Charity Shop Treasures

First of all I will start with a huge cuddle and thanks to CaityHeartsFashion over at I Heart... for the 'Tell me About Yourself, Your Blog is Great' Award! Thank you so so much and I think now is a good time to apologise to all my neighbours for the screaming that went on when I found out, also to my cat who was trying to sleep at the time. I was given this award a couple of months ago too, so I can't believe that I have been nominated again, and that is without bribing anyone with sweets! So check out my 7 random facts in this post here A nosey into the life of the Second Hand Rose and I send the award back to the lovely CaityHeartsFashion, I love seeing her outfits and what she is getting up to,but don't worry honey I'm not stalking you, well not yet anyway.

Changing the subject, I wanted to show you all what I bought last week. Before you all start telling me that I'm meant to be saving and have too many clothes (I'm talking about you Mummy and Daddy Second Hand Rose) oh and Mr.Boyfriend (how dare he), the things I bought are actually from my eternal love that are charity shops. My Mum and I decided to go on a little bargain hunt and sniff out  some decent things that we could wear or use to make things. We went into my local Marie Curie charity shop, which is obviously a great cause and helps a lot of people. I.e It makes you feel better about coffing up your pennies because you are helping people.

We walked past the shop, not intending to go in, sorry but the cheap local wool shop was calling and I looked in the window and squealed. I did get some funny looks but in the window was a huge shoe, and when I say huge I mean gigantic, a giant would probably have to wear two sets of insoles in it. It was a black open toe heel and it was a huge jewellery holder with lots of places for rings and all those glittery things that are now stacked in a heap on my chest of draws. Unfortunately it was only for show, but it made me drag my mum in to see what other beauties they had in there. The good thing is that the place didn't smell! We all know and have smelt that charity shop smell which has made me breathe in and practically go purple for years. So it meant that I could breathe normally for a change, so that was a plus.

My Mum and I had a great time looking in there and we came across the button/zip box which was literally an Aladdin's cave, cue the giddiness. Mummy Second Hand Rose is very very talented and makes the most amazing bags and is the person to go to for any sewing help. She made her first dress at four years old and has continued to teach herself sewing and used to make beautiful wedding dresses for people. When I was younger she made the most amazing sets of clothes for me, so I always looked in fashion when I went to a three year olds birthday party.

 Due to her being sewing savvy it was a fight for the button box. We did get a bit of a weird look from the old lady behind the counter, when we both dived our hands into the box scrambling for the buttons. My Mum found some big wooden buttons for her bags and some green sequins. She also got some pearl coloured small buttons but they may accidentally go missing, sorry Mummy Second Hand Rose. I got some gorgeous old 40s wire buttons and some big silver buttons with a gold pattern in the middle. During my scavenger hunt I also found some gorgeous coloured zips that were a burnt orange and a pale pastel blue. My mum asked me what I was going to use them for i.e. She wanted them for my bags so  I had to make up a design on the spot. The truth is I have no idea what I am going to use them for yet, but I'm in love with them. And yes I know its a bit sad to be in love with a couple of zips, but that's how I roll. We asked the woman how much our mountain of goodies came to and she said 'oh just put a donation in the charity box.' Queue squealing and excessive dancing.

Next we looked in the scarves box. I am always on the look out for scarves to use as ties for my head due to my laziness of doing something with my hair. I didn't find any that fit my head, seriously ladies and gentleman I do have the biggest head on this earth. It may not look it and it may be cleverly disguised with my big earrings and fluffy hair, but I do have a mountain of a head. I can never find a hat in Accessorize, I have spent a lot of time trying to squeeze my head into a gorgeous baker boy style hat, but it turns out its not as easy as breathing in and pulling a zip together like you do with a pair of jeans, you sadly can't squeeze your head into a hat, trust me I have certainly tried.

So because they didn't have a mile length of fabric to fit around my head, I got a gorgeous pastel green hankerchief for £1. As you can probably tell, I'm really into pastels at the moment, which probably isn't very good since I look like an albino. I'm going to stuff it into my already over flowing fabric box to use at a later date. Looking at it now it actually goes well with the zip I bought, so I definitely think I will be able to come up with something, therefore mits off Mummy Second Hand Rose.

In the jewellery section I found a gorgeous dark blue velvet pearl style necklace that ties up with a ribbon for £1. That will go very nicely with my 40s style blouses and 50s style skirts and dresses thank you very much. At the moment I'm in love with brooches, I can't get enough of them! I wear them on jackets, skirts, dresses, tops, coats and in my hair on a scarf, my dad always taught me to get my money's worth. I found this gorgeous 'Love' brooch with a red stone above the 'e' and a lovely sparkly flower one both for a £1. Now that's what I call bargain hunting, David Dickinson would be proud.

Now on the clothes side of things there were a few things that made me gasp, but sadly they didn't fit. There was an amazing real 80s red power jacket, you know the ones women used to wear to try and fit in with the yuppies, well this one had big black buttons with big shoulders and was very tempting. I fell in love with it and when I saw the price tag, £10 I simply had to try it on. I got from my mum 'It won't fit, it won't fit.' In other words she wanted it, she's not very subtle our Mummy Second Hand Rose. Sadly she was right, dam and it looked too big on me, it was an old size 16 so probably now a 12-14 and even a couple of nifty darts wouldn't rescue it and give it a new lease of life in my all ready over crowded wardrobe. So power yuppy dressing wasn't for me that day, sorry Del Boy.

I had a look round and some gorgeous silk chinese material caught my eye. Now when I go to a charity shop, espescially with Mummy Second Hand Rose, we don't just look at clothes, we look at clothes to disect for material. We stand in a shop feeling the fabric, checking the linings, turning them inside out and either moaning and tutting or contemplating how good the hem is and what we could use it for. Now the dress I found will probably not fit me and isn't really my style, but I simply loved this royal blue satin material. It has a gorgeous striped decorated lining too, none of this crappy plain stuff that comes undone in a second. I've always loved the japanese style designs and I simply adore the venetian masquerade mask art so anything like that makes me grab it and head for the till. I got the dress for £6 and I can't wait to turn it into a corset or a skirt or maybe even a pillow for my cat. Yes, my cat is very spoilt.

After staggering around the shop now with my arms full I went to look at the books. I always do this because you can get some amazing books in charity shops. You can also get some great records in there, but sadly there weren't any in there this time. This was probably a good thing because I would have probably bought them all. So there I was looking at the books, secretly hoping I would find a first edition to pay for a holiday next year, but the only thing I could find was a Bob the Builder book and a bent Harry Potter book. I don't think they would even pay for a night in a hotel in Bognor, yeah no thanks.

The guy standing next to me was looking at a book with pictures of children in the war in and he started talking to me about how awful it was for those children and how awful they looked and he started full on talking about the war. He was my very own Uncle Albert from Only Fools and Horses, but sadly without the fluffy white beard. He told me all about his Christmas's after the war and how awful it is, I mean what do you say to that? An awful Christmas to us these days is one without a tin of Quality Street and only one bottle of mulled wine.

My mum came over and rescued me before I was whisked away for a coffee and a history lesson. I decided to get the book which was only £1 because I love learning about the war and how people lived through it. I will be blogging about it closer to Christmas and making you all feel lucky that you don't just get a handful of nuts in your stocking and are not subjected to mock turkey, trust me it doesn't look good. So my day was filled with great bargains and being chatted up by a 70 year old. Match.com eat your heart out.

Second Hand Rose
XxxX