Bristol Fashion Week A/W15

Yesterday I attended the Autumn/Winter 2015 Bristol Fashion week run way at The Mall Cribbs Causeway.  Since moving here almost three years ago I have really discovered what an amazing City Bristol is, there are so many events and a really great sense of community, and I feel like that is well and truly represented at Bristol Fashion Week.  Not your typical Runway show, Bristol Fashion week has dancing from its models, a strong Hollywood cinema theme which was present throughout each collection, makeovers and  this year we had for the first time Denise Van Outen and returning Mark Heyes hosting the event.

If you are a long time reader you will know that I am a great lover of the high street, and BFW show cases all this seasons trends from the major players like Marks and Spencers, John Lewis, Topshop, New Look, River Island and other brands in The Mall like Crew, Oasis and Hobbs.  I have been slightly wary in the past that no Plus Size brands have been represented, but this years event had a good array of key pieces from places I know to cater up to at least a 24/26, and in New Looks case right up to a 32.

I was expecting a lot of seventies and I wasn't disappointed, but more exciting to me was all the faux  fur and the accessories.  The first collection was from John Lewis, entitled 'high shine'. Everything was incredibly opulent and rich and gold, and full of sequins, and I was living for crown from Accessorize.

This dress is something I would totally wear in the Christmas season again from John Lewis.

We bought the seventies with some interesting ponchos and fur gillets , all teamed with thick grey tights and block heels, which is a look I can get on board with, as I am not very into flared jeans, it makes me think of steps circa 1999.

This Devil wears Prada section was so well executed but I couldn't really keep my eyes off the iconic Vogue covers projected on the screen.

Mark talked about fringing appearing in lots of ways this season and not just on typical seventies items, and without a doubt my favourite piece was this purple fringed dress from Phase Eight, the way it moved down the runway.  It goes up to a size 20 too.

The hair in the entire show was also just amazing, sleek but stylised crimping on super shiny hair, which pleased me so much I am genuinely thinking about breaking out my ceramic crimpers.  I did take some photos of me in my new favourite Simply Be coat, but I shall keep that for next week!

Thanks to Gina and all the team at The Mall for inviting me!

Bristol Marriott Hotel Review

I am sure that I say this a lot on this blog but it is rare for me to get five minutes to myself, let alone an entire 24 hours. So when the Bristol Marriott asked me and my husband if we would like to stay and review the hotel I practically bit off their hand at the chance.  No housework, no cooking, no answering emails, and a break from ten hour stints in the workshop (which is now practically a sauna) sounded heavenly. 

I haven't stayed at a Marriott before, but I have stayed in quite a few hotels in Bristol (before I moved here and me and my husband didn't want to stay with his parents) and I can honestly say that this was a pleasure.  Located next to Cabbot Circus and Quaker Friars, which is about as central to Bristol as you can get, the entrance was incredibly grand, we were only going to drop off our bags as we were early for our check in, but the Marriott already had our room ready.  We were given a family room on the tenth floor, as we were advised it had the best views, and they weren't lying.  You could see all of Castle Park, Cabbot Circus, and beyond. 

A Family room at the Marriott Bristol City Centre consists of two double beds, and a bathroom, with all the usual tea and coffee making facilities, towels, a wide screen TV, desk, arm chairs and a hairdryer.  If there wasn't anything we needed we were told we could call the front desk. 

Having been in Bristol now for coming up to three years(!) I thought it might be a good idea to eat in a few places I hadn't been before.  There are untold amount of amazing places to eat in Bristol, and if I am being honest despite being a London girl, the food here is more varied and better than what I have eaten in trendy Shoreditch or BBQ joints in Soho. If you don't know your way around Bristol then there is even a really awesome app called 'wriggle' which works with local Bristol food establishments to give you special offers and discounts and a chance to explore and eat at new places. 

I decided to try Bagel Boy near St Nicholas market, as it had been highly recommended by fellow Bristol Bloggers Hayley and Lily and I was not let down.  With weird cat tapestries on the walls, De la Soul on huge speakers, intimate booths, sofas, a long communal table, Bagel boy has an undeniable casual Bristol feel to it, and the bagels were out of this world.  I chose a ploughman's but swapped the ham out for salted beef.  

