Wednesday Woo: Belle & Boo Christmas

The llustrations of Belle & Boo express so beautifully the joyous celebration of child, nature, play and home - exactly what Sisters Guild is all about!  And we like nothing better than Christmas as for us it's a time when family come together.  If we're lucky there's snow and magic and a some yummy food (depending on who cooks!).  It looks like Belle and her friends enjoy Christmas too...

Charity Christmas Cards by Belle & Boo.  Pack of 12 £10.50

In a winter wonderland Belle plays with Boo and friends, building snowmen, singing, sledging, having snowball fights and discovering Robins.  These traditional scenes are depicted on the wonderful range of gifts and decorations for Christmas.  There's Goody Tins, Christmas Cards and Paper Chain Garlands

Belle & Boo Christmas Paper Chain Garlands, Pack of 200 strips £10

Perfect gifts and stocking fillers include the Boo Cookie Cutter £3.00, the Money Box in 'Pirate' and 'Ava' £3.50, and one of our favourite new designs in the collection, the Apron £18.50

Belle & Boo Cotton Apron £18.50

Another design I'm very fond of is the pretty patterned fabric cushion with the illustration 'My Favourite Spot in Winter' finished with a red ribbon tie at the back.

My Favourite Spot in Winter Cushion by Belle & Boo £42

Don't forget there's also an amazing range of Belle & Boo Art Prints, Wall Stickers and Clothing, not to mention Badges, Melamine sets, Dress Up Dolls, Bags & Quilts!

Step into the world of Belle & Boo here

All images courtesy of Belle & Boo

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This is part of our Wednesday Woo blog post series where we present a selection of our favourite things from the Sisters Guild Boutique.

We also have a Monday Makery with ideas for things to make yourself.

The Art of Living posts bring you all the things we are passionate about and the things we discover in our lives as mamas.

www.sistersguild.co.uk

Sign up for future news & offers:

Monday Makery - Salt-Dough Decorations

Making Christmas decorations with salt-dough seems to be an accidental tradition in our family. I remember making them when I was young and now its my children's turn to have fun getting festive and creative.  A few years ago Sessi and I made a 'Merry Christmas' garland for granny who hangs it every year. I've been lusting after one for our home ever since.
Salt dough is like play dough only you deliberatly let it dry just as you would clay. You can create all sorts of ornaments and decorations with it and as its easy to make and easy to work with children will love being sculptors and decorators.

Here's what you'll need:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1 cup water 

I always add a little olive oil to the water to make it easier to work with and a little lemon juice to make it set harder.

Here's how:

1. Put the flour and salt to large mixing bowl and slowly add the water mixing as you go.
2. Knead the dough together until you've got a smooth and firm dough.

Now you can get creating. 

1. Roll out your dough so its 3-4mm thick and using cookies cutters cut out your chosen shapes. 
2. If you are making decorations to hang use the point of a pencil or the end of a skewer to make a hole. The hole will shrink ever so slightly so don't be scared to be a little vigorous with the prodding!
3. Place onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and leave for at least 24hrs to dry. Alternatively you can speed up the process a little by drying in the oven; I tend to cheat after having left them out overnight to discover they're still not dry, at which point I put them in the oven at 50C for an hour or two depending on how thick the pieces are. 
4. Once you're pieces are dry (and cooled) you can get busy painting them.
5. Once decorated you can hang them up to make a garland or tie little ribbons through to hang on the tree. They make great gift tags too.

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This is part of our Monday Makery where each week we bring you a recipe to bake, a craft to create and simple ideas for fun things to make with children. We know that sometimes the craft isn't about the final finish but having created something together and we want to encourage everyone to have a go. I am certainly a 'newbie' when it comes to making things and trust me I'll leave all baking recipes to my sister, you see the thing is my girls love it, they feed me with inspiration and I love that our home is a constant and evolving state of creating and creations.

Our daily blogs offer you a sneak preview in our 'once upon a week' where we give you an insight into a week with Sisters Guild, a guide to whats on, with places to visit and things to do with all the family in our 'Art of Living', on Tuesday we bring you a little closer to our designers and why we chose them with 'The Story behind Our Collections' and a little closer to the bloggers, crafters and friends of Sisters Guild with our fun 'Tell us its Tuesday', whilst on Wednesday we show you new arrivals and inspiring discoveries in the Sisters Guild Boutique. To find where we get our inspiration from take a look at 'An A-Z of Sisters Guild' ; a collection of images inspired by the words which express the meaning of what we believe.

Christmas is coming and we've been busy putting together a little inspiration to help you through. We're helping Father Christmas with his lists and guiding you though our selection of gifts and decorations.

