It's been a longue old wait......

Ok.....now I know she doesn't look much at present but this little beauty (when newly upholstered), will take pride of place in my future dressing room.

This was a gift from my Mother-in-law recently. I think she was fed up at looking at my puppy dog eyes every time she mentioned that she didn't really want it anymore. It did however get loaned to another family member on its way to me, who has ripped the fabric accidentally. No matter though as I have big plans for her and they don't involve her current fabric. 

Depending on the decor I pick for the boudoir, she may find herself re-upholstered in a decadent black and white velvet or even a wine or cobalt blue velvet. I haven't yet decided but....whatever the choice, she will look amazing and I am so excited that she is finally in my loving care. 

When I shall find the funds for my grand plan is another matter. The fabric will probably be back in fashion by then but you've got to have dreams....what's yours? 

Give a little, take a little.....

Where to start....

Well....in the last two weeks we have bought a house.....almost lost a house.....got the house back and so on and so forth. The house buying game is fraught with stress and upset but that little ounce of hope just keeps you going. John and I have found our home. 5 bedrooms, garden for the wolf, decent local pub, at least two charity shops and an Indian within walking distance. All criteria met. And the cherry on the top? He is going to build me a dressing room. Yep, the stuff of childhood dreams. One of the bedrooms has been "gifted" over to me so I can finally  have my Carrie Bradshaw-esque dressing room. 

 These last two weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind so not much else has been achieved. The house is a tip, we have boxes everywhere and it is safe to say that we have pretty much given up on the housekeeping front. All that matters now is the next home and how we can mould it into our vision. And with that in mind, we are naturally going through a process of decision and extraction. Simply put....deciding which items of all my "crap" can be put out to pasture (John's term not mine). 

Last weekend we did a car boot sale which I will post about soon but the remnants and leftovers of what we didn't sell, were dropped off this morning at a local charity shop. We met a lovely lady who opened the shop just as we arrived and I managed to persuade John to give 5 mins inside as a compromise for giving so many of my own things away. And that was all i needed....

Brand new, size 6, Navy blue satin evening shoes...  £3.50. Sometimes I amaze myself at how lucky  I am. 

Now I am thinking of navy blue for my birthday party dress. I thought it was ridiculous to accessorise my dress around my ring, now I am considering accessorising around my shoes. 

Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi.....you are my only hope. 

2p or not 2p.....

That is definitely the question.

 I am still not quite sure how this happened and I didn't question Customer Services when they confirmed I could do this but these NEW shoes cost me 2p. Not £2 or £20 but 2p. The pair had been refunded at work when they shouldn't have been as one of our concessions doesn't take shoes back, not selling them in store.  The lovely BHS staff (who are now getting to know me only too well) notified me of the new arrivals in my size while pointing out that the price on the box was £.02p.

This cannot be true I said to myself. Surely a mistake? Or a lucky gift from the gods. Not wanting to abuse my position, I thought it best to call customer services and get confirmation of the price. After  a 14 minute wait on the line (so worth it), they said that I could, in fact, buy them at 2p. I didn't really understand their explanation as to why they were priced that way....something about the stock file being incorrect and they were no longer going to sell that particular brand on the Internet, but who cares!!!! I got a reference number so it was all ligit and I bought them quicker than you could say "how much??????".

I am one lucky son of a cobbler.

Forgotten Gems.....

How could I?

A new addition to the Merchant-Locke family and I forgot to post about them last month when I bought them. Shameful. To be fair, I have so many now that I regularly forget pairs and relive the surprise again and again when I re-find them. But these are relatively new so not sure how I missed them. I will blame the heat....it's turning lots of us into lazy, drained zombies. 

Anyway, these lovelies were £4.50 from the St Peters Hospice shop in Downend, Bristol. They were originally from Clarks, that British stalwart of comfortable footwear. I have many childhood memories (mainly bad ones) associated with Clarks as footwear for school unusually dictated that we shop nowhere other than this brand. Back then, they were not known for their fancy designs or lovely colours....black, clumpy and ugly were the buzzwords used to describe their shoes and mums across the land praised them for it. School was not an outlet for personal expression through fashion (apparently). 

That said, I still tried to turn up once, at the grand age of about 9, wearing all my Nan's bling that she had recently given me.  Diamanté, multicoloured bracelet and matching chunky necklace. It accessorised my bottle green uniform perfectly.  

Mad dogs and Englishmen......

