Favourite thing on Friday....

....well you know me, its got to be vintage powder compacts. My collection has had a couple of new additions which I picked up at a vintage fair.  These are my new beauties:

 I was so excited when I spied this little vintage Kigu suitcase compact, and even more so when i checked it out inside...

 ...and saw the little Bon Voyage inscription. What a fabulous travelling gift this must have been for someone. I paid £5 and am over the moon with it.

 From the same seller I also offered this vintage New York souvenir compact. Its very worn but adds to its charm. I couldn't resit for £2.

 Foxy red stratton compact - £2

 And finally a blue stratton cameo compact from the same seller as foxy red - £2.

So that my favourite thing on friday and im linking up to mimi and tilly.

Now we have had the lovely how about something that I loath on a friday, that would be bad parking.  This is what I saw today at the supermarket run:


I have scribbled out the number plates to protect the driver's stupidity.

AAAARGH!!! The car park was full with people waiting for spaces too! I wonder if they came back to find their car in the same condition as they left it?

  Have a fabulous weekend everyone.

Big Love

Now to find Narnia

Good Evening my lovelies!  What a busy weekend I had and no bargain hunting action at all, very unlike me. I spent Saturday in London fighting the crowds and eyeing up some seriously fabulous fashion.  I also went to see the rather fabulous show 'Million Dollar Quartet' which is based on this famous picture taken in Sun studios on the 4th December 1956:

Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins (the founders of Rock and Roll) posed for a photo in the Memphis studio while having an impromptu jam session.  This was the first and only time these four greats were together.

It's a great show of live band music and it keeps to the raw rock and roll nature of the songs, played and sung the way the artists intended them to be, brilliant!  Although I do always seem to get the miserable buggers sat near me who dare not tap a finger to the beat for fear of being seen to enjoy themselves. A couple of these sat behind me so they got a nice view of my big ass when I got up and busted a move ;o)

Now as I didn't get to the boot sale I thought I'd show a couple of bits I've picked up last week:

Stratton compact and atomiser from the last booty £3 for the set.

 

 

Kitsch-tastic winking bambi and bluebird. A cheeky little blighter for 50p, found in the charity shop.

Vintage Faux fur gloves - £3 from charity shop. My mitts are going to be toasty this winter ;o)

Vintage leather bag - 50p from boot sale :o)

And for one of my favourite buys from last week...

Oh yes got me a "new" vintage faux fur coat.  This was found at a vintage fair for the unbelievable price of £2!! Hell yeah!

So I'm off now to find Narnia....

Big Love to you all

Tea Towel Love

I would never have thought when I started blogging how popular the humble tea towel is, I wondered if it was just me who couldn't resist them. It seems however that many of us have a soft spot for a pretty patterned piece of fabric to dry our dishes with, use to remove trays from the oven or just to hang on the oven door. My son has also decided that they are great to put over his head. Plus we all know our resident tea towel queen Kylie has a collection to marvel at.

So I was excited when Al from All Tea Towels contacted me to say that I could pick two tea towels from the site to have a play with - brilliant!  These are the two I chose:

 I love this Land Girl print tea towel and I certainly agree with the message. It was these amazing ladies that kept the agricultural industry running in world war 2 and they managed to do it looking fabulous.  This tea towel is so lovely that I'm actually planning on framing it for my kitchen :o)

The next one sums me up to a tee:

Mwahaha! So very true, as my long time readers will know - a domestic goddess I am not.  This is a linen tea towel and its amazing quality, even comes with a little care advise slip to make sure you are getting the best performance from your tea towel.

They are both fabulous thanks Al, go and check out the other designs on the website, I'm sure there is a design on there to suit everyone.

While we are talking tt's hows about this little gem I found in the charity shop:

Now hands up who remembers Tucktonia?  It was a model village theme park opened in Christchurch in 1976 but alas it luck ran out when it closed its doors in 1986 after becoming very run down.  I've tried finding decent images online on this short lived park of miniature wonder but alas there doesn't seem to be much about. Even Christchurch's history website here has very little on it.  Ah well, it will be long remembered on my £1 tea towel :o)

Hope you have all had a great week so far.

Big Love

Weekend buys

I had a great bargain hunting weekend with a jumble sale, boot sale and a tour round the charity shops, bliss!  I have however spent so much time out shopping that I haven't got around to taking pics of new new buys so thought I would share my boot sale buys from last weekend.

