Festival Place Bloggers meet-up

My mummy doesn’t usually have the opportunity to treat herself so imagine her delight when she was invited to a bloggers networking event at Festival Place Shopping Center!

Her ‘Mummy time’ mostly consists of a 20 minute bath with a cold cup of tea! So a full 2 hours of hobnobbing with other bloggers, gaining style tips from Melissa Murrell and being treated to a manicure from Shear Beauty was utter bliss!

The new networking event was organised by Festival Place as a way to engage with local bloggers and showcase stores and services within their shopping center. They did a fantastic job and drew in a range of diverse bloggers from around Hampshire.

As soon as my mummy walked into Giraffe restaurant, where the networking event was being held, she recognised one of her local blogging friends NorthHantsMum (NHM) however there were a lot of new faces too. Canapes and drinks lined the tables along with goodie bags for the attendees.

Beauty and fashion bloggers were eagerly chatting to one another, commenting on the clothes rail that was set up at the end of the hospitality room.

A stylist and personal shopper called Melissa Murrell was presenting her business and giving us some style tips on how to dress for our body shapes. Move over Gok Wan, you may be the local boy (Winchester) but you’ve got some serious competition in the shape of this blonde bombshell 😉

Melissa was great putting the non-fashion bloggers (AKA my mummy) at ease by explaining that ‘it isn’t all about the numbers’ while presenting her with a tape measure to record the 3 points on her shoulders, tummy and hips to determine her body shape.

This is quite daunting as my mummy’s shape has changed quite dramatically since having me two years ago and she’s uncomfortable about the way she looks now. However Melissa put her mind at ease and could easily relate after have two children of her own. The majority of her clients are in fact mummy’s who have lost their style mojo.

Earlier my mummy had picked up 2 illustrated cards off Melissa Murrell’s demonstration table. A pear drawing and rectangle drawing of her possible body shape…and she wasn’t far off! After calculating her proportions she was a very healthy pear shape.

Melissa then ran through how to dress for her shape.

Here’s a quick run through of the tips and tricks she picked up. But we don’t want to give everything away. Visit Melissa Murrell’s website and see for yourself.

Style tips and tricks.

It’s all about ‘broadening’ (not adding pounds but changing your shape by optical illusion).

Balance is key.

Try and emulate an hourglass figure.

Straight up and down is easy to dress but make it a bit more interesting by adding detail either at the shoulders if you are pear, or shoulders and hips if you are boyish.

A lot of the fashion and beauty bloggers were a dab hand at this, but the mummy bloggers in the crowd (my mummy) didn’t have a clue, so found her little style talk invaluable! We’ll be checking out her website for more style tips! A very educational and enjoyable hour.

Festival Place have always been good with their shopper and community engagement. They explained during the night that more events are being held this year to give shoppers a unique experience when they visit in 2015.

On April 3rd – 4th (Easter Weekend) Eat Street is back which is a weekend event allowing shoppers to taste from local stores and stall food, immerse themselves in cookery demonstrations and enjoy the easter weekend with treats from Hotel Chocolate, perfect for when my mummy finishes Lent and can start eating chocolate again! There will be entertainment featuring top celebrity chef Jean-Christophe Novelli too. Woweee mummy! Sounds good.

It’s nice that the stores within Festival Place shopping centre get onboard with the seasonal activities and offer competitions and discounts to shoppers during the events the shopping centre hosts.

While the Festival Place team were talking, my mummy noticed that two beauty technicians had turned up to offer us complementary nail manicure from Shear Beauty. Woweee, now you really are being spoilt mummy. This epitomizes the way that Festival Place treat their customers and my mummy felt very pampered. This is a lovely feeling when you are rushed off your feet at work all day and being a mummy to a mad toddler.

My mummy had a great couple of hours and it was one of the friendliest blogger meet ups she’s had so far. Well done Festival Place.

From your local ‘shopping family’

Bella and her mummy x

P.s No serious blogging event would be complete without the goodie bags. And they were amazing! BlogFest and BritMums take note! 😉 We can’t wait to explore the products and showcase the beauty products in the next couple of weeks 🙂