Sunday 18 November 2012

Still Loving Red

My love affair with red refuses to abate.  I wrote 18 months ago about how much I was loving the colour red here and since then my house and wardrobe have filled with the colour.  Remember that bag?  (OMG I was so much thinner 18 months ago... Eep! I appear to have been loving the chocolate bars since then, too.)

Now we are in the frenzied run up to Christmas, there is a lot of red and white in the shops and this makes me very happy indeed!

Checks, stripes and spots.  Oooh.
I've bought a few things at Sainsbury's this week.  The decorations have been on sale at a third off so I've been able to buy twice as much.  (Maths has never been my strong point.)  Little lanterns and Christmas Spice candles have been sneaked into the shopping trolley and hidden behind loaves of bread or cartons of milk.


Yesterday, Andrew and I nipped out for a bit of Christmas shopping.  I was in my element - Ikea has loads of gorgeous decorations, lights and wrapping paraphernalia.  It was also surprisingly quiet there.  Bonus.  There was a set of mini gift bags complete with number stickers to make a gorgeous tree-hanging advent calendar.  I'd rather like Andrew to buy them and fill each bag with small Tiffany sparkles but I know that's expecting too much.  Ha!

I did buy a truck-load of stuff myself though.  This is my dining table as we speak:


Andrew thinks it looks a mess and is practically begging me to tidy it away now.  To me, it looks beautiful!  I want to keep it all there as long as possible.  I'd cleared a small space on the table and was having a coffee in my [red and white, natch] Starbucks mug post dog walk when I felt the urge to photograph it all.  There are gift bags, polka dot bells, candles, lanterns, hanging decorations, napkins (just seen in the far left-hand corner) cupcake wrappers.  These are fabric gingham napkins from John Lewis, but I also bought a few packs of red and white striped paper napkins from Ikea which I like very much, too.

The two toadstool hanging decorations are from one of my favourite online shops, The Corner House.  I follow the shop owners, Clara and Clare, on Instagram and wish almost every day that I lived close enough to pop into their shop.  They'd be sick of me within a week.


John Lewis came up trumps with toadstool goodies too, of course.


I adore these tea lights and plan to pop them in tall jam jars with rustic twine and twigs wound around the top.  I will have to be brave to light them - they're too cute to burn.  Ha!

John Lewis was very busy so we called it a day and stopped at Olney on the way home for tea and cake.  Olney is one of the closest towns to me (apart from Northampton, which is pants for shopping and strolling) and it's my favourite.  The architecture is beautiful, the shops are just gorgeous and the whole place has a nice feel to it.  The shops are decked out for Christmas now and dusk was falling as we walked back to the car so we could see fairy lights twinkling in windows all around us.  It was a truly lush day, finished off with a bag of chips and rum and coke by the fire.


Hope everyone has had a nice weekend too. 

Lotsa love.

Nicki 

29 comments:

  1. Ooh I adore your photographs Nicki, so so beautiful! Loving the sweet candles!
    Victoria xx

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  2. What a feast of red and white goodies!

    Helenxx

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  3. I'm a red girl too.My lounge is all reds and creams,with a touch of green so I LOVE decorating it at Christmas.I don't understand this trend for purple or black?? decorations....weird.No,it has to be red,white and green for me.I already have enough decorations now to start up my own shop,but I might just be tempted.....
    Love what you've bought Nicki!
    Bellaboo X

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  4. Oh.....my.....goodness, everything is gorgeous, I especially love the polka dot bells. May just have to go visit Ikea soon. I have the red and white theme happening for Christmas this year too. Am waiting on a set of fairy lights from the UK, so excited. Why from the UK? they are authentic fairy lights, the closest things here don't look as nice and are way more expensive.
    xx Sandi

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  5. I LOVE red/white. My Christmas colour scheme is always very Scandinavian. Gorgeous goodies x x x

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  6. Beautiful photography, your jam jar creations will be lovely, I made some of those today with tealights inside and wrapped around red twine and pine cones. Just waiting to get some fake snow and glitter to put in the bottom of the jars to make them sparkle when I light the candles...

