Merry Christmas to all my readers both via the blog and via social media. Thank you for the support over the last year as this baby blog has found its feet and grown – I can’t believe ‘Always a Blue Sky Girl’ is over a year old now! 
Here’s to a stylish and wonderful 2016 and another year of blogging! 
Love, Sarah xx
As many of you know, my background is in window dressing and visual styling and I’ve spent much of my career creating amazing Christmas concepts for the likes of Harrods, Selfridges, House of Fraser and Marks and Spencer. This means whether I like it or not, I have to ‘do’ Christmas in a certain way, with a certain style and over the years have collected some beautiful decorations to do it with.
In todays blog let me show you a few of my decorations and share some styling tips to hopefully help you create your most stylish Christmas ever!
Lets start with the first thing you see, the door wreath: 
Where we have a white modern door I have a very modern wreath. Its stylised with silver baubles inside, not to everyones taste but it suits our homes style. I like the simplicity of it and hopefully it sets the tone of the modern version of Christmas I personally love!
The Tree:
Having a modern designed home with retro/1960s highlights, I do love a white tree. It is an acquired taste though. We actually have two trees each year, a traditional green one in the lounge and a more retro white one in our kitchen/diner. The mix of styles really works and keeps everyone happy.
On both trees I have a few rules – only a star on top, never an angel (sorry I find them super tacky, and a bit spooky); lots of large, stylised baubles made from glass if possible in a mix of no more than 4 colours and LED lights set deep within the branches.
Our two looks this year – Modern and cool :
Traditional and festive:
Decoration groupings:
I don’t like a fussy home so mainly group similar decorations together in key areas.
Ceramic soldier/fabric Robin: TK Maxx, Christmas Rules sign: Demelza House, slim Santa figure: Liberty, cut out stag: Wilkinsons
Glass trees/Polar bear: TK Maxx, felt runner: John Lewis, wooden toadstools: Tiger Stores, baubles: Homebase
Quote cushion: Dunelm Mill, retro deer cushion: Asda, tapesty cushion: bought in New York (sorry!) 
Merry Christmas sign: Paperchase
Tin tray: The 99p Store
And with all this styling, I try to not take things too seriously, this is supposed to be a fun time after all… 
Giant bauble earrings for one of my favourite pieces of wall decor 
A reindeer chopping board nestled amongst the usual ones in the kitchen 
And you’ve just got to have a few sprigs of Mistletoe hanging around, just in case!
And a final festive touch for our youngest child…well, if you don’t have a chimney, Santas got to get in somehow to deliver the presents! 
Santas key: Card Factory
Have a wonderful Holiday season!
For more Christmas inspo why not have a look at my blogs on advent calendars here and creating Christmassy kids rooms here.
Hersheys Cookies ‘n’ Creme kisses – £1.00 Poundland 
American sweets are cool. Its a fact! I first tasted Hersheys chocolate when I worked as a window dresser at Harrods in the 90’s. At that time Harrods was pretty much the only place you could get American chocolate and US celebrities came in all the time to pick up their favourites.
I liked the taste a lot – its not as sweet as Britsh chocolate and had a slightly powdery feel to it. Plus it was American so in my mind, so cool. The first time I went to New York I visited the Hersheys store on Times Square and realised Hersheys were the Willy Wonka’s of America producing pretty much every flavour of chocolate you could imagine…including one of my now favourites, Cookies n Creme. Imagine Haagen Daz ice cream as a chocolate bar…and thats what youve got.
I might love the brand and all it offers, but I hate paying ridiculous prices for imported sweets. When I saw Poundland now had an American sweet section I was pretty excited, especially as they were selling the range at 50-70% less than those ‘olde fashioned’ sweet shops that have sprung up all over the place.
I love the way the kiss looks too, with the little pull-tab that unravels the foil covering, it is such an iconic design. Also if you’re like me and have to watch what you eat, they are small and 3/4 of them go a long way, fixing your sweet craving without eating loads of calories.
Treat yourself to some kisses, you wont regret it!
They say Christmas is for kids, and I always like to make sure my childrens bedrooms feel festive too. In todays blog see my top 5 tricks to do Christmas in a fun and child friendly way, easily and cheaply…and best of all your kids will love it!
‘Days till Christmas’ countdown –
This is a great way to stop those ‘how many days…” questions you get pretty much every day of December. I like using a very cute, child friendly one and then have it displayed in their bedroom. 
Cute decoration groupings –
In the rest of my home my decorations have to be ultra stylish, but in the kids rooms? Anything goes! I let them pick ones they like then display in groups amongst their usual toys. These were all bought in our local pound shop! 
Christmas duvet covers –
This is a simple way to add Christmas cheer to their beds and there’s some lovely designs out there starting at around £9.99. We bought ours from Dunelm Mill and bought a new one this year for our 8 year old for £12.00 – find it here.
Bunting –
A great way to add decoration to the ceiling or on higher pieces of furniture. If bunting isn’t your style, making paper chains is a cheap and extremely effective solution too.
Festive soft toys –
For smaller children a soft toy or two can really add a cute Christmas touch to their bedroom or nursery. Remember normal Christmas decorations could be dangerous for any child under 3 years, so keep safe by adding cute plush toys like the one below.
