The hardest thing being a retailer is having to choose our Christmas stock in February, thankfully most of our goodies come from Denmark and it is still cold and sometimes snowy when we go over there, which at least helps us feel a little festive.

Anyway today is the official opening of our Christmas Emporium, bigger and better than last year, and if you have a little look around you will notice lots of lovely stocking fillers for under £10.
We are having problems with getting the moose and the reindeers to stand still for photographs so they may not be added onto the Emporium until later on this evening! A little taster for you though:

Inspiration for our goodies has come from many places but particularly this year at HQ we have been addicted to the Great British Bake Off – it is the first series of this we have watched, and we have been gripped. We haven’t dare try to recreate any of the amazing bake offs but you will notice our new Christmas Decorations which are cup cakes that have even more glitter, sparkle and different colours than the original ones – a cup cake for every taste! And also beautiful hanging gift wrapped presents that reflect the pastel colours and soothing tones of the Bake Off!

And the second and most exciting for us, probably not for you, is that baby Daly is due in 3 weeks time! Although I have been assured that often first babies are 2 weeks late…

We have finally stopped being in denial and made plans to make sure your service wont be interrupted by the arrival of our new family member. With that in mind, we are very pleased to announce the new addition to our team of Charlotte. She will be co-ordinating the warehouse, and day to day running of Shabby Chic Originals for the foreseeable future. She can be contacted on charlotte@shabbychicoriginals.co.uk

Once we have become pros with our baby – (which I am sure will take only a couple of weeks?!!!) – we will be hoping to add a baby chic section. So check back here, and we will keep you posted. In the mean time we have Sarah our interior designer who will be blogging and generally keeping you up to date with all things shabby chic.

Without even realising I have been networking within the “Mummy” community and ukmums.tv have just featured our beautiful watering can hooks…. we don’t have many left and we can’t reorder so be quick and check them out…! (link)

Our vintage union jack bunting is flying out of the door but we do have another delivery on Wednesday to meet the demand…. It is a vintage take on the traditional and made of fabric rather than plastic which gives it an extra regal feeling! A memento that will last a lifetime and a great investment at just £18.50

http://shabbychicoriginals.co.uk/chic-bazaar/vintage-union-jack-bunting

We also have regal birds to add a touch of “Royalty “ to any table and they certainly don’t have a Regal price at just £3.50. A perfect gift to take instead of traditional flowers as a thank you for your Jubilee hosts.
http://shabbychicoriginals.co.uk/wedding-chic/regal-china-bird-with-crown

Grand Designs Live was a roaring success and it was so fab to meet customers old and new! I have attached a picture of our stand, wish we had done a before and after as by the end of Sunday there weren’t many hanging lanterns left!
We will definitely be exhibiting next year.

Had better dash off to the warehouse to finish a late night, packing Regal bunting, thankfully it is beautifully cool in the warehouse so there is always a positive!

We will be located within the Art area, and will be featuring lots of new goodies from Denmark – watch you for the next news title of Shabby Chic Originals storming the art world! We will also be launching our gorgeous new linens for the season – who says a dining table can’t look like a work of Art. Personally the better my dining table looks the calmer I feel as my cooking will hopefully be noticed less!

We will shortly be running a competition for tickets to Grand Designs Live – so keep an eye out on the blog and on facebook….

Have a good weekend.

We weren’t disappointed… although some of the items were definitely more shabby than chic and even the judges commented on this! It was certainly a lesson to all of us budding retailers, in knowing your customer.
The location of their retail units was an achingly hip and trendy area of London – just a little research would have shown that the vintage and retro feel would have fared better – I hear you cry what is the difference between that and shabby chic… Well trends, of course, are changing all the time but currently we see vintage and retro mimicking the 60s and 70s decor rather than that of shabby chic which is rather battered furniture, mirrors, china – assumed to have been kicking around a stately home for many years – probably since before those owners of stately were living below the breadline and actually had money and staff instead!

Shabby chic is most definitely associated with the country rather than trendy inner London – of course here at HQ we love the country and have made our “urban cottage” but it has been a definite style statement – similar to those living near Brick Lane who would have made other choices.

I was just about to discuss the person who got fired by name, however if you are reading this and are hoping to watch it on iPlayer then we won’t discuss them at all, I will say that I am not impressed with their sales tactic and if any of my team were to try and sell in that manner then they wouldn’t be on the team for long…

We await with baited breath the next instalment of the Apprentice and hope it can give us lessons and motivation!

We have a vast selection of unique and individual gifts, and even better than that – is our price range – something for everyone’s pocket! So you will be thrilled to know that there is still plenty of time to order for Mother’s day – Wednesday evening/Thursday morning is the last day for Mother’s Day posting.

