On the 12th Day of Kitschmas @Rudedoodle Gave to Me- Twelve Crazy Karen Mabon Scarves

I love everything  Karen Mabon designs. Just looks at this small dozen selection of her prints, it's everything I love.

The bright colours and subject matters make the finest Kitsch scarves in the world. 

I would buy every single one if I could afford to. Currently my collection stands at only four pieces, a squirrel gingerbread house themed square, an under-sea shark design (below),a Bake Off inspired kitchen print, and Karen's limited edition 2017 calendar square.

My Twitter pal has this The Birds print and I'm so jealous

Karen also makes pyjamas and the occasional umbrella, but it's her silk scarves that I lust after. 

Sneaky tip off- you'll find the odd past season Karen Mabon scarf popping up on TK Max's webstore now and again. They currently have a handful priced at a very reasonable £39.99, including the shark print below, which I grabbed.

I would love to expand my collection, they really are the business. 

On the 11th Day of Kitschmas @Rudedoodle Gave to Me- Eleven Star Wars Pizzas

How's the head this morning? Have a fun time last night? Maybe you've swore a resolution to eat healthier in 2017, but when you are partied out you don't find a remedy in a salad.

New Year's Day is the time for pizza. A great big takeaway pizza. While you are waiting for delivery, enjoy these Star Wars themed pies. 

On the 10th Day of Christmas @Rudedoodle Gave to Me- Ten Tiny But Tremendous Finger Tattoos

Happy New Year's Eve! Wave goodbye to 2016 and pray 2017 isn't its bigger, badder brother. 

I wonder am I being a bit of a hypocrite by featuring hand and finger tattoos for the 10th day of Kitschmas countdown, or count-up. 

I rarely mention it on here these days, but I'm actually quite covered in tattoos. I've a complete upper sleeve on my left arm, with large pieces on the lower arm also. I've two swallows in the traditional chest-piece location. 

Then, there's my finger tattoo. Or there was. One night in 2005 my then boyfriend & I went to a party in South Belfast, stayed up all night & in the morning, walked into central Belfast to the tattoo studio we both went to at the time, and asked the artist to give us a black star each, on our wedding band finger. 

A good tattoo artist, like the one I ended up going to for my sleeve etc. would have flat out refused us. My tattoo artist now told me he would never have tattooed my hand when at the time I was really only someone who had two tiny existing tattoos. I wasn't someone with full sleeves, running out of room to place designs, so moving to my hands by default. 

In the business hand, finger and neck & face tattoos can be nicknamed 'jobstoppers' because of their anti-social notoriety.

There's also the fact that I'm quite sure after being up all night partying, we should have been refused for still being under the influence of alcohol. 

If that wasn't enough of a clue to refuse us that day, then maybe the fact we were still in bloody fancy dress might have helped. It hadn't even been a fancy dress party but we had turned up as Hunter S Thompson and a princess. 

Nevertheless we left that morning with a jobstopper each. Convieniently considering we had them on our ring fingers, we ended up getting married. By that point however I hated mine completely. It made my hand look grubby, and it wasn't even well drawn, one side was thicker than the other. Wearing a wedding ring over it still looked bad, as the edges poked out. 

My husband knew I hated how mine looked, but he still liked his, and said he would like to get his other fingers done too. So I felt if I did research tattoo removal it would hurt his feelings even more so than me saying I hated mine had done any time I brought it up.

Then in Nov 2014 we split- and by Christmas I had been for my first Tattoo Removal Laser session at Indulgence by Susan's home spa in Lisburn.

Goodbye tacky finger tattoo! 

I had about four sessions with Susan and as you can see there is no scarring whatsoever. I could do with one final session to just blast that little bit of ink that remains where the thicker line was, so Susan, I will see you in the new year! 

So maybe I'm being hypocritical featuring the very tattoo spot I disliked, but that's because it can suit other people. The artwork on show here is a lot better than my wonky star. 

But I would advise anyone thinking of getting a tattoo in a place that cannot be covered easily, try drawing it on for a few weeks and see how you feel and how it looks with your different clothing & in different situations, because laser removal hurts ten times worse than getting the tattoo put on! 

On the 9th Day of Kitschmas @Rudedoodle Gave to Me- Nine Non-Normal Gnomes

I'm a huge reality TV fan. I watch them all. Various Housewives series, their spin-offs like Vanderpump Rules, even chat shows like Dr. Phil I keep up to date with. Arguably the biggest & best reality TV show out there is Keeping Up With The Kardashians. I've tried watching it and cannot get into it at all. You'd think I would love it, but I don't.

In a way, for me, the Kardashians are like garden gnomes. Gnomes are probably one of the most obvious trinkets that spring to mind when you are asked to name something Kitsch. They rule the garden, with their best pal the lawn flamingo, and while I love & own the latter, I hate gnomes. 

It's stranger still because my earliest EVER childhood memory is born happy, and involves gnomes. 

Until I was two we lived on the Castlereagh Road in Belfast. The only think I remember is that we used to walk down a few doors every tea time, so I could see the gnomes. Someone had filled their front garden with busy little gnomes in various poses & jobs. 

For the 9th day of Christmas, here are 9 naughty gnomes, the zombies being my favourite. 

Trump supporting gnome  

On the 7th Day of Kitschmas @Rudedoodle Gave to Me- Seven Stella McCartney Days of the Week Pants

You've heard her Pops blasting out of shop stereo systems for weeks now, wishing us a 'wonderful Christmastime', so why not include Stella McCartney's adorable sets of seven pants for kids, in the traditional days of the week.

They are quite pricy I must admit, and the boys' ones look like they could be made by Primark as much as McCartney. 

There's also a set of vests for girls. I'd love the one with the record player myself. 

Happy Seventh Day of Christmas. 

On the 6th Day of Kitschmas @Rudedoodle Gave to Me- Six Boozy Six-Pack Christmas Trees

Six Christmas trees made from beer bottles or cans!

This one may be wine, but I thought it looked cool. 

On the 5th Day of Kitschmas @Rudedoodle Gave to Me- Five Bold Rings- Uber-Tacky Retro Christmas Wreaths

Happy Boxing Day! I've been really inspired finding images for this blog post, and as you can see I couldn't narrow it down to five, I've ended up with over twenty! Whoops! Enjoy!

I love these wreaths made from the old fashioned Christmas tree lights. 

Soft pink on a wreath is a nice change from traditional red and green. 

Or how about a blue/green themed wreath? Very peacock-like. 

On the 4th Day of Kitschmas @Rudedoodle Gave to Me- Four Doctor Who Dalek Christmas Trees

I remember the first ever Dalek Christmas tree appearing online a few years ago and blogging about it. Now there are tonnes of copycats when you Google search for them, some better than the original, some worse, all very cool though. 

Hope you all have a lovely Christmas Day.

Fatty