This week is flying by, I can’t believe it’s Thursday already !  I’ve spent most of the week shopping with clients, which I love doing, but it’s starting to get sooooo busy in town now.  I’m really starting to miss the mid week lull that I normally take advantage of.

I made the mistake of taking a client shopping yesterday during the strikes. We’d had it booked in for a while but it dawned on me as I queued into Bristol on the M32, that town might be a little busy. My initial fears turned into reality as I drove around the city centre trying to find a car park that had space.  All the car parks were completely full and I had to drive back and forth between them until eventually one of them opened the gates and let me in.  Despite this somewhat stressful beginning to my day, the shopping trip was a success, (we even managed to wangle the HOF discount that wasn’t starting until the following day).  When I’d finished the shopping trip, I thought I’d take the opportunity to do a spot of Christmas shopping.  It had taken me long enough to park so I thought I might as well stay.

My Mum has almost finished her Christmas shopping, and I’d barely given it a thought until yesterday.  I know it’s only 1st December, but not only has my Mum bought all her presents but they’re all wrapped and ready for despatch!  As you can imagine, this has just highlighted my lack of organisational skills and has left feeling a little panicked.  Well, deciding to stay back after my shopping trip to start the mammoth task of finding the perfect gifts was a great idea and ended up beign rather little less daunting when I spotted this fabulous new shop.  Gerry Webber is long gone, and in its place is my saviour this Christmas, Oliver Bonas.  I found something for my Sister and Mum in less than five minutes, that’s got to be a record!

The inside of the shop is light and spacious.  It’s full of gorgeous home ware, cute dresses and jewellery.  This is their first shop to open outside of London, and is a great addition to Cabot Circus.

Tattoos are big news this season with both Rodarte and Chanel showcasing tattooed models down the catwalk. Rodarte’s models were branded with bold tribal designs, while Chanel’s were decorated with delicate transfers in chains and pearls. Chanel is even selling temporary tattoos in a pop-up shop in Selfridges for the next couple of weeks.

Chanel’s tattoo parlour

For temporary tattoos that don't cost the earth and are just as pretty as Chanels, try this fab website: www.brastraps.ie

If covering your body in tattoos isn’t for you, there are other ways to dabble in this trend, and with something a little closer to home too. Here in Bristol, we have our very own shoe tattooist!

Based in Weston–super-Mare, and drawing on his varied experience from working in media to graphic design and painting, the Hungarian-born artist Imre Jernei, will ‘tattoo’ your shoes, bags, belts and even skateboards, creating beautifully unique wearable art.



Imre finds his inspiration in Hungarian motifs, and a mixture of classical and Japanese tattoos. “Music is my other inspiration, classical, rock and urban (hip hop and R'N'B). I get my inspiration from these subcultures' visual world.”

I asked Imre what he thinks about the Bristol style:

“Bristol-style is comfortable, but elegant, never out of fashion. This style combines the strongest fashion elements of the different subcultures - the visual ideas of the city's million faces. The style really reflects the city itself, it's so balanced, but also really bright, vibrant and elegant. The one thing I really like about Bristolians style is the freshness and the totally free mix of different fashion ideas”.

Imre can ‘tattoo’ pretty much anything, “if something is really difficult to airbrush, I’ll combine it with hand-drawing. I can even do portraits, but that takes longer than a graffiti tag.

If you want to get in touch with Imre about an exclusive design, then visit his blog: http://goldfish-shoe-tattoo.blogspot.com. He’s also just started to run workshops in various skate and shoe shops.