Our wonderful heatwave just refuses to end, thankfully for all our sakes. I think this weather has caught us a little off guard, especially the buyers at work who have been sending us heavy knitwear, biker jackets and lots of black trousers of late. 

So, what better way for me and hubbie to deal with the heat?.........a nice cold drink? A picnic in the shade? A lazy evening in the garden? No. A curry.

My friends at work have been trying to get us together for ages to do more social things, quite rightly so and any other time, an Indian would be top of the list but in this heat, I must admit, I wasn't my normal excited self for my beloved balti. 

I felt somewhat guilty also as I said I was going to dress up, thus forcing my friends to review what they were going to wear. I think Tracy was bullied into wearing a dress by the sad look on my face when she said she wasn't going to dress up. I must be a nightmare to go out with. And then there was John. Wonderful husband that he is, he did me proud in a stained t-shirt paired with shorts and flip flops. I give up.

Anyway, I wanted to wear something nice and bright so I grabbed my multicoloured second hand dress (originally from M&S) that I love. This dress was first featured in my "Mad Men" post a while ago. It has so many wonderful colours in it that matching shoes and handbags are a doddle. I found my favourite red handbag (also second hand), despite the small hole that continues to grow where ample stitching once lived.  I also chose to pair it with my new shoes bought in the charity shop in Wales at the weekend. Slightly on the big side......I swear my feet are shrinking. Proved also by the fact that I slipped and fell over on the way out of the restaurant. 

But John, if you read this, I stand by my claim that the floor was uneven. 

Countdown Conundrum ..,

Ok, I am hoping that this prompts some great suggestions......

I must admit I continue to be impressed by the simplicity of this. We saw it in our local pub last Saturday night. It was framed above the till and we thought it was great. The letters make up a phrase but you have to guess what it could be and I will reveal it soon.  I painted it on a bathroom ceramic tile that I bought from a junkyard  6 months ago  and I just wrote the words on it in  non permanent pen. I am thinking that future BBQ's chez nous will be interesting as people try and guess the meaning.....

Answers on a postcard please.....

A uniformed society.....

The sun has got his hat on, hip, hip, hip hooray!

And along with soaring temperatures come soaring dress sales at work. The female of the species are out in abundance at present, searching out that perfect maxi dress for a cruise or a little cocktail dress for that summer wedding. It's a nice sight to see. Spirits are lifted and so are hemlines (not mine I hasten to add).

I have spent a fortune lately on uniform for work but then I just seem to love the product that is hitting down at the moment. But on the flip-side, there will be plenty of months where there is nothing that suits so the expenditure balances out thankfully.

The two dresses that follow are my current faves. They prompt lots of interest when worn and thankfully boost my sales a little. It really does make a difference when you wear the product, if I had the stock I could have sold the purple dress 50 times over. but it also helps that I love the uniform I have to wear.

It got me thinking about the concept of uniform and identity. When I spent my year in France teaching in a private school, all the kids there were hung up on designer clothes whereas in Blighty, our school children conform to a uniform for school. I used to love winding the kids up by saying that the headmaster is considering bringing in the UK system, they were horrified at the thought of wearing a uniform.

I have always loved wearing a uniform. It helps to define who you are and what you do.  And although these are not second hand or vintage, I do recycle a lot of my old uniform to the charity shops so they will be one day. It's the circle of life (well my life anyway).

This is the pink version but I also have the green. Of course. 

On a shoestring.....

Yesterday was a day of many emotions. We went to view a house in Wales (the houses over the bridge are so much cheaper than in Bristol where we currently live), and I have to say, I didn't have high hopes but by the end of the afternoon we had returned to the estate agents and put in an offer. We are now just playing the waiting game, no doubt to be followed by the negotiating game. It ticked all the boxes in terms of our necessity list and even the nice to have list. And the biggest draw? 5 bedrooms. A luxury that seemed the stuff of dreams until yesterday. So if everything goes to plan, I will finally get my dressing room and even an art room!

We don't know the area at all so we did a bit of research in the local town to see if that too ticked the boxes....

1. Is there an Indian restaurant within walking distance? Yes.
2. Nice local pub? Yes.
3. Open space/park for the dog? Yes.
4. Selection of charity shops? Yes.

It is of course important to thoroughly research these aspects so we went for a pub lunch and popped in to the charity shops while waiting for estate agents to do their thing. And what did I find? Shoes......

I managed to obtain these two pairs for £10. The red leather ones are lovely comfy shoes from Clarks and the satin, emerald green shoes are from my own beloved Wallis. Quite old too if the label is anything to go by. So a very successful trip all in all, and if we are lucky enough to get the house, all my shoes will live happily ever after in their very own boudoir. 

