M&S Christmas Party Food 2015- Christmas Tree Pizzas, Churros & Chocolate Clutch Bags.

When I was a kid Christmas party nibbles meant cocktail sausages and breadsticks. Now thanks to M&S festive food includes smoked salmon filled shells and Brie & cranberry tarts. The 'second wave' of seasonal treats have arrived in Marks & Spencers food hall, and with  two for one and 3 for 2 offers across the party food range this could be the best time to stock up & freeze for the end of the month's celebrations.

Seafood served in shells is a party I want to go to  

The pizza trees are so simple but effective. We had them last year, so this is a repeat buy. Perfect for kids while the grown ups have the fancier food that might be too rich for children. 

These mini posh hot dogs are the evolution of the humble party cocktail sausage. The pork belly I highly recommend, again it's a repeat buy for me from last year.

Not a party food, but part of the Grill range, if you can't wait for Christmas dinner then why not have a teatime of turkey, cranberry, bacon & stuffing burgers? 

As with every year you can buy a range of tasty pre made stuffing to save time during preparation of the Big Meal. 

Carrying on its the savoury treats, it wouldn't be Christmas for me without a fortnight of serious cheese overdosing. I'm serious about the Cornish Cruncher and my true love Blacksticks Blue.

I'm keeping my eye out for the cheese balls that I loved from the party food range last year, but if that doesn't make a return then I'll have to make do with this almost tennis ball sized offering that's £5.

I might pick these up for New Years, as I still haven't tried haggis. 

When I'm picking up food hall goodies for blogging I always have to call up to Sprucefield. It's a chance to nosy round their flagship store with huge home & clothing departments. They've added a massive Christmas store department with everything from decorations to cards, presents, wrapping paper and novelty crackers. A lot of the wrap, cards etc are on 3 for 2 offers too.

Back in the Food Hall and onto the sweet gifts and party foods. Making a change from the traditional shortbread tin gift, this lantern took my fancy with a design you could display all year round.

Fancy marshmallows are a fairly recent fad, but I love them. Snowflake shaped mallows are even better. 

I also spotted these 'create your own hamper' kits for £10. Super  for creating a personal gift for someone who has M&S favourites but also really useful for putting together a hamper for families with dietary needs like nut allergies or gluten intolerance, who otherwise might not get to enjoy premade hamper gifts.

These limited edition golden chocolate shoes and clutch bags are very cool. I'm neither a shoe or bag aholic, I think they'd have to make a chocolate taxidermy stag head for me!

I imagine with both designs being limited to 2000, they'll only be available in selected stores. If you fancy buying one for someone it might be worth phoning your local store to check if they have any in stock. 

You can order specially made cakes in store, with this cool penguin design only costing £20. 

There are so many shiny sweet gifts to choose from. 

I definitely had to grab some of the fancy mallows. Pistachio anything is always good. These would make an excellent alternative gift for a teacher, rather than the usual deluge of shower gels!

Cute carrot cake muffins, part of the 3 for 2 party deal.

I'm probably one of the few people who doesn't go Continental Market mad every December, but I do love Churros. Now I can get a fix with these ready to eat beauties. 

M&S seem to out edible glitter on 90% of their Christmas desserts- and that is BRILLIANT. I wish I could eat shimmering everything. 

So I think there will be one more pre-Christmas M&S food blog post, so watch out for the last selection of goodies in a week or two. 

Lily Pink Bakery, Belfast- Not Just Cakes, Works of Art

I'm lucky to know several really amazing bakers who create beautiful, delicious cakes for their family & friends' celebrations. 

One of the absolute best who has gone professional with her talent is Claire from  Lily Pink Bakery. You may have ooh'ed and ahh'ed over Claire's cupcakes at St George's Market, but now if you want a slice of the action you can order directly from her website.

Here are some of her shows topping creations. 