Mothers who have it all, what about a photo of the two of you – we have some beautiful frames from the modern to the classic…?

chelsea-silverplate-and-enamel-photo-frame

or what about this stunning birdcage tea light?

Or for the Mother who is a book worm and likes to pop their feet up with a good book these fabulous Venetian Glass Bird Bookends will add a touch of glamour to any room…

venetian-glass-bird-bookends

We can deliver to you or directly to your Mother, gift wrapped with a hand written card.
Let’s hope the sunshine keeps shining for Mother’s day!

Valentine’s at HQ wasn’t particularly romantic with a 4.45am wake-up call and a rush to the airport for our flight to Denmark where we met our favourite suppliers – Bahn & Homeart.

They are all so very welcoming and from the moment you step through the doors of their “air craft hanger” you feel as though you have been transported to an interior designer’s heaven. The Christmas displays for this year were truly breath taking, and we hope we have cherry picked the best pieces – we couldn’t resist a rather amazing 2ft tall wooden reindeer on wheels – sounds bizarre – but it is a true statement piece that will last forever. A piccie of the smaller reindeer to accompany the large…

Intricate Christmas decorations for the tree, stunning table pieces and fab cut glass to add sparkle to the dining table. We are most excited about a range of white and red wine glasses at amazing prices – possible to buy just for use at Christmas and then put away for next year – not that you will want to once you have held them, they fit perfectly into your hand and more importantly hold a generous amount of wine… no one need know that your “I only had the one” involved half a bottle of your chosen tipple!

With our country chic lamps that were so in demand and now sadly out of stock we are thrilled to have found similar lamps which we have managed to request for delivery next month – not too long to wait.
We decided to expand some of our collections with the most gorgeous soft rugs – made from recycled leather – in two neutral tones that will fit in with any surroundings.

I ended the day in what can only be described as a “Cinderella moment” whilst cheekily swapping from heels to flats whilst at the meeting table I failed to pick up both of my black heels and one was left under the table. A rather confused email was waiting for me on Wednesday morning as to if I had lost a shoe – I did explain, as think the thought of me hopping through Billund airport was a little too much for all to imagine! The very positive outcome to this is that my shoe will be accompanying the first part of our order and as I can’t be parted with it for too long it should be with us next week… so keep an eye on the site for up and coming exciting additions!

We will leave you with a few sneak pictures of what will soon be appearing on Shabby Chic Originals!

Oh and we would like to wish Bertie a happy 6 month Birthday! As his treat we let him choose a product for the website and this is what he chose….

…whilst walking through the aisles he couldn’t resist bringing this back to HQ with him. He is no guard dog and will more than likely cover you in kisses but he thought it was an ironic take on the labrador! It is a fun sign for yourself or great gift for anyone who has a lab – or craves after man’s best friend! At just £4.50 a real bargain.

My title for this post today was inspired by waking up to the news that 11million people will be going shopping today – HELP that sounds horrendous, buggies, screaming children, people getting in your way, germs spreading… well I am staying at home with the exception of heading to the local rugby club to watch my gorgeous hubby play his last game of rugby for the year… Bertie and I will be cheering & barking from the sidelines – with a flask of mulled wine just to keep us warm!

Back to shopping… if you are at the end of your tether and still can’t find inspiration for that person who has everything – weather it is grandparents who have lived through many Christmases and have already been given many gifts to a dear friend who has exquisite but expensive taste, this antiqued gold frame is perfect, give as just a frame or print off a picture to personalise it a little more… More importantly it is just £11.00

Off to wrap gifts…

herb-scissors

HQ has been filled with excitement on Wednesday evenings whilst watching Kirstie’s Homemade Home…. so far we have had our milk jug featured – which has unfortunately sold out now, herb scissors – which make a fabulous gift at just £9.50 (our set includes seeds and plant marker to note where the seeds have been planted) and many other goodies from linen to our fabulous crown planters . Oh and if you are a fan you will have noticed our cake stands featured within the cake competitions!

crown-planters

3-tier-regency-cakestand

HQ has been touring from London to Portsmouth, West Sussex to Oxford – what a fabulous welcome we have received and it has been wonderful meeting our customers old and new. Thankfully we are all back in London for our Christmas rush.

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For those of you following us we wanted to let you know that our last day for orders is the 19th December for last dispatch on the 20th December – so still a good week for you to choose your presents – or if you have had time to dust off your old baubles and realise your tree isn’t sparkling quite as sensationally as it should be – we have some fabulous, unique and special Christmas decorations.

hanging-heart-with-dots-set-of-3-red

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.