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Sunday 27 March 2016

Carboot Sale & Farmers Market

Happy Easter to you all. David and I decided to not buy eggs for each other this year as we still have Christmas chocolate that needs eating. I did buy two cute bunny cupcakes for us to eat from Waitrose. I bought one for my dad yesterday and put it in a patisserie box along with a M&S luxury hot cross bun and pack of Malteser bunnies as an Easter treat.


We looked out for the advert in the local freebie newspaper for the Cheshire carboot sale and sure enough there was one for this Easter weekend for both Sunday and Monday. We woke up a little later than usual this morning and after 20 minutes I realised the hour had gone on for British Summer Time. This resulted in a mad rush around the house to get out and on the road as we were an hour behind time.

We raced to the carboot sale only to find it was cancelled due the rain yesterday and the field being waterlogged. Luckily we know that a little further there is a farmers market with a small carboot sale nearby. We got there to find the small carboot sale was larger than usual as it was filled with the stall holders who had transferred from the first carboot sale.

There was a Yankee Candle stall selling bags of 20 mixed votives for £10 a bag. I bought two bags and when I got home and looked through them I found that 22 of them are Christmas themed ones and the remaining 18 are a mixture of scents suitable for the rest of the year. I was delighted with this result. These votives normally cost around £1.80 each so 50p each is a good price. Many of the scents are current so even better.














I also bought 2 Yankee Candle advent calendars at £5 each and will put these away as early Christmas gifts for my sister and niece.




They had lots of the large and medium sized jars at £10 and £7 each. I bought myself this lovely gingerbread maple jar which just smells divine.


I have been overdosing on Game of Thrones this weekend and am part way through series 2. I had mentioned to David that I wanted series 3 onwards, but that I needed to wait to find them on a carboot sale. Sure enough I found series 3 - brand new - for £5 plus a number of other DVDs for 20p and 50p each.




There is one stall holder who always has the most lovely things to sell and she is such a nice person too. It always feels like she has a boutique shop on her stall. Today I bought two sets of Oilily perfume and bath/shower gel for £5 a set. She had the body lotion too but I decided not to get this which was a mistake as this sells for £28 (she wanted £2.50) I am not sure whether I will use these as gifts or keep them for myself.







I bought two large jars of Institut Karite 100% Shea butter from the same lady for £2.50 each. This can be used on hands, lips, face, body and hair. I have bought this French range from her before and it is just wonderful as it is so creamy and rich. The soaps look so chic as well as smelling fabulous. She had loads of bags full of goodies which she was leaving sealed up because it was starting to rain - so frustrating. She is so lovely, that when the stall holder saw me looking at a cute tube of Guerlain body milk she let me have it for free.




There was one lady who had the most gorgeous female bulldog called Dolly who was selling items for an animal charity (the lady, not Dolly!!) Dolly was having a sleep in the boot all wrapped in blankets. I bought a brand new box of Llewelyn Bowen for Royal Worcester coasters from her for £1. I don't care for the man myself but I loved the swirly pinky purple pattern of these coasters.


My final purchase was a Marks & Spencer cool bag for £1. I use these a lot when we have weekends away and they usually only last around a year. Maybe I am heavy handed with them? The inside of them becomes brittle after a while so I just throw them away and buy new ones off the carboot sales.

We bought nothing from the farmers market as I didn't need anything .

The sun has come out now and we wish it had been like this early this morning but sadly not. I'm about to start ironing my holiday clothes as I need to pack this week as we're off to Tenerife next weekend for 2 weeks away on a family holiday. 

Friday 25 March 2016

Good Friday

Nothing beats a four day break from work with no particular plans other than pottering around at home. I woke early and after working long hours this week, housework had been neglected and I thought I may as well get up and start the day as I had not had time to do some chores during the week. 

Before I started anything major, I tidied up the kitchen while the kettle boiled for my first of many cups of tea. I opened up the two Graze boxes that had been delivered the day before to see what suprise snacks there were. I was going to cancel my subscription straight after my first free delivery, but thought I would carry on with a few more as some of the later boxes are also free so evening out the cost they are a reasonable price.

This time I got in the first box:
A lighter version of a chocolate brownie - 3 small slices in the pack
Coco Paradise - Belgium milk chocolate, coconut and cranberries
Boston Bagettes - mini breadsticks with a BBQ relish
Bonnie Wee Oatcakes - cheese & chive oatcakes with a caramelised onion marmalade





In the second box: 
Another portion of the chocolate brownies
Billionaires Shortbread - Belgium milk chocolate, almond, cranberries & fudge pieces
Salted fudge & peanut cookie - salted peanuts, redskin peanuts, fudge pieces and mini chocolate cookies
New York everything bagel - poppy seed & onion sesame sticks





I've found these little packs great to take to work as a light lunch (I usually take two) along with a piece of fruit or a low fat yogurt.

The weather has been just beautiful today and I think it is going to be the only pleasant day of the weekend. We decided to take advantage of this and spend some time in the garden. I had already mown the lawns last Sunday for the first time this year so they did not need mowing again today, but I tidied up the borders by doing some weeding, thinning out some plants and some pruning.

