It's as simple as ABC.

It's been another busy and rather stressful week, I wish it hadn't been, but on the plus side at least it means it passes quickly and I'm so tired I sleep like the dead the moment my head hits the pillow.

I've had a couple of dress dramas. For the first time in my life I actually got trapped in a frock!

Back zip fastening number that I've had for a few years and the damn zip just locked tight and refused to move. I twisted and contorted to no avail so I went downstairs and asked Himself for help. He wrenched it this way and that but it still refused to budge so in exasperation I told him to just bust it open.
Bless he was more reluctant to ruin the dress than I was.

Having said that I'm not heartbroken, it was a cheap and cheerful Peacocks frock and I've had good wear out of it, it's just a shame it had to end so dramatically.

The other well, what can I say?

I believe it was only in January I declared that I was going to stop buying random disaster frocks on Ebay?

Well behold my first disaster Ebay frock of 2015.

                                                   Looks innocent enough doesn't it?

I will be the first to admit the 99p starting price lured me in. It was listed as 'vintage' and in 'excellent condition', sadly when it arrived it became clear it was neither.

Just some of  it's holes are shown below.

Frankly it looked like someone had lost a fight with a barbed wire fence and yet the seller said they 'hadn't noticed' any damage!?!

Maybe I should suggest Specsavers.....

Whilst I'm on the subject of clothing disasters. I had shoe dramas too. Well why should it just be dresses?

First up I ordered a cheeky pair of boots from the Office website. They were reduced to £16 so I couldn't resist.
They arrived super fast which was a plus, well I say they, when I opened the box this is what greeted me

Yup there was only one boot in the box *sigh*

I have to say Office were super helpful at sorting it out and I do now have a matching pair.

Though I was somewhat taken aback when my Mother said "I like your boots" she has only ever shown dislike for spikes, studs and the like before now.

My second shoe based disaster of the week was completely self inflicted.

Yup I make the absolute rookie error of wearing a brand new pair of shoes to work on the day I was going to on the hoof non stop.
 The gorgeous new brogues I bought in January turned out to be brutal and ripped my right foot to shreds. I was hobbling and bleeding before I even reached the office!
Many plasters later, I changed into the emergency boots that live in my desk drawer and soldiered on through the day.
I will be putting the shoe stretchers in the brogues for a good long time before I wear them again that is for sure.

Now on to the title of my post. I was on the train to meet Soo for a bit of R&R in the form of chazza shopping, cake and chat.
I had my Ipod on shuffle and 'ABC - The Look of Love' came on. I must confess up until that point I didn't even realise I had that track on my Ipod but it was clearly an omen.

For the first item I purchased was a gold jacket Martin Fry would have been proud of! 

For those too young to know this is Martin Fry he is the lead singer of ABC and was famous in the 80s for his gold suit.
Here's mine

Not bad eh? Reduced to £3 too so even better. Let's hope it fits!

I also bought a pretty 1970's embroidered bag. I don't have this sort of bag in my collection so it was a happy find.
It had been reduced from £10 to £5 

but then it turned out everything in the shop was half price so I got it for £2.50 = result.

When I was cleaning it today I found this ticket inside

I'd love to know what it is.

On the subject of finding things in bags. I also cleaned the black bag with the lovely loud SNAP fastening and found this unusual black scarf inside one of the pockets. Sweet.

My final charity shop purchases were two brooches and a plate with hedgehogs on it that was in the everything half price shop so was a bargainous 65p.

I ate my toast off it this morning.

The brooches were £1.75 and £1.65 respectively. The seahorse looked just a bit familiar and sure enough

it seems I now have 2!
I bought mine with some birthday money last year from Pia ( I LOVE Pia)

I shall wear them together as a mini shoal.








   

A Spot of Research and a Vintage Fair or Two.

Firstly I want to say thank you for all the kind comments on my last post. It's been a roller coaster week with my Dad, he had a major setback last weekend but since then progress has been slow and steady.
My Mum rang me on Wednesday to say he was out of his coma. She only knew because she was sat by his bed doing a crossword and decided to read the questions out loud and Dad suddenly answered!

She said I asked "Who was Victoria's husband?" and Dad said "Albert".

