WELCOME TO VLOGMAS 🎄Christmas Install, Festive Baking & Wreath Making | Christmas in the Cotswolds

Good morning, my darlings, and welcome to Vlogmas day one. I can't believe it is finally here, oh my gosh, I always get kind of nervous, excited tummy for Vlogmas day one, and I can't believe it's already here. It feels as though it has jumped up on us so so quickly this year, but welcome to the first of 25 days of daily vlogs, every day from today up to and including Christmas day. At five o'clock here on the channel, I'm going to be sharing a daily vlog from our Christmas here in the Cotswolds. We've got some really wonderful things planned, you'll find lots of your favourite things from the previous years happening in Vlogmas, so it's going to be something very, I'm going to call it, comfortingly familiar about this Vlogmas. We're not doing anything too crazy, we're not trying to like break the mould, I just want this Christmas to be cosy, be a little bit nostalgic, and just full of festive fun. So today, as it always is for the first day of Vlogmas, is our festive floral install. A little bit of a tongue twister, the florists have actually just arrived, which is why I'm filming in here, because the rest of the house has already descended into bedlam, the best kind of bedlam, but the entrance hall is covered in flowers, the living room and the entrance area are covered in dust sheets, because we are going big with the festive florals this year. I will talk you through them as the day goes on, but I like to kind of go away for a couple of hours and let the florists get stuck in, as I have done the last couple of years, and then come back for a bit of a bit of an early reveal. So today I'm heading to Dalesford, I know, I know, you'll be familiar with most of the things I'm doing during this Vlogmas, but today is a wreath making workshop in the Dalesford Floristry School, which couldn't have been more perfect timing, because I'm going to make the wreath for our front door, so it's going to be a very very floral day. Quick battery change already, I'm going to have to get back into the swing of constantly having batteries fully charged around the house and in my handbag. Anyway my darlings, I would love for you to let me know in the comments section down below, also why do I not have a festive mug? I should have had a festive mug for this moment! Let me know down below what you are most looking forward to for Vlogmas 2025, what are you hoping to see, any requests, let me know, and I'm going to go and help the florists bring everything in. So my darlings, I'm going to leave you with this year's intro, so thank you so much for joining us and welcome to Christmas in the Cotswolds! Okay so I'm just going to quickly show you a few of the bits that we have foraged for the Christmas install, keeping it as local as possible. British blooms and bits from the hedgerows, lots of ilex, lots of holly, lots of ivy, keeping it really really traditional, and the dried fern is also super super effective. Got loads of beautiful pine and mistletoe, pine cones, hydrangeas that'll dry out beautifully, and the girls managed to find this incredible bough, I think it's called a bough of mistletoe, that we're going to hang in the entrance hall. Okay I'm heading to Dalesford for the wreath making and I'm going to pop on our Christmas in the Cotswolds Spotify playlist. You guys can access this as well if you want to listen to the music that we use in the vlogs, we've got most of it. A lot of it is the same as last year's music so it should be really familiar for you. Fun fact, this is the song that I almost chose for this year's vlogmas intro, but I loved our Emmanuelle so much I decided to keep it the same, but just in second place, I'm going to listen to this full blast while I drive to the farm shop. It's so lovely and festive up here, I'm a little bit early but also a few people have got stranded because apparently there's some snow on higher ground, so the class is going to start in like 15 minutes, but we start with a willow wreath base, we've got our floristry wire and our whatchamacallit, apron, and then all of this. You can pretty much forage this from your hedgerows, from forests, there's loads of greenery which should actually last a really long time, this should stay green and fresh, especially because the wreath is going to be hung outdoors. So I'll try and capture as much of the technique as possible so you can see how to do it. Let every heart prepare Him room, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing. Joy to the world, the Savior reigns, let men their songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains, repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy. Okay, I'm probably about three quarters of the way done and one of the ladies suggested popping it on the floor to see how big it is and if you've got the continuity right. I think I probably need to add a few more lines up in the corners, as always it's very very wild, twice the size I intended on it being, but my goodness it is coming together. No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground, he comes to make his blessings flow. I've finished making the wreath, I am so so happy with how it turned out, it's ginormous, so fingers crossed it'll fit on the door. I'm actually finished about half