Merry #Nextmas!

Next is up there in this house. My sofa, which I love, is from Next, I'll only buy my jeans from Next and I really admire them for being one of the few high-street stores to not stoop to the (in my opinion) ridiculously irrelevant Black Friday discounts.

So naturally, with Christmas coming ever closer, there are quite a few items from Next on my list to Santa this year. Luckily for me, Next have #NextmasWishlist, a fun, festive competition offering the chance to win some goodies.

1. Christmas Pudding Ballerinas – How cute are these? I've never really thought about festive footwear before but it'd be hard to stop wearing these once the season is over.
2. Moose Table Lamp – Moose seem to be 'in' at the moment and I'm totally not complaining. Since I accidently smashed our bedroom light with some overzealous dusting I think this guy would make the perfect replacement.
3. Cat Igloo Bed – As I've constantly been reminded, it's Christmas for pets too and I've been on the look-out for a new bed for little Doll for a while. While she's pretty content with the box that some Christmas gifts arrived in recently, I can definitely see her in this.
4. Moose Door Knocker – As I said, moose are in. I definitely think this guy is worth hoarding until we get our own 'proper' place.
5. Joyeaux Noel Luxury Fragranced Diffuser – I'm a sucker for most kinds of home fragrance, and in the absence of a real Christmas tree (not actually something I mind by the way), filling the flat with all sorts of Christmassy smells is just about the next best thing. Having had a whiff of this in the shop, this might be the item on this list that I'm most hankering for.
   
6. Flashing Reindeer Christmas Sweater – It wouldn't be a Christmas wishlist in 2014 without a fancy Christmas jumper. This ones an absolute triple-threat too, not only is it a lovely green with an adorable reindeer print, it features flashing LED light details(!!!)
7. Light-Up Card Holder – I think this is pretty cute for all year round as a full-on noticeboard but the fact it lights up makes it festive as well as adorable.
8. Tonal Faux Fur Throw – These faux fur throws are everywhere and I love how luxurious they look. Great for curling up on the sofa or adding additional warmth in bed. They're softer than the cat too, which is the measurement for all softness.
9. Oh Wake Up Cuffed Floral Pyjama Set – Florals are good for all year round and winter and the Christmas season are made for pyjamas. Perfect.
10. Pink + Gold Sports Watch – Very similar to a Kate Spade watch I've had my eye on, this one comes in at a slightly more purse-friendly price for a fashion watch, which is usually a deal-maker.

It wasn't hard for me to skim through the Next website and pick out a mixture of the lovely homewares and clothing that they're so good at.

From a merchandising perspective by the way, the website is brilliant and actually pretty fun to browse, throwing in a great mix of more traditional online shop layout and an interactive catalogue, good job, guys!

You can go to the Next website now too to take part in #NextmasWishlist, with the chance to win up to 10 Next products of your choice, it's worth a shot, right?

Braving Bath Christmas Market.

A couple of weekends ago, Me, Moon and a few of our friends took ourselves to Bath for the Christmas Market. A much more stressful affair than our first visit the same time last year, Bath was crammed full of shoppers eager for Black Friday deals - in hindsight the combination of the Christmas Market's opening weekend and the hysteria that seemed to surround the Black Friday, it might not have been our brightest idea, at least, it wasn't ever going to make for the nicest shopping experience ever.



Last year we wandered through at a pretty relaxed pace, but this year we were hardly able to see half of the market due to the sheer volume of people and we spent more time looking around the actual shops. With that being said, Bath has a fantastic selection of shops and a great mixture of both independent and typica; highstreer. I don't know why this was the first time I've been back since last Christmas, it's really so close by it deserves a bit more attention.



We stopped for lunch at a great Italian place called Aio after going to the usual chain places and discovering that despite having lots of seats available, a lot of places were an hour or so wait (I'm mainly looking at you, Carluccio's!) - Aio was delicious, I'm stilling dreaming of this mushroom lasagne...! ♥




Elsie Belle had managed to bag pretty much the same spot as the previous year, I'm always coveting something of theirs, always good to have a nosey.


Not picking up one of these wreaths might be one of my Christmas market regrets, they smelt so good!








These 'Drink More Gin' coaster decorations from The Bath Gin Company were super cute but already sold out by the time we arrived...






Unfortunately the Christmas market did kind of make everyone in our party a little stressed out and it wasn't exactly the perfect environment for catching up but Bath is still a beautiful city and I'd still pick it for another day out, just maybe not (ever) in the throws of mental Christmas shopping mayhem.