Merry Christmas from Festoon

Festoon is taking a little break for Christmas and won't be back until the New Year, so I just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and look forward to catching up again in 2010!

x x x Jenny x x x

Handmade Christmas Gift Guide

I can't believe Christmas Day is only NEXT WEEK - we are too excited for words at our home! Most of our pressies are now wrapped and under the tree, looking gorgeous and proving very tempting for the kids, who can't resist picking them up, shaking, prodding and trying to peer through any gaps in the wrapping.

I'm sure it's the same in all your homes, but for any of you who haven't quite ticked everyone off the gift list yet, I wanted to introduce you to the Handmade Gift Guide - a lovely selection of gorgeous handmade goodies, created by a bundle of handmade designers (including Festoon) with the help of clever graphic design from Nykie from Noo Creative.

You're sure to find some last minute stocking-fillers here!

Japanese double-sided fabrics

I've recently discovered some gorgeous Japanese double-sided fabrics, perfect for making bunting.

Using these fabrics it's possible to make bunting that can be strung across a room and look nice from every angle, without needing to sew double-thickness... so a less expensive option for the customer as of course we are able to sell them at a much cheaper price.

The fabric is a gorgeous cotton-linen mix, so feels lovely, and the patterns are adorable too.

Here's a sample of one of our new double-sided designs called 'Robots'... at the moment exclusively available on Trifle.

Mega Christmas Giveaway

Our bunting seems to be appearing everywhere at the moment! In addition to the fab competition being run by Fairy Bread (as mentioned earlier), Festoon is also sponsoring the Mega Christmas Giveaway at Handmade Kids this week. They have two fantastic packs of handmade goodies to give away by Friday - one girl's pack and one boy's pack. The boy's pack includes our gorgeous retro Spaceman bunting and I definitely recommend you head over and enter - all the goodies are divine and would make perfect Christmas presents.

I particularly love this handy notebook from Poppy Bean and Bloss:

Enter to win here and don't delay - entries close at midnight on Friday 27th November!

Our wedding bunting in action

Just thought I'd share with you a little pic of Festoon's simple white linen wedding bunting in action recently...

P.S. personally I just can't take my eyes off that table of goodies..... yummy!!!!!

Win on Fairy Bread

Fairy Bread, the wonderful social network dedicated to ideas, advice and inspiration for parties, is running a competition this week to win some of our lovely Christmas bunting. It's simple to enter - all you need to do is to be a follower of this blog (that part you've done already!), join Fairy Bread, and leave a comment on their site saying why you'd like to win one of these elegant Christmas decorations. The competition closes on 6th December, so make your way over to their site now for your chance to win...!

Fantastic Find: Mee a Bee

OOoooh how I love to swap! Some wonderful friends on Skout Trade Fair have recently been swapping goodies and I've really enjoyed taking part - it's a great way to promote each other's businesses and get some gorgeous handmade creations for free! My latest swap was with Jacqui of Mee a Bee - she makes cute little bags for girls and boys - whimsical and a touch retro - so just my cup of tea. Jacqui is a New Zealander who now lives in Japan with her husband and two little boys, and her creations are stunning - she uses gorgeous Japanese cottons and linens to make her bags, which I totally love. These Japanese fabrics are some of the same ones I use in my bunting, and the quality of them is unrivalled.

It was so hard to choose something from her range of designs, but in the end I chose a reversable messenger bag for Tom - it's adorable - red stripes with gorgeous airplane fabric on one side, then denim and funky cars if you turn it inside out. He is going to LOVE it - he loves collecting treasures when we are out (usually just stones, or shells from the beach) so this will be perfect! I really want to post a piccie of him with it, but have decided to save it for Christmas now that's not too far away - so in the meantime here's a picture of a bag similar to the one Jacqui made me. Check out Mee a Bee's Etsy shop here.