I've just sat down with a gingerbread latte (Nescafé latte mix) and a couple of magazines to flick through while opening up the box set of Game of Thrones to watch again. I have series 1 & 2 and need to buy the remaining series but I want to wait until I can find them at a carboot sale. The Cheshire carboot sale starts again this Easter Sunday and is on again on the bank holiday Monday but the weather forecast is not good so we may make a decision each morning as to whether it will be worth a visit or not.


I called into Marks & Spencer to buy food for the weekend last night and mainly bought fresh vegetables, bread, hot cross buns and wine as I already have meat and poultry in the freezer. As it is Good Friday we always have fish for our evening meal and I was going to cook some fresh salmon but David has decided he would rather have a traditional fish supper from the local "chippy". I am not a great lover of batter or chips so we do not have this often but I think it should be nice to not have to cook tonight and have a change.

I've managed to get two lots of washing done, tidy the house a little and now it's time for a couple of hours with my feet up. Have a great weekend everyone.

Saturday 19 March 2016

Scouts Jumble Sale & M&S Splurge

I love a good old fashioned jumble sale. We do not see that many adverts in the local paper for them these days but two local scout groups do hold a jumble sale a couple of times a year. One of them has a "fill a black bin bag for £5" approach whereas the other follows the conventional "how much is this?" line. I prefer the second option. I love that they are always held in dusty community halls with a little serving hatch offering cups of tea and coffee and occasionally home made scones and cakes. It makes me feel so British somehow.

I spent the grand total of £4.20 and that included 50p entrance fee. So what did £3.70 get me?

I bought two portable CD players at 35p each. One is a Panasonic one and the other a Sony one complete with headphones. Both of these are for David. Even though we listen to downloaded music you can't beat listening to CDs sometimes. I think they will eventually go the same way as vinyl (or LPs and singles as we still call them).


I bought two boxed sets of DVDs. The complete Fawlty Towers and Mapp & Lucia starring Prunella Scales & Geraldine McEwan for 35p each. I also bought two Michael Sheen DVDs - Frost/Nixon & The Damned United for 70p for the two.




I found a massive Hugo Boss duffel bag with insulated cooler section at the bottom for 50p for my David.


I bought this huge Costa coffee cup and saucer for 50p and have already drunk a gingerbread latte out of it. It holds the same amount as one of my mugs but it felt a little more elegant to be drinking out of a cup & saucer than a mug.



I also bought two beer glasses for David for 20p each (18oz ones rather than 20oz) and two brand new (complete with labels) cereal bowls that have come from Sainsburys. I already have this style and chucked a few away last month as they had small chips in them. These cost me 50p for the two.


I bought 3 books for 20p each. One heavy weight book is a small gift for my golfing mad Dad. The other two are a couple of paperbacks for me to read on holiday.



Five 10p each buys were 4 bottle of car cleaner and brake fluid for David's BMW. I had forgotten to take my reading glasses so could not see what they were exactly, but could see the price tickets on them were from our local BMW garage so knew they would be right for him. My fifth 10p was on a pack of vacuum cleaner bags. I didn't take pictures of these as they are a bit boring!

The clothes and shoes that they had for sale were 5 items for £2 but I could not find anything that tempted me and just ended up with lots of bric-a-brac instead.

I usually like to treat myself to a couple of new items of clothing for the spring/summer and the Autumn/winter seasons. In general, I don't always need all of the items but I sometimes find that we can be mean with ourselves and after working long hours I sometimes find I need to reward myself. 

So M&S have had a half price sale on some items and I was also sent a 20% off voucher code last weekend. This called for a bit of a splurge and here are the items that I bought. Firstly I had been looking at this loose swing dress for a few weeks. I thought it would be great thrown over a swimsuit by the pool or for wearing down to the beach and I thought I might me able to wear it for a wander around the resort for our summer holidays.



This was half price at £9 and I used the click collect delivery service so picked up 48 hours later. I love it as it is such a versatile little dress. A few days later  when I got the code through via email I went on the M&S site again and found the same dress in a Paisley design and had to have it. This cost more but I thought "so what!" and splurged £14.40 on it.





I love navy stripes. I don't know why but I do. I also know that V neck t shirts suit me better than round neck or boat neck. A V neck makes my bust seem less large and is more flattering to my chin & neck. This half price t shirt was about £5 half price and I thought would look great with shorts, jeans or even worn with a trousers suit at work.



I bought two pairs of straight leg jeans - denim blue and black. I have got bored with wearing skinny jeans and jeggings and felt like I wanted some straight leg ones for a change. Being tall I am kind of in between long and standard in the leg length. Is I buy long they look great with boots with heels but if I wear flats they drag on the floor and fray. If I buy standard they can fly around my ankles like a flag. I plumped for standard and they a smidgin short. I am in two minds as to whether to keep these or not. I had bought them for wearing during the day with flat ties and may keep them, as when I first tried them on the material was new and stiff and I know with some wearing they will soften and fall a little lower with wear. These were £14.40 each.







Lastly I bought this long t shirt style maxi dress. Not exactly exciting but oh so practical and useful for a British Summer. I can wear this with flat ties during the day and I know this will good accessorised with scarves, jewellery, and a denim jacket. I can also wear it with a smart jacket and a low heeled shoe for work.