Category Archives: christmas

Christmas Party Shopping with McArthur Glen (the outfit)

03rd December 2014
Following on from last week’s post on my day spent shopping for the perfect party outfit with McArthur Glen in Swindon as promised here is the outfit reveal a breakdown of the bargain prices!
Dress: French Connection (£80 down from £250) | Bag: Fiorelli (£31 down from £49) | Shoes: Mary Portas for Clarks (£12 down from £79.99)
It was love at first sight when I saw this dress in French Connection. I’m a bit of magpie when it comes to finding party wear and although £80 is still more than I usually would spend on a dress, given it was originally over three times more than that it seemed a total bargain! Because of the combination of neutral colours it’s more versatile than it first appears and dressed up with different accessories I will be rolling this baby out for seasons to come.
On this occasion I had my heart set on metallic accessories. I’m not really a clutch bag kind of girl so finding this one in Fiorelli with it’s chain strap detailing and slightly bigger size was just perfect as it means it will get used outside of the occasional party. I’ve always had a soft spot for Fiorelli bags and with a whole shop full of their gorgeous designs at bargain prices at Swindon it was naturally the first place I headed on my hunt for the perfect partner for my dress.
Shoes were harder to source as there is just so much choice at Swindon and I didn’t know where to start. After a first scout around in shops like Kurt Geiger and L.K. Bennett it was upon a chance happening in Clarks where I found my perfect pair. They were marked up at £39.99 but when I went to pay the lady joyfully informed me they were only £12! I couldn’t believe my luck. It also meant I had the perfect excuse to visit the cosmetic company outlet and treat myself to an Estee Lauder gold eye palette to finish things off perfectly. I was going to go down the jewellery route as well, but in the end realised that such a dazzling dress really doesn’t need any…and I have a tendency to take it off and lose it half way through a party (after a glass of wine or two…)
Thanks to all of these bargains I even had enough left on my gift card to treat Mum to a couple of things, a thank you for being bag carrier and photographer for the day too…I even managed to bag myself an adorable jumper in Marks and Spencers too- perfect for post-party hangovers…
What do you think of my party look? I’ll be wearing this to my work Christmas party this weekend and can’t wait to show it off. It was brilliant to be able to splurge on brands normally out of my reach for the same price as typical highstreet brands- thank you McArthur Glen for having me, rest assured I’ll be back in time to get an outfit for my friend’s wedding in May!

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Posted in christmas, life, outfits, shoes, shopping

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Magic and Sparkle with M&S

02nd December 2014
Have you seen the Marks and Spencer Christmas advert yet? You know, the one with the two fairies named Magic and Sparkle spreading good deeds around the country over the festive season. Last week I was invited to the M&S store at Cribbs Causeway, along with some other Bristol bloggers (plus my Mum and Best Friend) to enjoy a little Magic and Sparkle for ourselves…
We were treated to an evening of delights; some gorgeous Christmas decorations and gift ideas, a table full of delicious foods and beauty treats for all to enjoy as well as getting to feast our eyes on some of the most beautiful clothing collections that are in store now.
For me the highlight of the evening was undoubtedly discovering THE most brilliant hat of all time, in the form of the Christmas tree knit you can see above. At only £12 I think I’m going to have to cave in and buy this as I can roll it out year on year…
M&S have some truly lovely gifts in stock this year, they’ve been going from strength to strength each year with this one being perhaps it’s strongest yet. The clothing collections too are just so on point, walking through the store I saw oh so many pieces I really wanted to add to my wardrobe and the best of the bunch were hanging up on display for us bloggers to ogle.
A big thank you to Marks and Spencer for putting on a such a lovely event- it’s always a pleasure to catch up with some of my favourite blogging ladies and the Grayling PR girls are just the best.
Which fairy are you? I like to think of myself as a bit of Sparkle…

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Posted in bristol, christmas, M&S

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Frozen in Time

28th November 2014
I told you I was feeling festive this year, two posts in one week featuring Christmas themed clothing has to be a record for me (especially as we’re yet to reach December!). This post is bought to you in collaboration with Lush T-Shirts, my main blog advertiser because I just couldn’t not share with you the brilliant range of festive tees they have just released- a great alternative to the knitted jumper and perfect for a bit of tongue in cheek fun!

Coat: ASOS (similar) | Tee c/o Lush T-Shirts | Skirt: Primark | Boots: Zara

I love how the colours of this outfit come together to show off the snowman’s frosty face! I bought the jacket around three years ago in the ASOS sale and it really doesn’t get enough love. Luckily faux fur is big news again this winter so it might see the light of day more than once or twice. I very nearly put the skirt away for the Winter as it seemed more of a Summer thing, but looking at this ensemble I’m glad I kept it out and I’m sure I can find some suitable tights to make it a little warmer.
As one of the days my workplace is doing Christmas Jumper Day falls on a day I’m doing a clinic I think I’ll be sporting this tee under my tunic (which just so happens to be an icy blue). I think the whole festive collection of tees is really good fun and at £14.99 a pretty affordable alternative to a chunky knit. I’m trying to convince Ben he really needs to own one, however he doesn’t share in my Christmas spirit and I fear this is the only slogan he’s likely to wear! Which design would you pick?

