Christmas Guest Post by The Shine Project

Today I am taking part in a series of Christmas tradition-themed posts over at The Shine Project. So the lovely Ashley from said blog has created this post for me, in which she'll tell us about her favourite Christmas traditions, enjoy!

Hey all you pretties on the other side of the pond :)

My name is Ashley, I run the blog The Shine Project, and live in America with my sweet husband and pup Oliver.

Christmas is my favorite time of the year.

Not because of the presents (We're actually not getting them this year, just giving to two families who otherwise would not have it), not because of the good food (although it makes my tummy so happy), or sparkly lights....

But because of the love that comes along with the season. The celebration of Christ's birth brings more happiness to the air, and it brings a time that causes reflection and gratitude.

There are a few Christmas traditions that are my absolute favorites!

One is exchanging pajamas on Christmas Eve. My husband and I get each other PJs, and we spend the night at my family's house snuggling, eating, and watching Christmas movies.

Another tradition I love is called the Christmas Service Star.

Growing up, my mom had this beautiful wooden star. She would start it off by doing a small service for someone in the family... Then whoever had the star would anonymously give it to someone else. We'd make each others bed, leave a small note of encouragement, buy them their favorite candy, etc, and leave the star where they could see it. It was always so fun, and my family grew closer because of it.

I encourage you to do something for someone else this Christmas, and feel the love and joy of the season.

I can't wait to meet you! Come over HERE, and say hi! And leave your favorite Christmas tradition if you would like to share :)

Champs Elysées - J'Adore!

My dress from Shabby Apple has arrived, hooray! I absolutely adore it, I love the flirty vintage feel, and the cut is perfect for curvy girls. This dress is called Champs Elysées, and you can find it here. J'adore!

Saffron Muffins for Advent

Today is what we in Sweden call the Second of Advent. Advent is a way of counting down to, and preparing for Christmas Eve. Advent starts on the fourth Sunday before the 24th of December, and on every Advent Sunday we light a candle on a special Advent candle stick.

Then you usually eat some kind of goodies!

Here in London I don't have an Advent candle stick, but I celebrated Advent by baking saffron muffins with marzipan inside, yum!

In winter I also like to gorge on clementines and oranges, and with some chocolate thrown in it wasn't a bad Second of Advent!

Happy Sunday everyone!

Pomegranate Pattern Moodboard

Hey everyone and Happy Friday!

Today I'm working on a pattern that is inspired by pomegranate fruits! I am inspired by their intense colour and intricately designed sockets of seeds, it has to be one of the most beautiful fruits. What's your favourite fruit looks wise?

First image is my own, sources for the rest are: 2, 3, 4, 5

Gems of the Net: Christmas Edition

It's the first of December tomorrow! I can't believe how quickly time has passed since summer, but I am very excited about all the fun things that comes with Christmas. So to get in the mood, here's a special Christmas edition of 'Gems of the Net', enjoy!

1. What's more welcoming than a lovely Christmas wreath on the front door? This beautiful letter wreath was created by Adrienne of Our Unexpected Journey, she shares how to here.

2. I love wrapping presents in creative ways! Here are some really cute ideas by Ellinée.

3. Edible typographic poster by Anna Garforth, looks both beautiful and yummy!

4. Tree decorations for the design nerd - Pantone baubles. Created by Selab Studios for Italian design house Seletti.

5. My favourite Christmas smells are of Swedish pepparkaka and oranges with cloves in them, these pretties are from 'Lilla A' blog.

6. Hand made gifts are so sweet and fun to receive, I love this tile coaster gift tutorial by Lindsay of The Cottage Home.

7. Since I was little I've always loved making Christmas candy, here are two excellent recipes from Söta Saker: Chocolate Fudge and Fig and Nut Chocolate Slab (use google translator if you're not Swedish.).

8. Lucia in St. Paul's church. I've never been but I've heard it's so beautiful. Such a shame I wasn't able to get a ticket! Photo from here.

9. Another sweet gift idea; how to make a teacup candle. Tutorial by Bayside Bride, photographs by Natalie Franke.

10. And to round it off, some irresistibly cute wrapping papers from Minimega.

Calling For December Sponsors!

Ho ho ho!

Who wants to sponsor A Piece of Lisa for the month of December?

The month leading up to Christmas will be packed with posts about the perfect gifts, food, decorations and DIY's, it's the happiest time of the year and perfect for advertising your business, website, blog or Etsy shop.

A Piece of Lisa now has an average of 11.000 unique visitors per month, with a record of 1261 visits in one day! With over 800 followers and lots of recent exposure on sites such as Poppytalk, Craftgawker and Pinterest there are exciting times ahead!

If you're interested in sponsoring A Piece of Lisa you can check out my sponsorship info here or email me at lisaedoff [at] gmail [dot] com

Many thanks for your consideration!

A Fashionable Goose and The Best Pasta in London

This week I was invited to a really fun launch party at Coach on New Bond St.

It was the revealling of this new tote bag designed by fabulous fashion blogger Emily Johnston, editor of Fashion Foie Gras. I think the bag is gorgeous, and it's perfect for bloggers because it has a really clever compartment for your dslr camera!

Here's the lovely Emily herself with her creation. Emily is known for being the nicest woman in fashion!

I love photo booths, so fun at parties! The second pic of Lauren cracks me up, she looks like a teenager with an attitude!

There were yummy drinks of course...

And little goose biscuits, cute!

There were also a lot of beautiful, very fashionable people!

After the party Lauren took me to Vapiano, a fab Italian restaurant behind Oxford Circus.

They have different stations where you order your food, and then the chefs cooks it in front of you. We both went for pasta.

A lot of basil, I love the scent!

First you decide what kind of fresh pasta you would like, then what topping and flavours.

The pasta was probably the best I have ever had in London, so much flavour and soo yum!

All in all, an excellent night!

Photoshop Tutorial: Dreamy Bokeh Effect

Hello buttercups! Here comes a really fun tutorial, I will show you how to add bokeh to your photos, it gives them a lovely dreamy feel.

Bokeh is Japanes and basically means "blurry". It's normally just the area in a photo that is out of focus, but sometimes very skilled photographers can create bokeh shapes with light, and it's those shapes we are going to add as a layer to our photo.

So you'll need a photo with nice bokeh shapes like this one, and preferably a dark, neutral background. Look online for free bokeh photos.

The original photo of me and James looks like this. As you can see, there is already some nice bokeh in the background, but that's not neccesary for this tutorial to work.

Firstly, open your image and the bokeh image in Photoshop.

Now drag the bokeh image over to your photo to create a new layer. You can copy and paste, but I find that the quickest and easiest way is just to open the images in two separate windows, click on the bokeh, hold, and drag it over. Release, and it should be on top of your photo as a layer.

Click on the bokeh layer, then go to where it says "Normal". Change this to "Screen".

Now you can see what a lovely effect the bokeh layer has created! You can play around with the opacity of the layer, sometimes I put it down to 70 or 80%, it depends how subtle or strong you want the effect to come out.

When you are happy with the opacity you can rotate and position the bokeh layer as you please. You can also erase some parts, or duplicate the layer for more bokeh!

So here is the end result, magical!

Here are some more examples; a very subtle bokeh effect...

And full on party bokeh! Before and after below.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial!