Joseph and his "one" colour dream dress

Sometimes when I am rummaging around in charity shops I say to myself "surely I am not going to find another great treasure, surely I can't be that lucky" and then something catches my eye and the smile spreads wide and the childish happiness takes over. Everyone comments on how lucky I am and they question how I find my bargains. It is true that I am very lucky and I honestly do not shop in them 24/7, who has the time?..  Its usually no more than one trip a week (and then it's usually to only one or two favourite charity shops not a whole days truffle hunting) so even I am surprised when I continually "get lucky" and this week was no exception.

I popped to Staple Hill on Wednesday to have a rummage for a new watch. John has accidentally broken mine and he now owes me a £5 charity shop replacement. So, off I went with my target in mind but alas no watch was jumping out at me. But, what did jump put at me was this cream cocktail dress from none other than Joseph, beautiful ladieswear designer. It's made from a gorgeous crepe fabric that just oozes elegance and is in mint condition. I have no idea why it would have been given away and I never will.   It is currently a little tight but not to worry, that diet I keep planning on starting will sort that out. I couldn't believe my luck. As I was came out of the changing room, attempting not to wriggle around too much and imagine what it would look like on a more svelte version of me, a greyhound dog came out from the back of the shop with one of the volunteers. It was after all the PDSA charity shop (dedicated to raising money for sick animals and owners that have trouble paying vets bills). I got chatting to the gentleman about the dog and the shop and when I came back out of the changing room still dithering, he made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I knew the dress was a bargain at £10, it was the guilt of our impending decorating bills that was causing the dithering. But the kind man offered it to me for £7 to see if that would help ease the guilt. I have to say I felt rather bad accepting his offer, it's a charity shop at the end of the day but deep down I was very grateful for his generosity and snapped up the offer on the table.

So there you have it, another absolute bargain just proving that charity shops and second-hand are worth a second glance. That rare Chanel jacket has to be around the corner one day....... right?

Potty about pottery...

Now this isn't the finished article but just a quick snap of a wall plaque that I have done at pottery.  My mum is addicted to this new "paint your own pottery" place in her home town of Weston-super-Mare and I have accompanied her a few times recently. 

My first attempt was of a peacock that I saw on a greetings card, so I put my own twist on it and had a go at painting it on plate but it has been packed up with the rest of my life ready for the move.  So no pics to show you as yet but I have to say I was really pleased with it and will find somewhere to hang it once we've moved. At the moment I am looking for inspiration everywhere to help me with art ideas, whether that be snapping a design on a card in a shop or circles on a tree stump or cobwebs in the rain. I am trying to really open up my eyes to beauty that naturally surrounds us but that we sometimes miss and take for granted. 

The plaque above will be hung as you walk into our new home in Wales. The wording means "good morning" in Welsh. I am determined to learn a few words and phrases before we move, although as John keeps pointing out, the area we are moving to is full of English people taking advantage of the cheaper prices, we haven't heard one welsh word on our visits as yet! 

My mum has also called me to say that the Welsh dragon didn't come out quite bright enough after being fired in the kiln (the picture above is pre-fired), so I need to pop back to give it a couple more coats of paint and it can then be re-fired. I painted what I thought was about 5 coats but there is no point in having a pink dragon. I don't think The Welsh population would be pleased with an off-colour dragon.

If its good enough for Kate......

I am not ashamed to admit that I have a bit of a girl crush on Kate Middleton, our lovely Duchess of Cambridge. I think she is the archetypal English Rose with flawless looks and that oh so annoying perfect, bouncy hairstyle. But she is also a great ambassador for British style and the British high street. Despite the relatively new opulent lifestyle that she has been welcomed into, she still manages to "keep it real" by championing British high street stores such as Warehouse, Whistles, LK Bennett and Reiss.

Now it is true that these particular "high-end" stores are a far cry from my usual charity shop haunts but I was lucky enough to receive some birthday vouchers for my beloved TK Maxx that stocks cheap designer and high street one-off's. I had planned to keep the vouchers for something for our new house but unfortunately this Reiss dress got to me first on the way to the home department.  It is a tad space-age in design but looks lovely on (or will do once I ditch the enormous shoulder pads lurking beneath). I would never normally shop in any of the afore-mentioned shops due to the prices (and the scary sales assistants) but I can appreciate a lovely piece of expensive clothing when I see it. You can really tell the difference in the cut and the quality. And thankfully I didn't have to pay anywhere near the original price as this cost me £15 of my vouchers.  The original price? £179.00.

