My One Black Friday Shout Out: Free Shipping & Free Mystery Gifts on The Hand Drawn Creative's Etsy this Weekend

I think I'm turning into a grumpy old woman, as the Black Friday offers have rolled into my inbox all week, for  the day after our non-existent Thanksgiving, they've gone straight in the electronic 'trash can'. They didn't have Black Friday in my day!

I decided to give one small business a special Black Friday shoutout, and that's Neal at Hand Drawn Creative. He's my fellow mid-century loving, Bangorian, and I'm ever in his debt blog post wise as he made my The World of Kitsch banner heading for me for free.

Before you accuse me of being one of those pains in the arses of the creative collect, I did NOT ask Neal to throw something together for free, he actually approached me with the design he took upon himself to doodle up one day. Of course I adore it! I've had it printed on various things including chocolate and my own t-shirt!

 As you can see from the top image there is free shipping all weekend, and free mystery gifts.

Neal's store has a variety of prints in different genres, but my absolute favourite is the range of renderings of 70s & 80s Fisher Price toys. We kept some in my parents' attic, and I bought some at car boot sales such as the boat bus in this print.

We already had Smix when these prints came out, but my brother & wife are expecting their first child, so I've sent them a selection of the prints for their home.  

Take a look and take advantage of the Black Friday weekend. 

Christmas 2015 Has Arrived in Marks & Spencer's Food Hall

Tis the season to eat all-y! Christmas has arrived in Marks & Spencer with  3 for 2 offers across party food as well as gifts & beauty departments. Stock up now, freeze and avoid the crazy rush in late December.

I called into the Belfast city centre branch to pick up some of the Christmas food that's just hit the shelves. 

There are lots of party food favourites back in store, with some cute additions like mini chicken buckets and chorizo cups. 

Again Marks and Spencer are partnering with Shelter with their Christmas lunch products. You can eat & be merry while also helping the Shelter charity. 

The orange and clementine juice tastes like childhood Christmases with a baby orange in your stocking from Santa. 

Christmas dinner is my all time favourite meal, so I'm glad M&S have a sneaky pre-Christmas roast turkey dinner for one. 

The glitter poinsettias caught my eye.  

That is one big walnut whip. The hot chocolate flakes are part of the 3 for 2 offer on Christmas trimmings. 

My favourite part, the party desserts. They are all mix and match on 3 for 2. 

This is a nifty little idea. Ice your own letter to Santa. I don't quite know the logistics of how Santa reads it if it ends up in your stomach, but we can put it down to Christmas magic. 

They've a range of Christmas crisps on a two for £2.70 deal. I have to be honest and say I wasn't keen on these parsnip ones. 

More from the lunch selection, very cute mini traybakes. 

Stunning macarons you have there, M&S. 

I wish I had picked up this parsnip drink now. Can't imagine what it might taste like! 

IKEA Belfast's Christmas 2015 Teaser

Available in store soon. Is there anything you've got your eye one?

Christmas News from the Pony Cycle Stables

"The final Christmas countdown is truly on.

This has been a fantastic year for Pony Cycles, stock has truly galloped out the stables door.

With the last shopping days amongst us, we want to give a heads up of final order and delivery dates:

If you are interested in any models we do not have in stock, the final day for placing orders is Wesnesday 10th Dec, to allow time for delivery in time for Christmas.

For all available stock, final day for Christmas orders is Friday 19th December.

Don’t leave it too late, contact the team today and order yours!

Pony Cycles would like to thank all their customers for their ongoing support.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Pony Cycle Team."

Retro Futurism ArtPrint Takeaway in Bangor

One of my favourite, local artists Neal McCullough will be taking part in the art pop up shop at Bangor starting this week. Stuck for a present for an awkward to buy for someone? Come see Neal!

Jump Into Christmas Jumper Day for Save the Children, With Sweaters for Everyone at George at Asda.

This year marks the very first, fund-raising event for Save the Children. You wear a snazzy, tacky Christmas sweater to the office and raise money for needy kids. A great one-stop-shop for jumpers for the entire family is George at Asda.

This is my choice to weta for Christmas Jumper Day, very 1970s!

