Summer madness

Wow what a week....the sun is STILL shinning, everyone is happy, happy, happy and With Love Betty has received some Fantastic news. As many of you know I opened With Love Betty nearly a year ago and even though it has been stressful at times, I have really enjoyed running my own business. Opening the boutique has enabled me to get creative in other fields and work with some amazingly creative people. So basically I get to do all the things I love on my own terms.....Loving life!! 

Well last week I received an email from the magazine Stella, which is the fashion magazine inside the Sunday Telegraph. They are planning on doing a feature on the Isle of Wight, a travel guide, basically showing the readers some of the best parts about the Island, where to eat, stay & shop. With Love Betty has been chosen as one of the places to shop :) I am beyond ecstatic about this. The feature will showcase With Love Betty to the nation as a hot spot on the island!!! Im still in shock that I have been chosen as I didn't get in contact with them, they found me :) They are not sure which issue the feature will be in but they hope over the summer.....So watch this space, I of course will let you all know when it happens so you can all check it out.

This is one of the outfits I wore last week whilst in the shop. I went for a boho inspired look that day with a simple white t-shirt dress with embroidered detail, matched with brown leather boots and rucksack. I love the detail on the dress and the fact the embroidery has been done in white thread, simple yet effective. Orginally the dress had fringing on the sleeves and hemline but I cut them off as they were so long and looked messy. 

My boots are from Topshop probably about 4 years ago. They are so soft and have worn down so well, which I love, they match my rucksack perfectly. Rucksacks are obviously massive right now, they look fab and they are extremely practical. I think I paid £7 for this racksack from the Chatuchak (weekend) market in Bangkok, Thailand...... love Thailand!! (You can read my post here on the Chatuchak market).

 

Hanging from my rucksack (for some reason you can't see it in the pics) is a good luck token from Vietnam. Whilst having dinner one evening in the beautiful village of Hoi an, a lady came up to us and asked if we would be interested in buying a good luck token, she said they will stop us from getting ill whilst traveling. Ever the cynical person David declined saying it was a load of rubbish. But I decided to give it ago (I was actually quite nervous about getting ill on our travels). Well what do you know for the whole 6 months I didn't get ill once, David on the other hand.....Well lets just say at one point I thought we were going to have to come home because he was so ill, and it was whilst we were in Vietnam!! coincidence?! I don't think so ;) 

The Buddha in the first picture looks over you and the tiger represents the year of the tiger, the year I was born. I love my good luck token, I wore it on my rucksack the whole time we were away and haven't taken it off since.

Dress: Old Topshop

Leather rucksack: Chatuchak (weekend) market, Bangkok, Thailand

Boots: Old Topshop

Sunglasses: Rayban

Rings: Etsy

 

Well that's all for now, Let me know what you think of my outfit and make sure you all enjoy that sunshine.

Mulberry in Somerset

Not many people know this about me but I'm originally from Somerset, in the west county, so basically in the countryside! Most of my family still live in the west country and I do love it when I go and see them. Especially my grandma who lives on the border of Somerset and Dorset, basically in the middle of nowhere. Your surrounded by miles of fields and quint villages with stone & thatched buildings and when travelling up the dual carriage way your be surprised that you have to over take a tractor or two, I love it!

Well David and I took the 2.5hr drive up to my grandmas for a few days over the weekend, it was perfect. We did nothing, just relaxed and watched films and ate my grandmas AMAZING food (she did a roast, it was beautiful). The best thing was (well this depends on personal preference) I had no 3G and she had no WiFi, so I was Internet free for 2 days. It was nice to have a break from it for a while!

Anyway enough about my grandmas hospitality, the whole point of this post is to tell you about what we did on our way back home. I asked David very nicely if he wouldn't mind taking a small detour to the small village of Shepton Mallet, which is about half an hour below Glastonbury, so I could FINALLY visit the Mulberry factory.

The factory resides in a beautiful old school building, which reflects the brands identity perfectly. Mulberry, which was established in 1971, has always been based in Somerset and is known for its quintessentially English style.

Its safe to say I was quite excited, the factory has a shop were you can find last seasons products or sometimes this seasons which may have a small defect, at a faction of the price. All items are discounted by 30% but if your lucky you could come across one at 50% or even 60%. I was loving it!!

I was particularly interested in the bags, I am a huge bag lover and I've wanted a Mulberry for ages. Even though I do own 2 already, OK one, the other is a VERY good imitation from Thailand. But my other one was an amazing find in a vintage store up in London, I just had to have it. However its the old scotch grain design, so I would like a more up to date style. And Oh my gosh I think I found the one!!

It is so beautiful, the leather is so soft and its the perfect style bag for me as a prefer a more casual design. Originally it was £695 but its was reduced down to £417. As you can imagine I was extremely tempted to whack the credit card out and walk off with a stunning Mulberry in Tow. However my Conscience (David) reminded me that I have only just started a new business and spending £400 on a bag is probably not the best idea. So I reluctantly put the bag back and walked away! :(

But Its fine I now have a goal and I aim to save up for the gorgeous number or at least one similar.

Now I must admit that when I got back into work I was straight on line looking to see if I could find it cheaper on eBay etc. I came across a few "Mulberry" outlet websites which look so authentic that you could easily assume they were the real deal, at extremely low prices. But after doing some research on the sed website it was clear to see that it was NOT authentic and I would have definitely have purchased a fake, a good one yes but not a real Mulberry. The website was http://www.shopmulberryoutletyork.co.uk/ I want to warn you about this particular site because there is an actual Mulberry outlet store in York, so you could easily think that this was the site for that genuine store, IT IS NOT!!!

So there you have it, so next time you are taking a trip to the gorgeous west country, or if your thinking of taking a short trip but not sure where to go, why not head to Somerset and lose yourself in the countryside and also visit the Mulberry factory.

Have you visited the factory? Have you had problems with fake on line stores? or do you dream about a particular designer bag? Let me know below!

With Love........

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Not all images are my own.......