Its always welcoming when your friends and family make an effort to decorate their home. Being at university my friends usually put their energy into decorating their bedrooms and the amount of cute cushions I have seen recently is ongoing… I really appreciate the beauty of cushions and how they can make a bland room look beautiful.

Laura Ashley has some fabulous cushions and with a sale on at the moment it’s the best time to invest. This Embroidered Cushion, now £15 down from £30 in burgundy is pretty and would look wonderful with deep coloured room décor such as midnight blues and purples. Or perhaps for lighter coloured bedroom décor this Square Damask Cushion costing £10.80 down from £30 would be better suited in cream.

We all love a good bargain, so this on line store www.hqoutletstore.com that provides a huge selection of name brands at an amazing reduced rate is probably a girls idea of heaven!

They have everything from Christmas gift ideas and skincare to jewellery and men’s fashion, there really is a huge range of bargains to search through. Its all surplus stock, end of line ranges and past seasons items that are available with superb deals.

I think the best bargain I managed to find on this site is these Diesel Hipper Jeans. I have never managed to bring myself to part with the hundreds of £’s that Diesel normally demand but £29.99 I’m definitely willing to pay, which is how much you can pick a pair up for - that’s a whopping 73% discount as they normally retail at £115.

I will also now be buying one of my favourite beauty products - YSL Touche Eclat from this site only as they are charging a mere £17.95 compared to the normal £24. I would be be crazy not too!!!

With Christmas getting closer and purse strings pulling tighter, I would recommend everyone visiting this site and with savings like these you never know you might find yourself having some spare cash to hit the new year sales - everyone’s a winner!

Unable to afford that dream designer bag, the Balenciaga City, the Chloe Paddington, the Mulberry Bayswater or whatever takes your fancy? Hire it from as little as £5 per week at Handbag Hire HQ.

The company has a huge range of the most coveted ‘it’ bags in the fashion industry and are catering for the fashion savvy who cannot afford to blow a months wage on a bag. To make use of this service you must become a member at which the cost is £7.50 per month and then you can rent whatever you wish. The smaller designer bags start at £5 per week and can range up to £30 or more for the most wanted ‘it’ bag of the season.

My favourite, the Balenciaga city bag in rubino is currently £90 to hire for a month and £30 to hire for a week.

Visit www.handbaghirehq.com for more information and rent that bag for a week or a month.

Hot off the press, I’m informed of a new book from Hollywood’s hottest stylist to the stars, Rachel Zoe. The book titled, Style A to Zoe: The Art of Fashion, Beauty And Everything Glamour, will be available to purchase on the 6th of December 2007, just in time for Christmas.

Rachel Zoe has an uber-stylish clientèle, including some of the biggest names in fashion, Mischa Barton, Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan and Keira Knightley to name a few. So it would make perfect sense that Rachel would release a book with some of the best kept fashion and beauty secrets along with advice the stars themselves use.

You can currently order your copy from Amazon.co.uk for just £11.04 , which is a great deal as the recommended retail price is £16.99.

Skinny Bitch is a “no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous” according to the book’s front cover, and that it certainly is. The New York Times best seller, written by Rory Freedman, a former model agent and Kim Barnouin, a former model has won critical acclaim and great publicity with even the famous such as Victoria Beckham photographed reading it.

The book’s hard hitting approach can work if you have strong will power and listen to things that are indeed true even if you cannot see the light at the other side. Throughout the duration of the book’s pages you will learn about the ingredients in food and why it is bad for you, what you should cut out and what you should eat. It’s impossible not to laugh, listen and be surprised whilst reading this book.

Get your copy from Amazon.co.uk for £3.99.

I think most people would agree, the cast of Hollyoaks don’t perhaps always get the job due to their talented acting skills! They must be the best looking cast ever (in the UK anyway) and its always nice to be able to wake up to your favourite character in the morning (their picture of course).

So girls, get ready to swoon over the latest edition of Hollyoaks Hunks calendar that has just hit the shops. All the shots have been taken around a pool and a home gym so you can guarantee to see a lot of hunky flesh.

If ogling boys pumping iron and wearing skimpy trunks is your idea of heaven then you can find this official calendar at Amazon.co.uk for just £4.99.

2007 saw the release of some excellent and much anticipated trilogy films such as Transformers, Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Bourne Ultimatum and Shrek 3 to name a few. You can now pre order most of these films at Amazon.co.uk from as little as £9.98.

Spider-Man 3 starring Toby McGuire, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco is due to be released on 15/10/07 which you can pre-order for £9.98. Pirates of the Caribbean is due to be released on 19/11/07 starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom priced at £9.98 for pre-order.

Shrek 3 is also available to pre-order at £9.98 starring Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake, and finally Transformers is also available to pre-order for £9.98 starring Shia LaBeouf and Jon Voight due to be released on 3/12/07 in time for Christmas.

