Scarlett Makes

Do you remember the little manky shelving unit I bought from the boot sale for 50p?

 Well I've given it a bit of a make over with some white paint, Cath Kidston napkins, modge podge and the decoupage fairy:

My search for a suitable and bargain knob led me to 'The Range', this one in the bag for £1.  Those floral knobs are hard to come by you know *wink* (I'm expecting some witty knob comments ladies!)

I also used 2 of the blue and white charity shop plates I bought on Tuesday, see here, and turned them into a cake stand:

 

This is going to be an ideal birthday present, and I hope they like it as much as I do (am going to use the other plates to make one to keep myself!).

Short and sweet post for me today :o)

Scarlett x

Linking to : thrifty-thursday, thrilling-thursday and transformation thursday

Been Shopping

I decided to hit the 4 out of town charity shops yesterday for a bit of a change and was hoping to see some more realistic prices than the ones in town at the moment.  I was in luck, there were some goodies to be had so its time to share:

 Large pink jug (you know I love my jugs!) - £3

Kitsch and oh so fabulous vintage swan vase £2.  The photo doesn't show it but the paint is slightly pearlised.

Bow cross stitch kit £2,  cross stitch aida fabric £1

6 Blue and white plates (3 side plates, 3 dinner plates). These were half price  - £2 the lot! I'm going to make a cake stand from these for a birthday gift.

Vintage floral planter - to add some vintage class to the garden (along with the flamingos, hula umbrella and maybe some hanging bras lmao!).  Half price at £1.50!

Vintage embroidered dressing table set still in packaging (sorry about the rubbish photo my camera had a melt down). This is a crazy set of a hair brush, comb, tissue box cover and dressing table tray, all for £2.

Cath Kidston style coasters, still in original box - £1.50.

I did also break the secondhand buying spree by popping into Matalan to check out their home department.  Being a rockabilly chick I do love a good old school tattoo design so I was so surprised to see this fabulous cushion in there:

I adore this and at £12 - what a steal! Beats having to buy a kit and do it myself (still have my Emily Peacock cross stitch kit to start!).

Overheard in a Charity shop

Mum to child "Go on you can choose yourself a toy today but no more than £1 as mums got to buy her fags"

Customer: "Can I buy this on my card?"

Charity shop lady: "yes you can but its a minimum £5 spend and this skirt is £4.50"

Customer "OK I'll go and find something for 50p" customer goes away and looks round the shop, I was watching out the corner of my eye seeing her pick up items check the price tags and then putting them down.  She goes to the till "Is there anything in here for 50p?"

Charity Shop lady "we've got a basket of plastic food on the toy shelves" Customer goes to the basket, "OK I'll take the chicken drumstick" 

Have a fabulous day

Scarlett x

linking to share-love-wednesday and treasures-and-trinkets

Tip-tastic....

I love a good thrifty tip and knowing some of you are real thrifty chicks I just had to share this 'make do and mend' tip from Take A Break magazine under the title 'Cress to Impress'....

The reader says "I wanted to grow cress seeds but all the planters in the garden centre were a bit boring. I nailed an old bra to the wall, then filled it with soil and planted the seeds. Now I have an unusual hanging basket which amuses my friends"

Bahahahaha!  Now ladies I expect you to all be reusing your old bras to make hanging baskets! I'm sure my neighbours will appreciate seeing my old maternity boulder holders filled with florals in the garden....

Have a fun day :o)

Scarlett x

The one with the bear attack...

I made the mistake of trying a different boot sale yesterday morning, it was terrible.  There was quite a few cars but row after row of antique dealer stalls *yawn*.  So I broke my booty winning streak by only coming home with 3 buys.  But I did come away with a couple of 'witnessed at a boot sale' tit bits for you.  But first my three buys (all from the same stall)

 Mother of Pearl vintage brooch - 30p.

Vintage faux pearl necklace - 30p. A girl can never have too many cheapo pearls and combine that with my two favourite colours - red and black and we have a winner ladies!

Vintage stone set necklace, little tarnished but hey that adds to the appeal, can you guess how much?  yes 30p :o)

And now for your next installment of:

Witnessed at a Boot Sale

The first two involve me again...

Taking a 10 month old round the boot sale I always get randoms talking baby talk to him or making conversation with me about him.  Well yesterday I tried to rush past one old mans stall as I could see there was nothing of interest, no such luck. He clocked my little boy and we had the usual "Hello there little one, what big brown eyes you have, are you smiling at me?....." I smiled and did the whole awkward mummy to stranger talk.  Well I thought I could make my move but oh no he produced the mankiest cuddly toy I had ever seen and tried passing it to my son.  Seriously this thing looked like it had mange.  I buffered the bear attack by saying he wasn't old enough for it but it was very kind of him.  The seller again tried to get the bear to my boy, I pulled the buggy back a bit so bear and boy didn't make contact. Thinking I had won the bear battle the seller then said "aah I know he can have this one instead I INSIST"  then produced an even filithier ball of stained fur, I didn't even know what this one was meant to be.  Damn I should have taken mange bear and left sharply but now I had to contend with some kind of evil soft toy spawn.  He went to give this to my son, thinking fast I gave my son a rice cake to keep hands occupied and took the manky creature *shudder* myself, smiled politely mummbled 'thanks' and made my escape.  Back at the car I managed to dispose of the creature although I'm sure a flame thrower would have better....

Next up the tale of the 'Helpful Seller', I need to point out that this seller was a little grey haired grandma looking lady in her 70s:

Me: "How much for the childrens book"

Seller "20p"

Me: "I take this then please"

Seller : "Oh hang on I might have some more childrens books that you would be interested in, let me check this box" 

Seller goes to box at the front of stall and starts pulling out books, to be polite I go over and have a look at what she is pulling out.  She then grabs a DVD case with a rather buxom leather clad lady on the front

Seller loudly "ooh how did that get in here?"  then looks me straight in the eye and whispers "Its a porn dvd" while pushing it towards me.

