I'M FREE!

No, I don't mean in the Mr. Humphries way (goodness, I'm showing my age now) but rather in the arms outstretched, embracing the world type of free. After being almost stranded in the house because of the weather, I finally got to the charity shops at the end of last week for the first trip of the year, and it felt WONDERFUL!

The kids were at school, M was at work, the dinner prepared and slow-cooking in the oven so I went SHOPPING.

Three of our local charity shops are what true charity shops ought to be - a place where you can pick up a real bargain. Others, who shall remain nameless, charge so much I am convinced that top, or that skirt was cheaper the first time around in Primark. Anyway, this gilet in Oxfam was my first buy and is in the washing machine as I write. I think the best colour to go with this would be a soft dove gray. What do you think? (Remember - I don't do pink):

Every other Christmas when my family are here, we say 'next time, we'll put all the vegetables in tureens and let people help themselves' (we usually dish out for them in the kitchen), but it never happens. Next year it will because I found this large tureen which should be big enough to hold the roasties:




A set of four strawberry forks which my daughter pointed out will be just the thing for 'dipping the strawberries in the chocolate fondue that we always have on Valentine's day' (don't think I didn't recognise this subtle reminder for what it was).

This delightful creature will be wrapped and put away until the autumn:

I thought this print was sweet:

And a collection of books. As usual, the books were the first things I found, so I asked if I could leave them behind the counter and come back to collect them:

Some of the designs in the Craft Collection may be out of date but the techniques won't be. M likes Eva Cassidy, so I got her life story for him. Planet Earth I was particularly pleased to get for my son. I rarely find things for him (high tech stuff doesn't appear very often second-hand!). The spine hasn't even been creased. Neither has the Start Crochet. My friend knew I was having difficulty find the Art of Crochet magazine, so treated me to this book. She was charged £1 for three books - wow! The Accidental Gardener is very amusing as well as being helpful, and last but not least, Looney Tunes - the ultimate visual guide. Fantastic.

I know some of you have been out there already and I've been reading about your finds. Treasure hunting is just so much fun!

Blessings,

Andi xx