Christmas Bedroom Tour 2020

As I haven't finished putting up this year's decorations yet, and I never found time to blog about last year's, today I thought I'd share some photos of how my bedroom was decorated for Christmas 2020.

I like to put up decorations in my bedroom every Christmas because I spend a lot of time on bed rest because of chronic pain, and don't want to miss out on the fairy lights and pretty decorations when I can't get downstairs or out of the house. It means I can enjoy a little bit of the festivities while I'm resting, and like most people, having decorations up just makes me happy.

My bedroom always looks like Christmas threw up on it by the time the last decoration is hung, and last year was no exception. I put up a little tree, swamped it with presents, hung hoop art and cross stitches on the wall, and put decorations wherever I could. The funny thing is, I never managed to get all of my decorations up last year because I was flaring, so this is me being restrained!

I'm not very restrained.

I began by swapping my dressing table for a Christmas tree and presents. I'll admit the tree wasn't the prettiest. There seemed to be a shortage of small trees in my area due to Covid, and after nine days of searching, I had to settle on this scruffy little fir. We had to repot it, and it was dropping needles from day one, but I think it looked festive once it was decorated. To be honest, I was just grateful to have a tree at all. 

I'm sentimental all the way when it comes to Christmas, and use the same decorations every year, with a few new additions here and there. Theming my Christmas decor has never appealed to me at all- although, most of my personal ornaments are colourful and mid-century modern in style, as that's what I seem to be drawn to most these days. I also have a few vintage baubles on my tree (like the pink bell, and small hot pink bauble above it) from when my parents first set up home in the seventies, which I've borrowed because they fit in perfectly, and they've always been some of my favourites from our childhood tree.

Underneath the tree, I dotted some of my retro deer ornaments, which were all collected from Paperchase over the last few years, and added in my DIY Advent house, where I displayed some of my festive brooches, earrings, and pins for the holidays. I also included some jars of mini baubles, and a few glittery bottle-brush trees, just in case it wasn't festive enough already.

I went with a pastel pink and mint theme for my presents, which was the first time I've ever gone pink and pastely at Christmas. I usually go for something a little more traditional, but I fancied a change, and they turned out to be some of my favourite wraps ever. I loved the pink so much, I've gone with pink wrapping paper again this year. 

Besides the tree and presents, I also had other Christmas decorations on display, including some homemade Christmas hoop art on the chimney breast in my room. I made them a few years ago by framing festive fabrics in wooden embroidery hoops, and finishing the backs with a running stitch and felt.

I cross stitched the retro reindeer a few years ago. The pattern was from Mid Century Maude on Etsy. I changed a few of the colours to make it my own, and wrapped the hoop in red thread for an extra pop of colour.

The little cross stitch ornaments were little kits from The Make Arcade that I made over the last few Christmases. I never know what to do with them, so they began the holidays hanging with my necklaces, and were later moved to the jewellery hooks above my tree, to hang out with my hummingbird decorations and a few baubles.

There were more decorations in my bedroom, including Christmas bedding on my bed, festive tea lights, books, light-up ornaments, and Christmas novelty bags, but I didn't manage to take photos of them all before they got packed away in January. Hopefully I'll have better luck this year, and find time to share photos here or at least on Instagram before this Christmas is through. I'll keep you posted!

Do you decorate your bedroom for Christmas and have you got your decorations up yet?

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Easter on Lockdown 2021

 Hey guys!

I know it was a month ago now, but as usual, I'm running behind, so... how was your Easter?

We had a lovely Easter, despite spending it on lockdown for the second year running. Luckily, we always celebrate Easter at home because we're a bunch of hermits, so Covid didn't get to ruin our Easter. I had a relaxing weekend spending time with the family, watching movies, crafting, stuffing my face with Easter chocolate, and enjoying the Bunny Day Easter event on Animal Crossing. It was so good to have a happy, carefree Easter without Covid spoiling it in some way.

On Good Friday and Easter Saturday, I made colourful Easter crackers, and table favours ready for our family meal on Easter Sunday, while watching Easter movies. 

For the crackers, I used cracker kits from the Little Crafty Bugs, printed off some terrible Easter jokes I found online, filled them with mini chocolate bunnies and eggs, and tied them with satin ribbons in contrasting colours. I was going to do something more creative with them this year, but I was in too much pain when the time came, so I decided to let the colours do the talking and kept them simple, so I could finish quickly and minimise the pain. 

For the table favours, I filled pastel striped cone bags from Ginger Ray with a mixture of mini chocolate eggs and bunnies, and gave everyone a bag during dinner. The mint chocolate mini Lindt eggs were soooo good!

