Sunday Funday and a few knobs

Hello! How are you all doing? Hope you have been enjoying the freaky heatwave we have had.  The weather is looking a bit dodgy for the weekend which is rubbish.

On Sunday instead of shopping at the boot sale I actually got my crap together and did some selling in the declutter 'sell our house' misson.  It was very therapeutic to get rid of so much stuff and as the weather was fabulous I had lots of buyers!  I've still go enough stuff indoors though for about another 100 boot sales so going to hopefully do another one soon.

Being stuck on the stall meant I didn't get to overhear much of the good stuff but i did get one particularly creepy buyer. A middle aged man wearing a dirty anorak in the hot sun bought a pair of my peep toe shoes making sure 'they had been worn' along with a Ministry of sound exercise dvd.  I shuddered with a vision of him sniffing my shoes while watching girls get sweaty on screen *blugh* But hey a sale is a sale ;o)

I also went to a 20th Anniversary Sunflower Fete at the St Michael's Hospice here in my home town.  Its a charity close to my heart as my dad was in the hospice for a little while before he died.  As a fundraiser they had a Sunflower 'in memory' appeal whereby you could make a donation to have a wooden painted sunflower planted in the hospice gardens in memory of a loved one.

We've had a little sunflower put in the garden for my dad.

And of course it wouldn't be a great British fete without the power of the morris dance:

They were so dynamic they had to surround the performance space with an orange plastic barrier ;o)

So i didn't get to buy any booty items to show you all but i did pick up a pressie for a friend of mine who has everything:

You cant go wrong with a quintessential great British knob for the jubilee weekend ;o)  It does say on the back however that size of knobs may vary - such is life!

Don't even get my started on on the smutty puns my husband has come out with regarding eating said humbugs...

Righto I better see what you all have been up to.

Have a fabulous bank holiday weekend.

Big Love

Back!

Hello my lovelies!


Sorry for my impromptu break from blogland, I haven't forgotten you all but had a couple of weeks feeling unblogworthy. I haven't been to the boot sales due to the crappy weather and the charity shops have had not a sausage worthy having. I also haven't had any time to do anything crafty so felt like I didn't have much to blog about.  I also wouldnt want blogging to become a chore.


A week in the Isle of Wight has sorted me out though, we got back yesterday and the break was much needed. Not to mention that the charity shops on the Isle of Wight are blooming brilliant! Gone were the pretentious displays of arty farty new goods, there were just selves full of goodies piled up everywhere, ideal for the rummaging urge :o)


Due to lack of space in the car I was unable to bring back all the stuff I would have loved to rehome (not to mention the fact I am on a declutter mission which has halted my buying prowess). I did however manage to sneak two items in:

Vintage leather Gladstone style doctors bag - £3

Pretty silver plated teaspoons x 6 - £1.99.


Well a short post from me, I will hopefully try and get back into posting at least once a week.  I will also of course be doing the rounds to catch up with you all.


Big Love

Talking of Balls...

So its Monday  - one of the crappiest days of the week in my opinion but a little bit of laughter sunshine has come my way all thanks to Amazon and this product:

As you know Amazon is a great tool for getting some honest reviews on products before you shell out your hard earned cash therefore I advise your man folk to read the reviews on this product before buying - for example:

"DO NOT PUT ON KNOB AND BOLLOCKS, 24 Jan 2012
Being a loose cannon who does not play by the rules the first thing I did was ignore the warning and smear this all over my knob and bollocks. The bollocks I knew and loved are gone now. In their place is a maroon coloured bag of agony which sends stabs of pain up my body every time it grazes against my thigh or an article of clothing. I am suffering so that you don't have to. Heed my lesson. DO NOT PUT ON KNOB AND BOLLOCKS.

(I am giving this product a 5 because despite the fact that I think my bollocks might fall off, they are now completely hairless.) "

"3.0 out of 5 stars LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION, 17 April 2012
I like the clean shaven look down in my gentleman's log cabin, so for the past few years I've used a shaver. However the hair keeps growing back which means every 6 months I have to spend 20 minutes trimming again. As I'm sure you've realise this is valuable time I cannot waste. So I decided to get to the root of the problem and purchased this product.

