Sorted for my travels - Part two

You may recall in my previous blog post 'Sorted for my travels' saying that I returned some previous purchases to Cath Kidson. The one thing I didn't check when I was there originally, was the returns policy for Sale items. Exchange only. So here are the items I bought with my exchange money.

Passport cover as for some reason the travel wallet is not enough for me haha!

Was £8.00 Now £5.00
Travel card wallet, mainly because I thought the trains on it was cute but also because it has 3 sections. 

Was £6.00 Now £4.00

Business card holder for all of those extra shop reward cards that don't fit in my purse.

Was £9.00 Now £7.00

Compact mirror as I don't actually have a nice one and this has both normal and magnified mirrors. 

Was £8.00 Now £6.00

Sorted for my travels.

I'm lucky enough to be heading to LA in a couple of weeks for Vidcon, that's a YouTube convention if you were wondering. Then after that I'm heading to my works offices in San Francisco, going to try my best to get on a tram somehow! Anywho, I realised I needed (wanted) a couple of items for my journey, here are my bargain finds!

Firstly I needed some new hand luggage, mainly because I need to take my laptop with me. I popped into TK Maxx one day and came across this Jansport case which happened to have a section for a 15" laptop, along with extra space for other items. Nice handle that zips away and pretty lightweight. 

RRP: £138.00, TK Maxx price: £44.99. 

The next traveling items I wanted to get were a wash bag and a smaller make-up bag. I did originally buy these items from Cath Kidston, but then returned them due to discovering these more colourful ones in Paperchase. Yes, the make-up bag is technically a pencil case, but that's okay, I've got a small make-up bag with pockets :) 

Wash bag: £9.00

Make-up bag: £5.50

The last item I wanted to find was a travel wallet, thankfully Cath Kidston had a sale on and this lovely wallet was in it. I also managed to get this purse in the sale too, I was getting a little frustrated with the purse I bought a few months ago, you had to open the card area to get to the coin section. No more!

Purse: Was £26.00, Now: £13.00 

Travel wallet: Was £18.00, Now: £12.00

Layla Amber: Rose Posy Necklace

Back in April I blogged about an amazing jewellery designer called Layla Amber. In May she posted an Instagram picture of a copy of Mollie Makes, along with a beautiful iPhone case which I'm tempted to get.

I happen to work for the publishing company that creates Mollie Makes, so I thought I would drop them an e-mail to mention Layla's work. Two months later one of Layla's pictures along with a bit of blurb appeared in their Making Memories section (Issue 29).

The moral of this story really is that Layla messaged me to say Thank You and offered to send me one of her lovely necklaces, today it arrived and it's just lovely! She sent it with a lovely little note saying ' Thank you very much Helen! I hope you love your new necklace! Layla x' Yes Layla, I do indeed :)

Thank Layla! x

Don't forget to visit her website, so many lovely items on there to spend your pennies on :) www.layla-amber.co.uk

Summer sale purchases

It seems this up and down weather in the UK is proving to be great for sale shopping. I don't know if it's just me, but there seems to be a new sale on every other week in most stores at the moment. Is it weather? Is it people not spending on the high street? Who knows. 

The lovely bird earrings are from New Look instore (Was £3, now £1.50).

My previous watch had stopped, instead of getting the battery replaced I thought it was time to purchase a new one. My issue is that I have rather tiny rists and I was also finding it hard to find something on the high street that was simple to wear with anything. I headed over to eBay and had a good look, I came across this seller who was selling exactly what I wanted. Perfect mid brown leather strap with a stylish looking face, and what's better is it only cost £5.99 with £1 p+p.  

I've been looking for a new swimming costume for a while (not that I'm actually planning to go swimming anytime soon). Whilst the Debenhams 20% sale was on, I came across this figure flattering seagull printed swimsuit. It's strapless but comes with a strap for extra support if wanted. Was £22 but reduced to £17.60. 

In my opinion the most comfortable flip flops on the market are the Swish brand from Animal. Unlike most, these have a cushioned part that sits between your large and 2nd toe, leading to no blisters in my experience! I obviously chose the right day to go into the Bath store as these were half price at £7. 

