Queens Jubilee

I am super excited for the upcoming weekend - i have visitors! My mum, Auntie and Cousin are coming to stay and we have lots of cool things planned. I live 3 hours away from my mum so when she comes to stay i get very happy - bonus with My Auntie and Cousin coming too! They will arrive later on Saturday night (im working, boo!) but on sunday we are going to get up super early and visit Hemswell Market. This has a HUGE carboot and lots of antique centres that mother bear wil love to explore. Hemswell is pretty close to Lincoln so if we have time we are popping there too. Lincoln is such a beautiful city and the architecture is fabulous. They also have lots of lovely shops that we will be sure to check out.
 For the Queens Jubilee we are going to my local town to join in with the local festivities, the centre is being decorated as we speak and looks very kitsch. There is a picnic in the street at 11pm with a live band, market stalls, a  parade, dancing, best dressed, window displays and ice cold cider. I bought two vintage picnic blankets from Oxfam and will fill my wicker basket with yummy things for us. I love the old school community spirit around here, they really go all out. In the summer all the villages have fairs, James Granddad even 'shows' his tractor collection (super cute) which i absolutely love. So different to what i have grown up with in Blackpool. I really love our heritage and am proud to be British so I cant wait to celebrate with a cup of tea and a scone (pronounced 'SCON' not 'SCONE')

Market Place - location of our Jubilee Picnic

So today i think i am going to put some bunting up outside and get excited for the weekend to come.

What are your Jubilee plans?

New things

Whilst in Blackpool i was bullied by my mother and boyfriend to buy some new clothes. Bearing in mind when i met James he wore 38" waist jeans (he is a 32") and t shirts with skulls on i would not think he would be the one to give me fashion advice. My mum on the other hand is one trendy lady, she has an amazing figure and a great clothes collection. My mum and James get on very well and together they teamed up and took me shopping and made me buy some new togs.
I am not fashionable, not even a teeny tiny bit. My best friend is a fashion designer and most of my friends are more than capable of sporting the newest trends and looking fab. I personally have very little interest in clothes. I am a dress and leggings girl and rarely buy new clothes. I just much prefer to buy make up (not that i even bother with that every day!). That gives me a thrill, my make up bag is my pride and joy - my wardrobe and shoe collection is not. I however agreed as i did need a new black cardigan and something smart to wear for possible interviews. As i am on a budget we hit a local retail outlet to grab some bargains so there is not much variety in the shops we bought from - gotta love a sale though!

This is what they I chose.

My (shared) Wardrobe

Next dress £10 Cardigan £8

M&S outlet £20

Next  outlet Cardigan £10 M&S dress £10

Next £35

Marks And Spencer Outlet £5

James choice of earings - New look £2, Next £6, New look £2

Not really things i would have chosen but i actually do like them and i love love the scarf, such a stunning colour. I am currently on the look out for a dress for a wedding and had no luck yet - can anybody recommend a good 'occasion' dress shop?

xx

Charity shop haul

Over the past few days i have been selling lots of furniture and things which has meant i have a little spending money. Today i went into my local town and hit the charity shops to see what bargains i could find as a treat. In the first charity shop i was drawn to a wooden box with a key on a piece of string. The price tag said £25 reduced to £10. On opening this curious box i found an old style singer sewing machine. Its amazing, so pretty i would use it as an ornament. I cant post a picture right now as it was too heavy to carry home (its in the OH car) but i promise to show you! I was pleased as punch with this purchase and then went exploring the other charity shops and grabbed some other bits.

First i went to oxfam and they had a table with bits reduced to a pound. I love a bargain table and snatched up these,

10 Note cards £5.99 price on the back - bargain

16 Panasonic blank DVD disks (OH might find a use)

Not on the £1 table but 50p each so also a pound :D

Then i went to the red cross. I love this charity shop the most in my town as it is so well presented. The ladies in there obviously go to so much effort to organise and present the stock it makes a nice shopping experience. I am not against rooting but sometimes you miss out on gems all because the shop has too much stock crammed in. I was really happy when i spotted the next things i got. Firstly i found this T shirt by Tipster, with the label still in and in fabulous condition, for £3.00

Flitting though the rails some more i found a hoodie by Pink Apple that i was drawn too. It is not something i would usually wear however i thought it was super cute and retro looking that for £3.50 it seemed a bargain. This was also in excellent condition. 

Pink Apple my little pony hoodie

wahhh, its so cute. I will hang onto this for a while and if i never wear it i will pass it onto a friend who i know will love it. 

So that is my charity shop haul. I spent £19.50 altogether and feel like i have a bargain. After a little scouting on the Internet i have found a similar looking sewing machine to the one i bought for £60-£100 so i might have bagged myself a gem. Without the exact model i can not be sure but i will do a post about it very soon!

Have you grabbed any charity shop bargains recently?

xx

Rainy Day trip to the garden centre

Hello Chickens,
James finally put up my washing line and i planned to get all my washing done today - but the rain put a stop to that. So we decided to go out for dinner at the local garden centre (Sunday Carvery £5.99 Yummy!). The garden centre is massive and sells all sorts of things. James get very impatient shopping but he surprised me by getting rather excited about a stand in there, more about that later.

The food was yummy and the garden centre was packed on the way out we both were drawn to two stands. I saw a craft isle - why have i never seen this before? Then on the card stock i was presented with a challenge, "As much as you can fill for £2.99" on a plastic wallet. I obviously took to the challenge and squeezed as much card into the wallet as possible, James got rather mad waiting around. I also got some A6 card blanks (£2.99), some glue dots (99p) and a glue stick (99p).

Walking out James stopped at the candle stand. I adore candles and have rather a large collection. A few weeks ago James bought himself a candle and has burnt it every night as soon as he got in from work. He was rather upset and said "Why does this not smell good like your ones?" That's because dear, it cost £1.99. I then spent 20 minutes waiting for him to smell all the candles (I did not as i had spent up for the day and would just depress myself)  and he eventually appeared with this beauty;

http://www.woodwickcandleshop.co.uk/WoodWick_22oz_Candles_Woodwick_Applewood_22oz_Candle.asp

I had seen these candles before and have really wanted to try them. He chose the Apple wood scent. These candles are cool because they have a wood wick - hence the name - which makes a crackling sound when it burns, plus they smell divine! This cost £18.99 for a large jar which lasts 180 burn hours. This made me happy. You can find these candles here: http://www.woodwickcandleshop.co.uk/WoodWick_22oz_Candles_Woodwick_Applewood_22oz_Candle.asp

On the way out we bought a cupcake there were millions of flavours but i decided on the Mint choc chip.  It was very nice but unbelievably sickly so i only managed half of it (don't be fooled it was massive!)

The rest of the day will include putting curtain rails up, trying to get through my washing and doing some painting and hanging a door. When did my life become so... grown up?

I will be posting some beauty reviews over the next few days so stay tuned :)

xxxx