Bits & Pieces: Christmas 2015 via instagrams

I’m afraid I’ve been awfully lax over the last month so the Christmas content I had in mind unfortunately hasn’t happened. There’s been a lot going on in my personal life but thankfully it’s all sorted in time to enjoy ringing in the New Year. I’m looking forward to making new goals and planning fun things for next year. In the meantime here’s a glimpse into our Christmas via my Instagrams…Every year the German Christmas market rolls into town, while it’s not as fab as the huge one down the road in Bath it still has two bars and a variety of stalls which sell the usual twee German ‘crafts’. We frequented the bars a lot over the month, both on dates and with friends and colleagues – I have yet to meet someone who can resist the allure of a 2 pint stein and mug of mulled wine. Fairy lights were installed everywhere, these are the ones above our bed. They look so pretty against the teal wall. I’ve been amassing a collection of copper moscow mule mugs recently, not only because I love moscow mules but because they look so pretty out on display – y’all know I have a thing for copper. Well I managed to get this fabulous copper pineapple jar from Oliver Bonas which now houses my cocktail sticks and stirrers. They all live on a windowsill next to my salvaged tree branch which I’ve wrapped in delicate wire fairy lights. There was a lovely Christmas street fayre on Picton Street, a street in Montpellier, Bristol full of street art and colourful houses. The atmosphere was great, with live singers on stage, a barber shop quartet down the road, mulled wine and cider outside bar and a pop-up organic coffee shop selling amazing chai and coffee through their window. It was a lovely way to spend an evening and I even managed to pick up a few pressies – a beautiful hand made, rustic pottery mug and a vintage key painted with flowers. I love hand made presents, they bring a certain ‘something’ with gift giving to your loved ones. I waited until December to decorate the flat – Tom’s orders. Here’s a close up of the garland I DIYed for our half wall between the kitchen and lounge (we use it as our stand-in fireplace) I added pinecones, cinnamon sticks, fake holly, a cute wooly robin ornament, delicious scented candle and glittery fake apple and pear – I love it, it’s nice to have a festive touch in the kitchen. This year I decided to go big or go home on the tree front and get two. I know it seems greedy but seeing as I love having a super traditional red and gold tree but I also love the all out colourful jewel-toned ones, it made sense. Plus we have a big empty space in the hallway crying out for a tree to welcome people into our home. Here’s both of them lit up at night, as you can see our colourful tree – in the living room, is much bigger and bushier. We went fake – mainly because we couldn’t face dragging a real one in and out of the lift – plus this way there’s no pesky gaps to worry about.
Here’s a close up of the traditional tree, lots of red, gold and tartan. The jingle bell and cinnamon stick decorations are homemade from a couple of years ago – I love them! The clay robin and christmas pudding are craft market purchases from a few years back – they’re so cute!Here are some of my faves from this tree, how adorable are those wooly mittens?Here’s a close up of the colourful living room tree. This one’s less themed although I try to stick to jewel tones with silver thrown in for good measure. This geometric mint decoration is another Oliver Bonas purchase – I think I have an addiction!Here are four of my faves from this tree, colourful jingle bells, a silver stag, a lovely peacock dangly ornament and a big, dappled gold vintage glass bauble. The top left and bottom right are from Pod. This stunning bauble was a gift from my mum, it’s from Liberty of London and she got it from her local garden centre – which does the best Christmas decoration range I’ve ever seen. It’s my new favourite and the perfect gift to remind me of the year I travelled and saw more Buddha’s then I can count.On Christmas Eve we hosted a cocktail party for Tom’s family, it was great. We made a den in our bedroom with tonnes of blankets, pillows, a TV and consoles and craft stuff to keep the kids amused. This gave the grownups ample eating and drinking time. This was our spread, minus the cheeseboard and pizzas. I went all out which meant we had lots of leftovers – ideal for snacking throughout Christmas Day. It was the perfect party and we’re looking forward to making it an annual tradition. Here were my cocktail bar essentials, mini candy canes as a garnish, cocktail cherries with pretty sticks, lemons and limes, gold cups for the kids drinks and gold stripy paper straws – I love a paper straw!This was the ‘help yourself’ bar, for the drinks not being used in cocktails. This vintage suitcase has been used as a bar and also vinyl storage in the past, I have plans to put legs on it and use it as a proper bar in the future. Here was our cocktail menu, the Amaretto fizz and peppermint coconut smooth went down particularly well. We also had mulled wine on hand. For the kids we did Shirley Temples and fizzy orange or apple juice.

This was the first year that Tom and I celebrated Christmas Day alone, despite it being our 4th Christmas together we usually have my mum with us or go to her, however this year it was just the two of us aaaaand it was fab! We were able to completely chill out and go at our own pace. We’ve still seen both families a lot over the holiday season so we don’t feel like we’ve missed out.

Here’s what greeted us on Christmas morning, we were very spoilt this year – we couldn’t quite believe it. Safe to say we won’t need any toiletries or chocolate for the foreseeable. Tom and I are clearly on the same wavelength, we both got each other lego. It was the perfect way to spend Boxing Day and we’ve got big plans to grow our collection – it’s fun playing with toys again. I hope you had a lovely Christmas and wish you all the best for 2016!

Cheers!

Love, Sarah x