I am visiting a relative in Edinburgh this weekend and am planning on getting her a gift for the weekend. Although I have been to Edinburgh before I’m still not sure where the best shops are. I want to get a nice potted plat display so will need a florist. Luckily I can use City Visitor to find florists in Edinburgh that can easily find.

There is nothing worse than running all around a city I’m not sure how to really get around, but luckily I can set my sat nav to the address park nearby and easily get my flowers, (which I have also pre-ordered on their website. Perfect.

Since the Royal wedding, well actually since William and Kate announced their engagement really the fashion world has been obsessed with what Kate and also her sister Pippa wear. Many highstreet stores have in fact been cashing in on this by selling ‘look-alike’ items seen on both girls, probably to the annoyance of the actual clothing designers.

To be fair I don’t really follow much of what either sister wears and would say I haven’t been drawn into buying something similar to what they have worn, however that changed last week after I was drawn in by an email. I have to admit my inbox is usually full of emails from various clothing retailers from designer to highstreet and it was one email from a highstreet store which caught my eye. They featured a picture of Kate wearing a dress on her recent trip to the States with William and their own version of her outfit.

Now normally I’m not drawn into things like this but the dress Kate was wearing was a great style that would be perfect for my father’s 65th birthday celebrations coming up soon. So I couldn’t resist. Although the highstreet version is an exact match to Kate’s dress it looks great all be it a bit short, but that’s more to do with my leg length being longer than average and a problem I find with most dresses!

I now wonder if I have been caught by the media spell where I find myself looking at what Kate wears for fashion inspiration? Well maybe for smart clothing for those occasions where you can’t look like a tart but the rest of the time she is a bit too safe fashion wise for me!

I know we are still in summer, (technically, even if it doesn’t feel like summer) but new trends are starting to emerge on the highstreet and its actually getting me quite excited. After all who doesn’t get excited by new trends?

By this time of year, I’m starting to be ‘over’ summer clothing, I’ve seen it all already and nothing peaks my interest. Plus at the moment I haven’t been really able to wear all my nice summer clothes because we haven’t really had the weather, good job I went on holiday to actually wear some stuff!

Anyway weather moan over, let’s have a look at what’s in:

- 70’s styling; colours, shapes and materials.

- Bold colours; not as bright as we have had for summer, think rich purples, reds and yellows.

- Punk styles; for people who like a bit of an edge with their style

- Heritage; good old English styles, lots of tweed, flower patterns and a muted pallet. (Miss Marple)

The best thing with most of these trends is that they are great on their own but also work really well together. I think I will be making the most of the colours from these trends whilst stocking up on my wardrobe basics, such as jumpers, cardigans, long sleeved tops, trousers and jeans.

I read the other day that Jamie Oliver will no longer be working with Sainsbury’s, no longer will his cheeky chappy smile grace our TV screens during the adverts, well no longer on Sainsbury’s adverts anyway! I have to say I will miss him although some people may disagree, numerous people rejoiced when the news broke! I am a Jamie Oliver fan, like many of our friends, it’s probably our age that attributes to liking him, and my mother isn’t a fan!

On the plus side though television chef Lorraine Pascale is going to replace Jamie, (yey) I’m a big fan of the catwalk model turned chef and loved watching her cookery programme and trying out her recipes. So I will be excited to see the new adds when they arrive and hopefully food ranges too!

Well I came back off holiday to find that a lot of the summer sales have started, which is great, couldn’t have started a couple of weeks earlier could they so I could get some bargains for my holiday just gone! On the plus side I have picked up some pieces for my hols next year, well that’s the excuse, just don’t mention the fact I haven’t book the holiday yet!!

I feel though I must impart my knowledge on successful sale shopping, there are rules to stick to if you don’t want to waste money and time or end up with clothes you won’t ever wear again. Before I set out to the shops or sit down in front of my computer I have a list of what I need and then one for want I really, really want/can’t live without! These lists help me stay focused, if there is anything I see that isn’t on the list I put it back and then walk away……. Very fast! After all a bargain is only a bargain when you are saving money on something you need and it’s a bargain/treat when it’s something you want.

I also set a budget for certain things, if the discounts not good enough I normally walk away and I also set a budget for how much I want to spend on the whole drip/day in front of computer. If I’m getting close to my budget I go home before anything else can tempt my particularly wandering eyes. The same goes for the internet, however I do find stopping shopping online quite hard to do!

For sale items returns policies tend to be pretty rubbish, some won’t take items back others only give store credit so you should make sure what you have bought is right. On the other hand if you find something you bought in the sale is faulty then you are within your rights to get a refund.

Finally some more common sense tips:

-Get there early, you get the best bargains.
-Sign up to your favourite clothing brands sites to be the first to know of sales.
-Don’t go on weekends or lunch hours.
-Double check labels to make sure they are the size they say they are, sometimes coat hangers get mixed up.
-Don’t be afraid to barter.