Probably the first thing you will notice after using this product is the pain. Although as a man I lack the required experience, I'm going to estimate that using this product is at least eleven times more painful than childbirth.
Imagine sticking a rusty razor blade into your favourite eye, before tying your hands behind your back. Then imagine that you use the entrenched razor blade to slice open a raw onion. All the while being butt naked. This product is slightly more painful than that.

However if we ignore the blinding, crippling and debilitating pain I should point out that this product is remarkably effective. Before, all manner of organisms great and small lived down there, now nothing can grow; not even on a cellular level. Sadly this includes my genitalia; I've spent the last four hours staring fixedly at Carol Vorderman's arse, all to no avail. My tinkywinkleton hasn't even so much as perked up, so if my review seems a bit harsh, it's only because I wanted children"

"Not since Steve McQueen entered the 'Towering Inferno' has a human object burnt so intensely.
I applied the cream to my spuds and within 24 seconds my orbs were throbbing.
Imagine being dragged naked down the autobahn in Germany behind an F1 car. That is exactly how my seed sack felt.
On the plus side, my nuts are totally foliage-free. On the down side Ill never be a Father."

"5.0 out of 5 stars Do not put on back passage
As a 24 year old male I suffer from having an incredibly hair anal passage, one could possibly argue that there there is probably more hair on this region of my body than my armpits.

A word of warning though people, PLEASE DO NOT Veet for men on your anus. I did this myself and learned the hard way.

Using veet for men has ruined my life, and I now can only walk with the aid of a walking stick.

It was a Monday evening and I was fed up of my anal bush, so I decided to take evasive action.
Before long my entire butt hole was plastered in the stuff. I thought everything was ok until I thought I could smell smoke, I frantically ran into the kitchen in case I had accidentally left the hob on, but to my horror I caught my naked reflection in the mirror and the smoke seemed to be coming from my arse.
I ran the tap until the sink was full and sat in it crying and sobbing from excruciating the pain, I then limped sheepishly into the bathroom to have a proper look and yes, it had worked, my anal bush was gone!

So yes Veet for men did everything it said it would do, but just to pre-warn any of you folk who suffer from an unusually hairy back passage, I would stick to scissors in the future"

"Nuts Like Marbles, 22 April 2012
In vain I tried to get my pebble sack to be completely hair free. No matter what I did there was always a hint of stubble down there that itched my nadger bag and would frequently snag on my shorts! You cannot imagine the looks I would get when I would pop my hand down there whilst loosening myself up or having a scratch. It's as if people have never seen a teacher with their hands down their pants in work!
So there I was squatting over a belt sander, stonks just inches from the whizzing power tool, when I was suddenly made aware by everyone in B&Q that there was a solution! Veet for Men!
So off I went, purchased a tube and slapped it on like I was icing a cake and at first all was well. But soon after, by golly gee willikers, I felt like I had just tea bagged a barbecue! I can never listen to Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire again without tears forming! However, after giving them a thorough hosing down I was immensely surprised to find not a single hair left! Smooth as a freshly polished otter and as slippery as a tabloid editor!
I cannot tell you the relief of having my cargo rolling loose around my undercrackers. The sense of freedom is astonishing. The pain only lasted a couple of weeks and I was only in the burns unit for a few days!"

If you fancy a good old laugh then check out the rest of the reviews HERE

I'm wondering if I should get hubby a tube for this birthday...

Big Love

Saturday Song #2

Saturday again! Can you believe how April is flying by?  I'm still trying to get my head around the new blogger format.

Today's song is by 'The Cat Empire' who I discovered on my backpacking adventures through Australia for what seems like many moons ago.

This song never fails to make me feel happy. You know that song you have that evokes memories, this is the one for me. This was my care free years - no job, house or children, just me, hubby (before marriage) two bags of clothes and a lonely planet guide :o)

I have adored this band ever since I saw them play a free gig at a Jazz festival at Darling Harbour in Sydney. The atmosphere was crazy good. The band played on a floating stage on the harbour surrounded by water. When this song was played the lads in front of me stripped off their clothes, ran through the few rows of people in front of us, dived into the water and started swimming towards the stage. The crowd were cheering them on to reach the platform before the security rescue boat hauled them in, one lad made it to the side of the stage but then tried pulling himself up on an electric cable.  The boat pulled them all in (boos rang out from the crowd) and the band had to announce the danger of such action and the voltage going through the cables...the next song start and so did the people jumping in the water :o)

You know a band is amazing when their fans are willing to fry themselves for a good tune.


