A Sunny Cotswolds Outing and a Bit of a Shopping Frenzy.

This gorgeous weather has been hanging around hasn't it? Soo and I were long overdue a get together and we decided an outing was in order.
It was Soo who picked Cirencester from the list of possible options because I have never been any good at making a choice.
It's somewhere neither of us had been before and visiting in the glorious sunshine certainly showed it at it's very best.

The shops are an interesting mix of expensive boutiques, independent, charity, and just a smattering of high street chains.
Indeed many charity shops had 2 branches in what is not a huge town centre. The prices were higher than your average, but then this is an expensive/touristy area.

Cirencester also gave me a few firsts.

One of them being in all my years of chazza shopping, never did I think I would ever find myself singing along to The Sisters of Mercy whist rooting through the rails!!
There was also a woman in the Red Cross shop who was so damn rude we very childishly flicked v's at the shop when we drove past it later. Nothing like being a mature adult hehe.


We had been recommended 'Handmade By Bob' for lunch but it was packed and with a queue so we carried on shopping and stumbled across 'The Cotswold Artisan Coffee Shop' in the Bishops Walk arcade.
What a find! The ciabatta's were delicious, but the star of the show was the chocolate and salted caramel brownies, handmade by the lady who runs the shop with her husband.

Dear.

Lord.

Above.

I don't think I will ever be able to eat another brownie again, nothing could possibly compare to the sheer heaven of this chocolaty caramel filled delight.

I liked Cirencester, and what was really lovely to see was the sheer number of independent shops and things like good old fashioned greengrocers and butchers, this was most definitely not a high street in decline.

On the way home we decided to stop off at Bibury.

Tiny, very beautiful and overrun with tourists!

There was a wee antique shop run by an elderly couple who clearly just buy bits and pieces at jumble sales and flog them to tourists for a decent profit.
Mind when we went in the lady was having kittens at the fact a young German couple were looking at teapots for the girl to use for flower arranging and NOT drinking tea from!?!

So what did I buy on my lovely day out? A couple of floaty tops.

A starfish sunburst brooch.

A cheeky blue cat for a pound.

A lovely patent kelly bag that turned out to be real leather and came up beautifully after a good polish.

and a couple of sale necklaces in Dorothy Perkins £3 each that I couldn't resist.

Ok, ok I know you all really want to know about the shopping frenzy. I've been going a bit mad, I don't really know why but on the whole it's been bargains and I'm pretty darn pleased with my purchases.
There been the nautical

There's another striped top but that is in the wash.

The floral 

The bardot top

Elephants!

and finally this gorgeous waistcoat from Kinky Melon (aka Vix) which I am doing battle with Himself over.

The best bit? Not a single item cost more than £20 and most cost significantly less.