Monthly Archives: December 2011

Bullring Recap

05th December 2011

Saturday saw my Mum and  I round up our week off with a trip to Birmingham’s Bullring. It was a pretty fantastic day, in short, everything ran smoothly and although it was jam packed full of people (more people than I’ve seen in my life!) it wasn’t too bad in the shops, and we pretty much stayed away from the Christmas Market due to lack of time/sheer volume of human traffic!

We opted to get the coach up there, as it was cheaper (£13.50 return each) and just as quick as the train…well done National Express! Everything ran totally to time and the journey was clean and comfortable.

Once we got there we had an hour just pottering around and discovering Forever 21, which I’ve seen bloggers rave about…I had no idea the shop was so BIG! It was a bit like Bristol’s Primark, size wise…except cleaner, calmer, brighter and just as good price wise! I didn’t go mad in there, although I am tempted by their jeans (does anyone know how they fit?) but picked up a few little things.
After that we met one of our friends and her gorgeous three year old son, as well as my friend’s Mum for some lunch and a long over-due catch up over a yummy lunch in Cafe Rouge. We didn’t get as long as I’d have liked with them due to us only being there for the day, and we had to leave to meet my Auntie and Cousin after a couple of hours. That too was awesome. Shamefully I don’t visit them as much as I should, and I can’t remember us ever shopping with them. What entailed was a few hours of reckless spending and proper gossip and catch up (we spent quite some time in Selfridges food hall!), ending up grabbing a quick bite to eat in a heaving McDonalds before getting the coach home.

Mum and I are already planning a trip for the Spring, although we’ll stay overnight this time I think as there was loads we didn’t see!

And, what did I buy? Well…

1. My first Illamasqua purchase. I was desperate for a new compact powder and decided that as I had my hard earned savings with me, I’d splurge a little. I haven’t used this yet, but might review it for the blog if anyone is interested.

2. Dress with detachable faux fur collar, reduced to £22 in River Island…I only popped in to RI to pick up my final Christmas gift, but this called to me and I couldn’t resist. Excpet to see a lot of experimentation with the collar!

3. Mini food haul and F21 Haul! The Lucky Charms are MINE! And the Hello Kitty lollipops a present to my HK mad Mum. I couldn’t resist the lure of cute socks in F21 after seeing them on a few blogs, and I’m sure I also got a few other bits that I failed to photograph, oops.

4. Topshop penguin jumper; ordered online but it arrived Saturday so it counts! This was so, so expensive at £50 but I figured it’ll last years, being dragged out only for the festive season…I’ll probably hand it down to my children one day (I’m still finding ways to justify this!)

5. My favourite purchase! Bunny jumper from Miss Selfridge. A bit more reasonable at £39, this is my idea of knitwear heaven!

6/7. Presents from Mum <3 Necklace from F21, she thought it very apt for where I'm at right now. The little bag is from Next and just too cute, also perfect for when I'm wandering around locally and don't need to carry my entire life with me!
Woah,
so that was a bit of an epic post. Cookies and a Christmas card to you if you got through it all!

What have you bought lately? Do you save up for a blow out splurge every now and again?

Back to work for me today, I’m back on the Friday countdown!

Posted in life, shopping

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The Future’s Bright

04th December 2011

A few weeks ago I was invited along to a preview of F&F at Tesco Spring Summer 2012 collection. Once again, being Bristol based was against me as there is just no way travel around work/money is possible (bane of my life, I swear, I’ve missed out on so much fun!) but Tesco e-mailed over a lookbook so I can share with you folks anyway.

All I can say is wow…bring on the colour! I do love my muted tones, so en vogue right now…but I do appreciate a good bit of colour too, and this collection certainly provides that! Some of my favourite looks below:

Early as it is to be planning what to wear in the Summer (not to mention unthinkable in this current cold snap) the green dress, pink blazer and most of the bags have gone straight on my wish list; check out those prices, too! Nothing over £30?! That’s an instant winner in my book!

xxx

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finale

03rd December 2011

Somehow I’m now at the end of my week off, which seems unfair…time has gone so fast! Yesterday was a designated chill-out day, in preparation for what will surely be a manic trip to Birmingham, and the Bullring today; I can cope with crowds though…I’m excited for shops, for seeing my friend and her little boy, and for seeing my Aunt and Cousin.

Yesterday’s outfit consisted of another £5 Primark jumper, Primark velvet skirt and a pair of my new shoes!

I’m not going to be around today to catch up with blogs at all; despite having more time, I seem to be more behind than ever! As a consolation prize I leave you with a recipe for mini gingerbread loaf cakes, with lemony icing.

Adapted from a Tesco real food recipe.