I'll leave the description of their music to the band themselves:

"Where hip-hop meets reggae, where jazz is played with dirty hands, where a Cuban line meets an Aussie rule, where nothing seems in place but sounds like many places played in one earthy chord. This is the island where THE CAT EMPIRE was born. (Written by the band in 2001)"

 What is your happy memory song is?

Big love

Saturday Song

Its Saturday so there is no better reason to share some of my favourite tracks.

 Today its the queen of Rockabilly - Wanda Jackson.  This is one of my all time favourite songs and if I could sing this would so be my karaoke track.

Did I mention its great for those "Pissed off" moments too ;o)

Enjoy and let me know what you think

Big Love

Crafty moment

This week I managed to get my crafty arse on.  I am a complete hoarder of reusable shopping bags/totes. They are located in numerous places around my house and I'm never without one for my car booting/charity shop outings.

So it was time to pretty up my boring supermarket Jute bag with a bit of Cath Kidston fabric I've have knocking about for ages awaiting a good use...

Cue a bit of kitsch bowage ;o)

Bit better than before and I managed to cover the crappy supermarket logo:

The funny thing is that since I've made it I've had a couple of people putting orders in for one.  Here comes my dragons den business plan and my first million.... ;o)

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend.

Big Love

Easter Anniversary

Happy Easter to you all my lovelies! I hope you are all round bellied from all the yummy chocolate eggs and good Easter food ;o)

So today is not just an Easter celebration for me, its also my 3 year wedding anniversary to hubby.  We took a little trip today to this not so shabby place:

Anyone recognise it from a popular TV programme? 

Yes its Highclere Castle made famous recently because of a  certain 'Downton Abbey' TV show ;o)

There was a charity Easter egg hunt today in the grounds with lots of crafty stalls and side show games.  I'm a sucker for a tombola and came away with a stuffed cat toy (I will not make you all shudder with a picture of said cuddly toy - however Finley loves it).

The castle really is beautiful and its not far from my home town so I think another visit will be needed to really take it all in.


So before I go I have to say a huge happy anniversary to my lovely (and very accepting of my tat buying tenancies) hubby. I know on my last years wedding anniversary post a couple of you asked for more weddings pics so here's a couple more:

Hubby looking overly surprised at the camera in his face.

And I cant leave you without a cheesy smooch one:

Eek enough of the soppy pictures. Hope you have all had a fabulous Easter weekend.

Big Love

Sunshine Shopping

Hello my lovelies!  What a beautiful week of sunshine we have had.  Sorry I have been absent again from blogland I've spent most of my week out of home in the sunshine (had a week off work)  - maybe I'm becoming a bad weather blogger ;o)

So its coming up to Easter which means one thing - boot sale season kicks off - hoorah! I'm very excited about this as the local all year one here has been bloody rubbish. The only thing worth checking out was this amazing Duce Coupe:

It's called Cherry Blossom and has "Cherry Blossom" stitched across the interior seats - a real bad ass girl hot rod, I dream to own one, although not sure where the child seat will fit ;o)

I also discovered a little gem of a place in Newbury called the "Clothes Warehouse". It is basically a huge barn filled to the brim with second hand clothes. They call it a clothing recycling centre, but after chatting to a lady who works there I found out that they actually pay to empty the charity clothing bins you see around and they then sort and sell on the clothes. There was so much vintage there:

 However I didn't know if I felt easy at first with the fact that people had donated their clothing to these charity bins thinking they are going direct to the charity. They are probably completely unaware that a company actually buys the items by the bag load and sells them on for a profit. 

 But then again its not so different as us buying clothing from jumbles and charity shop and selling it on eBay for a profit, so I got stuck in! What do you think about it?

Also Newbury boasts 12 charity shops! How have I not been shopping in this town before?  The best had to be this little Salvation Army charity shop with a fabulous location on the river:

It was hidden down an alley but what a treat. The ladies who worked there were so lovely, telling me they were the cheapest charity shop in Newbury and they weren't wrong. I didn't see an item of clothing in there priced over £2.50.

