Thrifty But Glam

Every year my wrapping of Christmas gifts seems to turn into a torturous event.  My painstakingly chosen gifts are turned into a crumpled, sad looking monstrosity of ill wrapped disappointment.  This year WILL be different. It started (as most of my craft obsessions do) with pinterest.  After browsing for Christmas crafts, I started to lust after the beautifully presented packages that seemed to festoon the pins.  An absolute favourite seemed to be Kraft tags and brown paper. I have always loved the traditional red and golds of Christmas, so perhaps it wasn't such a leap for me to decide to pair this colour scheme with the Kraft card and brown parcel paper. Turning back to pinterest, I started a board for inspiration.  Here are a few of my favourite pins! I'm a sucker for anything gingerbread related, so there is a definite NEED to create my very own gingerbread house tags! Do you see that fantastic 'Time to Drink Champange' tag? ...

If you haven't already read it, you should really check out Part One of this as it details preparation, it can be found here Well it is done and I am rather impressed with the results, even if I do say so myself!  There were a few things that I did differently this time and I will go through the entire process and then share the finished result. You will need; Sectioning Clips Comb Colour B4 Extra Strength Cling Film Two beanie style hats Hair Dryer Shower Bucket Loads of Patience Step One Start by sectioning your hair and clipping the upper portion to the top of your head.  If like me you have long hair, it is best to start with the underneath layers.  I found the easiest way to apply the remover was to take a small section of hair (no more than an inch wide) and squirt a small amount into my gloved hands and start with the ends carefully rub it in.  I usually applied 3 squirts to each section; end, mid length and root.  Time should be take...

Here we go again....... This is quite a long post where I discuss my specific needs, past experiences and hair preparation for using Colour B4 Regular readers will know that I actually reviewed Superdrug Colour Rewind twice last year. The first post can be found here  and the second one here . Well I had a mini hair dye relapse and the results are less than spectacular :( About a month ago I caved in and dyed it back to red. BIG mistake! My hair is now the longest it has ever been (I had a mother who seemed to be rebelling over being made to keep her hair long as a child, by ensuring mine was never too far past my shoulders) and I think that it has grown past the length that I can properly dye it at home solo. I was left with a hot mess of patchy red, brown and *cringe* orange shades. Despite switching to a specific shampoo and conditioner for dyed hair, and only washing it in cold water, it faded within a few days. My roots are growing at such an alarming rate (they were n...

Great British Bake Off Week Two - Biscuits So it is no secret that I am in love with Great British Bake Off! This year I have decided to do a little bake-along each week, inspired by whatever theme the weeks programming is. Week two was biscuits and I decided to create some vanilla shortbread. In truth, the only biscuits I generally make are cookies, so I was quite excited to try these, especially as they are a favourite of the Mr!  They were surprisingly easy to make and went down a treat. These were fantastic, (even if I do say so myself) so it seems only fair for me to share the original recipe ( from my favourite baking book! ) along with my tweaks so you can try them yourself :) Ingredients 225 grams butter 125 grams caster sugar 225 grams plain flour 125 grams ground rice (or rice flour) - I used a gluten free flour mix I had in the cupboard 1 tea spoon      vanilla extract 1 pinch salt      g...

So the 2014 series of The Great British Bake Off started last week and I managed to catch up with the first episode this morning. Their signature bake was a Swiss Roll and it occurred to me that this is something I have never attempted before. The first contestant to leave was the lovely Claire Goodwin and I loved the flavour combination of her chocolate orange Swiss Roll. In honour of her, I decided to have a go at one too. A chocolate and orange sponge Swiss Roll with Orange Curd and whipped dark chocolate ganache. Covered in a set dark chocolate ganache and candied orange peel slices. There were a lot of firsts in this bake; First Swiss Roll First Orange Curd First Candied Orange The flavours are fab and I really enjoyed making the curd :)  I was actually quite surprised at how easy this was to make. Sadly it is quite runny (I cooked it for far longer then the recipe called for). But the left overs will make a fantastic dip for my cho...

