Affordable Festive Finds

We are almost done with the first week of December, so if you haven’t already started helping Santa out with filling stockings then you best get cracking. Our day five of Festive Finds is inspired by the most exciting part of Christmas for a lot of children…opening stockings at 4am and leaving all the wrapping paper for Mum and Dad to clear up. The Amazing Blog knows how tricky it can be to get that stocking (or pillowcase) filled to the brim with lots of little goodies, so here are some suggestions that will go down a treat with the kids.

Fickle Tattoos are perfect for adding even more entertainment into Christmas morning and will keep the young ones quiet for a while. There are hundreds of designs of temporary tattoos, ranging in colours, size and theme so that you can choose something tailored to the personality and interests of your child. Something I find more special about these temporary tattoos than others is how they are designed by a handful of unique and creative illustrators who regularly create new drawings. You can read about each of them on the webpage, it makes the tattoo gift a little more personal and sweet. It’s a great little stocking filler to keep the kids happy whilst breakfast is being prepared, so have a browse here and discover their variety of quirky designs.

Another low-priced, petite stocking filler which also has the benefit of engaging kids for hours is the In a Matchbox White Christmas. Every year there is anticipation over whether there will be snow or not. There are kids lining up at the door or peering out the window with hats and gloves on ready to enjoy the snow. However, recently nature hasn’t been so reliable and snow either melts right away or doesn’t fall at all. White Christmas in a match box will help avoid disappointment in case we are left snowless this year because…it’s fake snow! All you need to do is freeze the snow for a few hours and then you’re ready to decorate your house and garden with snow that is guaranteed to stay put. I’ll be covering plants indoors and window stills to add a little festivity into my home this month. Maybe you have teenagers and need to fill their stockings with more grown-up gifts which can sometimes be a bit trickier as a sparkly pencil or toy car just won’t cut it this year. We suggest the Save the Blow Dry Cap for young ladies to enjoy. Did you know we spend over two hours a week blow-drying our hair? Save the Blow Dry has come up with a solution to do just that, save your blow dry! The cap is waterproof and made with absorbent micro-weave towelling so that it leaves your hair fabulously soft and bouncy. It’s a smart gift for girls as I’m sure lots of Christmas and New Year parties have been planned. We all want to say goodbye to 2013 looking our best. This gift is guaranteed to please your teen and leave them without reason to moan or complain on the special festive day. It’s only £14.95 and can be found here.

This gift is the epitome of ‘best of both worlds’ in terms of presents. Which two gifts are always a safe choice for everyone and will never be a let down? Chocolate and Flowers... However, flowers don’t make the best stocking filler as they are fragile and demand a lot of attention, and well, we guess you’ve probably bought a fair bit of chocolate already. So, these Chocolate Scented Grow Your Own Flowers found on Prezzybox and in Tesco, combine both the two to make charming stocking fillers. The flowers are for you to grow, so no squashing goes on in the stocking. Everybody loves growing flowers, and there is always a huge excitement when they completely develop, especially as these are daisies which are always lovely. You are given chocolate daisy seeds and lovely looking coconut husk starter pots to begin with, so move aside Alan Titchmarsh, because we have chocolate scented flowers.

All stockings need something edible amongst the wrapping paper, be it chocolate coins or tangerines, it’s a crucial part because there is no better guilty pleasure than stuffing your face in the early hours of the day when you should really be sleeping. If your children are messy with chocolate and leave wrapper trails as if they are re-enacting Hansel and Gretel, then worry no more... Pots & Co has a tasty selection of desserts in wonderfully designed pots to make things a little less untidy. Some of our favourite flavours are the Chocolate & Orange Pot, Caramelised Apple Crumble and the Sticky Toffee Pudding but there are also lots more to choose from. We do realise that this may not be the classic stocking filler food, but we also know lots of families like to do something a little different to surprise their children. These gorgeously creamy puddings will do just that. Even the photographs of them look edible, so that must be a good thing!  Have a look here at the delicious collection of puds for your nearest stockist.

