Christmas Charity Shopping Swap!

This Christmas we took part in a vintage, thrifty and crafty gift swap courtesy of Faith, Hope & Charity Shopping. I was partnered up with Joy from Alex Drake Vintage, you can check out her blog here to see the items I sent her in return for my lovely gifts shown below.  

The parcel arrived wrapped in this lovely unusual bell design paper and I was super eager to tear it open and see what goodies were inside!

These lovely handmade xmas cards made from old vintage santa images are fab and helped me feel extra chrismassy this year.

I love this retro fabric cushion cover which I might actually use as a cushion.

I am a huge fan (as some of you may already know) of autumnal colours and also anything handknitted so this mohair scarf was perfect for me!

This framed print is lovely and I like the abstract design which looks like a castle on a hill overlooking the sea. Will be a great addition to my ever growing collection of old pictures.

As a super sweet touch Joy included a pressie for Tom. This narrow vintage Topman tie was a lovely thought and he was really chuffed to have been included in this great swap.

Thanks Joy! This has been my first blog swap experience and it's definitely got me ready to search for similar swaps and get involved.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and if I don't get the chance to post again until after this weekend...Happy New Year! Here's to a great 2012 full of exciting changes, challenges and fun times!

Loll
x

WAVE Rock 'n' Roll Christmas!

This Friday we're back with the WAVE Christmas Vintage & Craft Fair with a 50s Rock 'n' Roll theme. Come along to The Guildhall from 3pm until 8pm to enjoy some vintage shopping together with a selection of vintage style crafts, bop along to some 50s festive tunes and warm your cockles with a hot festive drink!

As we'll be open until 8pm it'll be perfect for some last minute xmas shopping after work!

See you there!

Loll
x

Worcester Vintage Pop-Up Shop!

We'll be hitting the high street again for one week only to open a pop up shop in The Gallery in Worcester City Centre. We will be teaming up with Second Hand Rose to bring you the best vintage Worcester has to offer for the duration of the Worcester Victorian Christmas Fayre. The shop will be open from Tuesday 29th November until Sunday 4th December and will be open late on Thursday and Friday to coincide with the Victorian Fayre.

We'll be filling the shop with some nice and cosy vintage clothes together with some hand picked curios and interesting old things. So come along and have a nosy!

https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/create/?eid=183759461715414

Loll
x

New old stuff on eBay!

Here are some pics of a few of my recent vintage treasure hunt finds! Pop over to our eBay shop and check these out and our other items for sale....maybe have a bid if you fancy anything!

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/toadstoolvintage

Loll

x

Pop Up Vintage Shop - Worcester!

The festive season is fast approaching!

This will be our first Christmas without the shop so we have decided to join up with Clare at Second Hand Rose and open a little pop up shop in the Market Hall on The Shambles in Worcester City Centre. We will be on the ground floor between the deli counter & the hairdressers and the shop will be open from Tuesday 29th November until Sunday 4th December (opening times to be confirmed). This coincides with the wonderful annual Victorian Fayre which will be taking place right outside our door! So why not pop in for a bit of a warm up and have a mooch around at some of our hand picked vintage goodies!

See you there!

Loll
x

New stock & Personal Treasures!

Over the past few weeks I've been a busy bee sourcing new stock and managing to pick up a few treasures for myself along the way...how could I resist! So here's some of my vintage finds....

These are a few of the goodies I picked up to sell on. I've developed quite an obsession with vintage cameras after buying my Rolleicord in St Ives a few weeks ago and now find them quite fascinating. I always enjoy finding a new thing to collect and hunt for on my thrifty treasure hunts! Check us out at our next event or visit our eBay shop if you fancy snapping any of these up!

It's a dangerous job this vintage trading....I just want to keep everything! So here are a few of the things I've managed to snaffle away for my own collection. A couple of weeks ago I did a quick dash round the charity shops in St Johns, on my way to visit a friend, and came home with these goodies. This jumper is a dark navy colour (the flash has made it look a brighter blue) and is handknitted in mohair. Great cosy find for this winter and I am loving blue things at the moment as they seem to go well with my blonde hair. So of course I couldn't resist this blue aztec belt which goes perfectly with the jumper. I got the two for just under £5 so can't go wrong at that price!