Asda even have a range to choose from includes an extra donation from them to boot.

"Help us raise at least £750,000 for Save the Children. By purchasing this jumper you will help give disadvantaged children living in the UK the chance to fulfil their potential. 6% from the sale of this jumper will be donated to Save the Children. Why not celebrate Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day in style on Friday 12th December."

Prices range from £7 to £18. Here are my top picks.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas at M&S #FollowTheFairies

There's a certain November day when the light is just right, the shops are sufficiently bustling and the smell of cinnamon is in the air, and it hits you, the Christmassy feeling. With all the new Christmas adverts launching this week, including the Marks and Spencer fairies my Christmas feeling hit me on Saturday.

Our son has had his eye on this adorable little tin of gingerbread men the past two weeks, so this Saturday I allowed him to pick one of the light-up tins for his own Christmas display.

Marks and Spencer invited me to pick out my top choices from the new Christmas and party range, to share with you, my readers, what I think it worth stocking up on for celebrating with this December.

Yeti £2.50 : Gold Whips £1.65 : Christmas Pudding Cookies £2.00 : Twigs £1.50 : Smaller sweets 60p

You won't be short in supply of sweet treats to pick from. Reindeer twigs (Matchmakers) and smaller lunch time chocolate novelties can be found near the till. The coconut covered mini Yeti are a sweet idea, and if you ever want a cookie that tastes EXACTLY OF CHRISTMAS then you'll adore the Christmas Pudding Cookies.

Then there's the return of the chocolate sprouts. These look so realistic in their needed bags and cost only £2.00

There are also chocolate Santas.

Juice £2.00

I couldn't do a Christmas food round up without including mince pies. I only started eating & enjoying mince pies about two years ago. Before I thought they tasted disgusting. Maybe my palette is changing as I age, but I still play it safe by making sure the mince pies I do eat around Christmas time are from M&S, where the quality will be superb.

Heres a cool little idea, a Night In Christmas Treats Box for family movie night, or indeed nibbling through on a Saturday night, cheering on your favourite in Xfactor. Makes a nice alternative to the yearly getting smaller box of Roses chocolates.

Treat Box : £8.00 : Mini Mince Pies £2.50

I also treated myself to this gift box of very special handcrafted chocolates. The Chocolatier's box is something special. The colours make them look like jewels rather than exquisite desserts. Hands off, this is mummy's box of chocolates.

With all the sweet treats, I didn't have much budget left over for savoury, but as ever M&S is streets ahead with the quality & inventiveness of their party food. Remember to call in soon as items are on 3 for the price of 2. Freeze them until party season & have saved some money.

Pork Belly £6 : Ready to Eat or Heat Prawns £7

Pizza fashioned into Christmas tree shapes are ideal if you've kids coming round to visit.

I've often wished you could concentrate the taste of Christmas into one thing, and M&S have only gone and done it. Dare you try the 'Christmas Soup'? Tell me what you make of it on Twitter (@rudedoodle).

Christmas tree pizza £5 : Christmas Soup £2.50

Finally, a quick peek at some other items in store which I didn't try out, but which look splendid all the same.

M&S helps homeless charity Shelter every year with proceeds coming from sales of their Christmas takeaway lunch selection. The packaging is almost too cute to throw away.

And there's a whole red labelled section of the store for those basic Christmas ingredients you might forget otherwise. PLUS they are on 3 for 2 right now.

The Gift for Someone who has Everything- Their Own Personalised Cartoon

Cartoon This is an illustration and design company founded in 2012 by Jordan Hodge.

"I strive to give all customers fun and high quality illustrations at great prices.  I will illustrate any person or group of people in my cartoon style. The sky is the limit on what I can illustrate!"

Want a movie or TV themed portrait? A sports team themed portrait? Funny outfits? Or normal everyday outfits? No problem! Jordan has already done over 300 unique Cartoon Portraits for customers around the world. Star Wars, Walking Dead, Wizard of Oz, themed portraits in whatever style you can dream up. These would make great gifts or nice prints to hang in a home or office.

Jordan even cartooned us- it's scarily accurate!