Birthday Cakes- 

Fresh fruit-

Wedding designs- 

And finally Claire's speciality, rainbow cakes  

The Unbeatable IKEA Real Christmas Tree Deal- 6ft, £25 with a £20 Voucher Free with No Minimum Spend for the New Year!

It's the unbeatable real Christmas tree deal that's been around for several years now at the Belfast store.

Buy a 6ft real tree for £25 and you are also given back a £20 voucher to spend in the new year. With no minimum spend that means you can start the year afresh with some new soft furnishings to give a room a cheap makeover.

The preview of products launching in February is promising. I love mid-century interiors, so I'm a sucker for a plant table. 

My ex bought me one of the gorgeous 1950s', pastel, multi-level originals for around £130. The £25 stand below would make a great dupe of one of the antique versions, just some pastel paint sample pots & you've saved yourself £100. 

How cool is this collection- which means it's pure torture that the NI & Ireland store aren't stocking it! 

I need need need this turntable/record style side board. 

I actually have an original of the coffee table below. I use it as my tv/DVD stand with a retro edge. 

So lots to look forward to in 2016 at IKEA. 

'Grotto Off 2015'! Hillmount Garden Centre Belfast, One of the Largest Grottos in Ireland!

Round two of this year's 'grotto off' took us to the Castlereagh Hills where a winter wonderland lays nestled in Hillmount Garden Centre. 

Their  mega Christmas grotto is one of the largest in Ireland and features a magical walk through attraction before your one on one with the big man himself.

Children receive a snack and juice, and there is a quiz to take part in as you travel through the various Christmas scenes, with a gift voucher for one lucky winner.  I can imagine weekends being very busy, given the scale of the attraction, so perhaps an afternoon visit like we just had would be less chaotic, with shorter waiting times for tiny ones.

Part of the quiz involves blind boxes & guessing what you can feel! 

This was my favourite part. A little window in the floor with a birds' eye view of what Santa would see from his sleigh.

There's also a cute dolls' house display, with a teddy family which is just too cute. 

The whole walk through attraction is very well done and would be totally magical for kids. It's the sort of memory you are making that they'll talk about with their kids when they are all grown up. 

Santa photographs are extra on top of your visit, but your child will receive a present from Santa as part of the grotto cost. I found the photo prices a bit steep, with one copy being £10, or 3 for £20. I think it's due to a third party company doing the photographic work, but prices could be more competitive I feel. 

We chose the mini photo in a snowglobe which costs £15

At the end of the grotto visit is an open area with a reindeer, donkeys and Pygmy goats. This part seems to be free to visit for anyone shopping at Hillmount. They have a good arm's length bumper barrier between the animals and the children, which as an animal lover, is always a relief to see. I can imagine many poking little fingers on a Saturday would end up being distressing for the animals, but as it is they are happy and even come over to try to give you a sniff! 

After the grotto fun we browsed the store a bit. It's similar to the gifts I posted a few days ago from their Bangor branch, but with the Belfast store being bigger the range of gifts is even better. 

The Christmas decoration department is absolutely huge with every colour scheme and tree theme imaginable. 

I loved this little fella, a singing Christmas tree. 

Hillmount are well known for their fantastic food and the restaurant part has been extended over the years to accommodate the ever increasing clientele. 

We had some sweet treats. 

Huge lemon meringue, the staple dessert of the garden centre. It was superb. 

So! The scores!

Display- ⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️

Actual rating for Santa-  ⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️

Price- ⛄️⛄️⛄️

Gift - ⛄️⛄️

Photo quality- ⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️

Photo Gift Option- ⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️

Queue time- ⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️⛄️

Christmas Has Hit The World of Kitsch House

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!

Hillmount Garden Centre, Bangor: Christmas Gift Guide 2015

Visit Santa

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.  

Also available Yankee & Woodwick

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.

Ladies' night off to a bustling start

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! 

Pixar's Good Dinosaur merch in stock

Seatbelt covers for comfier journeys

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 

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

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! 

My creation

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. 

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

Philip Colbert

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.

Rodnik clutch bags

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