an hour earlier than I thought I would be, so I'm going to take you around the farm shop, show you now that everything is in full festive mode because it just looks so lovely everywhere. I might actually take a couple of these home because it's nice to have some festive flowers on the mantel kind of area in the kitchen. Also love this just having a watering can full of holly, this is giving me so many ideas how I can add even more blooms into the house. So yeah I'm going to grab a couple of pots of these, I actually don't know what they're called, oh of course a sickleman, these baskets are so lovely as well. Gosh it's so windy but I just want to show you, so this is the theme that Dalesford are doing this year, like really kind of pure green wreaths which I think is really really classic and timeless. This one here doesn't even have any limes in it, just really simple, sometimes simple just looks so lovely. Oh my goodness I look, I look like a scarecrow, wow it is so breezy today and very very chilly. A few of the ladies were saying they actually had snow this morning, I don't think we've ever had snow on the first day of Vlogmas before, that would have been so magical, but there's still a little bit of snow in the forecast, so fingers crossed, fingers crossed. It is so busy in the farm shop at the moment but managed to get some bits and bobs for lunch and a couple of treats as well. I got Charlie's favourite mince pies which are the original ones and my favourite mince pies which are the littler ones. I don't have any brandy butter yet this year but I'll grab some at some point. Now I've got my secateurs in the car and if I see any nice little bits of foliage on the way home I might grab a few more bits to add in with the decorations that we're popping up around the house. But let's get back, I'm excited to see the progress that the ladies have made. I'm gonna do soup and little nibbles for everybody to power us through for an afternoon of decorating. Inside the kitchen the ladies have done the spruce archway over the living room entrance which looks absolutely gorgeous. I need to just tweak that in a little bit so that it hangs straight but I love how it flops down at the bottom. I'm sure Dexie will take an interest in that and it's got the lights woven through. Just love how classic this looks and oh my gosh I can see already Charlie has unboxed something. Hello darling, vlogmas debut. Vlogmas debut mate. We need to um figure out what wreath we're going to do up there as well. Yeah it's always a tricky one isn't it because of the heat from the arbor. We obviously don't want to replace the wreath, we want every wreath that we've got up now to last. So it needs to be something that dries out not too much No do you know what I'm going, I think I'm doing wreath making with Jo Malone in a few days so I should be able to make one. Would be Jo Malone? No not the Jo Malone, Jo Malone London but um do you want to show me and everyone else what you've just unboxed? Although nowhere in any abode should really be a Daxham free zone. So it's from the Oak & Rope company. We ordered it a long a long time ago, about a month ago. This is bespoke so they made it to measure for the stairs. Yeah obviously the good thing about it as well is it has the stand on this side because if we had it on the other side it wouldn't fit. Did you like send them pictures? What do you think? Daddy I'm not impressed. British brand as we know but then you don't hold me back daddy. Just so good. Daddy I don't approve. I don't approve. This is actually not true daddy because I was just upstairs. Daddy if I want to go upstairs then I'll go upstairs. For anyone's benefit obviously for small dogs particularly sausage dogs you don't want to go up and down stairs to protect their backs. Yes. And this is sort of it's mostly Dixie's bed appropriately isn't it? Yeah we were just saying this morning how Dixie never like this is Dixie and Dixie's bed but they Dixie actually never really comes in here. I like to keep it private you know I don't I don't like sharing too much with my brother you're so good looking. Just took my breath away coming in and seeing what the ladies have done on the stairs. I cannot believe that this is the faux garland base because they've filled it with so many natural elements. So we've got the ivy and spruce and holly but if you really dig I can't even find it if you really dig inside the actual base is the balsam hill faux garland and of course it's pre-lit so the ladies are going to add in some more flowers and other bits and bobs but I thought I would show it to you in this state. Look at this. I don't think the staircases look this amazing since our wedding. Oh my gosh I just love this view here. We've got some berries in there on the holly. Oh the conifer I never get excited about conifer normally but it works really well with festive foliage so for reference this is three of the long balsam hill garlands. I think it's three maybe four I have to check with the girls oh so amazing also I guess because you guys are watching this on can't believe it but cyber monday the garland might be in the sale maybe I don't know I'll leave a link down below either way gosh it's all coming together they've also done um the entrance hall fireplace I'll show you that shortly but first I'm going to get