  • 175g (6oz) light butter
  • 175g (6oz) light muscovado sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 250g (8oz) self-raising flour
  • 2tsp ground ginger
  • 75g (3oz) preserved ginger, finely chopped
  • 2tbsp ginger syrup, from jar

To decorate I simply mixed up some Lemon flavoured icing sugar (from Silver Spoon), but normal glace icing flavoured with lemon would work just fine!

Preheat oven to Gas 4, 180°C, 350°F, and grease 6 individual mini-loaf shaped cake tins (I got mine from lidl)
Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs then fold in the flour, spices, chopped ginger and ginger syrup. Mix until smooth and divide between prepared tins.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until just firm and golden. Cool for 10 minutes then turn out of the tins to finish cooling (Mine took 20 on the dot)
To decorate, make up the icing to a thick but drizzling consistency and scatter over the cakes. You could probably use some ginger syrup in the icing too, although I didn’t so can’t attest for that! If you don’t fancy lemon, melted dark chocolate would be wonderful with the rich, spicy ginger.
These cakes make a lovely little gift, and also survive, well wrapped in the post (yes, I went there!). They’ll keep for several days in an airtight container, and improve a day or so after baking.
Enjoy and have a wonderful Saturday! 
xxx

Posted in baking, outfits, recipes

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Shoes, glorious shoes!

02nd December 2011

And so here we are, the long awaited and much requested show and tell of what I picked with my Sarenza winnings…

1. Dune (a.k.a. glitter heels of WIN!)

2. Jeffrey Campbell, stone…potentially my favourite pair

3. Georgia Rose … sensible option for work days

4. Jeffrey Campbell, cityslick… the colour of these in real life?! AMAZING

5. Irregular Choice, because I am forever obsessed with red shoes

6. I Love Shoes, because every girl needs a pair of black heeled boots (er, excuse the me in the photo!)

Part of this haul was from my competition win, and part from my ambassador voucher…my brother and his girlfriend both chose a pair, and my parents did too. We are one very happy family right now!

And, because I love Sarenza, and they love you, I’m sharing the details of how YOU can win a pair of shoes too! It really couldn’t be simpler (the hardest part will be picking a pair you love most!)

1)      Follow SarenzaUK on Twitter
2)      Choose the shoes you’d love to get from your wish list this Christmas on www.sarenza.co.uk and hashtag #AllIWantForChristmasIsShoes
3)      E.g @SarenzaUK  http://www.sarenza.co.uk/patricia-blanchet-lb-s774795-p0000043799  #AllIWantForChristmasIsShoes
4)      And that’s it! The winner will be chosen from a prize draw on 14th December so all entries are valid up until then.

Which pair of my new shoes are your favourites?

Which pair will you be tweeting to win, from the massive selection on Sarenza’s website?


xxx

giveaway

Posted in competition, sarenza, shoes

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Stanwells Re-run (or cheaper chic)

01st December 2011

Up until a few weeks ago, Stanwells hadn’t even entered on to my radar, and it was even more recent than that when Stanwells Re-run entered my shopping scene. As someone who is confined to shopping on the highstreet, whilst dreaming of owning a few designer brands dotted here and there, a site like re-run is the ultimate solution (with bonus ethical karma!)

“This is the place to find your fashion treasures at a fraction of the original price. So very nearly new and discounted new designer clothes. All garments are sourced by ourselves and only come from the very best homes!
Designers such as Temperley, Milly, Juicy Couture plus accessories from Louis Vuitton, Gucci and many more…
Menswear too from Hugo Boss, Armani, Duchamp, Etro to name a few.
All guaranteed authentic and no fakes with an accurate re-sale value of goods gained from our many years fashion retail experience at Stanwells of Lymington and Westbourne (www.stanwells.com)
Stanwells Re-run was born after owner Julia Aitken realised many of her existing boutique clients were able to offer their clothes for re-sale. This unique website provides you with best nearly new designer merchandise and regular drops of discounted new designer clothes at the touch of your finger tips”

The timing of this post came about after some idle browsing led to discovering a fresh drop of designer goodness on the site…my top picks (or, the ones I’ll fight you for!)

From top to bottom:

1. Olivia Rubin Ada Print dress, £81 (originally £270)
2. Halston Heritage blue tie waist dress, £60 (originally £295)
3. Tibi leopard print dress, £80 (orignally £375)
4. Temperley London black skirt, £50 (originally £345)
5. See by Chloe blue shirt, £25 (originally £375)
Obviously stock and sizes are going to be limited, and once something has gone it’s gone…but with collections as recent as AW11 on there…and some dating back…you might get a recently lusted after piece, or stumble over something you wish you’d bought during it’s original season.

As well as the clothes, there are some gorgeous shoes available…and I do believe I spied a Chanel tweed jacket on there too!

Have you shopped with re-run before, or anything similar? I’d like to hear of your greatest finds!

xxx

Posted in shopping

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