Season of Good Will

Operation declutter chez Scarlett has gone into full force.  Last weekend I took 6 bin bags of clothes and clutter to the charity shop (please take note gods of thrift - I'm expecting some great charity shop karma now).  Finley's toy have also been culled in the lead up to the influx of new bits of plastic on the 25th.  I not sure who is doing the favour to who here...I may soon be banned for donating my tat ;o)

I am also being very restrained in what I'm bringing back to the home therefore no boot sale for me last weekend and only a quick look in two charity shops.  I am finding it a bit strange however to see my donations on the rails in the shop with price tags on, but the homestead is getting a bit more organised which is the main thing.

I'm not the only one to have got into the 'good will' this season - our secret santa at work has been decided, and the theme this year is '£5 gift from a charity shop'  and I didn't even suggest it!  I'm very much looking forward to seeing what everyone gets given....and knowing that certain people will have to actually visit a charity shop.

So I haven't been able to completely resist the thrifty buying last weekend but two crimbo items instead of a bag full is a good start to curbing my habit.

I saw this little wooden crate in the window...

 I asked the lady at the counter is I could have a peek inside...

 ...and there were these super cute kitschy 'handblown' glass ornaments. This according to the paperwork inside it is the 'Night before Christmas' collection.  They only wanted £3 for these in the hospice shop.

In the next charity shop along and saw another little box of Christmas magic:

 Spoons!! Now I really didn't know that I would need crimbo spoons until I saw these ;o)

Bit of fun for £2.

I did also notice that the charity shops are filling up with new bits, so its not just me on operation declutter.  I'm also loving the crimbo marketing technique of this particular charity shop in which they are wrapping up pretty much all the "nearly new" donations in cellophane and putting a bit of curled plastic ribbon on and marking it as "The perfect gift this Christmas"...some people will be a little disappointed this Christmas with the 4 year old M&S bath foam and talc collection in tatty box.  Good on them for shifting it all though.

Hope you all are having a fab week so far.

Big Love

Birthday Love

Its December - whats going on? I really cant believe we are weeks away from Christmas!  But before I start on my crimbo posts, as promised I would show a few of my birthday gifts - these ones are extra special as they are from my beautiful blog buddies.

Lovely Lakota obviously knew that I needed some distraction for the lure of the iPhone with....

Hell yeah - Elvis jigsaw!  Now at my age I'm ready to take on a 1000 piecer ;o) She also sent me an awesome swallow necklace and pin up girly badge (on my bag at time of photo).  Brill thank you Lakota :o)

 

Beautiful Clutter's Jem sent me a fabulous leather photo keyring...

 

...and Rosie Lee brooch, I'm a sucker for anything teacup shaped :o)  Love them both thanks Jem.

Super talented Susan sent me an amazing cross-stitched ring which she has made (and which I was eyeing up on her blog!)

Along with a tea-towel that pretty much sums up my hubby's thoughts:

Hehehe - he wishes I would get my butt in that kitchen and cook!  Love it, thank you Susan :o)

Now ok, there is a little bit of Christmas in this post all thanks to the fabulous Loo xx who sent me the best crimbo decoration ever...

Christmas Flamingo!!! How amazing is this bird! He is going to be put out of reach of little fingers.  There was also an extra bit of birthday cheer with this card bear kit:

Thanks Loo :o)

A big thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes on my last post too, maybe next year I'll be lucky enough to get an electric pussy too ;o) Mwahaha.

Right its about time I had a blog catch up with you all so be 'seeing' you all soon...

Big Love

One reason to visit a charity shop...

Thank you my lovelies all for the happy birthday wishes. I had a fabulous day out in Brighton and I received some beautiful presents (to be blogged about soon). 

While in Brighton I did spy a charity shop sign I had to share:

Well it would be rude not to.... *wink*

Hope you are all having a fabulous week

Big Love

Back to the booty

After a couple of weeks without my boot sale fix I was starting to get twitchy so it was only right that I headed off to the boot sale this morning.  I don't think I was alone in this thought as every man and his dog turned up today, it was bedlam!

Now I'm trying to be a bit more 'selective' in what I'm bringing home as I need to begin the declutterthon so we can get out house on the market, i cant say its been easy but today I was very restrained and only purchased a couple of bits:

Large silver plated candle sticks. I'm been after some of these for a while as I love big church candles and these are the perfect size for them. I bagged them for £2 the pair.

 1960's First Aid tin. This comes complete with all its original unopened contents:

I love the '1963 shops, office and railway first aid instructions' in the lid too.  Obviously there weren't many accidents where this tin was kept!  All mine for £1.

Vintage glass sweet jar - 50p

Vintage vanity jar and candle sticks - £2 the set.

Needle craft trinket jar - 20p. This was such good value that I bought the lot:

Now to get my cross stitch mojo on and make some cute chrimbo gifts with these :o)

So that's my buys, what about a little:

Witnessed at a Boot Sale:

The booty I go to is not too far from an army town so there is a large Gurkha population which visit the boot sale. The Gurkha's are amazing at haggling, i should be taking notes from them as they get things for crazy prices. Today however one family took it a bit far by pulling out a blanket and setting up a stall at the end of a row of all the items they had just bought! Not only making a profit they also got away with not paying for a pitch!

