Little Lost Bag

So, last week, en route to a night out, I accidentally got myself into Christmas present buying mode. Two hours and several beautifully festive and overflowing shopping bags later, I decided to check my bags into the cloak room for me to collect later that evening. Well that was the plan anyway.

In typical Amy style, the night ended and I happily went on my way merry little way, with the cloak room ticket silently sitting in my back pocket. Mid transit home I jumped up, shrieked, froze and then sat back down. And despite being particularly comical for the fellow passengers, I was one sad little shopper girl.

I made some calls (actually my beautiful friends made some calls) and discovered that all unclaimed items in the cloak room were packed away in road cases until the following weekend. 

So what's a girl to do? Wait a whole week in the hope that her lovely little Christmas presents are still in the cloak room or count the cost and enter into, once again, a Christmas shopping frenzy? 

I waited in hope.

Unfortunately, I waited in vain.

My little Christmas parcels were Absent Without Official Leave.

So, with only 4 days before I fly home for Christmas, I have got some serious shopping to do. I tried to replicate most of the items that I had bought, but some were just impossible to find again. I even resorted to good old Mr Google to help me out. To my absolute joy, I discovered the most precious little online company. They stock some of the sweetest gift ideas ever. (I know, quite strong of a sentiment, but stay with me on this one).

These cutesy personalised bags are simply adorable. Perfect for storing your knitting all you fabulous Sisterhood girls out there.

Now, I am not entirely sure what a 'shirt collar stiffener' actually does, but I'm pretty sure that if I was a dad, I would love one of these.

Little munchkins are certainly not forgotten on this site. There are so many toys and gifts for the little ones including this darling Bunny in a Box.

And one more gift just for fun. 

Ah, my shopping dilemmas now resolved and maybe, just maybe, I might have even been converted to the ways of the savvy online shopper. So, if you are time poor this Christmas, or like some people we know, unable to hold onto their purchases, get online and see what's out there.

And you never know, my lovely little shopping bags may turn up one of these days and there will be more gifts to give. 

Oh, how I love Christmas Time x 

Birthday Love

I don't know about you, but in my house, we love celebrating birthdays. We love everything there is about birthdays but probably the best thing about birthdays is that it's pretty much the only day that it's ok to eat cake before 7am.

Speaking of cake, this year we decided to enlist some help in this department. We had heard that a friend of ours, Heather Louise, had started making cute little cupcakes. They were honestly the sweetest cupcakes I have ever seen and by the looks of the empty box, pretty delicious as well.

So with our cupcakes all sorted, we decided that the run of the day should be a treasure hunt for the birthday girl to help her find all her presents. 

By the end of the day, all presents were found and we had one very happy little birthday girl. I love how much fun it is to spoil someone else and I love that her beautiful smile was shining all day long.

We had so much fun that day. Actually, even the planning for the treasure hunt & sneaking around was super fun. We will all remember this day and it makes me realise that it doesn't take much to make someone's day special. I guess it's just a little bit of thought and a lot of love. 

And now, to start thinking about the next birthday in the house... happy days xx

Author's note: All photos on this post were taken by the delightful Katie Swain. Check out her other work here.