Enough chat, lets take a peek:

 Hand stitched lace work vintage vanity jar - 50p

 Floral table runner £1

 Vintage Windermere hair curlers complete in original box. If you want to take a peek inside:

there is only a couple left but still looks fab with all my vintage products on the bathroom shelf - £1 from an antique stall.

 Another hand stitched vintage vanity jar - this one still with powder inside (I have since cleaned it) - 50p

 Now I cant resist some kitsch big eyed deers and here is a couple of teenie ones - 20p each.

And while on kitsch hows about a 1950s donkey wearing a bow tie!  I seem to have collected a lot of animals with bow ties on. This cheeky chappy was 50p.

 Vintage handbag. I adore the deco styling to the clasp and its so dainty (which does not match me when I use it!)

 Found this in a box of crap under a table, the gold hooped girl running the stall turned her nose up at it and in turn I got it for a bargain price of 50p :o)).

How cute is this birdy bangle?  Not vintage but is got some charm, could resist for 30p.

And finally another little ornament, one in which I already own from my own childhood:

A 1956 Wade whimsies of Peg from 'Lady and The Tramp'.  I have a set of these which were given to me by my Nan so was thrilled to find another Peg at the booty.  Plus the seller only wanted 50p for her - eeeeee!!  Bargain! Guess what I saw in the charity shop window with this weekend.....

There's Peg with a £25 price tag - eek!  She is not alone either, all the whimsies in the window were marked at £25, crazy bananas!

Just time for a snippet of:

Witnessed at a Boot Sale

Lots of terrible parenting displays this weekend which were noted after hearing one stall holder scream at her 6/7 year old son to "F**K off for half an hour would you, I'm trying to sell my shit here"

Also seeing a girl of about 6 being left to man the car boot stall while her mum and boyfriend went to "get a burger, have a sit down and a fag".  I was hoping that the girl sold all their stuff for peanuts!

And finally a argument breaking out over a second hand pushchair, first lady didn't fancy paying £25 for it so was having 'a think', in the mean time another couple walk by and plonked their tot in the pushchair and start pushing it about.  They agreed to pay the £25 by which time lady 1 decided she wanted to have it.  She kicked up a stink saying she had seen in first, the couple saying they have got it as their child was in the buggy, and she was too late.  Bank notes were thrust towards the bemused seller with cries of "I had it first".  In the end the tot reigned champion and the seller took the couples money and they quickly bolted off with their son in his new chariot. Lady 1 continued to rant....

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend and here's to a great week :o)

Big Love

Houston....we have a glitch

Now we all love a confession in blog land, something we never knew each other did. Well my little confession and indeed my guilty pleasure is what I call "glitching".  The reason I am mentioning this is that Tuesday was a fantastic "glitching" day for me. So what the hell am I talking about?

Well in basic terms it is when a shop has a glitch in its till system which allows fantastic bargains to be had, many a time it is when two discount offers can be applied to the same product, or a basic pricing error. Being a supporter of independent shops I find a great sense of satisfaction in getting one over on the 'Big Bully Boys' on the high street and I am not alone, there are many more just like me!

My first real taste of glitching was when Finley was a baby and he was desperate to chew on everything. I was recommended 'Sophie The Giraffe' as being the leader in the teething toy market:

 She has a cult following with the trendy yummy mummy's in my area, nothing at all to do with the crazy price tag of £13 for one rubber giraffe. Well to be honest Sophie could stay on safari at Jojo Maman Bebe for that price but this is where glitching saved the day. While perusing Amazon I spotted a twin set of Sophie the giraffe - usual price £22 but not this day, oh no, the twin pack was priced at 1p.

I quickly put my order in and low and behold amazon honoured the price and I received my twin pack (complete with free shipping) for the princely price of a penny!

Supermarkets are a glitchers paradise thanks to their mass of multi buy discounts and BOGOF offers. Every so often a big glitch offer comes along that needs to be exploited and it doesn't take long for word to spread about a huge deal. On Tuesday it was the humble chocolate orange.

Tesco had this on offer as 3 for £5 they also failed to notice that there was also an offer on them of buy one get one free.  One clever glitcher spotted this and realised that both the offers worked together if bought in multiples of 6. So instead of paying £2.75 each, 6 were going through the till at just over £1.80 - therefore being a little over 30p a chocolate orange!

