Bowler hats and beauty buys

Hello again! Wow, on it aren't I? Two posts in a matter of days!

To be honest I haven't got a great deal else to do as I'm off work for a week or so because I'm waiting for my CRB check to come through (another annoyance of working at an airport!).

You will also be pleased to hear that I got a marketing internship after Thursday's interview. Though, in a strange twist of events, it isn't with the charity that I applied for. They (the charity) thought another candidate was better suited to the organisation; however one of the interviewers liked me so much that she wants me to intern at her company!

So yeah, off work for the time being, I took some sneaky photos whilst I was alone in the flat yesterday because I rather liked my outfit (N.B: I was popping out to town- I DON'T look like this when lounging about doing nothing). Here it is...

Bowler hat: £3, Primark; Earrings: 50p, car boot sale; Leather Jacket: Topshop sale; Top: Topshop;  Bag:  £8,  vintage fair; Arty-a-like: eBay; Belt: 50p, charity shop; Shorts: £5, COW vintage Bham (bought as jeans); Shoes: Aldo

I've been messing about on Photoshop as I'd like to get into editing my photos more and giving them more of a vintage look. Constructive criticism appreciated!

I love this bag and totally forgot about it, isn't finding old stuff in your wardrobe awesome?

Beauty-ful Buys


Yes so beauty! Not my usual forté ey?

A little something about me: I love ANYTHING coconut flavoured/scented and I have scoured the earth (okay, several shops in England) for a decent, but not expensive (I still refuse to pay what the Body Shop charge for most of their smellies!) coconut shower wash.

Ladies... I believe I have found the answer.

I spotted this new range in Bodycare and thought I'd give it a go. I got the shower cream at 79p (I believe) and the dry shampoo at, I think, £1.49.

I can confirm that both products are excellent! The shower cream is amazing value for money- it's really rich, with loads of lather and smells amazing!

The dry shampoo was impressive too. It's a bit cheaper than Batiste and smells really nice. To be honest I find some of the Batiste fragrances a bit sickly and overpowering but this one smells gorgeous. I'm converted!

The brand is called Inecto (yep, never heard of it!) and unfortunately, neither of my products, from the 'Pure Coconut' range are on the website! I assure you that they're still in the Bodycare stores.

I think I'll be trying the body scrub and moisturising lotion next.

Hope you enjoyed my one off beauty tip!

Foxy
x

Just a quick one...

Despite having an exam on Friday which I'm immensely unprepared for, I thought I'd do a quick, picture-lead post to tide you lot over- I've been a bit neglectful again haven't I?

So, at Christmas-time I was pretty brassic and couldn't really indulge in much sales shopping, but there's always funds-enough to do it thrift style!

My local Age Concern (still not yet made the switch to Age UK), in Settle, North Yorkshire, is one of the few charity shops I know of to put on a 'New Year's sale'- you'd think things were cheap enough right? But who am I to complain...

So as there was 50% off pretty much everything, I thought I'd go have a look. I picked up this belt for a pocket-friendly 50p:

It's leather with little silver and gold tone metal accents. I've seen a few of these in COW vintage, Birmingham- I think they're probably American and seem to have a bit of a line dancing influence (mine has little cowboy boots on)

And I also got this small navy bag for 75p:

Excuse the sinful, chipped nail polish

Thought it was quite cute and most of my bags are black, so a good addition I think.

My Age Concern also has an amazing fancy dress section, which I hadn't visited since I was 17 for a fancy dress day in sixth form.

(This is the place where all the great fur coats are exiled)

I had a little time to kill so popped up. It really is amazing!

The majority of the stuff up there is vintage- some really obscure stuff which they would make a killing off if they sold it on eBay!

Anyway, here's a few pictures I took up there on my phone:

I attemped to buy this vintage sequin top but they wouldn't give in!

They're very reluctant to sell items from the fancy dress area. I was told that they often chuck some of it out (!!!) when there's too much stuff and they were planning to have a mass cull in due course- gutted I'm back in Birmingham now!

