Tag: Jellycat

The one with my very special bookish Christmas tree

Jessica Redland Author9 Comments

My favourite part of the lead-up to Christmas is putting the tree up. Or should I say trees plural because we have more than one! Our main tree is in the conservatory so we can see and appreciate it from the lounge (not quite enough room to fit it in the lounge). We have a very small table-top pink tree in the lounge which is officially my daughter’s but I also have a four foot one in the dining room. This is because I love seeing trees in front windows and the dining room is at the front of the house.

This summer, we had a bit of a shift around of rooms. The dining room and conservatory had both become dumping grounds and weren’t used so we cleared everything out, moved the dining table into the conservatory, and the dining room became my new office and I decided to do something a little special with the tree in the bay window, only decorating it with items relating to my writing journey and books.

MY WRITING JOURNEY

I spotted a light-up gonk in a garden centre with my name on so couldn’t resist adding that to the tree. I believe these are also available in branches of Clintons.

I bought some gorgeous book stack baubles from John Lewis several years ago and I have some gorgeous checked hearts which say ‘Love’ (shown) ‘Hugs’ and ‘Wish’ on them which are perfect for what I write about. There are several other heart-shaped baubles on my tree and a very special bauble which my amazing publisher Boldwood Books sent to all their authors this year. It’s handblown glass shipped from Israel, made by muslims and christians, and it sits alongside my ‘Make a Wish’ star because I made a wish to be a full-time author and Boldwood made that wish come true.

WHITSBOROUGH BAY

I have a Christmas lighthouse (note the wreath on the door) and another lighthouse and anchor which aren’t strictly Christmas ornaments but look great on the tree.

What seaside resort wouldn’t be complete without a seagull? Yes, I know it’s not Christmassy either but I had it made a few years back by the amazing Emma of ChilliPepperbyEmma who has an Etsy which you can find here and it was begging to go on the tree. Sadly, Emma has had to take the decision to temporarily close her shop knowing she couldn’t fulfil Christmas orders due to postal strikes but do check out her designs all year round as she does all the seasons/occasions and they’re amazing.

All You Need is Love features an orange VW campervan called Thor and I have another of Emma’s designs representing that as well as a gorgeous yellow embellished one from Accessorize. You can find it here. I’m going to put links in for any ornaments available at the time of writing this but they may have sold out by the time you read this. I also have a red campervan although I can’t remember where I bought that as it wasn’t this year.

The heart with the beach huts isn’t strictly a tree decoration either but, as you don’t tend to see many nautical Christmas decorations around, I thought it looked pretty. This comes from a gorgeous gift shop called Pedrington’s Portal on the way down to the seafront in Scarborough. It’s run by two sisters and all the items are hand-sewn or hand-crafted by them.

In All You Need is Love, main character Jemma’s mum runs a specialist teddy bear shop on Castle Street called Bear With Me. There are therefore lots of teddy bears on my tree. I started collecting Me to You tree ornaments when I was in my twenties and bought my first home. They released four designs each year and I’d buy the collection but there were soon understandably repetitions on the themes so I stopped collecting. Some of the collection are on the tree this year along with a couple of soft versions of the grey bear – one dressed as gift and another as a snowman.

The Forever Friends bears you can see peeking through the branches were from when I ran my own teddy bear shop, Bear’s Pad, between 2003-2005.

The felt bears – the brown one with the Christmas pudding on its tummy and the white one dressed as a snowman – came from a teddy bear craft fair and the brown material one with ‘hugs’ in its tummy came from a shop in Northallerton full of locally-made crafts. Isn’t it cute?

I love my angel bear tree topper which I’ve had for years. You see the black bear tangled in fairy lights? That came back from my honeymoon in Canada in 2005 and is perfect for my bookish tree because, in Christmas at Carly’s Cupcakes, Carly spots a teddy bear called Tangled who has become tangled in fairy lights in Bear With Me, and buys it for her clumsy sister.