Surely two new pairs is a good sign. After all two magpies are lucky! 

What a year....

Exactly a year ago today, I was possibly having my first dance as a married woman at our wedding reception. I say dance....more like a drinken jig, not really worthy of Gary Barlow's lyrics. It was a truly wonderful day and the sun even came out.

Today I have been spoilt with two bouquets of beautiful flowers and a gorgeous new notebook. I certainly lucked out for this one. Paper is the traditional gift for your first anniversary and I am definitely a stationery fiend.

And as luck would have it, I happened to buy an enormous vase this week in Clic Sargent, a charity shop in Downend. It was £2.25 and still had the John Lewis handmade sticker on, so it was obviously brand new. What a find!

I wanted to take the opportunity to post a few of my favourite wedding photos from our perfect day. My dress was not second hand or vintage I am ashamed to say but I just knew it was the one when I saw it. It is now living in the kids bedroom, in perfect hibernation. I was tempted to try it on again but I know it won't fit now.....one day maybe. It is so beautiful and worth every penny.

Hallmark Eat Your Heart Out....

I forgot to post about a selection of greeting cards that I also bought on my trip to Downend last week. I am a big card sender...I think that everyone likes to get things in the post, especially me, so I try and send out little messages when I can.  I think that email is killing the art of letter and card writing so it's important to keep the culture alive! That said, I do not like being ripped off for a card at £3 a go. 

So when I saw a box on the charity shop counter filled with 20p cards, I grabbed a stash. I store all my cards and correspondence in is gorgeous little Samsonite writing case that I found in TK Maxx a few years ago. For those that love stationery....it's a beauty, and boy do I love stationery.  A trolly dash around a stationers or art shop would be as exciting for me, as one around Kurt Geiger. It also comes with a little key to lock the case...great for curious husbands! 

Une petite fleure en bleue...

I am definitely turning into my Nan.

Writing shopping lists on the back of old envelopes, enjoying the occasional tipple at lunch and wearing big style costume brooches. She had such a lovely selection and would never go out without some piece of bling adorning her coat or jacket collar.

My gorgeous and probably favourite brooch is currently AWOL somewhere in the house...I hate mis-placing things  at home. It just fuels Johns argument that I have too much crap (a somewhat whimsical attitude if you ask me, all my "crap" defines who I am). 

This brooch sang out to me in the  St Peters Hospice shop in Downend. Still in the box and originally from a lovely shop called Past Times that is sadly, now, a thing of the past itself. 

So, Nan, what do you think? I know you are looking down on me, gin and tonic in hand (and yes, I have washed behind my ears and my hair is nice and tidy!).

Mighty Mantelpiece...

Bonsoir tout le monde....

Where to start?.......another busy week in the Merchant-Locke homestead. I need to start campaigning for a 48hr day as I simply cannot get everything done on my lists (I use the plural as I am usually working from 2 or 3 at a time). There is always so much I want to acomplish but I shamefully never seem to. Hours merge into days, day to weeks and so on. I keep telling myself that I am a bad friend as I do not spend enough time just chewing the fat with my nearest and dearest. Then there is my poor mum who is lucky if she gets an audience once a month of late. When I was young, I remember excessive usage of the words "I'm bored" and now I cringe at the thought. My brain doesn't get time to consider the word. I'm bored has morphed into "I'm on project overload". 

Never mind, I suppose it keeps me out of mischief.

This week, the Internet became un petit source of inspiration as I came upon a lovely picture of  coloured glassware organised on a mantelpiece. I stupidly didn't save it and cannot find it since but the image was firmly rooted in my brain and I set out on a quest to recreate it myself. 

So armed with my trusty debit card, I set of to the charity shops in Downend in search of bargain glass pieces. I adore coloured glass in all shapes and sizes and luckily charity shops seem to stock them in abundance. I picked out about 9 pieces for my summer mantelpiece and added them to a couple of pieces that we had at home. The plan is to arrange them in colour order BUT I still need to find an orange and a purple piece ideally. Prices ranged from 75p to £3 and I am so pleased with them, some truly lovely little pieces. 

The picture below gives an idea of the sort of thing I want to achieve. A spectrum of colour from left to right in an array of shapes and sizes. The dog however has already brushed past one and put a chip in it....good job I think imperfections just increase the attractiveness.

Never live with a wolf.

Picture courtesy of Google.