some lunch laid out for everybody finished our lovely soup and Charlie's got something else that he wants to show you this is not the most festive of unboxings well you know I guess you I guess you need to have it ready for all of your Christmas cooking I have tried sharpening knives myself before and I'm always never as good as professionals so this is a company called blade and butler who we've used a number of times yeah totally like I'm a paying customer but it is nice to promote them because they're a small business and you pick how many knives you want to sharpen so I chose how many is there seven and they charge you per knife and they send you like a sleeve I think I've shown this on a vlog before and then you post them off to them they're insured and then they post them so that took a week yeah gosh and look how amazing they are I mean I've got a photo of before maybe I can share it with Chloe to put in the video but they are immaculate to what they were like before and obviously they're now nice and sharp for you for Christmas this will be the one I use for the turkey that's your turkey knife hang on what what what is the perfect turkey knife well a combination of the two really because that's a really good carving knife right and that's a really good and then this is a bit of a beast okay don't say that that's the whole point please don't take that out of context lovely okay you can put your knives away now mate wow they really glimmer I guess they give them a clean as well don't they honestly such good service maybe I think they've oiled the wood as well wow jolly good right I'm going to make coffee maybe make it a gingerbread one and have a mini mince pie yummy so I ended up just sprinkling a little bit of cinnamon on my coffee to give it a slightly festive twist we're not going too crazy just yet last year I made a gingerbread syrup which I put in my coffee throughout Christmas I might do that over the next couple of days actually because that was really yummy and I'm down to my last mini mince pie I personally think that the ratio of pastry to mince and it's um just kind of a fruit mince not mince meat fortunately because that would be disgusting within the minis is the perfect ratio I find the ratio of mince too high versus the pastry in the bigger ones but personal preference so I was thinking seeing as we have got a house full today you might have just seen Martin has been here putting up hooks that we're going to attach the Christmas decorations to there's now three ladies here putting up the florals and then our usual team as well so I thought it'd be nice to give everyone a little afternoon pick me up with some Christmas cookies and luckily I have everything in the house for a German cinnamon cookie recipe so you do have the usual suspects like sugar obviously but instead of using regular flour in these cookies I'm actually going to be grinding up some almonds you do need a really strong blender for this and then to mix to make everything combine I'll be using three egg whites and some honey and to flavour the biscuits I'm going to be also blending in a of cinnamon sticks then hopefully I'll be able to find some cookie cutters in some festive shapes I haven't found them yet but I think I know where they are yeah so it should be really lovely and only take about 45 minutes I also realized I forgot to show you these that I bought just now at Dalesford I now looking at them I feel like these might actually be a little bit too small they are obviously dog capes um but I think they're for very small dogs I don't even know who is this small maybe Roux maybe I'll give this to Hannah to put on Roux let's try it on Dexy I can promise you now he's not going to be impressed with this what's this Dexy little Christmas cape oh it does fit oh that fits oh my festive prince my festive prince oh gosh look at his face oh my Dexy he really doesn't like it when he thinks that people are laughing at him he knows he's so clever look at the disappointment in his eyes oh Dexy you look like a festive sausage yes not too tight is it baby oh you look so handsome show everybody oh everybody I'm such a festive sausage you look so smart you look so smart shall mommy take the tag off oh but mommy if we take the tag off it means we're definitely keeping it yes Dexy are you growling at me oh you're so small shall we send a picture to auntie scarlet just to let you know auntie scarlet mommy's filming the first vlogmas today and I look like a total idiot I am pissed off auntie scarlet pissed off look at this the girls have just finished the archway and I thought I would come out and admire it before it gets dark it's just gone three so it's going to get dark pretty soon and I'm also going to have a little rummage through the forage bags to put together a display for the middle of the entrance hall table but look at this it is wild and wonderful we've got some of the hawthorn that I just grabbed on my way home loads of ivy loads of conifer my gosh it's wild and wonderful just what we wanted and now I'm going to also try to attach my wreath onto the front door I really hope it's not too big I think I'm gonna have to do this in situ otherwise it's not gonna last it never looks quite the same in here as it does at dalesford I'll pop a clip on the screen here I don't know I'm not very good