Hello everyone so in today's video I am doing a little bit of a
Christmas easy
DIY home touches little things you can do that you might not have thought about video
I don't think it's gonna be called that in the title
But that is essentially what it is as you know Christmas is one of my most favorite times of the year in terms of
Content to watch
everyone's moods
decoration
music films food
it's basically just the best time of year and one of the things I also really love about Christmas is getting a bit crafty and
making your space feel
festive and
Putting your stamp on things and I have a few little things that I have done this year that
I really really wanted to share with you one of the first things
I am going to share with you is drying oranges now
This is something that my mom always used to do and I remember the house
smelling amazing
It's so so simple as well
and it's not only just the best to fill your home with the scent of like orange and
Like Christmas loveliness, but it's also great to use for decoration all you will need are some oranges
You can go for some big ones and some slightly smaller ones
it's quite nice to have a bit of a variation, and you just want to slice these then using kitchen roll or a
kitchen towel or a tea towel
Or you can just leave them out if you have a little bit more time to do it you basically want to get as much
of the orange juice out as possible because the whole idea is that you're drying out the
oranges and so if you can take out a little bit of excess juice before
You put them in the oven then that does make it a little bit easier
So you just want to kind of like dab them and press the paper down
Don't push too hard like don't like completely mash them up
but
You just want to try and get rid of any of the juice
You don't want to get a baking tray and a sheet of baking paper on the top
And you just want to lay out your oranges ready to go into the oven I'm actually using my auger for this
This is like the first thing
I'm actually putting my auger and in the lowest temperature oven so it's not the warming oven
But it's the one just above that
I'm still learning how to use my auger if you don't have an auger
Basically you don't want to burn them you don't want them to go crispy
So you need to set your oven to a very low temperature?
You don't want them to come out of the oven and look like weird orange crisps
so very very low heat, I would say like a
hundred degrees centigrade or
Just a very low gas mark you basically want to leave them in there for a couple of hours
You can keep on checking on them and seeing you know how they're getting on
But that is basically it and then once they are done
You just want to take them out leave them to cool down
Maybe to dry out a little bit more, and then you can use them to your heart's content
This kind of segues into my next little
DIY fun section
Homey homey DIY section and that is styling up your mantelpiece
There are so many different ways to do this and everyone has their own
Kind of decor style so this is just how I've done one of mine
I have actually got multiple fireplaces, and you bet I'm gonna decorate each one
It's not gonna be any fireplace in my house that doesn't have something on it
I like to start by buying like a garland so you can get these pretty much anywhere
Or you can make them yourself with real foliage
Or you can buy real foliage especially around the start of December
They start selling them in the places
Where you buy your Christmas trees from and you can buy the stuff in like big old bundles, so you can get things like holly?
Ivy and also just bits of like Christmas tree and you can do it that way which I have done previous years
It just doesn't seem to last as long and it starts to look quite limp quite quickly so it depends
What kind of style you're going for does smell amazing though? I have to say the smell of those is great
I think closer to Christmas
I will probably go and get some like cuttings and distribute those around the house
but for now
I thought it was best to stick with a garland that was
Not real, so that it would actually last until Christmas this one. I got from John Lewis, and it has
Copper baubles on it
acorns, and it's really nice and festive, and I really liked it, but it is nice to
Personalize it and customize it a little bit more
to fit with the rest of the room that you are putting it in I
Used these little gold fern leaves, which I also got I'd get me some. Thyme nervous
I think I did but you can buy like things like this from hobby craft garden centers
You name it this time of year someone will have it
And I just cut these up and place these amongst the garland
I also used my dried oranges and popped these in as well
just because they smell amazing and they look really fast 'iv and I think they give it like that little bit of
Christmas touch I always think if you've got a mantelpiece you need some candles
So I've got these candlesticks that I've popped on the end. There's nothing like an authentic
Candle on a mantelpiece to really put you in a cozy mood, and then these two little I think they're gnomes
But at this time of year, I think they pass as little father Christmas's. We're actually a
Housewarming gift from a friend who made these herself
And they are the cutest thing I've ever seen and they sat proudly on the other end of the mantelpiece
I would absolutely love to see how you guys style up your mantel pieces at this time of year
Everyone has like a different theme some people keep it quite subtle
Some people go a bit more likes candy some people love like the whole shebang lights
The biggest Garland's you've ever seen
Massive bull balls like I'd love to know what your style is also tag me in some pictures because I'd love to see the next
Fun little idea I had was to get a bit crafty with Christmas photos
I'm hugely sentimental, and I love photographs anyway
And my phone is full of Christmas photos over the years that I've never really printed and done anything with
Because I kind of just like look at them every now and then when I'm like scrolling back through and I'm like oh memories so
I thought it would be really nice as I am doing this video with HP who I actually talked about last year
This is the HP sprocket, and it is a little
Printer that you can print from an app from your phone print out these adorable little photos, but this year they have this really cool
Limited edition gift box which would be the perfect gift since Christmas is coming inside it you get the actual sprocket
Which I have out because I've been using it this adorable little case so that you can keep it protected in your handbag this
Really cute little photo album, so you can stick your photos in there, and you also get the photo paper
Which I have used up you can also design your own personal skin that you can stick
To the sprocket, which I think is so cool
You can personalize it you can use any photo you like and stick it on your actress pocket so using the sprocket
I printed out lots of the photos on my camera roll. It's super easy
there's no ink required and I
