pop up shop

On Saturday I had the chance to have the most lovely experience in London thanks to Cadbury’s Roses.

On a quiet street at the back of Oxford Street just opposite Soho Square, this gorgeous pop-up shop was hiding, waiting to share its beautiful thank-you with anyone who happened to pop in.

It looked absolutely adorable, from its 3D flowery signage right down to the vintage style yellow bike outside.

Once inside it got even better…

Set up like a high end florist, each classic Roses flavour had its own hand-made paper rose with the chocolate hidden inside surrounded by foil petals. I’m a Strawberry Cream and County Fudge kinda girl…what are your favourites?

The idea was you could pick one flower, write a thank you note to someone special and then take it away for free to gift to the person you wanted to say thank you to.

The pop up shop was created by GoLin PR Agency and Bearded Kitten Events with 7000 hand-made flowers created by set designer Tamara D’Silva and her team and was really lovely – a chocolate florist shop…it doesn’t get much cuter than that! As a creative, I love seeing a concept delivered really well and the shop was utter event/pop up perfection! I believe its due to go on tour around the UK so keep your eyes peeled for it in your city!

I had my son Reuben with me and he wanted to say his ‘thank you’ to me. I saw him chatting to the lovely ladies running the shop and the next thing I knew he had a huge bouquet in his arms for me! See the video below…

And this was his message to me…*heart almost bursts with love*. What a wonderful treat.

I think its fair to say I was very pleased with my bouquet of chocolate Roses (one of every flavour no less!). I mean, look at how I’m looking at them

The real reason for all this loveliness? Well that’s lovely too – Cadbury’s have created a limited edition Roses tin to mark the chocolates 80th anniversary. Can you believe Roses have been around for 80 years? The retro vintage design tins feature a variety of coloured roses surrounded by ribbon-style banners against the traditional ‘Cadbury Roses Blue’ background. The design is really nostalgic and reminds me of a Nana’s sewing tin! On that note, sustainability has also played a key role in the decision to opt for metal packaging for the once-in-a-lifetime celebration tins. Its definitely not something you’d ever throw away – I mean, look how pretty it is…

Find your limited edition 800g tin exclusively in Tesco now! Its RRP is £9.99 although it was just £8.00 when I checked while writing this blog post. A total bargain I say!

And thank you to Cadburys for making me feel so happy and giving my wonderful son the opportunity to say thank you to me! If you’d like to say thank to someone too, I think the vintage tin would be a lovely way to say thank you to someone special this winter.

When I heard the Dawn O’Porter was launching another BOB pop up shop to tie in with Septembers London Fashion Week I jumped at the change to visit. Last season when it was in Seven Dials I hadn’t been able to get into London and had been really disappointed I had missed it.

The shop is located on Newburgh Street just off of Carnaby Street.

As well as her BOB range (new and last season items that are now in the sale) there’s a fantastic range of handpicked vintage clothing ranging from around £40 up to over £500. If you’re wondering what £500 buys you it buys the most AMAZING designer Courreges cream floor length cape that I looked at in awe… And then there was my dream skirt – the ‘Jane’ paper planes skirt. It has a print featuring stationary, Fab lollies, paper planes and Wotsits!!!! Do you remember I blogged about it back in December? Even though it is utterly wonderful, at £180 I just couldnt justify the cost while I am at home with my son and not earning much…

But as it was last season its now in the sale and with 70% off noless! In the shop they only had a small and large and even though I managed to squeeze myself into the small it was very tight – I’d say the small is a size 8/10 whereas the medium is more a 10/12. Dawn was really helpful and suggested I ordered it online and the next day I did just that! With delivery charges it came to £59.50.

It arrived beautifully packaged in tissue paper and in this gorgeous black box…Here is a close up of its brilliant Karen Mabon designed print – perfectly observed if you attended school in the 80s/early 90s…

And this is me in the skirt I’ve coveted for far too long… The newer designs of this skirt are now sized in generic dress sizes 8-14 which I think makes it much easier to find your size. Find the new designs here.

When I visited Dawn was in store and greeted me with a cheery “Hi! Ooh I LOVE your skirt!” (I was wearing a long leopard print maxt skirt) She was lovely and really helpful and chatty. I had to get my photo taken with her too – I love her TV shows and follow her avidly on Instagram. She is wearing the BOB ‘Kirstin’ dress here – the Toucan filled tropical print is adorable and you can buy it via the website here.