Feeling very full up, we walked off our lunch back through St Nicks Market (which if you are visiting, is filled with street food stalls and little independent shops) all the way back through Broadmead and Cabbot Circus, (Bristols shopping quarter) back to the Marriott. With all the high street shops and more high end shops like Harvey Nichols in Quakers Friars, Bristol is an ideal place to go shopping as it is all self contained, but still has an incredible amount of variety and character.  

When we returned back to the hotel there was a note and some chocolates from the front desk in our room that were so cute I wanted to cry.  Earlier in the week I had tweeted;

  

and some post cards with the Marriott 'things to do in Bristol' bucket list that included; The Banksy Walking Tour, Bristol Zoo, Walk around College Green, see the SS Great Britain, have a Pie Minister pie, and attend the Bristol Harbour Festival! 

Making a mental note to try a Pieminister pie, my next move was to try the swimming pool.  Friends outside and inside of the internet will know that my natural state is in the water, like a buoyant water baby fish, so I practically ran all the way to the terrace floor, where the restaurant and gym and leisure facilities are.  The pool provides towels for you and has large changing rooms with lockers, showers, hairdryers and even plastic bags for your wet kit.  

I spent about two hours in the pool which was heated and moderately sized, even sitting here writing this I am wishing I was back in it.  The pool also has a sauna, however as an overly warm person on a good day, I refrained from going inside, however lots of other guests were switching between the sauna and the pool.  Andrew sat at the side and was able to read and relax on the pool furniture 

As we were super tired from swimming and it was now late on a Sunday, we decided to order room service and watch some TV and admire the Bristol view at night time. I ordered my Pieminister pie (with double mash because I love mash) and Andrew had a gourmet style burger.  I have had much room service in my time, and usually it is from frozen pre packaged, which is fine because it is large catering, however the food was amazing, and we got it within thirty minutes from ordering.  

Whenever I stay in a hotel I am always unexplainably tired, I suppose because you are fitting lots of things in the day time, and I was going to have a long bath and try out my new products in this months birch box but after eating we pretty much fell straight to sleep, and with no cats or other people around to wake us up, we slept straight through to our wake up call! 

We got showered and dressed for breakfast, which you can have in your room, but we decided to check out the terrace restaurant.  Breakfast was a buffet, and there was so much breakfast food (my favourite kind of food) on offer I was overjoyed.  I went for a full english rather than a continental, and there was even a fried egg station where a member of staff would cook you egg or pancakes to your specification.  For me (an egg enthusiast) this was the height of sophistication.  

We took our coffees (and soft drink for me) out on to the outside terrace area which was a sun trap even at 10am, to wind down before packing up to go back to the realities of home.  

My stay at the Marriott Bristol City Centre was nothing short of fantastic. The service was excellent, the rooms immaculate, and were filled with all the conveniences you would expect and more.  Little touches like this multi charger next to the bed for your phone, so you don't have to plug it in half way across the room, and fun personal things like this swan towel folding competition.  

I would like to say a huge thank you to Nicola and Liam and the rest of the staff at the Marriott Bristol City Centre.  Next time I need to stay in Bristol, the Marriott will be my absolute first choice. 

*My stay and breakfast and use of the facilities at the Hotel was paid for by the Marriott Bristol, however all views are my own, dinner and lunch were of my own expense, links to any websites on this post were also not required but were at my own behest* 

Blog Club Bettie & Baldwins

I have been a baaaaad blogger, and bad blog club attendee by not blogging about this till mid February.  As I mentioned in my last post the last few months have been so hectic that I haven't been able to think straight.  I used to make Tuesdays my admin day, so that meant doing my books, campaigns, blog posts and editing pictures but that has gone out the window since Christmas.  But now I am sort of settled and I want to start blogging twice a week again.  

So in December (I know) we had our Blog Club Christmas party at the very cool Bettie and Baldwins hair and nail salon. Unlike our normal blog club where we discuss a specific topic (you can read about previous blog clubs here) this was more of a mixer.  Kadi was doing mini manicures all evening 

We were very kindly given snacks and drinks by British Corner Shop, an online shop that caters for British expats, and a surprise raffle which consisted of a huge festive hamper, again donated by the British Corner Shop, ice skating tickets donated by The Mall Cribbs Causeway, Panto Tickets given by the Bristol Hippodrome and a body shop hamper! I won nothing, but I am pretty used to never winning a bloody thing! 

