Pick'n'Mix - the joy of the chaz in '26!

Watty1

Changing buttons on cheaper items can make the cheap item look so much better. (I dyed some white cheap polo shirts and changed the buttons and they ended up looking like a posh brand - helped that I found in my button box a posh brand button!)

Nelliegrace

Woods Ware in Beryl, Iris and Jasmine were the standard village and church crockery and the ladies could get a lot of the smaller cups of the rationed tea from the pot. There was a larger breakfast cup and saucer available which was of course saved for the men. It was popular between 1942 and 1952 when only plain Utility crockery could be made for the home market.

https://www.thepotteries.org/wartime/index.html

https://www.thedarlingacademy.com/articles/beryl-ware-by-wood-and-sons-green-1940s-china/

Floss

My dad worked for the UKAEA up to his retirement in 1988 and Beryl was the china on the tea trolley that came round the offices morning & afternoon. My mum had some as her everyday china too. As their wedding china in 1954 they chose Woods Clovelly which is a very MCM design:

Rosa_Damascena

@goldfinches - the top would suit someone who is flat-chested but I have to agree, £40 is far too much! I'm sure you'll come across something similar in a chz sooner or later.

@Floss - the crockery set reminds me of bread and butter pudding, its of that era 😀

Frith

@Floss I have a serving plate and a milk jug in Clovelly.

Potternerd

I’ve slightly lost track of what I’ve bought recently, partly because I’m constantly buying and selling on Vinted.

However I did buy from the CS:

Pale blue suede Puma trainers £4. They were a bit grubby but came out fine in a quick cold wash.

Real silver bracelet £8: quite a heavy chunk of silver for that price

. A black vest £1

And a notebook in a faux rose gold leather case for 50p

Potternerd

oh and a pair of these Ninepine Asana trousers in exactly the right length for my stumpy legs for £4. That are super comfortable AND flattering.

goldfinches

@Rosa_Damascena - I'm completely the opposite of flat chested but still think the top is my kind of style so hopefully I'll find something similar at a less eye watering price.

@Potternerd - that silver bracelet is lovely and what a bargain too. Well done on spotting the trousers; I'm always having to reluctantly return M&S trousers to the charity shop rail because I've checked the label and found the dreaded Long on it. In the past I've kidded myself that I'll either take them up myself or get round to visiting one of the local alteration shops but experience has taught me that it's better not to buy them at all.

I managed to drop off a bag full of donations to my favourite bhf shop this afternoon so I'm just off to amend my signature total.

Brie

Got an email from my local charity shop to say what my donations last year sold for and how much gift aid they were able to get as well. Nice to know, glad they didn't need to post it to me and waste money doing so.

goldfinches

I have to confess to having given in to temptation in the Helen and Douglas Hospice shop in Summertown this afternoon on my way back from a trip to a local art gallery. One of my friends wanted to show me a couple of things they'd seen in the shop that morning and while I was there I spotted the dvd of Morning Glory which is one of my favourite films so I fell for these two dvds for 50p each and the lovely small cutters which I've wanted for ages for £3.

Aren't the cutters lovely, such a great variety of shapes and sizes. I've been looking for some small pretty ones to cut out the centre of fancy biscuits for ages and haven't been able to find any new ones at all so I'm really pleased with these. They're lovely and sharp too so won't need much effort to use and are giving me all sorts of lovely ideas about what to bake next.