at the naturally wild displays but another little update for you we've got this beautiful garland over the mirror in the entrance hall I absolutely love how this looks with the oranges and the original plan was actually to have a ball of mistletoe hanging from the ceiling here but charlie said because it's lime plaster and we've got underfloor heating on the floor above it could have been a disaster so we've got a wild and wonderful display and this garland instead and the girls have done another hour or so on the staircase so let me show you how amazing this is looking we've now got oh my gosh all of the intricacies so the lovely pink peppercorns if we run out in our pepper mill you can come and grab some from here there's garlands of dried orange the pine cones and I just wanted this to be really kind of um countryside vibes so we've got clusters of pine cones hydrangeas and pheasant feathers and they've just made it so beautiful how you've got the natural drapes with the holly I love this corner here with the pheasant feathers and the ilex berries it just looks amazing it really does and would you believe this all started from a faux garland I am so so thrilled with this I think this is my favorite the stairs have ever looked and the fact it goes all the way around twinkling away it's going to look incredible when it's dark as well the fairy lights scattered throughout but not too many of them it just looks amazing absolutely incredible sorry for TMI but I just had to perform a very minor operation on myself to get out the world's biggest splinter from a hawthorn and it had gone right into my thumb so I had to I had to use tweezers to like dig into my own thumb horrible but um I'm going to keep my gloves on from now on so I've got some velvet ribbon that I got from Amazon and I'm going to use this to thread over the top of the door because um wreath hooks are unfortunately just not strong enough for the size and weight of wreath that I made this morning so I'm going to have to literally tie it to the door so I'm going to thread this Dickie I can hear you snuffling away I'm going to thread this over the top of the door and try my hardest to see if I can attach it the wreath I'm pretty pleased with how that went normally putting up the wreath is a two-person job but Charlie's gone to deliver some paint to one of the projects and I didn't want to disturb the girls they are very much in full swing in the living room so I have used uh the green velvet ribbon and I don't know if you can see these uh black brackets on the door well there's one on the other side as well and um I hope the brackets are strong because I've woven or threaded the ribbon behind and through the bracket to hold it in place on the other side and I've just done a tiny little bow in the ribbon by the bracket there so I think it looks gorgeous really really traditional I love how natural and just kind of blends in with the surroundings you've got everything in the archway could be found within 50 meters of the arch itself and yeah I'm so so pleased with the wreath I hope Charlie likes it as well I think it's nice that it's pure green instead of with berries and stuff in but yeah I think it'll last a really long time obviously as it rains and it'll get a little bit of a refresh so there we go it's getting really really cold now I think we are definitely in for another frost tonight um so there we go this is how it's looking and I'm gonna put the light on so that it's looking cozy for when Charlie gets home and time to carry on with my cookies quite a nice color aren't they yeah or should I leave maybe we just stick with this variety and just do like a few because they almost match in with the lovely hydrangeas don't they I actually think that really adds a bit doesn't it yeah and some of them could be a bit shorter I'll leave them um I'll leave a few here okay it does say very clearly on the recipe to wait for these to cool down completely before you move them onto a wire rack but I couldn't resist trying one so as I mentioned earlier I think this is a German recipe I feel like Germans do Christmas very well they've got a lot of amazing traditional recipes and it's if you love marzipan and almonds this is an incredible recipe you might be able to see it's a very textured cookie and the top is almost like a meringue meets an icing because it's egg white and icing sugar they are this one is still warm but like really chewy like it feels like a hearty cookie rather than quite a dry sugary snappy one it feels almost like cakey really good especially if you love almonds I will try to write out the recipe and leave it linked down below now I have actually got an early evening nail appointment and I haven't even decided what I'm going to do with my nails yet whether I go festive to be honest my Abu Dhabi glazed nails are still looking really good I don't even feel like I really desperately need a mani but maybe I'll do a glittery French tip so it's not too Christmassy because I have got an appointment just before the Christmas week as well so I might do something a little bit more wild then I don't know I think I'm just gonna quickly go on Instagram get a little bit of inspo and decide the very last minute but let's go okay back home again and I changed into a very very comfy outfit for my nail appointment I don't