Hooray, Faith is having a half price sale on selected lines and I like the majority of shoes on offer. These three are my favourites, the first two pairs are reduced from £45 to £25 and the shoe to the very right is reduced from £40 to £20 – bargain.

Check out the Faith Website for all styles in the Summer Sale.

After a hard week what could be better than getting home, putting your feet up and enjoying a nice glass of wine? Well… wrapping your feet in these Feet Treat wraps while you enjoy your wine! They’re designed to be used warm or cold depending on your needs - so if your feet are aching and tense the heat of a warm wrap will help ease them, or if your feet are puffy the coolness of a chilled wrap will leave them feeling soothed.

After a full day shopping or a night out dancing, these wraps are perfect to come home to. You simply need to pop them in the fridge to enjoy them cool, or place them in warm water to enjoy them heated. Make sure you put your feet up and relax while you’re wearing these though – they weren’t designed to take full body weight! Sounds like a good enough excuse to me …

Available for £7.45 (bargain!)

OK so this new digital camera may have caught my eye because it’s pink, but it’s also really practical.

It’s slightly smaller than a credit card and a tiny 6mm deep, so will fit in any pocket without ruining the shape of your outfit. This means you can carry it on you at all times, prepared for those photo moments!

Despite being small, the camera also has loads of great features, including a built in rechargable battery (it lasts a week and can be recharged when connected to a USB port), two resolutions of pictures, 10 second self timer, automatic exposure and white balance, continuous shooting … and more. It also comes complete with a USB cable and a Windows driver CD.

For just £19.99, it’s a bargain!

Want 20% off your skin care, makeup, fragrances, bath and body products, hair care, accessories and gifts?

If so then rush on over to Beauty.com to
find out how but don’t leave your run too late as this is a One day Only, Wednesday 23rd May offer!

There are loads of top brands including Elizabeth Arden, Bliss, NARS and many others. Find out more over at Chic Alert.

If you caught this week’s episode of How To Look Good Naked, it’s likely you’ll have already been out and bought the winning stretch mark treatment. For those of you who missed this week’s competition, the four products tested were Bio Oil (£8.95), Palmer’s Cocoa Butter (£4.99), Rodial Stretchmark Eraser (£78.00) and Stri-Vectin SD (£135).

Again, it was the cheapest product that came up trumps - Palmer’s Cocoa Butter at just £4.99 was voted the most effective product for stretch marks. I don’t know about you but I’m more than willing to give up £5 to see if this is true and will be purchasing it this weekend.

I’d be pretty annoyed if I’d spent £135 on a cream that scored the least points. Luckily I don’t have enough spare cash to spend that much on a cream in the first place!

I absolutely love rings and have just bought this one for only £17.90 (inc. packaging). It is called the Epiphany Platinum Clad Diamonique SS Princess Anniversary Ring from QVC which is fantastic as you get a 30 day money back guarantee, so if for some reason you don’t like it (which I can’t imagine you won’t) just pop it back in the box and follow the easy return instructions.

It’s made from sterling silver but clad in Platinum with 5 diamonique sparklers, so looks really impressive on your finger. Sizes range from I – V and it comes in a lovely box so it’s great for a gift if you can bear to part with it! For more info go to www.qvcuk.com and see item no: 658204.

I just saw this deal over on Prezzybox and had to give it a mention, I think it would make an absolutely fantastic Mothers’ Day gift or a nice birthday pressie for a close friend.

The makeover offer involves Bucks Fizz on arrival, a hair consultation, cut or colour, blow-dry and style, a beauty consultation, skin refresh, makeover and then a photo-shoot of you afterwards looking glamorous. One 7” x 5” photograph is included in the price but you will have to pay for any other’s you want to take home.

The makeover’s are available in London’s West End, Birmingham, Cardiff and Manchester City Centres and take place at a leading hair salon called Burlington’s.

The offer is ‘buy one activity day and get another free’ and is available until Sunday 18th March 2007. The package costs just £44.95 for the two activity days – an absolute bargain if you ask me.

I have to admit that I’m quite a fan of Coleen, not only is she probably the most down to earth out of all the WAG’s but she’s also the only one (apart from Posh of course) known by her first name alone. She has transformed from a shy schoolgirl in that unforgettable blue puffer jacket into a gorgeous young woman and has really made a name for herself.

OK so let’s face facts, if she wasn’t Wayne Rooney’s girlfriend, now fiancé it’s highly unlikely that she would have landed a modelling contract or been able to strut around with a new Chloe or Fendi bag every day. However, I think she deserves her success after all she hasn’t exactly had a smooth relationship with Wayne and she seems like a really nice girl.

She recently launched her new book ‘Welcome to My World’ and I am just about to buy it from Amazon for £6.75 – a bargain I think. When I have read it, I’ll let you know if it’s worth buying, if you have already read the book please let us know your opinions on Coleen.