I was also informed today that a Fisher Price castle was "Vintage" as it was from 1992, lol! I may be a year older tomorrow but now feeling positively ancient! ;o)

A Polish couple inspecting a king size bedspread. They decided to unravel it and stretch it out...they did this across the whole front of the sellers stall and then proceeded to have a heated conversation with bedspread stretched out. While they conversed no one could get a look at the stall and I could see the seller getting redder and redder as people kept walking by!  The couple then decided they didn't want the bedspread after all.

Hope you have all had a fabulous weekend, my chickadees :o)

Big Love

Early Birthday pressie to me :o)

Hello all my beautiful blog buddies. Sorry I haven't been around much this last week.  My little boy has been very poorly with a throat, ear and chest infection. He also picked up a sickness bug which has resulted in lots of dirty clothes and a sofa covered in sick - you wont see that in Ideal home magazine!

So this weeks been a bit of a write-off, work has been mega busy and there's been so much to do at home that I've not had a chance to sniff out the charity shop gems.  I did however decide to get myself an early birthday pressie...

Yes I succumbed to getting an iPhone 4S. My old mobile was on its last legs so decided to join the techno revolution.  Like a balding male buying a sports car during a mid-life crisis, I've banished my getting older blues by getting teched up ;o)

I will also now have even less time to consider doing any house work - mwahaha! 

I hope you are all well. I've got a whole lot of blog hopping to do now to catch up with you all :o) 

Big Love

The toys are back in town

I'm a nostalgic 80s child.  If I see a toy from my childhood when I'm a thrifting then I find it very difficult not to take it home. Since having my son I find that he is a great excuse for buying these toys of my youth (even if they are way over his age group or toys which I hubby would cringe at him playing with).

The extra bonus of being "a grown up" is that I can now buy the items my parents refused buy.  One such toy I really wanted thanks to the advertisers was 'Rub-a-Dub Doggie'.  My mum refused to buy it for me, however my wait for this toy was over this weekend when I saw his cheeky face in a box at the boot sale:

Now he doesn't look like much but check out this 80's TV advert for this bath time buddy:

I thought this was amazing when I was was a nipper. I must admit nostalgia has got in the way and in reality he is just a plastic dog with a lever on the back which you move to shake his head - a pretty rubbish toy but nearly 30 years on my son loves him in the bath. Well worth the £1 I paid for the trip down memory lane and the sight of a 15 month old squealing with laughter in the tub.

While we are talking 80s toys hows about every budding designers dream toy:

Fashion wheel!  I used to adore this (yes mum and dad gave in to my demands on this one).  So hands up who also had one of these?

There was nothing better than rubbing the black crayon over the selected outfit creations and then colouring it in while trying to keep between the lines.

I would lose hours playing with this toy, just the cutting with the blunt safety sissors was time consuming enough.  My original fashion wheel was donated to a school fete when my love affair with it ended.  It was therefore only right to buy this boxes fashion wheel for £1 when I saw it at the booty...and yes its just as great as I remember.

Did you ever want a toy as a child that your parents would buy?

Big love to you all, and i'll be taking a trip round all your beautiful blogs

This week I bought....

Hello my lovelies, Sorry I havent been around much in blogland this week, life has got in the way and its been a busy week.  So for my favourite thing on Friday this week it will have to be car booting!  If you been following me for a while you know my love of the car boots for providing me with the treasures and tack that I adore.  Here is a couple of my buys from the booty last Sunday and I'll start with my favourite:

 I found these tack-tastic plastic flowers in amongst a table full of crap at the boot sale. I was even more excited when i spotted the plug attached to them. Yes ladies these plastic blooms light up...

Hehe I blooming adore them! Hubby hates them which makes me

love them all the more ;o)  My plastic fantastic flowers cost me £1 and the pink spotty jug was on the reduced shelf in Sainsburys reduced to £2.66.

 Brand new cross stitch kits - £1 each.

 Faux fur collar - 50p.

 Wool - £1 (I have bought myself a knitting loom which I will have to show you all in another post).

I did buy a few more booty bits but I haven't photographed them yet so hows about a couple of charity shop buys?

 We we driving through Kingston yesterday and I spied some charity shops. Never one to turn away from exploring new charity shop turf, I asked hubby to pull over so I could run into Oxfam.  Now I didnt have time to have a proper rummage but I did pick up two items:

Cookie Cutters (thanks to Lakota and her cookie cutter collection, I felt the urge to join in the biscuit making revolution).  These are a cute little set of Christmas, Easter, Halloween and valentines day metal cutters. I now just need to find a fool proof cookie recipe.  These cost £2.99 - thanks Oxfam.

I have also been getting into the festive mood. Very unlike me as I normally wait till after my birthday this month to start preparing but this year I have already started the crimbo shopping and so when I saw baubles I thought hell yes, going to have me some of those:

Having visited Waterford Crystal on my last visit to Ireland I knew how expensive these bad boys would be to buy.  So seeing these Waterford glass "12 days of Christmas limited edition holiday heirloom collection" baubles (try saying that after a couple of crimbo tipples), brand new in box for £4.99 I treated myself. I will however have to hang these towards the top of the tree to stop little hands pulling on them ;o)

So its bonfire weekend this weekend, what are you all doing for it?  We have a Mayors Fireworks display here but they have put the prices up so much that I think we might have to give it a miss and maybe gatecrash some ones firework party (or stand in my mums garden to watch them as she is right next to the park!).

What ever you are up to this weekend make sure you have a fabulous time.

Big Love

Linking to the fabulous mimi and tilly