Fabb Birmingham Blogger Event

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to hear about and grab myself a ticket for the amazing #FABBBirmingham event which took place at the Custard Factory in Digbeth. For those of you who are not familiar with Birmingham, the Custard Factory is one of Birmingham's treasures as I like to call it. It's located just outside of the city centre and hosts a whole load of quirky shops and underground raves. I love it and knew I would be in for a treat from the offset.

To say we were given no information prior to the event only added to the excitement. Would there be food, drink? Unfortunately there was no food and drink on offer which left me feeling a little bit nauseous I must say as I walked around trying to disclose my passing hangover. What there was however were a whole bunch of bloggers and many exciting brands. I don't think the day could have gone any better. This was my second ever blogger event and I was thoroughly impressed. The last event I went along to was organised by a Birmingham based blogger so I cant really compare in terms of content. Not only were we inundated with freebies on the day, we also got the chance to get our hair styled by Toni and Guy and speak to some amazing up and coming brands. There was clearly a lot of effort put in to this event and it really paid off. 

FABB Events host blogger events all across the country in fact, so I will definitely be checking to see if they have any more coming up in the near future. One thing is for sure, we certainly need more events like this in the West Midlands. There is so much potential for brands to mingle with like-minded bloggers and hopefully they will start to see this now. 

One of my highlights from the day has to be meeting the lovely Lauren over at Shy Nature.  We had a right old giggle and she even managed to get secure some work with Style Edit, one of the brands who were sponsoring the event. Unfortunately I don't have enough followers on Instagram at the moment to work with them, but this has only made me want to strive for more. 5000 Instagramfollowers - lets make this happen! Instagram is definitely something that needs to be pushed so if you do have 5 minutes to spare, I would love for you to check out what I have been up to lately on my profile (expect lots more blogging photos). Along with meeting the lovely Lauren, I also met up with some of the other girls from the previous Birmingham blogger event. This included the adorable Rebecca over at Dash of Cheeky, the gorgeous Emma at Emma Victoria Stokes, and not forgetting the wonderful Elena at Lenny Loves Life. It was nice to actually see some familiar faces this time rather than walk around looking a bit lost. 

So there you have it, my second blogger event and what a great day it was. I can't wait to see what the next one has in store. Hopefully I wont have to wait too long!

Have you been to any blogger events lately? What do you think about this FABB event?

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Opus Restaurant Birmingham Review

This is going to be a fairly short one from me as unfortunately my phone decided to die on me last weekend whilst visiting this beautiful restaurant on one of Birmingham's undiscovered back streets. However, it is definitely one to mention and well worth a visit.

I think the first thing that stuck me about this restaurant was it's contemporary exterior. It is very alluring; I certainly wouldn't have been able to walk past without having a nose in. Once inside, I felt completely relaxed. The service was spot on all night and we were made to feel very much at home. The constant flow of wine didn't go a miss either. It is definitely somewhere to visit with friends or your colleagues - serving upmarket food at affordable prices throughout the day. Once inside, we found a mixture of people, but mainly couples and businessmen. Again, the modern interior décor added that extra bit of class to the this simple yet stunning little restaurant. 

My new work colleagues and I all decided to go for the market menu which offered three courses for just £16 which is amazing value for money. As we were trying to be 'good', we decided to skip dessert and just go for the two courses, a starter and a main which was a little cheaper at £14. I decided on the salmon tart to start with, which came with a simple salad garnish and a tasty seafood sauce. For my main course, I had a spinach, broccoli and cheese ravioli. I must say even though the portions were fairly small, the food was really delicious. I am not a huge fish fan but the salmon tart was the perfect starter; very light on the palette and a clean eat too. Again, my main course wasn't something I would usually go for but I really enjoyed this vegetarian option so to speak. I love spinach, and again this was a very light and fairly healthy dish (minus the cheese).

Overall, we had a brilliant night. I would definitely recommend Opus to those finer diners out there, who are searching for some quality reasonably priced food in a quiet and relaxed setting. I will certainly be returning to this restaurant, only next time I will be pushing the boat out that little more and trying the al a carte menu.

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Birmingham Bloggermeet Goody bag Haul

Following up on my previous post, in this post I am going to do a quick run through of all the wonderful goodies we received in our blogger goody bags on Sunday. 

To start with we have these AMAZING products from Bee Good. Now I have mentioned this before but I will say it again - I am obsessed with bees.  Weird I know, but my ex and I had this thing where we used to call each other Bee and it kind of stuck. I've even written a book related to bees but that's a whole different story... Burts Bee products are some of my favourites so as you can imagine, I could hardly contain my excitement when I saw that we had some Bee related goodies in our goody bags. I have never used this brand before but the products smell amazing and any natural products get an instant thumbs up from me!  Bee Good were kind enough to send each of us a full sized hand cream and lip balm, perfect as the cold winter mornings approach us.

Next up is this cute little gift from Nanshy. I am not familiar with this brand but I must say I was instantly drawn to the silky packaging. The little brush inside as you can see is perfect for blending and one I can't wait to try.

Lovely Lotions sent us this handmade soap which smells gorgeous.  A natural product with extra cute packaging, I am looking forward to trying this Tea infused goody.

Also in our goody bags we got these tester fragrances from Milton Llyod which smell amazing! Perfect for your handbag on a night out too.

Harlequin Cosmetics, a brand I have heard an awful lot about just lately and one I have been dying to try. They certainly lived up to my expectations too. A Birmingham based company these are certainly one to watch over the next couple of months. The hand cream and soap they sent us both smell delightful. I love the simple yet elegant packaging and design this brand uses, and their products again are very natural too. I also love the fact that they are practically on my doorstep. However, this could be dangerous for my bank balance...

