We Brits love a bit of bunting, don’t we? Just give us an occasion, and we’ll hang out the bunting – birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, any old royal-do, or digging up your first Jersey Royals.

But what are the origins of bunting? Well, the word has nothing to do with small sparrow-like birds called reed, cirl or corn buntings. No, no.

It seems that, back in Middle English, ‘bonting’ meant ‘to sift’ – sifting grain was done using a machine called a bont or bunt, or by using a loose-weaved fabric called a tammy. In the 18th century a similar fabric was used to make flags and signals for naval ships – the similarity led to the flags (and later, strings of decorative flags) being called bunting.
Well, that’s one theory anyway. You can read more about the background to the word from the Word Detective here - http://www.word-detective.com/2011/12/bunting/.

Nowadays, of course, bunting can be a string of flags made out of all kinds of material – denim, plastic, newspaper, ginger biscuits (ok, probably not the biscuits) and it’s not just popular with us Brits – what self-respecting American doesn’t hang out the bunting for holidays and barbeques?

And with a sniff of Spring in the air, we’re raring to get out our eatsleepdoodle bunting. A ‘do’ just isn’t a ‘do’ without do(odle) bunting. The doodle bunting is made to be customised with your designs, doodles or messages using the enclosed set of 10 double-ended doodle wash-out pens. There are 16 cotton flags on the bunting so get your ‘do’ going with a ‘happy birthday’, ‘welcome home’ or ‘praise potatoes!’.

And when the party’s over, it all washes out ready for the next big occasion. So what are you waiting for? Hang out the flags!