Three bloggers go mad in Ipswich!

Totally stole Hazel's pic!

It has taken me ages to write this post, for reasons which I will explain in a minute but I was really fortunate to meet up with Sophie at Sophie in the Sticks and Hazel at World of Joy for a blogger meet-up in Hazel's home town Ipswich.  I was very excited this because I've been reading both of these blogging ladies' blogs for several years now and been writing to Sophie for at least 3 years so it was really exciting.  CBC said, "Wow, you're actually meeting Sophie!" (Sophie is the ONE blogger he remembers and talks about when he talks about my blogging friends!).  Hazel was very efficient in organising our meet-up and I was so pleased to meet her!

I jumped on a train ridiculously early and Hazel was waiting for me at the gates and Sophie appeared literally seconds later!  Utterly surreal and great meeting them in real life!

We headed off down the road on Hazel's charity shop tour of Ipswich. I must say, she had a brilliant route planned.

We walked along chatting and devastatingly, the heavenly sounding charity-shop with attached tearoom had shut down!!! Not to be  easily defeated, we simply headed into a  tasty-looking coffee shop for beverages and a good chat!



And then,  we headed on through Ipswich visiting a good 10 or more charity shops. I was impressed by lots of them. There was a brilliant Salvation Army which I found loads in (and everything I bought was marked down) and then the best was a £1 Cancer Research shop in which I found 3 items I liked and 2 books.




At some point, we stopped for lunch, Hazel led us towards a great place that was quiet, tasteful and quick. I had a delicious fish-finger sandwich (Aren't I terrible- manage a picture of a sandwich but not much else!)

The adventure continued, I managed to sneak a little picture or two!


I was actually planning to gather together all the things I bought (lots of them-eek!!)  to add into this post but I've worn most of the items and they are scattered around the house in various washing baskets, clean or dirty, in drawers, hanging on banisters or lying on the spare bed. Yes, I'm no domestic siren!

Hazel had a great idea for a challenge for our outing. Two of us had to buy an item for the third to style up, so essentially we each ended up with an item to style, bought by the others.

Hazel and I managed to sort Sophie in the first shop, we saw a turquoise polka dot knitted mini-dress that we thought was just her.
Sophie and I, knowing Hazel's love of stripes, found something a little different, a sort of coloured stripy maxi dress.

And what did they buy for me:

Well, the reason I have taken so long to write this post (apart from BEDM) is that it's been rather too cold for the item I was bought. They chose me a beautiful red, sleeveless, frilly mini-dress with an adorable umbrella print all other it. red-check, fun print- check, ruffles- check!  It was a great item, very, very much in my style!

I finally got around to wearing it on the bank holiday Sunday as we paid a visit to RHS Hyde Hall.

How did I style it?

A hat of course- charity shopped straw with red band, black cardie and grey leggings as it wasn't THAT warm, sensible black Rieker shoes for walking around and a black necklace given to me by my friend Ellie


It was nice to be bright in this setting, against a backdrop of foliage.

I loved the item they bought me, it will be great for sunny days that I hope are coming! Thanks for a great choice! It was a great day and I am very pleased we managed to meet up. Huge thanks to Hazel for being an ace host!

You can read Sophie's styled post here and Hazel's one here to see what we bought each other and how they styled it!

xx

P.S. Thank you, thank you,thank you for all the kind comments- you are wonderful.I was out swing-dancing last night and had a headache on Monday  so haven't had a chance to visit everyone yet!

Linking to Hat Attack with Judith, the one and only StyleCrone