In the same shop I got very excited to find this picture, originally from M&S, which is the perfect partner for one I already have hanging in my lounge! I found my original one at a boot sale a couple of years ago and I love the wintry images and the look of happiness on the little girls faces even though they're working hard out in the cold. Look how great they look reuinted above my fireplace!

At the last Worcester Flea of the year I was very restrained and came home with just a few old postcards to add to my ever growing collection. I love the haunting sepia toned view over Windermere in the Lake District. These were a complete bargain as they cost me nothing! I did a swap with a stallholder for sometghing on my stall so a win win!

These two lovely goodies arrived this morning courtesy of eBay. I can't resist beautiful unusual vintage buttons and these art nouveau ones are stunning! Mounted in a metal surround they have a beautiful paisley design in enamel underneath clear glass. At just 99p they were an absolute steal!

As always I managed to find a few old books too.  

The red one is Weldon's Encyclopedia of Needlework which is jam packed full of hand embroidery stitches and even has some sections on crochet and knitting. It's in delicate condition but at £2 I can't complain.

The next one is a book of Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens from 1954. Great to get me in the Christmas mood and a perfect addition to my collection at just £1.

Lastly, this book is called Here Be Dragons which I'm really looking forward to reading. I love all things myth and legend and this book explores dragons in British folklore and looks at imagery and why such a mythical creature is used so commonly in British art & architecture. Should be an intriguing read!

Last Saturday I had the chance to visit a charity shop near to my old shop and found this lovely floral tapestry for just £1! I did originally buy it to sell on but I fell in love with it so I'm going to have to find a gap on my wall somewhere so I can enjoy it.

I have been on the hunt recently for some old empty photo albums to house my ever increasing postcard collection and was so chuffed to find this in a local charity shop! Perfect home for my precious vintage postcards and just £1!

Last but not least is my favourite find. It looks from the outside like a plain leather notebook case but it's in lovely condition inside and has this wonderful calender which you can adjust to match the current month. Such a nice little feature! I managed to find a notebook that would fit inside and now it's going to live happily in my handbag.

Well that's all for now folks. Hope you enjoyed looking through some of my treasures!

Loll

x

Worcester Flea - last one of 2011!

This Sunday (6th Nov) is the last Worcester Flea of this year so come along and have a nosey round all the old and interesting things for sale.

We will have a stall full of goodies from handknit jumpers to old tins and books so come and check us out.

The Flea will be back with a bang next year starting on Sunday 4th March 2012 and will carry on running on the first Sunday of the month each month after that as usual.

Loll

x

WAVE spookiness!

On Saturday WAVE was back with a bang with our annual Halloween Vintage & Craft Fair. We had a great selection of stallholders from seasoned regulars to a few new faces.

Here's Julie from Charmed I'm Sure who got into the Halloween spirit and brought along some wonderful vintage goodies and handmade gifts.  

Here I am in my attempt at a Halloween vintage style. I love my orange tights that I found on eBay by Pretty Polly, I can't believe someone bought them and never wore them!



This lovely lady agreed to have her photo taken after she bought and wore these amazing original 70s rock'n'roll skintight trousers from our stall.  

As it was Halloween we wanted to award those that made the best effort with their costumes and the lovely ladies from G&G Vintage won the prize. Here is the witch and her witch's cat proudly accepting their pumpkin sweetie goodie bags as their prize.

As usual I kept my eye out for some bargains and managed to pick up some goodies for myself.

First up was this lovely reworked dress by Dirty Pretty. It was a tough choice between two designs but I opted for this lovely blue knit one and am looking forward to wearing it this winter with a nice white long sleeve tee underneath.

One of my favourite regular stalls is that of Angela Carstairs. She has a lovely eclectic mix of old books & handknitted accessories and I managed to pick up this beautiful children's book by Robert Louis Stevenson, which is filled with great illustrations, together with a handmade badge of a map of St Ives. Bargain at just £2 for the book and 50p for the badge. These super cute acorn buttons were found at the bottom of a tub full of vintage buttons on the stall of the lovely Marie Underwood. They will make a welcome addition to my ever expanding button collection.

Below are some of the beautiful illustrations from the book. My fave has got to be the one with all the fairies!

Hope to see you all at the next WAVE Vintage & Craft Fair on Friday 16th December for some Christmas celebrations!

Loll

xx

My favourite blogs and websites.