The little H&M bow shoes were picked up in the sale for £7, reduced from £9.99. when it comes to shoes for me, if they are different, they fit and are cheap then I buy them!

Finally a dress that I actually bought for full price! (I know, unusual for me). I had seen this Pins and Needles Poppy Cross back dress in Urban Outfitters before, but this time I tried it on and liked it too much. The card came out of my purse and £55 was taken from it. It's a lovely cut, it looks great even without a waist belt and to be honest I thought it was cute. 

Not really an item I can wear, but I was happy when I managed to find these IKEA Malm bed side tables for £20 on Gumtree (£35 each brand new). I did give the guy an extra £5 as he kindly delivered them to our flat. 

Preparing for the heatwave

Even though the weather still can't make it's mind up, that doesn't stop me from picking up lot's of pretty dresses (And a necklace). 

Starting from the top left we have a lovely Neon striped skater dress from H! by Henry Holland at Debenhams (£28.50 with 25% off). Top right is a Primark red ditsy floral dress (£5). Bottom left is a bargain from eBay, Vintage cream lace dress by Pearl Lowe for Peacocks (£15.00+£3.00p+p). And finally a lovely diamond and pearl necklace by Vicenza at Debenhams (Was £18, now £9) - Think this one will go well with the lace dress.

Another favourite of mine at the moment is a perfume, which is odd as I don't usually like any of them. Whilst walking to work one more a lady was handing out these samples outside Jolly's. After a small spray I thought this is actually quite nice, surprising myself with that comment. Since then I'm managed to get my hands on two more 1.5ml testers, but at some point I'm actually going to have to cough up the £37 or so for the 30ml bottle.

Day off shopping spree

As I mentioned in my last blog, Friday I booked the day off work and went to Bristol for a little retail therapy. As it was a week day I thought Primark would be quieter, but stupidly I forgot that other people tend to book the Fridays off for a bank holiday weekend too! I regret putting so many items in my basket to try on and ended up leaving half of it due to the heat, screaming children and as slightly rude changing room staff. But after all of that I did manage to pick up these little bargains:

     

Top: £6.00
Dress: Was £15 / Now £7.00

Shorts: £7.00

I also popped into New Look and Dorothy Perkins and picked up this lovely vest top and sun glasses:

Dorothy Perkins sun glasses: £5.00

New Look vest top: £6.99

Overall a nice group of items ready for the sunshine! My next mission is to find some more nice waist belts that actually fit me. It's a shame I didn't buy two of the brown one with the brass bow that I currently own. The search goes on!

H&M Cardigan Frenzy

Made the possible mistake of popping into H&M during a lunch hour again. But who could resist the amazing 50% off selected cardigans offer, making them only £4.99 a piece! Obviously I took this opportunity to visualise my wardrobe in my head and think of the colours I was yet to own.

These will now be added to the multiple cardigans I already own, including the collection of long ones seen below. 

There are more, but I didn't want to show the mass collection as it might look like I've become a collector. Some women collect shoes, some bags, but I'm a collector of cardigans. Now can we please have some decent weather so that I can simply pop one of these neatly over a spring/summer top.

Click here for more H&M basic cardigans. 

Bag and purse delights

Kangol Brown Floral Shopper Bag

£24.00 from Debenhams with 20% off

Finally have a decent back for my work laptop that's also shower proof. Before I used to have everyday cotton tote bags, these are fine but with the weight they tend to dig into your shoulder a little. This lovely bag by Kangol looks great and fits everything I need perfectly. Even an added extra of a pocket on the front, along with a zipper and phone pockets on the inside. 

Mantaray Navy Butterfly Quilted Purse

£16.00 from Debenhams with 20% off

After getting my hands on that lovely Mantaray bag the other week, I thought it would be nice to go out with the old and in with the new of the purse side of things. Current purse is a lovely multicoloured striped one that I picked up in the Paperchase sale for about £3 many years ago. The zipper on the inner coin section keeps coming off, so I thought it would be wise to upgrade.

Even though this purse has many more card sections, I still think I might have to get another little card holder for all of those store bonus cards!