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

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

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

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

Fancy that!

I took a quick visit to a one of my favourite charity shops today and was amused to find two elderly ladies tutting at a window display full of fancy dress costumes.  At first I thought that someone with a serious dress up fetish had donated their collection of outfits for the love of charity, until on further inspection I realised that this charity shop has set up a fancy dress hire service!

This service is going to up and running in a couple of weeks and judging by the window display there is going to be a lot of  adult novelty fairytale character costumes in very unforgiving fabrics up for hire.  I'm not sure I would want to be hiring any of these after they are "worn".

My over active imagination also went to work leaving me giggling like a fool all the way round the shop thinking about the elderly charity shop helpers getting in on the action.

I'm sure till seat hogger Vera would look fabulous as wonder woman:

And of course Roy from the back room would be first to put dibs on Superman:

Illustrations by Donald Soffritti

And lets not forget sweet little Mavis, the ultimate clothes rail tidier:

   I will report more on this charity shop phenomena when the rails of fancy dress for hire are up and ready for me to peruse, I hope to have found my "maturity" by then, either that or take a big scarf to wrap round my head to stifle my guffaws.

Have a fabulous weekend all.

Scarlett x

Charity Shopping

It's my work free day so it is only right I used it to trawl the charity shops.  I made sure my little boy was suitable fed and watered to avoid tantrums mid clothes rail. The stock looked a little "weathered" and the calls from the back room to "make sure you are chucking a lot out" obviously means they had finally realised that no one wants that 4 year old bottle of bubble bath or indeed the ugly figurine of a tramp sitting on a park bench.

Dispite routing through a lot of crap oddments I did come home with a couple of bits. So here they are:

 Retro Juice jug and 6 glass

In fabulous condition and at a lovely price of £3 the set.

Vintage tea towels (quite a rare find in my local charity shop)

 Marked up at 50p each.

I couldn't come home without a little bit of china:

 'Sunbuff' Grays Pottery hand painted jug.  From a quick internet search probably dates from the 30s/40s. The price..£1. I also spied the matching sandwich plate on the shelf below:

 The plate was also £1. I love this design so am hoping who ever donated these might donate a few more bits (wishful thinking).

The last buy of the day was for the little man's nursery:

 Three little lighthouses - ideal to fit on those boat shelves I revamped.  I have seen these at my local boot sale week in and week out on the same stall marked up at £4 each - no chance. I picked these up for £1 the three.  Maybe the stallholder gave up and donated them instead :o)

Overheard in a charity shop

Voice from the stock room: "Mary you are going to have to pop to Asda for some more air freshener, you know that guy comes in on a Friday afternoon".

 (I think most of us at sometime have had the misfortune of a nasal encounter of that guy in the charity shop).

Have a fabulous weekend all. I've seen the weather forecast for my area on Sunday and looks to be a washout...better find an indoor car boot sale!  I will also have a catch up on all your lovely blogs, getting into the work/nursery/home life routine is still a bit in the air so still trying to squeeze in some quality laptop time.

Big Love

Scarlett x

Scarlett x

Chazza go go

So the charity shop prices have been on the up the last few weeks and I got quite acquainted with the same tat on the shelves week in week out.  There have however been a couple of fresh treasures that have come home with me.

These are my charity shop finds this week:

 I saw a couple of good looking birds in the charity shop

....i knew I just had to take this vintage glass juice jug home!  Not bad for £1.50 :o)

 

Queen Anne rose design sandwich plate - £1.

I was excited when I spotted this granny blanket:

I have been after a more nautical coloured one for the little man's nursery as most of the ones I've seen recently have been pinky colours and also priced at stupidly high amounts.  I wasn't the only one enamoured by this and was stalked around the shop by a middle aged suited lady who was sending out clear "put down the blanket vibes"  no chance sweetheart at £3 this blanket was mine! 

 A 1960's Bohemia glass bud vase complete with original label. This was found in the most expensive charity shop in my area, i usually go and have a look but rarely buy but when I saw this marked up at 50p I couldn't believe my luck.  I would like to thank the new girl for pricing this one :o)

 

I think I had Jem's eye for sparking glass when I saw this big breakable ball:

 

I was strangely drawn to this large glass bauble, its very tactile even hubby has had a feel ;o) So I had to buy it for £2.50 even without a clue to where I am going to display it.  It has silver elastic attached but to be honest its so heavy that the elastic is a full stretch when hanging! It is a beauty though so I'm sure I'll find the perfect spot.

Now a purchase from my new favourite charity shop in my town, that being the Barnardo's shop. They price things to sell and they always have new goodies. I saw this in the cabinet:

I wanted a mantle clock for a while and this was fancy enough for my mansion *wink*.  I asked the price...£3. It was out of the cabinet and wrapped up before anyone else could get a look in. I was pleasantly surprised when I got it home to find out that it was Laura Ashley - sweet :o) 

Now hows about a little...