Happy shopping y’all! x

Not a very interesting topic really I am afraid, but the other day I was looking to buy a new suitcase for my next holiday which is coming up in a couple of weeks. I do currently have a suitcase, a relatively cheap one I picked up a couple of years ago, however I keep having problems with the zip, (opening and closing) which is starting to get on my nerves.

SO I decided this time I probably should splash out on a more expensive case in the hope of it lasting longer than my cheaper ones. The only problem now is whether to go for hard case or soft case, both had positive and negative points and a search on the internet to find out which is best didn’t bring up much. I have had both hard and soft cases before. My original hard case did quite well but after a couple of holidays came of the carousel with a big crack on the outside and it wouldn’t shut well after that. The soft case is the one I have mentioned above with the dodgy zip, other than that I haven’t had any problems with it, other than the panic that my bottle of tequila from Mexico which I wrapped up in my clothes would get broken, (it didn’t and was very nice). There are so many brands that it can be quite hard to know where to start, so I figure probably with the ones I have heard of such as Samsonite and Carlton and go from there.

So here I am a couple of weeks to go and no decision, one thing I am sure about is that I want four wheels, just because.

As I have mentioned in a previous post the Royal Wedding on the 29th April seems to be getting everyone in a tizzy, this week I have seen an influx of retailers offering t-shirts sporting wedding themes and royal themes.

This got me thinking, this is a great opportunity for me to make some money from all my Royal Wedding obsessed friends. By using t shirt printing to make t-shirt designs they can wear when they watch the wedding on TV or go to a street party.

Many of them share much more excitement than I do for the wedding, however they do lack the creative drive to come up with their own t-shirt designs. If I use an online retailer such as Adlogo which offers quick turnaround times I should be able to get the t-shirts designed ready for my friends before the wedding.

Plus I will also save them a trip to a shop to buy one which is great and because Adlogo offers really good prices for bulk buys I can make some money from my friends in the process!

Just like Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Fathers Day prices for gifts, flowers and meals increase around the time of these events, with us the gullible public willing to spend the extra pounds. There are those who don’t buy into these ‘holidays, especially Valentine’s Day and those who have no need to, either because they unfortunately lost their parent(s) or a single.

I always buy my mum a card for Valentine’s day but I don’t take her out, she wouldn’t like to be stuck in a restaurant for Mother’s Day being fed overpriced and probably substandard food with everyone else’s families. I also always endeavour to buy her a gift that she will use, normally something she wants or needs; these also tend to be normally priced over the holiday, where as gift sets and flowers aren’t.

I don’t want to seem bitter at spending money on Mother’s Day in fact it doesn’t bother me how much I spend as long as the gift as I have said is something that she wants, I just don’t see why prices have to be raised for the day. I think like many holidays we have lost sight of why we celebrate them trough consumerism and that the real reason we celebrate Mother’s Day is to thank them for being our mothers, not about buying them cheap overpriced tat for the sake of it.

I was reading recently that the price of fruit and veg is going up, so much so those on low incomes won’t be able to afford to eat it, which got me pondering the question, if people can’t afford fruit and veg, what is left for them to eat?

Supermarkets have been slowly putting up the price of veg for the past few years while I have found quality has gone down, what was once standard veg for a cheap price has now been moved to organic or ‘special’ charged at a higher price and poor quality now been sold as standard. For some there is no option other to buy from a supermarket, many fruit and veg retailers in smaller towns have all but disappeared so people are forced to buy from the supermarkets who dictate prices to demand and profit margins hence price increases.

Recently I have decided to move away from supermarket veg after struggling to find good quality consistently and now looking into vegetable boxes which can be delivered to my home fresh from my local area, with seasonal produce. This way I know where my food comes from and know that it is fresh and the bonus it is cheaper than the supermarket, just need to wait and taste it!

Once over if I needed information I would have to look it up in a book, such as an encyclopaedia, if I wanted to get the latest news headlines I would have to wait for a news bulletin, if I wanted to buy something new I would have to trail around shops to get what I wanted and if I wanted a service I would have to dig out the old Yellow Pages or Thomson Local.

But since the invention of the internet and the integration of the internet into our lives finding out, and buying items mentioned above has become a doddle! Available at the click of my mouse and now my mobile phone is all the information I need, need a plumber, no problem, information provided online by companies such as Infoserve Yahoo!Local. What to buy a new outfit without leaving the house, simple buy online from my favourite highstreet stores and if I want to get the best deal on electronics I can check out online.

The internet also is a great tool for smaller businesses, which can accesses a wider audience and get there name out there, especially with search engine services which are offered by companies such as Infoserve. It’s a great way to push your business further and get customers you may not normally reach.