A Garden Centre Christmas

So we're nearly halfway through the month, the New Year is looming and I'm struggling to keep up with myself. So it makes perfect sense to do a series of posts about my favourite things at Christmas on my blog - right?

Now, over the last 5 years of my blog, I've done various posts like this before. But not recently so I thought it would be fun to re-visit a few themes. First up - garden centres.

I'm sure this is a relatively recent thing. I certainly don't remember garden centres being such a must do highlight of the season when I was younger. But with better transport options and the rise of social media - a visit to your local garden centre is now very much a part of Christmas.

At the time of writing - I've visited two that are local to me. Haskins and Garsons. Both have really evolved into go-to destinations that you can also buy some bits for the garden in as well!

I think, between the two, Garson's has the slight edge for me. Every year they have reindeer - and who doesn't love a reindeer?

And of course, there's always that one person who doesn't quite get into the Christmas spirit...

Thanks for reading the first of my twelve days of Christmas!

Cathy
xx

An evening at Southampton Christmas Market

It's finally December! The present shopping is (nearly) all done, there's mince pies in the cupboard and it's now time to relax a little and soak up the festive atmosphere. And if you haven't started shopping yet, then a Christmas market is the perfect place to find something a little bit out of the ordinary.

Earlier this week, I was invited along with Southampton Bloggers for an evening at the Southampton Christmas Market and to watch Santa fly. He's a busy guy but every night he and Rudolph find time to fly from the top of Southampton Bargate across the market.

The market is a traditional German one with alpine chalets, food and drink and even a Bavarian musician. We were given a personal tour of the market where we got a chance to talk to some of the stallholders and sample some of the food and drink available.

We then went up to Balcony Bar ready to watch the big man do his stuff and fly across the market. We really did have the best seat in the house, with hot chocolates, even more snacks and accompanying music from an alpine horn!

A big thank you to Southampton Bloggers and Southampton City Council for inviting us. If you want to watch Santa yourself (and it's the only place in the UK to see it) he's flying twice a day until 23rd December. Monday to Saturday at 5 and 7pm and on Sundays at 4 and 6pm.

Thanks for reading

Cathy
xx

Christmas at Beaulieu

Anyone that knows me, knows how much I love Christmas. When I heard about the Christmas at Beaulieu event and I was invited to go along with Southampton Bloggers - I might just have squealed a bit (ok, a lot! I was very excited).

This is a magical after-dark illuminated trail and is the first time such an event has been held at Beaulieu. Probably most people think of the National Motor Museum when they think of Beaulieu, but there's also the Palace House, Abbey and beautiful grounds to explore.

On arrival we were greeted with mulled wine, some seriously scrumptious mince pies and a short introduction about the installations. The amount of planning, work and number of lights involved was impressive and with over a million lights and 11 miles of power cables we knew we were in for a grand show. We were then let loose to make our way around the mile long trail. The first piece was the 200 foot long Cathedral of Light with 30,000 lights (and as we quickly found out, was the best place ever for taking selfies).

I have so many photos of the evening, so apologies for this picture heavy post. They just don't do the evening justice though and there's really something magical about walking through the trails at night with Christmas music and lights. In the grounds of the medieval abbey we found the Fire Garden lit with over 180 torches. By time the event finishes on the 24th December, they will have used over 5,000 candles. This was one of my favourite areas, the natural lights with the surrounding history was a perfect balance.

Other highlights included singing Jingle Bells with Santa on his bus and The Twelve Days of Christmas installation (does anyone get confused after the 8th day?)

You could toast your own marshmallows in front of a Gingerbread House (raspberry and champagne flavour caught my eye). There was also a love lock tree where quite a few Christmas wishes were being posted.

Earlier in the evening we stopped off at the village of Beaulieu and looking across the mill pond, we got a hint of the lights and music in store for us. Walking around the other side on the banks of the River Beaulieu was even better.

At the end of the trail was a huge tree (serious tree envy here) and a selection of festive huts selling hot chocolate, crepes, sweets, mulled wine and bratwurst. Perfect Christmas snacks. And if you needed more lights and excitement, there was a carousel, ferris wheel and the Beaulieu monorail to ride.