The Starfish Café series is set just outside Whitsborough Bay and has a strong connection to the RNLI. I have three three decorations from the RNLI shop – a blue RNLI bauble, a penguin in his life vest, and Finley bear in his full RNLI kit. The penguin is particularly relevant to the first story in the series – Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café – so I also have another penguin on my tree. I won’t tell you why it’s relevant as that would be a big story spoiler and you’ll just have to read the book to find out!

To represent The Starfish Café and The Chocolate Pot on Castle Street (featured in Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café), I have some lovely cake and drinks-related decorations. The mugs of hot chocolate both came from garden centres. The plate with a cake on was a gift from my bestie, author Sharon Booth and I love it so much as we do love a bit of cake when we meet up and, as Sharon knows, a Victoria sponge is my favourite. This definitely looks good enough to eat and would be available in either café. I have a gingerbread man, as featured in Starry Skies, and a piece of Christmas cake too.

To go with the titles, I have stars and snowflakes. The embellished ones are from Accessorise but they appear to have sold out online. And, of course, I have the embellished cupcake which could be sold in either cafe and in Carly’s Cupcakes.

I do need a seal to add to my collection of decorations for The Starfish Cafe so will need to keep my eye out for one of those.

HEDGEHOG HOLLOW

I have more bears than anything else because I’ve been collecting bears for a lot of years, but hedgehogs aren’t far behind and I keep seeing new ones each year. I made some graphics last year showing off my hedgehog collection so far so I’m going to add those below.

I have felt hedgehogs from craft fairs or Etsy…

I have flat and round baubles. The sparkly round one was from M&S last year and I bought several of them so I could give some away when Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow was released this year. Do watch out on the Book and Tonic social media posts for stacks of fabulous competitions and giveaways as part of the #12DaysofHedgehogs…

I have several more realistic looking hedgehogs…

Some sparkly baubles…

I have some wooden ones. I particularly love the one on the right. It’s such a stunning picture and looks great on the tree…

I also have some more quirky looking hedgehogs, a couple of which have been gifts from friends. How crazy are those coloured ones?…

And it’s not just the tree that’s a hedgehog haven. I have several decorations not for the tree. The large sparkly one top left is another prize in the #12DaysofChristmas – although not that exact one, of course. I bought an extra one as a prize…

This year, I’ve had a few additions to the collection. The first one is from Accessorize too and the second is from Next. Duplicates of both are up for grabs as part of the #12DaysofChristmas.

The two flat wooden ones were from Etsy, the one with the stick was a gift from my friend and author Eliza J Scott and the lovely silver one in the circle was a gift made by a reader…

But it isn’t just hedgehogs that are relevant to Hedgehog Hollow. Robins are a particularly important part of the story and I have several robins on my tree including a gorgeous Wrendale bauble to match my hedgehog one. I also have the robin below the tree which I needlefelted myself as shown in my last blog post, and this gorgeous sign on my bookshelves.

Fizz and Darcie are huge fans of unicorns so there has to be a unicorn on my tree, and Jonathan (main character Samantha’s dad) has an obsession with pigs in blankets with Christmas dinner so I have a couple of those too and a gorgeous crocheted one a lovely reader made for me. Thank you, Hazel. And I have some butterflies too for the butterflies in the wildflower meadow.

For those who have read Christmas Miracles at Hedgehog Hollow, you’ll recognise the happy mistletoe from Jellycat, available here.

BUMBLEBEE BARN

Healing Hearts at Bumblebee Barn isn’t out until 24th January but I had to get it on the tree now with these three amazing very different bees. Thank you to lovely author Jo Bartlett for the addition of the first one pictured.

And finally, the full tree and decorated shelves…

I hope you’ve enjoyed the tour of my book-themed tree. I loved putting it together. Wishing you a fabulous Christmas.

Christmas hugs
Jessica xx

Our Yorkshire Dales Adventure Part 3 – All Things Bright and Beautiful

Jessica Redland Author2 Comments

This is the final part of my blog about our family week away in the Yorkshire Dales. Apologies it’s a day late – something urgent cropped up yesterday (work-wise).

