Show stopper!

I can't seem to figure out how to make this picture bigger, very frustrating.  

What a dress. I can imagine Jane Russell wearing this in her heyday. Gorgeous, voluptuous and full of attitude.  Everyone should have the opportunity to wear a killer dress like this at some stage in their life. 

The dress is available on....yep you guessed it Etsy. Click below to check it out in all it's beautiful glory. You may need to look twice at the price though. Only for the true serious vintage hunters. 

The girl's gotta have it.....

Prelude to the best buy ever!

Yesterday was a momentous truffle hunt day and it shall go down in (personal) history. I haven't taken the relevant photos yet for a post but you will see why over the weekend! I just popped to the st. Peters Hospice in Downend, before starting work and it was there that I found my treasure......But, I also popped in to the Clic Sargent shop a couple of doors down and found this adorable little chair for 99p (there is a much better picture further down). I thought it was so unusual. You could put a little stand of flowers on it or a candle.....many little trinkets really. I wonder where it has sat before.

Whilst trying to take some arty-farty photos in the woods (to which I failed dismally) I also spied these mushrooms. It was so nice to see a little burst of colour in the oh-so green forest. 

And I also came across this tree stump that had been uprooted by the wind! It stopped me in my tracks. It's not a thing of natural beauty but I loved all the twisted lines of the roots.

Here is la petite chaise in all it's glory. It has taken pride of place  on the bedroom windowsill and for now, I am going to sit a miniature framed photo of my Nan on it. She always used to like sitting in the window and surveying all the passers by....maybe this way, she will continue. Miss you Nan.

Charity begins at home...

I came across this interesting article on the wondrous BBC website recently, asking the question whether charity shops have been inflating their prices of late.

Charity Shop Blues

I have to say I have certainly noticed this (speaking from experience) as I have been a thrifter for nearly 20 years now. The shops in Bristol have definitely "wised" up to the competition with sites like eBay and Etsy attracting a large amount of their customers now.  TV programmes also play their part with series like Downton Abbey and Mr Selfridge gracing our screens in all their vintage glory so I think more people are on the hunt for that beautiful one-off piece.

With two universities, Bristol has a massive student population who are often the ambassadors of shabby chic. They seem to instinctively know how to hunt down a £4 outfit and although often just thrown together, they somehow make it look cool. And I do think that charities know that in certain affluent areas shall we say, they know they can inflate prices a little to target the appropriate audience. I have definitely paid more for a dress in Clifton than I have in Fishponds.

Ultimately, there are in business to make money just like any other retail outfit. Without many charity shop networks, certain charities just would not be able to do all the good work that they do today. They depend so heavily on the donations from the likes of you and me.

The article is really thought provoking though and gives an interesting time line of early clothes exchanges to the present day so click on the link above if you are interested!

Money bags!

Hi all!

Have a look at these  (not the lovely models).........

I went to a vintage fair with my friend Sue before Christmas and she bought some lovely pillowcases. It sounds a strange thing I know but the material was by popular designer Cath Kidston and Sue had an idea for them to be turned into some waist-tied money bags. 

In her spare time, she makes beautiful hand decorated glass products with a friend of hers and sells them at craft fairs.  So now she can stand at these fairs with her uber-modern money belt, selling her uber-pretty products. I should have taken a close up photo as they are beautifully made and backed with a really thick fabric to give them strength.  She has the lovely Linda Milliner at work to thank for the handy work. And I have the lovely Emma and Georgia to thank for modelling them at the start of their shift. Busy night obviously. 

I often wish I was more talented in the sewing machine department. It would be great to be able to make your own clothes or home-wares and have that rewarding feeling knowing that you have created something yourself. If I worked part time, I would definitely give it a go. Along with improving my painting, cookery, car mechanics and finding a cure for cancer. 

Gone to the dogs...

What a nice Sunday morning. My stepdaughter Keely asked if she could come to the vintage fair at Ashton Gate Stadium this morning, despite the fact it required an early start. I was quite chuffed that she was interested in coming really, she is turning out to be quite the thrifters assistant!

It was a relatively quiet fair today probably due to the recent bad weather and the fact that January is a pretty tight month for most people. So luckily for my purse (and John), there were hardly any clothes stalls....mainly jewellery, bric-a-brac, glassware, ornaments and the like. I bought some lovely bits of jewellery and stuck proudly to my £20 budget especially in light of my financial woes this month.

Before looking at those pics though.....check out all the cute canines that were there. The stall owners seem to be able to bring their dogs to work with them. How lovely.......Solo would be a great crowd puller. Not sure I'd get anything done though.

