Christmas Gift Guide II

Two weeks ago I wrote a Christmas Gift Guide based solely on Boots, Debenhams and Space NK - product heaven if you ask me!

Not only is Christmas a time for pampering though, it's a time for personalised and fun gifts that mean something to the recipient. Here's my round up of some fun, indulgent and unique gifts.

Not on the High Street

I've been browsing the gift site for a while for a range of gifts for various occasions including weddings and new babies; it certainly doesn't disappoint in that!

This Cocktail Garden kit is a great way for a friend to get more involved with their cocktails whilst getting mildly green fingers. I for one would love to try it out and make a mojito with my own mint that I'd grown. For £13.50 its a lot of fun! Find it here.

I always love this gift too. not only does it show where you've been but it's also a check list for new places you can discover in future. I'd love one for my future property (in my dreams!) and it will only set you back £15.95. Find it here.

The Personalised Gift section is one of my favourites; there's nothing like a unique gift for making it into your friend or relative's top present for all time!

You can browse the art prints that can be personalised here, I couldn't choose a picture as there so many lovely ones to look at!

Amelia Rope

I've written about Amelia Rope before (post here). She makes a wonderful range of chocolate with a twist and creates amazing flavours with sea salt, honeycomb, nuts, rose and so much more. A bar will set you back around £5.60 but the bundles can be great value ranging from £16 to £28 for the chocolate lover in your life.

These bars really are special and I cannot recommend them enough, me and my family have shared bars and had a right giggle over the flavours and surprised ourselves with how much we loved the combinations. She uses fruits, nuts, seeds, plants and everything edible to create amazing new flavours and I believe many people would love such a treat.

You can find her site here - don't blame me if you end up buying them all!

Barnes and Noble Books

Most people love a good read, and there's nothing like a classic. I absolutely love old books and like a lot of people my aim when I buy my own place is to get a seriously big book case and fill it.

Barnes and Noble's Leatherbound Classics are the most perfect collectible books I've ever seen. Any book lover would appreciate them on their own but as the start of a collection it's a lovely present.

Image from Barnes and Noble

Each cover is different and with 113 different classics to collect you are sure to find one to suit. I can't stop staring that them and how beautiful they are!

Find the full list here

Liberty Scarves

I don't know about you but I loved watching the Liberty of London tv program, it's a lovely shop to go in but seeing all of the staff and how quirky and creative they are is fascinating to me. As a scientist most of my day is so far from the artistic creations that I used to be part of when doing art at school and working in retail so I love watching when other people do it!

When thinking of Liberty it's obvious that you will think of their scarves so when browsing and making my own wishlist of silk scarves I couldn't resist but share these lovely ones for a real Christmas treat.

CashCa Black Cashmere Scarf £105

You cannot go wrong with a simple black cashmere scarf and this one is all about luxury! 

Vivienne Westwood Blue Dyed Flag Viscose Scarf £120

I love a bit of VW for her love of the Union Jack and typical British colours, a scarf like this would look gorgeous with any outfit but I'd love it to throw on at work and brighten up my black and grey work outfits! 

Navy Liberty London Star Paisley Silk Scarf £110

The Liberty scarves are second to none when it comes to the timeless wild scarf. There are people who flock from all over the world to get them and their prints are infamous. I particularly like this one as it looks so much like peacock feathers and the colours are gorgeous. I don't think anyone would be angry for receiving a timeless classic like this. 

Frame Again*

We were contacted by Frame Again after writing the previous Gift Guide and it was lovely of them to allow us to create our own to see how the process works. Frame Again have featured on Dragon's Den but after turning down Peter Jones have built up their company on funds from the public. Their business specialises in printing and framing photos of your choice with multiple colour choices.

The best part of these frames? Not only are they able to be fixed to a wall but they are also magnetic, meaning you can fix them together back to back or side by side for a really cool effect. I've seen many images where others have tiled them on walls for a wall of photos which looks really cool, as well as sticking them together on a desk in series.

I chose to send them a picture of me and M at Glastonbury to test out the service and it was so much fun choosing the colour combinations. The delivery service was also super speedy and I received it just over a day after ordering.



The frame feels really sturdy and good quality and I look forward to getting more in future. I'd love to have a wall of them in multiple colours; they'd look great in a study, kitchen or hallway as a feature wall.

You can personalise your own Frames here for £9.99 at the moment instead of £19.99.

What do you think of these gifts? Would you love to receive them on Christmas Day? 

Let me know!

L xxx

Amelia Rope Handmade Chocolate

Happy weekend everyone!

I've got a review of an indulgent treat today, perfect timing for the weekend. I was given these as a gift a few weeks ago, and having never heard of Amelia Rope before I had to investigate.

Look how pretty the bars are! The colours are gorgeous and specific to each type of chocolate that they produce. Having not bought a chocolate bar in about 2/3 years it was a bit of an indulgent thing to have four whole bars made available to me!

These retail on the Amelia Rope website for around £5.60 a bar so this is the most expensive bar of chocolate that I have ever eaten. If I had known this before I'd eaten it all (along with my family, I'm not that much of a pig!) I would have been horrified but quite honestly......it was worth every bite and crumb that I could get my hands on.

The White Edition chocolate with Pistachio Nut and Sea Salt was the best chocolate I've ever tasted in my life. The white chocolate is the smoothest creamiest mix and this is what you taste first; the pistachio nuts follow and taste really lovely with the chocolate; lastly you get a hit of sea salt and its the most perfect combination of sweet and salt. 

 I would never have imagined these flavours working but its quite honestly, phenomenal.

On the packaging the ingredients are listed and are a relatively short list, its great that there are minimal additional preservatives and chemicals.

Also I do love brown paper packaging and so this appeals to me greatly!

Just look at the arrangement of pistachios on the chocolate, yum!

The next bar was the Pale Rose edition with 39% cocoa from Ecuador. The chocolate in this was really nice but unfortunately I couldn't get my head around the Rose flavours; my parents absolutely loved it though and were the willing recipients!

They likened it to eating Turkish Delight flavoured chocolate so if this is your thing, you'll love it.

The third bar was the Pale Edition with 40% cocoa from Ecuador and was divine, just like a darker milk chocolate. The consistency was really smooth and it just melted in your mouth.

The Dark Edition was 75% cocoa from Tanzania and this was my second favourite. I hadn't realised I liked dark chocolate as much as I did this, I couldn't stop eating it!

It perfectly curbed any sweet cravings I had and I would fully recommend it to anyone.

Have you tried chocolate from Amelia Rope?

Apart from the website you can also buy from places like Liberty, Wholefoods, and Selfridges, sadly there aren't any place that you can buy from in Wales yet.

Do you like 'posh' chocolate like I do? Have you tried and weird and wonderful chocolate creations like these? What would you recommend?

L xxx