Pretty Lovely Bloggers Santa's Grotto Event

I am finally starting to get excited for Christmas, and have done so by watching plenty of Christmas films this afternoon. I have shared a few gift guides on my blog, including stocking filler ideas, quirky cards, my top picks from Boots and some last minute gift ideas. I love Christmas!
Today is another festive themed post; featuring a lovely blogger event I attended recently, which was put together by Pretty Lovely Bloggers. It took place a few Saturdays ago at the Rose Villa Tavern near the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham. It was a Christmas themed event called Santa's Grotto, I was super excited about wearing a Christmas jumper before December and I loved the decorations and the Christmas songs that were playing in the background.

The event was a lot of fun. There were quite a few brands at the event who gave talks and showcased their products, it was great to hear more about a variety of products and talk to the team behind them. Brands that attended the event included: 

 Friction Free Shaving

The Gourmet Chocolate Pizza Co.

Viridian

 Pure Potions

 Lipivir

 DryU

Skin Sincere

Pretty Lovely Bloggers had also arranged a raffle, with money being donated to the charity Mind. There were lots of things to get involved in and plenty of people to talk to. We also received a very generous goody bag with lots of brilliant products, I will be featuring those on my blog in the future too. A big thank you to all brands involved as I really do appreciate it.
I had a lovely time at the event and it was great to talk to bloggers; some I had met before and some I hadn't. I loved the venue and it is somewhere I have never visited before, but I am hoping to go back soon.

Thank you to both Adele and Kirsty for organizing the event. You can really tell how much time, effort and hard work they both put into all of their events and I had a brilliant time.

*Images belong to Clare*

West Midlands Blogger Meet September 2015

Photo belongs to Adele 

Last Saturday I headed into Birmingham to attend the West Midlands Blogger Meet, arranged by the lovely hosts Adele and Kirsty. I was really looking forward to the meet as I knew how much hard work the girls had put into organising it all, but I was a little nervous going alone and not really knowing anyone there. Rest assured - everyone was lovely! The event was held at the Rainbow Pub in Digbeth, Birmingham. It was a great venue and I will definitely be heading there again; I loved the decor and the vibe of the place.
The meet was great! The girls thought of everything.

The brilliant Elizabeth from Rosalilium gave a speech about Pinterest which was really helpful and informative. Lovely blogger Chelsea also gave a talk about bloggers and brands working together and gave us some great tips too.
The girls had organised for some great brand reps to be at the meet up, who were sharing their products and it was really nice to talk to them and really get a feel of the brands and what they do. Brands that were at the event included Early Bird, Get You Seen PR and Skin Sincere.
As well as the brands, there was also a lady at the event representing the charity Coppafeel - a cause which is close to my heart. I would like to talk about it on my blog in the future in some way, so watch this space.
There was also a raffle to raise money for Mind (another amazing charity!) which was great and I was lucky enough to win a prize - a lovely gift set from Nourish. There was also a quiz questionnaire and the classic 'guess how many' in a jar - so lots of fun to get involved with.

We were able to munch on lots of tasty treats and drinks while we were at the event too and we were very well looked after. We were all lucky enough to receive a very generous goody bag too when we left - thank you to all of the brands involved; I am super appreciative and cant wait to start trying all of the lovely items! I am hoping to get some posts up on the blog of the lovely bits we were gifted soon.

A huge thank you to Kirsty and Adele for the fantastic afternoon you organised! It was a lot of fun and I can't wait for the next one!

Intu Spring/Summer Fashion Event

Last Week I headed to the Intu Shopping Centre, Merry Hill, for a sneak peak at the Spring/Summer collections which are hitting our fashion stores now. It was a blogger and press event, where we were able to see some previews of what will be featuring the fashion shows at the Merry Hill Shopping Centre this Weekend coming. We were treated to refreshments and were able to see the gorgeous models walk down the catwalk in style in some stunning clothes which are available at reasonable prices - and you can pick them up in the high street stores, too, which of-course is amazing - who doesn't want to look gorgeous for a fraction of a designer price?!

Fashion stylist Lola Royle presented the show, explaining why she put the outfits together and gave us plenty of info on what is on trend this Season. We were able to have a sneak peak of some of the latest fashion trends and were able to see some of the beautiful collections that the high street stores have to offer this Spring/Summer 2015. 

The stores which were involved in the fashion show were New Look, Diffusion, Phase Eight, Warehouse, Topshop, Oasis and River Island. I am loving the clashing of colours and patterns that were involved in the fashion show. My favourite pieces were definitely from New Look and Phase Eight - I will definitely be visiting both of those stores next Weekend when I am doing some shopping in the centre. 

Lola Royle told us that the clashing of different prints and patterns is very on trend this upcoming Season, and we saw a lot of brights, jungle inspired and also 70's inspired outfits. She also told us that fringing in our accessories is going to be pretty popular too. I am keen to pop over to the shops this Weekend to pick up a few statement pieces ready for this Spring/Summer.

If you are local to the West Midlands/Birmingham area, why not head down to Merry Hill Shopping Centre this Weekend to pick yourself a bargain or watch some amazing catwalk fashion shows? 

You can get involved on Twitter by using the hashtag #IntuColours

• You can catch the live catwalk shows on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th March on the Lower Mall at Merry Hill Centre. Shows start from 11AM.
• There will be exclusive offers available on the 28th and 29th only, with over 35 fashion and beauty offers up for grabs, from brands such as Dorothy Perkins and Diffusion. You can find out more information on the website. 