Winter Sale has started with up to 50% off

Our WINTER SALE has started!  With only 4 weeks until Christmas, and an even smaller shopping window for international customers (see last posting dates below) we wanted to give you all a chance to grab those pieces you have coveted this season!  So, there's a rather generous up to 50% off Aden+Anais, Belle & Boo, Dandy Star, Hucklebones, ilovegorgeous and Rice DK.
Pop along to the sale here

Last Posting dates before Christmas

Please get your orders in early if you need things before Christmas.
We will be at the mercy of the postal service so we cannot make any guarantees of delivery times I'm afraid.

These are the last dates to place your order :
UK: Monday 19th December
Europe: Friday 9th December
Rest of World: Friday 2nd December 

www.sistersguild.co.uk

The Art of Living: The Illustration Cupboard

I am all a-flutter at discovering The Illustration Cupboard, a gallery in central London that houses some splendid book illustrations from some well-loved favourites such as Janet Ahlberg, Shirley Hughes and Brian Wildsmith.

They currently have the 16th Annual Winter Exhibition of Classic and iconic contemporary book illustration and film animation which runs until 31 January 2012. This Saturday 26th November is The Winter Illustration Festival from 11:00am – 5:00pm. You can pop along for  tea and cake with Shirley Hughes and Angela Barrett, with live music and a children’s reading corner. There will also be a chance to win signed books and prints in a charity raffle in aid of Amnesty International. Read more here...

"I started The Illustration Cupboard in the spare bedroom of my sister’s flat in 1995 when there was little interest in collecting contemporary book illustration artwork. Twelve years on I am pleased to regularly show the finest artwork in this field to a broad audience from our art gallery in St James’s, central London. Many of the artists in this exhibition are award-winning illustrators with international reputations, whose books sell throughout the world. I often think how lucky I am to have the opportunity to see this original work when so many thousands of others see only the printed page." Founder John Huddy


This is the line-up of artsists that you can discover at The Illustration Cupboard.  What worldy visions they create for the storybooks on our shelves, for wide-eyed children to behold, and for the heirlooms of the future:

Janet Ahlberg, Wayner Anderson, Edward Ardizzone, Angela Barrett, Simon Bartram, Benedict Blathwayt,Anthony Browne- Dick Bruna- Emma Chichester Clark- Lauren Child- Iassen Ghiuselev- > Kathleen Hale-Roger Hargreaves- Jane Hissey- Shirley Hughes- Bruce Ingman- Robert Ingpen- > Oliver Jeffers- Anita Jeram- Satoshi Kitamura- John Lawrence- Peter Lord- John Vernon Lord- > Debra McFarlane- David McKee- Inga Moore- Jill Murphy- Graham Oakley- Kevin O’Neill- > Nick Park- jan Pienkowski- Beatrix Potter- Jane Ray- Catherine Rayner- Chris Riddell- > Angelo Rinaldi-Axel Scheffler Maurice Sendak- E H Shepard- The Snowman Cels (Raymond Briggs)- Shaun Tan- Joseph Theobald-
Helen Ward - Brian Wildsmith- Chris Wormell

One of my favourites: The Snow Queen,  Brian Wildsmith

There's some artists prints for sale online and signed books too - such worthy investment gifts for your children.  I have a very long wishlist of my own. It really is my dream gallery!

The Illustration Cupboard also have many book signings during the year, previous events have included Lauren Child, Allan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingman.

What a special place it is www.theillustrationcupboard.com

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This is part of the Art of Living series of posts that bring you all the things we are passionate about and the things we discover in our lives as mamas.

In our Wednesday Woo blog post series we present a selection of things from the Sisters Guild Boutique.

We also have a Monday Makery with ideas for things to make yourself.

And for a glimpse behind the scenes of Sisters Guild we have the A-Z of Sisters Guild here 

www.sistersguild.co.uk

Wednesday Woo: Dressing Up Box

When we were little Christmas always involved getting dressed up in costumes and putting on a play.  Invariably, there would be a central theme of the Baby Cheesus (played by whoever was the baby cousin at the time) and then veering off on all sorts of tangents influenced by whatever oufits, wigs, hats and props we could find.  Plus some heartfelt singing and recorder playing.  I recall one Christmas when the oldest cousin Tamarose was the 'Director' and I was dressed in a flying jacket and goggles with a hip flask and vacuum cleaner as a prop - I can't remember the storyline but I do remember the grown-ups laughing a lot.  Later we inherited some real theatre costumes from our Grandpa Hector who was a stage actor - amongst the costumes was a silk Pierrot outfit and a Robin Hood outfit which were amazing.  It resulted in some very curious stories, as well as squabbles over who got to be the Pierrot! 

