Primark Haul

I'm not sure where the past six weeks have gone. Work has been incredibly busy and by the time it gets to the weekend I just want to rest, but I can't help but feel I'm not making the most if the weekends. I'm hoping to get a holiday booked this week though so that is exciting and after that I can look at booking some weekends away. I'd like to spend a weekend in London in June or July, there is always lots to do and I would like to get tickets for ZSL's Zoo Lates event this year. 

I did go to Birmingham for the day a few weeks ago, mainly to use up some free tickets for the Sea Life Centre which were about to expire, but I also managed to fit in a quick Primark visit! Here is the haul I came away with: 

I love the pattern on this dress and it will be perfect for taking on holiday. It looks a bit shapeless in the picture but it's actually a skater style which goes in at the waist and then flares out, so it is quite fa flattering fit. This was £15. 

The rest of my haul was pretty much from the home ware department, except for this large wash bag which I'm currently using as a make up bag as it fits my mirror and moisturiser in too so it's great for travelling. I think this was £3.

Behind the wash bag you will see my new laundry hamper! I think this was £3 or £4.

I also brought a bath towel with the same rose print as this laundry bag, which was £6. 

And a sweet floral print tea towel which was £1. I think this is too pretty to use as a tea towel so I might make it into a cushion like I did with the blue floral tea towel last year.

And lastly I picked up this candle. I don't often buy candles but this smelt lovely, the tag was missing so I can't remember the scent but I think it contains jasmine. The glass jar is pretty and matches a trinket holder on my dressing table. This was £3. 

I also saw some cute garden lights but I had ran out of time. I'll be in London for work next week though so I will see is I can fit in a cheeky primark trip then!

(Another) Primark Haul ♥

Primark is finally getting it's new season stuff in and I had a quick look on Friday to see what I could spot. It might seem a little ironic that yesterdays post was about my self-imposed savings challenge, but the important thing to remember is that these purchases were made before the start of my challenge...

Anyway, here's what I picked up:

This cute skater dress is my favourite purchase and was a bargain at just £8! I think it's really versatile too, the short sleeves and lightweight fabric mean that this dress will be perfect for sunny days (if we get any more of those), but the rich plum and deep navy colours will take it through to autumn. The print also features black in the pattern so I think it could even be worn with black tights in winter and a cardi for a casual shopping trip or lunch out.

 

This jumper was also £8 and has sheer sleeves and pretty pearl detailing around the neck line. The jumper is really soft too which is a plus, as I often find them too itchy to wear. I think this could easily be dressed up or down, and would be good for evenings or layered up in winter. 

I picked up these cute teacup pyjamas for just £4 reduced from £8. There were lots of reductions on pyjamas, jewellery,scarves and home ware, and the assistants were still marking the new sale prices when I was there so it might be worth a look if you're passing.

These Ice Cream pyjamas were another sale bargain at just £2 down from £5! The print reminded me of our holiday and I thought they'd be great for the next one so snapped them up.

The tea-towels were on sale too, reduced from £3 to £1. They're the really soft type, so I think they might be better as hand towels instead. They also had a red floral pattern set on sale too.

And finally, this pack of hair bands was £1. I can't seem to find good quality hairbands often these days. I bought a pretty pack of 6 from Accessorize last month and 2 broke within a day of wearing them, and the third is already wearing out after 3 wears. So I thought I'd get a couple of thicker bands to try instead, hopefully these will be stronger than the thin ones, and the bows add a nice detail too.

Primark Bargain as seen in Dorothy Perkins!

Earlier this week I posted about my new purchases from primark, including the £5 pretty floral cami below.

So I was quite surprised to spot this blouse made from the exact same fabric when I was shopping in Dorothy Perkins at a more extravagant £22. I actually prefer the Primark top too as I think the simpler style is more versatile.

Primark Summer Haul ♥

My local Primark has finally started getting some new summer clothes in, and having popped in for what was meant to be a quick look around, I ended up leaving with a full carrier bag!

My favourite purchase is this gorgeous floral print string top, which was just £5! It has such a pretty floral print and a silky feel, and I have a pale blue cardi which I bought from Primark last year that matches perfectly.

(The pictures are rubbish and not only do they not show the print of the top very well but the colour of the cardi doesn't look right either, but until I find my camera I'm stuck with taking photos on my blackberry!)