Well I couldn't resist this one so I went into my local tesco and picked up 6 and went through the self scan (just in case they didn't go through and I looked like a complete arse with 6 chocolate oranges).....

....well it worked, a little too well....

Yes, I am now the proud owner of 18 chocolate oranges. After telling hubby about the glitch and my 6 purchases he came home from work with 12 more!  That's the Christmas stocking fillers taken care of.

Now I wasn't the only person to end up with more than I expected. The web went crazy with this offer and people were going out buying 60 or more of them and clearing the shelves. One lady reported that her son was barred from the store for a week and was matched out after buying 24 and then going back for more.  Quickly pictures were put up online of mountains of glitched choc oranges, my favourite being:

Yes this person did buy 176 of them!

Rumour was that tesco sent memo round and some stores removed their stocks and other restricted people to 3 only.  But thanks to self scan, plenty of bargain hunters hit tesco's profits hard thanks to the self scan and sheer determination to get one over on the supermarket giant (and to get cheap Christmas chocolate).

Yesterday there was also a great glitch to be had in my local boots store. Men's Dove deodorants were reduced to 50p each. Boots also had an offer on men's toiletries  - 3 for 2 on all items..

Well my 50p deo's went through at 3 for 2 also,  so that's £1 for 3 sprays and a hubby smelling sweet for the next couple of months.

On the same section they had Mark Hill shampoo reduced to £1 (also 3 for 2) so £2 for three large shampoos.  Ted Baker shower gel £1 an item and then botanics skin care reduced to 50p an item, all in the 3 for 2 offer!

Im not loyal to a skin or hair care brand if I can get them for less than 50p a pop! 

So if you want to take up glitching then this is the best time to get on board especially with all the Christmas offers, and its ideal for saving some serious cash on stocking fillers.  The best website I have found for finding offers is money saving expert forum, check it out daily and you are bound to find a great bargain or a tempting glitch. Its also great if you like a good online deal.

On main rule I follow for glitching is not to get greedy, leave some on the shelf for another person to bag. We all love a good bargain.

Big Love

 

Saturday Night's alright for fighting

Weekends are all about the thrill of finding bargains. On Saturday there was another jumble at my now favourite village hall. I thought I'd up my game and get there 25 mins early to get to the front of the queue...oh no there were the two die hard jumble ladies who always get there first and cause trouble.

The two offenders at front always bring their own chairs so they can set up camp in the door way. On Saturday behind them in the queue was an elderly lady with her husband in a wheelchair.  The doors were finally opened (5 minutes late according to the seated jumble queen) the two with the chairs jumped up and waltzed in leaving their chairs blocking the second door. This meant the elderly lady and hubby were stuck as the wheelchair wouldn't go through. Much maneuvering later we finally got rid of both the seats and managed to get the second door open only to find  the jumble had parked her shopping trolley in the door way!

Well it was handbags at dawn when several women decided to take a pop at with her and a huge bitching match happened right there in the open door.It turned out that the chairs and shopping trolley in the door way were the tip of the iceberg, apparently jumble queen also hits the tombola stall hard each week and nabs most of the prizes - oh the scandal! I did overhear a scruffy looking man refer to jumble queen as a "big arsed walrus" - ooh err!

After the drama I had a good rummage through the clothes, no real vintage but some good high street brands which I will be putting on eBay. On my way out I checked out the toy stall for something for the little man. Amongst a box of plastic toys I spotted this little well loved fella:

I could see he was quite old and loved that he had bells in his ears so paid the 30p asking price for the little scamp.  When I got home I spotted the tag on his foot:

 He is a Merrythought bear. So I checked him out online.  Well it turns out he is probably from the 1960s a couple have sold for over £100 on ebay! Blimey, wasn't expecting that from the jumble!

Will I be ebaying him?

Naa, there is something quite appealing about his creepy eyes and womble nose so think this one is going to be living with me for sometime yet :o)

Have you ever found an item on a thrifting mission that turns out to be worth a bit more?

Big Love

Pricey? Yes!

