Gift Giving Tips

A way to save you time, money and stress this xmas.
shared by Christmasiscomimng.co.uk

Gift Giving Tips

• Set limits. It’s so tempting to give your kids lots of gifts. But when you do, you are actually teaching them to expect that every year. The best gift you can give your kids is to teach them that the true meaning of the holidays is to give of yourself to others, be with people you love, and not about how many gifts you get.

• One of the biggest sources of holiday stress is overspending on gifts. Make a list of everyone you want to give a gift to and set a budget that allows you to celebrate the holidays without creating a financial hardship.

• Limit the number of shopping trips you make. 3-4 should be plenty!

• Create your gift list based on what you know people really need and use. If you aren’t sure, find out their favorite stores, restaurants, activities or service providers and give them a gift certificate. (Do a search on Google using the terms "clutter-free holiday gift ideas" for lots more resources.)

• Don’t go shopping just to look for gift ideas! When people shop looking for ideas, they often end up finding too many great gift ideas, can't decide, and then they buy too many gifts!

• Don’t bring home “possible” gifts thinking you'll return the ones you decide not to give. That almost never happens! And it just causes more stress. The best time to make decisions about what gifts you want to give is BEFORE you go shopping.

• Shop online! Especially for people you have to ship gifts to. Having your gifts wrapped & shipped directly to them can save you a lot of aggravation waiting in line at the post office!

• Instead of spending a lot on gift wrap, make creative gift wraps out of items in your home. For example, use fabric. You can even cut strips of fabric to make bows.

E.L.F Makeup and Reviews

To be fair i only ever used their nail polishes on false nails, they are a lil runny but two coats makes and keeps a nice coat.

I love E.L.F'S powder eyeshadows, they are well pigmented and last a long time.

The liquid eyeliners work a treat but personally i just cant get the hang of it, so i paint the stuff onto a brush to apply :) .

The eye cream is well pigmented also, i havent really used this enough to make a fair comment but it is very easy to apply.

Get the look sets, i got two of these and id reccomend them for someone starting out or trying to get a spacific look , as it holds everything you need and also give instructions for use on all their products.

The candy shop lip tins are the bomb, these are beautiful and are easily slipped into your pocket or bag for touch ups, they smell great .

Lip liners, although i did purchase some of these i havent yet tried them out as im not a big lip liner user, so il hold my opinion on this for now.
Im not sure if it was just an offer at the time or not, but when i purchased my lip and eye liners, each came with their own individual pencil sharpener :).

Eye liners, hmmm now im a bit on the fence with these, ive only tried the black one so far but to me it seems more charcoal than black. i cant get these to stay on my water line, but they do work above the top water line well, so 50/50 on this one guys.

The Blushers are really pretty, not to heavily pigmented, just enough to give a nice glow.

Shimmering Facial Whip- this is meant to be a multi use product for eyes, cheeks and lips, but i find it goes powdery /grainy on the lips, i havent tried it on my eyes but , i love love love this on my cheeks as a high light or to gove a shimmering glow.Top marks for that alone.

Bronzers, to be fair i havent tried this as yet, il get back to you on this one .

All over cover stick, i have not used this in its rightful capacity as yet, but i have tried it as blush and highlight and it works a treat :).

I have several elf brushes and i love them, they dont fall to bits or loose their hairs, they clean well and keep their shape.

Eye Lash Curlers, i dont use these much at all to be honest, but in all fairness when i have they work pretty well .

Earth and Water Mascara, i have two of these but as yet have not tried them, il get back to you when i do .

Eyeshadow Quads, great pigment, long lasting, easy to apply.

E.L.F Makeup

If you are looking for cheap make up that is well known and used by even some of the best make up guru's , then E.L.F is for you.
They do orders to the uk which is brilliant, but make sure to make the postage costs worth it so buying items in bulk is a great option especially for make up parties, xmas stocking fillers or gifts.

I have purchased several items from E.L.F twice now and i must admit im quite happy with the products i selected, most items are either £1.50 or a dollar per item, depending on where you are ordering from.

I will take some pictures of my purchases for you and run a lil review below them in the near future, in the mean time hit the title of this post to be taken directly to their website.
Enjoy !

My Garden At Night

More Garden Pics

Bless my dear friend stephen douglas for the pictures, great job hun :).

My Garden Pics

Well i finally got round to getting some garden pictures taken via my good friend stevie, we had tried to get it nice in preperation for marks birthday celebrations, but unfortunately the weather didnt play to nice and so the garden looks a lil bedraggled in places, but at least its still colourful, despite the lack of flowering plants lol.






il try posting more pics later as my pc is playing up guys x

Photo's of Marks 21st Birthday Celebrations

Mark's 21st Birthday Celebrations

Marks birthday was a mixed bag of emotions as you might imagine, it seemed that if it COULD go WRONG, it DID go wrong, although it turned out fine in the end.