I also bought a pair of navy linen trousers, which are on offer at £6.90 down from £10. These are much better fitting than their previous designs and consequently more flattering too. They're quite casual but I thought they'd be good for when it's too hot for jeans but I am just doing chores/calling in to town quickly and just want something easy to wear.

These caught my eye over in the pyjama section and were £7 i think. The top has 3/4 sleeves and is a nice soft cotton material, but the trousers have quite a high waist, so i'm not sure if I'll keep them yet.

These pretty flannels were an impulse buy, but they were only £1.50 and are very soft, so now I'm tempted to get the rest of the set to match!

And finally these men's socks were on sale for just £1!

Primark Haul (Part 2)

I've been a busy bee the past week raiding my local Primark store, and below are the rest of the things I picked up.
 

This pretty black and white floral dress is from the new season range and cost £13. It's the same style as the red dress I blogged about in my earlier Primark Haul post here, but I think they're really versatile and so comfortable.

These beige and black ballet pumps were on sale for £3 down from £6. I already have a similar navy pair and find that they're great with jeans or black tights and again they're very comfortable for walking around in.

These trainers were also on sale for £3. I've been looking for some trainers for a while and really liked this pair from New Look but I can't find them in my local store.

And finally this pair of men's chinos were on sale for just £1 from the original £12 price tag. That's probably enough shopping for me for a little while :)

From Primark tea-towel to pretty cushion for £2!

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about a gorgeous tea-towel I had bought from Primark here, and on Tuesday I finally got around to turning it into something pretty. I really loved the fresh floral and bird print, and having just bought a sewing machine I decided to try it out and make a cushion for my chair.
 

I was aiming to be as economical as possible with my little project, and the total cost to make the cushion cover was just £2. The tea towel cost £1.20 from Primark and is a thin cotton material which worked really well on my sewing machine. I headed to my local market haberdashery stall for a 12" zip in a co-ordinating pale blue colour where I paid only 80p. (I had previously looked in a craft shop and a high-street haberdashery and the prices for a basic zip were as high as £4.00, so I'd recommend looking for independent retailers and market stalls for the best prices).


As it has been some years since I last undertook a real sewing project I wanted to make my first project as simple as possible. So I just folded my tea towel in half and cut it, putting one half aside, before measuring the other piece to find 1/4 and cutting it again. I then pinned each half of zip in place to the 1/4 and 3/4 of the fabric having double folded it to create a neat edge and also conceal the zip, and sewed across. Once the zip was in it was as simple as pinning the two halves back together (and facing each other) and sewing, (remembering to the leave the zip open so you can turn it out the right way after...not that I forgot to do this and had to struggle to unzip it...!). Finally I had a look through my sewing box for old bags of sequins that had come with jumpers and found some dark pink sequins and beads that matched the roses perfectly, and sewed a few on by hand.

So here's the finished result!

the front

the back

It took little over an hour to make from start to finish and i'm really pleased with the results. Although the stitching could be neater in places I think it just requires a little practice and it's a great project for beginners. I think the cushion would make a lovely gift so I'm tempted to go back for more tea towels and pick up the other patterns from Primark, as one was a red floral/spotty print, very cath kidston-esque, and the other was a beige cafe/coffee cup print that would look great on a bistro/patio chair, and at only £1.20 each it is far cheaper than buying a metre of material, which were as much as £9.99 at one of the craft stores I visited for some of the nicer prints.

P.S. I used an old cushion to fill the cover but I've found cushions from as little as £2 online after a quick search so even if you don't have an old one to up-cycle, a new one doesn't have to be costly!

Primark Nail Caviar Review

I've been intrigued by the introduction of 'nail caviar' in recent months, but having read mostly negative reviews on the MUA constellations, being put off the price of the original ciate caviar and failing to track down any of Poundland's version, I thought I was destined to give it a miss. That was until I spotted a 3D manicure kit at Primark, no less. Essentially exactly the same as 'nail caviar', the Primark version comes with a nail varnish, a bottle of tiny beads which are a pretty mix of silver, pink and pearl, and a handy funnel.

So the idea is that you paint your nail, then pour over the beads making sure you have a tray underneath to collection them, press them down slightly so they set in the polish, and then pour the left over beads back in the bottle using the funnel. As I was trying the beads out before work I kept it to just one nail per hand having heard that they don't last long, and I used another nail polish which complemented it for the rest of my nails (a No 7 polish in shade 'Milan' which I've previously reviewed).

