I'm back! Battersea boot fair and charity shops

Hi all!

I'm back! It has been a busy few months, I had no time to think about blogging and my brain seemed frazzled. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things.

Last week me and Julia went back to visit Battersea boot sale. It wasn't as big as it usually is but that was expected due to the recent weather. We still came away with some lovely things, and obviously as usual I come away with regret because I didn't buy a pretty coat I saw. It always happens.

Here are a few things that I did come away with.

I originally wasn't too keen on the colour of this dress, I never wear blue but I just couldn't resist buying it as it has a squirrel print on it and is a lovely shape. It was a lot more than what I would usually pay (£5), but I knew that Battersea boot sale prices were higher than normal ones. The labels inside is cut out so I am not sure where it is originally from..although the fact she cut the labels out makes me think it's primark lol.

At the bottom of this box of random bits and bobs I found this doll thing with a pear outfit on. It's very random and creepy but I love it, plus it was only 50p.

I did purchase some other items but they aren't very interesting, plus most the other bits were for Mike (I'm such a lovely wife hehe). After the boot sale, me and Julia drove past some charity shops so we decided to pop in. There were 3 charity shops a few doors apart from each other and I managed to buy something from each one. These Vivienne Westwood badges were at the bottom of a box of cosmetics, they were 25p each! I'll never wear them but it's always exciting to find stuff like this :)

The first two figurines weren't bought from a charity shop but were bought recently from a friend on Instagram who has her own shop in Cornwall (hoping to make a visit to her shop in the summer). Check out her shop on Facebook Fine & Dandy. I had specifically been after ornaments of these characters for a while so it was meant to be when I saw she had two for sale. Strangely enough, the larger ornament was from one of the charity shops. It was such a strange coincidence considering I had only just received the smaller ones in the post recently. Now they live happily on the fireplace in our living room :)


The last item I bought from one of the charity shops was a Slipknot t-shirt, ha! I used to be quite the fan of them when I was a teenager. It was only 50p so I thought, why not? ;-)

Boot sale and charity shop haul

It's been a while since I've done a boot sale/charity shop haul post, so I present to you a couple of items from one of my latest hauls. And yes, I am attempting to go to boot sales over winter, although I don't really to expect to find much. And unfortunately for Mike he won't be getting any lie-ins just yet.

This nightie dress was originally down to almost my ankles. I got it shortened and it is now one of my favourite dresses. I feel like a doll whenever I wear it. It cost me £1.50.

This nightie was also almost down to my ankles, got it shortened and voilà. It cost me around £2 or so from a charity shop.

Another dress which I got shortened (Are you seeing a pattern here?). It has a sailor/tennis girl theme to it which is quite contrasting. I love the collar though. It cost £1.50 from a boot sale.

And finally, I bought this crazy jumper from an indoor boot sale for £3.00. I think it was an impulse buy as I was drawn in by the sleeves. Haven't had a chance to wear it yet so I'm not sure if it's a keeper yet lol.

Anyone else going to attempt to go to any winter boot sales?

Another haul

I'm going to introduce a new feature to my blog about local jumble sales and boot sales that are on every week, I'll be starting it from next week so look out for that as well as reviews on different boot sales in the area which I will be also starting soon.
My latest haul is a mixture of boot sale, jumble sale and charity shop goodies. The weather has been awful recently so I've given Mike a break from dragging him to early morning boot sales and we've had some nice lie-ins. I think he deserves it! These stripey shorts were originally some really unflattering jeans, you know the type? 80's high waist that make your hips look huge. I saw huge potential in these and decided to cut them up. Topshop do a similar pair with thinner stripes for £32. Mine only cost me £3.50!

I went to a jumble sale on Saturday. I got there at around 1.30 and was a bit early as it started at 2pm so me and Mike were going to chill out in the car but then we saw the queue which was already crazy long so we decided we might as well queue up as well. It was actually quite large inside and stretched over two rooms and even had furniture outside. I managed to pick up this sheep jumper for only 30p.

Lastly just two boot sale purchases. Bought this amazing shirt for 50p from a women who said that it belonged to her friend who bought it from Paris yonks ago. The collar has a cute little hedgehog and mushrooms embroidered onto it. How cute right? and to top if off the buttons are made to look like logs and hedgehogs.


I also purchased this binoculars bag for 50p. It's a really good size for keeping my instax camera in.

I love macarons

I love it when Urban Outfitters donates to the Greenwich & Bexley Cottage Hospice charity shop because you can always pick up some major bargains. In the past I have seen brand new dresses with a RRP of £60 being sold for £4. I highly recommend trying to find out if any of your local charity shops get donated stock. On my recent visit I managed to pick up this macaron cook book for only £1. Hopefully at some point I can get round to making some of these. Watch this space...