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  7. That is a lot of very lovely decorations. Your house will be splendidly decked!

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  8. I love love love the toadstools.

    Just as you I couldn't stand to light them, ever ;)

    Holidays are such a wonderful time.

    By the way I love the red and white so festive!!

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  9. Beautiful items. Love the candles! Blessings Niki x

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  10. I live near to The Corner House and you really would be in there every day if you could, it's gorgeous! Plus Clare and Clara are so lovely it makes you want to chat and spend even more!

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  11. bloody love chips with a rum and coke. You livin the dream girlfriend.
    I have a pinterest board dedicated to my love of red and white stripes..here's the link
    http://pinterest.com/chippernelly/red-stripes-make-me-smile/
    happy sunday night pretty lady
    fee x

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  12. I love red too especially at Christmas! It sounds like you had a lovely day. The cake and tea followed by fairy lights sounds so wonderful!

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  13. I'm joining you on the love of red. I bought the Ikea advent bags (fortunately 24 days, 3 children = 8 gifts each). Where are the polka dot bells from? I didn't see those at Ikea and they're adorable! XX

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  14. Ohhhhh I LOVE red and white too (wearing a red cardi today in fact)! Slowly each Christmas, more and more is creeping into my house! Me and the hubster are planning a trip to Ikea this week for various things, and I just KNOW that I'll end up with a few of these things in my basket!

    Also, shurrup about being thinner! You are BEAUTIFUL!

    I don't think I could bear to light those toadstall tealights, then are just too cute.

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  15. I love red and white too. I looked into Little Son's wardrobe this morning and realised that 90% of his T-shirts are red! I am glad you had a Christmassy weekend. Have a good week. I am about to make my Christmas cake and puddings so thie lovely smells will make me feel in the mood too. Lily. xxx

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  16. I really need to get some new decs for this year, Sainsburys here I come!

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  17. Lovely post. I adore the gingham napkins and the white lantern! xx

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  18. Oh my!! Lovely post... Must make it to IKEA soon :-)

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  19. I too love anything red and white. Loving those toadstool lights!!

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  20. I love those toadstool tealights...and most of the other stuff too...It looks all so English and Christmassy, I can't wait to be back for Christmas!

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  21. It all looks fabulous ... why don't men understand that treasure needs to be scattered about and admired before being stowed away?

    Any Yay, you're knitting :D

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  22. I've never been a huge fan of red untile recently. I love it, it's so bright and cheery and I just love your little treasures x x x x

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  23. I've just found your blog! It's amazing, I've read so many of your posts already! These decorations are beautiful! I'd never thought of looking in Ikea for Christmas decorations! I will be from now on! I adore the colour red too, it always makes me feel cosy and warm and comfortable! I agree about Northampton being rubbish for shopping, my husband has family there and the town is so disappointing! I'll remember to make him take me through Olney next time! Such a lovely blog! :)

    Hannah xxx

    www.bellaandroscoe.blogspot.com

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  24. Hi Nicki,

    Beautiful blog!

    Thought you might like to see my 1st blog giveaway, feel free to share!

    http://themindpurge.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/1st-blog-giveaway.html

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  26. Oooh Nicki I LOVE your blog - so pretty with 'my kind of things'! - Hope you have had a great Christmas and I'll look forward to visiting you again in 2013 :-)

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  27. Hi, I'm so pleased to have found your blog, and am utterly awe-struck by your creativity with all your crafts etc. I always seem to be chasing my tail these days so little time for decorating/crafting etc. but I am v inspired by your projects.

    I have been equally colour-themed the last couple of years, to the point where I've instructed my parents they can only wrap our presents in gold or white or silver paper, definitely no reds/greens/garish patterns lol!!!

    I look forward to browsing back through your blog for more inspiration. In the meantime, happy new year for this week, and if you have time please feel free to visit my blog too thislittlepretty.blogspot.co.uk :-)

    Erika xx

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  28. Hello, Im having a real good nosey at your lovely blog. your photography is great. xxxxx

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