Top Care Tips for Real Christmas Trees

With the festive season only five weeks away the British Christmas Tree Growers Association (BCTGA) sent us through its top tips on how to care for real Christmas trees, making sure they keep looking fresher for longer.

• Buy a newly cut British grown Christmas tree from a local BCTGA member for guaranteed freshness. Please visit www.bctga.co.uk to source

• Trees come in all shapes and sizes. Choose one that fits into the designated space in the home

• Once home, place the tree in water as soon as possible and store in a cool location until needed

• Cut about ½ inch off the butt to open the tree pores before placing the Christmas tree in a water retaining stand and moving it indoors

• Keep the tree away from direct heat to prevent it drying out; expect it to absorb a gallon of water in the first twenty-four hours, and at least a quarter per day thereafter

• Inspect light sets before placing them on the tree (replace if worn), and always turn off the lights when leaving the house or when going to bed

Wondering which tree to get?

• For the all-rounder, a Nordman Fir is perfect as it offers a fresh scent and keeps its needles very well. It is currently the UK’s favourite Christmas tree, representing more than 50% of sales each year

• Minimalists will love the Serbian spruce with a sleek profile that compliments any modern space beautifully

• The avant-garde will be drawn to the Blue Spruce as its metallic-blue sheen boasts originality

• Traditionalist may opt for one of the Pines – Lodgepole and Scots – or a Norway Spruce as they hold that ideal Christmas tree aroma, certain to bring back memories of years gone by

Bookshelf Boyfriend founder featuring on Radio Scotland

 

Annie McGuire & Julia Sutherland

Bookshelf Boyfriend’s founder Alysia Maciejowska will be appearing on Radio Scotland’s The Fred MacAulay Show this Wednesday morning.

 

She’ll be chatting to co-hosts Annie McGuire, their resident techie, and Julia Sutherland (less techie but equally lovely) about the trials and tribulations, joys and highs of setting up and running a website.

Tune in to catch her at about 11am. For more info about the show check out the Radio Scotland website.

New homepage almost ready to launch!

The new Bookshelf Boyfriend home page is almost finished and ready to go live.

As well as an all round funkier layout, your whole experience of Bookshelf Boyfriend will be vastly improved – from easier search and heaps more handy information to simpler ways to get involved and loads of fun competitions and giveaways.

We’re very excited!

More info coming… xx

The Glam Show Live – ticket giveaway!

Bethanie Lunn – our very own Queen of Fabulousness – will be appearing at The Glam Show Live later this month, where she will be divulging more of her insider secrets and further advice on her four fabulous commandments!

The girls at Glam Show Live have kindly offered Bookshelf Boyfriend readers a £5 discount on the Silver Day Ticket* – simply enter the code BETHL0709 in the promotional box on the ticket form.

*discount code valid until 15th October 2009

The ultimate day out for women is coming to Earls Court London Saturday 31st October – Sunday 1st November – The Glam Show in association with TV’s lifestyle expert Nicky Hambleton-Jones.

Showcasing the latest in women’s fashion, lifestyle, health and beauty the event will combine fantastic shopping opportunities together with fabulous fashion shows and the latest in products and services.

The two-day exhibition will host fashion shows throughout each day, featuring the most up-front fashion trends for autumn/winter, alongside vintage style presentations and expert demonstrations in all aspects of beauty, health and lifestyle.

**WIN WIN WIN** A VIP GOLD DAY TICKET TO THE GLAM SHOW LIVE!!!

To help kick off the fun, the Glam Show has also donated six Glam Gold VIP tickets which include entry to all eight feature zones, access to the VIP lounge, a Glam luxury goody bag and a Glam event guide.

To be in with a chance of winning one, fill in the subscription form on Bethanie’s website being sure to state your full name, postal address, email address and which day you would prefer (Saturday or Sunday) – and winners will be picked out of a very stylish hat!

Read Bethanie’s article How to Be Fabulous: My Four Fabulous Commandments on BookshelfBoyfriend.com

Make your own vintage shopping bag

If you’ve been following our Twitterings recently you will know that we have got our hands on our editor Alysia’s great great grandmother’s book of household tips, all cut out of newspapers from the 1920s-40s. We’ve  also come across this rather nifty article, probably dating from the war, about how to make a rather stylish shopper out of upholstery webbing. Not only is it cheap to make (although, what with the recent demise of Woolies, expect to pay more than 2 1/2d. per yard for your webbing), it’s superbly practical – no more yucky plastic bags – and it totally rocks the 1940s vintage utility look – what more does a girl need!

