My Local Lush Has A Makeover

      I had meant to write a post about this a while ago (the opening was on 23rd Feb!) but never got round to it.
    I love Lush, what they stand for, but most of all their beautiful products! So it was only natural that I had to go and see what the new store was like. I didn't really know what they could do to make it that different.
    I dragged my Mum down with me and when we went into the shop it looked fantastic. It just looks so much classier. All of the wooden interior has gone in favour of a more modern and sleek grey colour scheme. They have the same amount of stock on the shop floor but it seems as if there is less so it looks much tidier.
   Upon entering the shop there were lots of goodies on offer, Champange, luxury fruit sticks and one member of staff had even made macarons and chocolate truffles. I opted for a chocolate truffle, while my Mum chose a macaron (glittery I might add). And I have to say I think the truffles were the best I've ever tasted, I am told the macarons were great too.
    To keep the macaron theme going I purchased two bubbleroon bars. I chose Green Bubbleroon which reminds me of a fresh meadow and Yuzu and Cocoa which smells of chocolate and grapefruit. Of course I had to limit myself as I am trying to save money.
     What's more with every purchase you got your choice of tote bag (I liked pineapple best) and badge (I chose red).
      The launch of the new store was great it was very classy and posh, I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately I wasn't brave enough to take photos inside the shop.
     I also came home with a Fred and Ginger calendar (which mum treated me to) it was half price, so well worth it for 12 pictures. My Mum and I both have a soft spot for gingerbread men and the Fred and Ginger range is just so funny.

Valentine's Day 2012

      I hope you all had a nice Valentine's Day. Even though I am single this year, I still like to get into the spirit. I like to buy little gifts for family members and of course that means my kittens too.
      I started the day off with a lovely hot bath using one of the beautiful products from the Lush Valentine's range.

      Then I slipped into one of my red dresses, black glittery leggings and my trusty boots. I finished the outfit with various pieces of heart themed jewellery (including my red chunky perspex heart bangle).

     Then it was present time.

          My Mum made these gorgeous Love Hearts just like the sweets but full of catnip instead. To make it even better they are personalised.  The are pictured with the Limited Edition Love Hearts tin given to me by my Gran.

        My kittens also got these matching Princess bowls by Mason Cash. Also this sweet lollipop card from Moonpig.

               My Mum gave me three wonderful gifts for Valentine's Day.

          This lovely heart shaped box is topped with a pretty handmade bow. It contains my favourite gift of the day which was lovingly and painstakingly made by my very talented Mum.

    My Mum knows better than anyone that I have a great love of French things. So she knew that this enamel plaque would be right up my street. And the thing that really makes it  brilliant is that the black splat in the middle can be used as a blackboard. I am going to use it for my French word of the day.

     And last but not least is this fantastic lips chocolate mould. I love making my own chocolates and I can't wait to use this mould.

                                      I also gave my Mum three gifts.

    First is these red leather driving gloves. My Mum loves polka dots. And I like the fact they have hearts and they fit in with the theme of the day.

       This reproduction Spangles sign was purchased from Ebay. I'm too young to remember them but my Mum remembers them fondly.

        My Mum loves vintage and she really likes tins (she has lots of ribbon and buttons that she can fill them with). So when I saw this vintage Smarties van tin on Ebay, it seemed a good buy. The wheels move which is a nice touch.

          This picture shows the things my Gran bought for Ruby & Violet. They love Dreamies. I think they would eat their own weight in Dreamies if you let them. The advert where the cat jumps through the wall isn't much of an exaggeration! They really enjoy watching their wind up walking heart and love to swipe at it.

     After a lovely day, I sat down to one of my favourite meals (a burrito). To finish the day off I watched a good film and made a dent in a very tasty box of these...

          Maybe next year I will find myself a dashing Frenchman. Oh well... a girl can dream can't she?

More Sale Delights

       Yesterday  I decided to go into town to see for myself  what the sales had to offer. And I was not disappointed. Although my purse may not be so happy!
         My first stop was Lush and my luck was in, the half price sale was still on. I bought all single items, mainly Christmas items with a couple of Halloween thrown in. It was a great feeling going to the till and getting change from a £20.00 note for all this lovely stuff.

      My next stop was Paperchase. I love their Patisserie Pals range. I have the cake stand from the range. They had this gorgeous tin reduced from £7.50 to £3.50.  Then I spotted these very cute and quirky cookie cutter lights. These were a steal at half price, down from £15.00 to £7.50. I fell in love with them and they had to come home with me.

