A trip to Betty's and a 50s dress

While I had a little bit of time off work I took a trip back home to the north east. It was also my Mum's birthday so it was a good excuse to take a trip out to somewhere special.

That special place ended up being Betty's tea rooms at Northallerton. Betty's have a few tea rooms, in York, Northallerton and Harrogate and I have been to them all. They are all bloomin' wonderful. In fact so wonderful that I insisted that the Betty's bakery make the cutting cake for me wedding.

This time we went for lunch and tea. I love the early 20th century decor of all of Betty's tea rooms, but I love their tea even more! They serve proper tea, you can have it blended with milk, or pure source tea with lemon, milk or on its own and they have around 20 varieties. Even more than the choice, I love the fact that you are served your tea loose leaf in a teapot with a strainer and a pot of water as standard.

All tea should be served with a pot of hot water in my book. Here is me with an array of teapots:

(I was so pleased to get that cartoon swirl in may hair where the bleached portion hasn't quite grown out yet1)

Food wise I had a steak and ale pie with seasonal veg and for dessert I had a chocolate cherry layered cake. It was all divine!

For this day out I decided to wear a gorgeous vintage dress that I found in Age UK in Sunderland (BEST CHARITY SHOP EVER!) and it looks like it dates from the 50s based on the print and fabric. It is however home made so it is hard to give an exact age. It was an utter steal at £8 though.

The cardigan was from Salvation Army and the hat came from an ex-theatre sale on eBay.

While in Northallerton I did have a rummage through some of the charity shops. I have been desperate for a camel coat ever since a friend mentioned one to me back in January and I felt that surely at least one of the charity shops would have one.

Well I was right, the last shop right next to the car park - good ol' Sue Ryder had an amazing wool cashmere blend coat in long camel colour in my size! AND it was discounted from £12 to £6!!!

I almost screamed in the shop when I found it. It reminded me a lot of David Tennant's Doctor Who coat too with its long swishyness - I had to get it!

I really have a problem with coats. I love, Love, LOVE a good coat. In fact I've had to ban myself from buying them now because I simply have too many. I am now only allowed to get one if I give another one away :(

Do you have any types of clothing items that you keep buying in all shapes and colours?

A Yellow 1970s Dress

You know, I can't help but think that this outfit was somehow inspired by bees... Even with that in mind I do still like the combination of yellow with bits of black.

When I spotted this dress on eBay I knew I had to have it! It is pretty difficult to find a good yellow dress and I was really pleased that it turned out okay once it arrived. I'm not sure what brand it is as the labels aren't very descriptive. It was sold to me as a 1970s dress and I can believe that is about right, although in my head the 70s was filled with more drab browns than bright yellows, but maybe I'm just being a bit judgemental there...

The dress does have a check pattern to it and a reasonably full skirt. It came with a matching fabric belt, but I rather liked the contrasting belt too. I wore some black shoes that came from Topshop that gave me an awful blister, but oh well, hopefully with a bit of breaking in they will be okay.

Dress - eBay

Shoes -Topshop (via eBay)

Belt & Socks - Primark

Hair Flowers - Accessorize

Sunglasses - North Laines Stall

I added a couple of hair flowers to go with my curly hair although it was fairly windy so any styling I had done was completely pointless but never mind.

I met up with Sadie of The Vanity Case for a wander around Brighton and we popped into Taj's Tea Parlour for a quick drink. I had a popcorn tea which was a little bit weird, but yummy, and it came in a huge pot which made me happy. We were too full to try any of the cakes but they did look quite good, I'll have to go back and let you know how they are :)

 Look how gorgeous that tea pot is!