How to Turn Upholstery Webbing into a Shopping Bag

make your own 1940s style shopping bag

“Since the Government’s ‘no wrapping’ order, a shopping bag, like Mary’s little lamb, goes everywhere with most of us. And how prices for them have soared!

Here is a tough, inexpensive but attractive bag made from upholstery webbing. 8 1/2 yds of string coloured webbing is required. (Woolworth’s 2 1/2d. a yd.) Cut 15 strips of webbing 17 ins. long, then the remainder in two, for the handles.

The completed bag has 7 strips a side, with one at the bottom doubled. Treat this as a central strip, and start stitching the lengths of webbing together from the bottom upwards. When joining on the fifth strip, stitch along for 5 1/2 ins., leave a 5 in. gap for the insertion of the handles, then stitch on to the end. Sew on two more strips of webbing and one side of the bag is finished.

Repeat for the other side, again starting from the bottom central strip of webbing, so that the ribbing effect made by the stitching, points upwards to match the reverse side of the bag. Unless this is done there will be no place for the handle.

When the webbing is all joined, double it, lay it flat on a table, and slope off from the top at the top at both sides, one inch, graduated to nothing.

Next, with a half-inch turning, join the sides of the bag together. Insert the handles. Stitch right across the gap left for them, then sew the handles flat to the bag.

Circular handles for the bag are made by stitching the webbing round thin pads of cottonwool.

The shopping bag can be glamourised by a dip in a dye bath. (Dyes also from Woolworth’s 4 1/2d.) After dyeing, when the bag is dry, a narrow bind of of contrasting colour stitched round the top is decorating and strengthening. Press (iron) the bag when this has been added.

The colour scheme of the bag illustrated is tangerine with a navy bind. Other good ones are cherry and black; and emerald and brown. A small oddment of any strong fabric can be used for the bind.”

Super-Boyfriends! #1: Stay At Home Dad

We at Bookshelf Boyfriend Towers don’t always want to sound down on boys, in fact we often think they can be rather wonderful! In order to mark our acknowledgment of this fact we have decided to profile the views, stories and opinions of some fine specimens of boys, today we are starting with the story of a Stay at Home Dad. If you are the exemplification of a Super-Boyfriend get in touch and tell us your story too.

My first year as a Stay At Home Dad

“I’ve been a Full Time Dad (FTD) – my label of choice – for about 18 months, since my wife returned to work after her maternity leave had finished. This decision was made on strictly financial terms. We didn’t want to put our daughter Mollie into a nursery and my wife earns more than I used to, so the moment we saw the blue line on the test I knew that my ‘working’ days were numbered.

Father Son and Purple by maubrowncow

99 days out of 100 I absolutely love it and wouldn’t change what I do for any obvious cliché you can think of. There is the odd day I pray for some adult company or even just some peace and quiet, but these are few and far between. I know that I am a very, very lucky man to do what I do. I have two women who love me dearly- one old enough to go back to work whilst I lounge at home all day watching Neighbours, play in the park with all the Mums and generally have lots of fun, and one who loves me enough to let me wipe her bum several times a day, clean up after her and generally wait on her hand and foot 24/7.

I started taking time off work for all the important things that I would have been there for anyway (scans, ante-natal classes etc) and was always very happy, bordering on proud to state at these that I was going to be a FTD. The usual reaction to this was jealousy from both sexes. Women said how great it’d be to spend all day with your child, and most men mentioned the words ‘Play Station’ at some point.

I didn’t tell anybody at work my intentions before I handed in my notice. I broke the news at the office by bringing in cakes for them. When I was asked what they were for I told them all that I’d just quit. I was so happy it was ridiculous. It was time for a new chapter in my life to begin.

I’d imagined that it would be an easy thing to do, get Mollie sleeping, do a bit of decorating (perhaps a bit of that Play Station thingy) and have the house finished by Christmas. That kind of thing. It soon became apparent that this was not the most realistic expectation and my goals quickly changed. I learned how to use the washing machine and how to cook food that didn’t involve a microwave. I became much more skilled around the house in general. I’d always considered myself to be a relatively modern and fairly domesticated chap, knowing which end of a Hoover did what, stuff like that. But I think it would be fair to say that I found my new role to be in a whole different league!

