Monday 20 June 2011

All the fun of the Fair

Summer Fair/fete season is upon us, cue lots of tatty bunting, dodgy dad run barbecue stalls, tins of vegetables passed off as tombola prizes and children being made to dress up and perfect country dancing routines in the 'arena'.  Oh yes there is nothing more British than the rain soaked church or school fete. I was lucky enough to visit two such summer fetes on Saturday due to the dire turn out at the boot sale.


One main draw of the fete is the Bric a Brac stalls as they tend to have a lot of vintage goodies and as the sellers have no emotional attachment to the items you usually get them cheap.  These two fetes however were a bit lacking on the bric a brac.  I came away with just two vintage boxed hankies:

The little rose one is from New York oooooh ;o)  I paid 50p for both boxes.  I also picked up these:

Vintage Zips, loving the packaging  - 10p each.

Onto the book stall which again is a fete tradition and I picked up these two:

For 10p each you cant go wrong ;o)

Now of course I couldn't go to the summer fete and not have a go on the tombola. I must admit some of the prizes looked quite good, lots of vintage glass wear and china which I'd have been more than happy to have taken home. So I paid my £1 for 5 tickets and the first ticket out was a winner, oh yes!  Feeling chuffed that I might be the new owner of something pretty I waited for the stall holder to look through all the prizes.....
She then pulled this from the back of the table:

Oh yes just what I've always wanted, some Plum coloured hair colour ;o)  Being a blondie, the stall holder thought this was hilarious.  I'd like to thank the person from the church committee who thought a bottle of plum hair dye was a good tombola prize ;o)

So feeling lucky I ventured onto another prize stall. For 50p you got to chose a random box from the table and keep the contents.  I thought I'd play it smart and choose a small jewellery box hoping that inside would be someone Grandma's vintage brooch, necklace or earrings. 

With box in hand and feeling lucky I opened the box.  Inside was a small little laminated token which said 'STAR PRIZE'!  The stall holder whooped and passed the token to her fellow stall holder. They then went to the back of the stall and produced a plain white carrier bag.  Excitement building they walked with the bag to the table.  With a congratulations the lady put her hand in the bag and pulled out my star prize.....


Yes just what I have been waiting for all my life - a small stuffed Babe pig.  Are you all jealous? ;o)
 The ladies were so thrilled to present me with this that I put on my Oscar winning performance of being thrilled to bits of taking home the 'star prize' of the fete.  As I had bagged the biggie I wonder what was in the rest of those boxes lol!

My luck however ran out for the booty the next day, but I will share my weeks finds in my next post.

Happy Monday all.

Scarlett x

Linking to magpie-monday

42 comments:

  1. Haha! I won a tin of marrowfat peas on a tombola once, if that helps you feel any better! I'm sure your little boy will give the pig a good home. I wonder how long that dye has been languishing in someone's bathroom cupboard? God only know what potency the chemicals have reached!

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  2. You certainly can't beat a British Fete worse than death - there's nothing quite like it!

    With like that I hope you bought a lottery ticket on Saturday night?!

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  3. LOL least it gave us all a laugh even if you didnt win a wonderful prize

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  4. Adoro i fazzolettini ricamati.A casa mia li metto ovunque.Rosetta

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  5. Blimey, plum hair dye and a stuffed pig, you couldn't dream of a more useful combination of goodies, could you?
    Hopefully next weekend will be gloriously sunny and there'll be loads to buy. xxx

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  6. What a fun post, really enjoyed reading it.
    I had the exact beauty and the beast ladybird book. I saw it being sold in my local charity bookshop for much more recently, a really good bargain!

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  7. Oh my goodness, can you imagine how purple your hair would be if you did decide to use that on blonde hair?! I love those hankies. x

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  8. too funny, I would have given the stuffed pig to the first child I saw. Love the books though.

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  9. Well, I suppose Babe could be a collectors’ item one day....maybe not! The original story ‘The Sheep Pig’ by Dick King-Smith is worth looking out for at the next fete/car boot, then you could have the story to tell as well.

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  10. Ha ha, great post. I wonder who thought hair dye would be a good prize?
    x

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  11. some classic tombola prizes there Scarlett! The last time I went there was a mystery bottle stall and as I saw some geezer go off with a bottle of scotch I thought I'd have a go. Friggen shampoo, heh!

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  12. Swap you the hair dye for the memory foam slippers size 8 my daughter won recently at a fair! (Actually, must remember to sell them on ebay - yay). Laughed at Lakota's marrowfat peas. My only win on a tombola ever was a tin of sliced carrots in water. Ugh.

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  13. I see a blog giveaway on the cards following what could be described as your least impressive haul. Wouldn't it be a laugh to do a continual giveaway, where the dye and pig are always being given away on blogs(until maybe one day someone wins who actually WANTS these lovely items?!

