A day at the Chilterns Craft Show.

Every August bank holiday for over 20 years now I have been going to the craft show at Stonor Park with my parents. Weather was a bit of a worry this year but thankfully by Saturday the sun was out. The craft show itself is in the grounds of a stately home which sits snug in a dip surrounded by stunning hills.

We arrived early but as you can see there were already a fair few people ahead of us.
We spent a blissful few hours browsing and shopping and sampling much in the food tent. I have a special money box that I put my change in every friday night and I use that money to buy anything I like the look of at Stonor Park.
This year that included this lovely dichromatic glass ring the 6th one I own now I just love how this glass looks.

I also fell in love with this gorgeous watercolour of St. Ives in Cornwall.

Next I found this cute Elephant tile

Just one of the things I collect is snowmen and I found this cute tree decoration.

Finally I spotted this garden sculpture. I went back to look at it three times before I decided I just had to buy it and today I put it out in the garden, so here it is in situ.
Finally as you may know if you have been following my blogs I currently have a bit of a thing about necklaces going on at the moment so here is a little picture of the latest ones I have bought on Ebay

oh and THE most beautiful pair of shoes that I have been coveting for months now. I was thrilled to find them on Ebay for £10.

A Grand day out in Great Malvern.

So the back story is that I travel on the same train to work as 3 collegues. For the last 3 years we have joked about staying on the train instead of getting of in Oxford and ending up where it terminates. This happens to be a little town called Great Malvern and on tuesday this week we finally did it! Thankfully we managed to pick the only good day of the week and were blessed with bright sunshine. What a beautiful place Great Malvern is! If you are inclined to hill walk there are huge hills in abundance.

If you like history there is a Priory, St Anne's Well and lots of stunning architecture.


If you like to shop there are quirky little shops and antique/vintage shops a gogo, and finally if you like to eat there are plenty of establishments to satisfy the most discerning palate. As we are all inclined towards everything but the hill walking we happily browsed shops, took in the history and ate!
I bought myself a lovely little cocktail ring in this amazing vintage store we found.
I also feel in love with this stunning 1930's evening dress but it was too expensive for me and sadly way to small.

After a lovely lunch in The Unicorn pub we decided it was time for some culture and went to the Priory. It has an amazing peaceful atmosphere and was just beautiful. I loved the 14th centuary tiles, the star painted vaulted ceilling and the tapestry. Sadly after that it was time to head home. The weather had turned and we were to full from lunch to go for the planned afternoon tea.As it turned out it was a good thing we left when we did, there were problems with the trains and it took us quite some time to finally get back to Oxford let alone home.



As we had time to kill in Oxford between trains we decamped to Cafe Coco for delicious cocktails!

Is it just me?

Or do you have accessory obsessions?
I have always loved accessories and shiny things, hence the 'Magpie' in my blog title! So me purchasing bags, jewelery etc is nothing new, but lately I find myself getting fixated on certain items and buying them obsessively for say a month or two and then that's it the whim has passed. This means I don't have set collections as such just loads and loads of 'stuff'!
Earlier this year it was bags. Just when that was seriously getting out of hand I, thankfully for my bank account and Himself's sanity, came through the other side.

Next was headscarves. Mostly I think due to me growing my hair long enough to wear scarves to tie it back, but me being me one or two were not enough. I was scouring shops and the internet buying and buying. The headscarf thing seems to be in abatement rather than over completely at the moment as it seems to have been overtaken by a necklace fetish, preferably glass beads or faux pearl. Again ebay is being scoured and the jewelry case is my first port of call in any charity/thrift shop.
I am being sensible and sticking to a tight budget but where oh where am I going to put them all and when will I ever get the chance to wear them all?

As seen in an earlier blog cute blue plastic beads


another string of blue beads and one of pearls I bought on friday for 50p each.


Three gorgeous glass bead Ebay purchases. I love the glass pasta twirls!
Finally a purchase from an local antiques centre. This was a 1930's necklace that was broken and the lady has restrung it with some extra modern beads by the clasp to replace ones that were lost. I just loved the square beads and I think the restoration has been very sympathetically done.