Another sponsor on the list was Lylia Rose, a quirky accessories company who sent us a beautiful necklace each. I got this lovely silver leaf one in my goody bag which  I LOVE. I don't own many silver accessories so it will be nice to add something new to my ever growing collection.

Lush Cosmetics were too good to us. They sent us all this amazing package each - that's a whole lot of lush products and a whole lot of goodness too. I love Lush products as does every blogger so Abbigayle did well to secure such a huge giveaway. First off is this handmade soap.  I haven't actually tried any of Lush's soap as of yet as soap isn't something I use an awful lot of. However, I have been told that it's amazing so I am excited to try this next time I have a soak in the bath. Along with this we got some tea tree water which I am really excited about. Being spot prone I am a big fan of tee tree products so it will be interesting to see if this product lives up to its name. We also have some eyecream, something I should probably be using more of as I get older (you can never start too early). Finally, the beard scrub I will more than likely be giving to a male in my household even though it can be used as a face scrub.

This was possibly one of my favourite gifts from the day. I couldn't have asked for a better message on my poster to be honest. I love anything decorative and this cute little pencil and poster certainly put a big smile on my face so thank you Dottie Rocks.

Finally Abbigayle put together these wonderful little organisers and aspiration jars for us to use after the event to ensure we are getting the most out of our blogging experiences. I think this was a lovely gesture as a few of the girls I spoke to noted how they weren't very organised and maybe this is something they would like to work on. I can't say I am either to be honest with working full time and trying to manage a social life too. This event has certainly motivated me to make more lists, schedule posts and socialise even further.

So there you have it. Lots of amazing goodies as you can see from some amazing brands. It was a perfect end to a perfect day in my eyes.

Are you familiar with any of the brands featured in this post?

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Birmingham Blogger Meetup

So as you may be aware I attended my first EVER blogger meetup on Sunday. I made that pretty clear on social media beforehand and during the event too. 'Hi it's my first ever event...be nice' and that everyone was. I couldn't have asked for better company to be honest. To say I got a space on Friday and I went along not knowing quite what to expect; I came out with a satisfied stomach, a lovely goody bag and a whole bunch of new blogger friends. A successful day indeed. It always helps to be in good company especially when you are rocking up to an event solo. I am not phased by meeting new people, not at all, but in the fashion and beauty world you can only expect some girls to be a little judgemental. But all the bloggers were welcoming and this made me feel at ease so thanks girls!

We started off by hitting the shops (it would have been rude not to) and ended the day hitting the shops... Remind me to never wear platform boots to another blogger event again please. Looking 3 inches taller and feeling that little bit sexier did not make up for the agony my feet were in by the end of the day.  

We arrived at the Slug and Lettuce in Brindley place right on time, 12.30pm. This is where we met the rest of the girls and took our seats ready for Abbigayle to announce the schedule for the day. The event began with a whole range of games including my personal favourite, the cupcake messages. Not only was it one delicious cupcake, I thought the idea of writing a personal message to share with the group was such a thoughtful idea. I came up with this (see below) which plays on the idea of my blog. The person with the wittiest message won a prize but unfortunately with my luck I didn't win a thing all day (maybe next time).

We all uploaded our pictures of our cupcakes to Instagram with the #bhmbloggermeetup hashtag which helped us to socialise further and log the day's events as we went along. This was great when creating a buzz around the event as Abbigayle wished for. Along with the wonderful cupcake game, we had some other icebreaker games where we got to introduce ourselves, our blogs and blogging aspirations. Even though I somehow managed to forget everybody's names by half an hour in, it was great to hear from so many different bloggers. As you can see from the photo above, another one of the blogger games involved uploading a selfie with our cute little organisers which I will be going into more detail on in my next blog post (watch this space).

Abbigayle did a great job and managed to secure a lot of worthy sponsors including some of the lovely ladies from The School of Makeup in Birmingham and Motives representative Kirsty who was adorable! I really enjoyed watching some live make-up tutorials and hearing all about the brands that had helped make the event the success it was. 

A trivia quiz and of course the amazing buffet brought the event to a close. It was a really fun day and I can't wait to do it all over again. I met some wonderful girls who I hope to stay in touch with and possibly attend some future events with. Hopefully this event in particular will enable further coverage around bloggers in the Birmingham area and help to secure some more events in the near future.

Have you been to any blogger events recently? 

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Live At The LG | Queen BEE

I am so lucky, I got to see the Queen herself again just the other night (third time now) and what a thrilling experience it was AGAIN!!!!!! The Queen being Beyonce of course. Let me just start by saying how obsessed I am with this woman, it is crazy, I think I tweet about her fine ass at least twice a day. I know she has a huge fan base but I am a devoted BEE fan through and through (dating back to the Destiny's Child days of course). When I heard she was returning to Birmingham I think I screamed with joy. Unfortunately for me when the tickets went on sale I was in Amsterdam so I didn't get the chance to sit at my laptop and currently refresh the ticket sale page, and as expected the tickets sold out in a matter of minutes! It was only thanks to my wonderful mother that I was able to get my hands on some tickets at a later date but obviously at a much bigger cost. Annoying I know but well worth breaking the bank over (she says now)..

My mother who has accompanied me for the past three years came along again with her best friend this time, but of course I lost them in the crowd. My friends and I however got right to the front (well near enough), four rows to be precise and as you can imagine, we had the most amazing view! I cannot begin to describe how beautiful this woman is, inside and outside, she literally takes my breath away. Her voice, her body and her dancing is always always on point! I love her new album and the heat was definitely turned up a notch this yet, a few more revealing outfits and saucy dance moves made this concert complete. All in all a brilliant night despite it finishing with BEE singing happy birthday to a member of the audience and not having an encore... Don't ask! I love you Miss Carter! 

L.A

xox