I spent Easter Sunday morning watching Steel Magnolias, which is a ritual I observe every year as it's the best Easter film ever! I also relaxed with more Animal Crossing, and let myself get creeped out by Zipper T. Bunny. That giant yellow rabbit is like something from a horror film! Things nose-dived for a bit when I somehow managed to crack one of my molars on a chocolate orange mini egg, but luckily, it didn't cause me any pain- I only noticed it later when my tongue registered a new texture. I now have a lovely little crevice between two of my teeth, while I work up the courage to go to the dentist to get it fixed. (I'm terrified of dentists). I'm just thankful that it still doesn't hurt.

After I'd gotten over the panic, I exchanged Easter eggs with my family, and helped my dog open her Easter present / latest murder victim- a corduroy Easter bunny. 

This was my Easter chocolate delivery from Tesco a month earlier. I think I might be the Easter Bunny in disguise...

I then set to work on making the dinner table look super colourful for our family Easter meal, which must have taken at least an hour of my afternoon. I was really pleased with how it turned out, and think it looked really cheerful, although it wasn't anything special. It basically looks the same every Easter. I'd love to make an epic Easter centre piece, but once the food is on the table, there isn't space for anything else.

We sat down for our Easter meal around five pm, and had a turkey roast with all the trimmings- Christmas-style, which was so delicious. It was such a gorgeous, sunny day that we had the patio doors open as we ate, with the sunshine streaming through, and music playing in the background. It was lovely. Afterwards, we had homemade blackberry and apple trifle or lemon cheesecake for dessert in front of the TV (I opted for trifle), and watched a bit of Grease on TV, which I haven't seen in yeeears. 

We had hoped my older sister and brother-in-law would join us for the meal, since the rule-of-six had just returned, and were planning to dine in the garden, but my brother-in-law had to work last minute. They visited for a bit later in the evening instead, so we were still able to spend some time with them, which was great as I hadn't seen them since Christmas. And they still got fed, so it all worked out.

We all had a lovely day, especially Rosie, who loved all the attention, turkey, and new toys. She didn't stop smiling all day, until she wore herself out so much, she fell asleep snoring on my feet after dinner.

I was completely worn out and in agony by the evening, so it was back to bed for me after that. It was my first afternoon downstairs and out of bed since Boxing Day (except for the twenty minutes I spent out of the house to get vaccinated in March), and I naturally pushed myself too much. I couldn't move for the rest of the night, or the following day. 

On Easter Monday, I was so fatigued I could barely keep my eyes open, and the day is a blur of naps, pain, and Animal Crossing. I don't think I even had the energy to watch the movies I'd planned to, but I was at least able to enjoy some turkey sandwiches and left over trifle, which helped me feel better. And of course, I also had Easter eggs from my family, so I indulged in a little Easter chocolate, too. 

This was this year's Easter loot. I only finished the last egg off yesterday!

I didn't manage to take photos of all of my Easter decorations this year, but these are some of the decorations from my bedroom. I finally bought myself an Easter tree this year to give myself a place to hang my Easter decorations- a simple white tree I bought from Hobbycraft for £15. (They do a larger version, too, and seem to have them every Easter). I think it looked great, and I can't wait to build up my Easter bauble collection so I can hang more from it in the future. I actually had it on display in a different spot in my bedroom, but it was too shadowy for photos, so I moved it to where my TV usually is to show you. The other decorations sat beside or above my TV.

And that was my Easter in a nut shell. Quiet and homely, but enjoyable just the same.

As lovely as it was, I have to admit, it was surreal spending a second Easter on lockdown. A year ago, when we celebrated our first Easter on lockdown in the early days of the pandemic in the UK, I genuinely thought it would be the only one we'd spend on lockdown, and it would be a one-bit novelty to tell stories about one day. I was sure that life would be back to normal in a few weeks, and it would all be a distant memory by now. I can't help laughing at how naïve I was! Who would've thought this life would've happened to us? 

I'm feeling hopeful that next Easter will be much more normal, at least for those of us in the UK, and we'll be able to enjoy it however we please. Let's hope we don't find ourselves celebrating a third Easter on lockdown, huh?

How did you spend the Easter weekend?

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Easter on Lockdown 2020

Easter On Lockdown 2020

How was everyone's Easter? Did you do anything to celebrate it this year despite being on lockdown? I hope it was a lovely one.

We decided to try to keep Easter as normal as possible to reclaim a little normality back in our lives, and have something lovely to look forward to amidst the craziness. We totally nailed it, as well! Apart from a couple of minute differences, it wasn't any different to any other Easter we've had. It ended up being a lovely weekend, and it was great to have the distraction from reality.

