Saturday with bloggers

Two ladies in a clothes shop
Last Saturday I met up with Liza (The Vintage Knitter) and Emma (Ivy Black Chat) for a day out in Bath.

We had an ace time, starting with meeting by the Abbey and going for a cup of tea at my favourite café on Kingsmead Square. We swapped pressies there; I got a bracelet decorated with saucy vintage ladies from Emma, and a lovely framed vintage print and some knitting patterns from Liza.


After that we worked our way round to the flea market at the bottom end of Walcot Street via Seasalt and Anthropolgie, popping in at chazzas on the way. The charity shops of Bath aren't the best, don't ask me why - you'd think such a wealthy town would have fantastic ones. I bought a diamante brooch in the shape of a snake at the fleamarket – it's probably modern, but it looked cute and for some reason I was feeling sentimental about our pet snake (I don't talk about him much on here, he's very boring) – and a bracelet that is definitely midcentury as it's Jewelcraft, and that Coro sub-brand ran from the 1920s to 1960s.

Walcot Street was far better than the rest of town for vintage. Since the late 1990s Bath has lost a fair bit of its bohemian spirit; everything's becoming much more polished and generic. A lot of the indie shops are very high-priced, and the affordable end of the high street features the same brands you find everywhere else. Still, the buildings they're in are pretty, And Walcot Street still has a chunk of that old spirit. We popped into a great charity shop there, the Julian House one, which has a small rail of proper vintage out the back. I found a Mim-sized linen-look green 1960s dress there for a tenner. It's a little more ornate than a lot of 60s shifts as it's got two bands of grosgrain ribbon framing a pintucked section. Not ornate by deco standards, but positively fussy for a 60s shift! It's possibly a little fitted, but with the right underwear and a few gym sessions I reckon it'll be fine. There was a pink Petite Francaise dress suit hanging up with I thought might fit me, but I restrained myself – I'm not convinced it would go well with bright orange hair.
A midcentury bracelet lying across a green dress
MOAR GREEN!
We also went into the vintage shops on Walcot Street; the one right at the London Road end is chaotic, and not all the wares are in the best condition, but that's where you'll find a bit of treasure. You can see Liza and Emma in the back room in the photo at the top of the page. Emma bought a dress there, and Liza tried on a maxi which looked fab but she wasn't 100% sure about in the bust. I kept picking all sorts of things up and putting them down again, so much was so tempting!

After that we loafed around on the Parade Gardens, a little park in the centre of town. You have to pay to go in, but it's not much and the gardens really are beautiful. We chatted about blogs, and blogging, and Wales in the 80s/90s, and how much more regimented life seems for young people nowadays (we all agreed it seemed much more fun to be young when we were!). And then it was time to hop on a train and go home. I felt brim-full of good spirits, having spent the day with two utterly brilliant and fascinating ladies. Later that night, of course, we had more awful news from London, but the truth is most people are decent. Get out and meet people. Share some love and good times. Those are what make life so special.

Thanks, Liza and Emma, for letting me share your fantastic day out!

Comments

  1. That looks amazing! Makes me nostalgic for when I used to do blog meet ups. Glad you found some bits too even if the charity shops aren't so good.

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    1. That one on Walcot Street is a gem. The others, not so much. I noticed one specifically vintage one has gone, and another wasn't very well stocked - here's hoping this is the end of the dedicated vintage chazza and charities will leave the good stuff in the regular ones.

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  2. I'm glad you had such a nice time and look forward to seeing your dress properly xxx

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    1. I need to spend a few weeks on the rowing machine first!

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  3. Sounds like a super day out! I've found the Bath charity shops hit and miss, but a friend who used to live in Bath had great luck over the years. I look forward to seeing you in the green dress x

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    1. I need a few stints on the rowing machine. But then it, and many other lovely things, will get a lot more outings.

