December 01, 2015

Christmas Has Hit The World of Kitsch House

December 01, 2015/ Claire Spence

Long-term World of Kitsch readers will probably already recognise these decorations from every other year, but if you've only joined me in the past 12 months, then let me show you my Christmas goodies.

This is is the second year with our fake Lidl tree, and I've seen the same one in stores again this Christmas. It's decent for a fake, and necessary as now it's just Smix & me, I can't carry or saw & prepare a real tree like previous years.

If you are after a real tree then IKEA is your best place to get one. They sell them fairly cheap and you get a voucher to spend in store in January with no minimum spend, to almost the price of the tree too. You'd be mad going anywhere else.

My decorations are a collection of vintage birds bought on eBay, giant candy canes, pudding baubles and oversized retro style lights.

Pheasant with real feather tail, vintage from eBay.

No tree is complete without a Christmas craft by your little one. We don't have a star so every year I top the tree with this angel Smix must have made in nursery or P1. I like themed trees and to a point mine is, but you always need a few personal, dare I say it, messy & mismatching ornaments to set it apart from a tree you'd see in the window of a shop.

My white birds are from Tesco a few years ago, but they had them last year again so if you like them it might be worth checking your local store to see if they've migrated back for this winter too.

The foot long, glitter candy canes were a really lucky discount buy when Dickson's Garden Centre in Bangor was closing down. I've three of them and they are definitely my absolute favourite ornaments.

Named Christmas baubles for the family seem to be the new big thing and you can support a local business by ordering a personalised bauble from Baked in Belfast. They also hand paint beautiful Christmas plates and platters with family names.

Christmas in my house without a touch of tack would be no Christmas at all. I have this ugly deer bauble from the 70s who hides amongs the branches of the Christmas tree.

My top tacky item however is this singing Santa & reindeer that jumps along and for some reason features a light up face. My Mum brought it back from Tenerife & it's horrified us ever since.

My stag head barometer is a bit 'Bates Motel at Christmas time' in the hall.

I loved the print on this advent calendar, £1 from Tiger Stores. I also got the matching wrapping paper at just £1 a roll.

Smix's Christmas tree is a village of little cardboard houses I got from Lidl, and filled with sweets & tiny toys. Dec 1st was this cute gnome snowglobe from Tiger too.

Okay, so don't laugh at Smix's room tree! His old one got binned in our house move last February, so we needed to go buy a replacement at tea time tonight. Tesco only had green 6ft ones, so we tried B&M Bargains. Weirdly they didn't have their trees with each pre-built so you could judge what you were buying, and you can see why.

This 3.5ft black tree was £6.99 & it is..well...lacking in Christmas spirit to put it mildly.

Smix seems pleased with it though, and along with singing lights decorating his window, he's all set.

Merry Christmas from The World of Kitsch, Claire & Smix!

November 30, 2015

Hillmount Garden Centre, Bangor: Christmas Gift Guide 2015

November 30, 2015/ Claire Spence

We popped along to Hillmount Garden Centre, Bangor's Ladies' Night 2015 this evening to take advantage of 10% off across the whole store, as well as many other discounts.

There is a free to view lovely little winter trail of moving figures downstairs

So is it worth making a visit for your own Christmas shopping?

Well Hillmount is one of those garden centres that sells everything for the whole home too. I don't know if these places are just a middle class, Northern Irish phenomenon, but you'll get candles, Cath Kidston everything, cookware, jams, all sorts stocked there too.

My prime 'oh my word they've got those!' moment was discovering they stock Powder Socks and Accessories. Menary's in Bangor have the socks, but Hillmount have the muffs, gloves, headbands and even the gift bags.

If you challenged yourself to do ALL your gift shopping under their one roof, you might just do it. They've a great toy selection for all age ranges, and Smix added to his Christmas wish list rightly!

Crafters and bakers are also well catered for with two healthily sized sections catering to each hobby.

You are spoilt for choice Christmas decoration wise. They've fake trees, real trees, fibre optic trees and absolutely reams of stuff to put on any of them. I was tickled by these Stormont & Harland and Wolfe baubles, hand painted £8.99 each.

Anyone for a tea pot tree?

Your sweet tooth is all set with these stocking sized classic sweet packs.

And finally, something a bit gardeny

November 29, 2015

How Does Yoggie Berrie Rate on the Belfast FroYo Scale? Pretty Darn Grrrrreat!

November 29, 2015/ Claire Spence

You can tell Smix was keen to get inside!

Self-serve frozen yoghurt is the new big thing in Belfast, so we have been visiting the various outlets to see who comes out on top for toppings and who we want to say yes to for their yoghurt.

Yoggie Berrie is a kitsch little cafe on the Antrim Road - bonus easier parking- which your kids will love thanks to the bear branding alone.

Its also different from the other frozen yoghurt places we've been in that it's the fro-yo shop you can take people who don't like fro-yo to.

What I mean is, if I wanted to call into one of the other places and my Dad was with me, he would be stuck not wanting anything because he's not very into frozen yoghurt. Yoggie Berrie not only has a wide range of icecreams too, but scones, cakes, traybakes and proper coffee house coffee.

This is as well as your usual self-serve frozen yoghurt station and toppings bar. Again you pay by weight so anything goes.

You'll also not waste money as they have tiny, cute pre-tasting tubs so your kids can try the flavours before filling up a tub, just in case they aren't sure about a certain taste.

Yoggie Berrie tend to stick to their best selling flavours and change less often than other places, but they do switch in and out the most popular tastes every two weeks.

