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

A bit of Love

Happy Valentine day to you all. Hope those of you who go for the whole day of romance thing have been truly spoiled by your love.

I went for a walk along the Southsea beach and saw this little beach kiosk which is shut for the season but someone has made use of the blackboards outside:

Made me smile.

I think my local charity shop must have caught wind of my love for their crazy window displays and they did a special valentines one for me:

Oh yes a display of Elvis donations! :o)

Hubby also left me a little Valentines gift this morning  - covered by red heart balloons, cheesy yes but made me laugh. My gift was a silver charm for my Pandora bracelet.


And a little overheard conversation this morning in the newsagents -  A man in his early 30s buying a rose and a bottle on wine:
Shop Assistant: Last minute Valentines gift is it?
Man: "Oh no, I booked a fancy hotel for us both in France last weekend"
Shop Assistant "Ooh lovely, was it a nice trip?"
Man: "No, forgot me passport didn't I, we ended up having to spend the weekend in a grotty B&B in Dover"


Finally for those who cant stand the whole Valentines thing :

Source

Big Love to you all

Happy Blogiversary to me!

I'm a few days late with this post, but who cares...its my 1 year blogiversary!

I really cant get over how quickly this year has flown. I started the blog during my maternity leave as a way to occupy myself during nap times  (not to mention as an avoidance of doing housework). I never thought when I started it that anyone would be interested in my ramblings, or that anyone would be as nutty as me about car boot sales and charity shops - well girls you certainly proved me wrong!

 I have made such amazing friends in you all, from those who have been with me since the early days to my newer friends, you really have made blogging such a pleasure.  I would also like to thank you all for inspiring me everyday, be it through your fabulous fashion and styling, your crafty makes, your life stories and observations, beautiful photography or your wise words. Blogland is bloomin' amazing!

Now to celebrate my 1 year blogiversary I will be having a giveaway shortly (now wishing I had bought that box of Tampax and stunt kite from my previous post *wink*).  Keep your eyes peeled :o)

Now I cant leave you without the latest charity shop window display for valentines day, full of all the items you would love to receive from your Valentine:

 Oh yes, it wouldn't be valentines day without a stuffed devil toy, a kinky nurses uniform, bubble bath, aftershave and....

A penis shaped bath bomb! Words fail me..

I hope this has given you all a few ideas for valentines *wink*

Big Love

The lost art of thrifting...

...well it seems to be a lost art for me at the moment. So far In the last two weeks Ive visited 2 boot sales and numerous charity shops and there is not a sausage to be found. Seriously dire situation in my town on the whole vintage front.  I even took it upon myself to visit some out of town chazza shops but my god the prices in there were enough to send anyone running to the nearest Primark just to see something labelled at £1.  I can not see how they could justify selling tatty faux leather handbags for £29.99 and even worse those little plastic tote bags you get free with magazines for £15!

The only thing I have seen which I was strangely drawn to was this old weighing scale:

Marked up at £25.  It was huge, I could easily fit my son on there with room to spare. I did go back in the shop a couple of days later to drop off some donations and the scale has gone - someone obviously liked it as much as i did.

Now never let it be said that there are some things you will never find in a charity shop as I'm sure at one time of another they will find their way through the stock room sorters hands and onto the shelf. In my time i have seen many a funny item including a Battery Operated "back" massager (yes this is what it was labelled up as) - I only wished I had been witness to seeing the silver haired stock room ladies trying to work out what it was for!  Last weeks surprise charity shop item was:

Tampax! The charity shop really is a one stop shop for all.  And I know you are all eyeing up the delightful wooden tea light holder, silver wine rack and stunt kite, what more could you want ;o)

Although there are no booty buys this week, I did get to enjoy the usual delights of the human race. Its been long overdue....

Witnessed at a Boot Sale

A very large woman on a mobility scooter complaining how no one was moving out the way for her to get through, "Its not like i can bloody walk like the rest of these, is it?", so you can imagine my amusement at witnessing this poor woman who cant walk suddenly leap up from the scooter and hot foot it across the tarmac to a stall advertising a 'Fill a bag for £1'.

Male Customer : "How much for the face cream love?"
Stallholder: "£1.50, its a brand new moisturiser which we've not opened".
The man then opens the lid and sticks his little finger in the pot, then puts it back on the stall and walks away.

A young man running a stall talking on his mobile "I really hope she don't go into labour today... I got to sell all this crap so I can get some funds to buy the beers mate, and I promised Barry a game of pool...yeah not got time to get up the hospital, things to do..."

Happy Friday all! Hope you all have a fabulous weekend and may there be no snow troubles.

Big Love