Anyhow, my mind turns to the cousins of now and how the eldest Sophia is definitely the Playwright and would make an excellent one if she ever chose that career path.  I just don't know how she'll get the mischievous Gabe & Oona to co-operate in the Christmas play.  But there is a fantastic dressing up box at Granny's (with thanks to our brother Adam).  We look forward to seeing what they come up with - and we'll try and get some pics for you!

If you need some bits to add to your dressing up box, we have a a growing collection of capes and masks and tutus here - a great combination for some fun stories!

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This is part of our Wednesday Woo blog post series where we present a selection of our favourite things from the Sisters Guild Boutique.

We also have a Monday Makery with ideas for things to make yourself.

The Art of Living posts bring you all the things we are passionate about and the things we discover in our lives as mamas.

www.sistersguild.co.uk

Sign up for future news & offers:

The Story Behind our Collections: Kukkia

This past year, as Sisters Guild grew and gathered new collections we had in mind some unique wooden toys to add to the boutique.  We weren't sure where these would spring from but we did remember hearing about a Japanese Design Company with a creative vision, and it was just a matter of tracking them down.  Kukkia is the name that was hanging on our lips and we had a buzz of excitement as we discovered their collections of kiko+ and gg*

Kukkia started in 2009 as a design production company with the wish to 'give big smiles to kids and their families all over the world.' .  At Kukkia there are two brands - the original brand gg* and the new brand kiko+.  Both are very compelling in that they design toys like no other...

kiko+ is the special brand of wooden toys and plans for kids.

We think that kiko+ will grow with kids and kids are like tiny artists.

As they have their own sense of design and character,

each item will be a bright treasure.

kiko+ and kids, they will always walk together!

Kaz & Nov the talented female duo behind gg* say:

We hope to inspire many happy smiles, because for us they are the greatest treasure!
We wish to be a bridge between kids, adults and the world.

We want to give kids a little bit of inspiration to embark on new adventures.
We want to excite their imaginations so that they can discover for themselves the joy of playtime.

We see kids as the world's little artists, so creative and full of joy!
Through different games and activities, we want to learn with them and about them.
May gg* toys take you on an incredible journey of discovery.

Such a wonderful philosophy and one that we agree with wholeheartedly. 

And to make these playthings extra special gifts to give and receive each gg* toy contains the following:

- a newspaper with a poem and message from gg*
- a postcard to send back to gg* with a picture, a message or idea, to add to a book they plan to publish.
- an eco bag made of 100% hemp instead of a cardboard box

*********

Kukkia is a true celebration of family and the world.  The kiko+ Tanabata Stars sum this up perfectly: Tanabata is a star festival on the seventh day of July in Japan, dedicated to love, where children make a wish on a star.  This Tanabata set features 100 star shaped wooden dominos. Stars are divided into 7 colors (10 of each) and 30 natural beech stars embossed with numbers from 0 to 9.  Kids can use them in many ways including learning to count, decorating, or playing dominos.  I also think they just feel so lovely and look wonderful on display.

We believe we have found some unique pieces for Imagine & Play in the kiko+ and gg* collections.  We join them in their wishes to bring smiles to families across the world.

Discover kiko+ and gg* here

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This is part of our series of blogs where we share the story behind our collections; because the collections and their creators mean so much to us here at Sisters Guild we want to pass the story on.

We bring a new blog each day; other series of blogs include our 'Monday Makery' with ideas and 'how to's'  to make and bake with all the family, Wednesday we woo you with our favourite pieces from the boutique and its new arrivals, Thursday is all about the art of living; discovering places and sharing new treasures and Friday we bring you the 'A-Z of Sisters Guild' a collection of pictures that convey the life behind the boutique

You can Follow us on Twitter here ,like us on Facebook here and visit our rather marvellous boutique here
Sign up to find out about new collections and future offers:

A gift for grown-ups: a PAUMES book to devour at Christmas

The gift of a book at Christmas has always been enough to make me happy, even as a child.  Christmas is a time when I like nothing better than curling up in a chair with a book or two to peruse. With mince pies and a warming drink to hand, of course.  The more visuals to devour the better.

PAUMES books are a perfect pressie for those who are into interiors and photography and also like to peek into the lives of other creative families.

