Tag: owls

The one where I share some more of my favourite Christmas decorations

Jessica Redland AuthorLeave a comment

Happy Christmas Eve! I don’t know about you but I feel like it was 1st December just yesterday. And now we’re one sleep from Santa. Eek!

Last week I shared some of my favourite Christmas decorations from my main tree and said I’d come back and share some from the smaller tree in our dining room. Today’s the day!

There are accents of silver and purple on this tree with beading, baubles and stars in those colours but it’s more of a mishmash of colours than the main tree.

Bears feature heavily again, including a fairy bear at the top of the tree although I think that, from her downcast expression, she may be afraid of heights, bless her!

And more bears…

Many years ago, I bought some Me To You tree ornaments (Tatty Teddy) from Clintons. Each year, a new range of four designs comes out and, over the years, I have massively added to my collection. Sometimes I’d buy the full set, sometimes just a couple (particularly if the designs seemed similar to ones I already had) but, in recent years, Clintons stopped stocking them (or at least my local branch did) so I haven’t bought any more. Which might be a good thing given that I have about 20 of them. But they’re so adorable! Here’s a selection:

I feel bad having favourites but there’s something so irresistible about the one dressed as a gingerbread man. Look at that little tummy! I also absolutely love the one above him (in the middle) in his Christmas jumper and reindeer slippers. Adorable! And top right dressed as a Christmas pudding. That expression on his face as if to say: How did that happen? And… yes, I could go on!

As with my main tree, owls feature here too:

How fab are the ones on the bottom row? They come as a collection of six in an egg box from White Stuff. In a pre-Covid world, my mum, my two sisters-in-law on my side of the family and my cousin would meet a few times a year in York for shopping, food, wine and lots of chat. Loved those days out. We’d always try to have an outing in the approach to Christmas and several years ago, I picked up an egg box of penguins (featured shortly). Last year (possibly the one before) it was owls. Such fun!

Which leads me onto penguins. I love them and there are several on my smaller tree. One of my absolute favourites is the one in his life jacket from the RNLI shop (middle top row). Love him so much. As I live by the sea and set my Whitsborough Bay books on the coast, the RNLI is a cause close to my heart and will feature in my Christmas release next year. The bottom left one is one of the White Stuff egg box collection.

And, finally, anything goes. I have a huge fondness for needle-felted, felt, and knitted decorations as you can probably tell. I love my sloth and my snowman and a new purchase this year was a few lighthouses. I have a fascination with lighthouses and they feature strongly in some of my Whitsborough Bay books, particularly one of my Christmas releases – Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café – which you can buy here. The lighthouse in my stories is a red and white striped one and I hope to find a red and white striped lighthouse for my tree at some point. For now, blue and white will suffice.

Hope you’ve enjoyed a look at some more decorations. Wishing you and your friends/family a restful and laughter-filled Christmas.

Big hugs

Jessica xx

The one where I share some of my favourite Christmas decorations

Jessica Redland AuthorLeave a comment

One of my absolutely favourite parts of Christmas is putting up our trees. That’s not a typo. I do mean trees plural. We have three!

I adore fairy lights and it’s so magical seeing Christmas trees lit up in the windows of houses but our lounge is at the back of our house so our main tree wouldn’t be seen from outside. We have a small dining room at the front of the house with a bay window so can put a smaller tree on the window ledge. Our full-size tree is in the conservatory and the third one is a small pink one on a side table in the lounge which my daughter (half-heartedly) decorates.

The main tree started with a red and gold theme but I have a bit of a decoration-purchasing problem and can’t resist some gorgeous new additions each year. Cream and grey have crept in and the occasional splash of a different colour simply because I couldn’t resist the item.

On the smaller tree in the dining room, it’s more of a colourful mix although, if I was to name a colour theme, it’s predominantly silver and purple or blue.

Here are some of my favourite decorations on the main tree and I’ll do another blog post later about the ones on the smaller tree…

My Writing Trio:

I bought the ‘Make a Wish’ star years ago and it always has prominence on the tree, reminding me of when I first made a wish to finish writing a book. Then a wish to get a publishing deal. Then a wish to write full-time. Lots of my writing-related wishes have come true this year.