love this idea so you can either attach your Christmassy photos on a piece of string or a piece of
Tinsel if you're going to go for tinsel on your tree, and you can just attach them randomly
Onto the tinsel or onto the string with some pegs
I have these cute little father Christmas pegs, which I think I got from Tiger
But you can use like anything really or if that is not an option for you
Maybe you don't have as many that you can string on a garland
You can just peg them straight on to your tree, which I actually ended up doing because I thought this looked so cute
And it's nice that all those photos have lovely Christmas memories for me so every time
I look at that Christmas tree now
It makes me feel more like 10 times more festive because I actually remember the Christmassy moments that are on the tree
I feel like this is definitely something going
forward I can keep adding to every year you can just keep adding the photos that
You have of Christmas going it's great. I love it and because these photos can also be used as stickers
I thought it would be perfect for putting on
Presents so I do like getting quite crafty for Christmas presents and going like all out with different wrapping papers
but there is something quite nice about just using brown paper and
Doodling with a sharpie, I mean until I filmed this video. I thought I wasn't okay like doodler turns out I
Suck so I would advise that you have some sort of plan of what you're gonna draw or maybe like repetition would be quite nice
Or maybe you're just like a much better drawer than I am
But I really loved sticking on the photos
so for Papi's present I used a photo of me and papi last year when we went to buy our Christmas tree and
For Jose. I put a picture of me Joe and Nala when we were visiting my dad last Christmas
and then I just doodle over them and
ruined it
But I feel like your designs could be a lot cooler. I think it's just a really nice interesting way of
having
that person know that that present is from you because you're also in the photo and
You know that that present is a hundred percent for them
But you don't have to like try and find like a tiny gift tag. Where someone's put like a P from Zed
You know what I mean
It's very visual like it's very like this is your present from me because here we are buying our Christmas tree last year
I hope you like it
I also just really like what this looks like I think it looks very sleek
And it's very easily portable you can also get this in black and red
But that is sold like individually the one in the gift box which personally
I do think is the prettier one is is this one
I feel like this is one of those gadgets where you're like
You never know you needed it until you had it
And then you will then you felt that everyone else should have one. Do you know what I mean?
I have persuaded so many friends to buy these in fact. I bought one of these for Mark for Christmas last year
So there you go the next thing that I thought was worth mentioning was also something that I love doing I love like
making little
Personalizable
Things for friends and family and the first thing that I have done
And this is because a lot of my friends are coming to stay it towards the end of November and we're having like a pre
Christmas Christmas, and I'm so excited about it
We're doing Secret Santa so that's like one present per person, but because they're coming to stay at my house
I wanted to make it feel special and
Kind of like we were all actually having a Christmas
So I really hope they don't watch this video as this is gonna really ruin the surprise
Oh, well, so what I have done is I bought these stockings you can buy
Cheaper stockings, and then you can either stitch if you're like very like handy
And you have like sewing machine, and you love things like and you have a bit more time
I would totally recommend either making the stocking from scratch
it's a pretty simple template and you can get quite creative with which fabrics you want to use or
You can buy a stocking and then stick on some lettering so last year although
It was a year before two years ago myself and Alfie bought big red fluffy stockings for his family
And we actually bought iron-on gold letters, and we spent Christmas Eve ironing on everyone's names letter by letter
And that was actually really fun
And I like doing things like that because it gives it a really nice like personal touch. This year I found
Personalized letter stockings on Matalin and they were only eight pounds, so I was like oh, that's actually a really good price
I quite like the look at these so I picked up one for every initial of my friends
And I started thinking about what I could put in there
This is also a really great idea for a Secret Santa because if you know the person
But you don't know too much about them, and you have like a certain budget
It's quite nice to buy like a couple of little things
to put
inside something like that so if you had a Secret Santa and the budget was twenty you could spend eight on the stocking and then
Fill it with lots of other little bits and pieces so for my friends
I bought them a small bottle of Prosecco because nothing says Christmas like a little glass of bubbles
And I also put some chocolate pennies in there
I've just I just feel like you can't do a stocking without using chocolate coins. I feel like that's like Christmas like sacrilege so
Chocolate coins went in then I also bought little selection packs now growing up
I always had selection boxes in my sacks. We always had sacks
We never had stockings and those were like the first thing you pulled out and like all
day
you would keep going back to your selection box and being like which chocolate bar shall I eat next I don't know whether that's a
Thing with everyone, but that's certainly like a thing with me, so I thought I would share that joy, I also
bought
five different Christmas lush bath bombs and
I placed these in tiny little Christmas treat bags and sealed them with a sticker so that each
Person has a different bath bomb I also bought novelty hats. I've remembered. I bought some really funny
Novelty hats from Asda
And I was gonna put a different one in each stocking also so that when people are going through their stockings
They have something funny to put on and next year no doubt those are the photos that will be going up on the tree
Alongside all the other ones the next thing is
Staircases now. I know not everybody decorates their staircase, but for me. I feel like this was always a very
exciting part to decorate
I just remember being a child and walking down the stairs on Christmas morning and
Like all the lights are twinkling on the stairs
And you just would be so excited to walk into the living room and see what was underneath the Christmas tree
And I don't know why but I just think the staircase is just a great place to decorate most years
I've just put garlands on the staircase with fairy lights, but last year
I was reading a Christmas magazine it was after Christmas and
there was a photo in it of a staircase a really like lovely grand staircase in like a
Edwardian style property and
They had huge big white paper?
