Give them the gift of learning this Christmas with Learned.Live

You can give them the gift of learning this Christmas. 

From card tricks to basic diving techniques, starting your novel, learn the basics of drumming and a crash course in modelling with clay.

There's a wide and eclectic range of courses covering fields as diverse as Arts and Culture, Business and Finance, Health Beauty and Wellbeing, Humanities and Social Studies, Life Skills, Music, Science nd Tech, Sports and Outdoors, Hobbies and Crafts, Languages.

Teaching and Education, Charity Courses, Free and Taster Courses, Seasonal and Fun.

All of the courses are delivered by experts in their field. For example the card tricks course is taught by Johnathan Reynolds, a British-American who runs his own entertainments company and who has been performing before a wide variety of audiences worldwide for 14 years. He also offers courses in the English language and Chequers and Chess.

The courses are provided by Learned.live, a company founded by Johnathan Reynolds and Sophie Spencer.

The courses are served to students using the Zoom platform so they can learn either within their workplace or at home. 

Learned.Live was launched as a way for Sophie and Jonathan to deal with the first COVID restrictions that put their businesses on hold.

There's an interview with Sophie that explains all the details here https://bit.ly/3DTiMB4.

You can book courses with a gift voucher. Details of how to book the courses plus a full list of courses can be found here:- https://learned.live/.

A wine cooler for Christmas

If you do a lot of entertaining and have sufficient space, you should consider installing a dedicated wine cooler.

Haier offer a modern, attractive wine cooler with a 42 or 77 bottle capacity

You can keep track of your wine collection via a Wi-Fi app. 

It also features a dedicated and utterly unique humidity control air flow system that allows you to store your wine at the perfect temperature.

And it's got a special Dual Zone feature, with independent temperature control for storing red and white wines 

3D warm lighting system design to store wine for the optimum taste and colour

Temperature range between 5 and 20 degrees - preserves wine to the best flavour

Adjustable door – for easier opening for a tailor-made experience in your kitchen

Haier have launched a fabulous, new range of wine coolers. Wine Bank 50 Series 7. 

These new products which were first previewed at IFA last September, feature advanced technologies, premium design and a tailor-made experience. As more people become interested in wine both as an investment and as a hobby, wine cellars have increased in popularity. 

Available at AO and Currys. Visit www.haier-europe.com for details.

Christmas baubles, filled with gin that also light up

If you are looking for the ultimate in adult stocking fillers, the look no more! Because in our quest to find you fantastic Christmas gifts and treats, That's Christmas has found you some Christmas baubles that are filled with gin that also light up!

But it's not just any gin! This gin is crammed full of tantalising with a delicious winter berry gin liqueur and edible 23 karat gold leaf. You'll find notes of redcurrants, blueberries and cranberries.

The mini snow globes will sparkle on your tree. Merely press the button on the base to turn on the light and the bauble will light up for a full 10 minutes before turning itself off to save power,

Each bauble is decorated with a very pretty and utterly perfect Christmas scene to make a festive set.

Ideal sipped neat or served with a dry tonic or perhaps some ginger ale. Plus a good amount of ice (if icy cocktails is your thing. Looks good if garnished with your favourite winter berries or even out of season strawberries.

Where can you find these special Gravity Drinks baubles? They are stocked by Costco, Master of Malt, Amazon, Firebox and Harvey Nichols.

A set of six will cost £39.99 from Amazon.

Volcano Coffee your Christmas treat

If you are looking to buy someone some special Christmas coffee which not only tastes great but has some genuine green credentials, then fully independent South London coffee roasters Volcano Coffee Works have a gift list that is perfect for the speciality coffee lover.

What about the Volcano Coffee Works compostable coffee pod subscription? This suits a wide variety of different tastes. 

Each subscription contains 40 Nespresso®-compatible, 100% compostable and vegan friendly coffee pods. The capsules, lids and bag packaging are made from a bio-based cornstarch material. 

So after your coffee is made, just put the waste in your local council's food-waste collection bin. 

They are delivered free of charge. You can specify whether you want them delivered weekly or once a monthly.

The Volcano Coffee Works subscription pod options are:

The Bold Morning Shot with Nespresso® Compatible Eco Coffee Pods subscription is priced at £26 and available from the Volcano Coffee Works website: https://volcanocoffeeworks.com/products/subscription-bold-morning-shot-pods

Balanced All Day Subscription (Nespresso Compatible Eco Coffee Pods) - 40 pods subscription is £26 and is available from the Volcano Coffee Works website here: https://volcanocoffeeworks.com/products/subscription-balanced-nespresso-compatible-eco-coffee-pods

Reserve Rich Sweet Subscription (Nespresso Compatible Eco Coffee Pods) - 40 pods subscription is priced at £28 and is available from the Volcano Coffee Works website: https://volcanocoffeeworks.com/products/subscription-reserve-rich-sweet-pods

But there's another great gift that they'll really love you for. Thr Espresso Making and Latte Art Masterclass!

