Christmas Gift Guide: Top 10 Personalised Gifts for Baby

That first Christmas for a baby is a magical time for parents and grandparents alike - mark the occasion with a unique and truly memorable gift...

1: 'Angel Wings' Fantasy Portrait, from £15
2: Personalised Handpainted Star, choice of colours available, £17.50
3: 'Alphabet' Personalised Name Print, wide choice of colours and styles available, £14.50
4: Personalised Birth Prints, range of colours available, £16.50
5: 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' Personalised Embroidery Hoop Print, £18.50
6: 'Once Upon a Time' Personalised Embroidery Hoop Print, £18.50
7: 'Personality' Canvas Print, from £25
8: 'Floral' Personalised Handmade Photo Album, range of designs available, £25
9: 'Mouse Family' Personalised Canvas Print, from £16.95
10: 'Elephant' Personalised Handpainted Gift Plate, wide range of designs and colours available, £21.50

Delivery within the UK is free of charge, so you can order as much or as little as you would like, and you can order as often as you like without getting hit with P&P costs!

Come back again same time tomorrow for some great gift ideas for those hard-to-buy-for grandparents...

Sarah x

Christmas Gift Guide: Top 10 Personalised Gifts for Mum

Mum's always deserve something special at Christmas, so give her something totally unique this year that she will treasure...

1: Personalised Handmade Photo Album, various designs available, £25
2: 'Mum is Never Wrong' Personalised Print, available in a choice of colours, £14.50
3: 'Bless This House' Personalised Canvas Print, from £16.95
4: Personalised Handpainted Gift Plate, various designs and colours available, £21.50
5: 'Mum' Personalised Handmade Wooden Photo Blocks, ('Mummy' also available), £25.95
6: 'Home Sweet Home' Handpainted Shelf Sitter Blocks, £21.95
7: Personalised Ceramic Mixing Bowl, 2 designs available, £24.95
8: 'Garden' Personalised Embroidery Hoop Print, various designs available, £18.50
9: Personalised Family Tree Print, £16.95
10: Personalised Newspaper Print, wide choice of designs available, from £12.50

Don't forget, UK delivery is free at PhotoFairytales! You can order as much or as little as you like, and as often as you like, and there are no nasty P&P charges to worry about!

You can see all the last recommended order dates for Christmas delivery on the website by clicking here.

More ideas same time tomorrow!
Sarah x

Christmas Gift Guide: Top 10 Personalised Gifts for Dad

Dad's - they're one of the hardest people to buy for! Don't get stuck and resort to socks and chocs again this year, go for something a bit different...

1: Personalised Official FC Magazine Print, various teams available, from £19.99
2: Personalised Cook's Conversion Chart, available in 2 sizes and a wide choice of colours, from £14.50
3: 'Our Dad' Personalised Print, available in a choice of colours, £14.50
4: Personalised Hammer, £15.95
5: 'Moustache' Vintage Style Personalised Print, various styles available, £14.50
6: Personalised Office FC Mug, various teams available, £9.95
7: Personalised 'Underground' Metal Street Sign, various designs available, from £17.50
8: 'Superbear' Personalised Canvas Print, from £16.95
9: Personalised Handpainted Gift Plate, various designs and colours available, £21.50
10: Personalised Newspaper Print, wide choice of designs available, from £12.50

Don't forget, UK delivery is free at PhotoFairytales! You can order as much or as little as you like, and as often as you like, and there are no nasty P&P charges to worry about!

You can see all the last recommended order dates for Christmas delivery on the website by clicking here.

More ideas coming your way tomorrow!
Sarah x

Christmas Gift Guide: Top 10 Personalised Gifts for Christmas

Christmas shopping season is hotting up now, so over the next 10 days I'm going to be posting some great ideas to get your gift shopping sorted.

Don't forget, delivery is free at PhotoFairytales, so you can order as much or as little as you like or as often as you like and you won't have any nasty P&P charges to worry about!

The first round up if all things Christmassy to really get you in the mood...

1: Triple Christmas Photo Plaques, various designs available - £21.50
2: Handpainted Christmas Plates, various designs and styles available - £21.50
3: 'Pull My Cracker' Personalised Print, choice of colours available - £14.50
4: 'Brown Bear' Personalised Canvas Print, from £16.95
5: Handpainted Wooden Christmas Plaques, various styles available, from £11.99
6: 'The Night Before Christmas' Fantasy Portrait, from £15
7: 'My Dear' Personalised Canvas Print, from £16.95
8: 'Christmas Rabbit' Personalised Embroidery Hoop Print, £18.50
9: Personalised Baby Board Books, various styles and sizes available, from £13.95
10: Personalised Santa Letter Gift Packs, limited edition, £6.50

You can see all the last recommended order dates for Christmas delivery by clicking here. Don't leave it too late!


More great gift ideas for you tomorrow,
Sarah x

What I love this week...

I recently made a discovery on Facebook - a little gem of a shop, that is overflowing with the most charming and adorable creations and I just have to share it with you...

Amy Harrold is the very talented lady behind Pixie Craft Dolls, where she creates magical one-off crocheted dolls that are just beautiful.

Every doll Amy creates is unique, and you can tell just by glimpsing the photos, how much love she puts into her work. Each of her dolls seems to have their own personality - and they are sure to become treasured items.

As well as creating individual dolls, Amy also makes lovely scenes presented in box frames which would look stunning in a baby's nursery. Prices in her Etsy shop range from just £3.50 for her wonderful crocheted biscuits to £39-40 for a box frame. The 10" individual figures are around £20-22.

You can visit Amy's shop on Etsy by clicking here: but if you're thinking about Christmas gift shopping be quick as she will be closing her order book at the end of November!