The most daunting thing was going to the Parent and Toddler groups for the first time. Imagine meeting your last boyfriend’s friends, parents & family, all on the same day, doubled. That is roughly what it feels like to be a bloke with a pram, walking into a Parent & Toddler group for the first time. The second time is relatively easier as you are not a stranger, but it still isn’t a picnic either.

Some of the moments that make you realise just how much of a woman’s world childcare is might sound really silly to people who have not seen it from the other side. For instance, in some shops and shopping centres the baby change facilities are in the Ladies toilets or are called Mother & Baby rooms. I know it sounds petty but it does niggle me. I will quite gladly walk through the Ladies to get to a baby changing room now! If Mollie needs a clean and there is only one place to do it, then that is where I will go.

When I first started taking Mollie swimming last summer the instructor used to tell us to put our children on our hips. I was sitting there saying to her – “errrr – I have no hips I’m a bloke!!” She is now much more used to me being there and in fact at this term’s swimming there were four dads in the water at the first lesson, which was quite nice for me. It shows how things are slowly changing for the better in my humble opinion.

A Father and Son by EJP Photo

My second most memorable comments have been: “oh look – a man with a pram, how strange!” (how much did that one annoy me?) and “Oh, playing Housemaid for the day are you?” (I wouldn’t mind, but she is a shopkeeper and says it EVERYTIME I go into her shop). Both of these comments have been from people I could politely call ‘older’. In stark contrast one of the people who seems the most impressed with what I’ve done is actually my Granddad. He never tires of telling me what a great job he thinks I’m doing and how he thinks “it’s bloody marvellous what you do boy”. (It can’t really be favouritism as he has six Grandchildren and five Great grandchildren.)

I’ve found that after a year or so people do get to know your face in the groups, the shops, the park and just generally out and about. I am on first name terms with quite a few people in my hometown – OK that’s not strictly true – quite a few people are on first name terms with Mollie! She seems to smile at everyone wherever we go, and people seem happy to stop and chat to her, so it can take a bit longer to do things when she is with me.

It does of course go without saying that the good times are also much, much better than I had anticipated them to be. Her first “Dada” had me pretty much in tears. I’ve seen her first steps, seen her poo into her potty for the first time. We’ve had a lovely summer managing to fill our days with walks to the park (always a lovely place to meet parents for a bit of that all elusive adult conversation), coffee mornings, trips to Croydon and Bluewater (she loved Bluewater- so many people to smile at!!). One of her Nans tend to come over most weeks, so I get to see them when they play with their first grandchild, which is a really rewarding thing for me.

I guess that I have been lucky enough to witness pretty much all of the traditional ‘firsts’ that most dads get to miss, and many other things as well. We’re really, really happy with the choices that we made way back when for me to ‘retire’ as I so laughingly joked at the time. We wouldn’t do anything differently given the choice.”

80s Glamour by Bethanie Lunn

If you can sing the rap to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, wore biker shorts under your skirts (and felt stylish), and watched Fraggle Rock then you were born in the 80s! A great decade though not usually remembered for its fashion genius. Regardless, the 80s are the inspirational decade of the moment and I have to say, through gritted teeth, I’m liking it.

I’m donning my leggings in the day with an oversized sweater that covers my behind (this is a MUST for anyone in leggings), and my body con dress at night.

Here are a few of my favourites…

Body Con Dresses

I didn’t think I could fit into one without resembling a sausage in too-tight casing but they really do hold you in, in all the right places if they’re made well, though a pair of Spanx won’t go amiss either.

Try the classic Red Ruched Bodycon Dress, £35.00 from Miss Selfridge or to embrace two trends in one hit, choose the Rare Multi Colour Body Con Dress, £40.00  – mini but flattering.

 

 

 

Colour Blocking

Bright colours are a hit every summer, we all know that but this season the way to wear them is in blocks of contrasting colours. 

  Have you noticed how fantastic Dorothy Perkins is at the moment? It’s oozing on-trend styles and covetable accessories and their Black colour block dress, £40.00  is a sure-fire way to make heads turn for all the right reasons.

 

 

Jump suits

Again, not a trend I thought would flatter me but jumpsuits cover a multitude of sins (and heavy suppers!), and if you choose the right one for your height, shape and style – you will look like a super stylish throw back.