The ‘Jessica has been good’ Santa makes me laugh and we picked him up from our local garden centre a few years ago. The gorgeous books are a new addition this year from John Lewis. I have three of them on my tree as they’re so pretty. See what I mean about the occasional non-theme colour infiltrating!

Because I write uplifting stories of love and friendship, hearts feature quite strongly on my tree and this isn’t even all the ranges:

Bears feature very heavily and they’re also connected to my writing journey. I came up with the idea for my debut novel – New Beginnings at Seaside Blooms – after ending a toxic relationship and making the decision to move back to my roots in the north and open a specialist teddy bear shop.

I started writing Seaside Blooms while I had Bear’s Pad and I met my husband through having the shop. He encouraged me to enrol with The Writers’ Bureau where I began learning how to write properly. Bear’s Pad also provided inspiration for my novel, Bear With Me, which is now available for pre-order under the new title All You Need Is Love with a fresh edit. (For those who’ve already read it, I will write a future post about what’s changed).

Some of the bears I stocked in the shop came home with me. Okay, lots of the bears I stocked came home with me! The Forever Friends ones aren’t strictly tree decorations but they sit beautifully on the branches. The Mrs Christmas and Elf are stunning miniature jointed bears by Gund and the detail on them is amazing.

I love the idea of buying Christmas decorations when I’m on holiday so there are reminders of special times on the tree. This isn’t usually possible when holidaying out of season but I have managed to collect a few. My husband and I had an amazing honeymoon in Canada in late September/early October 15 years ago and bought the two black bears there. I picked up Pooh Bear in Florida in November a few years previously.

This time last year, we had the most amazing trip to Lapland and bought a few decorations there to remind us of an incredible holiday. Ah, holidays, what are they? 😉

There are lots of other bears on my tree – plush and wooden – and a gorgeous angel bear on the top which I’ve had for about 20 years so he’s served me well…

And there’s a super special Paddington Bear (or three) from M&S a couple of years back who I absolutely love:

Regular readers will know that I adore hedgehogs and may have even read the first book in my Hedgehog Hollow series: Finding Love at Hedgehog Hollow. Book 2, New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow, is available for pre-order now and out on 7th January (woo hoo!)

Therefore, it probably isn’t a surprise to see hedgehogs on my tree! My absolute favourite is the middle one: a Wrendale Designs bauble which my fabulous friend (and super talented author) Sharon Booth gave me last year.

I have a few new hedgehog decorations that haven’t quite made it onto the tree yet as I was using them for a photo shoot last weekend!

And I recently bought this adorable little fellow who is the size of a tree ornament but isn’t hangable (is that a word?) so he’ll stand nearby:

As well as bears and hedgehogs, I have a thing about owls, stemming from me being a Brown Owl for 7.5 years. I absolutely loved the role but, when I started a Masters in Creative Writing a few years ago, something was going to have to give and running Brownies had to be it. But getting my owls out each year always makes me smile and it was lovely that Sharon added to my collection this year with a pair of gorgeous gold owls (bottom right).

I could go on and on for pages and pages but I’d better stop there for now! Hope you’ve enjoyed meeting the bears, hedgehogs and owls on my main tree.

Do you have a theme for yours? Perhaps it’s a colour or a type of ornament? Do you vary the theme each year? Do you have decorations passed down through the family or bought on holiday? I’d love to hear from you.

Big hugs

Jessica xx

Whoop Whoop for National Stationery Week!

Jessica Redland Author4 Comments

P1060266It’s my birthday today and hubby absolutely came up trumps for the second year in a row. For ages, he’s been strangely reluctant to buy me any stationery. He’s always said I’m difficult to buy for because there’s rarely something specific I want as a gift. ‘That’s ridiculous!’ I’d cry. ‘I love stationery, books, films, music, jewellery, teddy bears … How can you possibly be stuck for present ideas?’ I don’t know whether it was me stepping up the gear with my writing last year (I started submitting my MS in September 2013) or just a reluctant acceptance that stationery may not be his bag but is absolutely mine, but something prompted him to make a number of stationery purchases last year and he’s surpassed himself again this year.