Sarah :)

Brand new gift range now available...

I'm really proud of my new range of prints - these have been a labour of love, and something I've been working on for ages to get just right...

There are 11 designs to choose from, with styles suitable for all sorts of occasions: new baby, christening, wedding, anniversary, Christmas, birthday and more. They're all created to order and personalised with your own names and dates - plus you can also have your own personal message printed onto the back too.

Each one is printed onto high quality crisp white cotton, and stretched onto a woodgrain effect 6" hoop. They're finished with a handsewn button and dressed with white ribbon so that they're ready to hang straight out of the box.

I very much hope you'll like them - you can see the whole range on the PhotoFairytales site here.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear from you!
Sarah x

Growing old - disgracefully

Call me a weirdo, but ever since I was a little girl I've often wondered about what type of old lady I would be... like I said, call me a weirdo!

I remember seeing Margaret Rutherford in Blithe Spirit and thinking she was probably the coolest old lady I'd ever seen - all tweed skirts and bead necklaces swinging about: brilliant! I quite liked the idea of being one of those 'stuff and nonsense' type of old ladies - the kind that can say anything and unconsciously intimidate everyone they meet.

Then, of course, there's the elegant Audrey Hepburn type - impeccably dressed, silk stockings, hair in a chignon.... I think to be this kind of old lady you have to be that kind of young lady, and I've never ever been able to pull off the groomed look so I think this is going to be unachievable.

Mad cat lady with lots of carrier bags, wearing pop socks and a pack-a-mac? Well, that's probably an easier look! Plus you get to stop and stare at people (it's only old ladies and toddlers that can get away with this), and that's quite a fun idea....

And then there's the hair - my daughter is convinced that old ladies have white fluffy curly hair so that they look like clouds, ready for when they float up to heaven (morbid child). Perhaps I will have a purple rinse? Or dye it jet black. Who knows...

Whatever I end up being, I sincerely hope I'll be a cool old lady. In the meantime, there's a fetching tweed cape they're selling in LaRedoute - maybe I should start collecting my old lady costume in readiness!

Sarah ;)

Why is the High Street called the High Street?

Lots of times I talk about the fact that the items you find on PhotoFairytales you can’t find on the high street. Not being able to find something on the high street is seen as something that gives an item a sense of prestige and scarcity. If it’s something found on the high street then any Tom, Dick or Harry can buy it and that means it isn’t your special, unique discovery!

When you hear the term ‘high street’ you tend to picture a street aimed fairly squarely at retail, full of shops and bustle. But why is it called a ‘high street’, even if the street in question is actually named something completely different? Apparently it all started around 1000AD - when the word ‘high’ was used in the context of superiority (think ‘high society’, ‘high ranking’). A ‘high street’ also physically reflected a road that was built more substantially as a main thoroughfare - above all the mud and mire on normal streets!

So the main street through a town became the ‘high street’ because it was usually the only one that wasn’t a mud trail and along which retailers naturally wanted to sell their wares. Now High Street is the most common road name in the UK: there are nearly 5,500 of them. And they all look the same and sell the same stuff - which is why shopping online for your Christmas presents makes so much more sense!

Sarah ;)

Are you on Santa's Nice List this year..?

It's a magical time of year, and at PhotoFairytales HQ that means one thing: Santa Letters!

After lots of important meetings with the big man in the red suit, conversations about who should be on the Nice List, what goodies they could be sent, etc etc, I'm pleased to announce that the 2015 Letters are now on sale. It's the seventh year in a row that Santa has asked PhotoFairytales to be the official supplier of his extra-special letters, and the 2015 ones are going to be just great!

Now, let's face it, there are lots of companies out there selling personalised Santa Letters. Some of them are cheap - really cheap. But not one of them is quite like these... you see, to start with, Santa signs each and every one himself with his special fountain pen.

Yes, if you get a PhotoFairytales letter you'll know that Santa has actually handled it himself - and composed it himself too. Those cheap letters I mentioned? They're all computer generated - every one is fed into a database, someone hits the 'print' button, and every letter comes out exactly the same as the last. But not these one - no siree bob!

The PhotoFairytales letters are packed with detail - and each one is written especially for the recipient. So, if they received a PhotoFairytales letter last year then the letter they get this year will be different. And if they have brothers and sisters who will be receiving letters too, each letter will be different. After all, why would Santa repeat himself and say the exact same thing to you?!

So the letters are really rather special - plus, they come with a superb quality glossy card certificate which has also been signed by Santa and on which he'll also write the recipient's name. Not only that, but he likes to pop in some extra little gifts too - because let's face it, waiting for Christmas to arrive is hard work when you're counting the days until December 25th, so some little early Christmas presents are always great to receive!

Once Santa has written his letter, filled out the certificate, handwritten the envelope and picked some presents for you, he will package everything up into a big jolly red envelope and add in a pinch of genuine North Pole sprinkles. He then passes the letters through to the Elf Quality Control Department who check each letter and give it their stamp of approval. The final touch is a 'special delivery' sticker.

So, it's fair to say that these letters are really rather special. And remember, he only writes a very limited number of them. These letters are only sent to children that are at the very top of the Nice List! If you think you know someone who should receive one of these letters then you need to put their name down quickly - just visit photofairytales.co.uk/santaletter and reserve yours now before they all go! 

And better yet, each and every letter also raises money for The Children's Society - a UK charity fighting child poverty and neglect. Christmas is a time for giving and thinking of others, and your letter will be supporting their great work.

If you still haven't made up your mind, just take a look at some of the customer comments that Santa received in previous years. Have a little extra magic delivered this Christmas.

Sarah :)