decorations going up the banister
and
I remember thinking oh my god that looks amazing I wonder if I can do that in the new house when we have Christmas there
What I stupidly didn't do is take a picture of it, so I've kind of had to go from memory
But I just love what it looks like it's quite out there. I do feel like if you
Don't feel so brave. You don't have to do as many or you could mix it up and use lots of different colors
I did see one on Pinterest where they'd used black and green as well as white and that looked really cool
Especially if you have like a theme running through your house and also paper decorations are not too expensive
You can even make some of them
Yourself if you have the time, or if you have the skill I feel like it's a really easy
Quick way yet it looks
Really effective, and it looks like someone's come into your house and done it for you, and I really really like doing it
I think it looks amazing
I think this is the best my stairs have ever looked at Christmas time and that makes me really happy and last
But by no means least is a Christmas Eve box ice so many people doing these mostly for their children
But I think that there is scope to create adult ones for sure normally every Christmas Eve
we have our tradition of
matching pajamas
slippers or cozy socks
dressing gowns and I
Guess that's mostly where we get to but I thought it would be nice since we're doing Christmas at our house this year
To lay out a box for each person with their pajamas with some cozy socks with a dressing-gown
Then I also thought about other things I could incorporate into that which were very like Christmas Eve so in this box
I've also put the night before Christmas book which I think is very apt
I'm not expecting Alfie's dad to whip that book out and sit there reading it
But I think if you're creating this for one person and that works really nicely or if it's someone
That's a bit younger putting that book in is really really cute
Then I think it is
Very important to have a Christmas mug and some form of hot chocolate you can buy the cute little sachets
and
If you know what someone's favorite hot chocolate is you can put those inside the mugs for each person
and I also got some decorate your own gingerbread because
Who doesn't want to decorate a gingerbread man on Christmas Eve I feel like it's perfect
Whilst you are decorating your gingerbread, man
You could have a Christmas film on I want to try and get everyone's favorite Christmas film
Whether they get time to watch it that evening or not
I think it would be nice for all of us to have a different one and for us to decide which one we watch or
Just for them to keep and have next year since I want to try and get people's favorite Christmas film
I popped arthur christmas in mine because I think it is an amazing amazing
Film highly recommend seeing that if you haven't seen it yet Terry's chocolate orange
Like you, it's not Christmas unless you've got a Terry's chocolate orange
So I had to put one of those in there also some chocolate coins because again
I
Don't feel like you can do a Christmas hamper or a Christmas stocking without adding chocolate coins and then last but by no means least
I had this idea where
Everyone has like their top three four favorites from every select action of Christmas chocolates
So we have celebrations
Miniature heroes quality streets and roses and those are like the top four that kind of most
Households will have at least one or two of these tins in that house of course
I've gone overboard and I've bought all four but that is also because I really wanted to pick each person's
Favorite now it might require a little bit of like detective work, or if you just know someone really really well
I guess it's the ultimate test to know which ones are their favorites from each
Each tin so I've picked out a couple that I know
someone would like and pop them in a little treat bag and sealed it with a sticker and also put that on there because there's
also, not enough chocolate in this box
I just thought it would be nice to eat those whilst watching the Christmas film in our matching PJ's
Our comfy socks our dressing gowns I do feel like
Half the fun of Christmas is Christmas Eve, so I really like making that a huge part of the whole
Christmas experience, and I think the Christmas Eve boxes just give it that like extra personal touch
And I just really like them and that is everything that I wanted to share with you today
I would absolutely love to know if there's anything that you do
around
Christmastime kind of like the box or the stockings or ways in which you bring Christmas into your home
And get a little bit creative
Thank you so much for watching give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it, and I will see you again very soon