More Charity Shopping/Thrift Shopping!

Yes, I am addicted to charity shopping. There are always hidden gems in those shops as long as you dig deep enough! My blog posts about the charity shop hauls are always popular so without further ado...

I love crochet things at the moment. I'm not sure what it is about them but I love the style. They can be layered and worn in so many different ways. This top is from Fat Face and was such great value I couldn't leave it in the shop.

I have been keeping an eye out for any shirt that looks smart and can be worn tucked into anything like shorts, skirts, trousers. I would like a shirt with a collar as well because then it can be worn under jumpers but this is a quirky alternative for without a jumper/cardigan.

I have always wanted a nice blazer to dress up any outfit but haven't found the right one. I saw this and, although it doesn't look great on the model, it is really nice on. It's a little longer falling just below the bum but still a slim fit.

Okay. This really didn't photograph well. It's got some really nice colours in it. I'm actually planning on doing a DIY with this so hopefully I'll post the photos of that on here!

The snazziest buy of the day! Couldn't resist getting this shirt and I knew an outfit that it would go great with, including a cute knitted and fur gilet that I got a couple of weeks ago.

So that's a quick post on the few things that I bought!

Bye for now! :) xx

What's in my bag?

I have seen posts like this on many blogs and in vlogs on YouTube and, being the nosey person that I am, I love to have a good look into what people have in their bags so, I thought I'd post the junk that accumulates in mine!

My bag is from TK Maxx made by Dune. My mum bought it me for Christmas. We had been shopping one day, saw it and I fell in love but knew I didn't need it so left it for someone else. My mum had sneakily gone back the next day and bought it as my present and I'm so glad she did because I love it. It's such a gorgeous colour and, as all my bags need to be, acts like a Tardis with the amount of room inside it.

So I think the pictures are pretty self explanatory but I will give you a little detail about some of the things in my bags;

• The fabric shopping bag is always shoved at the bottom of my bag for when I'm out charity shopping and I decide that it would be a good idea to save the planet and use my own reusable bag rather than getting a plastic bag everywhere I go.
• My glasses get very lost at the bottom of my bag and are rarely worn. They are tortoise shell on the out side with a sea blue on the inside. They're by Charles Stone and my mum has the smaller, more rectangle lens frame. I wouldn't have let her get the same but I helped her choose hers not realising I was getting some new ones too so had already told her to pick the other pair just because they're so nice.

• The book that is currently being battered around in bag so I can pick it up to read wherever I am is 'Notes from a Small Island' by Bill Bryson. It was recommended to me by my mother (who I am mentioning far too often in this blog post) as a funny read about Bill Bryson's, an american, points of view on the British. I haven't read a lot but you may hear about it in February's book review post, as long as I don't get bored and actually read enough books to post about!
• The quirky patterned book carefully placed on top of the above book is my 2015 diary. It's in disguise by not looking at all like a diary. I picked it up from TK Maxx and I love that it's a bit different.

• My grey Kipling purse was bought for me for Christmas from my boyfriend. Not the 2014 Christmas just gone, but the previous 2013 Christmas. I'm proud of how clean it's staying. It's a large purse but it fits all the rubbish I've got inside it, including all the receipts I never clear out. My mum (mentioned again) needed a new purse a while back so I recommended it to her and she got it in a sky blue colour and now she's bought it for her mum, so that's three generations with this purse. 

 And finally, the general junk:

• Tablets - I actually have about 3 packs of paracetamol, 1 pack of ibuprofen and 2 packs of another type of tablets. You never know when you may need them. Usually it's someone else who is asking me for them.
• A hand bag table hanger thing that holds your handbag off the floor and hooks onto a table. Fantastic description. It the metal circular thing with the fake blue jem in it.
• Bodyspray
• Hand wipes - always very useful/hygenic
• Tissues - no one likes to keep sniffing. Actually, some people do and, in those cases, I really wish I could thrust one of my tissues under their nose and tell them to shut up.
• An umbrella - I live in Britain and I think that's enough said.
• A pen.

I hope you liked this different style of post!

Bye for now! x

Charity shopping (thrift shopping) madness!

I've not been feeling great lately and something that I have done a lot of is watching YouTube videos. I watch YouTube videos daily anyway of different YouTubers that I subscribe to but I recently stumbled across The Fashion Citizen again and, although we don't have any kind of Goodwill or another huge thrift store in England, I have been so keen to go charity shopping. Retail therapy is the best kind of therapy, especially when you're getting a bargain! 

