Next 'New In' Event at the Soho Hotel!

Last week was a super fun (if a tad busy) blogging week with a couple of events going on that I was lucky enough to attend! First up was the Next 'New In' event in London on Wednesday! I always love a trip to London for the Next events, the team are so so fun, lovely and welcoming and they really know how to spoil us bloggers! I arrived at the gorge Soho Hotel just off Oxford Street and headed up to the top floor to the most beautiful suite which Next had taken over for the day! I was immediately met with smiles, a delicious platter of food & mocktails, and surrounded by rails of pretty clothes and leopard statues, you can't ask for much better start than that!  

After tucking into some delicious lunch and chatting with lots of lovely bloggers, myself and Em ventured into the beauty room to get our nails done. I had never unfortunately met Em before, even though we were up for the same Cosmo Blog award in 2012, so it was so great to finally meet her - she really is as lovely as she is on her blog and Youtube! In the Beauty Room you could get your hair done in some beauts styles by 'Blow Ltd' and the ladies from 'I Made it Myself' were painting nails and creative nail art inspired by the new Summer Prints for the new collection. Pretty nifty, huh? I opted for a baby pastel pink and some 'statement' nail art in purple and white. The lady who did my nails was so talented and did it all free hand like it was nothing, I can't even paint my left hand well, let alone create flowers! Em had a bit more of a tropical style created for her with a nude base and bright floral detail.

After taking a few fun bathroom selfies of Becca, Em, Steph and Olivia on Instagram (I don't think that Bathtub could've been any bigger!) I checked out all the clothes and got in the summer mood! My favourite pieces were all from the Pastel rails which had an array of cute pinks, mints, pale blues and cream pieces that were right up my street. I fell just a little bit in love with the pinky pleated dress! The accessories and shoes were also pretty lustworthy too with some amazing box clutches, sunnies, espadrilles & sandals to team your pastel look with. Thank goodness it's not too long to wait to get your hands on these beauties as they're due to launch in May! 

I'd planned on trying to get a sneaky visit to Oxford Street for a bit of shopping before I had to head back to Cheltenham, but I had such a fab, relaxing time I ended up whittling away the whole day there spending a couple more hours browsing, chatting and enjoying tasty afternoon tea. (Queue my bank account sighing with relief) so a big thank you again to the lovelies at Next!

 

Crafty Blogger Meet

Hi guys! On Sunday I had a fab day getting my craft on the Crafty Blogger meet in Bristol. Hosted by the lovely Paige from Paige Joanna and Sammy from The Cookie Button I met up with my beauts blogger gal Vicki and we headed to The Birdcage for the event! I'd never been in the little cafe-come-vintage shop before but it was totally perfect for the whole event with gorgeously quirky and vintage decor, it's definitely somewhere I'll be visiting again. We were treated to a cheeky slice of delicious cake and unlimited tea, which in case you may not have noticed is right up my street!

3 or 4 cups of China Jasmine tea and a catch up with Vicki later, Paige and Sammy popped round and chatted to us all before we were shown all the fab crafty bits the girls had got together for us to get creative with! There were so many different things to choose from so I ended up grabbing a big old selection of faux flowers, ribbons, bows - you name it, and decided to make a little floral corsage head band. Sammy kindly gave me a few pointers how to attach the flowers and despite a few mishaps with the super glue (webbed fingers was not really ideal) I was surprised at how easy it is to create a cute little head band. 

There were some amazingly creative things spilling out from all the lovely fellow bloggers with big floral crowns to bunny ears and cute little bow ties, but it was Vicki who won the prize for the best creation with her super cool burgandy studded floral head band!! Yay! We were also treated to a seriously generous goodie bag with lots of vintagey bits and bobs inside. I can't wait to go back to my 90's kid roots and crack out the floral scrunchie I had in mine :) 

It had been ages since I'd properly sat down and done anything crafty so a massive thank you to Paige and Sammy for hosting so a great event and being so welcoming! It made a perfect Sunday afternoon!

Outfits deets: I ended up having to have a quick change last minute going for my fave slouchy sports-luxe top from Olive, skinny jeans from Miss Selfridge and Sandals and Bar Necklace from Oasis. 

 

Cosmopolitan Blog Awards 2012

Last night I made my way to the big capital for this year's much awaited Cosmopolitan Blog Awards which were sponsored by Next! As you may know I was up for the Next Newcomer award as I'm a bit of a newbie still in the world of blogging, so naturally I was a big bubble of excitement and nervousness in the run up to the evening, especially with deciding what to wear!