On Good Friday, I put up Easter decorations in my bedroom so I could feel festive while resting in bed. I never actually managed to take any photos of my room decorated for Easter this year because I was in too much pain to move around, but it looked very similar to last year's efforts, so I've included a photo from last Easter instead. 

I spent the Saturday afternoon making homemade Easter crackers and table favours ready for our family meal on Easter Sunday. As I still had supplies left over from last year and didn't want to put anyone in danger packing and delivering a new online craft order, I just ended up making the same pastel pom pom crackers as last year- with contrasting pastel satin ribbons and pom pom buttons. I filled them with mini chocolate bunnies from Hotel Chocolat, which I snagged online from John Lewis with 30% off before Easter. The solid caramel chocolate bunnies were sooo good. 

For the table favours, I filled pastel-striped cone bags from Hobbycraft with mini Lindt, M&Ms, Smarties, and Cadbury eggs, which was all we could scavenge this Easter. I usually add in more variety and fancier brands, but for obvious reasons, I couldn't be fussy this year, and was grateful I was able to find anything to give at all.

I had a lazy Easter Sunday morning watching Steel Magnolias (my favourite Easter film that I have to watch every Easter without fail) for the millionth time, and enjoying the Easter themed Bunny Day event on Animal Crossing New Horizons. (Who else is playing ACNH? I'm addicted!) It put me in such a chilled mood for the rest of the day.

I then exchanged Easter eggs with my family. I managed to pick some up from Cadbury's Gifts Direct online a few weeks before Easter, which was a relief as our supermarkets ran out as soon as lockdown began, If I'd waited any longer, I would have missed out as they had such high demand they had to keep pausing new orders.

This was my Easter loot. My parents gave me a chocolate orange Easter egg, and the egg tasted just like a chocolate orange. OMG it was amazing! My sister got me a Galaxy egg, and I treated myself to a Cadbury one, because why not?

Around lunch time, I somehow found the courage to brave the Everest that is The Stairs so I could set the table for Easter lunch. I hadn't been downstairs since early February because my arthritis and fibromyalgia have both been so bad this year, and I've been struggling to bare weight on my knees and feet because the arthritis has been so painful. I've barely even strayed from my bed since Boxing Day. I had the worst aching, radiating pain in my leg on Easter Sunday, so getting out of bed and hobbling down the stairs wasn't the easiest or most sensible thing I've done. I was in agony, but I'm stubborn AF, and wanted to enjoy Easter lunch with my family, and make the table look pretty for it, so I powered through, with a little help from my Mum who did most of the leg work to and from the kitchen.

I made our Easter table super colourful using my favourite Easter table linens and pastel crockery. (You know you're getting old when you have favourite tableware, and look forward to using them)! I bought the table linens from John Lewis a couple of years ago, and started collecting the Port Meirion x Sophie Conran Colour Pop china around the same time. I still bloody love them; the colours are such a mood-lifter.

I added in my handmade Easter crackers, and pastel-striped bags of mini Easter eggs to every plate, plus a couple of egg-shaped bowls full of chocolate eggs to the table, which we were munching on as we got ready for lunch. The only thing that was missing was some fresh spring flowers. I think the table looked really cheerful, and the parents seemed to like it, too. Apparently I'm a creature of habit, though; the first photo is this year's table, and the second was what I came up with last year. Well, if it ain't broke...

We sat down for our meal around half two, and had a turkey roast with all the trimmings, Christmas-style. My Mum actually managed to find us a turkey crown from the local butchers (we'd normally get a whole frozen turkey but couldn't get one anywhere), and all the ingredients to make my homemade trifle. We just swapped the usual raspberries and blackberries from a local farm shop for a bag of mixed frozen berries from the supermarket, and it was almost as good as usual. The food was all delicious, and the only real difference to the meal this year was having regular roast potatoes instead of delicious goose fat ones, which was regretable but not the end of the world. My sister and brother-in-law were also missing from the meal- but they weren't going to be able to get the time off work to visit this Easter, anyway, virus or no virus.

The sun was shining and we had the patio doors open while we ate, with The Beatles playing cheerful tunes of days gone by in the background. It was a lovely meal, and just what we needed during these not-so-lovely times.

After lunch, I crawled back up to bed, and continued to play Animal Crossing while watching some TV. I was going to watch another Easter film, but I think I ended up binge-watching The Big Bang Theory again. I read for a while, and had turkey sandwiches and leftover trifle for tea later in the evening. It was a good day.

Easter Monday was spent watching The Sound of Music (another Easter ritual I observe almost every year), and playing more Animal Crossing while munching on some Easter chocolate, and eating more leftover trifle.

