★ Jade's Wish List - 2011 ★

It's getting to be that time of year again, the time when you can't leave the house without a scarf, hat and gloves, when winter boots and multiple pairs of socks are the only thing that will keep your toes warm, the time when shops begin to fill with fancy gifts and sparkly lights and festive tunes start to fill the air, in my opinion it's THE best time of year, i'm talking, of course about the Wintery weather and the thought of Christmas, just around the corner!

Winter has always been my favourite season and when people ask me why i'm never really able to give them much of a proper reason! 

There's just something about it that I love. I look forward to it in fact + the chance to wear winter coats, boots, gloves and hats, and getting to mooch around town shopping for fabulous presents for my friends and family. 

Pretty wrapping paper, ribbons and tags, boxes stacked up waiting to be opened, it's all so much fun + it's amazing waking up and opening the curtains to see fresh snow covering everything like a layer of pristine icing, glittering ever so slightly. 

I love the darker nights and the cold weather when all you want to do is curl up in a big blanket and sip sweet tea while reading a really good book or watching old Xmas movies. It's all heaven to me!

right i've rambled on for long enough I think, maybe...

anyway, since Christmas is coming I thought now might be the time to draw up a little Xmas Wish List just in case Father Christmas is reading this! I mean, i'm sure he reads my blog anyway... right?!

So here it is, my Dream Wish List for 2011 + reasons as to why i want/need each item 

and yes, I am serious and no, I don't expect to wake up on Christmas morning to find all of these goodies waiting underneath the tree but hey, a girl can dream...

Jade's Dream Christmas Wish List 2011 - the TOP 10 (aka 'things Santa will never bring her, not in a million years no matter how nice and well behaved she is')

1. my name spelt out in these very cute tote shoppers from the fabulous Alphabet Bags (because, well look at them... do i really need to give a proper reason! they're brilliant)

2. a red papercut of 'I Miss Being a Small Girl' by the very awesome Rob Ryan (because i am a HUGE fan of his work and this is probably my favourite piece he's ever done!)

3. a gorgeous little Origami Crane necklace from Botica (because i like to fold paper cranes when i'm thinking and this necklace is just too lovely) 

4. a 'Miss Lanvin' doll figurine from Lanvin (because i am a sucker for anything 'Lanvin' and i just adore these fabulous little Lanvin dolls!) 

5. the full set of 'Clothbound Classics' Hardback Books from Penguin Books (because they are all so darn beautiful i can't pick just one + imagine how great it would be to have them all to pick from and read whenever/wherever!) 

6. a 'lipstick red' Lips clutch bag by Lulu Guinness (because i LOVE to wear red lipstick and this bag would always match my lipstick to perfection!)

7. a Guccioli 'Oliver' Pug keyring from Gucci (because i think it would look perfect on my black Gucci Indy bag + I just luuuurve Pugs!)

8. a truly brilliant Pashley 'Britannia' bicycle (in red of course!) from Adeline Adeline (because i sold my bike a few years ago and i really miss it! and because i've always wanted a bike JUST like this one)

9. a super duper pretty 'Floating Flock' dress from BHLDN (because let's face it, that is one cute dress!)

10. a pair of truly divine 'Big Stack' pumps with 120mm/5” high heels by Christian Louboutin (aka the God of shoes) i want these because... well other than the fact that they are AMAZING, they would totally match that BHLDN dress AND the Lulu Guinness lips clutch would match the red of the soles... perfect outfit sorted!!!

and there you have it, top 10 wish list for Xmas 2011... DONE!

a dream list of items that i will probably never own... or at least, will never get for Xmas, amassing a collective price tag of just under £3,150 

i think i did rather well with it actually, i could have gone a bit more down the hedonism route but i tried to keep it quite reasonable and realistic, what do you think? will Santa finally pull through this year and leave all of this under my tree?!

probably not...

but it was fun nonetheless! 

Either way I urge you ALL to have a go at one of these dream wish list type things, they are ridiculously fun to draw up even if I did get a bit carried away with mine, it seems to get a little more decadent as the list goes on but oh well! 

like i said, i could have gone a bit crazier with it, i mean i could have asked Santa for a yacht, an Aston Martin V12 Vantage, an apartment in Monaco and a shopping spree around Harrods... but i didn't because i'm sensible... obviously

anyway that's all for now, i'm off to post my list to Santa just to make double sure that he gets it in time for Christmas! i'd hate for him to miss it and send me something else, after all, we wouldn't want that to happen would we...

