At the weekend, I had a couple of hours on my own, as the girls and my husband were out and about. So I nipped to a local shopping area – Victoria Retail Park. I’ve been there several times and its a great location with a large free car park. It’s around 4 miles from Nottingham City center and a couple of miles from where I live. The mix of shops and restaurants mean you can definitely easily spend a couple of hours (longer when you are eating) and browsing all of the retail outlets. It has some of my favourite stores, especially if you are looking to grab a bargain.
It’s an open air retail park where the main stores are all connected along a partially covered pathway. In front of this are all of the various restaurants and cafes, including Gregg’s, Subway, Frankie & Benny’s and McDonald’s.
It was absolutely freezing that day, so I was looking forward to seeing what winter fashion warmers I could spot. Victoria Retail Park had kindly given me a gift card, so I was looking forward to seeing what I could find.
Boots
My first stop was Boots, which you might not consider having many fashion items, but I was surprised that they had a selection of scarves, jewellery and even tights. There were also some fashion brands such as Joules which had makeup and toiletry bags.
I was really interested to see, that they had a selection of earrings that were suitable for people to wear, who are usually sensitive to wearing earrings.
Next
When I think of winter, I can’t not think of cozying up at home with a good book and a roaring fire. So I was on the look out for lounge wear. Next had a great selection, and this sweater was amongst them. Perfect for weekends or lazy mornings at home.
I also spotted two animal print jumpers, that I would gladly wear over a dress, or simply with jeans in winter time.
Talking of jeans (a staple for me in winter) I spotted something new whilst I was in Next – HyperCurve. How hard is it to find a pair of jeans that fit? Well Next have come up with a new jean called HyperCurve. Fitting a curvy figure, they have features like a gap-proof waistband that helps to contour your body and a bistretch fabric, that retains it shape in between washes. Really nifty!
Some trends really don’t date, and I think that could be said of the western trend, so that’s why I included these Next boots and denim shirt. Again the shirt would look great layered over a midi or maxi length dress, add the boots to complete the look.
TK Maxx
Finally I headed to TK Maxx, which is definitely one of my favourite places to wander around. As I stepped through the door I realised that this store had two floors of both fashion and home items. One of my favourite things to get here, when I’m not on a fashion mission is blankets, kitchen items and candles, all of which are greatly reduced from the rrp. It didn’t disapoint, and I spotted lots of items that I’ve made a mental note of.
TK Maxx really does have everything under one roof if you are on the hunt for fashion, bags, shoes, coats, dresses and seperates. As it was January there was also lots of workout gear too.
The reason I love shopping here, is the possibility of finding something really cool and unusual. Especially as often there are items that you’ve never seen before, and brands that are new to you, as well as designer ones all at really affordable prices.
I did covert these amazing Stella McCartney boots, that were epic. Damn my big feet!
I wandered around, finding trousers, jumpers and dressers that I wanted to try on, I think around 8 items in total and tried them on in the large changing room.
This jumper was a serious contender, as it was the softest wool.
What I bought!
In the end I went for three items, a bag, jumper and a dress.
In my mind I wanted something that was suitable for a couple of events I need to go to in the next couple of months. Something smart that I could also layer up to keep warm. I was so happy that I managed to find a dress for £6….can you believe £6! I love animal print, I think of it as a neutral, that never dates so it’s definitely something I’ll treasure.
The jumper I found accidentally, it’s always good I think to go around a store like TK Maxx twice. You might miss something, and this was in a separate display that I hadn’t spotted. They had every size from small upwards, result! It was priced at £29, which for a DKNY jumper, that’s really soft, not itchy at all, I was impressed.
Finally I headed back to the bag section, which had been the first area I looked at. I’d spotted a bag that I could stop thinking about whilst I was shopping and thankfully it was still there. It was total bargain, reduced from £495 to just £49!
I great shopping trip I think.
Huge thanks to Victoria Retail Park for asking me to come and visit, I’ll back again very soon!
Collaborative Post
Dominique Jubien-Rickman says
…Wish I’d been there shopping with you. I could definitely do with a bit of retail therapy to escape (even for a couple of hours) from very tough times since the start of the year…
Looks like you’ve had a really successful shopping time. LOVE the animal print dress – you look feminine-fab and the jumper over it looks cool too.
You need to go back to get the stripy jumper you tried on :-))
Happy shopping x
Amanda Cottingham says
Hi Dominique – thank you so much!
I’m so sorry you’ve had a tough month. Hope that things are more positive soon. I saw something today that said, lets start the year afresh in February, and think of Jan as just a bonus month this year. Much love Amanda
Dominique Jubien-Rickman says
You’re such a kind lady to find time to reply, merci :-))
Yes I keep thinking and hoping that all will start to be well from February… The sun is shining on the South Coast / New Forest this morning so it’s sending positive vibes. Hope the weather is kind to you too. Kiss kiss. Domi