Power Outage + Unexpected Shopping Trip = Overindulgence!

So today was the first dental appointment, I had myself all psyched up to lie back and think of England when 5 minutes before I left the house the phone rang. It was the receptionist at my dental practice saying there was a powercut so they were going to have to cancel my appointment. On the one hand I was relieved, partly because they had caught me before I had headed over there and partly because I was dreading it, but on the other I was 'NOOOOO' because I really just want to get this show on the road and be fixed.
Anyhoo they have bumped all my appointments along and next week gets to be the big first appointment instead.

Which meant here I was with an unexpected afternoon off work. I did briefly toy with jumping on the next train and going back in (I do have over 100 applications waiting to be processed!) but in the end I took a trip into town with a bag full off things for charity. Now part of the reason I had a bag for charity is because yesterday I finally bit the bullet and tackled the hideous mountain of shoeage that was in the hallway. It was getting to the point where you could hardly open the door..... Lucky for you I didn't take a before picture, but I am happy to show an after.    
                         
                                                       behold my tidy hallway!

Note middle shelf is for Himself. Top, bottom and floor are mine! These are of course my 'downstairs' shoes, there are also 'upstairs' shoes currently located in 4 different places!?!

*oh the shame*

On that note, Saturday I also blitzed the bathroom from top to bottom. I have finally found another shower curtain I like enough to replace my gorgeous elephant one which really is past it.

            Ok yes it's also got elephants on it too but really did you expect any less from me??

Anyway I dropped my bag off stuff at the Shaw Trust shop, went to Wilkinson's for some bird food and headed home via every charity shop in town! Oh yes.The plan was for a charity shop overload.

Now I have read on various other blogs how this is THE time to charity/thrift shop because the world and his dog has spring cleaned and filled the shops to bursting with their unwanted goodies.

Clearly this is not the case in my town! In fact if anything a couple of the shops were horribly empty looking, the Shaw Trust being one of them. The lady behind the till nearly had my arm off at the elbow when I offered her my bag of things.
I browsed and browsed and came away with one green headscarf and that was it. Bah.

                                                         Is that it? Really?

No you may be thinking hang on one minute here, a 50p headscarf is hardly overindulgence and you would be right.

For in the sales I did buy myself this.....

Now there is a story here. I do in fact already own a rather splendid sewing machine. It belonged to one of my Mum's friends who like my mother is a qualified seamstress. She was heading to Canada and couldn't take her machine with her due to voltage differences so sold it to me for £50. It was an incredible and generous bargain as it was a VERY expensive all singing, all dancing, sew your frock and make your dinner at the same time kind of machine and far, far more than I would ever need when it came to a sewing machine. At the time we were renting another house and there was nowhere for me to have 'the wonderous machine' set up so I left it at my parents house. As it so happened my mother's own machine died about 18 months later, she asked if she could use mine until she got a new one and so 'the wonderous machine' was lost to me forever, cos once my mother got her mitts on it there was no way I was getting it back!!

In all honesty it doesn't bother me because as I say my mother is a seamstress by trade and she can do so much more with it than I ever could, or would. She uses it in the way it deserves to be used (also she is happy to do all my complicated sewing jobs on it!)
So when my friend spotted an amazing half price deal for the machine above I decided to go for it too. It has had great reviews as a beginners sewing machine which is all I want really. Now I just have to see if I can actually remeber how to use one..

Finally I finish unashamedly with yet another new frock. It spoke to my rock chick self and it was in the sales.

     

*goes off whistling*