Later that day I went to Skipton to do a little more charity shopping- I'll post my buys sometime after Friday.

(I'll also do that outfit post soon too. Promise!)

Well, turned out to be a longer post than I expected! I always feel the need to narrate what I've done and indulge in a bit of rambling- must be the journalist in me.

Oh and...

I've had a lot more views these past two weeks, despite not posting for some time; mainly thanks to an old post of mine on retro swimwear, mentioning the impossibly gorgeous Katy Perry.

So for all my new readers, made up no doubt of horny teenage boys google-ing 'Katy Perry in a bikini', here's another:

Goal for the summer?!

Enjoy!

Foxy

x

A day in Sutton Coldfield

Today I fancied a trip out so decided to visit Sutton Coldfield- a town north of Birmingham. Sutton Coldfield, so I heard, has quite a few charity shops so I thought I'd go have a mosey around.

Now, a day out is me being a little over ambitious; it was more like two hours. Mainly because I slept in, then forgot to use my Young Person's Railcard, so I'd be damned if I was going to fork out for an Anytime Return! (This makes more sense if you already assumed that I took the train- you now know).

Photos may not be so great because I forgot my camera- these were taken on my not-so-brilliant phone. Although I did find it easier to take sneaky pictures on my mobile, you can pretend to be texting which stops you looking like some sick voyeur!

I'm probably the worst person in the world at navigation, my satnav even takes a sarcastic tone with me ("I've said turn around when possible six times now...") , so finding my way around somewhere unbeknown to me is quite a task you're asking.

So having got off the train and trotted off into Sutton Coldfield in the wrong direction, I quickly realised (a good 10 minutes) that there was noting much about and that I needed to find the centre. I followed some groups of kids milling around and was lead right to some railings in the centre of town where some more miserable teenagers were loitering about- oh and chucking things at passers by.

In fact, that's what probably surprised me most about Sutton Coldfield- there were so many teenagers hanging about! If I had a quid for every midriff on show and bumfluff-chinned child I saw, I'd be laughing all the way to the bank. Coincidently this didn't happen, and I wasn't laughing.

I don't know where I got the idea that Sutton Coldfield was a pensioners haven- but I was wrong. Sadly, this is the main reason I went! I expected the charity shops to be filled with lots of granny-esque cast offs. Strangely though, I did see some such old ladys selling their wares.

In the centre of town today was some kind of street market (I wasn't aware that this was going on prior to going- a pleasant surprise). It was sort of like a mini car boot sale; most of the sellers were older people selling their antiques and old jewellery- right up my street. Though the gear was quite pricey; these folk were clearly clued up and had read their share of Miller's guides.

The street market

Earrings for sale. 80s clip-on heaven

Onto the charity shops. Now, if you take a look at this map I've put together you'll see the charity shops (as listed by google) in Sutton Coldfield. I think I hit all of these today, apart from The British Heart Foundation, which I can't comprehend the location even looking at the map, and also the Severn Trent Trust Fund.


View Sutton Coldfield- Charity Shops in a larger map

I've also added the Walsall Hospice charity shop to my map. Google won't admit it exists, but it was there! I've guessed the location, I think it was between Oxfam and the Birmingham Settlement charity shop. You can't be sure with my memory, but it might help.

I wanted to mention the Walsall Hospice shop because I thought it was a particularly good one. I nearly bought a bag in there but resisted. There was also a great vintage brush and mirror set for £4.something, gold setting with a floral design- very pretty. The shop has quite a bit of furniture too- if you're after an old armchair this is the place!

Oxfam was a bit of a let down, as I'm often finding these days. It's got very overpriced; my Mum was in an Oxfam today too because she saw a vintage suitcase in the window and thought I might like it- it turned out to be £48! She also spotted a short leather jacket in there for £150, madness!

The Birmingham Settlement shop was good however. I bought this tapestry bag for £1.

