Laura Loves: Birmingham Blogger Meet

I first heard about this event over on the Birmingham Blogger Facebook page - which if you're from the Birmingham area - I am sure you have heard of by now. This was the second Birmingham Blogger event organised by the amazing Abbigayle, and again, she did us all proud. I went along to this event not knowing what quite to expect. I managed to grab a ticket last minute after rearranging some of my former plans for that evening, and I am so glad I did! What I did know was that this event was being held at The Body Shop in Birmingham which meant lots of shopping and a hole in my bank balance! The Black Friday weekend brought along all sorts of madness. Trying to get through the determined shoppers as well as the German market visitors was a challenge to say the least. I found The Body Shop in good time, bearing in my mind I didn't really know where it was. I can't really say I'm a huge 'Body Shopper' to be honest. I love their products but unfortunately I don't have one on my doorstep so it's not somewhere I regularly visit.

But back to the event - once everyone had arrived and settled in, we got started with a Birmingham Blogger event favourite - the cupcake challenge. We all had to come up with a cute innovative saying for our cupcakes and upload them to Instagram. After struggling to get wifi, I uploaded my terrible attempt at being witty (as you can see below). After this, we all chose a celebration of our choice as part of the ice breaker challenge. Depending on what celebration we had, we all had to answer a question each. I was asked where I would most like to visit if I had the choice, which for me was a treat in itself as it just so happens that I am going off on my travels next year. The answer being Australia. After this we got a formal introduction from The Body Shop manager and were split into three groups. In our groups we got the opportunity to go round the store and test out all the wonderful products. Along the way we also had to try and solve the answers to a little quiz Abbigayle had created which listed questions based on The Body Shop ethics. This was used afterwards in a prize drawer at the end of the night.

My adorable cupcake

The first station

Massage time!

I really enjoyed testing out all the products I must say, including our wonderful hand massages and mini makeover. The Christmas products in particular smelt amazing and I couldn't wait for the interval so we could finally shop. As expected, I got somewhat carried away and ended up buying a lot more than intended. However, I did manage to pick out a few Christmas goodies in my sweep which made me feel a little less guilty. I also got the chance to mingle with some of the other girls, a few of whom I had met at previous events including the amazing Lenny, Kirsty and a couple of new faces including Tashpantz and Sarah. I was definitely impressed with the organisation of the event. Even though we didn't manage to fit everything in, we definitely had an action packed evening. It was a very chilled and went far too quickly for my liking.

So, after we were all shopped out, it was back to more games and nibbles including the classic charades which was the perfect team building excuse. May I also add how amazing the popcorn was that evening! We all got given a free bag of this in our goody bags which I will be sharing with you in my next post. After the games drew to an end, it was time for the raffle and competition prize givings before saying our goodbyes. I can't wait for the next event already!