I had a mani by the excellent Kadi and the whole event was just a great opportunity to chat to people in a non structured way.  For the past few months I have thought a lot bout how isolating running your own business is and how important networking and clubs like Blogclub actually are to me.  It is possible I will be looking to hire a freelance person to come in once a week so we can ~bounce~ ideas round off each other, and for them to take over the social media, or rather put more effort in than I do! 

We were also given a really lovely goody bag from Lush Cribbs who are just the nicest Lush people ever, fact.  Thank you so much to Kadi for having Blog Club at the Salon, I am coming to get my hair and nails did asap. 

The next Blogclub is at True Digital on Wednesday 25th Feb, and all about Google Analytics. So if you are a Blogger who can get to Bristol then I would highly recommend you coming! You can get your free ticket here 

Lush Cribbs Causeway Bloggers Event

I was very kindly invited to Lush Cribbs Causeway to try out their new summer product range and have a general look round the store last Friday, which I must say was very different to my usual Friday night.  Like a lot of the other bloggers there we had all used Lush products before, but mainly bath bombs or things we had received at Christmas, so during our visit I was really surprised to learn at how extensive the Lush range actually is.

The new summer range has lots of innovative products that protect your skin and hair from the sun, and some (so I was informed) like the sesame suntan lotion even uses natural ingredients to encourage a suntan without burning.  I am lucky in the sense that I don't burn easily and have darker skin, so it was advised that I would prefer this product over the bar (pictured below) and it can be used just like a moisturiser.  I have to say this smelt like peanut butter and I have been using it like my every day moisturiser but it has SPF which is very cool, plus I smell like peanut butter  and this can only be a plus.  

The sunblock bar is pretty awesome, as you just use it like a soap bar in the bath or shower in the morning and then you are protected! You rub it over yourself hard and then it creates a barrier, wash off the residue and you are away, it even goes up to 30 SPF.  

As I moved round the store I came to the hair care section and I was shown some things that really sparked my interest; dry shampoo.

I use dry shampoo every day I don't wash my hair and I wash my hair once a week, sometimes every ten days depends on if I have blow dried it and straightened it (which generally gives it a bit more lifespan).  Therefore I have tried quite a few different brands, and I have stuck with Batiste because it works for me.  I have used a loose powder before but it didn't make my hair very nice at all, unlike 'no drought' and it is the only dry shampoo I have ever used that makes me hair smell nice and not like chemicals or that tell tale dry shampoo smell. I was advised that grapefruit and cornflour work to absorb the oil, and I have used it a few times since and can highly recommend it, but it does take a bit more work to massage in and brush out than a spray.  

Sheandhem in the background of this soap mountain

The most fun (aside from talking to all the staff at Lush) was making our own face mask 'Catastrophe Cosmetic'.  It was like a really good science class, and we got to squish blueberries which was so satisfying and mush it all into a big ball.  I believe Sheandhem (who I made the mask with) got some better photos of this because I was pretty preoccupied with doing the squishing and pummelling, I actually think I over worked it some what.  Aside from bath bombs and christmas packages, I do use one Lush product 'cosmic warrior' which is garlic based and great for spots. It has always worked for me so I will be interested to see what the one I made is like. 

I was completely unaware that Lush did a make up range, I am pretty devoted to MAC and benefit, but had a cosmetic reading whilst I was there.  Apparently the range is based on emotions.  As my resting emotion is trashy goth I was quite interested to see what happened. 

After I imagined myself in a calm place and spun the wheel I picked the three colours that stood out to me, which were all pretty complimentary of each other considering.  Sadly I don't think I they are necessarily very me.

The event was so lovely, it was great to be able to walk around Lush, which is usually very busy, and have a good look at all the products.  I think though the entire night was so enjoyable because all the people that worked there were just so sweet.  They were all able to tell me really detailed things about the products, how and why they worked but without sounding like they were repeating a sales pitch they had learned by heart, I think you could tell they were invested in the products.  They were also really easy to talk to, and I think we recruited some people to blog club! 

Thank you so much Lush Cribbs for having me, I had such a great time and you are all just the absolute cutest <3 

All sun care advice was given by Lush, please ensure you read the labels and stay sun safe when using any sun care product