John Lewis Christmas Preview, A Mothers Ramblings Style!

When I was asked the other week if I would like to go to the John Lewis Christmas preview show in July I was really really excited and of course said yes; Anything to do with Christmas will get me excited and have me answering Yes (read in to that what you will!). When Top Ender found out that it was going to be Christmas in July she asked if she could come too which is why Top Ender, Baby Boy and I all went to London for the day.

We managed to keep some commuters amused in the morning with Top Enders excitement;

"Will Santa be there?" she asked
"No I don't think so, he is probably rather busy at the North Pole right now" I answered
"Maybe he is on holiday in London" she answered more knowingly than me

We knew we were in the right place when we saw a snow machine outside of the building and a Christmas tree just inside the door.

Even though we were really early we were welcomed in and then I was handed a Flip camera.

Yeah. I know.

I assumed at the time (and lots of other people told me they thought the same too) that the camera was to give the team at John Lewis our view of the day, but no it was for us to keep. Top Ender had a field day and was filming EVERYTHING. Anyway eventually I got to see round all the lovely fab stuff that John Lewis will be getting in after Clearance and during late August, early September.

So Top Ender and Baby Boy got to watch 3D TV whilst sitting on a sofa that was the so comfy that I did think about stealing it out of the front door whilst getting some other Bloggers to create a diversion. The other Bloggers were up for it, but I just could face taking the sofa on the Tube.

I got to see round all the new ranges that are coming in, I remembered that Diesel is bringing new Denim into John Lewis and that Russian Military is going to be big this winter, and if anybody needs an Evening Gown there are going to be some great choices in John Lewis this year! There was a nightie that I did think was an Evening Gown, (honestly though if I did the school run in that people would be asking me when I won the Lottery!) and there were Doc Martin Boots that will be on my Christmas list (I would like the ones with the sheep fleece lining please!). There were some fantastic Men's PJ's and some great slippers in really vibrant colours and some really nice suits, one of which convinced me that Doctor Who shops in John Lewis.

There were some beautiful bedspreads and furniture (did you know that John Lewis have items that can be customised for you? Yup, Good old John Lewis does bespoke furniture!) that was making me think about starting to play the lottery in order to get a bigger house to keep it all in! There were several more chairs that I fell in love with and cushions galore. If you want to update your rooms this year, but want to do it on a small scale change the cushions, find some in John Lewis as there are a lot to choose from!

I was able to see lots of the Christmas decorations range where there is something for everyone! There are a lot of vibrant jewel colours and a lot of Scandinavian inspired type decorations and the cutest wooden cut words (Peace, Joy and Noel) in a light wood which will be on sale between £12 and £15 and will be something I invest in this year.

The best part of course was upstairs (where I had deposited Baby Boy and Top Ender with some friendly staff) where there were Children's clothes and Toys. Top Ender and Baby Boy thought it fabulous and had made cupcakes, cards, played with Play-Doh and Top Ender had even made a headband and had her face painted by the time I got back to them!

The train journey home was spent by Top Ender and I talking about the amazing time we had spent with John Lewis and Cohn And Wolfe (Baby Boy was crashed out in his buggy) and what we wanted for Christmas much to the amusement of the other commuters again!

So I know that I talk about Christmas all year round, but if you want to get a jump on this years Christmas Shopping, get to a John Lewis Store at the end of the Summer!

Wordless Wednesday - O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum! Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!

Secret Christmas Ornament Swap

A few months ago I was doing my usual blog hopping and came across a great blog called It's a Wonderful Life. I added it to my blog roll and it was a few weeks after, that I discovered Val was hosting a Secret Christmas Ornament Swap. After a couple of swapped emails about the possiblity of a British paticipation I signed up!

I sent my ornaments to the wonderful Pennie at Mom Thoughts which you can see in her post if you want to. I think that you can really hear the excitement in her post, plus I love the title of the post Yippee for Pippa!!!!

Anyway my ornaments came through in the post this week from a wonderful lady called Caitlin at Chaotic Creation (and she is getting married next October to her sweetheart Ryan so I want to say here that I wish them a long and happy life together because they look so cute together!) and wow were we impressed.

Top Ender and Baby Boy started working their way into the box and started pulling out packages before I even had the camera out of the case. I did manage to wrestle the ornaments from them for long enough to lay them out to get a few photos.

In this one you can see all the beautiful ornaments that Caitlin made, yes that is right *made*.

These two mittens have the adorable faces of a Santa and an Elf, who Top Ender has decided to call Alfie. Alfie is apparently in charge of Santas sleigh. I thought that was Dudley Moore's Patch, but apparently my great knowledge of Christmas films means nothing to Top Ender.

Top ender also decided that each set of mittens were designed for a specific family member, she believes that Green are for Daddy, Red are for me, Blue are for Baby Boy and the Pink are for her. I think she is probably right. What gets me about these mittens is that each set has a different snowflake on them and I totally didn't notice that at first!

Then of course there was this adorable Snowman and Santa, I love the snowmans scarf and hat and Santa's shoes with the curly toes they both look so cute!

Lastly there were these adorable pink and purple glittery snowflakes of which I got four of each colour, but they have all mysteriously gone missing... or at least I thought they had until I went into Top Enders room and actually paid attention to her little tree, from which I borrowed two ornaments so I could take a picture of them!

Part of the challenge that Val issued to us was to visit the blog of our partner and to get to know them, so that we could chose an ornament (or ornaments) that we felt would be suitable for them. So I would like to thank Caitlin for my beautiful ornaments because they really do fit our family perfectly!

Edit: I just found out that these were all store brought and not home made... I don't care, nobody over here has any the same as me so I shall say there were custom made for me!