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!