Definitely not vintage.

These two may look vintage but they were only 14 months old!

Not a dog obviously, just one of the many stuffed residents for sale.  Whatever floats your boat.

 

This was the first little beauty and a steal at £3. 

 

Another lovely ring for £3

This brooch is a present for the Mother in law.  She loves dolphins and wears lots of gold jewellery so I hope she'll take to it.

 

I thought this would look nice on the lapel of a jacket.

 

The style and colours of this remind me of Bath Aqua Glass. It's a bigger pendant than I would normally go for but with a nice v-neck I thought it would be a real statement.

 

This is a strange one but I just thought it was so unusual. Its a little riding hat and I am definitely not what you would call a "horsey" person but I had to have it. 

 

All these brooches....I am definitely turning into my mother!

.

French Fancy

I have just had a lovely afternoon with a French lady that I met recently. She popped into our shop before Christmas and my French radar picked up on her accent so I made my move. I am so desperate to speak French all the time that I guilted her into giving me her email address so that we could arrange to meet up. Today was that day! It was so kind of her to agree to see me (and correct my bad French all afternoon). I had such a nice time.

Husband was Joe le Taxi so I took the opportunity to wear my Mac. It doesn't get much use in winter when I am normally wearing about 10 layers and a coat that would easily compare with that of a polar bear. This has got to be one of my best ever finds in a charity shop. Kenneth Cole New York and tags still attached stating a price of around $200 if I remember rightly. I love it.

I also wanted to wear my £2 blouse that I bought recently in the St Peters Hospice and the vintage boots were out again. It's safe to wear them now that all snow has gone. 

Now I am off to have a few stern words with the dog as he has chewed up a pair of my leather gloves. Nothing is sacred when you live with a wolf. 

Working 9 to 5......

Unfortunately working in Retail, the 9 to 5 routine is a pipe dream. It's very long days spent stood on your feet, working unsociable hours and often dealing with rude customers. January is notoriously hard as customers (rude or not) are few and far between after all the Christmas gluttony. So it was a nice change yesterday when me and my friend Wendy were able to dress the windows on avery quiet day, in the absence of our official window dresser. I have to say, I have a new found appreciation for the role. It's really tiring, the mannequins weigh a ton and some cost up to £3000 so you have to be really careful how you handle them.  As for the window scheme, you can see that we don't have one (disappointingly).  Some shops dress their windows beautifully but ours are so bare at the moment, it makes us look like a pop-up shop. It would be great if we had a decent budget and could do something really special with the windows but alas, it is not to be.

Miss Gemma Carey dressed the internal mannequins...the dress on the front has been a real hit.

You can't really see it but we put this necklace on the blue jumper. I love all the different shades of blue. It's really heavy so difficult to wear....but I would still try!

And this little beauty is a new line that has caught my eye for uniform (not that i can afford any!). I just think there is something very "old style" about it. The diamonte detail is so pretty and is really quite striking. 

Funky favourites

Morning All.......

This month is going to be a tough month financially thanks to Mr Tax Man so I am going to have to resort to a bit of window shopping and net-nerding to get my fix. Luckily, being the second-hand junkie that I am, I tend not to spend much on my addiction anyway but every penny is going to count this month. With that in mind, I thought I would post a couple of pics of my newest Etsy crushes that I have saved to my favourites to drool over occasionally. 

The first is a gorgeous white dress that just reminds me of the 70's disco era. White is a tough colour to pull off so I am not sure i would ever be brave enough to buy it but I can still admire it for what it is. A showstopper of a dress.

This one is typically me. V-neck wrap dress in silky material with lots of draping. Usually my preferred dress style. Oh well......February is going to be quite a challenge.

Time for tea......

Bonjour tout le monde,

I finally plucked up the courage to tell John about my Etsy purchases and I decided to wear one of them out to tea last night. It's a lovely red blouse (blouses are not normally my thing) but I was really drawn to it (story of my life).  I think it worked out to be around £6, what a bargain. It's got a little tie aswell but I wore it without this time. I bought it from Jess's site with Etsy (volkerwandering) who recently gave me an interview about her love of vintage. She also currently has an offer on her site that if you buy 5 items you get a massive 40% off!  Get thrifting!

 

Not the best close up pic but I wanted to show the pleats on the blouse that you can't really see in the other picture. I just think it's really unusual (what's not unusual is me with a glass of wine!)

 

 

I pinned one of my favourite brooches on it - my little bow-tie from the St Peters Hospice shop in the town centre. 

