SEE WHATS ON MY CHRISTMAS TREE | BLOGMAS DAY 3

Welcome to Blogmas Day 3....

Almost every year since I've been doing my own, I've changed my christmas tree theme. Who doesn't love a theme right? Its been silver, its been teal and silver, back to silver. This year I've gone for something different and chose a white sparkly theme and I feel like it might stick, I'm so happy with my decorations this year 
I thought I'd share with you a few of the decorations I've been buying, 

How cute are these owl baubles? I think there my absolute favourite this year!

This year I've bought alot of baubles singly from a range of stores,
Asda, Tesco, Wilkinson, Next and John Lewis

I really love decorating the tree, I usually pick a night to put it up, put a christmassy film or music on, set all the decorations out on the floor and pop them on. It can take a good few hours to get finished haha. Once the tree is up everything starts feeling more like christmas!

Heres it put together...after 2 attempts, Yep 2! I did it last night, then re did it this morning as it just didn't look right!

Whats on your tree this year? I'd love to see

Tweet me or tag me on instagram @_gracie92

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING TIPS | BLOGMAS DAY 2

You either really love it or really hate it! 

I'm abit in between I love the shopping part but hate the hustle and bustle. Over the years I've learnt a couple of things that have helped to reduce the stress of Christmas shopping so thought I'd share a few with you...

I always start by having a pre-christmas clear out/tidy up. You will no doubt find things you have forgotten about and get rid of broken, old, unused items.
I always take any unwanted things to charity or see if any of my friends or family could find them useful.

Go grab all those free gift guides, especially if you have little ones like me
For years and years I didn't get any of these as I barely looked at them and you always ended up just throwing them away in the end anyway. But this year I've found the children's ones really helpful as Alex will sit and look and them and talk about what he likes, giving me ideas :)

The Tesco kiddies one has been a favourite of ours this year, I really love how they have stickers for you to add to favourite gift ideas! Plus a little game to find all the silhouettes and add the stickers, makes gift searching much less stressful and more fun.

Gift guides also really help with gift choosing before the shopping part, for me it has saved alot of aimlessly wandering around in the hustle and bustle with a child struggling with what to buy.

Don't be afraid to ask people what they would like to receive,

If you don't like crowds shop online when you can,

Try not to leave all your Christmas shopping till Christmas Eve,

Leave as early as you can, shops tend to be less busy between 9am and 11am,

Take a list of what you need, then you won't forget and won't need to be making an extra trip,

Set yourself a goal of what you would like to achieve that day. For example, 'I would like to get all the cards and gift for so and so before 12pm'

Take a friend, can always be a help if you need advice etc

Make time for lunch, coffee break, whatever... have some time to recharge your batteries to start again

My fave Costa drink - Black Forest Hot Chocolate, whats yours?

Leave any of your tip and tricks below, its always a good help each other out with what could be a stressful time

See you, 
Tomorrow!