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.

Ruby's Second Chance Christmas Fair.

Tis the season for Christmas markets, and aside from my recent trip to Bath decent pickings are seem to be slim, especially in Newbury.


Despite picking up a couple of pretty decent things when we went last year, Moon and I were overall pretty disappointed with Ruby's Vintage Fair and hadn't returned since. It was an easy way to fill part of the afternoon when our friends Dan and Kirstin came to stay though so we took a drive (in Moon's flash new car) up to their new location and were actually pretty impressed.



They definitely made the most of the space, if we hadn't been looking for a more substantial lunch it would have been nice to stop for tea at the tearooms they'd set up.



I'm not sure if it was because of Christmas, but there was a pretty wide collection of stalls and all with such varied selection at reasonable prices. I failed massively on the Christmas shopping front again but I made a great fuchsia cardigan and cute cat & mouse brooch mine so that's alright.

Even though we used Kirstin and Dan's visit as an excuse, I'm glad we went and the £1 entry fee didn't seem like a rip-off this time around. I'd definitely be interested in going again and have already recommended it to Catherine from Isobelle's Pantry (you should look at her crochet holly garlands, they're so cute(!)) as a great place in Berkshire to have a stall.

It certainly made a nice change from the regular traditonal Christmas markets we've been to and I haven't been to a decent vintage fair in ages. Thinking back about this now I can't wait to get back over to 'basically London' and have a proper mooch.

Have you been making the most of Christmas markets near you?

Greeting December in Bath.

I really wanted my first trip to Bath to be a special one, maybe to mark an occasion or to have a point. I'm not quite sure why, but first-time visits to cities aren't something I like to do for a mooch. That said, the only reason we headed to Bath was to visit their beautiful Christmas market, but what's an easier way to make something special than to cover it in tinsel and fairy lights?

Such a fitting way to kick start our Christmas spirit! ♥










Don't really get the hot mulled drinks thing, but I do like the smell.



♥