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  14. I don't even know what a tombola is and yet I am so impressed at your prizes that it seems worth finding out! My whole exposure to Summer Fetes are from references in what call here Brit Coms. They look wonderful fun and your post makes them seem all the more so.

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  15. A very funny post, prehaps you could donate the hair dye for a tombolo prize next year? LOL
    Thank you for stopping by and commenting on my blog, have a sweet day. Jo x

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  16. Ay, them places have the worst prizes, my father law won a spicy can of beans and automatically gave them to me,lol
    love the rose hankies, as I am a roshe whore myself.the piggy is cute for your little one.

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  17. Great prizes! bet you could make a fortune on ebay with the hair dye!!he he

    Bee happy x
    Have a delicious day!

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  18. Not attended a Summer Fete thing yet this year and your post made me look forward to it. Maybe I am odd but I like the pig thing.
    Hankies are just lovely too

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  19. You clearly carry the luck of the Irish with you always, lovely!! :-) Plum-coloured hair dye AND a Babe the pig are not to be sniffed at :-P My worst tombola prize to date has been a jar of beef sandwich paste, yum!

    Jem xXx

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  20. We had a couple of bric a brac stalls but I didn't buy anything!

    I remember that Beauty and the Beast book so well from childhood!

    Victoria xxx

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  21. Wish we had fetes here! looks like fun, I bet you put on a great, oh yea, face when you won the pig!

    Carol

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  22. Aw I love Babe haha! I'm usually pretty good at the bottle stalls (meaning I tend to win alcohol!), never seen hair colour as a prize! :)

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  23. I haven't been to a fete in years. I really must get to one. Can you still hook a duck?

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  24. Oh you have made me laugh today, Scarlett - am really looking forward to the blog post with your new plum coloured hair!

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  25. the pig is so funny!

    smiles,
    the Joyful Thrifter

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  26. Oh how funny! I'm still laughing. A great post. I just found your blog and am now your new follower...won't you come over and follow us too? We'd love to have you...have a good day. Hugs!

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  27. You should dye the pig plum! haha! We don't have mystery box games like that, but if we did I'm sure I'd win something lame too.

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  28. That is so funny! It our school fete this weekend..............hope we are lucky enough to have prizes that are as good as those!! lol!
    -x-

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  29. Hehehe, I can't believe you got a Babe! You are so lucky! I used to love that movie so much, as well as its sequel, "Babe: Pig in the City". It sounds like you had a great time! On a sidenote: I love all your cute British words! Do people tell you that all the time? :)

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  30. Just loving the pig & hair dye prizes - I managed to avoid winning anything at our fete this weekend.

    I did manage a look at the book stall but no Ladybirds were to be found.

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  31. He hee! I wish i could have seen that Oscar winning performance!! I would have been the same..'Oh just what I always wanted!
    I bet your OH things this is hilarious karma. Still you can't beat a good fete. I must track one down soon.

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  32. The vintage jewelry was probably lurking as one of the lesser prizes - some older folk think those shabby old things are no good at all and would much rather have a stuffed pink pig. Who wouldn't! (Laughed right out loud at Monsieur le Pig.)

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  33. I had the Beauty and the Beast book too :) Loved your funny post! I cycled past some people putting up a sign for a school fete this morning, and recall the word 'Tombola' featured prominently - think I might give it a miss now :)

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  34. Aw the piggy is very cute, you should give him pride of place.

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  35. Hilarious! does anyone have plum hair now? dye the pig!!! go on i dare you! xx

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  36. Looks like you're as lucky as me at tombolas...I always try to play it smart and end up with the booby prize :S!

    K xx

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  37. OMG that plum hair dye is atrocious!! Who in their right mind would pick something like that for a prize??!Yes I'm sure you were thrilled!...NOT! Lol! Message to self: never participate in tombolas. But your little Babe really IS a cutie!! *winks* Vanna

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  38. Miss Ginger's advice that you dye the pig seems sound - you could then put a new ribbon round his neck and turn him in for next year's star prize! xxx

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  39. ;-))) I can't believe someone would put hair die in for a prize ;-)) But hey look on the bright side at least you had an entertaining tale to tell us all ;-))dee x

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  40. I still think you're the luckies person i know!!! hahahahaha love the Star Prize you won! cute stuffed babe pig hahahahaha....i would love to see you in plum colored hair color, Scarlett! hehehe i adore the hankies box, vintage zips and books, you always know how to get tresures in very very low prices hehehe so envious!! i cant wait for the fair to be held here in my town! xx Susan

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  41. This post really made me laugh. We have just had our school summer fair. Spent an entire day setting up but the weather held out and the prizes were pretty cool, including a family ticket to Camelot theme park (didnt win that, but my hubby won 2 bottles of red wine!) very nice. x

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