Have you ever heard of a book advent? I think I first heard about it on Pinterest and thought it would be fun to do with the children. Instead of a tacky Advent calendar with cheap chocolate, we’ll be unwrapping a Christmas book every day of December leading up to Christmas Day. This way we will get to spend more time reading together, which is something we all love, and some time each day to enjoy the festive season. The hard part has been finding the books. 24 Christmas-themed books can be difficult. I really wanted to buy second hand…
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I’ve mentioned before how fantastic the Isle of Wight is for charity shops. We’re fortunate we have family that live there so I have lots of opportunities to shop. Saturday was the Round the Island Yacht Race so we had an amazing view of the yachts heading round the Island. Ventnor is a great place to spend a couple of hours. It’s full of quirky vintage and charity shops, as well as the beautiful Art Deco Winter Gardens which holds the occasional sale where we picked up this gorgeous vintage wooden chair a couple of years ago. There’s also plenty for…
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One of my Day Zero actions was to set up an online shop to sell my vintage finds. I set one up months ago, have boxes full of lovely vintage things to sell but am nowhere nearer to actually photographing and listing items than I was then. I’m not sure why I thought an online shop would be a good idea. It’s not as if I have oodles of spare time but it would definitely help justify the time and money spent in some of my favourite charity shops! I have some lovely things to sell and I don’t think…
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No trip to Devon is complete without a visit to the market town of Newton Abbot. If we ever have a decent stay in Devon I always persaude my husband to take us there. Last year I found a vintage toy London bus which is my favourite ever find. My husband loves going to a model shop and we usually have tea and cakes in the delightful Pharmacy on Queen Street. As the name suggests the tea room is in an old pharmacy which retains all the original shop fittings. They always have an amazing range of cakes which I…
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I can’t quite believe it’s 5 years since we stayed in a lovely cottage in Dawlish. I have a real soft spot for the town having also stayed there on family holidays as a child. Funny to think in the last 5 years we’ve got married and had two children. So it was great to re-visit as a family of four. The toddler loved the amusement arcade, having a ride on Thomas, and was given a bowl of 2p pieces to play on the slot machines. He even had a little step so he could reach the machines and amazed…