Christmas Gift Ideas

Of course there is a beauty guide on it's way but for all those non-beauty bits there's this. Everything is in alphabetical order except for the first one because it's the most important.

Choose Love - buy things for people who have been forced to flee their homes with nothing. From children's coats, blankets and nappies, to hot meals, hot showers and tents. The Mother & Baby bundle is a food, clothes and hygiene pack for a mother raising her baby in a refugee camp. You can even get someone medical care. I often get cross with people who make me feel that what I do is a frivolous thing for women with no brains (it isn't) but compared to what these people are going through it is even having a bath is a total luxury. I'm thinking about every little thing I buy this year and where I can, I'm cutting back to get from here instead.

Beeswax Wraps - the ultimate stocking filler or present for someone you just don't know that well. Everyone I know got these last year. A clingfilm replacement that is easy to wrap, easy to post and is a small UK based company. There's nothing about this I don't love.

Black Dragon Press - I love my Agatha Christie prints from here - they look fantastic.

Blue Bowl - always my first port of call for any present and at Christmas I find I can usually do the majority of my presents here. From stocking fillers (these tassel earrings are beautiful and there's beard balm for your hairier other half) to kids stuff via really unusual things in between. The stationary is out of this world (we all know I can't resist a notebook) and this drum charm is stunning. Everything is carefully curated and thought about - the zip bags are handmade with vintage fabrics - I adore this jungle print.

Notebooks

Some of you may know I have a stationary problem. Notebooks in particular. My family know I'm serious about something if I announce 'I'm going to start a new notebook'. I love ?? for my bullet journal because the squares really work for me but for other things I'm constantly gazing at notebooks I would buy and here are my latest favourites. For those super-organised amongst you these would make lovely Christmas gifts for friends so get in early.

1. Blue Bowl Squiggle Notebook
These are so beautiful it's hard to know which to choose. As pink and green is my favourite colour combo it's a no brainer for me. Available in my favourite A5 or handbag friendly A6. This are handmade in England using wood and recycled board. From £10

2. Kate Spade Dipped Initial Notebook
It's a sign that the C is in my favourite colour (green). I am not a fan of notebooks with things written on the front but true to form these Kate Spade ones are really chic and the choice of colours are lovely. Hardback and with a silk marker so you can keep your place this has 200 lined pages. Would make great hen party favours or presents for your girl gang. £16

3. Portico Sky & Miller Notebook
These make a great present because you can choose the colour or symbol to suit your friend. My friend Becca would love the orange one with the bee on the front and Florence would want the blue elephant one, I'd like the green leaf. These are made from cruelty free Italian faux leather but feel like the real deal. Usually £25 but some are reduced to £17.50 at time of writing.

4. Fenella Smith Notebook
These are really fun with great prints and foil finishes. I love the palm and toucan or the ostrich. These have an elastic fastening so great for sticking in your bag. £11.

5. Poach My Lobster Notebook
Simple eye-catching notebooks designed for foodies. I absolutely adore the blue lobster notebook - surely this is the perfect blue. These have plain, fountain pen friendly paper perfect for those who hate the confines of a line. I think I'm going to have to get one as my next blog notes book - plain paper is a must. £15

Which are your favourites and are there some that I've missed?

Father's Day Gift Ideas 2017

Father's day is a tricky one. Men are so different. We used to take my father out for lunch as he was away working a lot, we lived in London and it was really nice to spend some time together. Also I find with men if they want something they usually get it themselves. My husband has a horror of more stuff being bought into the house having spent the last couple of years sorting through his late father's horded belongings and acquiring two children and the plastic tat that inevitably comes with them. For our anniversary I tend to take him out for supper.

Father's Day though is different. Taking a hugely pregnant wife and two small children anywhere to eat isn't that relaxing and though I'm pretty sure he'd love it if I sent him to the pub for the afternoon I'm not sure that really counts. Of course I'm hoping Ned will create something at pre-school for his dad (I had a beautiful earring dish made) but in case that doesn't happen I have a few back-ups.

Accessories  - I love these skull cufflinks from The Great Frog (all their cufflinks are pretty awesome). I'm also always on the hunt for a vintage silver belt buckle for him but I think I need to go to America to track one of these down. These Gaucho belts look great and go with everything - Joe has the Neopolitan which has lasted for years and he wears it most days.