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i've got a new Creative Café post to pop up tomorrow evening so be sure to look out for that faithful readers!

so until next time, that's all folks... ◕‿◕ ★ xX

Feeling Festive ♥

so it's that time of year again, the time when shops suddenly fill with shiny new things, the time when fairy lights appear to be strung from everywhere and the weather turns freeeezing (depending on where you live, if you live here... it's bloody cold!) it's time to pull on your hats, gloves and scarves and wrap up warm...

winter is here and that means... CHRISTMAS!!!!!

it's no secret that Winter is my favourite season (not just because of Christmas... honest) i love the snow and the frost and the freezing cold wind (not so much the rain but living on the Isle of Man you learn to live with it) i love any excuse to wear my big winter coat and my winter boots

winter, winter, winter... i LOVE it!

and obviously it's late November now which means Christmas isn't too far off!

so because i'm off to Coventry and Birmingham tomorrow for a few days to see my family for, i had lots and LOTS of presents to wrap and loads of cards to write

and i mean LOTS! i have a massive family and it literally took me about 6 hours (with breaks, lots of them) to wrap all the gifts!

my wrapping skills aren't that great but i try my best! 

i make a hell of a lot of mess as well when i wrap stuff... as you can see!

but my macbook kept me company the whole time playing a constant stream of lovely Christmas songs for me to sing along VERRRY loudly to as i wrapped

i didn't have half as much stuff to wrap as my mum did though! i popped into the Dining Room (aka Present HQ) to ask for some ribbon and the entire room was filled with presents!

the table was full and the rest were all bagged up, ready to go to Coventry tomorrow...

i'm so excited to be going away though! i haven't left the island since early September for the wedding in Montenegro (read about that here - Montenegro Times) so it'll be nice to get away for a few days

i packed my case earlier this evening, thought i'd share this snap with you...

good to see i'm getting my priorities right?! 

only joking... yes the Zombieland DVD is for me to watch at the hotel but the Mika DVD's are for my sister to lend 

contrary to popular belief i don't take them everywhere with me... honest!

my big sister is a Mika fan as well and she's never seen him live so i thought she'd like to see these

i can't WAIT to go away!!!!!

i'm hoping to do a few posts while i'm away as well, my macbook is coming with me and i'm pretty sure the hotel we're going to has wi-fi available = good times!

plus... on Tuesday i'm spending the day in Birmingham City Centre with my mum and my Auntie and i CANNOT WAIT!!!!

several reasons why i'm so excited about the day trip and the places i plan to visit...

1: i LOVE Birmingham

2: the Bullring Shopping centre... complete with Selfridges

3: Harvey Nichols in 'the Mailbox' building

4: the Christmas Markets in Victoria Square

5: the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

6: Birmingham = awesomeness

that's about it i guess, oh AND 

i go on the 23rd and that just so happens to be the day that the latest H&M collection is launched!

that's right... the Lanvin collaboration (fangirl squeal) 

yay yay yay

i'll probably come back 'Lanvin-less' due to the hordes of people cramming into H&M but a girl can dream right?!

i'm already in love with most of the pieces in the collection but i have my eye on this dress in particular... 

although after spending £90 on my plane ticket home the chances of me getting this dress are now very slim indeed! 

saying that, i'd quite like one of these handbags as well... or both of them!

and maybe some of the shoes as well...

OH MY GOD it's going to be a nightmare!

i want it ALL but i can probably only afford one or two pieces tops!

i may have to BEG for some Lanvin-esque thing for Christmas but i doubt i'll even be able to get near the shop let alone get my hands on some stuff!

i've just looked it up on the H&M website (HERE) and apparently the Bullring branch of H&M will be open from 9:00am til 8:00pm so... maybe i can sneak back in in the evening and fight off some other Lanvin lovers to claim a piece!

sharpen your elbows girls...

to be honest though i'd rather come home penniless and laden with Lanvin loveliness that to get home empty handed!

why WHY Lanvin... why must you create such beautiful dresses!

