latest brighton love

When the Husband asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, I spent days trying to choose something - we don't often justify spending money on time on our own (daft, I know, but there's always something I want to buy for the Boy!), and I wanted to make sure I picked something good. I thought about dinner and the cinema, but decided that being 35 weeks pregnant probably meant that I'd be asleep before the main course was brought to the table. We thought about going for a day trip somewhere new, but then contemplated sitting in traffic, getting lost, not knowing where to eat and possibly forgetting where we'd parked the car - and decided against it. In the end, it was a pretty obvious choice - a day out in Brighton with lunch in our favourite restaurant and food store. Thrifting, exploring and food - what could be better?

I wore this:

Dress: Topshop Maternity via eBay // Tank: Thrifted // Coat: Thrifted // Bag: Thrifted // Boots: H&M

Thirty-five weeks, and getting dressed is getting more difficult by the day - the sun was shining but there was a definite chill in the air, so layers were in and floaty was once again, very firmly, out. Sigh. It was even colder in Brighton, and wandering around made me incredibly glad I'd worn the fake-fur sixties-style wonder-coat. It also made me think perhaps two pairs of leggings might have been a wise choice....

The journey was filled with mix-tape style CDs, full of things we haven't listened to for absolutely ages, and a little bit of crochet action on my side of the car (the Husband was giving the road his full attention as he's the only one out of the two of us that can actually drive, ahem):

Littlest Owl tried to get in on the photo action

We went to all our favourite shops, and discovered an incredible new homewares and interiors store called Edited, which had the BEST selection of goodies I've seen in a long time - and all at affordable, reasonable prices. I came away with a mug (which will appear in a post in the not-too distant future), but could have literally bought out the whole shop.

Not only was the stock selection nothing short of amazing, the staff were friendly, helpful and approachable, and were only too happy to let me take photographs - I probably sound like I'm being paid to say this, but I really can't rate the whole thing enough!

Beyond Retro turned up nothing, which left me feeling hugely disappointed - I'd planned to grab a couple of breastfeeding-friendly tea dresses for my post-baby weeks, but there really wasn't anything I even remotely fancied. The displays were fabulous as usual though, so I snapped a couple of pictures for the old inspiration folder on the computer.

Finally, we stopped off at Bills for lunch, where I devoured the halloumi and hummous burger with skin-on fries, and a pink lemonade. Somehow, and I honestly don't know how, two bars of fudge managed to work their way into my shopping bag.... 

It was a lovely day, but the cold and my great big belly meant that at about 3pm I was getting tired, and so we headed for home, where I sat on the sofa with a nice big mug of tea and the TV on - the perfect end to any day out.