So yesterday i went shopping with my housemates to buy a present for my friends 22nd. We ended up going to our favourite boutique in one of two Victorian arcades in Birmingham (Piccadilly Arcade)called Smithsonia and found a lovely little flat beaded necklace by a Spanish Company (can’t remember the name but they were based in Barcelona). Birmingham is also home to the Great Western Arcade which i have never been to seeing as its a little out of the way. I must make time and go there eventually, terrible really seeing as I’m classed as a bit of a local. I bought my dose of magazines (Dazed and confused and Wonderland) which i probably shouldn’t have bought because that came to £8, but i love magazines too much. I didn’t intend to buy Wonderland but i loved the Miguel Reveriego fashion shoot too much to let it pass by. Plus it was the last Dec/Jan issue so it wouldn’t be around the next time i was in town.
We also hovered for a while by the Travel section in Waterstones looking at the New York travel guides. We hope to book tickets by Monday, so it will be a great end of term, end of Uni present to ourselves. Plus we might find our graduation dresses out there! It’s all a bit exciting!
As always, i am forever on either the topshop or urban outfitters website, I was browsing the UO website and convinced myself into wanting a new jacket. I didn’t want to buy it over the Internet as i really wanted to try it on before i parted with £55. Its a sort of motorcycle style jacket, and it would be a nice jacket for the spring, it’s blue Cotton twill with a jersey fabric lining. I thought it could wear that with anything, a dress or jeans etc. However, it wasn’t meant to be, we went into Urban Outfitters and it was looking a little bare and i think they were preparing to put out their new stuff and the jacket couldn’t be seen anywhere. Still, in Spring i tend to wear my H&M hoodies as jackets so i suppose i don’t really need one after all.
So i aimlessly pondered around the store looking to see what else would catch my eye and i came across the diffusion line from Vanessa Bruno,Vanessa Bruno Athé. I found a bag of hers that i had been eyeing up for ages. It’s a large, slouchy black leather bag that is perfect for uni for stuffing all my books in. It has Double arm straps that fit nicely on your shoulder with decorative studs on the corners and strap. It was a tad expensive, and being a student can’t afford to over indulge on things i honestly don’t need. It’s nice, but not nice enough for me to splurge £150 and the last time i popped in, the bag was reduced to £99 in the sale. 
Still too much.
But yesterday i went in, and i saw one lone bag on the side for a measly £40! That’s over 75% off the original price. Net a porter (which the image is taken from, sold the bag for £112.70 in the sale and that’s without p&p…but now sold out). This was crazy stuff, so after checking over the bag again and again in UO (surely being that cheap there must have been something wrong with it? but no) So of course i snapped it up! Though as ever with sales, i know its out of season and that larger totes are on their way out but instead, making way for the much smaller (but still over sized)Clutch. Though i have never been one for clutches, but things change huh?
Luckily i was able to splurge a little as i was finally paid for working over Christmas (I work for a department store in the holidays) Yay!
My housemate laughed and said she could see instantly the moment when something inside me snapped, apparently i had a ‘look’ on my face. Haha, well I didn’t know that i had a look! Slightly worrying! To her further amusement, i harped on about it being perfect for holidays (obviously justifying my purchase, I don’t know why i felt i needed to do this as she really isn’t one to criticise as she is one of my favourite shopping partners!) The bag is huge (and as my other housemate pointed out, its probably half the size of me), i will definitely be able to fit some holiday essentials in it for the plane trip to Hong Kong (and New York!). Though having used it today, its very pickpocket friendly as there is no zip, just snap buttons to hold it together. Well…it was too much of a bargain to let it slip away.
I took it into uni today, and it definitely did its job, its so big though that I fear that I may run into the trap of fitting an obscene amount of stuff in there because i can. Ahh! Over and out!