P1060268I love teddy bears, but I also love owls and these are extremely popular at the moment with some amazingly cute cartoon images available. My owl thing has come more from the fact that I’m a Brown Owl for a pack of 24 x Brownies (I’ve done this for five years now), although I do think they’re lovely in the rare event that I see one. Owls were a bit of theme this year with the lovely Bramble Wood collection that WH Smiths carry. He bought me an A4 notepad in this range, a couple of lovely boxes, some giant paperclips and a set of post-it notes. I have two gorgeous files that we use at Brownies in this range. One is a ring-binder full of colouring pages and puzzles for Brownies who finish a craft early or who need some quiet time on a games night, and the other is an expanding one in which I keep welcome cards and certificates. We also have ‘Owlbert’ (see what I did there?) who we give out at the end of each meeting for the best Brownie-like behaviour. The girls adore Owlbert. Anyway, I hadn’t owned any of this collection myself (have had to try to be restrained) so I’m thrilled to have some now.

He also got me a lovely notepad from Waterstones in a new range I haven’t noticed before, along with a mechanical pencil. He got an ickle bit confused, though, cos he thought he’d bought me a posh pen for signing copies of my paperback during my launch party in June, bless him. To be fair, it looks like a posh biro … but the words ‘Mechanical Pencil’ written clearly across the front, and the instructions on the back about what types of lead it takes are a slight giveaway!

P1060272‘My Future Listography – All I Hope To Do In Lists’ was a fabulous book purchase for me. I love lists. I love writing. I love writing lists. What’s not to love about this gift?

I did purchase a tiny part of my pressie for him: a gorjuss phone holder. I absolutely love the gorjuss range of stationery (as you can see by my fabulous collection), but I’m hugely drawn to three specific girls: one of the original line-up in a turquoise dress with the quote “I found my family in a book” (see pencil case and beer mat) which always feels so appropriate for a writer, the more recent girl in a red dress balanced on a pile of books (like on my phone case) and the girl in a purple dress with the quote “we can all shine” – also appropriate for a writer (see top of tall stack of tins and beer mat).

My gift wasn’t just about stationery. I’m actually going to spend the day in London with a couple of friends of mine at some point over the summer so I’m going to get a bargain plan-ahead ticket for that but, today, he also got me Now 90. The Now series is something I’ve collected for years. I have numbers 1-3 and 10 on vinyl! I then started collecting them on cassette from about Now 13-35 but I listened to them in the car and they got so warped from heat and over-use that I chucked them all years ago. I’ve gone back and managed to get most from 20 up until 90 on CD although I have a few small gaps. I feel a little out of touch these days as I never have time to listen to the charts or watch music TV. If it’s not played by Yorkshire Coast Radio, I don’t hear it so the Now albums are usually an education. I discover some gems of tracks … and, let’s face it, some absolute crap too!

P1060265Rounding up the gifts (which I should point out where also from the munchkin) was ‘Ever After’ on blu-ray. Starring Drew Barrymore, Dougray Scott and Angelica Huston as the most incredibly wicked stepmother, this is a brilliant interpretation of the Cinderella story and one of my all-time favourite films. I owned it on DVD but I haven’t been able to watch it as it wasn’t a UK-region purchase and, unfortunately, our blu-ray player refuses to recognise it. After watching Disney’s latest Cinderella release at the cinema, I was keen to show it to the munchkin as I think Ever After is far superior. We settled down to watch it and realised I’d completely forgotten about the region problems. We’ll find time this weekend. Lovely.

Slight digression there away from stationery. My lovely colleague from work, Joanna, also bought me some fabulous stationery. She knows how to make me happy 🙂 I have a thing for notepads (see a very small part of my collection below), pencil cases, pretty coloured pens and post-it notes so I’ve really been spoiled by her and hubby/munchkin.

P1060271My mother in law also came up trumps. She usually gives me some money (which this year I’ll be able to put towards a launch party outfit) but she also got me this sign this year. I posted it on Facebook then my mum called. She’d also bought the exact same gift for me! What are the odds?!

Did you know that today is National Stationery Week? It runs from 27th April to 3rd May and is about celebrating the written word and all things stationery. Sounds pretty good to me! Wednesday was World Stationery Day too. I don’t think I’ll be able to get away with suggesting a trip around the world to celebrate the wonders of stationery, though, so I’ll gaze at my lovely new collection and my existing collection and let out a contented sigh instead. It really doesn’t take much to make me happy.

What stationery do you love the most and why? Have a great bank holiday weekend xxx

P1060264