Thrifty Thursday: Renovating

This one has been done for a while now but like any desk it attracted piles of crap the second it was usable. Today I shuffled the crap off it and gave it a quick dust down.

We found the desk one night after I'd left Oxfam and picked Stephen up from work. It had a sign saying 'this is free' on it and we stopped to look. Almost immediately the owners came out to give us it's complete history and to beg us, once more, to take it.

Okay then! It then became my project. First I attacked it with sand paper (Father Christmas, are you listening? I want a bloody belt sander this year! My arms ached for days) then I touched up the varnish and gave the side panels and the inside some of this cute wallpaper.

It's my desk. I had grand visions of settling the household accounts on them. Reckoning up the bills, paying the scullery maid. But even if we had a scullery maid Stephen would be in charge of paying her. He can actually tell numbers apart.

So I use it for two things, Guide programme planning and book storage. Both of which are fine by me. Especially with my big stack of adventure 100 booklets on it!

Garden Paths

Short skirts. Me. Me + short skirt = ?

Ordinarily I keep to above the knee. There are a few reasons why; one is that I really don’t like to wear anything I can’t bend over in and the other is that I can still remember that when I was ten my Mum said I had chicken legs.

There have been lapses in my above the knee rule. I remember trying to sneak out of Tom’s (remember him?) parent’s house without them seeing my dangerously short skirted lolita inspired dress. As I passed through the streets of London one man called me Cinderella but I remained self conscious the entire time. I simultaneously thought my legs looked ugly and was worried by the extra male attention. The dress was a work of art, I hadn’t the confidence for it.

It’s been two years since then and I don’t know what has changed. I actually wanted a short skirt. Shorter skirt, I’m not the type of person that would regularly wear something I couldn’t bend over in. I suppose I feel less ashamed of my appearance, not because it changed at all but because I’m working on the principal that I’d rather live than worry about it.

So when I saw this skirt on the Oxfam racks I was open to it. It is black, it’s slightly ruffley, it’s got lace and unfinished edges. Perfect skirt, even missing an inch or two. £7.99 from Oxfam, picture taken in the front garden by Stephen.

It's not funny!

I’m not sure of the story behind these but the instant I saw them I knew that they where a once in a lifetime thrifty find. This is no dress, no book, this is a set of green balls. I’m told the same effect can be achieved with copper underpants but you couldn’t decorate with them. You knew it was going to happen.

The original plan was to paint them purples and then hang them in Stephen’s room but since we have plans, and now a mortgage, for a flat then I guess I’ll put them in another colour and hang them there.

I have no idea if it’s part of a fast food restaurant, a very funky persons home, or a piece of recycled dalekanium but I had to have it. The price, if I remember right was 6.99 from the PDSA shop in Torquay. But where else can you find another one?

I've not got a head for numbers...

“making the creation and possessorship of a good hat possible for any woman with clever fingers” Elizabeth Bowen

Today’s thrifty Thursday wasn’t terribly thrifty ay £14.99. I was, in fact, quite extravagant. But it’s an ancient millinery book. I like hats, I like vintage clothes, I can’t afford hats, I definitely can’t afford vintage hats. So I was thinking the right thoughts.

Oddly enough what attracted me to this book was the introduction by Elizabeth Bowen, mainly because I thought I had something by her in my to be read pile. I was mistaken but my eyes travelled up and I saw the word millinery. Judging by the introduction Bowen should go in my to be read pile.

Aside from the entertaining introduction there are sections on measurements, tools, caps (sectional, not baseball), beret, felt hats, straw hats, turbans and trimmings. There are so many different styles and variations that I felt like jumping up and down with excitement. There is even a section on historical hats for the theatre.

Much has been said about how confusing vintage craft books can be. Not so here, with it’s simple instructions and goal of simplifying and popularising hat making it reads like a slightly more formal stitch and bitch.

All in all £15 well spent.

“Let this book be your guide to the Good Hat.” Elizabeth Bowen

Stress of summer dresses

There was something really terrible about dresses this summer. I actually went into a few shops prepared to pay full price for a new one and they where all too ugly. Autumn has brought some dresses with the annual Goth revival and the thing about ruffles but summer? Summer sucked.

Luckily I picked this one up for £4.99 in Scope in Torquay. Beautiful dress, sequins, embroidery, shirring… the woman who took the cash off me said she bet that it would suit me, boyfriend said it’s ‘cutes’ and I love it. Pictures in the garden.

It's a new blog feature!

Other on the other blog we do something called wild Wednesdays. This is thrifty Thursday. I’m going to brag about a thrifty find, something second hand whether vintage, thrifted or dumpster dived.  This week is a Chinese-inspired top form Monsoon. 45% silk and £7.99 in the local Oxfam. Good bless them. I found the top when I went in to inquire about volunteering. I get the feeling helping out there will cost me more money. The pictures where taken by Stephen in Cockington. Poses are my own.