November 05, 2016

Sneak a Little Slice of Christmas into Everyday. Xmas 2016 Launches at M&S.

November 05, 2016/ Claire Spence

31st October, Halloween, 1st November, its Christmas. The population always seems split this month. There are those who think it's far too soon to think about Christmas, then there is festive loving folks like myself who are ready to dive straight in to turkey and cranberry everything.

Marks & Spencer's food hall is starting to turn holly berry red, with their Christmas party food and festive flavours appearing in every department. So I visited the Sprucefiled store to choose from the little items you can start adding to your day now, without having a full on turkey dinner. There are dozens of products you can pick for lunch and dinner to get you in the Christmas mood.

Pigs in Blankets £1.75 : Scotch Egg £2 : Mince pies £1.20 : Turkey wrap £3

Every year M&S bring out a Christmas lunch menu for their takeaway food. That includes sandwiches, salads, sausage rolls, wraps, juice and mini desserts for one. This is the 11th year that they have partnered with the charity Shelter, donating 5% of every sale to the homeless charity.

Soup £2.50 : Turkey feast sandwich £3.25 : Sausage roll £1.75

Club sandwich £4.50 : Juice £1.50 : Rolls £3.25

Profiteroles £2 : Cheesecake £2 : Macaroons £1.75

Moving on to the rest of the Food Hall, we see the traditional M&S crazy crisp varieties. Prosecco or Bucks Fizz handcooked crisps are pretty unusual, as well as turkey & maple syrup, but the flavour I'm most excited about is Blackstick's Blue cheese. I already love the blue cheese itself, and the spreadable cheese you can get too, so these are right up my street.

Christmas flavours are also reaching the shelves of the confectionary and biscuit aisles. Even Percy has had a Christmas makeover.

One last deal I have to mention. It's just arrived in store & I anticipate it selling quickly, so if you think it's a suitable gift you should think about buying it while there is a good choice available.

You get a lovely, thick felt stocking, which you can fill with three items of your choice for £10. There are sacks of minty sweets, chocolate skittle games, chocolate gingerbread men, snowball sweeties, winter caramels and various Christmas themed games.

I choose the decorate your own lolly kit, decorate your own biscuits, and the crazy chocolate cracker. For £10 you could divide the items as three separate presents, or use the stocking as a gift bag to give the selection of your choice to someone. Or, like me, you could pick them for yourself!

What's your favourite M&S Christmas product? Check out what else is in store on the M&S website.

December 04, 2015

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

December 04, 2015/ Claire Spence

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.

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 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.

September 16, 2013

An Early Heads Up On One of This Year's Top Christmas Toys- Get It Early!

September 16, 2013/ Claire Spence

Sometimes I think I've seen all the toys that could possibly be invented; then something so simple, but so unique as Pony Cycles come along & I wish I was seven again. I could have asked Santa for an ACTUAL pony, and if I was very well behaved, I might have just have been lucky enough to get one.

I first came across Pony Cycles in a local shopping centre. It was Easter break and a small business had rounded up a herd of ponies, unicorns & zebras for children to ride for £2 for fifteen minutes. My son instantly fell in love with the brown Pony Cycle. It looked just like his granny's horse Sox.

Pony Cycles gifted us one of their medium sized horses, much to my son's absolute delight. This is the sort of reaction you could expect on Christmas morning.

The medium size is for ages 4-9 and the small size suits age 2-4. As long as the child can reach the pedals to bounce to make the pony move, then it will work for them. It's tricky to explain how the pony is propelled along, so it's far easier to show you. Here's a video of my son riding his.

Building the cycle is very simple. It arrived assembled, apart from the head piece, which is easily screwed on. It only took me three minutes and it was ready to go.

Prices start at £150, which is reasonable as an alternative to a bike as the main Christmas present. Unlike a bike, the Pony Cycle makes a stunning feature for a child's bedroom all year round, replacing the traditional rocking horse of yesteryear.

My son has taken his out around our block a few times, and we even took it in the boot of the car to go visit Granny & Grandad's real horses.

Pony Cycles are great for exercise, and are also used widely in special needs schools for children with autism or Down's Syndrome.

The Pony Cycle company is owned locally, shipping from Derry, Northern Ireland, to locations all over the world. You can browse the collection online, and make purchases simply through their site. They also have an active Facebook account.

September 13, 2013

Gertrude Anna's Autumn/Winter Collection Includes an Ewok Print Satchel & Therefore It Wins Fashion

September 13, 2013/ Claire Spence

Gertrude Anna is the handmade work of mister Timmy White, a co-worker of mine from my Liberty Blue days, and a lover of 80s & 90s pop culture.

I had the pleasure of having a Gertrude Anna clutch bag made in He-Man fabric for my brother's wedding in June, and it got lots of compliments. Great for showing your weirdo side, if you're being 'well behaved' with the rest of your outfit.

Check out Timmy's latest pieces by staying up to date on the Gerty Facebook page. The Ewok satchel is a treat.