Christmas Gift Idea - The Book of Everyone*

With Christmas just over a couple of weeks away now, I'm sure most of you are in the process of getting your shopping done and picking out gifts for your nearest and dearest. I, for one, am a huge fan of personalised gifts - taking something ordinary and adding some individual little touches to make it extra special for your friend/partner/parent/child/insert appropriate terminology here...

So, when I was contacted by the lovely people at The Book of Everyone to tell me a little bit about what they do, I was instantly intrigued! The concept is really, really cool - you pop in a couple of basic details about the person you want to make it for (name, date of birth) and in minutes it creates an amazing, personalised book, full of fun facts about the year they were born. I decided to make a book* for my BFF, Emma, who you have all seen on here/in my videos on many occasions before! Hence the reason the photos don't show the full pages - keeping some of the personal information off the interwebz!

Apologies for the phone photos - having some technical problems with my Canon 600D this weekend!! #bloggerproblems

From details on world leaders and nobel prize winners, to technological advancements, popular films/tv shows/books and facts about their star sign, this book is a seriously interesting read. There is also the opportunity to personalise it further, by filling in the blanks on pages like "You're made of sterling stuff, but above all you're ---", and " You're not always an angel, in fact, you're partial to a bit of ---", and adding in your own photographs and quotes on some of the pages.

What I really love about this is the way it's written - this book could easily have read like a list of facts, but the tone is really lively and funny, some of my favourite comments in Emma's book being "riotous celebrations break out across the globe in honour of the birth of the legend that is Emma" and "1989 wasn't all about you, Emma". It takes what is already an interesting concept and injects it with a healthy dose of humour, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The other absolutely amazing thing about purchasing one of these snazzy customised books is that the lovely people at The Book of Everyone have teamed up with Age UK this Christmas, so "every book you buy, goes towards the "gifting" of a book for an elderly person who might not receive a gift". I just think this is a lovely idea - it's easy to forget, sometimes, when you're lucky enough to be spending the festive season with friends and family, that there are a lot of people out there who don't have anyone to share it with.

For more details on the book - which comes in four styles (digital, paperback, hardback and deluxe - an option for every budget!), visit their website at http://thebookofeveryone.com/. It is then dispatched to you in the space of a week, and the quality of the finished book is amazing!

What's on your Christmas gift wishlist?!

Thanks for reading!

Event - Christmas (and Halloween!) at Lush Braehead

Last week I was lucky enough to be invited along to the Lush store in Braehead shopping centre, Glasgow, to have a nosy at their 2014 Christmas collection. Beautiful bathbombs, soaps and shower gels that smell good enough to eat were all on display, and I thought I'd share some of my favourite snaps from the night with you all!

This year there's a bit of a fairytale theme going on which, as you will know if you've read my blog for a while (or if you look at my blog header!) is right up my street. All the usual Christmas favourites - the Golden Wonder bathbomb and the amazing Snow Fairy shower gel had reappeared, and to the delight of everyone, the Snow Fairy scent is actually available this year in bathbomb form! The choice of products was endless and we were treated to delicious little cakes courtesy of Three Sisters Bake, and an amazing hand and arm massage. Big thanks to the lovely ladies at Lush for that!

There was so much lovely stuff to admire that I'll let the photos do the talking in this post! I will say, however, that if I had to pick a "top three items" from this year's entire collection, they would probably be...

1. The So White Shower Gel - I loved the smell of this so much I couldn't leave without it. It has a lovely, fresh, apple scent (So White/Snow White/Apples - keeping on with the fairytale theme!).
2. The Fairy Ring Soap - the little toadstool photographed above! While you would usually get just a small piece of this, which is all you really need, you can actually buy the whole thing if you have the money and feel inclined. How cute would that be sitting in your bathroom!?
3. The Christmas Hedgehog Bubble Bar - this is the softest, smoothest bar with a lovely scent, but I honestly don't know if I could bear to break him up and melt him!! This was a discussion I had with some of the other bloggers at the time!

I'll leave it there, but if you want to look up any of the lovely products photographed above, hop on over to the Lush website where you can find the entire range. I haven't included the names of evey product above (many of them you can see on the packaging) but feel free to tweet me or leave a comment below if you want to know the exact name of a specific product included in any of the photos - I can't remember all of them off the top of my head, but I have a handy wee list somewhere that I am more than happy to go and check for you!

Thanks for reading!