It was just the kind of Easter I was hoping for, and even though we were on lockdown, it really wasn't that different than it would normally be. We always celebrate Easter at home and never go anywhere on Easter Sunday or Monday, so I'm pleased lockdown didn't ruin our Easter. It was just a shame my sister and brother-in-law couldn't make it, and that my Dad was unable to go to church over Easter, which is important to him, but considering we were on lockdown during a global pandemic, I think it was a success, and far better than any of us expected it to be.

Hopefully next year we'll all be able to enjoy Easter out of lockdown with out families and friends, and all the little things we usually enjoy but couldn't do this year.

Did you celebrate Easter this year? How did you make the best of it on lockdown?

Christmas Bedroom Tour 2018

Last Christmas, in the chaos of the festive season, I never found the time to finish putting my Christmas Bedroom Tour post together to show you guys my Christmas decor. It seemed a shame to scrap a half-completed post, so I've kept it in my drafts all year to share this Christmas instead. I thought I'd kick off the festive season by looking back at how I decorated my bedroom for Christmas last December, and then I can get working on putting together this year's post- hopefully before next Christmas comes around!

I always decorate my bedroom for Christmas as I spend so much time on bed rest with my chronic pain, and don't often make it downstairs to enjoy the main decorations. I don't like to miss out on the festive cheer and pretty fairy lights just because I'm stuck in bed, so I always turn my bedroom in to a winter wonderland, too. My room may look like Christmas threw up on it, but the decorations make me happy each December, so I don't care.

Last year, I mostly decorated with colourful and kitsch decorations, and left the more traditional red, green, and white decorations packed away. I never actually decorate with a theme for Christmas; I just bring out my favourite ornaments year after year as I'm sentimental all the way when it comes to Christmas decor. It just so happens that most of my personal Christmas decorations are colourful, kitsch, and / or mid-century style as those are my favourites right now.

I bought a little tree and some white lights from Tesco last year, and dressed it with my favourite vintage-style ornaments, and a handful of vintage decorations my parents bought when they first set up home together in the seventies. They've always been some of my favourites from our family Christmas ornaments, so I borrowed a few to use last year. I still need to buy a tree topper and some kind of garland for my tree, but I never seem to get around to it.

Around the tree, I displayed tiny colourful baubles in glass jars, a few bottle brush trees from Hobbycraft, and a couple of my kitsch fifties-style Bambi deer from Paperchase, which I bought last year and absolutely love. I also sat the white wooden house I made beside it, which has festive backgrounds in some of the nooks, and housed my Christmas brooches and pins, along with a few little festive ornaments.

I wrapped last year's presents in mid-century style wrapping paper from Cath Kidston, a mix of baubles, robins, and snowmen, and embellished them with ribbons and jingle bells. I loved these designs, and I'm gutted Cath Kidston don't have Christmas wrapping paper this year.

My retro tea light holders were all from Cath Kidston several years ago. I bring them out each December, and feel all cosy as candles flicker from them while I'm watching a Christmas movie or reading a book.

Christmas decor isn't just confined to the tree in my house, I like to extend the festive cheer to my bedding as well. I have a few kitsch sets from George at ASDA from previous Christmases. This fifties deer set was new last year, and was so lovely to snuggle up under during December. I can't wait to dig this set out again this year; it's my favourite. ASDA have a similar set again this year here.

I displayed some of the Christmas hoop art I've made over the years on the old chimney breast in my room. I made them by framing festive fabrics in wooden embroidery hoops, and finishing the backs with circles of felt and a stitch. I never managed to get a decent photo of the entire display, so here's one from the year before when I began with less hoops.

On the back of my bedroom door, I hung up my Christmas novelty bags and festive patterned tote bags, and added in other bags in red and green. I then draped my The Snowmen fairy lights over the top.

Above my bookshelf, I hung paper snowflake decorations and a rainbow paper garland, and on my shelves I displayed Christmas books and movies, my little collection of light up decorations, some more kitsch fifties deer ornaments, and a selection of other Christmas decorations. I didn't get decent photos of this section as the daylight was terrible last December and this area of my room was too dark and shadowy, but I'll hopefully snap a few photos for this year's bedroom tour post instead. Here's another photo from the Christmas before.

There will have been a few other festive things dotted around my room that I've missed, but I think I'm going to leave it there.

You'll be able to see more of my decorations and what changes I've made to my Christmas bedroom decor this year in an up to date Christmas Bedroom Tour post really soon. (Hopefully before the month is through).

Do you decorate your bedroom for Christmas? Do you go for a theme or is it 'anything goes' in your house at Christmas?

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