We got all excited over Christmas craft and festive products at our #HandmadeChristmas bloggers event... read more
It may only be October, but Christmas is well and truly here at the Laura Ashley HQ. Our highly anticipated Christmas products have now landed online and in stores, and to celebrate we decided to hold a very Christmassy affair last week and to invite along our favourite bloggers. Braving the well and truly wintery conditions, our bloggers travelled to Homemade London in Marble arch to come and swoon over all things festive. We transformed the venue into our very own Winter Wonderland, complete with Arthur the reindeer, a 6ft Christmas tree, and lets not forget those Christmas nibbles and music. Being the crafty lot that we are, we also decided to put the bloggers to the test and get creative with some of our AW wallpaper and fabric at the event…
Stag Snow Globe | Star Fairy Lights
Christmas Glitter Candle | Antler Candle Holder | Snowman Christmas Light | Sledge String Lights | White Glitter Christmas Tree Candle
Transforming upstairs into a silver and white Winter Wonderland, this was the perfect setting to show off all our sparkly Christmas product. From silver glitter candles, to sledge fairy lights, there was a festive product for everyone on display. We’re personally pretty smitten with these antler deer candle holders, and our Christmas Pomander Diffuser well and truly set the scene with an aroma of vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg… yum!
Tree Decorations | Glitter Pinecone | Chandelier Decoration
Our VM and graphics team did an amazing job with our Christmas window display, there’s no missing us!
Baby, it’s cold outside…
Matinee and Log Cabin fashion collections – available soon!
We were so excited to show off our latest fashion collections at the event. Everything from Christmas jumpers to winter whites was on display, and our white fur coat was definitely a favourite with the bloggers out there! Our Matinee collection showcases our Christmas occasion wear, from a little red dress to embellished tops, whilst our Log Cabin collection is all about cosy knits. Take a peek online to see these launch in the next few weeks. These brogues are already online and selling fast! The perfect shoe to team with your chunky layers as we step into Winter.
Our favourite nibbles of the evening has to go to our Biskies! Well and truly getting into the festive spirit, we opted for Mince Pie and Chocolate Orange alongside some classic flavours. Of course, they wouldn’t be complete without a Laura Ashley stamp of course! Do you recognise our iconic Summer Palace print?
The ladies from Lipstick and Curls
We were thrilled to have the lovely ladies from Lipstick and Curls at the event, creating vintage hair dos for all our bloggers from beehives to vintage curls. Here’s the talented Jodie from A Handmade Cottage getting pampered!
Sarah Feather’s Wallpaper Snowflakes – How pretty are these?
Stag Design Cushions | Cranbourne Cranberry Cushion | Beaded Reindeer Cushion
Red and Gold Crackers | Red Candle | Nibbles Platter | Christmas Fragrance | Cake Stand | Winter Fruits Candle | Mistletoe Mug | Robin Tree Decoration
Downstairs is where the magic happened. We transformed the space into a sparkly grotto, full of our red and gold festive product to get into the Christmas mood. Bloggers were encouraged to snap a picture of their favourite Christmas goodie, and this selection certainly went down a treat! Can’t you just imagine cosying up with a hazelnut latte in the mistletoe mug?
The VM team had so much fun displaying all these products, a particular favourite being the gold sparkle reindeer. Our red and gold collection has everything you need for a beautiful Christmas table display; from scented candles, to festive nibble platters, to pretty cake stands.
Sarah from our VM team sporting a retro do!
Nancy from Homemade London teaching the bloggers craft
Aimee from Wallflower Girl wearing her handmade Christmas Flower Crown
Natasha from Candy Pop getting creative with our Christmas Cards
Downstairs is where the craft took place. We had three Christmas craft tables for bloggers to try their hand at, including stocking customisation using our AW fabrics (one of a kind stockings may we add!) , Christmas paper cutting using our iconic wallpaper prints, and winter flower crowns using our new in fabric. The most popular had to be the flower crowns and we loved seeing the bloggers sporting these in the photo-booth! Each craft was fairly simple to try out, and was a great way to get into the festive spirit.
Last but by no means least, for the first time ever at our bloggers event we had the lovely team from Photo Automattey join us with their mobile photobooth! Sporting retro hair dos and flower crowns, bloggers flocked to have their photos taken in the festive booth. Here’s some of our favourite snaps featuring Claire, Katy, Rebecca, Aimee, Teri, Emma, Ruth and Lauren. (Psst… that’s our giant cracker!)
A HUGE thank you to all the wonderful bloggers who came to the event: Aspiring Kennedy, Lobster and Swan, Torie Jayne, Kat That Got The Cream, We Made This Home, Wallflower Girl, Little Winter, A Handmade Cottage, The Planned Adventure, The Lovely Drawer, Emma Block, Flower Rona, It’s Cohen, Rock my Style, Candy Pop, Jazz Pad, The Fabulous Times, In my Sunday Best, and Bang on Style.
We would also like to thank Sarah Feather design for the wonderful wallpaper snowflakes! (make and do here), our VM team for the beautiful display, Tom and co from Photoautomattey, the Lipstick and Curls girls, the team at Cutter and Squige, and let us not forget the wonderful hostesses Nancy and Nicola at Homemade London.
We’ll be announcing the winner of our Christmas hamper very soon, so keep an eye on our Twitter @LauraAshleyUK, plus we’ll be giving away a few unique stockings! Meanwhile, take a peek at the full Christmas range online now, look out for new fashion collections dropping soon, or have a browse at our Instagram for more snaps of the evening…
The Laura Ashley team in our Christmas jumpers! X