We currently have 4 PAUMES titles in stock:

The Parent's Love-Chiselled Gifts for their Tiny Ones - showing the things that have been inspired by having children. It seems that expecting a child or becoming a parent stimulates creative energies within families, and PAUMES hve gathered them together in this beautiful book. £16.40

Paris Brocante - A guide to Paris's flea markets, antique dealers, vintage outlets and charity shops!  The passionate owners and managers of these shops dedicate their lives to seeking out the treasures of their trade and putting together the ultimate collection which PAUMES has photographed for our vintage appetites! £20.40

Chambres D'Enfant - The first book in PAUMES chambres d'enfants collection took place in place in Paris They visited 20 creator's families and photographed the rooms of 30 children aged between 1 to 15 years old. This is a book full of tenderness and smiles, that brims with inspiration. £20.40

Children's Rooms - Paris - The second exploration of children's rooms in Paris. Filled with tranquillity or a vibrant energy, tidy like a museum or happily topsy-turvy, a vast space or the size of a doll's house - children's bedrooms have one point in common: tenderness.  £20.40

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This is part of a new seasonal series where we bring you a guide to all things festive. We'll be decorating and preparing wish lists and gift guides for all the family and with some little treats and wondrous surprises along the way. You'd better be sure to come and join the festivities with us.

sign up so not to miss offers and news of what's in the boutique

Be sure to watch our Monday Makery- we'll be bring you decorations to make, recipes to bake, homemade gift ideas and new traditions to begin.  The Art of Living will help guide you through what's on and what's great for families.  And on Friday we'll be giving you sneek peeks into the houses of the sisters of Sisters Guild in our Once upon a Week.

If you would like to guest blog, have a craft, recipe or some great tips for family life we'd love to hear from you.

www.sistersguild.co.uk

A gift of fun & creativity: Totem Animals & Figurines

These are my favourite things in the boutique right now. Created by the Dutch brand kidsonroof, these are Totem Animal Books with pop out the cardboard pieces to make a collection of animals along with the sceneries.  For play and decoration - they will keep both little and big hands very busy and they look so cool placed around your home in all sorts of places. A really unique gift to excite kids as well as grown-ups.

And there's also a Totem Figurines set with eight A4 sheets in a ribbon-tie book, printed with a boy, a girl, a cat, bear + baby bear, donkey, a deer, a goat, a dog, a goose and a little bird. Once popped out, they’ll make great templates to draw on. Slide them into their little stands and the figurines will come to life and participate in endless fantasy stories.  A pressie for Christmas that will definitely be played with beyond the flurry of Christmas Day.

Totem Animal Book - Eagle or Lion - by kidsonroof, £25
Totem Figurines - by kidsonroof, £17

Discover the full kidsonroof collection here

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This is part of a new seasonal series where we bring you a guide to all things festive. We'll be decorating and preparing wish lists and gift guides for all the family and with some little treats and wondrous surprises along the way. You'd better be sure to come and join the festivities with us.

sign up so not to miss offers and news of whats in the boutique

Be sure to watch our Monday Makery- we'll be bring you decorations to make, recipes to bake, homemade gift ideas and new traditions to begin.  The Art of Living will help guide you through what's on and what's great for families.  And on Friday we'll be giving you sneek peeks into the houses of the sisters of Sisters Guild in our Once upon a Week.

If you would like to guest blog, have a craft, recipe or some great tips for family life we'd love to hear from you.

www.sistersguild.co.uk

A gift to light up the room at Christmas

 

We think the Rice DK Candelabras would make a wonderful gift for Mama, Sis, Granny, Aunty or a good friend.  It is such a wonderful way to add some light and colour to your Christmas table, and will give so much pleasure all year round. 

This range of hand-painted candelabras adorned with birds and flowers in joyful colours of sunshine yellow, mint, fuschia, red, dusty blue and peacock green.

There's someone you know who would adore one of these....(hint-hint husband I love the yellow!)

Discover the full range of Candelabras and Candle Holders in the Boutique here

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This is part of a new seasonal series where we bring you a guide to all things festive. We'll be decorating and preparing wish lists and gift guides for all the family and with some little treats and wondrous surprises along the way. You'd better be sure to come and join the festivities with us.

sign up so not to miss offers and news of whats in the boutique

Be sure to watch our Monday Makery- we'll be bring you decorations to make, recipes to bake, homemade gift ideas and new traditions to begin.  The Art of Living will help guide you through what's on and what's great for families.  And on Friday we'll be giving you sneek peeks into the houses of the sisters of Sisters Guild in our Once upon a Week.

