You can find out more and see their new website at: The Handbook.

Ecommerce sales grew this Christmas
Econsultancy reports that Christmas 2011 saw a substantial growth in online sales, with purchases up 30% year-on-year. The last week before Christmas increased ecommerce sales even further with the week almost doubling last year’s figures. Boxing Day however was the biggest day ever for online retail in the UK, with 96 million UK internet users visiting ecommerce sites and 13 million hours spent on online shopping.

Facebook photos often flagged for all the wrong reasons
Sure, you can untag yourself from Facebook photos that you don’t think show your most flattering side, but they’re still there in your friend’s photo album for all your mutual friends and – depending on their settings – the rest of the Facebook world to see. And if said friend refuses to delete them from their album, there really isn’t a lot more you can do. That didn’t stop many displeased featured users however as Facebook revealed that throughout 2011, the majority of reported photos were not flagged because of offensive content but rather the reporter simply didn’t like the shot of them.

In August, Facebook added “I don’t like this photo of me” as an option for reported photos – a complaint that proved all too popular by Facebook users it seems!

Barack Obama joins Instagram
Anyone can turn their hand to photography with the ease and fun of Instagram – including it seems the US President. @BarackObama may have only taken posted 7 photos so far but he’s rallied up a promising following of over 56,000 fellow users.

Grazia teams up with the biggest British fashion bloggers
Women’s magazine Grazia has started the year with a range of masterclasses for fashion bloggers at Covent Garden’s flagship Apple store. With top fashion bloggers including  Susie Bubble, Disney Roller Girl, Fashion Foie Gras and The Clothes Whisperer, Grazia are offering a range of free masterclasses and workshops (though with limited availability) throughout January.

This week we’ve been watching… We love this video of a dad asking his daughter which parent he prefers – and with a little bit of light interrogation, he gets the answer he was looking for!

This week we’ve been listening to… ‘Glory’ – the song written and sung by Jay-Z feat. B.I.C to celebrate the birth of his daughter Blue Ivy Carter with Beyonce Knowles. After some confusion over the budding superstar’s name – some reported Ivy Blue whilst others correctly said Blue Ivy – she was welcomed to the world with a Tweet and this song published on her daddy’s website Life + Times on Monday.

Christmas has well and truly arrived at GA. And just in time for our Christmas party next week (which still remains top secret!).

Anastasia dug out last year’s decorations to adorn our lovely 6ft REAL tree with…and look at these blasts from the past. Can you name the GA director in their cunning disguises?!

We met the renowned Professor Winston for our Silver Cross Facebook live webchat! We’ve been watching his shows on the BBC and of course how could you not recognise that famous moustache!

The reason why we had such an honour to meet him is because Silver Cross are very proud sponsors of Genesis Research Trust, which is a charity to promote the science for the health of women and babies. It’s a wonderful charity, conducting life changing research to help the parents of today and tomorrow. Professor Winston is the founding chairman and happily agreed to participate in an hour live webchat on the Silver Cross Facebook page.

Unfortunately due to unforeseeable circumstances (Professor Winston does reveal all in his video) he was delayed, but was still very happy to answer the questions posed already and he let us try out our hand at recording a video of him. Although we were unprepared for our directing debut, we felt that we did quite well! You can watch the full video here.

All in all, a great day for a great cause!

We were delighted to once again attend the prestigious Walpole Awards for Excellence on Monday evening. Dubbed the ‘Oscars of luxury’ by The Walpole’s Chief Executive, Julia Carrick, the event brings together some of the biggest (and most luxurious!) names in the industry.

Gathered in Banqueting House in Whitehall, it was a perfect setting to meet faces old and new.

The evening was sponsored by Coutts & Co. and was kicked off by individual welcome speeches from Julia Carrick and Coutts Chief Executive, Michael Morley. Then came what everyone was excited for – the awards.

Big winners of the night included Victoria Beckham for ‘Emerging British Luxury Brand’ and Mr Porter for ‘Luxury Brand Online’. Sarah Burton unsurprisingly picked up the ‘British Luxury Design Talent’ award, topping off a year that has sky-rocketed her in the fashion industry.