Sadly while we are in the transition of moving from one house to another, nights out are few and far between but that's ok......a special occasion (requiring a very bright dress) will unfold and then I shall call upon her......

                     

While I was waiting......

It was a bad idea to arrange to meet my friend last week outside the charity shop where she volunteers.

I purposefully got there 15 minutes early so that I could peruse the St Peters Hospice shop in the lovely village of Winterbourne. And to my delight, I managed to find two new additions for the Merchant-Locke shoe family (to replace all the ones that are being packed away for the house move).

The pink ones looked brand new as they still had the labels on underneath stating that they were originally £29.50 from my beloved M&S and I paid a respectable £3. 

The green ones are from Dune, an expensive but lovely shoe shop and again, these looked relatively new but slightly more expensive at £5.50.  I love the green brooch detail on the front. They are a bit more pointy than styles I would normally choose but they are for going put purposes only (not work) and the glass of wine will no doubt shroud the pain.

Living in a box...

Well the enormous task of packing for the house move is in full swing and as more and more boxes are sealed and labelled, my heart gets a little heavier. I never knew that packing up all my belongings would be so stressful. I am just waiting for John to turn around and say that the house move is delayed......by 10 years, just to have used it as an exercise to downsize my wardrobes and shoe collection.

Without my shoes around me I am like Samson when his hair was cut off........or Ant without Dec.........chips without tomato sauce. Basically, I am no longer whole.  What John doesn't know though and I can say this safely as he is too busy at present to read my blog, is that I have amassed around 7 new pairs since operation "condense crap" commenced.

The photos above show only the contents of half of one of my four wardrobes. 

No judgement please.

 My life is being slowly reduced into cardboard and shifted into the garage.  That said, when the dressing room is created at the other end, they will have a much better home. And although excited, it is going to be a mammoth task and not for the faint hearted. I am going to aim for Christmas to have it all finished and operational but even that may be ambitious. It's not really priority when you consider all the other necessary tasks and DIY jobs that will be waiting for us.  But I have never been one to shirk off a challenge and I cannot wait to see what it's going to look like when finished. 

Champagne for the opening ceremony I think!

Bargains to boot....

Car boot sales.....something very British and totally fascinating (for me).

In a bid to prepare for our impending house move we (John) thought that we should start sorting through all our (my) crap (stuff) and although slightly reticent, I suggested that we do a car boot sale.  Earn a bit of a return on my many fashion investments over the years. We could have taken our unwanted belongings to one of my beloved charity shops but a) there was so much and b) we thought it would be fun.

And fun it was, aside from the stupidly early start at 5.45am to pack the car.

We went to a huge, local car boot sale that charges £7 entrance fee per car and one that even at 7am upon opening, is packed full of bargain hunters.  And when I say bargain hunters, that is being polite. Some of the "trawlers" you find at car boot sales want something for nothing. If you sell a book for 10p, they want it for 5p and they walk off in disgust when you laugh at them.  You need a certain degree of patience, a quick tongue and eyes in the back of your head.

Many of them are traders of course that hope to catch you unawares so that they can walk of with something of yours to sell on a stall of theirs for twice the price.

  As you can see from the pictures, I had two full rails of clothes, mainly ex-uniform that I no longer wear but also some treasured pieces that despite our initial love affair, have somewhat fallen onto the "no longer worn" list.  If I could and if I had the space, I wouldn't get rid of any of it, I would store the items carefully and keep them all for life.  Alas, I am not in that lucky position.  It literally broke my heart to say goodbye to some of the pieces but it had to be done.  Even though the promise of a dressing room in the new house will satisfy my childhood dreams, the reality is going to be somewhat petite and so I have to be selective with what stays and what goes.

I did however, offset the pain but hearing many comments from shoppers on what a lovely stall of clothes we had.  They were really complimentary about the clothes and said how nice it was that we had taken time to display them and not just throw them on a dirty picnic blanket on the floor.  I started selling dresses for £5 each or 3 for £12 (mainly brand new or hardly worn) and by the end of the morning I was selling them all for £1 as we agreed that we wanted to bring as little back home as possible.

 I also had the chance meeting with a lady (that was in fact a friend of someone I work with) who bought probably 50% of my clothes. She owns a vintage lovers website where no doubt, if I looked, I will see all my items on there with a substantial mark-up but like John rationalised.....we had neither the time nor the interest in going down that route. I could have done, I could have easily sold them on Ebay or Etsy for a lot more that I would have got at any car boot but the effort required would have been phenomenal for the amount of clothes that I had.  But, after chatting to her, I do believe we may be kindred spirits and when I find a spare hour in my hectic day, we have agreed to meet for coffee. 

