Scarlett loves granny bags!

Being a lover of all things vintage and of course anything 1940's or 1950's (I even had a 1940's style wedding - but that's another story) I of course am drawn to a lady's best friend - the humble handbag!  The older it is the better and I am a sucker for what my friends call 'The granny bag'. 

 Now a few years back you could pick up granny bags for pence in the charity shops as they were seen as being un-fashionable and dated, I of course pounced on them and got some really fabulous bags for no money at all. Now they have become sort after items so the chances of picking one up for little money is getting harder and harder. My local 'expensive' charity shop price tags these type of bags for £20 or more! No chance of me paying that.

I popped into town yesterday and decided to visit one of the 'chain store' charity shops, they have more new goods than they have second hand donated stock! But the visit paid of when I found a hot red vintage handbag:

I was thrilled to bits to find this as I haven't got a red bag in this style, and it was only marked up at £3.99!  She's now been named 'Ruby Sue' and will be having her first outing on my next evening out.

I've been quite lucky in the last few weeks (before I started blogging) with my vintage bag finds and they have tended to be found at boot sales, people selling their grandma's old bits and not realising that they have some fantastic stuff! So I thought i'd share a couple more of my 'granny' bags from my collection with you.

I tend to find that most vintage bags I see are Navy blue, there are two that I use quite often:

The top bag was bought in an out of town charity shop and cost me £2.50 - it was on half price offer as it had obviously been hanging around their shop for too long. The second bag was bought at a boot sale for the grand sum of 50p!!  You can't beat a bargain like that!

I bought this little brown box bag with mock croc details from a boot sale a couple of weeks back:

It cost a £1 and I've had so many compliments on it when I taken it out.  The final bag is not as old as the previous bags, maybe 70's/80's but its so quirky:

Its white weave design with a gold chain strap, one of the more unusual bags I've found and at £1.50 I snapped it up.  This was bought from a stall holder at a bootsale who laughed at it when I picked it up, I think I'm laughing now! hehe!

So heres to granny bags - may I be lucky enough to find many more (and maybe be fortunate to end up with a walk in wardrobe and bag room to display them all!).

Scarlett x

Car Boot Sale Booty!

Its Sunday and the heavens have opened - it has literally rained non stop today but even a bit of the wet stuff cant put me off the Sunday boot sale trip. I'm lucky that the boot sale I go to (when its not boot sale season) is in an undercover car park. However there is a top level which is outside and the poor sods that didn't get there early enough were having to sell their wears in the pouring rain on top of a cozy and dry car park! They must have been cursing the people who were selling like hot cakes in the lower level while all their own good were soaking wet - no one really is going to want to rummage through that cardboard box of sopping wet clothes while getting drenched themselves.

But it seems rain = fabulous finds for me! I have bought lots of lovely items today that I am pleased as punch to have found but I haven't had much time today to photograph them all so I've got enough to keep me going for a couple of blog entries yet!

The first find was a Royal Albert bone china telephone, the design is country roses and I just loved it as soon as I saw it on the stall.

It needs a good clean up but I've plugged it into the phone socket this evening and it works - hooray!  So chuffed at finding this and with a bit of haggling I picked it up for £4.

The next find today was this adorable children's book. I'm not sure of the age, no year date inside the book but I would have thought it was 1950s:

Its going to look lovely in my little boys nursery and cost me £1. Another bargain today was this cruet duo, as you know I'm a sucker for floral and these were so pretty that I snapped them up as soon as I zoomed in on them on the stall:

Would you believe that I paid £1.50 for the pair! Its the little things that make me smile :o)

That's all for tonight and I'll show the rest of my little treasure finds tomorrow, better charge up my camera battery lol!

Hope you all had a happy weekend and Happy Valentines Day for tomorrow :o)

Scarlett x

Bootsale Betty

Sunday is boot sale day - I love getting up on a Sunday morning and getting ready to hit the local car boot sale knowing that there is any number of lovely items to be had - plus you can haggle! Some Sundays I can go and find nothing and other days like today I can go and see so many items I come back with my shopping bags bulging.  Today's find which was love at first site is this Fortnum and Mason wicker hamper basket:

Its getting a new lease of life and storage in my bedroom. I couldn't believe my luck seeing this beauty! I also bought some beautiful floral print shabby chic curtains complete with pelmet and it came with matching bedspread and pillow cases all for the grand sum of £5! I haven't been able to photograph the curtain set as it is huge. I'm hoping to use the fabric for a project or it might end up on eBay if I cant find a use for it, I just couldn't leave it on the stall so either way it will have a new home. On the subject of eBay I am going to have to start listing some of my lovely finds as there is a lack of space in my home to cope with all the bargains. It will be sad to see some go but at least they will be going to fellow shabby chic lovers :o)

Ta ta for now

Scarlett Fontaine x

My name is Scarlett and I am a tea set addict...

Today was food shopping day so I bundled myself and my 6 month old son into the car to go to our local supermarket...the problem is that the supermarket just happens to be next to 2 charity shops - oops! I was very good in the fact I went straight into the supermarket and did the shopping and took it straight back to the car...but the charity shops winked at me and before I knew it i was caught in the charity shop tractor beam being taken across the car park and through the door...

I thought I'd only have a quick look but no sooner was I in the door then I spied the loveliest tea set in vintage pink rose, I couldn't leave it there so with my tea set addiction guiding me I bought it....well it was a steal at £5.99 for the whole lot!

 I now need to clear some space for the new additions to my home :o)

Well at least I am prepared if anyone drops by for afternoon tea :o)

Happy weekend to all

Scarlett Fontaine x