If you would like to guest blog, have a craft, recipe or some great tips for family life we'd love to hear from you.

www.sistersguild.co.uk

Homemade Gifts - Jar of Create me Cookies

In the build up to Christmas I'm hoping to get you all crafting at least one gift this year. Giving gives in return a wonderful feeling and its made even more wonderful when giving something created by your own hands. Every year we try to create our own presents for the family we buy gifts too but feel that sometimes we want to make it even more special to craft something that we know our friends and family will enjoy and perhaps last longer than the usual gift of woolly socks we try not to end up getting for Uncle Stu!

Hand made felt Christmas tree decorations

Children enjoy making gifts even more than buying them, I don't think there are many children who'd prefer to go trapsing around shops at this time of year over staying at home and baking and painting. The great thing about these makeries is you can print them off hand them over to your partner and let him oversee the projects whilst you curl up quietly for some online shopping or head out to buy those 'secret' gifts you wouldn't otherwise get the chance to get. To make it fair be sure to save some to make too, that way your partner can have some secret shopping time too....though if you're like me you'll probably need to give him a list of options or rather more kindly put a 'wish list'.

how to make scrabble magnets

So far the Makery has brought you some easy peasy gift ideas to create yourself. Homemade scrabble magnets, a great gift for young children, and a fantastic stocking filler too. Felt tree decorations which would be a beautiful gift for granny, and here is a simple idea Cookies in a jar!

Well, almost.....Sometimes nothing beats a homemade gift, but even better to pass the gift of making onto someone else. This is just a simple gift idea that's so very easy to put together and perfect for kitchen concoctions on boxing day. The best thing is it takes all the chore of weighing and measuring out of the equation with gift tag instructions all you need do is add butter, add egg, mix and bake. A jar of yummy and a great gift.

Here's what you'll need:

For the mix:

• Plain flour - 180g
• Soft brown sugar - 100g
• chocolate chips - 240g

For the wrapping:

• Airtight jar
• card and pencil
• ribbon
• scissors

Here's how:

1. Put your dry mixture into your jar. We put the flour first followed by the sugar then the chooclate chips on top, but no order is necessary we just liked the striped effect with the chocolate chips on top, especially the way that you have to cram them all in and upon opening the chocolate drops are literally bursting out!

Now for the cookie instructions:

1. We drew around a roll of sticky tape to measure the size of our label. It needs to be big enough to write the instructions on though it can be folded to open like a card if you want to make it smaller. We first made a circle of brown card to decorate like a chocolate chip cookie and then another to glue to the back with the instructions.
2. Here's the instructions for your label:                                                                                                                                                                                             
   
   
   Make Me!
   * Beat 125g of soft and squidgy butter, its better to do this in a bowl
   so its not so messy! 
   * Tip these yummy yet secret ingredients into the bowl and add 1 beaten egg
   * Mix, mix, mixxity mix it all together.
   * make small balls with your dough and load up a greased baking tray.
   be sure to leave a little room to for each to grow - 6cm ought to do it.
   * Bake in a preheated oven 180C for 10-12 minutes.
   * Be patient
   * Cool on a rack. Be patient. It is a virtue.
   * Scoff but remember 'sharing is caring'.
   
   
3. Now stick your label and your cookie tag together. Make a hole for the ribbon using a pencil or the tip of the scissors, and wrap it around your jar. To finish off you can add a mini wooden spoon.

These make great gifts for family and friends the only trouble is you have to resist using it yourself. You'll just have to collect lots of jars so you can make a whole batch for everyone.
If you like the idea of giving a little jar of yumminess why not make some vanilla sugar. All you need is a jar, soft fine white sugar and a vanilla pod! Easy to put together but heaven to receive.

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This is part of our Monday Makery where each week we bring you a recipe to bake, a craft to create and simple ideas for fun things to make with children. We know that sometimes the craft isn't about the final finish but having created something together and we want to encourage everyone to have a go. I am certainly a 'newbie' when it comes to making things and trust me I'll leave all baking recipes to my sister, you see the thing is my girls love it, they feed me with inspiration and I love that our home is a constant and evolving state of creating and creations.

Our daily blogs offer you a sneak preview in our 'once upon a week' where we give you an insight into a week with Sisters Guild, a guide to whats on, with places to visit and things to do with all the family in our 'Art of Living', on Tuesday we bring you a little closer to our designers and why we chose them with 'The Story behind Our Collections' and a little closer to the bloggers, crafters and friends of Sisters Guild with our fun 'Tell us its Tuesday', whilst on Wednesday we show you new arrivals and inspiring discoveries in the Sisters Guild Boutique. To find where we get our inspiration from take a look at 'An A-Z of Sisters Guild' ; a collection of images inspired by the words which express the meaning of what we believe.

