Festive fun at Bicester Village

Hi guys,

Well my love of Bicester Village is well documented. Some of my favourite things are from there; including my Vivienne Westwood scarf (which I've worn every day for the last 3 months, making its cost-per-wear almost zero) and my Mulberry notebook. Last time we were there I went knitwear crazy, buying a lovely metallic cardigan from Karen Millen and a jumper with fur sleeves from French Connection. And don't even get me started on the Cath Kidston outlet: it's like heaven!!

Mike and I have already made our festive trip to Bicester, and picked up fab presents for everyone on our list. (Sadly those people read this site, so I can't ruin it by sharing more details!) It's such a lovely place to go at Christmas: they have lights, late night opening, and The Christmas Tree House, which is serving warm mulled wine: Yummy! I think the right Christmassy atmosphere is so important when you're doing your Christmas shopping: it helps keep you motivated when your feet start to get tired!

For the festive period, Bicester Village are launching a new campaign called Festive Secrets. This is an online competition where you can win 3 different types of prizes (by completing tasks associated with bronze, silver, and gold reindeer). I found a gold reindeer, which meant I was entered into a competition to win a shopping trip to Fidenza Village in Italy. If you share the Bicester Village Festive Secrets competition on Facebook you earn your bronze reindeer, which enters you into a competition to win one of 10 £100 Bicester Village gift cards. And you earn your silver reindeer by recommending the site to a friend: this gives you the chance to win gifts from some of the Village's most popular boutiques! Why not give it a go? As the old saying goes, you have to be in it to win it, and it would be a lovely Christmas treat to win one of the prizes (fingers crossed!)

Love Tor xxx

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The shoes of Christmas joy and wonder

Hi guys,
Behold my beautiful new Christmas shoes! They're gorgeous, they're wonderful, they're covered in tiny little silver stars, and I love them:

I have alot of Christmas parties, events, and gatherings to go to this year and I just don't have the tolerance to wear heels for several evenings in a row (I just love my feet too much to torture them too frequently) so I picked these Georgia Rose brogues as my flat party shoe alternative. I love their silver satin laces, the soft blue suede, and did I mention the tiny metal stars? As you can probably tell, I'm one seriously smitten kitten!

Do you love my yummy shoes? Or have your eyes on another pair from the Sarenza site perhaps? Then you might be interested in their latest twitter competition! Here's what you need to do:
1) Follow SarenzaUK on Twitter

2) Choose the shoes you’d love to get from your wish list this Christmas on and post them @SarenzaUK with the hashtag #AllIWantForChristmasIsShoes
3) And that’s it! The winner will be chosen from a prize draw on 14th December so all entries are valid up until then.

Love Tor xx

The Debenhams Spring/Summer press day

Hi guys,

It's time to intersperse the Christmas posts with another glimpse into the future; by which I mean, the clothes we'll be wearing next Spring!

I'm a big fan of Debenhams, especially their designer collaborations. I always love the H! by Henry Holland range (look out for the cute vintage style tea dress in the new collection) and all of the Editions designers, though my favourite is Preen.





Firstly, can I get a collective 'Oooh' for all the colours? I'm not really a big fan of pastels, so I'm delighted to report that this is the third S/S press day I've been to in the past fortnight where bold bright colours have been at the fore.

I loved the vintage 1950s-inspired swimwear (especially that blue swimsuit with the gorgeous bird print on it) and in a move not like me, I also liked the more mature Betty Jackson Black collection: think the blue coat over the patterned dress in the first image.


My favourite part of the whole press day though was the homeware collections, especially the new Editions @ Home range (complete with new designers) that is being introduced this Spring. In fact, I loved them so much I'm going to save them and show you the whole collection as soon as it launches.....


Love Tor xxx

PS - Happy 1st December everyone! Behold the new Christmassy header in its honour!!