I'm not sure it's really my cup of tea- I'm not really into brown clothes or accessories. So this one might be a buy to sell on, hopefully I'll make a profit!

I also bought this cream leather skinny belt for £1.

It's quite long, which is what I wanted so that I can wrap it around and tie it like a boyfriend-style belt. I love that it's such an old, worn belt- the leather's really cracked and battered.

Happy shopping.
x

P.S Oh yeah, and I'm in London next week to do some work experience at Mizz magazine so it's highly unlikely that there'll be any posts. There will probably be plenty afterwards though so stay tuned! 

Charity shop crawl

On Friday (would’ve posted then but absence of my camera prevented this) I ventured out to my local town of Skipton for a heavy session of charity shopping.

Skipton is hardly the Northern capital of style, although it was once crowned ‘Britain’s Best High Street’ (the how and why evade me), but it is however the mecca of charity shopping.

Okay, okay I may be exaggerating ever so slightly, but for such a small town it really does pack in its fair share of charity shops- I found about eight!

Navigating ones way around this maze of infinite treasure troves was a task I wouldn’t have wished upon Christopher Columbus; I, however, managed to hit them all (I think) before my 2 hour short stay car parking expired- score.

I might further explain that while 2 hours is rather a long time, the sheer amount of rooting, searching, rummaging, scanning etc. required in this activity is extensive; plus I needed to get a new mascara and the time I chose to pop into Rackhams (that’s House of Fraser to me and you) happened to be the time that the bloody fire alarm decided to go off and I was kicked out for a good 15 minutes whilst the staff and fire brigade created a suitable farce.

So, back to the matter at hand; I started out at what appeared to be a new addition to Skipton’s charity shop repertoire- Greyhound Rescue. This shop is fairly small but has some good quality bits and bobs in stock.

I spotted a necklace and clip-on earring set which I loved for £3.50. The set is gold with what can be described as peach-coloured droplets attached. These are pictured with a belt below.

Next, I visited Scope- one of Skipton’s larger charity shops. It is here that I made my favourite purchases of the day. The first item which caught my eye was these vintage Levi orange tab jeans.





They’re a perfect fit, a high 28 inch waist and just what I’ve been looking for to cut into shorts for my upcoming holiday; although it almost seems a shame to dismember them. For only £5, I don’t mind so much.

I’m not sure how old these are. Orange tabs were introduced in the sixties but they definitely aren’t as old as that! The care label doesn’t mention shrinking either which was typical of the older ‘shrink to fit’ styles. They are 891’s and the care label reads ‘891 0216’ then ‘367540 0598’ if anyone has an idea of the age please let me know!

I also bought these great vintage sunglasses for only £1.50- They came in handy too because it was a scorcher outside and I’d forgotten mine!





Another new (I think) charity shop I found was the Martin House Children’s Hospice which is on the high street.

I thought this one was great for household bits, the upstairs area is large and holds a wealth of kitchen and other household goods as well as larger pieces of furniture, mirrors, large picture frames etc. The menswear section is also upstairs.

Nothing really took my fancy, other than this navy, white and gold belt, pictured with the necklace and earring set I mentioned previously. The belt was £3 which isn't bad considering that it's leather.





Other shops I visited were Sense, Oxfam, British Heart Foundation and not one, but TWO Age UK shops!

If it’s vintage jewellery you’re after (and if you’re in the area of course) then I found Scope and Martin House Children’s Hospice to have very well stocked desk cabinets- don’t be afraid to ask them to unlock it so you can have a good look!

Martin House Children’s Hospice and Sense were good on household bits and bobs. Sense in particular had two very old cameras which I was tempted to buy but I doubt I’d have use for them! I’m sure someone into photography would find them interesting though.

Vintage clothes seem to take a fair bit of digging out in any charity shop. Increasingly I’m finding that they’re overstocked with cheap, mass-produced modern clothes from brands such as Primark and George.

Note to the volunteers- we love the old stuff, bring it out to the shop floor!