    
      While standing in the queue in Primark buying some rather mundane things, I spotted these Lip Smackers reduced to £1.00 each.  I really like these fizzy drink flavoured Smackers (I'm using Cherry Coke at the moment). So I went for Orange Fanta and Sprite.

       Then H&M, this item wasn't in the sale but I just had to have it. I was in the children's section to see what Hello Kitty items were on offer. I couldn't see anything of great interest. Until I saw this beautiful little cardigan which was a reddish orange colour with a white collar and it had a very cute little black cat on it.

       I have to confess that I do buy children's clothes if they have a black cat on them for my collection. So it goes without saying that I bought it and I think it was reasonably priced at £9.99.

           If all of this wasn't enough I then decided to make my way to TK Maxx. My Mum had mentioned to me that the last time she was in, they had Ruby cake sprinkles. She was going to buy them (she knows I'm a sucker for anything with my cats' names on). Even better if it's baking related. But in the end she didn't get them. So I thought I would go and see if they had any left because I knew I would love them. They did and I bought a tub for £2.99.

      Always on the hunt for a new cookbook to add to my growing collection, I went upstairs to see what they had to offer.  I came away with The Best Of Cadbury's Chocolate Cooking. A bargain at the same price as the sprinkles.

After all that it was time to make my way home. I am so pleased I had a good look around. I came away with some little gems.

Sale Bargains

       The day after Boxing Day my Mum braved the sales.  She nabbed me some fantastic bargains. Some great goodies from the Lush half price sale.

     She also bought me an anthropomorphic present sack from Paperchase reduced to a fantastic 90p! And some Tatty Teddy Christmas stickers.
     Mum got some sewing themed goodies for herself, also half price.  These button soaps and a cotton reel pin cushion.

    Even my little kittens got some goodies. They got a Celia Birtwell black cat cameo collar each and a  pack of Celia Birtwell floral mice. I am going to buy catnip spray for these (they go absolutely mad for catnip!)

All in all  a good day of bargain hunting. Me, I'd rather do it from the comfort of my settee.

Another Late Night Shopping Trip

We went into town again last night for late night shopping. Just to get a few little bits for Christmas and it was much busier than I expected.

    My first stop was Lush. I am running very low on Lush products and I wanted to make sure I have something nice for my Christmas bath (I must say not my only bath of the year!). So far I hadn't purchased any products from the Christmas range. It seems to me one minute it was October and now it's December, so I am not quite as organised as I usually am.
       These four items came home with me...

Abombinaball is a new bath ballistic for this Christmas which has a mix of peppermint, vanilla and orange.

Also a new introduction for this year is The Melting Snowman bath melt which has a deep marzipan fragrance.

Cinders, which I have used many times before, has a spicy and fruity scent.

I fell for this cute and quirky Santa knot wrap. Which they had used as bunting in the shop which was a great idea.

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My next stop was Past Times. I bought a cute little catnip tree for my lovely little kittens. I also bought a very girlie catnip mouse, especially for Violet. I bought it to cheer her up after her surgery next week (I will go into detail about that later).

     Next stop was Waterstone's. Having had a bee in my bonnet about brushing up on my French grammar and verbs for a while, I decided to see what they had to offer. A very helpful man pointed me in the right direction of the French books and showed me some of the options. This is the one I settled on...

     Next the sweet shop. I got some of my favourite Rhubarb & Custard sweets. I also purchased some Beeches Violet Creams. I wanted something to enjoy while poring over my new book (they are also nice because they remind me of my little Violet).

Halloween Lush Style

The day after my birthday (Sunday), we went on another shopping trip. Locally this time. I have been looking forward to the new Halloween products arriving at Lush. Although I hoped for a bigger range, I still wasn't disappointed. I purchased everything except the soap from the halloween range.

                                            Skullduggery has a citrus scent with lime and neroli.

                                Calacus also goes down the citrus route with a lime jelly bean scent.

This pumpkin knot wrap is so sweet. I purchased mine with a fizzbanger ballistic inside. Fizzbanger changes colour once in the water and smells like apple crumble. I think this is one of my new favourites from Lush!


Whilst shopping we popped into Marks & Spencer. And I added to my haul a cardboard cake stand with spinning bats at the top. I also bought a black glittery cardboard candelabra (which I really love). I am thinking I may need a small shed to accommodate my Halloween things if I carry on like this...