Jacket Frenzy....

 

Here is the lovely Hannah again modelling some of her favourite charity jackets that she found in the Downend/Staple Hill area of Bristol. She confessed at work that she is a bit of a jacket magnet and I am not suprised, these all look really nice on her. It's great to see someone so young that is interested in buying from Charity shops. We seem to live in a world where the youth of today won't wear anything unless it says Hollister or Superdry.  There is nothing wrong with it - who am I to judge, it just seems a bit uninventive. It's so nice to buy things that don't cost the earth, contribute to a charitable cause and promote your own individual style. Miss Lloyd, I salute you.

 

 

 

Loving the little corsage and pinstripe mix.

 

Down on the Farm

A nice day off today was made even better by John telling me that he too was taking the day off! So we have had a bit of a lazy day together but I was determined to take him out for lunch somewhere we have never been.  We are spoilt for choice really in Bristol but we didn't fancy driving to far with snow and ice all around so we drove down to the area of St Werburghs as there is a small city farm ran by volunteers.  It's hidden in such a little community, off the main road, that it isn't the kind of place you would find unless you are going there with specific intention.  I remember a friend introduced me to it a few years back on a lovely hot summers day and I was so grateful to have found it.

There is a local cafe that I have been meaning to visit for some time, the only time I have tried in the past was on the one day of the week that they are closed. So that was where we headed and a nice time was had by all (well maybe not John, who ended up paying as cards weren't accepted). So much for treating him to lunch!

St Werburghs City Farm, Bristol

 

I thought it was a good opportunity to dig out the new Tweed jacket that I found last week in the PDSA charity shop, although I should have worn something much warmer! Jeans are one of my favourite pairs from work and the boots are from Marks & Spencer, about 10 years ago. They were £7 in one of their clearance shops (so of course I bought three pairs in different colours!).

 

 

 

This is the "Farm" pub just around the corner from the city farm itself.  I love the way they have painted the wall. There is a lot more detail up close, it's a shame that the photo doesn't do it justice.

 

New age plant pot

 

This is inside the cafe - it makes you feel like Bilbo Baggins in the Hobbit!  It's a great little place that prides itself of fair trade, organic and locally sourced products.  Some of the fresh produce is even grown on the farm next door.

 

Local residents

 

How cute is he.  I wish I could be a vegetarian!

Booty Call......

Helloooo.....

I have just busy photographing some of my ex-uniform from Wallis in order to sell some of it. I always kid myself that I only chose items that I am likely to wear outside of work but most of the time I don't because you tend to associate certain items with being at work.  So rather than just taking up space in the wardrobe, I thought I would see if I can get a little bit of dosh by selling them on.  Some of them have only been worn a couple of times if that.  

I was thinking of Ebay but my friend Hannah introduced me to a Facebook Group called "Downend Booty", which is a group that has been set up to buy and sell individuals unwanted items. Downend is an area not far from where we live so I have joined the group and posted all my photos. Not sure if I will get any interest but its worth a go! I shall keep you posted as to how successful I am.....here are some of the dresses I am getting rid of......

 

I have put them all on for £7.50 and £5 for the top so watch this space!

Papillon

This is the lovely Miss Banfield our Visual Merchandiser at work. This little number is second-hand and I promised I would post the picture, she looks so nice.

She is on Instagram - Selina1609 where she posts lots of nice fashion shots (as you would, working in fashion!).  Thanks to her I have set up my Instagram account - I just need to get some time to do something with it!

Ice, ice, baby......

Hello all,

Bristol was graced with more snow this week.  My dog was very happy but people less so as it's such a challenge getting out and about safely. My mum rang me at work straight away just to check that I wasn't wearing stupid shoes (by the way Mum - NO SHOES ARE STUPID). Thankfully, we closed work early on Friday so I was determined to join John and Solo out on the slopes by us to go sledding. Walking through the gate to the estate though, I did some unplanned sledding of my own right onto my behind. Classy. 

My snow dog was very popular with all the children and he loved all the attention. It was lovely to see him so happy.

And, despite the snow we still managed to get out on Friday night to Zaza Bazaar, a huge restaurant in town with my stepson and his fab girlfriend, hubby and my friend Michala. The food is so nice but the "all you can eat" ethos tests your will power! I was annoyed that I forgot to take a photo of what I was wearing, I think John is getting fed up with playing David Bailey.

This is us larking around in front of a nice piece of graffiti inside the restaurant.

My handsome husband in his new (second-hand) shirt. I really like this photo.

How pretty......just add Mr Tumnus.