Christmas is coming and we've been busy putting together a little inspiration to help you through. We're helping Father Christmas with his lists and guiding you though our selection of gifts and decorations.

Once Upon a Week - Missing The Moment

Sometimes life gets so busy I forget to slow down, to pause and appreciate all that's around me. A week can go by in a blur of school runs, cooking, cleaning, doing homework, running here and running there and cooking again that in all the flurry of motherhood I forget the biggest pleasure of all; being still with my children.

People say 'they grow up so fast' and sometimes its hard to see that on a day when you wish they'd grow out of a bad habit, grow out of nappies finally or be able to be that little bit more independent rather then cling to your legs whilst you're trying to make it round the supermarket, and on days when I'm exhausted i'm certainly guilty of wishing the day away until bed time. But lately I've been trying to pause and slow down because we can't rewind the days when they are young. It does go by so fast and sometimes I wish we could have the day forever. 

All of us now share our lives, with a portion of their days now spent in school and I miss my girls. Not all the time but mostly I miss them. We no longer have those endless days of discovering together that are those first few years. Where did the time go? 

Life is just too short to let it go by in a blur, to not catch each moment. Tomorrow the weekend arrives and I shall wake in the morning and say 'today is ours!' and I shall treasure it for all of our tomorrows. Time today belongs to us.

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This is a new series - Once Upon a Week - where we give you a glimpse into the lives and times behind the scenes of Sisters Guild.

We also publish other series in our blog including our Monday Makery, Tuesday brings the closing of our series 'The  Story Behind Our Collections' inviting you to take a closer look at the designers we house and the beginning of a new series 'Tell Us Its Tuesday'.  Wednesday we show you our favourite seasonal pieces and Thursdays is dedicated to the 'Art of Living' in which we share ideas and inspiration from places to visit, things to see and articles about things that enrich our lives.


www.sistersguild.co.uk

The Art of Living: Lapland Dreams

Sweden is a place that I have always dreamt of travelling to and if I had to decide between summer and winter it would have to be winter, as I would love to go when it is covered in snow.  It must be quite magical with the snow covered forests and frozen lakes - a true winter wonderland.  Lapland isn't just where Father Christmas comes from...

image courtesy of simplysweden.co.uk

The Northern Lights can be seen clearly from Swedish Lapland - Laponia.  The winter phenomenon called Polar Night  is when the sun never rises above the horizon, during a 24-hour period so this is the time to experience the Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis, dancing across the dark polar skies – it would be such a beautiful sight to behold.

image courtsey of visitsweden.com

Sweden is also the location of the ICE HOTEL.  I would love to see this feat of architecture.  It's hard to imagine sleeping on a bed of ice, no matter how many rugs - do you think hot water bottles are allowed!

image courtsey of the icehotel.com

 There's another unusual place to stay which fills me with such awe and excitement as this is the ultimate tree house - the TREE HOTEL with different rooms of architectural wonder amongst the forest:

images courtsey of treehotel.se

The TREEHOTEL is firmly on my dream list - and families are welcome too! Activities can be arranged, including snowshoe hikes and dog-sled rides. That's a family adventure for future years.

There's plenty of resources online for planning your visit to Sweden,  visitsweden.com being a good place to start.

Little Scandinavian is a really inspiring blog with a travel section, including this post about Visiting Lapland which I found during my Lapland research.

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This is part of the Art of Living series of posts that bring you all the things we are passionate about and the things we discover in our lives as mamas.

In our Wednesday Woo blog post series we present a selection of things from the Sisters Guild Boutique.

We also have a Monday Makery with ideas for things to make yourself.

And for a glimpse behind the scenes of Sisters Guild we have the A-Z of Sisters Guild here 

www.sistersguild.co.uk

Wednesday Woo: Hucklebones

Girls are so lucky to be clothed in Hucklebones.  These are clothes made with such thought and detail, with fabrics so tactile, tailoring so perfect, you just wish the collection came in adult sizes too!  For the autumn & winter season there is lambswool, velvet, silk and corduroy in a beautiful palette of edible colours - blueberry, biscuit, aubergine, heather and cinnamon.  Each season a new print is designed and for AW11 it is 'Jenny Wren' with a delicate bird motif in warm reds, rust and berry shades, printed on silk.  There's a lovely Jenny Wren Ruffle Dress and Skirt and the Boucle Wool Car Coat and Cloche Hat is lined in the silk print too.