Overheard in a Charity Shop

Two old ladies chatting in the stock room while a third is sorting through bags:

Lady 1: "Jean told me she saw a lovely golden knob at the weekend"

Lady2: "Really!" (Guffaw) "How exciting" (more tittering)

Lady 1: "I know she wont tell us anymore about the magnificent knob though, oh look she's going red"

Lady 3 is suitably crimson "Oh come on Anne, you knew what I meant"

Lady 1 and 2 burst out laughing at Jean's expense.

A tall elegant lady was trying on a jacket by the store mirror

CS Worker: "Ooh very nice, how about you take it to the changing room so you can admire yourself even more than you are"  (ooooh biatch!)

And I did chuckle to see the 'No more donations' sign up at the one charity shop here than never seems to sell anything...hows about getting rid of the year old tat?

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend :o)

Scarlett x

Linking to thrifty-things-friday

Elvis has entered the building....

Hello my lovelies - I'm back in action! Yee Haa!  I collected my laptop today from a very smiley chatty young man who sent me off with my repaired laptop and a wink for good measure - nice :o)

So let the blog catch up begin...

While I was on my break I received a little surprise parcel in the post from the gorgeous Madison, she had spotted something at the boot sale that she thought I would like. It came wrapped up in some lovely Cath Kidston paper (which unfortunately I lost the photo of with the tech problems) but inside was this gem:

Only an Elvis Russian doll!  She was worried that I would think it was tat - no chance I blooming love it!  Check out her post about this find Here. I have however had to rescue big Elvis from the jaws of my little man but Elvis was unharmed, little man however promptly had a tantrum (how dare i remove an object from his clutches). They now have pride of place out of reach of little hands.  Thank you so much Madison I love them :o)

I also managed of course to get myself to the charity shops and here is a couple of my finds:

Box full to the brim of sewing pattern, some really vintage others a bit more 80's chic - £2 for the whole lot :o)

Carnival house numbers (lucky I live at a number 28 hey!) - £1 each.

I spied a little Brixham Pottery bird vase...

 Now I do like a Blue Tit...

..but I also like the Great Tit, there is only one way to decide.....Buy a vase with both! This was £1.45 well spent.

I was having a rummage through a shelf of tat at the charity shop and found a little box

I opened it up...

...and found this lovely vintage faux pearl necklace

Its a beauty and for £2 was in my bag and out of the shop before you could say "How Much?"

Now its been long overdue for this little feature:

Overheard in a Charity Shop:

While perusing the clothing rails nearest to the till I saw a lady bring a floral summer dress to the till:

Customer: "Do you know this dress has one strap held on my a safety pin?"
CS: "Oh that's easily fixed just have to put a couple of stitches on there "
Customer: "But you are asking £6 for it!  I think that's a bit rich for a dress with a broken strap"
CS worker then looks at the dress label "Yes dear but this one is a Monsoon"
Customer: "Yes but it has a broken strap"
CS: "I know dear but it is a Monsoon dress"
Customer: "I think that's a bit cheeky asking that much for a damaged item"
CS: "I think its a bit cheeky you questioning a charity"
Customer left the dress and promptly left the shop, the cs worker then hung the dress complete with safety pin back on the dress rail...

Have a fabulous weekend all.

Scarlett x

A Post Of Thanks

Here is my little blog post of thanks.

Thanks to my lovely blog pal Jem of beautiful clutter fame for sending me a beautiful gift in the post:

I love the little cards and the wrapping...

Inside was a fabulous Stratton compact and 'Pow' a cute pin badge.  It now adorns my boot sale bag to 'POW' the sellers into giving me cheap stuff!  Love them both thanks Jem!

Thanks also to a fabulous blog pal Lakota of faith hope and charity shopping not only for organising an amazing blog swap but for sending me the cutest little pressie in the post:

Inside was this fabulous handmade anchor ring (of which I was eyeing up on her blog!)

I would like to thank the person who donated these two large and very old planters to the charity shop:

I bagged them on half price day for £4 the pair!

Thanks to the Fiskars' weed puller advertising team for this:

Having only seen the advert a thousand times I was forced to buy one....and I can confirm that it is in fact the BEST weed puller ever and a lot of fun to use (never will that be said from me again re weed pulling).

Thanks to Ikea for making the most fabulously crazy fabric...

...leaving me no option but to knock up this tote bag. Where else will you find a fabric printed with seaweed, strawberries and a squirrel busting a bird out of its cage. Positive comments have already been received on this bag in the supermarket...I'm awaiting an order to be placed by Tesco ;o).

Thanks to a vintage Pineapple crochet book for making me smile:

Everyone needs a gay evening bag if it makes you this happy!

And finally a MASSIVE thank you to all of you that follow my blog and for the all the lovely comments you leave on my posts.  I really have made some great pals and you all make blogging such a pleasure. I'm inspired everyday by your blogs.

Mucho love to you all

Scarlett x

Linking to thrilling-thursday

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