know if you'll even really be able to see too much of a difference but uh is this gonna work if if I shine a light no I don't think I'm gonna be able to show you probably until tomorrow morning uh maybe like this basically what I've got doesn't really show that obviously but it's kind of like a um she called it a cat eye there we go a kind of cat eye finish on top of the pink builder gel so in the light they're actually so unbelievably sparkly they almost look like snow glistening on my nails and I absolutely love them what I had before was like a pearly um the kind of glazed donuts finish but yeah there we go they are now sparkly and I absolutely love them so very excitingly I'm just waiting for Charlie and we are going to be continuing with a vlogmas tradition that has been a tradition for I think three or four years now but I'll wait for him to come upstairs and we can explain it together yay and here he is the king of the vlogmas advent calendars you're not you're not allowed to complain about it I know you're not you're not allowed to be like oh it's too much work because that's just not in the vlogmas spirit you're the Grinch out of the two of us are you joking obviously I'm joking oh my goodness I do yeah you do right let's get festive okay let's get festive can you tell everybody what the tradition is how many years have we done this now just thinking that I think it might be four yeah this is the fourth year yeah for anyone that doesn't know Josie's birthday is the 24th of November Josie and I are very fortunate anyway with the jobs that we do that we receive a lot of things from brands and therefore both of us are quite hard to buy for right add to the fact that then your birthday's a month before Christmas it's quite hard to buy for your birthday and Christmas so I came up with the concept that we would do an advent calendar 24 gifts and this is your birthday gift isn't it so you've essentially not had any birthday gifts or violin music but obviously um from you I have from other people yes and it's a combination of like small little gestures small things that I think you'd like a couple of bigger gifts which are essentially like your birthday gifts and then a few experiences because I think how many years have you been doing vlogmas well I always count 2020 as the first proper year because that's the year that we kind of invented the whole intro thing thanks to charmwood really yeah and that's yeah so okay so yeah but before that I think I did like three a week vlogs and vlogmas for from it's something that we look forward to and we love but it's also can be quite tricky because we it's a you go from doing three vlogs a week which is already quite a lot of content to one a day and whilst I think we we lead quite fun lives and we're very lucky there's also not a lot that you know a lot there's a lot of duplicating stuff so what we like to do is use the advent calendar as an excuse to explore and do things that have been on our list for ages whether it be local or in the UK somewhere else and those adventures then also form part of vlogmas yeah baby I've kind of stitched myself up because we can't I can't really get out of it now I love doing it but every year it gets harder but I always say you don't need to put big things in there like literally like a marzipan fruit in one and I'm happy that would be amazing wouldn't that that would be amazing is that what's in day well actually no let's just let's just do the clues right and you can figure out what the theme is there's not normally a theme in the clues but the clues actually the hardest bit of the thing no it's quite hard so where is it from here fortnum and mason isn't it it's actually it's good quality it's I'm I've often wondered whether we can get oakham road to build us a really cool because the it's actually not the best quality like structure I know you well mate oh my god then with you for 14 christmases where witches and wizards might head for a pint to the george by the wishing well just just have a think about the the films and where okay uh the broom broom uh what's the pub called in harry potter come on diagon alley where a witch and wizard would head for a pint the leaky cauldron the leaky cauldron have you put it in my chicken broth because you call that my cauldron is that what it is because you're a a witch you're a wizard harry yeah I reckon if I was born 100 years ago I would have got done for being a witch because yeah they were like herbalists yeah I just think I just think in the land of hunters and gatherers you just wouldn't have survived anyway mate dick you wouldn't have oh right I have just um been thinking about doing a chicken stock based on the chicken carcass horrible word um that we made structure structure video that you may have seen yesterday which was our joint video and this is my cauldron that I make my chicken stock in there's probably nothing else this is the theme so there are there is there is some structure because obviously 24 gifts is very difficult so I think there's always two or three things that are quite festive and they're british brand I've got even before from them I just think they're quite cute yeah well that wasn't deliberate but I've just rose by the way don't you think every harry potter quote sounds better in scottish you're a wizard harry it does it