Me: "Err I'll just take the childrens books please" 

Man standing on the edge of the bootsale having a wee in the bushes even though there are toilets 5 meters away

Lady walking round the bootsale carrying a a tiny spaniel puppy in her arms.  She is stopped by a younger lady who coos over the puppy and says " aww how sweet, what flavour is he?"....

Thats all folks! Happy Monday.

Scarlett x

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Linking to thrift-share-monday

But its a collectors item...

Saturday and not one but TWO boot sales advertised locally - yee ha!  But don't get too excited my lovelies I drove to the first one and there was a huge turn out of 2 cars, yes really just 2 cars.  I didn't even bother getting out of my car, unloading the baby buggy and my son for two tables of goods. I could see from my dashboard that one stall was full of army surplus and batteries - not for me thanks.

So onto booty number 2 and result I could see at least three lines of sellers so I was hoping for some goodies.  I did come away with a few kitschtastic and mucho tacky items - right up my street. So here's today's finds:

50's Big eyed Bambi with the extra touch of "You'll always be my dear", love the Bambi but the added cheese factor just rockets this one for me lol.  I couldn't argue with 20p either!

1950s Kitty probably with extra 1950s fleas judging by the scratching motion - 20p!

1970s childrens book 'The Elephant with the Curly Tail' which was produced by Flamingo Books! hey hey! Another 20p well spent.

Little vintage poodle ornament, he only stands 2 inches tall, bought from a lovely little lady who was running a plant stall. She had this little one nestled between the geraniums and the tomato plants.  Took him home for 10p :o)

Now are you ready for the star of today's show, do not adjust your computer screen this really is a real item of clothing, tacky but oh soooooo fabulous.....

 Mwhahaha!  Check out this vintage Elvis print track top!!  Seriously I couldn't walk past and leave this:

 Not content with one Elvis they decided to put 10 on the front, but that's not all, oh no...

BAM!  Two on the back too! hahaha!  I will not be wearing this (oh ok might give it an outing to the Elvis 2012 wembley concert for a laugh and to excite a few of the older Elvis ladies) but come on how could I resist!  It was displayed pride of place on the sellers car door so thought it might be a pricey item but I was in luck...£2! That's 20p an Elvis on the front alone! *wink*

Boot Sale annoyance of the week

My number one pet peeve of the boot sale world is the seller saying "oh its a collectors item" (with the underlying phrase of "you wont be able to afford it") when asked how much for an item. After this they usually wait for me to say something, normally "yes I can see that but how much is it", seller "well its a collectors item and these sell for a lot on eBay", to which I reply "ok BUT HOW MUCH IS IT?" the seller will then begrudgingly explain a bit more about the item before telling me the price at which point I know this will be way over the top, they will probably not sell it at the boot sale, and I'm annoyed enough not to want to buy it.

Today this happened with some tatty ladybird puddle lane books, exactly the same spiel telling me that ladybird books were very collectable (no s**t Sherlock), finally she got round to telling me she wanted £4 per book!!  She concluded that "sell for £5 plus each on eBay"...err ok sweetheart.   Has this happened to you?  I find this irk happens at least once every bootsale!  I must give off a cheapskate aura *wink*. Next time I may just buy the item with a £50 note hehe!

I've got the next installment of witnessed at a boot sale for you all too but I'll save them for my next post.

Have a fabulous weekend all.

Scarlett x

Lucky Ducky

Hoorah we are back up and running!! We may have sacrificed a few comments but its good to have you back blogger old friend.  Its that pesky Friday 13th doing its dastardly work. So time to sneak in a post in case it all goes tits up again...

I was a lucky ducky to win a fabulous giveaway prize from the lovely Deb at bee happy  so when the postie knocked at the door yesterday I knew it must be some goodies...

All beautifully wrapped but they didn't stay in their tissue for long...

First opened was this lovely handmade corsage and the cutest button bracelet - love love love them! 

Then the big one:

This fabulous bag :o)  Deb you are so talented!  I love the little added detail:

It has already had its first outing at the charity shop yesterday, and will be taken on many more!  Thanks so much Deb love it all :o)

So it would be rude not to share a least one of my charity buys so here it is:

 Check out the amazing deco packaging!  This little handy sewing kit was going to be mine for the little box alone but there was still some bits inside:

 Vintage sewing thread and needles still wrapped in tissue in their paper sleeve:

How much you ask....50p :o)

I'll share some more finds over the weekend (bet you are all so excited lol). 

In my blogger deprivation I've also signed up to twitter!  I'm still trying to work the thing out, feel a bit like my nan being given an internet lesson, but if you want to witness my twitter naivety then follow me at @loves_elvis.

Mwah

Scarlett x

Up for some serious nut cracking...

There is one item I rescued from being thrown away that gives some amusement when its produced in my home....

Let me introduce you to 'The Amazing 3 in one Crackerjack' a vintage piece no less ;o)

A kitsch-tastic little tool for cracking nuts, crab and lobster claws and crushing ice cubes, every house should own one...

If your stuck for a gift then this is the one to give...

Any occasion would warrant a crackerjack! (I would love to see the parents face on receipt of this at a christening).

So what does this incredible tool look like:

Ta-da!!  So who's up for busting some nuts??

And remember ladies...

You cant argue sweet nuts with the crackerjack squirrel, he's in the know!

(Should have had a Crackerjack!)

Ta ta for now my lovelies

Scarlett x

Linking to vintage-thingie-thursday- and very merry vintage style