Whenever I behold the Hucklebones collection I truly feel that Zoe Goldsmith, the designer behind Hucklebones, has achieved such a perfect balance of innocent charm and vintage-chic style.  The bows, buttons and pleats lend an innocent, feminine feel to the clothes, yet the extra attention to detail and the cut of the garment adds a more sophisticated edge that you rarely see on children's clothing. That's why Hucklebones stands out. It is a collection designed with an important fact in mind - that from a young age a girl can really feel and enjoy how special a garment is in its tailoring and fabric. Hucklebones is not necessarily about being fashionable, it's about pure appreciation of clothes of outstanding design and quality. 

The Car Coat in Boucle Wool with its rounded collar and pockets looks like a vintage find, pulled from an old leather suitcase, preserved from previous generations - designed in a time when clothes were made with longevity in mind.  Hucklebones achieves exactly that for the modern age of clothing design - clothes of exquisite beauty and style that are made to last.

One of my favourite pieces from the collection is the Ponti Roma Jacket - a chic, iconic piece reflecting the femininity of the 60's:

View the Hucklebones collection here

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This is part of our Wednesday Woo blog post series where we present a selection of our favourite things from the Sisters Guild Boutique.

We also have a Monday Makery with ideas for things to make yourself.

The Art of Living posts bring you all the things we are passionate about and the things we discover in our lives as mamas.

www.sistersguild.co.uk

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Discovering Pixies

Hanging pixies by Maileg, Bendable Pixies by Maileg £9.50 each, Bendable Climbing Pixies by Maileg £9.50 each, Pixy Girl Patchwork by Maileg £69.95, Chritsmas Pixy Family by Maileg £39.50 each, Advent Pixy Calendar Boy & Girl by Maileg £71.00 each,  Pixy in a Tin by Maileg £18.50 each, Children's Pixy Hats by Maileg £13.95

Can you tell we have a soft spot for these wonderful Maileg pixies!


If you've never stumbled accross a pixy before you may also like to know that the 'pixy family comes from an itty-bitty country far away in the North. From there, pixies have wondered to most other parts of the world, yet only the fewest know the little pixy well. The little pixy is shy, and would much rather have us believe that he is made only of pure cotton from top to toe. But, we do know, that deep inside of him a sweet Christmas heart is pounding.

Our collection of pixies has everything from enormous advents to start new traditions to micro hanging and bendable pixies and even your very own pixy hat!  Add a little pixy magic to your Christmas in true Scandinavian style!

View the Maileg Pixy collection here

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This is part of a new seasonal series where we bring you a guide to all things festive. We'll be decorating and preparing wish lists and gift guides for all the family and with some little treats and wondrous surprises along the way. You'd better be sure to come and join the festivities with us.

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Be sure to watch our Monday Makery- we'll be bring you decorations to make, recipes to bake, homemade gift ideas and new traditions to begin.  The Art of Living will help guide you through what's on and what's great for families.  And on Friday we'll be giving you sneek peeks into the houses of the sisters of Sisters Guild in our Once upon a Week.

If you would like to guest blog, have a craft, recipe or some great tips for family life we'd love to hear from you.

www.sistersguild.co.uk

Tell Us it's Tuesday: Carla of Sisters Guild!

Here is Carla, the youngest sister and the most determined force of Sisters Guild.  I wrote about Carla in one of our very first blog posts here.  It is her amazing ideas and energy that we 'harness' in the Sisters Guild Blog & Boutique.  There's no need for me to list here what she does in her many roles - she is a walking (or galloping) phenomenon! I actually do think she has some superpowers - I know her 2 daughters certainly believe their mummy has a secret magic like no other!

On waking the first 3 things I do are…
(weekends) dodge Oonas dive, (mostly succeed) attempt to tempt the girls back to sleep, (mostly fail) ask Eldar if it’s his turn to get up early…(mostly fail)

(weekdays)Dodge Oonas dive (mostly succeed), wish I could ask elder if it was his turn to be up early, start answering the onslaught of questions from the girls.

If I had a superpower it would be…
To control time.

If I could trade places for a day with someone it would be…
with Sophia, my eldest daughter she has such insight already and I’d love to be able to understand her mind, and her image of the world around her/ with my mother, I could absorb all her wisdom, see the world through her, learn all her experiences and perhaps be a better mother for it.

If someone wrote a story about me the title would be...‘Mistress of distraction’

When I was seven years old…I met my father, had an invisible friend and ‘fell in love’ for the first time. It was quite a year!

If you open my fridge you will see...old salad having failed to keep my promise of eating it! home-made playdough, an optimistic amount of sauces, far too many jams and enough goats milk to bathe in.