I also loved how they had a magic middle button on each machine that mixed the two flavours together. I got bubblegum (which I've never had anywhere else, and which I LOVED), and watermelon mixed.

They have my favourite topping too, the fruit pebbles- little bubbles of fruit flavours that burst. They are usually found in bubble tea, so we tried a couple of teas to take home too!

They also had another unique topping, blue granules that I've only seen on waffle icecream cones before. Smix's whole mouth turned blue!

So a big thumbs up for Yoggie Berrie and we will be back. Oh and the staff are lovely.

November 28, 2015

Rodnik Band x Soap & Glory = Match (Box) Made In Heaven

November 28, 2015/ Claire Spence

For yeaarrrrrs I've blogged about The Rodnik Band, London-based designer Philip Colbert's label and vessel of love. He lives and breathes Rodnik, with design leaning to fashion and homeware avenues, all with a quirky edge.

Rodnik Band Interiors available at Made DotCom

Soap & Glory are another of what I consider 'my' brands. I got into their range very early, due to my love of retro packaging.

Here Is a Blog Post from January 2010 even, about their products. I went S&G crazy. I bought everything they brought out.

I got so into the Soap & Glory range that I eventually sickened myself on it, even before the makeup range had a chance to come out. So I rarely use Soap and Glory now, but I maintain their body butter is the best on the market, and I use their lipsticks as one of the shades is a fab nude lip for me.

Three cases to choose from. All contents the same.

So when I saw Philip had collaborated with Soap & Glory this Christmas, designing three of their cases in true Rodnik style, I was a bit conflicted. I don't want to spend maybe £40 on products I don't use now just for the case, but on the other hand they are based on Rodnik couture clutch handbags which can cost hundreds.

But here's the best part! The Rodnik Collab case only costs £18, AND it's part of the Boots' gift store wide 3 for 2 offer. So if I buy two gifts around the same price or more on the Boots site for my friends or family, I can add the Match Box Case to my shop for free!

The clutch the match box S&G case is based on

So is anyone buying this year's Soap & Glory set? Or is it on your wish list?

My pride and joy in my Rodnik Collection- a yellow submarine mac

November 28, 2015

To Me, Beauty Advent Calendars are Akin to Adult Colouring Books- A Sign of End Times. However It's an Apocalypse I Want to Be Part of. Gordon's Chemist £6.99 Beauty Calendar- Go Go Go!

November 28, 2015/ Claire Spence

I hadn't bought myself a beauty calendar this year. I often wonder are advent calendars for adults a sign of the decline of our species, but with beauty, candle & even gin calendars available, it's something I want to be part of.

On a single parent budget I can't throw £25-£30 at a calendar for me, so I only had a £1 chocolate calendar from Tiger Stores this year.

I popped into Gordon's Chemist with a prescription today and one of their special offers this weekend is this beauty calendar for £6.99.

Gordon's Direct, their web store had it on offer too, down from £14.99 to £8.99, but they are sold out. If you fancy getting one of these yourselves this weekend I would advise ringing your local store to check for stock.

Its all budget makeup, but when some nail polishes alone cost £12, a whole calendar of 24 products for £6.99 is a bargain.

November 27, 2015

It Took Me Two Hours to Put Together Smix's Advent Calendar... Was It Worth It?

November 27, 2015/ Claire Spence

As a product blog this is a bit useless, as I bought this in Lidl about a month ago and I think they sold out. Plus I can't even recall the price! Either £5.99 or £6.99? That seems a lot, when they don't come with contents, but even after they've been opened you are left with a very cute Christmas village that can be reused year after year.

So, this morning I set about building the 24 houses. They are all the same shape, so once you get going you speed up, but it still took me two hours. Perhaps if there are two of you making them, 12 each, it would be faster, but I just stuck Netflix on and got folding.

You have 24 sheets of housing, which are double sided, so you can alternate, or choose an all brown or all blue themed village. You've also gold stickers for numbering the houses and ribbon.

As with most of these type of craft builds, you'll find it a lot easier if you pre-bend the folds before you try to fashion it together.

The houses are a good size. I don't want to give away all the contents, but I was able to fit trinkets from Tiger Stores inside, sweets, small sets of battery powered Christmas lights from Poundland etc.

They actually take up a lot more room than I anticipated. Only the first ten days fitted on the mantelpiece. I don't think I will keep all of them for displays next year. Probably just a selection of whichever ones don't get ripped to bits with the excitement of getting to the insides!

November 27, 2015

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

November 27, 2015/ Claire Spence

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.

November 26, 2015

'Grotto Off 2015'! First Stop Ards Shopping Centre

November 26, 2015/ Claire Spence

'Grotto Off' doesn't have a very appealing ring to it, I am aware of that, but just in case we end up visiting a selection this Christmas, we might as well post about our visit today, at Ards Shopping Centre.

Ards Shopping Centre always put on a good show. Their yearly 'mountain' display is immense. There have been DJing elves and the infamous 'Puffing Billy' who I captured in 2010 on video.

We pitied those working in stores in earshot of that song, on loop, all day, every day for over a month. The woman at the till of the butchers' definitely had a thousand mile stare on the go. I could imagine coming in one day to find her with a kebab skewer in each bloody ear due to her aural torture.

Apart from being impressive, the whole grotto set up is hard to beat. Free visit, free chocolate lolly for each child, and one free photo printed instantly for you. So no monetary outlay, and no having to wait around for an hour, or even call back another day to claim your Santa photo.

Ards' grotto was actually the first ever Santa visit had, December 2007, a month and a bit after he was born.