Still staying with the James Herriot theme, I’ve selected another book title – All Things Bright and Beautiful – which is, of course, part of the hymn from which All Creatures Great and Small comes.

I’m focusing on an eclectic mix of beautiful things for this part, whether that’s beauty in nature, food, or simply things that make me happy.

Gayle Beck which runs off the River Ure passes through Hawes and we were staying in a holiday cottage just round the corner from it called The Old Surgery. It was a brilliant location, right at the edge of the town centre so very accessible for everything.

On Sunday morning, the day after we arrived, we went for a little wander and I took a photo of the waterfall – probably one of the most photographed sights in Hawes. As you can see, there was a gentle but steady flow of water. Very beautiful.

As the week progressed and the rain persisted, the flow strengthened…

And by the time we left, it was a raging torrent!

There used to be a mill across the beck from our holiday cottage on the other side of the bridge that that waterfall above flows under. There was an old enlarged photo in the cottage showing what it used to look like with the mill wheel. On the bottom photo, you can clearly see the wall around the wheel although the wheel itself is long gone. What’s particularly interesting is that there appears to have been a wall across the beck, presumably to keep the water higher for the wheel to turn. That’s gone too.

Hawes has a few lovely gifts shops and a particular favourite was one called The Mulberry Bush which stocked Jellycats (I love them) and some gorgeous Christmassy gifts.

A shop I always love to visit is Bear Cottage. It’s an interior designs business but it stocks some lovely gifts and I like to have a hug with the two bears outside although I was conscious this time of not putting my paws on them in this strange Covid world so I had to do a sort of hover thing!

There was a gorgeous bear inside too although it wasn’t so easy to get his photo. I wished I could have taken him home. He’s so gorgeous.

Mid-week, the rain was so torrential with no sign of let up so the munchkin and I left hubby back in the cottage with Ella (our sprocker spaniel) and took a walk to the other end of the town to visit the Wensleydale Creamery.

There’s a visitor centre there and a visit includes cheese-making demonstrations but we were on a mission for a cream scone! We were the only ones in the café at first. The scones were still warm – mmm. I’m not a massive fan of fruit scones, preferring a plain or cheese one. They had cheese but I wanted jam and cream so it had to be fruit. I will eat some of the fruit but then I hit the point where I have to remove it as it’s too much. If you’ve read Snowflakes Over The Starfish Café you’ll know what I mean when I said I did a Mrs Sultana.

Various pictures by my favourite artist, Lucy Pittaway, were displayed around the café and I was particularly pleased to see two of the images from ‘The Home Collection’ hanging right next to each other as, combined, they remind me so much of my Hedgehog Hollow series. I have the print of ‘Happiness is Homemade’ with the hedgehogs surrounded by wildflowers, just like in Thomas’s meadow. The three-storey house in ‘Dream Big’ reminds me of the farmhouse as shown on the cover of Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow.

Lucy Pittaway’s art also inspires part of the storyline in Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café.

The gift shop at The Creamery is lovely and we had a good browse (and little purchase) before stepping back out into the torrential rain.

In the afternoon, we went over to the Dales Countryside Museum a few minutes’ walk from the cottage. It’s all about the people and activities in the Dales over the years and there are lots of activities to keep young children amused – or 14 year olds on a wet miserable day! 

We managed to catch a break in the rain with a trip out to Richmond and Leyburn, including a visit to Richmond Castle. There are fabulous views from the castle and the changing colours of the trees looked lovely, but the photos on a gloomy day like that don’t quite do justice to them.

While we were away, we celebrated a special publication day with the release of my very first foreign rights translation – Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café being translated into Italian. It’s called Festa Sotto La Neve and I hope sales in Italy go well.

And how do you celebrate an Italian publication day? With a takeaway pizza of course! We’re so sophisticated!

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing the photos from another beautiful part of North Yorkshire, mainly caught during rare breaks in the rain. The ones I posted in Part 2 on our walk were the only day we saw blue sky across the whole week which was a shame and did somewhat hamper our plans for the week, although I’m just grateful for the opportunity to get out and about a bit after so long at home.

