You only chazz twice

I'm sure every second-hand hunter has experienced 'the one that got away'. It happened to me at a boot sale just a couple of week's ago; I saw a man walking along, clutching the very same rocking horse toy that I'd been unsuccessfully trying to bid for on Ebay as a birthday present for E.

Has this ever happened to you? What if you got a second chance? Would you snatch up the item like a person possessed or would the moment have passed?

I've always regretted not buying a lovely vintage yellow formica gateleg table from the YMCA shop when I lived in Hove. I can't recall why I didn't buy it when I first saw it, but when I went back it had gone and I ended up with a boring Ikea one instead. So, when I was dropping off some stuff last week (and, of course, buying some stuff) in my local charity shop I was amazed to see this...

It's got a few chips but it's such a lovely sunny colour. The problem is that I don't have space for it and I don't need it so I didn't buy it. I keep imagining that one day I could have my own studio and it would be my desk. Even if I talk myself round to buying it I don't think I could bear to go back and find it's gone and I've missed out again!

Source: kickcanandconkers.blogspot.com via Nicole on Pinterest

While I'm on the theme of yellow I'll leave you with this cool little VW camper (well not exactly a camper as there is no back to it) that I got for 10p at the same boot sale that I missed out on the rocking horse at.

It was very grimy and is clearly pre-CE-mark going by those potential-death-trap wheels held on by metal pins. It's living on top of my printers' tray until I can trust E not to chew on it.

Or I could make it into one of these... (not for the kids, obviously!)

Source: justsomethingimade.com via Truebluemeandyou.tumblr.com on Pinterest

Linking up to Magpie Monday, Nifty Thrifty and, a new one to me, Sir Thrift-a-lot!

Zalando review

Zalando is on online store, which originated in Germany, that sells clothes, accessories, sports items and beauty products. Their brand list is HUGE. I actually found it a bit overwhelming. There were lots of brands I recognised, lots I didn't and some I thought had long gone like Chipie and Ravel.

I was given a voucher to spend online and, as usual, I skipped straight to the kids clothes; I find it far easier to shop for the kids than for me. I thought K would love this cute Molo top (£22) as a treat. But she said she didn't like it! There's no accounting for taste.

Then I looked at dresses that were WELL out of my budget (Zalando stock premium brands too). Anyone got a spare £455 to buy me this Valentino dress pretty please?...

I settled for the practical option of something I desperately need: new jeans. When I selected the option of women's slim-fit jeans I got 1780 results! Thankfully you can sort by colour, size, price and brand to narrow things down.

Returns are free so I picked three pairs in the hope that one would fit and I could return the others. This is obviously a risky move as you could be tempted to keep all of them.

I ordered on Friday and the parcel was delivered a week Saturday (I was updated by email of a delay with one item and emailed again when the items had been dispatched).

I ordered these pairs: Levi's Young Modern Demi (£60) , Mavi Serena (£32, reduced from £65), Wrangler Corynn (£60, reduced from £75).

I ordered my usual size and all three pairs fitted really well but I could only keep one, so I chose the Levi's because the Mavi ones were a teeny bit long and the Wrangler ones had a strange kind of unfinished bottom to the legs (this was shown in the online product photos but I didn't notice).

Wrangler strange leg!

My new jeans are great. I found the online shopping process easy and returning the unwanted items was just a case of printing a returns form and taking the box round to my local Collect+ shop. I was updated by email when the package had been received and the refund issued.

 I don't own a full-length mirror!

Here's what I thought of Zalando...

Pros

• Free delivery (no minimum spend) and free returns
• Returns are collect+ so I could drop the parcel off at a local shop (for local people)
• Items are shown from many angles so you get a good idea of what you're getting
• You get a £5 voucher (off £30 spend) for signing up to their newsletter
• You can get 8% cashback via Quidco
• Lots of sale items where you can make some good savings
• Lots of well-known brands

Cons

• Almost too much choice!
• I found that many sizes were unavailable
• Delivery takes 3-5 working days and there doesn't appear to be the option of paying for express delivery if you wanted something quickly

Disclosure: I was given a £40 voucher for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own and unbiased.

