Sunday, 5 September 2010

Fun Times at the Carboot

Car boot sales are a great British tradition and there's nothing better than getting up ridiculously early to rummage through other peoples stuff. I seem to have spent an awful lot of my summer doing just that this year so I thought I'd share our most recent visits.

Usually it is just myself and my friend Sarah, but recently our troupe has expanded to include my boyfriend Gareth, my brother Andrew and my niece Ruby. The weather has been particularly nice lately too so I took the opportunity to photograph some of the stuff that I would have bought if I had infinite money and space in my house!


I love any kind of vintage kitchenalia so i made a bee line for these trays. The lady told us that her father had made them! They were only £1 each, but sadly I left them where they were, I have way too many trays as it is!






Another thing I have plenty of is mirrors! I really liked this gold framed one, a bargain at £3 and thought it would go perfectly with my starburst clock. However, I was sensible and left it where it was!
There was lots of furniture on offer today and particularly coffee tables. We usually see a few G Plan tile top ones but I really liked these two, the first a 50's Formica topped beauty with lovely spindly legs. If only the Formica had been yellow and not wooden! The second was a really nice 1970s teak and smoked glass table which would have gone perfectly with my G plan sideboard, if I needed a coffee table! I didn't ask for prices as I knew I'd be too tempted if I did!




And now onto one of my favourite stalls, they are regulars and always have loads of stuff to rummage through. I've bought a few things from them previously but didn't purchase this week. They had this gorgeous sewing machine, in perfect condition complete with it's instruction booklet. He wanted £15 and that was more money than I even had on me, but still a bargain!

This is the rest of the stall, just boxes and boxes of stuff!! Loads of tea sets and kitchenalia to rummage through, just how I like it!






We all have our own things we like to look for at the carboot, Sarah and I like fabrics, kitchen bits, vases and anything pre 1980s. Andrew and Gareth spend most of their time with their heads in boxes of records. There are literally thousands of records so it takes quite a while but they do insist on looking through them all!

Another one of my favourite things to look for is suitcases! I have way too many at home anyway as I use them for storage, however they had some beauties today, priced from £2 upwards here are a few:











One of my favourite things about carboot sales, even if I don't end up buying anything, is just being really nosey and seeing the random things people have. I loved this Blind Date game! Took me back to Saturday nights in the early 90s!


I could have taken hundreds of pictures over the weeks, but here are just a few more things I spotted then regretfully left behind. A beautiful pheasant tapestry (very similar to one a certain Miss Berger picked up for me at a carboot!), lots and lots of costume jewellery and some very retro kitchen jars:












So that's what we didn't buy, here's a look at some of the things we've picked up today. Records, records and more records! All bought for £1 or less, they included a Beatles Sergeant Peppers, Stone Roses Waterfall Single, Blondie Parallel lines (All Andrews), David Bowies, Frank Sinatras (Sarah) Thin Lizzies (Gareth), Gary Numans (Andrew), and my brothers favourite purchase of the day, Portishead 'Dummy' for 20p! I came away with Petula Clark and the Mary Poppins soundtrack!
I was only on the look out for a new dinner plate for work (mine had suspiciously disappeared!) so how could I resist this spectacular Charles and Diana one for not such a bargain at £1.50. But I do have a soft spot for the Royals! As proved by my next purchase, a commemorative coronation paper for 50p. Full of images of the Queen dressed beautifully and lots of vintage adverts. Finally Sarah and I spotted these amazing curtains, original 1970s bird and floral print, never been out of the packet! Really wide and long, two pairs for £5, £2.50 and a pair each meant we were both happy!
Not forgetting super bargain hunter Ruby, she got this beautiful Princess horse and carriage for £1!

Not bought this week, but last, I had a bumper haul of one of may favourite things - 1970's German Pottery Vases! The lot for £7, all in perfect condition. It was a bit over my usual limit but I couldn't resist, they would fit right in at home! I also got the lovely original 1950s plant pot for 50p!

Only trouble is, when trying to photograph them, the cats like them a bit too much, Harry kept jumping into the shot!
And when I put my plant in it, Misty wouldn't leave it alone. Perhaps they're hinting that next time I should bring something back for them!!
Well the carboot season is drawing steadily to a close, we will be going again next week, weather permitting, so I shall update you with anymore bargains!

Thursday, 2 September 2010

Biba Returns



Biba is being reincarnated by House of Fraser this month. The modern day muse? None other than our vintage favourite Daisy Lowe. Some really beautiful pieces of the collection including a glitzy cape, leopard coat and various limited edition dresses have been released in the Biba Lookbook. However without Barbara Hulanicki at the helm we doubt it will be the same and at £250 a dress it contrasts with the original affordable ethos of the Biba brand. We'll hold our breath.   