You can gift them the experience to learn the mastery of the espresso machine and all forms of espresso based drinks. 

Your gift recipient will learn the differences between each drink, plus how to serve the perfect version.

 Espresso making starts with coffee grinding, tamping and extracting espresso shots before moving onto the fundamentals of latte art. Participants will learn milk texturing, pouring and how to create latte art designs of Tulip, Heart and Rosetta.

A £65 ticket includes: A complimentary 200g bag of Volcano Coffee Works coffee, 10% off brewing equipment, a Volcano Coffee Works tote bag, a brew guide booklet to take home and a subscription offer. The ticket will be downloadable once purchased and can also be accessed through logging into your Volcano Coffee Works website if the recipient can’t attend the date it can be easily changed to another available date.

https://volcanocoffeeworks.com/collections/gifts/products/espresso-making-and-latte-art-masterclass-2022?variant=41311069601973

Roaster's Choice Coffee Gift Subscription

Volcano Coffee Work's Gift Subscription delivers a unique new coffee to subscribers every month. Pay for your friend or family member to receive three, six or twelve months deliveries and start them on a voyage through a world of new coffees.

The Roaster’s Choice includes:

400g of limited edition coffee from a new country each month

Coffees of the world information cards to learn more about the coffees and how to brew them

The set is £17 from https://volcanocoffeeworks.com/collections/gifts/products/roasters-choice-coffee-gift-subscription?variant=37452021235893

Their first Christmas together!

 

Nyetimber has partnered with professional tablescapers, Lay London, to launch their first ever Christmas tableware gift set

This Christmas, English Sparkling Wine producer, Nyetimber, is collaborating with expert tablescapers, Lay London, to create a range of very exclusive festive homeware items, available to both buy and also to rent.

Sisters Jemima and Alice Herbert founded Lay London, the city’s first tablescape rental service to deliver beautiful dinner party looks straight to the door. And for Christmas 2021 they have designed tableware items especially for Nyetimber.

In each of the products, the sisters have taken inspiration from Nyetimber’s colour palette. The spearmint green of the Cuvee Chérie bottle foil and the iconic Nyetimber Routemaster bus forms the base of the scheme and for Christmas 2021, the bus is returning in the form of a festive bauble. Lending a fresh twist on the typical Christmas setting, the collection combines the Nyetimber green with wintery blues, snow white and hints of festive sparkle.

All good dinner tables begin with a beautiful tablecloth, which is the first of three items exclusively created for Nyetimber. Lay London has produced a large hand-block printed tablecloth with a powder blue and green floral base. By combining rich colours with a bold pattern, the cloth is still suitably festive, with a contemporary makeover. 

To compliment the look, there is also a set of eight cotton napkins, adorned with a minimalist, hand-printed take on a traditional Christmas tree. Finally, to tie the whole scheme together, Lay London has put a Nyetimber twist on their trademark marbled dinner candles. Tall, glossy candles, hand-dipped in marbled hues of mint and emerald-green, have been designed by Lay to complete the classic yet modern look this Christmas. 

Discussing the collaboration, the Herbert sisters said: “It’s been a real joy to partner with Nyetimber, such a modern yet iconic luxury British brand this Christmas. We love creating bespoke tablescapes so when tasked with using the Nyetimber brand and heritage as inspiration, we were keen to get going. Traditionally, Christmas décor is associated with rich reds and a deeper palette which we’ve steered away from in favour of a contemporary look with a variety of textures and bright, vibrant patterns. Nyetimber may use traditional production methods and be steeped in history, however it’s a forward-thinking brand which we wanted to reflect in our scheme.”

CEO and Owner Eric Heerema added: “Precision and attention to detail run through the core of everything we do at Nyetimber, so I was delighted to see the efforts that Jemima and Alice went to, to incorporate the Nyetimber ethos into the overall scheme. Their modern reimagining of Christmas is beautiful and once a bottle of Nyetimber is brought out on Christmas Day, the whole table will be complete and really sing.

The exclusively designed items are available to purchase as part of two gift bundles, bringing together the best of Lay London and Nyetimber. There is also the option to rent the full tablescape with wine. Please visit www.nyetimber.com.

Draw your own 3-D Sweets with Polaroid

Just in time for Christmas 2021, Menkind have brought to market a truly stunning technological innovation. A device that lets you draw and print your own sweets in 3D!