Big hugs
Jessica xx

Happy Valentine’s Day

Jessica Redland AuthorLeave a comment

Valentine’s Day feels a little strange this year because I’m used to being out and about and seeing the build-up in all the shops: pink, white and red flowers and hearts everywhere, flowers, chocolates and soft toys. But, like so many, I don’t leave the house these days and, even if I did, so many of the retailers are closed so the big build-up wouldn’t have been there. Just one of the many things about the past year that has been different.

Hubby and I don’t buy each other gifts and I’m not sure we’ve ever gone out for a Valentine’s Day meal but we always exchange cards … and he does often get me a little treat.

This year, hubby had to buy his own card from me from the local supermarket. I don’t know if he was planning to get me a gift but I emailed him a link of something I’d really like hee hee! The link was for a gorgeous soft Jellycat notepad. I’ve become a bit obsessed with Jellycat recently. My original publisher bought me a soft bear when my first book was published and I treated myself to a panda a couple of years ago but I’ve discovered they do a hedgehog and ocean creatures range and they look so good in promo pictures of my books that I have made a few purchases. It’s all strictly business, of course 😉


Anyway, back to the Valentine’s gift, hubby ordered me my Jellycat notepad but he also surprised me with the cutest, softest pair of otters cuddling. They’re actually hotties but I don’t think I could bring myself to put them in the microwave. I’d imagine them screaming!

I was really flattered a few weeks back to be asked by my contact at our local newspaper if I’d write an article entitled ‘Why I Love Valentine’s Day’. She figured that, as a romance author, I’d be well placed to put something together. Even better, it would be offered out to all the newspapers in the group – over 170 local newspapers. Wow!

Disappointingly and ironically my local newspaper didn’t print it. And neither did the other three most local ones to me. Eek! My contact said most of the papers in the group did take it which is fantastic news but I’ll need to be content with the pdf. If anyone spots it, please comment as I’d love to have a copy for my scrapbook. The media group is JPI Media (with coverage UK-wide) and the article could have appeared across the weekend or last week in a section branded with the ‘Your Time’ logo you can see top left below.

The big focus of the article is about love and friendship today whatever your relationship status. Valentine’s Day doesn’t just have to be about being all loved up in a happy relationship; it can be about love for others, pets, yourself. Or books! I’m suffering with vertigo at the moment. It’s the first time I’ve had it but it’s been bugging me for a month now so I’m trying to relax this weekend and I’ll be spending this afternoon watching a romcom with my 14-year-old daughter while hubby watches the football. I also plan to finish the book I’m currently reading. Lovely way to spend Valentine’s Day. If a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows materialises at some point, I’ll be a very happy bear.

And I also got a very special Valentine’s Day gift from my lovely readers. A little over a week ago, Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow went into Prime Reading and had a lovely boost up the charts but it didn’t look like it was going to break the Top 100. Yesterday it did and this morning it hit its highest position at #86 in the overall Kindle chart which is so exciting. It hit the same number back in August, about six weeks after release, so I’m hoping the hedgehogs might climb even higher. Go hedgehogs go! The first two books in the series – Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow and New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow – are both only 99p for ebook at the moment on Kindle, Apple and Kobo.

However you’re spending it, whether with loved ones or apart, I’m wishing you a restful Valentine’s Day full of love and friendship. Could you find it in the pages of a book? Could the love of your life be a fictional character? Here’s a couple of my fictional leading men to tempt you…

Big hugs
Jessica xx

The hedgehogs are back! Celebrating publication day for New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow

Jessica Redland AuthorLeave a comment

I’m very excited because today is publication day of the second book in my Hedgehog Hollow series: New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow.

The hedgehogs will be embarking on a blog tour starting today and it’s exciting to see lots of familiar names on the schedule but also some reviewers who are new to my books. Anyone who hadn’t already read the first book – Finding Love At Hedgehog Hollow – was given the opportunity to read that first so it will be interesting to see whether everyone has or whether there are some who’ve dived right in at book two.