I hope this gives you some inspiration to add some decorations upstairs in your home as well this year!
See my blog on advent calendars here.
Good morning all! Here is todays quote or thought that has inspired me and I hope it inspires you too. Have a great week!
Todays thought –
Source – my Pinterest
I’m starting a new challenge today, something I’m a bit nervous about but excited too…we can rewrite our lives whenever we want – and Monday always seems the perfect day to do it!
Dont wait till January to start resolutions you know you’ll give up on within weeks. If you want to change something do it today!
What words have inspired you recently? I would love to know.
Teal vase £1.50 – Store Twenty One
We are currently decorating our bedroom (part of a house revamp which will see us pretty much redo every room in our house bar the kitchen) and a few weeks ago I painted over the strong red (!) the bedroom had been when we moved in, to a new deep teal colour.
I have been looking out for accessories that will add a highlight of teal to our existing items and while in Store Twenty One saw this lovely little vase. Regular readers of this blog will know I’m a big fan of Store Twenty Ones homeware range and often pop in to see what bargains they have. This beauty was in their sale for only £1.50 reduced from £3!
It reminds me of a Jonathan Adler vase and looks much more expensive than it was – plus it fits in with our new colour scheme perfectly!
What do you think?
Look out for my blog on the finished room coming soon.
So, today it is the 1st of December (how did that happen?!?) and if you have kids (or are a kid a heart) its time to put out your advent calendar. The question is, what do you do to count down the days of December?
A few years back I decided that I (and my stylish home) could no longer live with the cardboard calendars filled with cheap chocolate that come covered in advertising for the latest TV show or movie. Plus when you have three children in the house under 10, you end up with three Peppa Pig/Spiderman/ Star Wars/Disney etc ones dotted around. Also just to make it a bit more complicated we are a ‘blended family’ so at different times we have different amounts of children living with us – the idea of having uneaten chocolate building up and calendars three or four days behind didn’t feel festive at all, just slightly depressing.
So what to do? I have seen some lovely ideas via Etsy of bespoke handmade creations – here are some of my favourites…
Envelope advent calendar by MummyPuddleduck 
buy here
Box tree advent calendar by DorsetHodgepodge
buy here
Fabric pocket bunting advent calendar by SewSweetViolet 
buy here
Paper bag kit advent calendar by PeachBlossomUK
All lovely reusable and flexible solutions.
I happened to be in Ikea when I chanced upon our stylish solution – a 3D cardboard calendar in a Scandinavian style design with 24 drawers that could be filled with whatever (and most importantly whatever amount) of sweets we wanted! 
We decided to fill it with milk and white Christmas chocolate coins but you could as easily add small toys, messages or small amounts of money. And best of all its completely recyclable and something we can bring out every year as a family tradition. I love that.
The kids are happy, my partner is happy and I am happy. I call that a win!
Why not try something new this December and create a family tradition of your own? Look out for more blogs this month on how I like to do Christmas.
Face mug and coaster £2.00 each – Tiger 
Ah, Tiger stores have done it again. A bloggers favourite, this range of cute illustrated face designs comes on mugs, coasters, cushions and vases…and I’m a sucker for a great bit of modern illustration.
The mug is European style with no handle so can easily be used as a storage pot or plant pot too. 
And the coaster is large and could be used as a pot stand, tray or just as a decorative ornament. 
The other design is in green but I stayed with my favourite colour palette of a flash of orange with white and black. She’s also super cute though, don’t you think? I can’t believe these are retailing at only £2.00 each! 
Do you love them as much as I do?
I think its fair to say I’m quite a bohemian at heart. Style wise I love a maxi dress or skirt or hippy style kimono. I’m always on the look out for great boho style pieces for my wardrobe but you tend to find they are mainly summer pieces.
When I saw this dress in H&M last week I grabbed it off the rail so quickly I almost gave myself whiplash! I don’t buy a lot of clothes but this sort of dress is a dream daytime dress for me.
The dress itself is a great A/W piece made from a silky yet thick material which hangs beautifully. Being only 5’2″ I knew the dress would be too long and as soon as I got it home I altered it taking 3″ off the bottom. I’m used to shortening things now when there’s not a petite section and a dress like this is pretty easy to do.
I added a thick belt for a more structured look, as being petite I often get a bit swamped by blouson styles but the dress has an elasticated waistband so can easy be worn without. It is available in sizes UK 6-16 and comes up true to size/slightly generous. I am wearing a UK size 10 here although as I mentioned it is shorted by 3″.
Little details such as bell sleeves and a tasselled tie to the collar really makes this dress looks much more expensive than it really was…
…Oh yes, did I mention it is instore at only £14.99!!! What an absolute bargain!
Lace up boots keep the look relaxed yet still within a bohemian vibe although I kept the hem length to just above the floor so you can hardly see them.
I kept my hair long and added some extra curls to the ends, make-up was a neutral daytime look with just a bit of mascara, brown eyeshadow and wine coloured lip gloss to complete the look. My autumn flower power inspired look was complete!
Dress – H&M
Belt – Vintage
Boots – New Look
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always a blue sky girl 
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