Seraphine Jeans

I thought buying maternity clothes would be really quite easy. A lot of people are having babies all the time and that's not going to change. But finding nice, normal looking maternity jeans was such a nightmare I was seriously considering taking a pair of scissors to my favourite Replay jeans and making my own bump stretcher.

I bought two pairs (1 black and 1 blue) of Topshop's Leigh jeans which are very nice. They are not denim so they are soft and comfortable but they only come skinny so as your thighs get bigger they don't look exactly flattering with trainers and with the weather in the UK at the moment flip flops are not really an option. Wearing trainers with skinny jeans that are just stretching to accommodate my now vast thighs was making me feel incredibly depressed and desperately unattractive. So I have a bump, I still want to look normal everywhere else.

Then I tracked down Seraphine and although their jeans aren't as cheap as the Topshop and H&M options the cut looked good and they are proper denim. I went crazy. I bought two pairs convincing myself that I would choose one and send the other back. A massive bonus was that most of them come with a thin bump band rather than one that goes all the way over which, with my short waist, isn't the most comfortable.

The first pair I chose were their straight leg premium maternity jeans. A lovely colour and great cut - all other maternity jeans I had found online seemed to be skinny or bootcut. The fact that they are worn by Dannii Minogue is something I couldn't care less about except that you can see her wearing them rather than a headless, lifeless, odd-shaped mannequin and they look nice!

The second pair where the I-don't-need-them-but-I-want-them pair of grey skinny luxe jeans. When I'm not knocked up I love wearing my grey skinnies at this time of year and have been missing them a little. I rather assumed these wouldn't fit and would be the ones to go back. Again being worn by January Jones and Jessica Alba seemed to be a big selling point for these and again seeing them on actual people was a massive help. They look like actual jeans, not just the bottom half of a sat romper suit.

Both pairs were £65, not exactly bank breakers but not cheap either baring in mind I'm having a bloody baby and they're not cheap either! But both of them fitted beautifully and I couldn't be parted with them. I've kept them both, even though they are so ridiculously long I had to spend £20 having them taken up, I am in love with them. As I said to my husband (as he wept over my red bank statement) they more than paid for themselves the first time I wore them because I feel normal! I feel like a regular pregnant woman from the waist down - they are comfortable but properly cut and structured. I really, really recommend getting them. And as I'm hoping this will not be the only time I'm pregnant, and I'm assuming I will be in them for a while after the baby, I think £65 is a really good price. There's no way that I would get my maternity jeans from anywhere else in the future.

I heart Lakeland

Please note tasteful washing drying on radiator

Ok I don't 'heart' them. That's bollocks. I think it's more realistic to say I have an unhealthy obsession with Lakeland. So unhealthy that there is a bulging box of kilner jars, jam lids and cordial bottles in the middle of our bedroom floor between me and my bathroom. I knew it had got bad when Joe smirked up to me with a tube of edible silver stars which he'd found on our spare bed. Up until recently our spare room had been half Joe's study and half my imaginary secret place when things could be kept and their presence there would cancel out their purchase cost. But now we have people staying and my sickness is staring me in the face every morning as I try to get dressed in sub-zero temperatures.

The problem escalated when I decided to make Joe's family a hamper for Christmas. In seven years we've managed to avoid spending Christmas together - people think this is weird but we're perfectly happy about it, I think Joe welcomes the 4 day nag break (he manages to be in a no-signal zone in Cheshire most years). This year I was going to be with them but they've decided to go to France and little Miss Mouse is not old enough to have a passport yet so we will be in Hampshire with my parents cuddling the dog and cleaning up her continuous peeing (the little princess doesn't like the cold). So, rather than get them a load of individual presents they won't want (they all posses massive brains which I can't keep up with) I thought what a lovely idea to make them a foody hamper.

I immediately ordered kilner jars, jam jars, jam lids, labels, decorations and edible stars and then realised that this could backfire horribly. I could be sending Joe to France with a box full of disgusting horrors in various different size jars. Too late! Three massive Lakeland boxes appeared at my desk and I've been elbow deep in shallots and vodka ever since. I'm hoping that if it is all gross I'll just never know about it.

I'm having the last laugh though - this obsession has contributed towards Joe allowing me to get  a new pantry cupboard in my teeny tiny kitchen as I'm now making so many chutneys, vinegars, jams and oils that I'm keeping ingredients in cardboard boxes on the kitchen floor and even he can see this is not ideal. I'm so excited it's literally all I think about - I lay awake the other night planning what would go on what shelf.

Eek another box just arrived...