Making Good Use

One Day ....

.... it'll be warm enough to wear summery tops again.  It seems impossible at the moment - what with the sub-zero temperatures, snow flurries and icy wind-chill - but, fingers crossed, one day it will be considerably warmer and I'll get to wear these rather tasty summer tops I found in a charity shop yesterday.  Somebody - who is the same size as me - had obviously been having a wardrobe clear-out and I was delighted to be able to boost my summer top collection as a result.

A lovely silky, floaty cream top with a print of

goldfish - or maybe with their frilly tails they're guppies (not entirely sure which if that's correct.)

An Evans top with a vibrant feather print.  Not entirely sure about this one as square necklines don't entirely suit me but once it's washed I'll try it on and see what I think.  If I'm not convinced it's for me, I'll try it on ebay.

And a plain but useful long-sleeved navy top (I know, it looks grey in the photo).  I don't have many summer-weight long-sleeved tops so this should prove useful in the spring.

They all came from the same rail in the same charity shop and cost £3.95 each, add to that a pair of black straight-leg Evans jeans I also bought in another charity shop - for £4.00 - and I spent a massive £15.85 on clothes for me.  I don't spend that sort of money in one go very often - but then I don't very often find so many nice items in my size these days either.  Goodness knows how much that little lot would have cost me new - I suspect the jeans alone would have been £25 and the Evans top a similar price!!

 

Evening Sun

With the slowly-but-surely lengthening days, I've discovered that the hills and fields we can see in the distance from the front bedroom window really catches the evening sun.

 

This is the view looking straight out of the window.  There are a couple of large white houses hidden away in fields and trees in the distance and, despite having grown up in this area, I have absolutely no idea where they are - they look to be lovely sizeable properties and must really benefit from the evening sunshine.

This is the view if you look to the right.  The hills in the distance are the start of the Cotswolds - though I could wish that enormous tree in the foreground didn't interrupt my view quite so much.

And this is the view to the left - which is especially for Maureen as just to the right of the central TV aerial is the spire of Mangotsfield church hidden amongst the trees with the evening sun just catching it.  Hope you can make it out, Maureen.

It is a view and a half from this house and it really makes up for living on such a precipitous hill.  It is even wonderful at night as you can see the headlights of cars flashing and sparkling in the distance as they wend their way along country roads.

Little Things

I haven't had much success with thrifting these last couple of weeks - though I did find a rather nice pure linen Ann Harvey dress, never worn, and in my size, for a meagre £4.50 recently.  I bought it with the idea of selling it on ebay in the spring but, having tried it on, I think I'll keep hold of it.  Sadly, scores like that are getting more and more difficult to find as charity shops (at least round here) seem to be filled with George, Tu, Primark and M&Co cheap and nasty cast offs - often ludicrously over-priced and well worn.

A small trip to Redfield (a suburb of Bristol) with my Mum yesterday did result in me finding this lovely stripy pure wool scarf which is in great condition and was handmade in Nepal.  It was languishing in a basket of various scarves and hats and something about it just shouted 'quality' to me and, more importantly, not made in nasty manmade fibres and produced in a Far Eastern sweat shop.  For only 50p I was delighted with it, especially the bright colours and its luxuriant fringes.

The other useful find was a set of three Champneys body butters for £2.00.  I'm going through body butter like a maniac this winter.  I think it may have something to do with finally living in a really warm centrally heated house - though we do have industrial-sized humidifiers on the radiators which I religiously keep filled with water.  Having spent a few days at Champneys two years ago, I know their products are fabulous quality and by no means cheap - so this was another bargain I was delighted to find.  How's your thrifting going these days?

Bit of a B*gger

Yesterday, whilst perusing one of the local charity shops with Mum, I struck what I thought was vintage gold.

Three really 'groovy' 1970s M&S cotton bedcovers - one double and two single, each in a different colourway.  There was no price on them but when I asked I was told they were £2.49 each.  That seemed a very fair price to me and I bought all three.  My plan was to resell them on ebay - hopefully for a nice profit.

This morning I thought I'd give them a whirl through the washing machine and get them out on the line whilst it wasn't raining - which I did.

As I was hanging them out I realised each and every one of them has been used as a dust sheet whilst someone had been painting with white emulsion.  They are all peppered with tenny tiny spots of white paint.  B*gger, b*gger, b*gger!!  Not quite sure what I'll do with them now.  Apart from the teeny paint spots they are in lovely nick and the print is amazing - perhaps I'll try selling them at 'The Travelling Flea' as picnic blankets or maybe I'll try and get rid of the paint spots somehow - anyone got any good tips for that?  B*gger, again!!

Whoops, There Goes Another One

Soooo, there goes another week in the blinking of an eye - where does the time go?  In some ways it seems like only yesterday that P set off to Hong Kong but it has in fact been almost ten weeks - yay, only another 14 weeks to go 'til we can see each other again - though in other ways it seems like forever since I watched his taxi disappearing down the hill.  I think we're both still in a state of shock that we've actually had to be separated for six whole months in order for P to find a job in his field of expertise - really, when I take the time to think about, it seems unbelievably ridiculous - and unfair - that we've ended up in this situation.  But there we go, it is how it is and we're both trying to make the best of the situation.

Anyway, I've been keeping myself busy making some cards for the 'Travelling Flea Market' in a few weeks time.  I must say, putting the cards into cellophane envelopes makes them look an awful lot more professional.

I went to a local table top sale on Saturday and found quite a few nice bits and bobs, including a rather pretty Paperchase laptop case for £2.00.  I would like to keep it for myself but as I never take my laptop anywhere outside of the house it'll no doubt end up on ebay.  Despite the lack of boot sales at this time of year (and in this area), I've managed to keep finding reasonable items for reselling on ebay - which is good.

One of my best sellers recently was this vintage gent's Tootal dressing gown which I found at the local Sally Army charity shop.  Unusually for this type of dressing gown it was pure cotton which may be one of the reasons why it sold so well.

So I'm trying to pass the time as usefully as possible and, luckily for me, it does seem to be passing pretty quickly.  Still no reply to my job application ten days ago - why am I not surprised! - so I may put a 'work wanted' ad on Gumtree and see if anything comes from that.  If I manage to get some paid work, hopefully the next 14 weeks will pass even more quickly.