After coming back from a mad shopping dash with three potential outfits, I debated for what felt like 50 bazillion hours and decided to go with a black sequined Mismo playsuit that I bought from Republic for an absolute steal of £25. I popped on my favourite black New Look heels, grabbed my Next box clutch and finished off with my cream Zara blazer. The lovely ladies at Cosmo said to wear whatever you felt comfortable in and what represents your blog so of course I stuck to my typical high street budget!

Excuse my slight devil eyes in this pic, the flash wasn't my best friend last night!

My Leighton Penny Coral Reef and Models Own Hed Kandi Ibiza glitter polish I painted on the train journey to London. I don't think the other passengers were too impressed I fumed up the whole carriage!

 This year's event was held at The Rose Club, just off Oxford street, and when I arrived the place was brimming with all the other bloggers looking absolutely fab as expected. There were so many style notes to be taken I definitely lost count of them all! Eventually after admiring everyone's outfits I managed to work my way to the bar to try out the yummy free cocktails from Mahiki, after all it was only right to have a Cosmopolitan on the night!

As those of you who follow me on Twitter will know, I unfortunately didn't win the award but it very deservedly went to Em from 'A day in the life of Em's' who has a fantastic blog! So a big congrats to her! Each award winner was given a lovely framed illustration from the Cosmo ladies!

Aside from the awards, cocktail sipping and a fab DJ who played some absolute tunes, there were various pop ups dotted around the spangly club venue such as makeovers, manicures, glitter tattoos, fake eye lash bar and fun fortune telling to go and visit! I had a make up touch up done by Vicky who created a smokey eye look with all Next make up products and added a spot of deep red lippy! I love getting my make up done, especially as smokey eyes is something I can never still manage to achieve successfully!

The whole evening was a great opportunity to meet other bloggers, and I spent most of my night with my new cocktail partner in crime, Laura from Logans runway who was wearing a gorgeous playsuit from Topshop! Definitely check out her blog here.

Overall the evening was so much fun, and even though I didn't win I really did feel so lucky to be there with 35,000 blogs initially being nominated according to the judges! So a big big thank you has to go to everyone that supported me to even get shortlisted in the first place, it means such a lot! And of course, a huge thanks to Cosmopolitan and Next for putting on the awards and celebrating bloggers!

 

The Editeur Event #EditeurAtLarge

Hey everyone! Today's post is all about the #EditeurAtLarge blogging event I was luckily invited to attend a couple of weeks ago at gorgeous boutique, The Editeur, in Chester!

The boutique itself is right up any girls street with a treat of designer loveliness! In store there were perfect selections of various collections from those ever enviable wardrobe names such as Michael Kors, Red Valentino and Alice by Temperley. Swooonnn. I couldn't keep my eyes off all the sparkle, fur, leather and crochet dotted around!

It was all kicked off to a fab start as we were greeted with champagne, party playlist and a pretty selection of yummy cupcakes and nibbly bits! It was lovely to meet and have a good natter with the bloggers as well as all the staff at The Editeur, Sarah from Fashion Dotty and Clare from Tweet who had arranged and put on the whole event! After having a good look around I chose my couple of outfits to play dress up in and pose in for the camera! It took me forever to try and decide, I swear I could have been there all day trying on different pieces! But in the end for my first outfit I went for an embellished Pinko dress which I teamed with a wide brimmed suede hat. The dress was amazing to wear, draping in all the right places and nipping you in at the waist. I also loved the shoulder detail with lovely golden beads! Once we'd chosen, upstairs you could even have hair and make up touched up to get camera ready! Here is how the outfit turned out:

 

The next outfit I chose was from the adorably chic Alice by Temperley range. With lots of lace, tailoring and boho inspired pieces to choose from I ended up going for the amazing Blake jacket and Earl skirt. (I really would do terrible things to own that jacket!) I then popped on a camisole from the Farhi by Nicole Farhi range and I was good to go! I love that the jacket would have even made wearing something simple like a pair of jeans look great! Here is how that outfit turned out:

The shimmering pieces from the Michael Kors collection.

Mustards, browns, leopard prints and blacks from Valentino Red.

          
                         Yummy Cupcakes!                                                       Pinko Pastello Coat

 At the end of the evening we were surprised with an amazing goodie bag which included a pair of  Wolford tights, an ice pop bracelet from Chlobo, that I have worn constantly since, and a hair piece from hat designer Laura Apsit Livens as well as lots of glossies and a couple of Sebastian hair goodies!  

It really was such a fun evening and I had a brilliant time! A massive thank you the fab Editeur team, Sarah and Clare for putting on the event :)