Several of my books are linked and I have characters who make cameo appearances in other books but this is my second proper series with recurring characters. In the Welcome to Whitsborough Bay series, each of the four books tells a different character’s story with them acting as the narrator for their own book. The Hedgehog Hollow series is different in that Samantha – the heroine of book 1 – remains the narrator throughout the series but book 2 onwards has a second voice. For New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow it’s Samantha’s boyfriend Josh but this will change for book 3. Early reviews have indicated that this has gone down well. Phew!

I’ve posted today on my publisher Boldwood Books’s blog about what to expect in this book so I’m not going to repeat that on my blog. You can read that post here.

Instead, I wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has shown the love for the first book in the series. It came out just over six months ago and has already (at the time of writing this) gathered 906 reviews/ratings, 93% of which are positive (4-star or 5-star) which is just phenomenal considering this book stemmed from a short exercise while I was studying my Masters in Creative Writing a couple of years ago. I’ll write a blog post about that in the not too distant future. I hope you all love the second part in the series just as much.

I also wanted to share pictures of a few of my hedgehog friends. Some of these were with us before a book about a hedgehog rescue centre was ever even a seed of an idea but others – quite a few others – have joined the household more recently. A couple were Christmas gifts and I may have treated myself a little … a lot … lately. Somebody stop me! My excuse is that there are going to be at least four books in the series so one hog wouldn’t be enough. Hmm. We took some of them outside this morning for a frosty photo shoot courtesy of the super talented hubby. Don’t they look amazing?

The main photo is (and bottom right) is Tootles, my Charlie Bear hedgehog. Top right are a couple of silver-effect hedgehogs (mum and hoglet) from Baytree Interiors and the bottom left ornament is from Sainsbury’s last year. Bottom middle is a lovely soft Jellycat hedgehog called Bashful Spike, although hubby thinks he looks more like a lion than a hedgehog!

  • Mrs Tiggy Winkle
  • Mabel the Hedgehog from Wrendale Designs

And it isn’t just hedgehog ornaments and cuddles that I love. I may have gathered a few other items over time too! As you can probably tell, I’m a particular fan of Wrendale Designs. So adorable.

Happy hedgehog day! The blurbs and buying links for New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow and also Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow are below if you’d like to take a journey to the gorgeous Hedgehog Hollow in the stunning Yorkshire Wolds and meet the hedgehogs.

Big hugs
Jessica xx

Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow – Book 1

You can buy it on Amazon here.

Can love really be found when you stop looking for it?

As Samantha Wishaw watches the love of her life marry another woman, she’s ready to give up hope of finding her happy ever after.

But when a chance encounter leads Sam to find friendship in Thomas – a lonely, grumpy elderly widower living at derelict Hedgehog Hollow – her life is about to change forever.

Glad to have a distraction from family feuds and match-making, Sam vows to fulfil Thomas and his wife, Gwendoline’s, dreams of restoring Hedgehog Hollow to its former glory, and to open a hedgehog rescue centre.

Throwing herself into the task at hand, little does Sam realise that the keys to love and happiness may also be found at Hedgehog Hollow, when she least expects it…

New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow – Book 2

You can buy it on Amazon here.

With new arrivals comes new responsibilities.

The sun is shining, wild flowers are blooming and Hedgehog Hollow is officially open for business.

For Samantha, the proud owner of this beautiful rescue centre, life has never been busier. But with an influx of new hogs and hoglets to take care of, not to mention a full-time job and ongoing family issues, can she accept the possibility that she has taken on more than she can handle?

Fortunately, she has the love of her life, Josh, by her side for support and encouragement. But Josh has his own family troubles to deal with. And soon he must decide if he’s ready to do the one thing he swore he’d never do – forgive his father.

For both Samantha and Josh it’s a season of change and for figuring out whether the past can ever truly be forgotten.