Attention Santa! The Last Shipping Date For Ponies, Zebras & Unicorns (yes, really) is Friday 20th December

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Just a last minute reminder that the last order date for Pony Cycles in the UK and Ireland is 1pm on Friday 20th December (2013). If your child is still at a loss for an idea for their big present, you couldn't go far wrong with a Pony Cycle. Featured on The Late Show as one of their top toys of Christmas 2013, prices start at £150. They are great for exercise and are sure to astound on Christmas morning.

You can read testimonials from parents and children all over the world on the Pony Cycles site. Maybe Heidi the Horse will be the pony for you.

Heidi is £150

Heidi is £150

I must admit though, I've a bit of a soft spot for Fifi the Unicorn.

Fifi is £175

Fifi is £175

Blogging is Tough Sometimes. Like Having to Eat a Whole Box of Hotel Chocolat Luxury Chocs in Order to Review Them

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I know, I make such sacrifices for you. When Hotel Chocolat offered me a Christmas Wreath to give away to you readers, it wouldn't have been fair for me to accept without testing some of their treats first, right? To make sure they were good, of course. So I tirelessly ate my way through this exquisite box of Classic Chocolates and I can happily report they are beautiful. 

Pistachio, port-infused, mini-eton messes, each sweet has a flavour that explodes in your mouth. If you're looking for a last minute thoughtful, romantic present, or something for someone who fancies themselves a bit of a foodie, then the Hotel Chocolat web store is a great place to click through to now. 

If you're already sold on Hotel Chocolat from a previous gift, then there are half price bargains to be had with their advent calendars packed with chocs on 50% off. Click on any of the following photographs to be taken to the page to buy.

Last day for postage is 23rd Decemeber, so you've plenty of time.

Alternative Mince Pie £1.95

Alternative Mince Pie £1.95

The Gingerbread Crew £7

The Gingerbread Crew £7

The Deluxe Christmas Hamper £150

The Deluxe Christmas Hamper £150

Advent Calendar on half price sale at £6.25 Dark Chocolate variety also available 

Advent Calendar on half price sale at £6.25 Dark Chocolate variety also available 

The H-Box Everything Selection £12.50

The H-Box Everything Selection £12.50

The Rather Large Christmas Cracker £40

The Rather Large Christmas Cracker £40

Donate to the NSPCC and Santa Will Write & Post a Letter To Your Child

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This time of year is tight for everyone, but charities still need help. Kill two birds with one stone (glad this isn't for the RSPCC.....) and donate any amount to the NSPCC (they recommend £5 but you can change the amount & still receive a letter), and Santa will send a personalised letter to your little one next week. There are several themes to choose from, so if you've more than one child the letters will all be different. There's also an adult themed letter, for your naughty or nice other half! 

So visit the personalised Letter from Santa page and make a difference this Christmas.

Click to create your own letter

Click to create your own letter

Madame Cocoa's Gingerbread Scale Model of Belfast City Hall

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Madame Cocoa (Alex Begley) undertook the mammoth but delicious task of creating this to scale model of Belfast City Hall. The project is in honour of her small business which is going from strength to strength alongside her fellow, local business buddy's Matthew who started up Campaign Social.

Unreal detail!

Anatomical Insect & Reptile Prints for the Taxidermy Lover in Your Life

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The taxidermy lover in my life is me, so I was delighted with these anatomical prints from Ikkle Lovelies. Some of these would make beautiful tattoo designs too. I adore the snake. They are printed on pearlised, high quality card that has a beautiful sheen. 

I simply bought four plain, black frames from my local Ikea, so they were framed for £20 in total. PS. We really need to paint our hall....

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The Jar of Dreams. Has the World Slept Well in the Past 24 Hours?

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The Jar of Dreams is a nifty little web-app which monitors the temperature of the world's dream experience. It collects data from Twitter when dreams are mentioned, and weighs up what percentage have had happy dreams, and how many people have woken up on the wrong side of the bed that morning.

Designed by Time4Sleep, the Jar of Dreams makes for addictive clicking, and noshing into other people's dream states.


The Jar of Dreams is a complex piece using both front-end and server-side technology to produce the finished piece. A harvester script checks Twitter for tweets about dreams, both negative and positive, and stores them. A separate script builds this data into an easily-accessible JSON file.
 
The front-end work grabs these daily sets of Tweets, works out the percentage of good and bad Tweets, draws up the treemaps and puts the Tweets on the screen. It’s a fairly Javascript-heavy piece, but uses CSS animations where possible to reduce load and render times.

Why not give it a go?

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The Fine Details of Christmas Fashion

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They say you shouldn’t sweat the small stuff but, when it comes to fashion, I disagree.
As regular readers know, this blog is all about those little details that make a difference to your look.
 
This time, I’d like to pass on some tips for Christmas fashion as you get prepared for all those parties. A bit of thought can make all the difference to an outfit and let you shine like a star come the festive season – and here’s how.

Stunning headwear from Batcakes Couture (search on etsy)

Stunning headwear from Batcakes Couture (search on etsy)

One of Janine Basil's Christmas hair clips

One of Janine Basil's Christmas hair clips

How to wear accessories
 
When deciding on how to accessorise your look, model your outfit in front of the mirror and see where your eye is naturally drawn. Normally this is either towards the neck or the waist.
If it is towards the former, highlight the area with a necklace; if it’s the latter, accessorise with a carefully-chosen belt and select an understated piece of jewellery to wear around your neck.
 
The biggest mistake you can make is to wear a flamboyant necklace and belt as these will compete for attention. Your body frame is also important when it comes to accessories. If you are petite then keep to smaller scale items but if you’re tall then choose bolder designs which you can carry off with ease.
 
Don’t forget the handbag; an inspiring collection of funky and classic designs is available at MCM – the perfect way to accessories this season.

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Festive make-up
 
Experimenting with make-up is one of the most fun parts of dressing up and Christmas is no exception. This is the perfect time of year to go glam with glitter - powdered glitter looks fantastic on eyelids and eyelashes so why not give it a go?
 
The trend this year is for metallic eyes. You can opt for a dramatic appearance à la Giorgio Armani with darker hues or choose lighter colours with a metallic sheen for an elegant touch.
 
Lips are simple; matte, dark berry colours are this year’s favourites – what are you waiting for?

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This has been a snazzy guest post for Harrods.

OMG Star Wars Onesies. STAR WARS. ONESIES!

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Find Me a Gift score highly on the very cool gift rating once again with these Star Wars themed onesies. They sent me the Boba Fett onesie, as my husband is a mega-Star Wars fan and he's his favourite. It arrived the week I was in hospital, and my husband was sick too. He was so excited to receive it, he says it miraculously healed him* 

*healing powers of onesies not proven by science

Its great quality, sweatshirt type material rather than a fleece that would end up bobbling. The Boba Fett design is £34.99, and if you have a few other gifts to buy for Christmas, and you spend over £50 you get a 20% discount.

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Maybe Darth Vader is more your type of guy. The Darth Vader onesie is on offer at £29.99

The Storm Trooper onesie is also on offer at £29.99 

I think my husband, who incidentally swore he would never wear a onesie, would happily wear any of these for sleepwear for ever more.

So don't rely on The Force to guide you to your Star Wars fan's last minute Christmas gift, let The World of Kitsch send you off happily to Find Me a Gift. Check out the other Star Wars merch they have there too.

Check your size

Check your size