doesn't it though like scottish just makes all the quotes sound better what's another one like uh what's the one about the light that dumbledore says that's an amazing quote I did this quote it's one of the best quotes of all time in anything magic can be found in the darkest of magic can be found in the darkest of places if only one remembers to turn on the light right we've probably lost subscribers amongst these quotes we love scotland by the way this isn't us it looks like dickie so this brand or every every gift by the way is purchased i've just chosen to purchase all the gifts crafted by artisans from recycled metal yeah adam what is it called adams and mac adams and mac i think we just butchered the best harry potter quote of all time by the way oh well what is it magic can be found in the darkest of places if only you can remember to turn on the light and he does that thing doesn't he yeah right who are we talking to jake our videographer reckons when i said that parrots are are actually underrepresented in harry potter because when you think about it owls get all the love but parrots would have been awesome can you imagine parrots have no place what do you think dexi i think sausage dogs should have been in there if if dexter was a harry potter character who would he be not dobby serious black no no no he'd be serious black and dickie dickie would be no no dickie i think dickie's haggard no yeah he's haggard because he's quite simple where is he anyway right well there you go first first gift oh hello haggard okay right on to dinner thank you my darling i know this appears a bit spooky but i just thought i'd show you the reality of living in an old house because the electricity flips about five times a day up here on the top floor so i have to sort the fuse box out at least five times a day and then hopefully oops let's not trip over the rug oh hallelujah let there be light well my darlings we've just had a lovely dinner nothing exciting enough to share with you so we are going to head to bed now um it's actually i'm not wearing my watch but it's actually only 20 past eight but i cannot wait to get into bed so i'm going to take my makeup off and go to sleep can't wait but my darlings it has been a lovely first day of vlogmas i am so so excited to share the rest of the month with you we've got some days where i'm doing absolutely nothing days to just be at home and do some cute cozy festive things at home and i i don't know about you but i also just love watching the days when people are just doing nothing just being at home uh so i hope you don't mind that there'll be a few of those this is real life at the end of the day um but we've also got some really really lovely things planned a couple of um kind of uk trips for various different uh christmas markets and other bits and bobs as charlie said with the advent calendar there's some surprises that i don't even know about yet um and lots of fun things with friends as well so really hope you enjoyed today's vlogmas let me know down below what you would like to see throughout the rest of the month please let me know your favorite mince pie because i we will be doing the mince pie challenge again but this time with a little bit of a twist because anyone that knows my husband will know he's a massive food snob snob in general in the most lovely way he would admit it um so what i'm going to do is a blindfolded mince pie competition this year so he's not going to know if it's a bougie one from an artisan maker or a really affordable high street one so completely blindfolded we're going to do the mince pie challenge with charlie so i want to know which ones are your favorite your favorite expensive one and your favorite super affordable one please let me know down below i really hope you love the intro i have decided throughout the today listening to songs in my car that i am actually going to change the song you guys would have already realized that by now um but i have decided i'm going to go with the carol of the bells song did i make the right decision i don't know um but yeah i really really love that bit of music and i feel like it's a little bit more jolly than emmanuel but we will definitely use emmanuel at some point through vlogmas but for now my darlings i'm going to bid you good night i'm going to leave you with our outro i really hope you love it another lovely bit of music and same as last year it's the same playlist if you do want to listen to some of the songs that we use in vlogmas when you're in the car or at home i will leave our spotify playlist which is just called christmas in the cotswolds linked down below and you can find emmanuel the carol of the bells that we used for the intro and the songs that we feature in the background of the videos because they're so lovely they're such beautiful bits of music and you guys often ask about the music so they're all in the christmas in the cotswolds playlist which will leave linked below so my darlings that's it for vlogmas day one it's been a dream day perfect perfect festive day and i can't wait to share 24 more daily vlogs with you oh my gosh oh it's a lot but i absolutely love it so thank you for being here for the journey merry christmas i feel like we're allowed to say that now and i will see you at five o'clock tomorrow for vlogmas day two good night