If someone had to plan my ideal morning they wouldn't go far wrong with a private fitting room with a rail full of carefully curated clothes, add my beautiful daughter Sadie a latte and some fancy poached eggs with avocado and you'd have my perfect AM. Minus the fodder my Friday morning at Topshop Meadowhall couldn't have been more spot on. To give you some background I've always been a Topshop princess particularly in my teen years (it's where most of my wages and student loan went) but over the past few years I've found shopping in my once, go to store frustrating. As a late twenty something mum I don't want to buy bum skimming garms or anything remotely body con and don't get me started on crop tops. While I'll forever applaud Topshop for making pieces that every girl wants it's somewhere I can find difficult to shop so when I found out about the personal shopping service at Meadowhall thanks to a Mama Social event I had to check it out. Side note, if you're a momma and live in Sheffield you'll LOVE Mama Social.

Lucy is the super lovely stylist at Meadowhall who not only knows her step hem jeans from her skinnys but is also X Factor styling alumni, how cool? Prior to our appointment I emailed Lucy to tell her about the pieces I was looking for and most importantly my size. Topshop offer a number of different appointment you can choose from but for my first appointment we kept things pretty casual especially as Sadie was coming with me too. The objective? An outfit for my soon-to-be God sons christening. So how did we get on? Absolutely swimmingly, Lucy completely got my style and not only managed to pull things I'd pick myself but also a few pieces I wouldn't, but adored as soon as I tried them on. For me this is my absolute favourite thing about using a personal shopping service as it encourages you to try pieces you might never have considered before. It's also great to have a fashion sounding board, I predominately shop on my own or online and sometimes I just need that vital second opinion - one thing that I found invaluable about Lucy was how she could immediately tell if I felt comfortable in a piece or not (I clearly give off signs!) While some may think I'm crazy to take my thirteen month old with me I actually found the whole experience a great way to shop with Sadie as there was plenty of space, a huge fitting room and a seating area giving Sadie plenty of room to explore and your own private till which means no queuing with a baby that's lost the shopping will. Not forgetting to mention the very welcome addition of elderflower cordial and lemon drizzle cakes which as anyone knows are absolute essentials when shopping with a little. Lucy is incredibly laid back and there's absolutely no obligation to buy anything (especially if you're not going to get your wear out of a piece) however we all know how I love to shop.

So let's talk about the damage, I bought a cream lace top and pink trousers for my soon-to-be God parent duties (see the outfit post here), two pairs of jeans - a frayed hem pair of Jamies (seen above) and a stepped hem pair of Orsons (see here), the Givenchy inspired Amy boots (which I spoke about here), a black tee and a silk bomber jacket inspired shirt (seen in the second photo). Let's just say I'll not be shopping for a little while! That said I must say it's actually quite nice buying clothing in bulk instead of my usual spending £40 here and there as not only does this add up at an alarming rate but it often means I buy pieces that don't work together. At least now I can mix and match items until my hearts content, that's what I'm telling myself anyway.

Have you ever used a personal shopper? Would you use the service at Topshop?