Bambi-the-style-hunter: June summer spending spree

After being extremely good during May, most probably because I was writing a talk about being a shopaholic for Ignite Cardiff at the end of last month, I have utterly destroyed my debit card over the past couple of weeks with what can over be described as a spending splurge.

My excuse is that the weather suddenly took a turn for the better and when I re-opened my summer closet I was disappointed with the array of clothes I had on offer to wear from last season. Therefore I had no excuse other than to go shopping - excuse 1 from my Top 10 reasons to go shopping post - A shopaholics never have anything to wear!

So after deciding what to wear while on my shopping spree (always a tricky decision as you need to consider ease of dressing & undressing while also looking and feeling like a fashionista). Anyway once I had skipped happily from the bay, where I live, to town, I decided to be methodical about my shopping trip and start by going into the St Davids 2 shopping centre via H&M. H&M is a great store as there is often a number of great items in store but they are generally hidden among the very cluttered rails and you have to have a real rummage around if you want to find something good.

After a scour of the store I didn't see anything that really caught me eye, apart from a gold necklace which I whipped up quickly and moved on to my new favourite store - River Island.

Gold necklace - £3.99 from H&M

The River Island store is so much more inviting than H&M because the rails are neatly spread out allowing you to easily take in all the items on display and quickly decide whether there is anything that catches your eye. As per usual after perusing through the store I stumbled across a plethora of tempting items that were all calling out to me. I grabbed a selection of items, trying to make up outfits where possible, as it always looks better if you can complete a look rather than just try a pair of trousers or a skirt on individually. I found a very pretty patterned floral pencil skirt which I paired with a pink vest top to try on but they didn't have the top in my size so I only bought the skirt on its own. When I wore it to work yesterday I teamed up with a trapeze loose fitting white top from Zara and a pair of colour pop pink shoes.

Floral skirt - £25

I also bought this eye-catching neon green vest top which I simply couldn't resist. I just love the colour of it and it felt really nice and summery.

After I was happy with my purchase from River Island I decided to be brave and embark on a trip to Primark. Everyone else seems to pick up some great items in there but I never seem to have the patience to spend hours sifting through all the cluttered and over-flowing rails. However I decided to embrace it and as it wasn't too busy, the experience was totally bearable. Plus I managed to find a neon pink midi skirt and a cute floral midi skirt with buttons down the front. I also spotted a very nice white midi skirt with cut-out detail three-quarters of the way down which I also grabbed. Without trying any of the items on, I simply scooped them up and headed to the checkout. The bonus being that the floral skirt was missing a belt so was a steal at just £5, the pink skirt was only £12 and the white one £18, so I walked out feeling like I had had a real bargain and got three items for under £40.

My last two stops were Zara and Topshop (I had had a pretty successful spree in Zara recently so didn't really see anything new that caught my eye) so I made a beeline next door into Topshop. As usual I swooped straight past the sale items at the front of the store and started weaving my way round the store picking up an array of items along the way but also trying to be restrained and assessing whether i have anything similar already at home as I am very good at replicating purchases of items I already have. I found a cute silky pale pink camisole, a de-stressed denim cropped top and a white cut out crop top which all looked really nice so added to my ever-flowing summer wardrobe.

So after being satisfied that all my purchases were completely justified and were not replicating existing items in my closet I headed home.

I don't know about you but when I get home I have to try everything on and work out what goes with what so I can pre-plan outfits for the future. So here are the selection of new items mixed and matched together to create a few different outfits. Hope you like the results as much as I do!