If you’re a regular reader of my blog you’ll know I am constantly on the look out for old Scrabble sets to stock in my Etsy shop. The letter tiles are perfect for crafting with, such as this fun Scrabble bathroom sign I made. Well last week I found a couple of sets, but they weren’t the sets I am used to seeing. The first was an Australian version, published and distributed by T.R. Urban & Co., Sydney under licence from Production & Marketing Company USA. There aren’t many differences from my English versions, except obviously where it was made,…
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I’ve been obsessed with vintage board games for a while now. Part of it is trying to re-create the games my grandparents kept in their wardrobe which we were allowed to play with when we visited. They had a great collection which included Tell Me, a metal wind up car racing game made in East Germany, a magnetic fishing and more, all stored in a green enamel bread bin. When they died I really wanted to take all of those with me, just to preserve the memories, but I couldn’t and I suppose I’ve regretted it ever since. What a…
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It’s been months since I’ve written about my favourite hobby but this weekend we’ve been away in Wiltshire which means fresh charity shopping hunting ground. The pickings have been pretty slim although I did find a Playmobil take along modern dolls house. We have a growing Playmobil addiction and I knew this would be great for storing our Playmobil and taking away with us. It was empty but only cost £4 and we have plenty of figures and furniture to fill it. I was surprised to see it’s still for sale and for a lot more than we paid for…
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I’m not quite sure what made me buy these. I have a thing for souvenirs of London and thought they were kind of kitsch. There was a set of four on a shelf, featuring a view of Leicester Square, Soho Square, Sloane Square and Berkeley Square. I’m a proud Londoner and knew I wanted the Leicester Square and Soho Square tins. Pre-children I had a pretty good social life and loved going out in the West End. Charity shop guilt kicked in though. How could I leave two tins on the shelf when they were clearly part of a set?…
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Yesterday we took the toddler to Bekonscot Model Village and Railway, the world’s oldest, original model village. It has a model train so we knew the toddler would love it, and he did. It was a little hot for me but he ran round, pointing out the little houses and people and shouting “TRAIN!” every time one of the model trains went past. Beaconsfield charity shops The model village is in Beaconsfield which has been labelled Britain’s richest town so I knew the charity shops would be worth a look. I only managed two because I spent too much but…
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We’ve lived in Wood Green in north London for the last 6 years but have only visited the handful of charity shops a couple of times. However, last week we popped into Oxfam and were rewarded with a haul! First up were two new-to-us Thomas the Tank Engine DVDs. There was no way the toddler could not have these so we snapped them up. As I was paying I noticed a big bag of Brio by the counter. The toddler just loves his trains and already has a good Brio collection so we bought this too! You can never have…
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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…