On the friday we had gone over to marks garden/grave to turn the soil, freshen it up and add all his new stuff for his birthday.
That night we went back over at midnight to have a sml celebration to ourselves before the antics of the following day, well it was blowing a gale, we had helium balloons to tie up that blew away, we had sparklers to set that wouldnt light, and most heart breaking was the chineese lanturn we had hope to send up in his honour.
It took that long to try and light it, that after 45 minutes the balloon was in shreds with the wind, i was gutted as was his big sister who had got the balloon for him.

Luckily after freezing and much dissapointment, uncle ian came across and let off some fire works for him which lifted our spirits and put us in good stead for the day ahead.

Forty odd people turned up at marks garden to celebrate his birthday, it was a real honour and did my heart proud.
We sang happy birthday, sprinkled 21st and balloon foil confetti on his grave,set off 3 large bubble machines and finally after some dalay, his helium balloons arrived.

The balloons was the moment everyone was waiting for, 21 bright coloured balloons released in marks honour, he would have loved it :)
Unfortunately the wind whisked them straight away , but we were lucky enough to cath them on camera before they dissapeared.


Friends and family came bareing gifts and cards, some were put straight on the grave, others brought back to the house because of the winds, (but each one finally spent time on his garden, i made sure of that).

Everyone came back to the house for tea/coffee and a bouffet,we played all marks favourite tunes, they stayed until 6pm.
Later that night our family went to finnish the day off with a celebratory drink with friends, so all in all it was a wonderful day and i cant thank everyone enough.

Il be sharing some pics of the day with you asap .

40 fantastic uses for baking soda

Most of us know that baking soda can be used for more than just making homemade cookies and other dough rise. It's not uncommon to see an open box of this leavening agent deodorizing refrigerators, for example. But did you know that there are at least 40 different ways to use baking soda?

Baking soda makes a perfect stand-in for many personal care, cleaning, and deodorizing products. The list of benefits is long: It is inexpensive, free of toxic chemicals, versatile, and effective.

Wondering how baking soda, aka sodium bicarbonate, works its magic? It helps regulate pH — keeping a substance neither too acidic nor too alkaline. When baking soda comes in contact with either an acidic or an alkaline substance, its natural effect is to neutralize that pH. Beyond that, baking soda has the ability to retard further changes in the pH balance, known as buffering.

This dual capability of neutralizing and buffering allows baking soda to do things such as neutralize acidic odors (like in the refrigerator) as well as maintain neutral pH (like in your laundry water, which helps boost your detergent's power). It's a simple reaction, but one that has far-reaching effects for a number of cleaning and deodorizing tasks.

And so without further ado, here are some of the many creative ways you can use baking soda.

Check out the rest of this post by clicking on the title link .

More Baskets On The Horizen

I have 4 birthdays in july and i have decided that for at least two of those i will be creating some more gift baskets, so keep your eyes peeled for those.

So far im thinking of doing a wine, fruit, cheese and chocolate type hamper/ basket for my brother, although i may change it to a beer hamper with boys night in goodies, wel have to see nearer the time.

The second will be a pamper type basket for my sister inlaw, full of smellies, creams, lotions, potions and candles ect, i want to make it really pretty so il be putting a lot of thought into that one when the time comes.

So if you have birthdays, anniversaries ect ect comeing up for him or her ,why not check out my gift ideas and tutorials for that personal touch that shows that you care :) x

Wow, what a busy time - mark's 21st

Its been real crazy here this past week or so, we have been trying to get the house and garden ready to celebrate my belated sons 21st birthday to honour him.

The weather has been all over the place so we couldnt get a lot done in the garden last week and this week we need to spend most of our time inside.

The plan is to do some last minute weeding and wash the garden furniture on thursday or friday at the latest as the birds love to poop on it.
I have 4 garden benches, a table and 2 chairs and every one gets the hammer from the birds, pesky things .

We will be filling our garden with lots of new assorted and bright windmills and ornaments that my son always looked forward to on every birthday, (that was nans treat every year and she hasnt let us down this year either :) )

We need to go over and strip marks grave/garden of its usual attire on friday and replace it with lots of new and bright things to celebrate his big day, we will be digging the soil over and hopefully reducing the mound of soil that has not yet sank.

Friday evening our very special friend from scotland will be coming to stay, to join in the celebrations along with almost 40 other people on saturday, which would have been/ is marks actual birthday.
However, wel be back over at midnight on friday to toast him at his garden and have a lil bit of private time with him before the hustle and bustle later on the saturday.

The plan for saturday is to meet at the grave site (marks garden) at 1pm where we will be wishing him a very happy birthday,singing and then letting off 21 helium balloons along with two big bubble machines to mark the occasion.
Friends and loved ones will get their chance to say a few words and leave sml gifts, then after that wel be coming back to my house and all being well into the garden to have a bite to eat, chat, remember him and to listen to his favourite tunes and maybe have a sing a long too.

Im actually looking forward to it although i know its going to be really tough, ive been so up a height this week, my brain just wont switch off and the tears are flowing at the drop of a hat so im physically and mentally exhausted, but in the end i wouldnt change his big day for anything :).