Silent Sunday : 30th December

Silent Sunday

Silent Sunday : 23rd December

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How To Make A Hama Beads Pac Man Ghost

There's nothing quite like relaxing around the table with your girls and a tub of Hama Beads for company and last night I excelled myself (honestly I did) when I made a set of Hama Beads Pac Man Ghosts.

On reflection, 16-bit animation characters are just perfect for Hama Beads creations and I'll quite probably have worked my way through most of my favourite old school classics before the holiday is over. So be prepared.

Want to make your own Pac Man Hama Beads Ghosts? Here's How!

1. Start with a standard square peg board and create the outline of your ghost.

2. Add in the eyes.

3. Fill in the background.

4. Iron and leave to cool.

That's it. Simple! Once I'd worked the pattern out I made three ghosts in around 15 minutes (and with the help on the kitten who really wanted to join in).

We buy our Hama Beads from CrafyMerrily.co.uk. They always have a great selection of kits and tutorials available.

If you enjoyed this post you might like, How to Make a Hama Beads Bowl and Hama Beads Jewellery Kit reviewed.

Silent Sunday : 16th December

For Silent Sunday.

TK Maxx Christmas Gift Challenge

I'm way behind with Christmas planning this year. So far behind that this time last week I hadn't even thought about it. So when TK Maxx asked if I'd like to take part in their Christmas Gifting Challenge I jumped at the chance.
It was just what I needed to get motivated and as I love TK Maxx, I'd have been crazy to turn it down.

Our challenge was to shop for the perfect Christmas Gifts for six of our nearest and dearest whilst sticking to our set budget of £200. Simple.

With the whole afternoon set aside for some serious retail therapy, Biba and I hit our local store.

First up, if you're into all things sparkly, the TK Maxx Christmas Pop Up Dept is your one stop shop for decorations, home styling and chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate and at a fraction of regular high street prices too!

So to the challenge...

Both of my girls love Nutcrackers. They've inherited my collecting gene and they've built up quite an army over the last few years. We couldn't resist one for Betty!

Biba has recently turned all bake-a-cake. She insists it's because she's deprived in the home baking department but as I don't like cake and I absolutely never make it. 

I sent her off to the shoe department before sneaking this cool giant cupcake set into the bag along with a couple of the maxi sized salon haircare products that she's had her eye on for weeks.

The books and notebooks isle is our pre-arranged meeting point in every TK Maxx store that we visit.  It's how we roll...

There's something here for everyone and try as we did, we couldn't resist the cute cat book. Not sure who the lucky recipient will be yet though!

1,000 Collectibles for Ethan and a box set of amazing postcards featuring classic Ladybird front covers for me (from Biba). I have a collection of over 2000 Ladybird books so this really is a perfect gift for me.

Over in the children's book section there are some amazing savings to be had on bumper box sets. 10 Beastly Books for Sonny and some classic tales for the girls.

Then we went a bit crazy over the socks and toiletries...

Socks for Sonny, Ethan, Yan, Betty, Biba and me! Tights for the girls, a pack of obligatory pants for each of the boys and a Men's Wrinkle-Fighting Tool Kit for Yan (lets hope he thanks me).

Back to the notebooks....

For Ethan's girlfriend Kellie, a selection of notebooks. She likes notebooks and especially likes making lists. She now won't have to worry about paper for the next 12 months at least.

We threw in a cute little notebook for Amber next door and a really cool Instagram Photo Journal for my buddie Claire. 

Technically this means we are now buying for nine people but we were on a roll!

Back to the toy department to pick up one of these Play Sets for Betty before heading to the checkout.

This is what we bought...

Nutcracker £9.99 

Cupcake Set £11.99 

Designer Haircare £9 

Snowman Biscuits £3.49

Cute Cat Book £4.99

Collectibles Book £12.99 

Ladybird Postcards £9.99

Book Box Set £12.99 

Beastly Box Set £14.99

X 4 Small Notebooks £1.99 each

Photo Journal £6

Wrinkle Kit £12  

X 3 Men's Socks RRP £3.99  

X 3 Men's Pants £14.99  

Leg Warmers £3.99  

Leggings £3.99

X 4 Women's Socks £3.99

Tights £2.40 

Tights £3

Play Set £12.99

You should have seen our little faces at the checkout as our spend was clocking up. We had no idea if we'd managed to stay within budget. It was tense... but our TOTAL SPEND came to £199.66!

We couldn't believe it and may have whooped just a bit too loud, but way to go. We'd bought perfect Christmas gifts for nine people and still had enough money left over for some sweets!

We Rock - TK Maxx Rocks.

Disclaimer : If you happen to be one of my nearest and dearest I just ruined your Christmas surprise. Sorry.

TK Maxx supplied us with a £200 gift card in order to complete the challenge. All product choices  were our own. Total RRP of the items we bought £588.39. TK Maxx price £199.66

The Gallery : Colour

Never in my life have I seen a kitty with a nose as cute and pink!

For The Gallery.

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Silent Sunday