When I started trading in vintage over three years ago the vintage scene was very different. Vintage shops were few and far between and the general public weren't keen on second hand shopping unless it was designer or in absolute mint condition. Nowadays (look at me sounding like an old woman!) it's a completely different industry. In those days sourcing vintage items was a best kept secret whereas now people can't wait to spill the beans on their latest bargain purchase or treasure that they've discovered at a jumble sale or boot sale, me invluded!  

As promised here is a list of the blogs that I regularly follow both for my own interest and to help me keep in touch with the vintage world.

• First up is an obvious one, as part of Worcester Arts and Vintage Events (WAVE) our blog helps all our regular stallholders and customers to keep up with what events we have planned and general goings on in the WAVE world.

http://worcestervintage.blogspot.com/

• Next up is the blog of my friend and fellow WAVEster Jo Bourke (aka Jo Waterhouse in her work environment). Jo and I have alot in common from our passion for hunting out all things old, quirky and interesting to our love for tattoo artwork both on and off the skin.

http://jowaterhouse.blogspot.com/

 

• This blog is owned by another friend that we have made through running the shop and being part of WAVE, Greg Dunn. He is a super talented and creative local artist who works alot with recycled materials such as wood and metal. We had the great opportunity to sell some of his pieces in our shop a while ago and they were very popular. Now Greg is fulfilling his dream by studying  for his MA in Fine Art at The Birmingham Institute of Art and Design and is expanding his techniques to include the patination and manipulation of copper.

http://dunn-roaming.blogspot.com/

• Next up is the style blog of two lovely ladies up in Leeds, Miss Heather Rogers and Miss Claire Bissell who run a lovely little vintage shop in The Corn Exchange called Mad Elizabeth. After bumping into each other at many fairs around the country we've built a friendship and I'm super proud of them for expanding their vintage business so quickly and for the amount of hard work they've put in.

https://marketplace.asos.com/boutique/mad-elizabeth/blog

• Next I had to add the style blog of the lovely, and super stylish, Claire Bissell of Mad Elizabeth. View the vintage world through the eyes of a shop owner!

http://thischarmingstyle.blogspot.com/2011/10/today-im-wearing.html

• This blog is written by a lovely curvy girl who runs a shop called Hummingbird Vintage Boutique. It's always interesting to read what's going on in the lives of people with similar interests or who live similar lives and this is a great one for that.

http://humming-bird-vintage.blogspot.com/

 

• I love to read this blog! The writer, Fleur, has a passion for the 40s and it's wonderful to see what amazing looks and outfits she comes up with. It's an interesting read and the pictures are fab!

http://www.diaryofavintagegirl.com/

• This next blog is from all the way over the oceon in the good ole USA. It's great to see that people who live thousands of miles away still get the same joy from finding treasures at local garage sales and it's interesting to see what kind of thing they consider to be a treasure over there. Great fun to read!

http://apronthriftgirl.typepad.com/apron_thrift_girl/

• Next up is a great blog called A Thrifty Mrs which is packed full of hints and tips on how to lead a frugal lifestyle in England.

http://www.athriftymrs.com/p/about.html

• This blog has to have a mention as it's written by a girl after my own heart! She also has a passion for second hand shopping and baking so it's a must read one for me.

  

http://faithhopeandcharityshopping.blogspot.com/

• Next up is a blog written by a lovely lady called Caddy (aka Annie to her blog readers). We met at a vintage fair in Leamington a few months ago and after chatting to her, and her duaghter Amy, for a while we realised that she had recently written a lovely post on her blog about one of our WAVE Vintage & Craft Fairs that she had recently visited. What a coincedence!

http://thefeltfairyuk.blogspot.com/

• To go with my above post, this is the blog of Caddy's daughter Amy (who had the stall at the Leamington Fair). Amy sells a great selection of vintage kitchenalia and collectables and also organises a vintage and craft fair in Warwick.

http://blightyboutiquevintageandhandmadefair.blogspot.com/

 

• Lastly, this blog is a firm favourite of mine. It's written by a lady called Kat who has a similar passion to me for charity shopping and general thrifting. She's brilliant at keeping the blog up to date regularly and it's a pleasure to read.

 http://katgotthecream.blogspot.com/

Phew! After that mammoth post I'm signing off to get ready for our next fair on Saturday.

Loll

xx