I had last Tuesday off work for a bit of 'me' time when the little man was at nursery for the day. It was a perfect excuse to hit the charity shops without wondering how long it will take until he has a melt down as he hates shopping, well being in the buggy full stop.  So I thought I'd indulge myself a little more and head to a small town nearby which has one small high street of which 5 shop are charity! Hooray!

Alas I was hugely disappointed, mainly due to the crazy pricing.  I could not believe what they were charging in each of these shops for basic high street clothing.  One charity shop had a rail of skirts and every one of them was priced over £10, the top of the shot being a brown Per Una skirt with a floral design which was marked up at £25!  Is it me or is this not madness?  Surely no one is going to go in there an buy a secondhand M&S skirt for £20. There was also a rather tatty Wallis coat marked up at £30, and several Primark tops which were probably cheaper to have bought new than the ticket price put on them. 

So feeling a bit despondent I headed to my local Hospice shop which always has bargains and are the only charity shop near me which have half price days.  Straight inside the door I spotted these:

 Yes I got my hands on some french grain sack cushions. I've been seeing these a lot in interior design magazines and quite fancied a couple but was not keen on the prices.

  I nabbed these quick especially when I saw the original tags were still on them:

 Having done a bit of a google search I've found that The Old Cinema London is a rather fabulous looking department store for vintage, antique and interior design goodies. (It is now on my list to visit).  I also found both these cushions on there marked as sold - see here. And how much would one pay for these cushions in The Old Cinema?...

Yes £38!  How much did the hospice shop want for these cushions complete with tags?......£3 each :o) These totally made up for my charity shop grievences.  It also amused me that someone must have bought them from the shop and then donated them not long after - crazy!

While on the topic of pricing I did have a nosey through the 'vintage rail' in one shop, damn them from jumping on the vintage bandwagon *wink* and charging us more for the old stuff we love. Well this one shop seemed to have missed the whole point of vintage, there on the rail was a rather boring black and white dress from Jane Norman with the following tag:

Yes a Jane Normal dress marked up as being vintage, and at a cost of £10.95! Blimey I must be really old if Jane Norman is now vintage  - lol! (Sorry about the rubbish pic, was taking it sneaky style in the shop while being watched!).

Right thats enough of my moaning, I blame my stinking cold on being a miserable biatch today ;o)

 I hope you have all had a fabulous weekend.  I've had a bit of jumble and booting action so will blog my finds soon.

Big Love

Linking to flea-market-finds

Weekly round up

I'm a bit late with my weekend buys this week, although to be honest the boot sales were pretty rubbish, I'm hoping its not going to be a trend until boot sale season next year.  I did nip into a jumble sale on Saturday which was lacking on the vintage but I did come away with one little gem that no self respecting princess would be without....

 A musical carriage jewellery box! Isn't she fabulous?  There is a winder on the base and she plays Für Elise when you take off the lid

It even has working wheels, my son has had a bit of fun pushing it around the floor (before mum found out).  So what does a princess pay for her carriage these days?  Well 50p of course :o)

Although the booty was a bit lacking, I did pick up a couple of bits:

A 1950s Wonder ABC book which has the cutest illustrations:

 Would be ideal for framing but can I bring myself to take a book apart?

 I'm not sure I could so its staying intact for the time being. It was a bargain at 50p.

 Cant resist a bit of Elvis for 50p.

Large vintage crinoline lady hand embroidered table cloth - 50p.

Blue and white stripe Cornish table wear. I picked up two egg cups, a salt & pepper shaker and a sugar shaker from the same seller for £1 the lot! Cheap as chips. 

I cant leave this post without our weekly feature:

Witnessed at a boot sale

Two women walking along talking about their toddlers:
Lady 1 "He really is so well behaved, always sleeps through and is quite happy to play on his own"
Lady 2 "Yes Emma is the same, she is such a happy little girl, hardly ever complains, although she really did cry when I hit her with the broom"

Stall with a large cardboard sign saying "all reasonable offers accepted" but when one man offered 50p for a book his offer was refused.

And finally my main chuckle of the morning was seeing a large painting of a naked lady set up mid-stall. I smiled knowing that a few of the gentlemen there would appreciate seeing it on a Sunday morning. It was only when I looked up from the picture I discovered the woman in the painting was actually behind the stall! Got to hand it to her, I wouldn't have the balls to sell a butt naked picture of myself in a car park at 10 am on a Sunday morning!

That's all folks, hope you are all having a fabulous week.