Menkind are the exclusive retailers of the Polaroid Candy Play 3D Pen, with which you can actually draw your own sweets!

It's an easy-use pen device that employs edible filaments that are available in six different flavours, or a you can used mixed flavours.

What flavours are available? Apple, Cola, Grape, Lemon, Mixed Flavours, Orange and Strawberry. 

To launch your new career as a 3D Christmas sweet printer you get four free strawberry-flavoured cartridges. Plus they provide a special finishing cartridge that ensures you can use every particle of the sweet stuff in your cartridge.

And you can order as many replacement cartridges in whatever flavours you want.

What can you design? Houses made from sweets, lovely little crowns, flowers, little bushes, in fact you can make just about anything you can conceive.

Make edible personalised party treats, or even create very exclusive cake toppings. And even if your design might not work out perfectly, don't worry! You, your family and friends can hide the evidence by eating them and starting all over again!

The sweets created are vegan friendly and totally sugar-free, so nobody needs to miss out on these wonderful 3-D sweets!

It's specially designed for easy cleaning and it's powered by via USB-C.

It's suitable for people age 14 and up. But, of course, you'll be able to make sweets for all your younger siblings and relatives.

The Polaroid Candy Play 3D Pen (complete with four strawberry flavoured cartridges to start you off) costs £35.

Extra 40 filament packs can cost £14.97.

To order your Polaroid Candy Play 3D Pen you can visit your local branch of Menkind or order on line at https://www.menkind.co.uk/.

You'll also find a whole host of other amazing gift ideas from stuff for foodies (including a sausage making machine!) to novelty items to high tech gadgets.

Have yourself a Laura Ashley Christmas

There's a lot going on this Christmas at Laura Ashley. In fact, there's always a lot going on every Christmas at Laura Ashley, ever since Bernard and Laura Ashley launched the brand back in 1953.

So, what nifty gifty ideas can you find at Laura Ashley for this Christmas?

Everyone loves a nice sea breeze. So why not make Beachcomber one of your Christmas gifts this year?

They'll be able to infuse their home with a fresh coastal breeze. When they open it, they delight in fresh fruity notes of sweet, ripe melon and crunchy apple, which are matched with seaside floral scents, with an underpinning of creamy sandalwood. 

The top notes featured are: Apple, Lemon. The heart notes: Lily of the Valley, Ozonic Notes, Base notes: Violet, Sandalwood. It's £16 for a 100 ml difuser.

Or perhaps you will be buying a gift for a candle lover? Then look no further than this delightful candle. 

With a burn time of some 40 hours, they'll be able to bring about a welcoming and homely environment with its enjoyable and comforting floral fragrance with notes of freshly pressed linen, fragrant jasmine and soft white musk.

It is 8.5cm tall and has a diameter of 12cm. And it costs £18.

Buying a delightful fur throw can be a little bit of a challenge. After all, whilst everyone loves the look of fur, we don't all want real fur these days.

Which is where this comes in to its own and makes a might fine Christmas gift. 

It's a gorgeous soft chocolate fur throw. The Hexham throw has a velvet velour reverse featuring an exquisitely embroidered Laura Ashley signature.

It's absolutely perfect for creating a warm and cosy look in any room. Ideal for an orangery, a conservatory or a garden room, perhaps? 

It's dry clean only and is 100% Polyester. It's available at £140.

Also available is the matching Hexham soft chocolate fur cushion with velvet velour reverse featuring a beautifully embroidered Laura Ashley signature. A cushion pad is included for instantly plush style.

Or perhaps you have someone in mind who has a space in their home (and heart!) for a stunningly attractive clock this Christmas?

The high-shine mirror surface of the Laura Ashley Lexham Clock is perfect for contemporary homes, and the modern, sleek feel is a perfect complement to chic and clean interiors.

Its height is 32cm, the width is 5cm and it's 15cm deep. It costs £34.

Actually, giving this matter some thought, if you are going to gift them the Lexham Clock, why not also buy them an utterly delightful and charming set of two mirrored Laura Ashley trinket boxes with gorgeous, beautiful mirrored panelling. Largest H9.2 cm, W98 cm, D98 cm. Smallest H7.2 cm, W8.1 cm, D8.1 cm. £22 for the set of two makes this an affordable Christmas present.

Of course, that's only a tiny part of the range of eminently suitable Christmas gifts from Laura Ashley, so please visit https://www.next.co.uk/laura-ashley to learn more about what's available. Incidentally it was my wife who introduced me to the quirky and delightful world of Laura Ashley over 30 years ago.