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Christmas Party Shopping with McArthur Glen

27th November 2014
Sometimes I really have to pinch myself when an awesome opportunity comes my way. The most recent example of this was when the folks at McArthur Glen invited me to their Swindon Designer Outlet centre to shop for the perfect outfit for a Christmas Party- on them! They very generously gifted me a voucher and said I was welcome to bring my Mum along too (to play photographer and help me make decisions) so on Saturday we hopped on the train and ventured an hour out of Bristol to the shops!
The Swindon Designer Outlet is somewhere I tend to visit once or twice a year, usually just after Christmas with my family. I hadn’t been since January and had heard that changes were happening- I’m not usually a fan of change, I like routine but in this case the change was for the better (and things weren’t bad to begin with!). The centre has recently opened the “long shop mall” which is host to many familiar high-end brands including Ghost and Jigsaw- two brand new arrivals to the collection of stores. This post is more about the things I saw rather than what I bought, that I’m saving for another post…
The entire place was beautifully decked out for Christmas, with these amazing nutcracker soldiers all over the place, I couldn’t resist stopping for a quick snap next to one!

Our first shopping stop was Ghost which has only been open for a couple of weeks. Ghost was one of the first brands I ever read about, when I was really quite young. I’ve always associated it with being grown up and sophisticated and I’m pleased to say it lived up to expectation. I loved the red satin maxi dress in the pictures and couldn’t resist trying on this emerald green number- which may or may not have come home with me. The girls in the store were so lovely, probably the friendliest and sweetest out of all the shops we visited; a big thank you for being so damn lovely!

We also checked out Phase Eight which had some stunning pieces (sadly not in my size) and Jigsaw where I fell in love with everything. French Connection had some of the nicest party dresses of them all, the sequin floral number was a particular favourite…
Shoes wise, you’re spoilt for choice at Swindon- Kurt Geiger, Clarks, Pavers, Daniel Footwear and Next had such a gorgeous selection. In the end I picked up a shiny gold pair in Clarks, one of the two you can see in the photos…any guesses which ones I picked and how much of a bargain they were?
I also managed to accessorize with a clutch bag from Fiorelli and picked up some sparkly makeup in the Cosmetic Company Outlet to complete the look. By this point my camera battery was dying (as were my energy levels) but you’ll see photos of those in the next blog post.

Everything at the outlets are 30% off minimum, with savings of up to 70% up for grabs- for those on a stricter budget you can get some really pocket friendly pieces in Next or M&S, but if you feel like splashing out you can make real savings on big name items- the Ghost dress was priced at £50 with a further 10% off with a discount card available at customer information. The French Connection sparkly number was £80 down from a whopping £250! Honestly, outlets are so often overlooked but an absolute treasure trove for special occasion wear and bargain brand buys that otherwise would be out of my reach (and many others I suspect).

We refreshed ourselves with food and drink from the fabulous selection from the Food Hall- between Pizza Express and Wagamamas (with more restaurants to be added soon) we didn’t know what to pick, but ended up with a caffeine fix and a toastie in Starbucks.
I can’t wait to see the whole completed renovation of the Swindon Designer Outlets, due to be finished in the spring time…with a May wedding to attend I’ll be making a beeline to get another snazzy outfit for an absolute bargain price. I even had enough left on my voucher to get a thank you treat for Mum and some cheeky chocolates in the Lindt shop (which smells like melted chocolate and is basically my idea of heaven!)

Stay tuned for the outfit reveal post coming next week- can you guess which dress and shoes I went for? Have you shopped the outlets lately? McArthur Glen have several locations around the UK and I need to know which others are a must visit!

A HUGE thank you to the team at McArthur Glen for making us so welcome on Saturday, it was one of the most surreal yet awesome experiences of my blogging adventures to date! I also bumped in to the lovely Lily whilst I was there, who was completing her shopping mission, I can’t wait to see her post!

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Posted in christmas, fashion, shopping

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Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

24th November 2014
What can I say? I love a good festive knit and I couldn’t resist posting on on the blog despite it still being November. That and the fact I’m organising Christmas Jumper Day at work this year (in aid of Save the Children on the 12th December) and I’m trying to summon up some enthusiasm among my colleagues!

Jumper c/o Chiara | Skirt: New Look | Boots: Jonak via Sarenza

I couldn’t turn down the chance to own this Frozen inspired jumper from Chiara which have a brilliant selection this year. This one is so fun and cheerful, the downside been every time I wear it I start humming the frozen soundtrack, despite never having seen the film.

Sorry for the super small image sizes here, I’m not sure what’s going on with that- if you click on the images you can see them full sized. Mae wanted to get in on the action too, by stealing dad’s stuffed polar bear…she just doesn’t miss a trick!

Will you be taking part in Christmas Jumper Day this year? It’s in aid of a brilliant cause and is super simple to organise for your place of work or just amongst yourself and your friends. We’re actually doing it over two days at work due to the nature of people’s working days…someone find me another jumper, stat!

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Posted in charity, christmas, life stuff, outfits

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