You've got more rabbit than Sainsbury's...

It's official. I am a collector of bunnies. Look out for me on hoarding shows: I'll be the one scaling a mountain of pottery rabbits to find my bed. The pink, cotton-wool-holding beauty on the right was 50p from a car boot seller who told me she was selling it as she has a phobia of cotton wool! (I was coveting Chris Tea and Cakes' pink bunny the other day so I'm happy to find my own).

 Mr visibly grimaced when I added the bunny to the line-up on the top the dresser haha!

Yesterday's car boot visit was short and sweet because E refused to nap. I just had time to pick up this ceramic storage jar (£1). It's originally from Boots but reminded me of this Habitat one I like but couldn't justify buying. (Also, when did Argos start stocking Habitat stuff? It is just me that finds that strange? It's a bit like Primark stocking Boden)

My bargain of the day was this adorable parka for E, for next Winter. It was £1 and from a brand I'd not heard of: Jean Bourget. New it would cost around £70; crazy money for a kids coat.

Terrible photo: it's actually a lovely mustard yellow

  

Did you find any second-hand goodies this week? I've still got the bits I picked up on holiday to tell you about (I came very close to leaving a child behind to fit a vintage chair in the car).

Linking up to Magpie Monday (it's gone all posh :) )

The art of looking sideways

Where I live, fly-tipping is rife. We went through a spell where dozens of old tyres were being dumped at the end of our road and some selfish mofos think it's acceptable to leave old fridges, mattresses and other junk on the street for someone else (the rubbish fairies?) to clear away. So it was no shock to see a huge, filth encrusted, chest freezer dumped right in the middle of the pavement on our street. I had to squeeze past it to pop to the shops and saw that it was accompanied by a small chest of drawers - the type you might keep documents in - but it looked too battered to salvage.

On my return I noticed that the council had arrived with their van to take away the offending items, so you can imagine my surprise when I came back from the nursery run to spot the manky drawers festering in my front garden.

I know Mr is pretty good at rescuing junk, but really? He explained that the council had left it behind (Croydon council - thorough as always!) and our elderly neighbours, knowing how often we have to make DIY-related tip runs, asked if we could dispose of it next time we went.

As it was there I had a closer poke about. There was an old fork, a couple of fish knives and one drawer that was stuck tight. I found this very exciting; could it be full of treasure? No. I wrenched it open and found what I call a 'Grandad' stash. It was full of old plugs, cup hooks, bits of board games, washers, tiddly-winks, things that might come in useful one day.

I couldn't see any use for the drawers but then Mr had the genius idea of turning it on its side and using it like a crate. I had some castors that I'd bought for 50p in a sale so with a quick hoover, wire-wool scrub and beeswax polish we were ready to drill holes and stick the castors in. Here is our storage crate, or tiny pen for a small child...

I'm thinking of some kind of stencilling or lettering for the sides? I also gave the nickel-silver cutlery a polish although I'm not sure if I'll keep it, it's not really my thing...

I'm also wondering if I should hang on to the old drawers. They are a lovely square shape and would make great wall shelves (if I had the space). I'm thinking of this sort of thing...

Source: pepparochvanilj.blogspot.se via Lene on Pinterest

 

 

Source: o-nosso-refugio.blogspot.com via Lucia on Pinterest

Not sure about these colours but keeping the wooden outer and just painting inside would look good. This is a chair outside a fancy paint shop in Rye from our travels last week and I love the half-painted look.

I'm happy that the drawers have a new lease of life, even if I have Mr to credit for the idea! Does anyone have any other inspiration for old drawers?

New kid on the blocks

Our car is still playing up (nothing to do with me this time) and I'm writing this post as quickly as possible because my router is also misbehaving, but we made it to a car boot sale yesterday. We picked one in Wallington and K was squealing as we pulled up; not because of the promise of trestle-tables laden with crap treasures, but because there was a bouncy castle and a playground. This worked as an effective bribing tool to get her round the boot sale. Here are my goodies...