Speaking of macarons, I also purchased this set of macaron lip balms from Accessorize. I admit that I am a sucker for cute packaging and was drawn in immediately, although note that Accessorize have wrote macaron wrong and have got confused with a macaroon which is a coconut type cake thing. I wish they would get more macaron themed items in.

Outfit of the day

Coat-Jovonnista via Ebay, Faux fur collar-Accessorize, Jumper-Zara, Lace collar blouse-Miss Selfridge, Polka Dot Skirt-Zara via charity shop, Boater hat broach-Charity shop, Creepers-Underground, Bag-Vivienne Westwood.

This is what I wore to pop over to Greenwich. The coat was a major steal at £5.20 including postage, I had to resew a button or two but apart from that it's great! I think the reason why I got it so cheap was because the seller simply listed the coat as 'ladies winter coat-size 8'. They also spelt the name of the designer wrong in the description. I did some research on this particular coat and it still retails at £50-£85. Yay! I teamed the coat with this faux fur collar I bought from the Accessorize 70% off sale. The jumper was from the Zara sale and the lace blouse underneath is Miss Selfridge. I love teaming jumpers up with collars! The cute little boater hat broach was a recent purchase from a charity shop, it cost me £2.99. I wouldn't usually pay that much for a broach but I think it's so sweet. The polka dot skirt is originally Zara but I purchased it from a charity shop, it was a lucky find as I have been wanting this skirt for a while now.

Happy New Year!

I thought it would be quite nice to do a round-up of a few of my favourite second hand purchases (charity shops and boot sales combined) from 2011. Obviously I have so many buys that I wanted to include in this but tried to dwindle it down as much as I could otherwise it would be like a jigsaw puzzle trying to piece the photos together.

Baby pink Dr Martens, Bell jar, Lace peter pan collar blouse, Chanel atomiser, Glass locket, Crystal ball ring, Mini ballet shoes from Royal Opera House, Peter rabbit jumper, Fuji instax 7 mini camera, Vivienne Westwood purse, Tapestry jewellery box, Corduroy red dress, Bleach effect high waist shorts with lace, Blythe bag.

Let's hope 2012 brings lots of treasures.

The thrift fairy

Wow, doesn't time fly? My last entry was at the beginning of the month and now it is almost Christmas. Shopping centres are full of busy people on the hunt for presents. To be honest, I would prefer to buy presents during the sales if I could. Makes more sense money-wise, right?

The thrift fairy has been good to me recently and yesterday I bought this Canon lens for £3.00. Who can turn down such a great offer? I spent a lot of yesterday taking snaps of my beautiful new dress which I bought a few weeks ago from another charity shop for £4.00. It was actually from the kids section and is aged 9-10, but because of the babydoll shape it fits bigger sizes. It's a wonderful corduroy material and reminds me of Christmas lol. The lace collar is actually detachable and was given to me by my wonderful friend Julia. It's the perfect match, don't you think?

Mystic ball

Sorry for the delay in posting. I have been feeling very down in the dumps recently and have been slobbing around in my PJ's eating pringles.
Here is a beautiful ring which I picked up for £1.00 in the Eleanor Lions hospice charity shop recently. The colours are amazing and change colours from certain angles, from clear to blue, to pinks and reds. It reminds me of a mystical ball or something. Such a precious little piece and I was so happy to have found it for a great price because I know a lot of charity shops price jewellery up quite a bit. It's a tiny bit too big for me but I still wear it. I am used to wearing big rings, even my engagement ring is still too big after having it sized smaller to a custom size.

Thrifty designer goods

I picked up this beautiful Vivienne Westwood purse for only £4.50 from the charity shop British Heart Foundation. My lovely friend Sara tipped me off about it one evening and the following morning I made the mad dash to claim it. It has a couple of marks and has clearly been used but I don't mind. I remember I once read a story about someone finding a Vivienne Westwood ring in a charity shop for £5 and never thought anything remotely similar would happen to me so I am very grateful for this purchase.



I also ventured to a local jumble sale. I don't usually have much luck with jumble sales but as boot sales are coming to a close I am trying to go to more jumble sales to feed my thrifty addiction. I spotted a huge table of 20p clothing but after about 10 minutes of hunting through and arm ache I gave up. Luckily I didn't leave empty handed and found this 1980's Chanel no.19 atomiser for a mere 30p! Despite the bottle inside being empty I just couldn't walk away.

Charity shop purchase

I love going to charity shops, although I don't really do much charity shopping in summer as I go to boot sales instead which are 10 times cheaper. I get slightly put off by charity shops selling Primark clothing for £3. But if you look hard enough you will find a gem of a bargain like this beautiful lace collared blouse for £2.95 in the Ellenor Hospice Care shop. It's very sheer so will have to wear a vest top underneath but is still such a great buy. It will look great with the collar poking out of jumpers and cardigans in winter.
I am really hoping to get some outfit posts going, things have been so hectic recently which is a huge change to usual.