home decor, each with its own feature pieces and home accessories. Match classic silver with textured greys and cosy creams. If you favour neutral colours in your home, such as pale yellows and white, then the winter months can make your home feel a little cold and bare. Crisp white works wonders fo......

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Summer in my heart

Ever since we have started to have fleeting moments of good weather, blissful warmth on the skin again, my heart has kept into summer even if the season have not, although not too long now. The year is flying by, we are already into May and one thing is for sure I won't be missing any sunny days this summer. I am ready, I have some new boat shoes, short-sleeved tees waiting to be worn and a lovely new beach bag from Joe Browns that I am so in love with and cannot wait to use and being a big fan of Breton stripes this suits me perfectly alongside being able to throw anything into it and setting off on an adventure or road trip of some kind. What I am wearing Top - Gazooks Black jeans - TopShop Shoes - Sperry Top sider Bag and scarf - Joe Browns Silver Cuff - East Watch - Guess I have joined in with Style Me Sunday  and Style Sessions linky I was kind enough to be gifted the Joe Browns bag  ...

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Clogau opens in Cardiff in style

Chairman Bill Roberts officially with wife Maggie Roberts and Royal harpist Claire Jones For those who have not heard of Clogau before it's a homegrown company that mines for the very rare and stunning Welsh Gold, so it only seems appropriate that St Davids in Cardiff would be THE place to open a new flagship store and I was lucky enough to attend the classy and chic opening. First of all the shop and interior design is beautiful and well laid out in a way the inspires and creates a great in-store experience and I was immediately impressed. The evening included some mouthwatering canapés, champagne and the stunning sound of Claire Jones the Royal harpist - things could not of have been more perfect. Some amazing canapés on offer during the opening night  It's always great seeing such upmarket brands and concept stores coming to Cardiff - it's been long overdue and with Clogau being a Welsh brand I am sure that they will have a lot of success in the Capital. ......

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Home and style at Christmas

So we have a new home and this is our first Christmas in it which has been very exciting. Everything was somewhat of a rush, having only moved in less than 3 weeks ago but we managed to get our tree up, decorated the house, make a gingerbread house and some homemade gingerbread cookie gift tags and get a very excited little toddler to sleep in time for the big day. It was a magical morning spent opening our stockings and gifts, we opted for less is more and picked some lovely natural toys for the little man. We had a champagne breakfast, which always goes down well especially on a lazy chilled out morning before walking over to spend the day at Mr A's grandmothers house. I have also been keeping my beautiful East jumper aside for a special occasion and there is none more special than christmas day, I think my lovely doggy jumper beats any novelty one and captures winter and the Christmas feel while still being stylish and warm. I feel like such a lucky girl as John sur......

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Charming Sunday Style

All this beautiful weather and sunshine means a lot of time is being spent outdoors, less layers and more shorts and t-shirts - as I wrote earlier this week about dressing up a plain outfit with festival fashion accessories I also wanted to do a post about beautiful lazy British summers with feminine and elegant accessories, perfect for eating strawberries and drinking Pimms and relaxing in the sun, something which Pandora's jewellery captures perfectly. The ethos of Pandora is that it makes jewellery for women who embrace their own unique story and you can mix and match your own styles, dress up bracelets witch charms and customise your earrings with different styles and all their pieces are beautifully hand-finished. This Paris charm is so cute I love background story, as it started out in 1982 in a small jewellery shop in Copenhagen, Denmark by a Danish goldsmith and his wife. The charm bracelet concept was the first big concept to be embraced not only by the Da......

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Getting a little summer sparkle

So I mentioned Juju shoes a few weeks ago and I loved the little sparkly slipper shoe they did and to my delight someone was selling them brand new on Ebay, in my size, which happens to be a size 3 and quite small and often I can struggle to pick up my size in store. Anyway I love these sparkly little shoes with gold and silver glitter inside the plastic, they are so fun and could be worn to the beach or out having cocktails. I love that the products are locally sourced and the shoes are made in England and 100% recyclable and they use old shoes and grind them up to make new products - how amazing is that! I managed to pick these up for £8 but I think they are normally only £18 - so either way they are very reasonable, super fun and a great little shoe to add some happy sparkle to your feet and are great for summer. Love this cute little jelly shoes, great for summer I've linked this post up with Live Laugh  ...

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An Outfit on budget

So with Arthur's birthday next month and then Christmas, it's time to start saving, so outfits need to be thrown together on a budget - this however does not mean one should compromise on style or quality. If you, like me need to budget start looking at vintage fairs and charity shops and why not see if your parents have any jewellery stashed away in boxes in the attic, you never know you could find a real gem. This outfit is a collection of thrifted, charity shop, found and bargain buys. The trousers are River Island and I bought them from a chairty shop and they still had the original tag on them, the top is CocoLove from TKMaxx which I managed to get for under £10 and the jewellery has all either been given to me or thrifted. The most expensive item is the Dents bag which I bought on Sale for £50, but I use it all the time. Top - Cocolove, Trousers - River Island (via charity shop), Creepers - Barratts, Necklace and bracelets thrifted.  ...

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