A more familiar brand at Christmas is Lush as they always have beautiful bath and shower gifts to give away. Some items come out every year and we get to look forward to seeing them on the shelves. However, other products are new and exciting and never disappoint those loyal Lush users because they always put the same passion into all the products. The Lush Christmas Fun is made up of Red Fun, Green Fun and Gold Fun, too much ‘fun’ in one sentence? These are a lovely blend of four products in one which you can use as a soap, bubble bath, shampoo and play. There is a refreshing citrus included in the ingredients for the Red Fun and Green Fun and a comforting honey in the Gold Fun. I know I would definitely be happy to receive this for Christmas! Lush are a great brand that have a huge amount of reliable and wonderful products for everyone to enjoy.This little multipurpose trio is £6.50 and found here.

Tweezers are always a good shout if you’re stuck on present ideas. It’s the kind of thing everyone needs, male or female, so is a safe idea to fill that stocking a bit more. The Vintage Cosmetic Company have a sweet selection of tweezers which includes their festive pair, the Limited Edition Christmas Tweezers. These £8 tweezers are very cute and inspired by the 1950’s. The colour makes them look a bit more attractive than your every day tweezers, so definitely something you will find yourself keeping for a long time. Usually we want to keep our tweezers tucked away in our wash bag but with these they will be out on display for all to see. The colour is lovely and you can have a look here.

Last but not least, the most colourful and practical present for The Amazing Blog stocking suggestions, the Happy Jackson Lovely Things Wash Bag. It’s so simple and endearing, and the sort of present you can’t wait to start filling with all the cosmetics you accumulate over Christmas. It’s the perfect material to prevent stains and water damage and is also sized just right for travel. Depending on the age of your children though it could be anything, maybe even a pencil case? There is no use specification so would suit any age and gender as a stocking filler. I would have loved to get one of these in my stocking when I was younger, especially because you gather a lot of extra wash stuff across the season so end up buying a new one anyway. It’s bought for £11.66 here, there are lots of other stunning gifts from Happy Jackson worth taking a look at too.

 

Happy Kitchen Brownies

We all know that it is alright to have a naughty treat once in a while, personally anything involving chocolate hits my treat sweet spot, but what if you could have a treat that is healthy, but still tastes naughty? Here at The Amazing Blog, we recently found out about Happy Kitchen, a bakery and canteen in London offering up healthy and delicious dessert. When we heard about their famous Brownies, we had to get our hands on them.

Happy Kitchen was started by two best friends who shared the same love for baking, and wanted everyone to benefit from their love of food, thus Happy Kitchen was born. They make healthy and eco friendly foods which they sell both through their bakery, and through various stockist. We opted to try their Brownies, and we were not at all disappointed. The brownies are individually packaged and come in four delicious flavours: plain chocolate, pecan, raspberry, and orange. The best part is: they only contain seven ingredients! They are vegan, gluten-free, and sweetened with fruit instead of refined sugar. Oh, not to mention that they are absolutely scrumptious, moist and packed full of flavour. The best part is they are good for you! It has certainly made us feel a lot less guilty about our afternoon snacking.

If you are interested in trying out these tasty Brownies yourself then visit the Happy Kitchen website, Brownies retail at £1.49 each. There, you can also learn more about the other delicious desserts that the baking duo sell in their shop as well as how to get to their bakery/canteen.

Sweeten Up Your Day With Butlers Chocolates

If there is one food we all seem to be able to agree on here at The Amazing Blog, it is chocolate. No, maybe not the healthiest option, but certainly a delicious one. Whether it is a bar or a truffle, one of us in the office is always craving this sweet treat. When we heard about Butlers Chocolates, we could not even begin to decide which flavours we wanted to try, as all of them sounded delicious. Thankfully though we were sent a variety of flavours to try out, so there was something to match all of our tastes.

