2020 Christmas Gift Guide - Supporting Small Businesses


2020 has given us all an opportunity to re-evaluate where we spend our money. With Christmas 2020 less than 6 weeks away I've pulled together a gift list, including some lovely small businesses in Scotland to consider this holiday season. Many have international shipping for anyone further afield. 

If you can, please consider donating this year to spread that Christmas joy a little further.

I'm Dreaming of - Jewellery 

Ruth Brown Jewellery
Glaswegian designer and silversmith, based in the UK. Ruth has something for everyone: necklaces, rings, cufflinks and more. Each piece is handmade by Ruth with precious metals, inspired by architecture and the built environment her jewellery is geometric and sculptural. I have several pieces from RBJ, they all bring so much joy. 

Shop here.
Instagram: @ruthbrownjewellery

Images: Ruth Brown Jewellery

Iona Lundie Design
Scottish contemporary designer inspired by fire festivals. Iona's work is sculptural and dynamic, reflecting the texture of burnt firewood. Both jewellery and tree decorations are available now through her shop.

Shop here.
Instagram: @ionalundiedesign

Images: Iona Lundie Design

Eat, Drink and be Merry - Food and Drink

Broken Clock Café & Patisserie
The perfect patisserie nestled in the West End of Glasgow. There is nothing else like the Broken Clock in Glasgow, amazing cakes that are truly pieces of art and equally delicious tea and coffee. Pre-orders are live on their website, get in quick before they sell out!

Gift cards available for the most scrumptious stocking filler.

Visit here.
Address: 10 Park Road, Glasgow, UK G4 9JG
Instagram: @brokenclockcafe

Images: Broken Clock Café

Baby, it's Cold Outside - Clothes and Accessories 

Trakke
Top of the list for the men in your life!

Scottish made bags and accessories for travelling, all their bags come with a lifetime guarantee - what more could you ask for? The perfect gift that will give back day after day, ready for any adventure ahead. The designs are timeless and the attention to detail is spot on. 

Trakke also runs a monthly bag draw, how exciting, more information on their website. 

Shop here.
Instagram: @trakkebags

Images: Trakke Bags

Law Design Studio
Handmade clothing in Glasgow, timeless pieces sustainably made by Gill. Totally in love with all of their pieces and their commitment to sustainability wins it for me. Every single item is made to order, completely abandoning the notion of fast fashion.

Shop here.
Instagram: @lawdesignstudio

Images: Law Design Studio

Send the Love - Christmas Cards

While we can't physically be together with many loved ones this year, sending a beautiful handmade card will be a sure way to spread the Christmas cheer.
 
Lolapaluza With Love
Glasgow based company launched this year! Beautiful luxury metallic foil-pressed cards, they come in sets of 5 for £12.50. Every card is handmade with love and sure to put a smile on anyone's face this Christmas. Personalised cards are available upon request.

Linda also does wedding invitations and bespoke commercial work.

Shop here.
Instagram: @Lolapaluza_withlove (also see @lolapaluza_stationary) 

Images: Lolapaluza With Love

A Touch of Magic - Home Decor

Loopy Glass

Beautiful handmade fused and stained glass, Glasgow. If you're looking for some extra special Christmas decorations for a gift or yourself, look no further. I've already bought 3, they are stunning in person. Louisa has plenty of other items on the shop not related to Christmas.

Shop here.
Instagram: @loopyglass

Images: Loopy Glass

Deck the Hall with Boughs of - Beauty

Vieve
I doubt this needs any introduction, recently launched makeup line by the popular Glasgow based YouTuber and makeup artist Jamie Genevieve. Everything looks so lux and glam in addition to being vegan and cruelty-free, I'm sold! Lots of goodies for sale, if you can get your hands on it.

Shop here.
Instagram: @vievemuse

Images: Vieve

Some wonderful recommendations from friends:

Saira Javed
Saira Javed is a freelance makeup artist with a line of silk fibre luxury lashes, eyeshadow palette and newly launched vitamin C serum. 