I haven't had a chance to photo any of my latest buys but hopefully I'll get my arse into gear and get my blogging mojo back on track.

I'll be doing my rounds to catch up with you all over this week :o)  I've missed you!

Big Love

How great thou art.

Hmmmm what should I talk about today?.....

Hows about ELVIS!

I went to the 2012 Elvis in concert tour at Wembley on Saturday night and it was bloody brilliant.  For those who haven't heard of the tour it basically is a video projected Elvis (footage from his shows) singing with the original former band mates playing live on stage.  Those musicians are no spring chickens now by my god they can sing/play.

In his lifetime Elvis only ever toured in America and Canada, a world tour was an unrequited dream for him (and us his fans) so this tour is doing for Elvis what he never got to do while he was alive.

It was a fabulous night of great music but even better was the atmosphere, thousands of Elvis fans under one roof!

There is nothing better than people watching at an Elvis gig. There were 70 year olds wearing head to toe '68 special' leather, women adorned with pictures of the King, teddy boys, rockabilly gals and lots and lots of dyed black quiffs! 

So to all of those I had a chat to on Saturday night that may have found there way here - a huge hello, thanks for making it a brilliant and beautifully eccentric evening.

Big Love and Long Live the King!

Back from the dead!

Hello all! Have you missed me? ;o) 

Sorry I've been away from blogland for a little bit, been blooming crazy in "real" life the last few weeks. I seriously want to kick natures butt for the "viral gastroenteritis" bug, its not only got my son twice but also me!  There is only so much puke I can deal with and I'm sure I've had my share now for 2012.  So enough of the grim stuff, how are you all doing? I'll be making my way around all your blogs to catch up over the weekend :o)

I've really got to get back into the swing of things with taking pictures of my thrifty adventures so for now I'll just leave you with this which gave me a belly laugh in a vintage shop in Brighton:

Honest gov i didn't lay a finger on it! (I'm not convinced however that others have followed the rules...)



Big Love to you all!

Treats for me this week

Well my lovelies its time to share my finds from last week.

First I need to thank the wonderful Loo for sending me this awesome sugar skull felt brooch:

Its a beaut! I'm a total nut for sugar skulls.  It also came wrapped in a red hair scarf, which has also had an outing.  Thanks Loo, love them!

I found this vintage fruit bowl and dessert dishes at the boot sale:

They were a bargain for £1.50 the set and had come from the sellers late grandmother.

And yes I'm guilty of buying another one of these bad boys (number 4!):

Who'd have thought I'd find two Fortnum and Mason hampers in the last two weeks! This was haggled down to £4, the seller was a hard nut to crack ;o)

Bird tile coasters - £2.00 from the charity shop.

Now you know I love my kitsch-tastic deer, check out these two beauties:

Not one but TWO Hornsea Fauna deer double vases!  I've wanted some of these for ages but every time any come into the charity shops near me they put a stupid price tag on them. So I was excited to see them at the boot sale, they were however on a 'collectors' stall so I knew I wasn't going to get lucky with a cheap as chips price. I got my haggle hat on again and managed to sweet talk these down to £3 each.

Now its that time of the week for....

Witnessed at a Boot Sale

While queueing to get into the boot sale (yup we have to queue before 11am) the middle aged woman in front of me opened her purse to get her 50p entrance fee and out flew a tube of Canesten thrush cream.  Picking it up from the floor I heard her say to her mate "Ooh that reminds me to get another tube of this, I'll be 'aving to nip to the loo for a scratch".

A rusty old racing bicycle marked up at £200 - i don't know about you but I always carry £200 to the boot sale...

And my favourite stall of the day was a couple who had packed up all their crap into baskets and tried palming them off as "Hampers" for £8 a pop.  It will not surprise you that their stall was still full when I left.

That's all from me folks, will be doing my rounds catching up with you all so make sure you have the kettle on and a slice of cake waiting for me :o)

Big Love

Linking to nifty-thrifty-tuesday

Hows about this then?

