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.

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.