Tuesday, 31 August 2010

Final Festival Fling!

It feels like only yesterday but it has been a whole week since we returned from V Festival, our last festival of the season. It's now all hands to the deck at Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair HQ as we prepare to set off on our tour around the country for our Autumn fairs. Are we coming to a city near you? Here's where we will be stopping off…

Liverpool / Saturday 18th September
Edinburgh / Saturday 18th September
Glasgow / Sunday 19th September
Sheffield / Saturday 25th September
Nottingham / Sunday 26th September
Leeds / Wednesday 29th September
Lincoln / 2nd October
Leicester / 3rd October
Durham / 9th October
Newcastle / 9th October
Cambridge / 10th October
York / 17th October
Oxford / 23rd October
London (Bethnal Green) / 24th October

Thursday, 26 August 2010

The Best Weekend Ever - Also known as 'The Weekend we had our photos took next to cars!

I know there have been a few posts about Vintage at Goodwood already but thought I'd add my two penneth. Myself, the lovely Sarah H and Kati P drove down and were part of the 'Judy's' crew helping the stall holders set up etc. We got to witness the magic of all the stalls been set up and them bringing out their beautiful treasures for us to pine for.

We spent the weekend in total awe of just the entire look of the whole festival, the High Street was breathtaking, the stalls were unbelievable, packed with the most astounding array of goodies I've ever seen and the atmosphere was one of pure delight! So I thought I'd run through my top five things things of the weekend:

5 - The activities:



There was so much to actually do besides see bands, we didn't even scratch the surface. One of our favourite things was screen printing our own scarves with the lovely folk from http://www.idressmyself.co.uk/, it was a design by Sally Elford for the V&A and here's a photo of me royally messing it up despite the fact I have a degree in it.


4 - The Stuff to See!!


There was literally so much to see it was overwhelming. I could just fill pages and pages with photos, but I picked out a couple of my favourites. We loved the Bad Art tent where you had to pick your best and worst piece of Art on display. The Fuzzy Felt Jaws was unanimously voted the winner by us!

The Bonhams tent was also filled with delights, there were costumes, guitars, Artwork and I couldn't resist having my photo taken with the Ridgway Homemaker tea service, even though, as pointed out by Sarah, I could have took this at home!








Throughout the whole weekend there were people milling around dressed in costume, sometimes it was hard to distinguish between the punters and the people playing characters though! Two that stood out were the lovely ladies in swim mg costumes and these two Policemen. I loved them! They didn't even laugh when I said it was like being in Life on Mars and kept character the whole time.






3 - The Cars
The cars could only be described as AMAZING!!!!! We spent probably half the weekend having our photos just stood in front of amazing cars!













2 - The Stalls
As always the Judy's stall holders had the most amazing stock. I was on a strict no spending regime (which obviously I didn't stick to!) but I will post my treasures another time. There was such an array of things on offer it was very difficult to not just run round in a vintage induced haze. Unluckily, I found my dream wedding dress on one of my favourite stalls which can be found on facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Junkies-Vintage-Boutique/281785003871?v=wall


1 - My absolute favourite thing was...... this photo!!!!
I know it's probably terribly vain to have a photo of myself as a favourite thing, but seriously, I don't photograph well and I'm not guffawing on it!! This was taken in the BBC antiques magazine tent where they basically had my dream living room set up. It was so beautiful. I'm fairly sure the lady was getting fed up of me just staring at it!
And so that was Goodwood. What a weekend!!!

Thursday, 19 August 2010

The boys and the men at Vintage at Goodwood





Pictures courtesy of The ChicGeek.

Not that these dapper gents need it but TheChicGeek team have put together the definitive 2010 guide to men's vintage. For anybody interested in what to buy, where to get it from and a behind the scenes look, this is a must-have.

The 21 page ChicGeek Guide to Men's Vintage includes;

- 18 point guide to buying men's vintage

- A behind the scenes look at the Rokit warehouse in North London

- An interview with auctioneer Kerry Taylor of Kerry Taylor Auctions

- The Holy Grail of Men's Vintage - The must-haves of the vintage world

- Future Vintage - What to hold on to for the future

- A listing of the UK's top vintage shops and websites for menswear

All for only 99p download now


Eye Spy Vintage

The lovely Lorraine from Eye Spy Vintage joined us at Goodwood with her kooky retro and vintage frames, if you missed this stall please check out the Website