Alber Elbaz you have a LOT to answer for do you hear me! i don't care if you're best friends with Mika, your designs are so pretty it's almost criminal!!!

end of rant

* * *

in other news...

look what arrived today all the way from Austin, Texas!!!

that's right folks... it's the ORIGINAL copy of my 'free crappy portrait'

the lovely and utterly super duper and fabulous Anne Genung who created the masterpiece 'Bluebird Cupcakes' based on a photo of me having a baking day 

(for more info check out the Baking Times post) 

anyway she got in touch with me after i posted all about the genius of the FCP site (read the 'my free crappy portrait' post and all shall be explained) and kindly offered to send me the original copy of the drawing!!!

how could i refuse!

i couldn't...

anyway it arrived today in a tube with a little note off Anne 

how awesome is that!

i can't believe she sent it to me! i am so soooo grateful i really am!

in light of that, here is an utterly shameless plug for Anne's gorgeous website

Anne Genung

seriously... check it out, her artwork is amazing! her paintings are so beautiful, really stunning work!

also Anne has a super blog full of arty fun times and she even did a post all about MY blog post about the FCP... how fabulous!

she said this about my post

"Isn't that just the loveliest response ever? I should draw more crappy portraits. And I do hope that she appreciates having the original."

well Anne i can tell you that i DO appreciate it

i LOVE it!

you can check out her blog here and scroll down to see the post about my FCP - Anjanung

so thank you Anne, you are officially AWESOME!!!

* * *

and that's it for today i think, sorry for the rantings and the ravings, can't be helped...

so tomorrow morning i get the boat to Liverpool then it's off to Coventry

i'll be posting tomorrow evening probably, i'm so SO excited about the hotel we're staying at so i will DEFINITELY want to share this one with you all!

see you then

that's all folks...

◕‿◕ ★ xX

'vielen dank und auf wiedersehen'

(that's thank you and goodbye in German, big thanks to all those German people out there checking out my blog, danke ♥)

Shoes for all Seasons

i love shoes, i really do!

i know most women say that but i genuinely do bloody well adore shoes, especially high heels. there's something so beautiful about them i don't know what they just look fabulous, on or off, it's weird. but then some of them are so exquisite they could literally be works of art in a gallery. (Manolo Blahnik, Christian Louboutin and Mai Lamore i'm looking at you here...)

oh and if you don't believe me about a shoe being a work of art, just check out Mai Lamore's website, if i owned a pair of those rose shoes they would sit in a glass case under a spotlight on a plinth in my room. oh and listen out for Habanera as well, being played throughout the site. genius!

Mai Lamore site

but if someone made shoes a proper art form i'd go to a shoe gallery, hell i'd practically LIVE there!

it reminds me of last November, seeing all the shoe and clothing displays at the V&A in London was an awesome experience but i pretty much had to be dragged away in the end, i may have also begun to drool slightly.

a similar thing happens when i go to a designer shoe boutique, the worst culprits of all being Selfridges/Harrods/Harvey Nichols/Brown Thomas/Neiman Marcus/Bloomingdales/Bergdorf Goodman etc etc

take me to the shoe department of ANY of those stores and that's an easy way for me to while away an entire day, just wandering around looking at gorgeous shoes.

anyway i've digressed, despite the loveliness of shoes in general, the point of this post was, as the title suggest, Shoes for all Seasons.

this morning i was on some random home ware site (don't ask, i actually can't explain why i was on there, even i don't know how that happened) and i was looking at plastic bowls (once again... don't ask) and saw this photo of a set of ice cream bowls.

i had to screencap the image because something about the lovely pastel colours of the bowls got me thinking and then sketching and the next thing i knew i'd come up with a little series of Shoe illustrations

the individual shoe designs are by me but the red soles = homage to the Shoe God himself, Monsieur Christian Louboutin.

here's the finished piece, each pair were inspired by the colours of the bowls. it may not look that way but it's the truth, promise.

Spring Summer Autumn Winter

for a slightly bigger version of the picture, click on the link HERE

i'm not sure what i'll do with the picture, might have a go at painting some shoes seeing as it's yonks since i actually painted anything!

i'm not sure why i put them in circles either, i suppose they could be badge designs couldn't they? i'd love to get some badges made but i don't think anyone would actually buy them!

anyway, that's all i wanted to share for today.

and yes... i made it home safe and sound at last, thank gooooodness the boat sailed this time!

my cousins Mandy and Emma are coming to stay tonight so i'd better go and tidy up a bit for their arrival.

there... a nice boring ending for you!

◕‿◕ xX

ps - I ♥ shoes