My favourite view is…all my family together (anywhere)

The 3 things I will tell my children are… ‘enough is as good as a feast’  ‘look after each other you are the best friends you will ever have’ and ‘I love you’ everyday.

The song or musical piece for the theme tune of my life is…Bare Neccessities (Jungle Book) or We Could Have Been Anything That We Wanted to be....(Bugsy Malone)

I used to...dream for myself now I dream for my daughters

My biggest guilty pleasures are… chocolate and shoes’s, and telling waiters/waitress’s its Oona’s birthday just so we can all sing the song! (I don't do it often enough)

My wardrobe is… a tribute to all that I have ever been and all that I would like to be

Never have I ever… had so many ideas in my head

My kids taught me… patience, the importance of time well spent, the ability to make pancakes whilst still sleeping, the joy in the simplest things, and more importantly that a box is never just a box .

Life is like a… an empty canvas that we should colour as much as we can.

My earliest memory is…of morrocan markets, (I just see blurs of colour and 'Uncle' TJ's style of walking).

My underwear drawer… is 8 drawers of tulle, lace, cotton and silk!  Or as Bekka would put it ‘nothing appropriate whatsoever!’

I feel like running for the hills when….I receive another (children’s) party invitation to gambado!.

On my teenage bedroom wall there was… a collection of black and white movie stills dating back to the 1920’s.

My ideal partner would have the mind and the skills of... Eldar (my husband) only he would be able to create a delicious meal without calling for take-away and he wouldn't have to travel so much.

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This is part of our new series of Tuesday blog posts where we ask you to tell us all. We wanted a fun way way to get to know the people behind the blogs and businesses we follow. We have more people lined up to reveal themselves and may be asking you too!

We also publish other series in our blog including our Monday Makery, Wednesday we show you our favourite seasonal pieces and Thursdays is dedicated to the 'Art of Living' in which we share ideas and inspiration from places to visit, things to see and articles about things that enrich our lives.

www.sistersguild.co.uk

Monday Makery - Felt Christmas Tree Decorations

I love working with felt and its an easy fabric for children to use too. I love too how rustic these trees look and all their imperfections are beautiful. Using wool to decorate them makes it easy for little hands and there is no need for symmetry, in fact the more wonky they are the more wonderful.

Here's what you'll need:

• pieces of felt in your chosen colours
• pencil and card
• scissors
• wool
• a darning needle or a needle suitable for using wool
• stuffing.
• ribbon for hanging

Here's how:

1. Begin by drawing the outline of your trees onto card and cut out.
2. Using your cut out trees as templates draw around each one onto your felt. Remember you will need two of each design - a front and a back.
3. Thread your needle with the wool and tie a knot on one end. 
4. Start to decorate your felt tree just as you would sew a lacing card. 
5. Cut your ribbon for the hanging loop and fold over in half and pin it in place at the top of the tree. 
6. Now to sew them together. You can do this by hand with the wool or needle and thread. I tried to teach Sessi how to use the sewing machine which was great fun albeit a little nerve wracking! Remember to leave a gap so you can fill it with your stuffing.
7. Fill with wadding or stuffing or even cotton wool and then sew the last remaining edge to complete.

They're all ready to hang and as well as decorating your home they would make great gifts for other people too. I think we'll make some more for Granny who'll adore them as much as we do.
You can make other designs too; a snowman, a soldier or stars. Be as creative as you're able and let all the imperfections be part of their beauty.

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This is part of our Monday Makery where each week we bring you a recipe to bake, a craft to create and simple ideas for fun things to make with children. We know that sometimes the craft isn't about the final finish but having created something together and we want to encourage everyone to have a go. I am certainly a 'newbie' when it comes to making things and trust me I'll leave all baking recipes to my sister, you see the thing is my girls love it, they feed me with inspiration and I love that our home is a constant and evolving state of creating and creations.

Our daily blogs offer you a sneak preview in our 'once upon a week' where we give you an insight into a week with Sisters Guild, a guide to whats on, with places to visit and things to do with all the family in our 'Art of Living', on Tuesday we bring you a little closer to our designers and why we chose them with 'The Story behind Our Collections' and a little closer to the bloggers, crafters and friends of Sisters Guild with our fun 'Tell us its Tuesday', whilst on Wednesday we show you new arrivals and inspiring discoveries in the Sisters Guild Boutique. To find where we get our inspiration from take a look at 'An A-Z of Sisters Guild' ; a collection of images inspired by the words which express the meaning of what we believe.

Christmas is coming and we've been busy putting together a little inspiration to help you through. We're helping Father Christmas with his lists and guiding you though our selection of gifts and decorations.