Event: Nail It! Birmingham, Urban Coffee.

Nail It! 

At the weekend I headed to Birmingham to attend an event held at an independent coffee shop Urban Coffee. I was really looking forward to it, as it was all about nails. I am quite clueless and not the best with painting my nails, so I was looking forward to trying some new colours out! 

On arrival, we we were given refreshments and we then took a seat to begin our nail styling! We used Avon's New Gel Finish Nail Polishes and their other Nail Polishes - I absolutely love the lilac shade - there was a huge selection of lovely colours to choose from. We also tried out the Magnetic Nail Polish and the Magnetic Wands - very impressive. other items we tried out were the Avon Nail Gems, Nail Enamel Corrector Pen, Gem Applicator, and lots more! We also had a look at some of the Avon Perfumes, Mascaras and Eye Shadows as well as having a good browse of the Avon brochure.

A big thank you to Rickie for arranging the entire event. I think it was a huge success and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, it was a lot of fun.
You can purchase Avon products from Rickie here.

DEBENHAMS BEAUTY BLOGGER EVENT

A few weeks ago, I had an email inviting me to a local shopping centre near the Birmingham area (my home town) for a beauty blogger event at Debenhams. Off course I jumped at the chance, knowing I would be able to have a chat with the lovely ladies at Elemis, Urban Decay and Elizabeth Arden. 

Before hand, I met up with fellow blogger and friend, the lovely Clare from A Bit of This and That Blog. I was a little bit of a silly blogger that day and was so forgetful to bring my camera (complete blogger fail!) so all of the images I have belong to Clare.

We first headed to Elemis, where we chatted to two of the lovely ladies on the counter about our skin care routines and the skin care products we use day to day. We then received a little facial, and were able to try out some of their best selling skin care range. The ladies were so lovely and told us all about their products and what is best for our skin types. 

Next up, make up time. We tootled over to the Urban Decay counter where we had a complete make over, using some of Urban Decay's best selling products, as well as their new eye shadow palette, the Electric palette. I was a little hesitant at first with the eye shadow as I don't tend to use much colour on my eyes, but the assistant doing my make - up kept me at ease and created a lovely purple/silver smokey eye. 

After a cheeky purchase from Urban Decay, we then popped over to Elizabeth Arden where we were given the low down on all of their lip products: a lipology! It was really interesting hearing so much about the care of the lips - I often neglect to look after my lips. I enjoyed having a try with their lip liners and lip glosses - a few of them have crept on my wishlist for sure. 

I had a great time at the event - we were treated to lots of pampering and beautifying! Thanks to all the staff at Debenhams at Intu Merry Hill for having us! We were very well looked after and provided with nibbles, drinks and were even given some samples to take home with us! 

All Images Belong To Clare. You can see her original post here.

Birmingham Blogger Meetup

Last Saturday, 26 of us braved the snow and awful English weather to attend a wonderful blogger meet up organised by the lovely Gemma, Clare and Sara. 

We met in a Starbucks in Birmingham City Centre, I was very nervous going over and I think we were all a little nervous but it was fine! All the girls were so so lovely.

We were then given badges with our names and twitter @s and put into four groups to go shopping! Our little group headed for Selfridges, Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, Lush and Muji. I only picked up one thing on the whole shopping trip but I will save it for a future post!

Once we had been shopping, we met back at Starbucks and headed off to Rodizio 

Rico, where the girls had arranged a free cocktail or two for us! Which off course was lovely! The bar was beautiful and somewhere I would definitely suggest going again!

We then went for our meal at Red Peppers in The Mailbox, where the girls had covered our table in pretty decorations and little name place cards. I ordered Enchilada for my main which was delicious! 

The ladies that organised also arranged an amazing goodie bag for everyone, with lots of products I cant wait to try! They even organised twitter competitions with lovely prizes!

A special thanks to all sponsors and brands involved!

Victoria from Victorias Vintage Cakes even baked a delicious beauty bloggers cake - it was beautiful and tasted amazing - check out her website as she has recently started her own cake business. 

I didn't take any photos myself but a lot of the other ladies did I believe so do go and check their blogs out!

I have linked everyone that attended below.

It was a great day, was great meeting everyone.

I've popped a few of Gemmas photos on here from the day!

The beautiful cake Victoria made

Here are everyone's links and twitter below - go follow them :)

Clare @abotat90
Gemma @gemmabutton
Sara @xPrettyInPinkxx
Carmen @carmsbabes

Laura @Lauraxamyx.

Amy @amylovesdaniel
Terri @hello_terrilowe
Sophie @sophie_mellish
Charlotte @misschar
Charlotte @lilmisschickas
Chloe @itsschloeeee
Feyi @UtUblog
becca @becaboosmakeup
Hayley @xhjw

Vanessa @TheOtherVW

Tasha @wand_included

Tereza @cityscapebliss
Victoria @victoriajane6
Erica @ericahenderson
Robyn @Robyn_Akerman
Laura @lolaandbehold
Sophie @pocockins
Heidi @Heidi-likes
Jessica @Kaviargauche
Natalie @nataliegarland
Andy @pamperedprince

SO much effort was put into this met up, I cant thank the girls enough they worked so, so hard! They deserve all of the great recognition they will get :)

I am looking forward to attending another Blogger Meet Up! again soon!

#BirminghamBloggerMeetUp

xx