Shop here.
Instagram: @shopsairajaved

GA About Beauty
Ghadir is a beautician, skin specialist and skincare and facial tutor in Edinburgh, she shares lots of useful tips on her Instagram page. List of treatments available on her Instagram where you can message to book. The videos of her facials look so relaxing and have me dying to book in! 

Instagram: @ga.aboutbeauty

Comment below of any other small business you adore, let's spread the love this Christmas!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Leap of Faith: Call to Action | MiniPost

Image
Mini Post I opened my Instagram Stories a few months ago and was being directed to a woman (let's call her Erica), she was talking about how important it is to take a step forward sometimes, even when you're terrified. Not all moves towards your goals have to be a leap of faith. Sometimes a small terrified baby step forward is all it takes to set a new path into action. Don't let yourself be paralysed by the thought of failure. Erica mentioned how there are often ideas we let roll around in our heads, we brush them off for excuses, but sometimes for valid reasons. Excuses are one thing, but when genuine risk is involved we tend to shy away even more. If I fail, it is going to have a negative financial impact on my family...but if I succeed it would provide a lifestyle for my family that we don't have right now. I'm surrounded by ambitious people. I could pretend I was fortunate and luck played a role, but there was no luck. Everyone has limited time
Read more

Architecture School - 5 Things I Wish I'd Known

Image
Hello and welcome. Since you're here I'm going to assume you are either considering Architecture School, currently in it or just curious. Architecture is a strange course, it falls somewhere between artist and engineer. I graduated in November 2019 with a Masters in Architecture from the top school in Scotland (5th in the UK). From the seven years of school and placement, I have a lot of things I wish I'd known from day one. ONE - ALL NIGHTERS WON'T MAKE YOU BETTER A toxic trait of Architecture School is the studio culture of 'pulling an allnighter'. Throughout the years of school, numerous tutors would ask when we were going to start our allnighters. For a long time, I brushed it off as a hangover from their time studying. However, I noticed a LOT of students burning themselves out with sleepless nights. The sad truth is it wasn't making them better students. I don't know a single person who improved their grades from sleepless nights. The stude
Read more

6 Tips for Your Graduation Day

Image
Congratulations, you did it! You completed your degree, and you're graduating. There are several milestone moments in your life and graduating definitely falls into that category. The day can be fairly hectic, but it doesn't have to be stressful. Here are six tips for making the most of your graduation day. ONE - PLAN YOUR TIMELINE The day goes so quickly, and you don't want to feel rushed at any point. Start with your ceremony time and work from there, your university, college or high school should inform you of this time quite a bit in advance of the day. Often you can find this information on your school's website. My ceremony was at 3pm, so it gave me a bit of time to play with. I couldn't pick up my gown or tickets until the day of. Those could be collected from 9am (check with your own school, if you can pick them up the day before I would recommend that). Be showered and ready with hair and makeup done before you collect your gown minus perhaps wh
Read more

Architecture School - What Books Should I Buy?

Image
Hello and welcome to another Architecture School blog post. Reading books is a vital part of your education and will undoubtedly make you a better designer in the long run. It can be daunting when you get a list of books through from your school outlining the required reading for the year, Architecture books are expensive and can quickly run up a steep bill. Don't worry, it's not bad news! Hold off on buying ANY of the books on the required list because if it's on there your school's library should hold a copy of it. You should be able to check what books your school library holds through their online portal. Sometimes your school won't carry a physical copy; however, you may be able to download a PDF of the book through your school's online library. If a book on the required list isn't available in your school's library OR available through the online portal you can request that the library purchases a copy. Every department is given a budget a
Read more