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  4. I'm jealous, I wanna come, too! Great photo of the girls.
    What a fab day out, that vintage shop with the bargain rail sounds great an that snippet of green from your dress looks lovely as does the bracelet.
    I didn't know you had a pet snake, I want photos!
    You're right, most people are decent and the world's full of them. We need to embrace life and spend our time with people who make us feel happy. xxx

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    1. Snake is very boring. He sleeps under his log all the time. (He's 23 now, so a good age.) Every once in a while I lift the log up to make sure he hasn't died!

      I may have to return to Walcot Street fairly regularly, especially if my gym sessions pay off. I still won't be going to Bath's overpriced and snooty vintage shop, even if I lose enough weight not to get sneered at there!

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  5. How lovely to have had a blogger meet-up with Emma and Liza! Haven't been to Bath for well over 10 years, so I'd probably find it changed since then. I love Parade Gardens, though. Do they still have the striped deckchairs? xxx

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    1. No deckchairs at all. I had a white flowery dress on, so I arranged it so I wasn't actually sitting on it on the grass. I figured no-one would know if I got grass stains on my undies, but I wasn't walking around town with green streaks on my frock!

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  6. It sounds as if you had a lovely day, Mim.

    Your dress looks gorgeous and it will look stunning with your red hair. The bracelet is beautiful and such a good match.

    It's really wonderful to meet fellow bloggers in the flesh. We need a blogger get together somewhere in Central England so more people can come...

    A pet snake? I can't imagine a snake to be boring unless he/she sleeps all the time!

    I've just remembered that I bought a caramel coloured cardigan in a Bath charity shop in 2004 and I've only just donated it to a charity shop!

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    1. The snake does sleep all the time. He hides under his log, so he's not even ornamental.

      Central England meetup would be popular, I reckon - there are a fair few bloggers in the central regon, aren't there? Meetups can be tricky for me as I can't drive, so I'm stuck with public transport. The three of us are thinking of going to Cardiff next time, as the 'Diff is easy for all of us.

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  7. It was lovely to meet you and it was a cracking day out. That dress is fab and I'm so glad it fitted and had your name all over it. Here's to next time.xxx

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    1. It was a wonderful day. So good to get a reminder of how wonderful the world can be.

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  8. I'm completely envious of your blogger meet-up. The closest I'm getting to Bath is the fridge magnet holding up my to-do list.

    Snakes aren't boring-snakes are cool, and they won't wreck the Christmas tree. Perfect pet.

    Aw go back and get the pink one too. Redheads look great in pink. The green items are lovely too, and it is interesting to see the good condition of the ribbon on the dress.

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    1. He's a rubbish sort of snake really, but we've had him 23 years and I'm attached to him even if he never does anything.

      I have joined a gym. My next plan is to get into all the things I haven't shown you because I was over-optimistic when I mail-ordered them. After that, perhaps pink!

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  9. Looks like a good time was had by all. We went to Bath last year and loved it. Even better when you find treasures
    Lynn x

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    1. I forget how nice Bath is, because I work there and spend ages whinging about the streets being overrun with tourists. Spending a day as a tourist myself was a lovely way to appreciate it again.

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  10. Great post summing up our day out! I really enjoyed it and we all had such a good gossip togther. Guess what? I wish I had brought the maxi now! Lets not leave it too long to put another date in the diary...

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  11. Looks like a lovely day out and a fun meet up. Looking forward to seeing more of the green dress, it looks interesting with those details.

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  12. Sounds like an absolutely amazing time. Definitely one of the best things about blogging is connecting with all the lovely people that you would not have otherwise met. That green dress looks fab. I bet that you look gorgeous in it. I would have gone for the pink. It is a perfect 60's colour for redheads. Xx

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  13. Looks like you all had a fab day out and the vintage shop sounds so much better than being patronised and looked at like we were a pair of heffalumps by that snooty girl in the centre if the city!

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  14. Sounds like a fabulous day had, love the shade of green on that dress. I do find it increasingly harder to find any vintage in charity shops these days and those that I tends to be the same as online prices, which is fine because they still need to make money for charity but a tenner sounds like a steal. (or maybe that's because of london prices!)

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