Käthe Wohlfahrt - York

Also known as Heaven on Earth.

I wanted to do this post way back in August not long after I had been to this beautiful shop....but I thought It might be a bit to early for the christmas blog posts to start (and that's coming from me a person who spends all year obsessing over christmas).

Every year I go to York I ALWAYS ended up in the Christmas shop...this year I discovered that my favourite little shop had gone and a new and bigger christmas shop had opened up just around the corner. 

This shop is huge (Its like the Tardis....bigger on the inside!), spread over two floors and each room has different decorations for example - Advent Calendars and Cards, Nutcrackers and a room just filled with cuckoo clocks.

I loved the attention to detail - the shop is originally German (the branch in York is the first in the UK) so they have traditional German christmas music playing, the uniform has been kept quite traditional something they would wear in Germany, as well as all this they have the biggest nutcracker I have ever seen (When we walked through the town one evening, everywhere was shut I passed this shop and they had the nutcracker standing in the door way and it terrified the life out of me!) as well as a large (going through both floors) spinning christmas tree.

I have now made myself miss being in York even more after doing this post - oh how I wish I was going into this shop again...until next August!

Note: I did get some decorations from here but I have brought a selection of new christmas decorations this year I might do a separate post on them.

The Teddy Bear Tea Rooms

(These pictures are making me wish I was back in York...)

I have been to the Teddy Bear shop many times when I have been in York, but until recently I didnt know they had a Tea Room upstairs. 

The Tea Room is on 2 floors over three small rooms, Its a very traditional looking place but with a non traditional and modern way of presenting food. As I hadn't been in here before I expected it to be like an old cafe that hasn't updated itself since the 80s - where it would smell of bake potatoes and have a variety of odd sandwiches.

I was overly impressed with everything.

I opted for a gingerbread hot chocolate (Which I wish I had in-front of me right now...) and a Toasted Tea cake. The gingerbread  hot chocolate was hands down one of the most amazing hot chocolate I have ever had - I am now obsessed with Gingerbread Hot chocolates.
They have a wide variety of foods and drinks - from a Teddy Bears Picnic to a fancy Victoria sponge cake displayed on a wooden board with cream - Everything is reasonably priced as well.

If you are ever in York I highly recommend the Teddy Bear Tea Rooms.

http://www.stonegateteddybears.co.uk/

Frosted Fairground at Dreamland!

On Sunday I FINALLY got around to visiting Dreamland in Margate! The park re opened its doors this year on June 19th (my birthday). Through out December the park has been free to visit but you have to pay for the rides - I unfortunately didnt get to go on any of the rides but I just enjoyed going around looking at everything going on and snapping away with my camera. 

Everyone kept saying to me before I went; 'Dremland was rubbish' and  'Waste of time' - I loved it, I love how they have kept it so traditional with the rides, layouts and the arcade games inside. My perfect place - I hate all these fast and over the top rides.

Can not wait to visit again! I'm tempted to go back again this week as its free but I would happily pay the normal price for dreamland.

Gingerbread men

Baking gingerbread men is a typical christmas tradition everyone does, I make gingerbread biscuits every year but in your classic christmas shapes...and a teddy bear as the gingerbread man. This year I finally decided to pick up a gingerbread man cutter and made some actual gingerbread men and thought I would share with you how I made them. 

What you will need:

350g Flour
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
2tsp ground ginger
1tsp ground cinnamon
125g butter
175g light brown sugar
1 egg
4tbsp golden syrup

Method:

1. Like normal...lets get the boring things out of the way first by pre heating your oven to 180 degrees.

2. Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon once combined add in your butter and rub together until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs - mix in the sugar
3. Lightly beat the egg and golden syrup together and add to the mixture, mix all together until formed into a dough.
4. Leave the dough to cool in the fridge for 15min.
5. Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface, using your cutter, cut out the gingerbread men and place onto the baking tray - Leaving gaps in between.
6. Bake for 10-15mins until lightly golden brown - leave to completely cool on a cooling rack before icing and decorating.

I decorated mine with little red bow ties, some with waist coats, edible glitter and some little snow flakes.

enjoy baking!

How I decorate my room for Christmas!

My favourite thing to do this time of year is decorate the house top to bottom in Christmas decorations. When it comes to decorations I love the traditional colours; Greens, Reds,White. This year I wanted t get a new tree for my bedroom as my last tree is about 5yrs old and has gone completely flat one side and looks a complete mess when its up. My new tree I have had up since the 17th November, I couldn't just leave it in the box and wait until December 1st. I wanted to share with you the way I decorate my room for the Christmas season.

View of my room from outside, Last year on my door I had a wreath but I have no idea where that has gone. For now I have a wooden 'Merry Christmas' Sign from Tesco £1.

Behind my door I have a wicker basket which normally is in front of the radiator. On this I have a cushion from Primark, Tiger from Kipper which I brought from a Wildlife Park, My Mum's old film Camera and Beanie Babies tree decorations. I have no idea where these are from we have had them for a long time.

On my wardrobe I have the cutest reindeer decoration again from Tesco £1.50.

On my shelf's I don't have many Christmas decorations, Hanging of I have a Gold glitter bird cage from Next last year, I think this was £3.50. They wont have this any more but I think they do something similar but regardless look at Next Christmas decorations as they are amazing. I keep this up all year, I love decorations that aren't to christmassy and can be kept up all year. The other thing on myself is a Winnie the pooh decoration, his little lantern used to light up red. This used to belong to my Grandma, I don't have a clue where this came from, I remember it on her tree when I was alot younger and it used to be one of my favourite decorations.

I love having Lights around my bed these ones are from the pound shop but you can get lights like this any where. Also hanging on my bed I have a Tree decoration that's meant to look like gingerbread, This came in a set of three; Tree, House and Ginger bread man from again Pound land, last year. Just above my bed I have a Deer head decoration wearing a Christmas bow, This was £1.50 from Tesco and another Winnie the Pooh bell decoration which belonged to my Grandma.

Save the best for last...The Tree!!

The tree it's self was £5.99 from Homebase half price. Lights - £1 Pound land. Red and Green small baubles set of 24 for £1.50- Tesco. Red and White bells (Not sure on the price) Wooden Robin- £1.50, Father Christmas- £1.50, Cinnamon Sticks- £1 ALL from Wilkinsons. Nutcracker- £1 Tesco.