Good Morning Lovelies, today I am sharing a freebie!  We asked lots of wonderful fans which their favourite Chibi Chi Designs print was, and the resounding answer was our funny wine print! Now before I share the image, I just wanted to remind you all that these are only for personal use.  You can print as many times as you like, use them for yourself, give them as gifts, but under no circumstances can you profit from them. It's not cool to rip off a designers work and not give them any reimbursement for their time and effort. To download, simply right click and press 'save image as' - Simples! If your image downloads pixellated or blurred, send me an email and I will reply with the uncompressed image - chibi-chi-designs@hotmail.com For those of you that would like all the hard work done, the items can be ordered in either poster or card form from my facebook page or Etsy shop :) These prints are only available to download for a limi...

In my shop we have recently been creating a lot of Wedding Stationary for customers, the majority of these designs need to make use of the Silhouette Cameo print and cut feature. I have a love hate relationship with the laser in my cameo, it probably fails to read (or worse cut correctly!) 75% of the time. If you are using anything other than bright white card stock, prepare for more tears, tantrums and wasted card than you can shake a stick at! Sometimes a customer will ask for a design on quite a dark colour, although my heart used to sink; how on earth could I tell a bride that she couldn't have the colour that matches her design scheme, because my crappy machine can't cope with it??? After my latest order was completed on dark blue card with success, I've finally found a workaround! White address labels. I know it sounds crazy, but think about it. The laser cannot read the registration marks because there is not enough definition between the black lines an...

So the challenge was to try and get all of my starting items for as close to the £35 monthly gym fee as possible. I succeeded! All of the above came in at £38 - the £3 over spend was on batteries and in all honesty we could have probably done without them, but I wanted to avoid any battery hogging conflict with the Mr ;) To give you some idea of what I got for my cash, here is the breakdown. Wii console, controller, nunchuck, balance board, wii fit and all cables - £25 Wii fit plus - £3.50 My fitness coach - £1.50 Just Dance - £5 4 x rechargeable batteries - £2 11 x AA batteries - £1 The console came from gumtree (plenty of similarly priced ones in our area) the extra games are pre-owned from CEX and the batteries are from the 99p store. The more observant of you will notice I have both wii fit and wii fit plus. Technically wii fit plus is the original wii fit game with extra, so I don't need the original. I can part exchange this for perhaps 50p in CEX the ...

So part of the flat over-haul is depersonalizing our home - a somewhat sensitive subject between my husband and I.  After almost two decades of being addicted to interior design and house selling programmes (started with changing rooms and evolved into a fully fledged Sarah Beeny crush) I know that most buyers can't over-look the array of personal items and see the potential of a home.  There is a reason that staging and show home chic is a design staple when it comes to selling, it works.  With this in mind our beloved wedding photos had to come down. In hind-sight, it would have been a good idea to actually show you a before and after photo, but being as rushed and forgetful as I am, I didn't remember.  Basically once all the wedding photo frames were removed (bar one canvas, as we do want the flat to actually feel lived in!) we were left with a giant blank mucky purple wall. I have hording tendencies, and so even though we painted the feature wall in Octo...

So, we've reached another sad chapter in the current ongoing saga that is our life.  Chris has been medically retried, and as a consequence we are now a one income family; mine.  We need to make cut backs and one of the biggest is our lovely flat by the sea :( We are fortunate enough to live on the South coast of England, and in our town you are never more than 10 minutes from the sea.  Or in our case, a five minute walk. We bought our flat in 2009, and it was a whopping £193k - now there is now way that we could firstly afford that, and secondly that we would spend that much money on a flat with no garden - despite the beautiful views! We were lucky enough to be eligible for a government grant (First Time Buyers Initiative) so that we only had to get a mortgage on 51% of the property.  The mortgage was much cheaper than renting, the location was wonderful and we had enough money left over each month to finally get married! Fast forward to now and...

So you may not know this, but my husband and I had a Nightmare Before Christmas themed Wedding.  Yep, that's right, Jack, Sally, the whole shebang! When we were planning our wedding I found it quite difficult to find Nightmare Before Christmas Wedding items that weren't super OTT or tacky.  This is probably why we kept ours subtle, with just a few placements of the actual characters (Invitations, Stationary and Wedding Cake) and why I made or designed it all myself and not because I'm a control freak! Originally I was going to make my cake myself, (I do like to make things as stressful as possible) but luckily I finally listened to reason and we found a wonderful local hobbyist to make it instead :) She had never heard of the film, and when I showed her the toppers I could see her struggling to hold onto her smile lol. I showed her my design and she diplomatically told me that it was definitely possible.  I was prepared for the fact that my cake may not look as great...