Playsuits tend to be all-in-ones of a shorter length, often cropped at the knee or above whereas jumpsuits are often floor length, full trouser suits.

They’re great for work or the beach and both styles are so versatile. The look can change dramatically with accessories. Add a blazer and flats in the day for the office and exchange these for reams of mismatched chunky bangles, draping necklaces and sky-high stilettos for the bar.

For true slinky elegance, my favourite has to be the Karen Millen Jumpsuit, £160.00 (www.asos.com). Made of soft satin with a sash tie belted waist and a mandarin collar. If you check it out on ASOS, it has been reduced to £95.00! (Just don’t blame me if it has sold out by the time you look!)

 

All prices and stockists were accurate at the time of publishing.

Bethanie Lunn is now writing her Girls Guide to Fabulousness for Bookshelf Boyfriend.

A Girl’s Guide to Decorating – book review

 

This week we are LOVING A Girl’s Guide to Decorating by London-based interior designer Abigail Ahern! When it arrived on the doorstep of Bookshelf Boyfriend Towers there was a flurry of excitement as we all got to read through what has to be one of the most gorgeous DIY books published.

Filled with inspirational pictures that burst with colour on every page, it is impossible to browse this book without spending far longer than intended and wishing for more rooms in your home so that you can try out the various style and decorating tips.

From making tiny rooms feel more spacious, to tips on dividing up space in larger rooms, Abigail demonstrates how this can be done super-easily, cost effectively and, most importantly, stylishly. The presiding message of the book is that the best way to achieve this is by injecting your own personality through your home. It is a refreshing move from the bland “blank canvas” that has been so encouraged during the housing boom- when was a house was more a commodity than a home.

Abigail includes simple suggestions for how to approach each room and she fully explains all major decorating techniques with step-by-step instructions – from hanging wallpaper, to creating shelving and achieving different lighting effects. Chapters are based around fundamental elements of home design: space; colour; light; texture and the individual touches that make it your own.

Go on – glamorise your home and make it a hot property as well as a cool place to live!

 

Read extracted guides from the book on Bookshelf Boyfriend.com: How to sand and paint floors, and, How to box out shelves.

Buy A Girl’s Guide to Decorating on Amazon.

Make your own paper logs for burning

This is just a quick Thrift Bitch to tell you about something I have just discovered. 

Those of you lucky enough to have a working real flame fireplace will most likely have lit your last fire until the end of the summer (fingers crossed) but that is no need to not look forward to next winter. This contraption will also be of use to those who have a wood-burning stove.

The recycled paper brick maker is to me a wonderful contraption. Basically all you need to do is soak your old newspapers, place them in the brick making mould and then squeeze it to get rid of excess water. Then leave the new recycled paper brick to dry.

When completely dry it can be used in replacement of logs/coal, making it thrifty as all hell- pretty much free after you have bought the brick maker. On top of that it’s more environmentally friendly as you are not using carbon energy fuels and you are recycling something that would otherwise have gone to waste! Perfect.

Bricks burn for up to two hours. Prices vary from around £15- £30.

Check out Amazon for the eko-mania Heavy Duty Paper Log Maker, or B&Q for the Winther Brown Paper Log Maker.

See more tips and how-tos by our Nifty Thrifty .

May gardening jobs

The weather hasn’t exactly be great over the last few days, but we’re all promised at least a little bit sunshine this weekend. So what better than a perfect excuse to get yourself out in the garden and get on with a few of those jobs you’ve been meaning to get round to. They’re all pretty quick and simple, so you should get them done before the rain returns!

• Lettuce and mixed salad leaves, carrots, and beetroot can all be sown outside now. Courgettes and squash should be sown in pots on the windowsill, or in mounds of soil enriched with compost or manure.
• Watch out for frosts at night and cover any tender plants with fleece or polythene.
• Keep the hoe going up and down the rows, to keep weeds at bay before they have a chance to take hold.
• Water thirsty crops in the evening if the soil is dry, but not when the sun is high as it’s a waste of water and might burn tender foliage.
• If you didn’t get round to sowing tomatoes, peppers and aubergine earlier in the year, check out your local garden centre as they will have some interesting varieties for planting out when all danger of frost is past.

Thanks to Judy Maciejowska our resident Vegetable Gardening expert. Read more of her gardening advice in the Gardening Section of BookshelfBoyfriend.com.