Wednesday 19 January 2011

Feeling Charitable

A number of people have recently posted about their latest charity shop bargains. So here are 3 which I have picked up in recent weeks

First up, this…

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It is a great little book, I read it through in about three sittings. I found it clever, moving, and intelligently written…

I didn’t understand how it came to have two authors till I got to the end and read the explanatory final section.

But I would really recommend it as a charming book. Not saying anymore, don’t want to spoil it for any potential readers!

Then there was this set…

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A good sized square red cotton tablecloth, with matching blue circular cloth, and four napkins in red,blue, green and gold.

The attractive little couples dancing round the border look Austrian or Hungarian to me – there is no clue on the label to the origins.

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Some hold flowers and birds, others have different musical instruments.

I cannot decide whether to keep as tablecloths [for which table? I don’t think I have any the right size!] or cut out the motifs and use them to decorate other craft makes.

They would be lovely as the front of lavender bags.

The larger ones are 10cm square, the ones on the napkins are 4cm square.

My final purchase was a real bargain. For ages I have wanted a Boden wrap dress. I tried on the black one Liz owns, and it did look good. They look much better when being worn by a woman with curves than hanging on a wooden hanger.

This one in the current catalogue is £85

Boden-Jersey-Wrap-Dress

This one is not a genuine Boden but I liked it anyway [and its price]

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Trust me, it does look much better actually being worn. I do not intend to show as much cleavage as the model when I wear it!

The print is a lovely brown and cream starburst pattern

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Total spend less than £6.

On the subject of Charity Shops, Bob and I have noticed recently that we have seen loads of these…

crockpot inner

…the ceramic inner pots from slow-cookers [crockpots] Why is this? We could understand that if you smashed the pot you would have to throw the slow-cooker away. But do people discard the outer electric part, but keep the casserole “In case it comes in useful” and then discover it never does  - so donate it to a charity shop? And why does there seem to be so many of them just lately?

Or is it that charity shops are not allowed to sell electrical goods, so if a whole slow-cooker is donated, they take out the inner pot and just try to sell that?

Personally I am hanging on to my little slow-cooker. It is wonderfully useful – especially in these cold winter months when casseroles are so good to come home to!

9 comments:

  1. I read the charming book following our friend Elizabethd's recommendation and thoroughly enjoyed it, too. It seems that you had a very successful and economical shopping trip - I have been looking for a pattern to make just that style of dress you have but no luck so far.

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  2. On crock pots... I have a spare 'inner' from a slow cooker that packed up and may well soon have two such because one of my two slow cookers has been acting up recently and not heating properly. The trouble is the inners never quite fit another base and there is a sense they may come in useful... and now and then they do if you are feeding the masses!

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  3. Entering into competition with Floss!
    What bargains you found, especially the book which is one of my favourites.

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  4. Wow - lucky you!! Loved that book. The dress is fab and the cloths too.
    I expect you're right re the electric thing with the slow cookers. Yet that's how I broke mine - tranferring it to the oven to brown off a topping - which the handbook /recipe book said to do but it broke the pot. The manufacturers did replace it freebie though.

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  5. What an excellent idea for the crockpot pot! I'll be on the lookout for the same. Love the dress! ~Liz

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  6. I broke the original lid of our Slo Cooker years ago and have never been allowed to forget that... but your mystery remains mysterious to me.

    My mum couldn't stand the writing style of the GLPPPS book. She said that British people in wartime would never have written like that - it's just a modern American imaginary exercise. So she didn't get past the first few pages. I stuck with it but did see what she meant. Do you? She was a bit prone to snap judgements... (in a nice kind of way).

    And I adore your second hand tablecloth - look for a second hand table to fit it, I say! Too good to cut up. But that's just my snap judgement.

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  7. Love your buys. I havent been to any charity shops recently, but I am sure I will soon. I love my slow cooker and would never part with it

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  8. I love the dress! What a bargain--and they are really flattering.

    I enjoyed Potato Peel Pie, too, though by the end I was rather irritated by how downright decent and thoroughly unflawed all the good guys were. I'm a good guy, and I'm flawed through and through. But it was a fun, quick read, nevertheless. Glad you got it for such a bargain!

    xofrances

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  9. It does seem that GLPPPS is best read at speed- otherwise it gets irritating!
    And I feel v sorry for all those of you who have crockpots with broken lids!
    Thanks for the comments

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