5 Financial Mistakes I Made in My Early 20's - Millennial Money

Image
Hello and welcome. Shaking it up today to discuss 5 financial mistakes I made in my early 20's. With everything going on at the moment finances can be a huge cause of stress. While I have no professional experience in finance I've made mistakes along the way that hopefully, you can learn from. ONE - NOT TRACKING MY MONEY I've never been in debt so I thought I was good with money. While I wasn't bad with money, I certainly wasn't good. I didn't have debt, but I also didn't have a healthy savings account. I covered my bills and spent what was left. If I had tracked my money I would have seen how much I was wasting on takeaway coffees, snacks, doubling up on transport costs etc. By not tracking my spending I was failing to plan for the future and practically burning through money. TWO - SPENDING ON AN UNSUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLE For most of my early 20's I was in fulltime education with a part-time job working around 20 hours a week as a waitress and
Read more

You're Not a Machine - It's Ok to Not Be Productive | Mini Post

Image
Mini Post Catching up with friends, the dreaded question - what did you do today? Quarantine has shaken everyone's routines. Some have improved their skills in the kitchen, others are improving their fitness. I've seen countless posts on social media telling people NOW is the time to be productive, NOW is the time to chase after a goal. I would agree to an extent, many people have more time on their hands to do something they didn't previously have time for. However, it's ok if you don't feel up to it. Some days I'm really productive and it feels great, but why do I feel stressed, anxious and guilty when my answer to the "dreaded question" is - I woke up, ate 3 meals and watched some videos? Nobody is keeping a record of your productivity. We're going through a global pandemic, you're not going to get a gold star at the end because you were 100% productive. Maybe today the most productive thing you've done is wake up and that'
Read more

We're All Busy - Ditching the Excuses

Image
Hello, it's been a while. Happy New Year! I took a break from writing blog posts while I was doing my masters over the summer and working part-time. Things were a little bit chaotic and definitely overwhelming at times - I was busy. I internally laugh every time some tells me how busy they are. I'm guilty of saying it too, but I'm trying to kick the habit. The truth is if you work/study full-time or have children, you've got a lot of things demanding your time. How you spend your time is a reflection of what you prioritise out of desire or necessity. I've been working full time in my graduate job for four months. I get more done in an evening now than I did while I was studying, the reason - I've kicked a lot of time-sucking habits that were 0% productive. "Activity suggests a life filled with purpose."  - Captain Von Trapp, The Sound of Music Priorities I like to look at my time in a similar way to running a business, to stay in the
Read more

5 Influencers Worth Following

Image
I recently underwent a social media declutter, being more intentional with the content hitting my screen. I was also missing a lot from people I actually wanted to see with new algorithms not quite hitting the spot. These are 5 people I have consistently followed for a while and love, they care about providing quality content for their platform and work their butts off to move towards their goals. When it comes to people I follow I want it to feel as organic and genuine as it would be if they were my close friend. If you have some favourite social influencers comment below! Lauryn Evarts Bosstick - The Skinny Confidential Lifestyle/Beauty/Wellbeing Image @theskinnyconfidential There are so many reasons why I love Lauryn. She's so real with her followers and has so many amazing guests on her podcast. The consistency in her content is a testament to her clear brand vision. She set out to empower other women in business and has absolutely achieved that. She's not
Read more

5 Affordable Cruelty-Free Cosmetic and Skincare Brands

Image
It's 2019, there are so many incredible (and affordable) brands that are cruelty-free. Most of these can be picked up at your local department store or "drugstore". I try to be as conscious as possible when buying any skincare or makeup that the brand does not test on animals or pay/allow others to do so either. It can mean spending a little extra time researching, or not being swept up with the new hyped up product even if they look great (Dr Jart *tests on animals*), but it's worth taking the time to avoid buying products that cause harm. All of the brands listed below have products that I regularly use and love. There are definitely cheaper brands available. However, I've selected 5 companies out of my makeup bag that I think are good value for money and readily available. No7 Cosmetics and Skincare The majority of my daily makeup is from No7, this includes my foundation, bronzer, concealer (although I use Tarte shape tape under my eyes) and highlig
Read more