Fans of Dowton Abbey were thrilled to see actor Hugh Bonneville at the event, who actually scooped a surprise award himself!

Take a look at all the winners and nominees from the night here.

You can find out more and see their new website at: climatecars.com

Our inner Charlie’s were bursting with excitement, and how fitting as Prestat was a favoured treat of Roald Dahl, author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, who also made Prestat truffles the centerpiece of his novel My Uncle Oswald. Now there’s a bit of history, but it doesn’t stop there! If you’re not familiar with the brand, we’re sure you’ll certainly spot it on the shelves with their iconic brightly coloured boxes and delicious chocolately goodness within.

There’s so much to this brand of exquisite chocolates, for example Prestat have an upstanding reputation as for many years they supplied chocolates to members of the royal family and in 1975 it was granted a Royal Warrant as Purveyors of Chocolates to Her Majesty The Queen. Now there’s a seal of approval! You can read more about this and much more on their history page!

We met the charming Nick Crean and Bill Keeling, who told us wonderful stories of chocolate escapades and kindly offered a tour of the factory, donning our white coats and hair nets…we looked the part!

It was such a joy to have a tour, seeing the chocolates being made and learning new things on the way as Nick was giving us a crash course on chocolatiers; such as the importance of high quality ingredients and the intricate process involved of making each chocolate piece.

The main aspect that stood out to both of us was the aroma, if they could bottle that fragrance, we’d certainly buy it! But we were more than happy to try out some of their samples (naturally!) our favourite was unanimous, had to be their Sea Salt and Caramel Truffles! Yum!

We thoroughly enjoyed insights from David Duplantis, EVP of Global Web and Digital Media for Coach. Within his talk he revealed that Coach’s e-commerce doubled last year and will double again next year – a feat that he in part puts down to the brand’s strong social media activity. Having taken over an unofficial Coach Facebook page and relaunched it with an in-store gift with purchase. Coach also invests heavily in its blogger outreach – a range of influencers that David said “makes a brand more believable”. Later in a panel discussing mobile commerce, David added: “Optimising your web store for mobile might not be the right thing if your customers only search for store location details on their mobile device”.

Imran Ahmed, Founder and editor of the Business of Fashion, began the seminar’s talks by discussing everything from digital marketing to mobile commerce. On the subject of social media he said: “Advertising interrupts, whilst social sharing is an earned media”.

The afternoon session held more enlightening discussions with panels including Jorg Henson of Ventee-Privee, Caroline Rolfe of Links of London, James Quarles of Facebook and Michael Ward of Harrods.

Here are some more quotes from the day’s speakers – including Imran Amed, the founder and editor of the Business of Fashion, and Martin Gill, Principal Analyst for Forrester Research – that we found encouraging…

• By 2020, there will be 10 billion mobile-connected devices in the world
• Mobile video makes up 47% of peak hour traffic
• By 2014-15, mobile internet will be the mainstream technology
• 39% of people who research a product on the internet will end up purchasing it

Since 2002, the Google Doodle has honoured the search engine’s anniversary of its founding by transforming the logo – and today was no exception with a retro 13th birthday message…

2011

2010 - a Wayne Thiebaud cake

2009 - 11 years old and a double L to prove it...

2008 - 10 years old and a filing cabinet present!

2007 - and a '9'-shaped pinata

2006 - Google turns 8

2005 - and 7 pieces of cake to share!

2004 - and the OO becomes a balloon & a number 6!

2003 - Google turns 5

2002 - the first Google Happy Birthday Doodle, but for the company's 4th anniversary

A new talent in the world of jewellery has emerged; enter Birgit Marie Schmidt. A Royal College of Art graduate, Schmidt showcased her potent wares at the RCA graduate show in an old suitcase that also contained a set of props including a pair of vintage gloves and a old illustrated book on horses- the latter pointing directly to the theme of Schmidt’s proposition, namely an affair based upon her love of horses and her childhood memories thereof. Called “I can’t seem to get rid of the horses”,

the collection features pieces fusing two or more  gold-plated horse figures. Caught in a sprint, the little four-footed creatures look almost as if alive, and appear in everything from rings to necklaces where they feature solo or, more dramatically, en masse.

Visit Birgit’s work here.