She enticed me with her comments about her 5 dressed mannequins at home and her dressing room.

Anyway, I am still amazed at this but we made £340. What a result for a couple of (early) hours on a summers morn. And, that £340 is pure profit as we had already taken off the entrance fee, breakfast, ice cream and drinks budget......and the £10 that I hid in my pocket on the way to the toilets.  Well, a girls gotta have some kind of a wage for all her hard work. So on the way back from the local portakabin conveniences, I managed to find a brand new pair of shoes (that I posted about previously)and two beautiful glass vases pictured below. 

 

 

 This is John and my stepdaughter.  Reaching DEF CON 3 level of boredom towards the end of the morning.

The treasures of Clifton Village...

The day after my birthday was spent with my friend Jo in Clifton village. Clifton is a lovely area in Bristol full of independent shops and uber-trendy cafe bars. It's probably the most desirable area to live in the city with lots of old georgian mansions, private parks and tree lined avenues. I love it there but it is not somewhere that I go very often unfortunately so I was really pleased when Miss Foster agreed to accompany me. 

 

We had a lovely lunch while catching up and then went trawling around all the charity shops to see what we could find. It's always a good idea to visit charity shops in the slightly more affluent areas as the finds are often more up-market. The yummy-mummies and rich older ladies get bored with their designer items very quickly and tend to donate some real treasures.  Not only that but the standard of shop is even better.  A couple that we walked into could have been mistaken for some super trendy boutique, they were truly lovely inside. Cool and bright with everything tidy and on modern fixtures.  It's a really nice shopping experience.

 

These photos were taken in Clifton Arcade, a small arcade in a lovely little street full of vintage shops ranging from furniture and mirrors to huge costume jewellery.  You (I) could literally spend hours in there going through all the hidden treasures.

 

I didn't find anything in the Arcade as my favourite shop was closed for some reason but I did find (surprise surprise) a pair of shoes.

 

 

These navy shoes were originally from Zara which is a really nice ladies clothes store. They were £4.50 in the Oxfam shop. Apart from a couple of scuffs on the sole, they look brand new. I was very pleased with my purchase. Add those to a pair I had for my birthday, the ones I found just before my birthday, a pair I obtained from swapping an unwanted present etc etc....I think I managed to get around 5 or 6 new pairs last week.

 

Happy Birthday to me.

So this is 40...

Well, I have put it off long enough and been living in the hope of a last minute reprieve (that didn't come).  So last week, I am sad to say, I turned 40.

It's is not a number that I ever wanted to associate myself with, considering I have the mental age of a teenager still, but unfortunately, I no longer have the body of a teenager. So aptly, I have myself, become vintage.

A woman's reaction to age is a strange one. I have spoken to many people about the subject and got mixed responses. One lady I met last week was elated when I brought up the subject stating that she absolutely loved turning forty. She is now 46 and said that she is still celebrating.  I, on the other hand, am slightly less enthusiastic. 40 seems like a mental benchmark by which you should measure your life's work so let's have a go. On paper, I have achieved a lot and am a very lucky person.  I have met and married the man of my dreams, I am healthy.......ish and I have friends and family that love and support me. Add to that the niceties of my life.....an Alaskan Malamute that brings me joy every day (especially when he howls), a wonderful memory bank of travels from all over the world and a wardrobe that Carrie Bradshaw would kill for (without the designer price tag). So why the long (slightly lined) face......

I suppose a lot of it is to do with time. Time passed and time yet to spend. Spend doing the millions of things that are still on my very long list. And the other issue is slightly more shallow. Shallow enough to convince me to succumb to a cracking deal on magical anti-ageing products on the home shopping channel.

I probably should have gone down the "Michala" route and declared a month of partying and plans but I couldn't gather up the enthusiasm. My friend Michala had a birthday "month" in June when she turned 30, culminating in the best party ever. I too had a party with all my loved ones but I certainly don't  have a month of celebrations planned. Maybe I should have. Not sure if I can backdate celebrations and use the month of August instead?  Anyway, I shall soon post about all my wonderful  prizes that I received to offset the sadness of my ageing. I was well and truly spoilt.

Ps.....the beautiful card above was made by the lovely Emma Foster for my birthday. So thanks to her, I can now add paper quilling to my extremely long list of things to do.