Shopping with Gabi part two.

So Himself and I decided we needed a bit of seaside R&R and headed down to Margate to visit with his parents. Whenever we travel down we actually don't get to spend much time together, he is off visiting with his friends and I am off visiting with mine!
My sister lives in Ramsgate so she and I had planned a day of thrift/charity shop shopping with well deserved stops for fish and chips and tea and cakes.
As ever it was raining when I got there and the sea breeze was more than a little bracing. Never ones to let a bit of weather gets in the way of a shopping mission we hit the town.
First purchase for me was this lovely top. Not vintage I know but I loved the material.
Quickly followed by this cute little blouse.

Another non vintage shirt was my next purchase but it IS leopard print. I have always had a thing about leopard print so it had to be done!

The smell of the chippy got too much so a well earned break for fish and chips was next, eaten standing huddled in a doorway out of the rain. Delicious. Back to the shops......
Next for me was this headscarf at just 25p how could I not?

Finally THE purchase of the day! A gorgeous black patent handbag with a bakelite clasp. I couldn't believe my luck when I spotted it.

All shopped out we headed to this new little tea shop for tea and cake. Of course I forgot my camera that day so no photos of this heavenly place, it was fabulous. All the china is vintage mismatched and all around the walls there were shelves with yet more gorgeous vintage china, I was coveting the cake stands in the window with all my heart. I promise I will take the camera next time so you too can lust over the plates and cups!

Shopping with Soo and Gabi

So a few weeks ago it was my Mum's 70th birthday. My sister came to visit as a surprise, no small one at that as my sister does not do 'travel' and hasn't been here for 3 years now!
As she was arriving on Saturday morning and she also loves trawling charity/thrift shops as much as I do that became our plan. When we get together these days thrift shopping tends to be what we do. Luckily both the towns in which we live are blessed with many charity shops so we have the perfect opportunity to indulge ourselves .

On this occassion my dear friend Soo also came along. Whilst she doesn't share the same passion for shopping, she does adore finding a bargain. So the three of us set out for the shops......
Shown below are my spoils from the shopping trip.

Two faux pearl necklaces. I'm going through a bit of a pearl thing at the moment so I was very happy to find these two long strings for a very bargain price.

In the same shop I got this string of turquoise beads. Whilst I was buying these my sister decided upon 2 huge reproduction china staffordshire dogs!?!

I then found this gorgeous scarf. It has one small pull in it but it's not very noticable.

I found this lovely coffee coloured chiffon blouse which I just had to buy.
In the next shop I found these red jeans for £3.49. They are my size but too short for me but I figured for the bargain price I'd risk buying them with the plan I could shorten them even more and take them in so they become capri pants.

Finally in the last charity shop I found this top for £1.00
After that we went to a few clothes shops because there were sales on and Soo wanted to find a pair of shorts for her holiday, My final purchase was this gorgeous, gorgeous pair of shoes.
Next we collapsed in a cafe for well earned tea and cake. Happy day.

A New Start.

So I did a brief ramble in December last year and haven't been back since. I have decided to get going again and what better than one of the greatest joys of my life than shopping and vintage/bargain shopping at that.
I adore clothes especially vintage ones. I think a lot of my friends would be surprised to hear that as I do spend a great deal of my time in jeans! My only excuse is that my job is not one that that looks kindly upon nice clothing and it has made me lazy outside of work too. My mother has said 'you have such good clothes sense, why don't you use it on yourself?' and I admit it is a fair statement.
I have also had a bit of a fashion crisis these last couple of years. Firstly now I have hit the big '4' '0' I live in fear of the 'mutton dressed as' label or vintage bintage as a dear friend calls it! Secondly my waistline is not what it was, indeed there is a great deal more of it than there used to be and that has affected the clothing confidence more than a little too.
Anyway I am a self confessed shopaholic and a sucker for pretty and shiny things so clothes and accessories are still being bought.
Here is where I'd like to share them with the world!