Flavoured chocolate bars aren't for everybody, so of course Butler's have Milk and Dark chocolate bars, which are luxuriously rich tasting. However, for the more adventurous, Butlers offer a wide range of flavoured chocolate bars too. Personally, my favourite is Mint Crunch. It is a dark chocolate bar with crunchy mint pieces, and frankly it is the best mint chocolate I have tried. We were also able to sample a White Chocolate with Mixed Berries bar that was delicious; the sharpness of berries cuts through the rich sweetness of the white chocolate. This bar is absolutely perfect for dessert, and it went down a treat in the office. The Milk Chocolate with Honeycomb was our next try; if you like honey, you will adore this bar! We also sampled some of the Butler’s Boxed Chocolates, which were a lovely treat and the perfect for a gift or to serve with coffee after a dinner party.

In addition to the bars that we sampled, Butlers Chocolates has an extensive range of products. The bars retail on their website for £12.95 for a pack of 6. They also have plenty of options when it comes to boxed chocolates and gift sets. If this isn’t tempting enough, we have one last trick up our sleeve, from now until the end of September you can get a 10% discount your order if you quote ‘amazing’ at the checkout. Now go on, and get your cacao on!

Delectable Treats from Charbonnel et Walker

Here at The Amazing Blog we are not ashamed to admit that we are chocoholics! So when we find a chocolate product that is really special we simply have to spread the word. We were really excited to receive some chocolate goodies from Charbonnel et Walker, a high end chocolatier that is in fact one of the oldest in Britain.

We were lucky enough to try out some chocolates from the Delectables Collection, a range designed to be the perfect after dinner treat. There is an assortment of flavours on offer, 70% Dark Batons, Sea Salt Caramel Batons, Ginger Sticks and Orange Sticks, so there is a flavour to suit most palates.

Before we had even tried the chocolate, we had all fallen in love with the packaging. The chocolate batons come in a classic and classy navy blue box with gold lettering, so we thought that they would make a fantastic gift for family or friends. We also discovered that Charbonnel et Walker holds the Royal Warrant, that is a sign of quality that simply cannot be argued with!

We tried out the Sea Salt Caramel Batons and the Orange Sticks. My favourite just has to be the Sea Salt Caramel Batons, I love chocolate but can often find milk chocolate far too sweet for my taste, however the salt cuts through the sweetness, taking the edge off it.

The Orange Sticks are very different to your typical chocolate orange, the sticks consist of sweet candied orange covered in delicious bitter dark chocolate. This combination of the sweet and bitter works in perfect harmony, with the two flavours complimenting each other perfectly.

We think that these delectable treats are perfect for impressing guests at a dinner party or to give as a gift to a loved one as not only does the box look great, but the chocolate is rich and delicious. You can purchase chocolates from the After Dinner Collection from the Charbonnel et Walker website where they retail for £12 for a box of 125g.

Tantalise Your Tastebuds with Montezuma's Flavoured Chocolate

If you want to know the complete truth, there aren’t many things we love more than a delicious piece of chocolate here at The Amazing Blog. Milk, dark, white, there isn’t really anything we’d object to in the realm of cacao. The wonderful thing is, England is full of luxury chocolatiers, and a company that really stands out to us is Montezuma’s.  They bring together traditional chocolate and innovative pairings that will send your taste buds on a whirlwind, and we were so excited to try some of their new bars that they were all gone within a day at the office.

We were graciously able to sample three of their flavoured chocolate bars in Charlie’s Luck, Peeling Amorous, and Open Sesame. Beyond the lovely, kitsch names, the chocolate is wonderful. Charlie’s Luck was first to be eaten, and my personal favourite. It is dark chocolate with chilli, ginger, and peanuts. The combination is unexpected and wonderful. Open Sesame was next; milk chocolate with caramelized sunflower and sesame seeds. That one was gobbled up in minutes. Finally, we put Feeling Amorous in the fridge and had it cold. It is a perfect dessert bar; white chocolate with lemon and sour cherry, refreshing for after dinner.

In addition to the flavoured bars that we sampled, Montezuma’s offers an extensive range of ‘quintessentially British’ bars as well as truffles and gift sets. The bars retail around £2.39 each and you can go an get your cocoa fix from the Montezuma’s website as well as at their store locations.