Now you know I believe that charity shops are a one-stop shop for everything, and I know its hard to beat the Tampax find but oh my, I found something way more exciting..

....A Mexican mariachi hat/sombrero! But don't be confused, this isn't just any mariachi hat , oh no....

....according to our charity shop its Elton John's Mariachi hat!

I'm not sure what provenance the old dears had, but I do think someone needs to stop Doris in the stock room adding the Sherry to her morning tea ;o)

Had it been cheaper, I'd have danced out the shop wearing it though, it was blooming amazing!

I've also had a good week for thrifting so will be back to blog about these! I can see you are all on the edge of your seats ;o)

Have a fabulous weekend all!

Photo-gate update

Morning all! Thanks for all your comments on my last post regarding the whole 'exceeding photo limits'. Well I was about to put up the cash to add extra storage but thought i'd check the terms of Picasa.

Blogger automatically uses Picasa to store any photos you upload onto your blog and there is a maximum storage limt of 1GB. HOWEVER... if you make your photos up to a maximum 800 x 800 pixels then the storage of these is free and does not go towards your storage limit! Therefore save all your pictures as small on your computer making sure their size is not over the 800 pixels and you get the storage free - mwahahaha!

So it looks like my credit card is staying in my wallet for the time being with my little loop hole - Scarlett 1 Picasa 0.

But.. blogger is now being a HUGE arse and not letting me use the updated editor for posts. It just has the little whirl symbol and nothing else and it wont let me type, grrr! So im using the old editor which takes an age to do anything. Anyone else having the same problem with updated editor? I tried using Chrome instead, ive cleared cookies etc but still not playing ball.

Come on Blogger sort it out!

Big love as always

What no pictures?

Blogger has decided that its had enough of my charity shop picture taking exploits and has now slapped on a photo ban - I have apparently "Exceeded my photo limit".

I've been into Picasa web albums (where blogger saves all our pictures) and have resized some photos to make room but its still having none of it. So it seems therefore that I need to pay $5 annual subscription to obtain more storage.

So my lovely blogging buddies I need a bit of advise, have any of you paid to upgrade your storage? Im a bit dubious about putting in my card details for this. Have any of you found a way around paying this subscription?

Hopefully normal blogging will resume shortly :o)

Back on the wagon

So after me moaning a couple of posts ago about having found nothing for weeks in the charity shops/boot sales, the drought is finally over. 

So here are this weeks charity shop finds:

 Art Deco 'Lawleys of Regent Street' milk jug

Found for the bargain price of £1.

Vintage dress - on the sale rail for £1. Love the pattern on this:

Now you know I'm a sucker for a bit of wicker and its been a while since I've fed my hamper addiction...

Yup found myself another Fortnum and Mason hamper! These are rare finds in these parts so this was bought in a 'posh town' charity shop for the grand sum of £4.  It currently lives on top of my other 2 F&M hampers (I'm soon to be enrolled in a wicker anonymous group) :

But they are ideal for hiding all these bits of brightly coloured plastic often found underfoot otherwise known as Finley's Toys.  I did laugh in the charity shop when the lady behind the till commented  "Such a shame they had to put that black paint on top of the hamper".

Hand embroidered vintage table cloth - 99p.

A tongue in cheek valentines gift for hubby:

Vintage paisley dressing gown to bring out the Hugh Hefner in him, haha! Paid £2.50 for this so couldn't stretch to cover the cost of a couple of bunny girls.

I also went to the first jumble sale of the year on Saturday. The queue was a mile long and everyone looked pissed off even before they got in the hall so I knew it was going to be cut throat as soon as those doors were opened. Well I wasn't wrong - elbows was sharp and tongues even sharper, it was each woman for herself and the tables stripped bare before my eyes.

I only managed to get out with two things (but beautiful ones!):

Vintage 1950s (?) dress - 20p!

Gold 1960s/70s handbag with matching purse - 50p.

So lets hope the thrifty finds continue...

Now before I go, I have to thank Miss Simmonds and Twinkle Star for awarding me the Versatile Blogger award. Thanks so much ladies.  If you haven't checked out their fabulous blogs yet make sure you hop over, you wont be disappointed :o)


Big love to you all

Linking to thrifty-things-friday and vintage-thingie-thursday