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to do and how evenly the beads went on considering I was trying to do it quickly. After work one of the nails had lost a few beads but the other still looks perfectly intact, which again I was quite surprised about as my nail polish had chipped and smudged while I was working. Overall I was quite impressed by the Primark kit, and at just £2.50 it is the cheapest nail caviar kit i've seen (with the exception of the elusive Poundland one). The beads probably aren't very practical for everyday wear, but a fun novelty and ideal for evenings out.

Primark Haul and Bargains ♥

I was passing by Primark at the weekend after work and came across a few lovely things that I couldn't resist! I've been trying to keep my new purchases to a minimum as I'm still trying hard to save up, but following a fairly successful free-listing weekend on ebay and the bargain prices I thought a little indulgence wouldn't break the bank! So, here they are:

 This dress is perfect for summer and has such a cute daisy print. It was £15 from the new season range and I think it's ideal for holidays. This was my most expensive purchase so now on to the bargains!

I've wanted these ballet pumps for quite a while but having recently bought another pair of navy flats I decided to save my money instead. So I was quite delighted to find them on sale at just £4 reduced from £8 and didn't hesitate to add them to my basket. They have a mixture of enamel metal flowers and fabric flowers at the front and I will be wearing them with jeans, again i think they'll be good for the summer.

This navy cami was part of their loungewear range and was reduced from £3 to £1, it has a really pretty lace trim and I will probably wear it as a vest top under a cardi as it looks quite similar to a top I have from monsoon and doesn't look overly like lounge wear.

I also picked up a few bargains for the men in my life. This teal jumper had 75% off and was down from £12 to £3.

And finally these two jumpers I picked up for my dad for an unbelievable £1, reduced down from £12. Not a bad haul for £25 :)

A few new purchases...

Retail therapy was calling this week, and with free train tickets I had no excuse not to take a trip out for a few hours of shopping. Unfortunately it was a whistle-stop tour of the shops as I had to get back in time for work in the afternoon, and I only bought two things from Primark and picked up my online order from Next, but I did have a great lunch with my mum at Cafe Rouge, (although a forty minute wait for our order meant we missed out on calling on a few more shops on our way back to the station :( ! ) Anyway here are my two tiny purchases from Primark:

These slippers were just £1 on sale from £3.50 and I love the cute little butterfly buttons on them!

I couldn't resist the gorgeous print on this tea towel and at only £1.20 my mind was made up in an instant! Having got it home I'm now hoping to pick up a couple more as I think it would make a lovely cushion with a few sequin embellishments or an apron with a co-ordinating blue ribbon.

I also picked up a new dress on a quick visit to town yesterday too. I'd been looking for a cosy dress for ages and I found just what I was looking for in Dorothy Perkins, and best of all it was on sale for £12 and I had a £10 gift voucher from the McCain website for just playing a few games!

Before all the rain arrived I also had time to get out in the garden this week and have now sown some early pea, early carrot, sweet pea and spring onion seeds to join my beefsteak tomatoes, pansies and the chilis i'm plantsitting! I've also potted up two lovely climbing roses that i'm hoping to grow on my balcony and have a couple more to plant out in the garden when the rain goes away. I just need to find time to sow some parsnip and cherry tomato seeds now and then I can relax until April!

Mini Haul ♥

With winter well on its way, I have purchased a few new items to update my wardrobe (and battle the increasingly chilly days!). First up is a new dress from H&M for going out, I ordered this about 2 weeks ago online but it still hasn't arrived :( H&M are notoriously slow for delivering orders, but I can't complain too much as I used a few discount codes that are around at the moment and only paid £22 including delivery.

I purchased this jumper from Dorothy Perkins last weekend, (who currently have a 25% student discount). It's very soft and cosy and I'll be layering it over a black top.

I also popped in H&M last week as I was passing and found this lovely little cardi. I love sequinned cardis as I think they're perfect for adding a little sparkle to an otherwise plain outfit or brightening up a dark winter one, and have a seemingly ever growing collection! This one was reduced to only £10 in the sale.

Finally, as winter fast approaches I decided to treat myself to a new pair of cosy slipper boots. I got this lovely pair from Primark for only £5, but unfortunately one of the bows has already fallen off, so I'll need to dig my sewing kit out at the weekend for repairs!