Christmas in November!

After celebrating an early Christmas in October with my family, the 19th of November brought Christmas in November with my fellow Blogging Six girls; Conversation Pieces, My Spare Thoughts, Daydreams in Lace, This Girl Is... & A Dizzy Girl.

I was bridesmaid dress shopping for my best friends wedding in the morning {being pregnant I just spectated while the other two bridesmaids tried the dresses on} then I met the girls at Coco's before we headed down to Mimi's in Leith for lunch, where we were going to swap our secret santa gifts. The rules for the secret santa were a small bought present and something homemade and I think its safe to say we were all quite nervous about handing over our gifts. However, everyone loved what they had been given and what had been made for them so there was no need for the nerves. You can read some of the other posts the girls have written about our secret santa here, here & here.

I had Lisa-Marie so I bought her a letterpress art print with the Christmas Dickens quote on it from Etsy, which I framed in a simple black box frame.

(Image from here)

For the handmade element I made some snow snowflake wine charms and gift tags. Of course I didn't think to actually take pictures of any of them but you can see them over on Lisa-Marie's post. I think she liked them all as there were a few tears shed.

My gift, from Zoe, was a rubber stamp and ink pad, which was perfect for me. The stamp is from Present & Correct and says 'from the desk of' with a typewriter on it. Little did Zoe know that it had been in my Etsy favourites for months and months and I'm now delighted that I have one.

(Image from here)

For her handmade element, I was given 4 gorgeous plaster G initials. Using an idea from Zoe, I'm maybe going to decorate one with some of my washi tape and maybe another with some stamping before I hang them on our tree. Thank you again Zoe for all the lovely gifts.

After all of the presents had been opened the girls then had a final surprise for me; two baby gifts from the blogging six. The first was a Jellycat dog for the baby which will sit beside the bunny and lion we already have. The second was a gorgeous Rob Ryan ceramic tile which says 'Our Adventure is About to Begin', definitely fitting for the next few months ahead. The tile is currently sitting on a mini easel in our living room until the nursery is finished and we can find a space for it there.

I just wanted to say a massive thank you again to all the girls for the gifts, it was completely unexpected but a lovely surprise. I love the tile and think it made the perfect gift.