You are going to have to keep a very open mind on what you see in this haul. On reflection, the clothing seems a little out there but, I think I can justify it all and with different outfits it won't look as mad as it seems (I may even post the clothes worn with an outfit if anyone would want to see that.)

This first thing I got was this coat (the first image shows more of a true colour). When I saw it in the shop I loved the pattern but noticed the hideous band/belt around it and thought I'd better leave it. My mum picked it up after me and was saying it looked good and noticed the band around the middle could easily come off (we think someone may have added it themselves). It was a bit big on me but at £5.99 for a really decent quality coat I was sure I would be able to make a few adjustments to make it suit me! (Pictures of the change will hopefully follow in another blog.

This coat you may question. The lining (shown on the collar) is hideous, the red and green is garish, and on top of that it's cord, but I kind of fell in love with it. It seems huge but when I tried it on it didn't seem that bad and I'm actually really happy with it. It will be worn a lot and I will make it look fabulous. Haha.

Here is a simple long top. It's very easy to see-through so I am sure to be layering it up. My mum found it and I really liked it. It's a crochet design with little beads threaded through it (I tried to show them close up but they're really hard to see). I will get so much wear out of this, especially in the summer.

The pattern on this dress caught my eye, along with the neckline. I am planning on shortening the dress as I will more likely wear it like that. Plus it was only £1! Bargain.

This dress is made out of such a gorgeous velvet fabric with some lace detailing around the neckline. My mum picked this one out for me and she also offered to pay for it which was very nice of her (thanks mum).

Here's another slightly outrageous item but I'm pretty sure that when I layer it up with some simple clothes it will make it look a little less over the top. My mum reckons I should change the buttons, I'll just wait and see if I can be bothered! Otherwise I will just have to make them work.

This belt is just something I spotted which, because of the different plaited colours, will add to any boring outfit. I know I will wear it a lot so I thought it was one not to miss.

Finally a few small pieces of jewellery that I gathered. The simple wooden necklace is great to add to an outfit, the yellow flowers are really cute and the bracelet was just something a little different that caught my eye.

I'm excited to wear all my new clothes and adjust a few, which I may post about on here.

Bye for now! x

Excessive Charity Shop Buys

Today I went to do my voluntary work at Red Cross. It doesn't feel like I've done it for ages but I think it's only been about a week and a half. It's funny because, the last few weeks feel like they have gone on for ages but usually that happens when you've had nothing to do and have been bored. That's something that is certainly not true of my situation. Perhaps it's because I have done so much in that time! Anyway...

So in Red Cross I'm still doing that sorting that I talked about in this blog, and as a result of this I get first choice of all the summer clothing. So I'm taking advantage of that! I bought a lot... A jumper and trousers for my dad, 4 different items for my boyfriend (which I'm keeping quiet because he hasn't seen them yet)... In fact, I'm not going to list the quantity of items I got because there are a lot and you will genuinely think I'm crazy but I have reasons for everything - I make things out of a lot of different things that I buy.

This is one of the 4 tops (6 items of clothing) that I bought however, some of the others were a little plainer so I thought I would just show you these two. This one is quite plain but I really like the colour of it and I think it will go with a lot of things.

This top is one of our 'Encore' items which means that it is a new good from a shop that didn't sell for one reason or another. This didn't sell because it had a hole in the back but it is easily repairable and is actually under the cute little collar so can't even be seen. The fit is really nice on me and I love the little collar with the lace and beading.

This is another Encore item from H&M. I remember seeing it in the shop when it was full price and I wasn't sure whether I really wanted it but when it came into the British Red Cross I thought I might as well go ahead and buy it. I think it's really simple but will really add to an outfit.

Sorry about the quality of this one, I didn't realise it was out of focus when taking this photo. This handbag is so gorgeous though and such nice quality, it's really heavy because of all the beads. This is part of something I'm planning for my mum's birthday party (here you go mum, a little hinting at some of my plans).

So now I have some home items. I bought this because my dad has a bit of a sweet tooth when it comes to biscuits and I thought this was a really nice 'vintage style' jar that would look great in the kitchen.

And finally this Bath Salts jar. I know a lot of people may not like this but I just love how retro it is. I think it will look great in the bath room, not necessarily with bath salts in but no one needs to know.

I got so many other things than what I have shown here but it would have been a huge blog post and probably not made much sense! You may, however, see some of the things I've bought in later posts of DIYs or something so watch this space...

Bye for now!

Vintage Scarves For Sale

Today I have spent the last couple of hours photographing and uploading a variety of vintage scarves which are now up for sale at Where to Buy Vintage.

