Recent blogger events

One of the lovely perks of being a blogger, is that you sometimes get invited to events by people/brands to showcase their latest lines/products, there's usually some kind of food and drink available, and a good amount of mingling and meeting our fellow local bloggers (my favourite part), oh and sometimes, there's goodie bags too :)

This past couple of weeks, I've attended a couple of lovely events, and I wasn't going to blog about them initially as they're not about beauty but I thought I'd share them with you anyway, as I took loads of pics and had a great time and well, I just wanted to share the experience with you :)  So this post is about two events I've been too (I've been to others but these are the ones I want to share) one at Red Hot Buffet last week, and one today with Next :)

Red Hot Buffet

(top to bottom & L-R) cocktail, vegetarian sushi, Indian street food, mushroom risotto, vegetarian spicy noodles & stir fry veg, lemon sorbet (this was pure alcohol!), fruit & pancakes, 3 mini desserts of a chocolate brownie (my fav), vanilla creme brulee (hubby's fav) and cheesecake.

Lots of us Cardiff bloggers were invited to sit at the Chefs table at red hot buffet, this wasn't for your typical 'get up and grab a plate' deal, but actually being waited on, with wine and cocktails - this, I like. All of the food that was brought to us (I opted for the vegetarian options) were all things that are available on the normal buffet.  It was a 7 course taster menu (in the pic, the courses are in order going top to bottom, left to right) - with the first item being an extra one which was their new signature plum based cocktail - which I might add, tasted gorgeous, it actually had bits of fresh plum in it, NOM!

The service was fantastic, and the staff were so incredibly polite and lovely.  The head chef has actually come from a Michelin star restaurant in Delhi, and that really showed in the food, it was so good.

One thing they're trying to get people to do more, is use their live stations - this is where you go up and ask for something they're cooking, like the risotto - you can request things like, no mushrooms, make it super spicy - whatever you want really.  I have to say, I had a fantastic experience there and can't wait to go back :)  Thank you Red Hot Buffet!

Next Blogger Event

Me and lots of other lovely bloggers went to a lovely Next event today (today as in 4th April).  I booked a half day from work and headed over to the big Next in Cardiff, which is all about the home.  I was greeted by some lovely staff and fellow bloggers.  Next were incredibly generous and gave us all a £50 voucher to spend in store, I still can't believe they gave us all that much, I was really humbled by that.  They took us around to showcase their latest ranges and trends, with the Brighton/Hove/beach look being one of their key themes.

After having a good look around we had about 30-60 mins to pick some things out to spend the voucher on, I picked 2 cushions, some cracked glass coasters (I fell in love with these!), a series of 3 small bowls, a glass and a cracked glass heart tea light holder.  So pretty!

After that we moved on to St Davids hotel where the PR people from Next had booked a suite for us to have afternoon tea in, and have our nails painted.  We saw their newest ad and some behind the scenes footage too.

Then, as we were leaving, they gave us goody bags too!!!! Needless to say, we all left there on a bit of a high after being treated like princesses :)  In the goodie bag there was a catalogue, some scent infusion sticks, some vanilla tea lights, a yellow flower tea light holder and a little cute sign about friendship.

It was a lovely day and I couldn't have had a nicer afternoon off with nicer people.  There's a lovely blogging community here in Cardiff and I'm so proud to be a part of it.

This months bigest pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Laura from A Scottish Lass,
And be sure to check out my lovely middle-pixi3 advertisers who this month are Sarah from Life in a Breakdown and the lovely Luchessa from Beauty Expression by Luchessa - be sure to head over to check out their beautiful blogs <3

 *the meal from red hot buffet was complimentary