I cracked up laughing and she said "why are you laughing?" so I explained that when she said who is Victoria's husband? my first thought was David Beckham! I hang my head in shame.

Prior to Dad getting ill I had arranged to go to Reading last Sunday for a vintage fair with my friend Charlotte from work. In the end I decided I'd still go, I agree with the those who say having some me time is vitally important when your life is full of drama. I certainly felt the need for a break.

Sunday dawned and was bitterly cold, even the short walk from the train station to The Hexagon was enough for me to lose all feeling in my nose and ears, it was a most welcome relief to dive inside. 

The fair was free which was a bonus and bigger than either of us had expected. It was called 'The Real Vintage and Fine Food Fair'.

Odd combination but each to their own.

 I had assumed the food would be in one area and the clothes in another, but no, they were all mixed up together. Not such a happy mix if I'm honest, as there was not just one but two cheese stands which lent an extremely pungent aroma to proceedings!

I'm a little bit miffed because I was convinced I took more pictures whilst I was there but when I checked my camera I only seem to have taken two - bah.

I was very taken with the unusual tan bag below but it was £25 which I felt was just a bit too much in it's condition which was well loved.

I also resisted a gorgeous black beaded 1940's evening dress which had a very tempting price tag but I just knew I wouldn't get the wear out of it, and as I had already bought a glitzy dress at another stall I put it back.
So what did I buy?

First item was this gold tone bird brooch for £4

Last item was this wee elephant on wheels for £3. I actually spotted him as soon as I entered the room but walked round the whole fair before going back to get him.
The lady who owned the stall was thrilled as apparently her husband thought it was rubbish and no one would want it. She pointed and laughed and was like "Ha! see, SEE, I told you someone would buy it!" all of which he accepted with very good grace as I stood there patiently with the elephant in one hand and £3 in the other.

Finally my other purchase was this glorious, glorious frock.

 You know me and green frocks....

At £25 this just had to be mine, it is handmade and beautifully done, I love it.

Once we had given the fair a thorough going over we headed back through town and out the other side of the train station to go to Fanny's on a spot of research for a possible future outting.

Yes you read that right, there is a wee antiques emporium in Reading called 'Fanny's' 

(I dread to think what kind of web searches this is going to bring to my blog!)   

Based in an old back street abattoir, indeed the hooks and pulleys from this gruesome trade still run round the ceilings of the whole building. It is packed full of randomly priced treasures, I say randomly priced because I saw some things that were frankly dramatically over priced and others that seemed very reasonable. There was no rhyme or reason. 

We had a good poke about though, there were some really lovely pieces of furniture to be had as well as all the other sorts of odds and ends you get in house clearance places.

This rather odd picture of teddy bears did make me laugh.

I had read on the Queens of Vintage website that the upstairs was full of vintage clothes, especially evening dresses. 

I've no idea how old their article was, but sadly there were no frocks, evening or otherwise, to be seen. 

Boo.

We both left empty handed but I would probably go back there again, it's close enough to the station to make it a no brainer and I'd be interested to see what new things they have in and who knows? they might get some clothes back in.

It seemed appropriate to get some cake next, if nothing else we were both frozen to the bone and in need of a hot drink, and you can't have tea without cake right? 

Charlotte lives in Reading so whisked me off to Workhouse Coffee where I wedged myself against a radiator to drink tea and eat delicious baked cheesecake. Blissful.

My second vintage fair was today and completely unexpected. I was walking into town with Himself, he was heading to the station, I was heading to Sainsburys to do the food shop, when he pointed out a teeny tiny sign saying 'Vintage And Retro Fair Here Today' next to the civic hall. 

I decided to stick my nose in on the way home and I'm glad I did. It wasn't huge, but then to be fair the civic hall is not exactly massive. The entrance fee was a very reasonable £1 and the lady at the door very kindly looked after my shopping for me so I had my hands free to have a good rummage. 

There were a good mix of clothes, accessories and household items on the stalls as well as a jive demonstration, vintage hair dressing and teas. I'll certainly go again if they have another, it was a lovely surprise to find something like this going on in my home town. Even if this time I only came away with this fabulous brooch for £4