Shop Charity in '23!

beanielou

I love orange chocolate! 

YoungBlueEyes

Well it doesn’t sound like you’ll be short of them beanielou cos there’s no competition for them here  

beanielou

YoungBlueEyes said:

Well it doesn’t sound like you’ll be short of them beanielou cos there’s no competition for them here  

Great. 😊🤩😎

Miró

beanielou said:

I love orange chocolate! 

I have a whole pile of mouldy orange creme chocs left over from a tin of Quality Street - can I send them to you`??  I won't be competing for the Cointreau......gimme a large slug of Amaretto anyday....in coffee, poured over ice cream or neat...yum!  Did the rounds of my local chazza shops today and was tempted by a pair of M % S chinos but at £3.50 I will wait to see if they appear on the reduced rail.  Was also tempted by a long floaty georgette skirt in coffee and salmon shades but decided I didn't need another long floaty skirt!  Yesterday I spent ages sorting out my linen cupboard, (very satisfying!), now have 3 bin bags full of sheets, p'cases, duvet covers, towels and curtains which will be heading to the chazza shops of North Yorkshire at the week-end.

(I keep opening the linen cupboard door just to look at the contents now all neatly folded and arranged in neat piles - am I going do-lally??) 

Rosa_Damascena

I eat my words, Canada DOES have chazzers! Saw this in Sydney earlier today and this beauty was on sale for under £40! If I could have transported it home in one piece it would have been mine:

DigForVictory

Could you pack it around with Timbits?

Rosa_Damascena

DigForVictory said:

Could you pack it around with Timbits?

Far too big regrettably - the depth exceeds that of my suitcase  . Same goes for the church pew that would have been perfect for my hallway. We didn't walk away empty handed though - Mum bought a couple of necklaces at a snip.

More happiness was found across the road in the form of Donna's consignment store! We had a lovely chat with the ladies inside including Donna herself. Not actually a chazzer - it's a resale store - but worth mentioning here should anyone be heading that way. 3 blouses, a knitted Liz Claiborne jacket and a handbag for under £20:

My finds include:

Brie

Glad the Canucks came through for you @Rosa_Damascena!!!  

Charity shops were not a thing in Canada when I was growing up.  There was a single "social" shop in my home town of about 120k and it was only available to people on benefits.  Which made sense of course up to a point but made it shameful to be seen going near it.  I remember hearing some politician talking about it before I could even vote and je made a joke about wishing he was poor enough to shop there as the stuff they had was so nice.  There were second hand shops and vintage clothing shops too but not the chazzers that are so prevalent in the UK.  I was amazed at the huge variety of shops when I first  moved here in '85.  Of course now in Canada (or Ontario at least) there are many charity recycling centres including a massive Salvation Army shop - basically the size of your average Tescos.  

Meanwhile back to the present and in the UK.....went out into the rain for an excursion to Salisbury today and ended up at the specialist Oxfam shop that sells just music and books.  OH headed to the vinyl selection (up a steep set of stairs....) and I went for the art books.  He ended up with a Elisabeth Scwarzkopf Merry Widow and another 3 classical things which meant there was in fact 6 records in total which came in at £6.96 (dirt cheap for good records these days).  I got a very nice Ann Blockley Painting Flowers through the seasons (watercolour) and a tree reference book for watercolour painting (so details of overall shape, bark, leaves with the correct colour palette for each).  The Blockley is a bigish book (A4 and an inch thick) and was marked as £1.99.  The tree book is much smaller (A5 and slim) but had no price on it.  The staff hummed and hawed and asked if I would be willing to pay £1.99 for that as well.  My reply was "no problem as long as you have a plastic bag they can both go in".  Even at £3.98 you don't want your book waterlogged before you get back to the car!!!  Of course I don't need any more "how to paint" books but was happy to pick up ones that I know will be interesting and useful.  Now I just need to make sure I use them!!!

And then we got lost coming home......(OH: which way do I go? Me: Turn right! OH: Ok (and gets into the left turn lane).......Me: sigh)

Miró

*sings*  'Oops!  I did it again!'

Will I ever learn?  Spotted a Karen Millen, (old incarnation not the current cheapo polyester range), dress. Priced at £4.99 on the 'designer rail' in the Otley 99p shop.   Mustard and black very unusual print in a heavy but soft glazed cotton fabric.  Ankle length flared skirt but the top was rather more strappy and revealing than I would wear so I wandered away thinking about it.  Decided it would make a lovely skirt with the top chopped oft and shortened a few inches. Walked back to the rail and another woman had it over her arm heading to the till!!!!!  Aaaaarrgghh!  Consoled myself with a pair of pale blue denim jeans from Cotton Traders for 99p instead. 

Rosa_Damascena

Miró said:

*sings*  'Oops!  I did it again!'

Will I ever learn?  Spotted a Karen Millen, (old incarnation not the current cheapo polyester range), dress. Priced at £4.99 on the 'designer rail' in the Otley 99p shop.   Mustard and black very unusual print in a heavy but soft glazed cotton fabric.  Ankle length flared skirt but the top was rather more strappy and revealing than I would wear so I wandered away thinking about it.  Decided it would make a lovely skirt with the top chopped oft and shortened a few inches. Walked back to the rail and another woman had it over her arm heading to the till!!!!!  Aaaaarrgghh!  Consoled myself with a pair of pale blue denim jeans from Cotton Traders for 99p instead. 

It's a double-edged sword: in taking something off the rack and carrying it with you whilst I "decide" whether I really want it or just don't want someone else to have it 4 times out of 5, I am likely to buy it than return it to the rack. I have so many clothes that I haven't worn because I have forgotten about them. The sad thing is that if I donated them all tomorrow I'd probably want to buy them back again.