For once I found some clothes for myself: a Gap skirt with a mini chevron pattern, a Forever 21 (ha, if only) strapless top that I'd like to add straps to in case I'm let down, quite literally, by my bosom and suffer a wardrobe malfunction, and Forever (not sure if that's the same brand) shorts that I'd like to be able to get my arse into. That's the problem with car booting... no changing rooms. But they were only 20p each so I'll add the shorts to my "possibly will fit into this again one day i.e. never" pile. From the same seller I also got this pretty Paperchase laptop bag for 25p.

I got some more Mr Men books, some M&S linen trousers for E and a 'rooter ball' although I'm not sure what you do with it - I just liked the packaging.

But my favourite buy were these building blocks (£1) that look quite 70's going by the industrial windows, the stone cladding and funky door handles. They are lovely and tactile and the kids enjoyed playing with them when we got home.

Please excuse the state of the blanket, we, er, I mean the kids, were playing outside

I class this as a successful trip... E fell asleep, K got to bounce on the castle and Mr was found lurking by the hotdog van.

We're off on holiday this week; a couple of days in one of my favourite places - Whitstable (charity shop paradise, seaside, oysters...) and then a couple of days in Rye. I've already googled Rye for charity shops, does anyone else do that before they visit a town they haven't been to before?!

I'm linking to Miss Lizzie and her Monday magpies.

SSE Community at Heart project

This is a sponsored post that I've written about something that I think more companies could do.

SSE, a renewable energy supplier, runs a community volunteering project called Community at Heart where each of their employees has the opportunity to take a day out of their work to support local community projects.

Everyone involved benefits... the employees get a day out of their usual routine and the chance to make a difference to local communities, those communities get help that they otherwise couldn't afford and the employer, while losing out on a day's manpower, gets happy employees and good PR.

I know that when I was an employee I would have jumped at the chance to do something like this. In fact it's got me thinking about ways that I might be able to help local charities with my design work.

In the first year that the project began, around 5,000 days were used to help different organisations including charities, schools, parish councils and hospitals.

This video shows how some employees from SSE helped a charity for retired greyhounds...


Anyone can complete the online form on the SSE website to say what they'd like help with.

Disclosure: Sponsored by Spreaditfast. All words are my own.

Retro tiger birthday cake

It was the little man's first birthday at the weekend. K said we should make him a tiger cake like the plate that he has...

...so I came up with this template inspired by the plate and the illustrations of Ingela P Arrhenius. Printing it at full A4 makes it the right size for an 8" cake.

I wanted the cake to be simple to make so I baked a basic sponge, filled it with jam and buttercream and used buttercream to stick a circle of ready-rolled icing on the top using the cake tin as a giant cutter. I painted the icing yellow with food colouring (maybe it should have been orange?) and then, using the print-out as a guide, I cut out the other shapes for the face, painted them too and stuck them in position. I only needed black, yellow and red food colouring (mix the yellow and red to get varying shades of orange). The black icing dried with a craquelure effect, I have no idea why, but I reckon it adds to the retro look so I didn't worry about it. For a neater finish you could totally cover the cake in royal icing and knead the colouring into the icing before cutting it out. I also found that small cutters, like an eggcup, for the eyes and ears was quicker and gave a cleaner edge.

Poor E must have caught a bug as he was sick a few times (nothing to do with the cake, honest!). He didn't seem bothered but I don't think my shoes will ever be the same - laser-cut peep toes and vomit are not a good combination. I might need Mr's toothbrush to clean them out thoroughly. Mr seized the opportunity to change E into clean clothes i.e. a Welsh rugby shirt. He's hoping to convince the boy that he's Welsh. The following day E had a temperature and was really poorly and he's still not fully back to normal - hence the lack of blog posts - but at least he was ok for his birthday.