Merry Wednesday

December is upon us and we are super busy finishing interior projects for clients, organising our little Bibby + Brady office/showroom (due to open early next year), and adding more fabulous products to our online shop. It's definitely starting to feel like Christmas. Are you feeling it too? I'll leave you with a little inspiration for your Wednesday...

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Christmas Tree | Three Ways

Who's getting ready to put their Christmas tree up this weekend? I know December 1st is the official "tree putting up" day, but that's on a Monday, so surely one day early is OK?! I have friends who have already had their tree up for a week and more - they are true Christmas-aholics. If you feel like doing things a little bit different this year I have three creative ideas...

You can still keep it quite traditional, but take your creativity up a notch. Hide the base of your tree in a lovely big basket, and use smaller baskets to house all the presents.

Flag the tree altogether and attach your decorations to the wall in the shape of a tree. This is one for the die-hard crafty, creative types.

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A simpler idea, and one I would definitely attempt is this beautiful tree made with Christmas themed photography.

What do you think?... will you go traditional or more creative this year?

A Heart Felt Thanks & Happy Holidays!

Well, it's Christmas Eve, much excitement fills our house. I'm sorry for my absence yesterday, Mark and I had the wedding of one of our closest friends over the weekend, down in Wellington.  It was one of those epic weddings - the most incredible location, fantastic people, we danced and laughed the night away, and even got to channel some Katniss Everdeen with a spot of archery, clay bird shooting, and knife throwing.

I'm heading to the lake for a few days to recharge after an extremely busy and exciting year. I will back with you early January, and look forward to bringing you massive doses of colour and inspiration. Thank you so much for all your loyalty and support over the year. Feel free to leave a comment or email me anytime if you have feedback or requests for blog content. 2014 is a great reason for exciting new content.

images via here and here

Wishing you and your families a wonderful, sparkly Christmas, and happy holidays. If you're on Instagram, pop over and visit me. Merry Christmas xxx

Mybuckett

Have you discovered Mybuckett yet? It's a fabulous new concept in shopping. Design guru and global adventurer, Peter Reid, has sourced many amazing products from his travels around the world and brought them together in one place for our shopping pleasure. I've always admired Peter's style, from when I first discovered him at his Auckland design store, Republic. He shares my love for unique and eclectic pieces that help make a beautiful statement in your home.

It's not just the pieces that are unique - Mybuckett is the only store in the world designed with generosity in mind. As well as enjoying your newly purchased products, you also get the opportunity to give back to charities and loved ones. Here's how it works... 

Once you make a purchase you receive a 20% giftback. 10% of the value of your product is returned directly to your Buckett to use as discounts on future purchases; or you can choose to donate any portion of that 10% to a selection of New Zealand charities. You then gift the other 10% to your Mybuckett friends, and hopefully they'll return the favour! How great is that?! Retail therapy just got even better! Here are some of my favourite products...

There are two great Christmas specials running at the moment, so it's the perfect time to get that last minute shopping done. Spend $150 or more and receive a FREE 3ft Fluro Christmas Tree. Purchase a one-of-a-kind Spinning Globe and receive a FREE 7ft Fluro Christmas Tree. These are guaranteed to bring joy and vibrancy into your home!

Farmers Gift Globe

How's your Christmas shopping going? Are you one of those super organised people who has it all sorted early December?! If, like me, you're still ticking off that list and need some help, I've got a fantastic app for you to try. It's called the 'Farmers Gift Globe' and it's designed to ease the stress of finding the perfect gift for every member of the family. 

So fun to use, you simply select the age and gender of the recipient, and your price bracket, and the globe will choose a Farmers product to suit. If you want another idea, click 'shake again' and a new product will appear - great huh?! You've got to try it out.

After trying the globe out for myself, and brimming with gift ideas, I headed into our local Farmers store in Napier. The plan was to pick a gift each for my three young daughters.

My eldest has just turned 11, and is all about music, movies and pop stars these days. The makeup and perfume department has some amazing gift sets, and I got some fabulous advice from Christine, one of the beauty consultants. She showed me the huge range of perfumes, a lot of them aimed at the younger market. It seems every pop star has their own perfume - Taylor Swift, Nicki Manaj, Rihanna, Justin Bieber... but the favourite in our household is Selena Gomez.

That was a good start, but I wanted to check out the toy department upstairs before I made any decisions. I only got a little bit distracted on the way - lots of cute things!

Right, back on track... every toy imaginable is available at Farmers, and there truly is something for everyone. My two youngest are twins, and will turn 9 early next year. They're very much action girls, who love the outdoors, and anything to do with water.

After agonising over the choices I finally decided on a pretty impressive looking water gun each. I know they'll love them, as their friends have one, and this has provided hours of fun in the past. So as not to feel left out, I bought a smaller version for big sis and headed back to get her the Selena Gomez perfume also.

Happy days, I can't wait til Christmas now and to see their faces when they open their presents. Make sure you check out the Farmer Gift Globe, which can be found on the Farmers Facebook page. And pop into your local store for lots of brilliant gift ideas.

A Modern Christmas

Christmas has really snuck up on me this year - it's been such a fabulously busy year! But it's hard to ignore the fact that the big day draws ever closer. Everywhere I look you see Christmas, but it's Pinterest, in particular, that constantly bombards me with festive images. Some of them are truly beautiful, and I find that I'm drawn to those that take a slightly more modern approach. Here are a few of my favourite decorating images...

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And I love all these alternatives to a traditional Christmas tree. I see these working in a small space where there's not enough room for a big tree; or maybe your office; or perhaps it's just that something different appeals to you...

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And if you haven't already, check out the fabulous Christmas range that our friends Tea Pea have in stock - so gorgeous! How are your Christmas preparation coming along?