Christmas at Beaulieu is on until the 24th December 2018. A big thank you to Beaulieu for the invite, this really is an event for all ages and the look of wonder on the children's faces was beautiful. There's also plenty of photo opportunities.

Thanks for reading, I'm off to dig out the decorations from the loft now!

Cathy
xx

*Gifted tickets - thoughts and reviews are my own

Blogmas 18-20 - Christmas jumper day, a Triangle Christmas and mince pies

Hello there,

It's been a bit of an odd Friday and weekend. One of those weekends where you run around like a headless chicken and then end up wondering what you actually did - you know the ones I mean? So I've decided to round it all up into one Blogmas post.

Friday 18th was apparently Christmas Jumper Day. As I've been wearing them since the beginning of the month (maybe November too - shush!) it wasn't a hard task.

I bought this top from Next (size 22). Foxes seem to be everywhere at the moment and with the red sequin bow and beautiful bottle green colour, I was sold. It's still available on the Next website for £16 but I reckon it will be in the sale soon if any are left.

With so many stores starting their sales early, I found a few more tree decorations to go on the (already overloaded) tree.

Cute Santa's key from Asda

Garden gnomes from Sainsburys (yes - I also have a frog ornament too)

These were all half price and less. It really does pay to hang on until the last possible moment if you need any new decorations.

Saturday - the plan to was go to the local Christmas Fair near to where I live. It's an intersection of three roads and is known locally as the Triangle. I say plan, I did go, but failed spectacularly in taking any photos. There were carol singers, farm animals, snow machines and even Father Christmas himself made an appearance in the grotto. So as I didn't take any pictures, here's a great link to a short video of the day from the local community news site for Bitterne Park 

The rest of the weekend was pretty chilled - the first mice pies of the season were made,

Bit wobbly, but very yummy.

The Sephora Advent calendar kept up its tradition of good surprises and a few oddities. The treats this weekend were an eyeliner (yay), travel eye makeup remover wipes (yay) and another patterned tape.

And to round off the weekend - this happened!

Photos will follow in the next day or so once I find some good light - but verdict so far? Very pleased.

Thanks for reading my Blogmas posts. I can't believe we're now coming into Christmas week itself. This month has just flown by!

Cathy

xx

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Blogmas 16 &17 - Winchester Christmas market and festive nails

Hello there,

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I work from home. This is great 99.9% of the time, but at this time of the year, I do miss the Christmas parties and Secret Santas etc. I used to enjoy planning what to wear and all the anticipation etc.

Well, the Secret Santa was sorted this year when a number of us plus size bloggers got together to do one between us - you can see my post about that here. And on Wednesday, some friends who also work from home got together in Winchester for a spot of lunch and a catch-up before Christmas. Not strictly a festive meal at all, but it's the closest I'll get to a works Christmas do - so I donned my Christmas jumper, painted my nails and headed out.

I'm so pleased with my nails! This was the nail varnish I got in my Secret Santa with some Barry M glitter over the top. It's lasted nearly 2 days now without chipping which for me is a minor miracle. I love the contrast of a dark colour on short nails, esp at the time of year (plus short nails makes opening tins and bottles so much easier...)

By the time lunch was finished, it had turned into a pretty dark and miserable day in Winchester, so excuse some of these looking a bit dark.

To be honest, most Christmas markets are similar and tend to sell the same things wherever you are, but what makes this one different is the beautiful location in the grounds of the Cathedral.

How beautiful were these little ceramic houses for burning incense in? This was one of those 'I wish I'd bought one' moments!

The Christmas tree on the High Street - I seem to have chopped the head off - oops...

And finally, a round up of the last few days of the Sephora Advent Calendar. I have to admit, it's been a bit disappointing lately. I love the travel samples and miniatures, but the little booklets on beauty tips do nothing for me. I'm really hoping I've found all of those now and there's only good things ahead.

Thanks for reading

Cathy
xx