Buy HERE

Buy HERE

Buy HERE

Buy HERE

Buy HERE

Buy HERE

Buy HERE

Buy HERE

I hope you like some of these vintage scarves!


Bye for now!

New Job!

Today has already been a great day for me as I've managed to get myself a new job. It's been a complicated time getting to this point though! Back in about September I applied for a job with White Stuff and I went through the interviews etc. and actually managed to get the job. It was over Christmas though and it turns out I was going on holiday skiing at the same time... The consequence being that I couldn't have the job. This wasn't great. The holiday wasn't great.

However, the other week I got an email from the manager of White Stuff telling me she had a vacancy for a 12 hour contract and cutting a long story short; I've got the job! I'm so happy about this. I'm waiting for the rota to be sent to me tomorrow or Wednesday. Yippee!

So I've still got free time to continue with my Etsy shop.

Speaking of which...

I've been uploading a lot more items to my 'Where to Buy Vintage' shop:

And I've been uploading some handmade cushion covers that I've been slaving over for the last few days to my 'Shed Creativity' shop:

Check them out and tell me what you think!

I hope you've all been busy lately and have been having a day as good as mine.

Bye for now!

London Charity Shop Buys

I'm knackered. I don't think I've stopped doing stuff involving hard work in days. It's really draining my energy. Not that I want much sympathy... LOL.

So anyway, I promised I'd show the things I bought in some of London's charity shops last weekend. I'm actually only going to show four of my favourite items (very exciting, I know). These charity shops were in Pimlico and I would recommend them. The day before we went to Camden and when walking from Camden to Mornington Crescent tube station you pass many charity shops. I love these ones but just didn't happen to buy anything in them this time. However, I have never been to the Pimlico charity shops and we did them by walking from Pimlico tube station to Victoria station, you could definitely see the prices increase as you got closer to Victoria. The prices were also, on average, much higher than those in Camden.

Anyway, enough rambling...

This was the first thing I bought. It's only H&M, so nothing special, but I thought it was a really nice top that can be warn smart or casual and I like things that have this flexibility because it allows me to be lazier. Not that I'm lazy...

This was the next item I got. It's DKNY and although it's very simple looking, I think it will be really good for matching with so many different things. If I were to wear it smart I could wear a shirt underneath or something, and then to wear it casual it just needs a cute cardigan, some casual jewelry and some casual shoes and it will immediately look less dressy.

I love this dress. I have no idea what make it is because it doesn't have any labels in it. When I put it on it fits in all the right places to look very flattering. I know it doesn't look that flattering just on the hanger but it looks so nice on and (I'm not sure whether you can see) but the little specs of gold in it mean I can wear it casually or for a party. (so many multi-use clothing items here!)

Finally is one for the summer. I know it's black but it is quite a thin material and has that summer shape about it. Although I reckon I need to lose a bit of my winter warmth (weight) first for it to fit just right.

Hope you like my buys!

Bye for now!

London Underground Drama

Will the life of a blogger suit me? Probably not. I am certainly the type to forget about these things but here's to giving it a try!

I'll tell you about my weekend whilst I'm here. I spent my weekend in London with my aunt and mother. Whilst in London we attempted to fit in as much shopping as possible over the two and a half days of being there, and I think we did our hardest to. On the Sunday my aunt was meeting with someone she knew and my mother and I thought we would take this opportunity to fit in more time for shopping so we headed over to Camden. The best way to get around London is, of course, by the London underground and when we got to Camden we went to get up and get off the tube when my mother and I realised we were attached (my scarf stuck to her handbag) in a panic of needing to get of the tube in time before the doors shut we adopted an awkward crab-style shuffle off the train with me going backwards, "Mind the Gap" (my mum described this as ballroom dancing but it was certainly not that elegant!). All I can say is that I hope CCTV enjoyed that.

I'll leave you with another funny incident... Whilst sitting on the tube waiting to leave a station the driver pipes up.. "This is the driver speaking, can the man with the push bike not get onto this train, it doesn't take push bikes".. *pause*.. "man with bike, please get off the train".. *pause*.. "this is the driver speaking, I will not move the train until the man with the bike gets off"..*pause*.. "Thank you, we may now depart the station."

Anyway, as mentioned, I have done a lot of charity shopping and I hope to be showing photo evidence of this at some point so watch this space!

Whilst you wait for my next blog please check out my two separate Etsy shops.

Arts and crafts shop:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ShedCreativity

And Vintage Shop:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/WheretobuyVintage

Bye for now!