Cheltenham Vintage Fair, 27th Oct 2013

Last weekend we found ourselves in Cheltenham for the first LouLou's Cheltenham Vintage Fair. We were pretty excited to visit Cheltenham as it's a lovely place, but also it's only an hour from home for us. It had been an age since I took the camera along to a vintage fair and since our stock and stall is always changing I thought it would be a good chance to snap a few shots of the stall to use on the website. We recently got a new lens and I have been loving playing around with it. So here they are...

The fair was very busy, in fact too busy at times, there is clearly an appetite for vintage in Cheltenham! Tweed jackets, novelty knits and print shirts were our best sellers of the day for vintage, and our bargain £3 rings pretty much sold out! I also took the chance to have a bit of a look about the fair once it got a bit quieter later on, and I grabbed a few snaps then too. As always at these fairs, there was a great variety of styles and eras, something to suit all tastes! I was a bit naughty and bought a lovely 1960's Welsh tapestry shoulder bag and a really lovely new brooch which will look great on my new winter coat. I might have been there to work but it was such a fun day.

Feeling Thrifty: Recent Charity Shop Bargains

I don't get to take a look around the charity shops as often as I would like these days, but a couple of weekends ago we found ourselves at a loose end and decided to head to Shirley high street (our local shopping centre, just outside Birmingham) to have a good old browse. The charity shops in Shirley are usually pretty good, it's a nice area with seemingly quite a high number of retired people, and I find that these factors tend to lead to a good amount of nice vintage stuff in the charity shops! If you live in the Birmingham area I would certainly recommend checking out the charity shops in Shirley.

I picked up these fruity glasses in Cancer Research, who were having a clear out ahead of a shop refit, which meant I got these babies for a bargainous 10p each! As soon as I spotted them in the bargain bin I had to sweep in and make them mine!

A few doors down at Age Concern I found this adorable little Thermos cool bag. I love the shades of blue and the pretty floral print. We took it away with us to the Retro Festival and it actually did a very nice job of keeping things cool. It looks super cute in our little caravan too.

Another Cancer Research 10p bargain, this kitsch little Spanish souvenir is perfect for storing our keys in the hallway. And we've both been to Salou in our younger days so it brings back nice memories too.

I'm a sucker for a good handbag, and even though I have a perfectly good selection already, I couldn't resist this lovely chocolate brown delight. I love the 1970's satchel style shape, and it is the perfect size. It was £15, which is quite a bit for a charity shop bag, but I would have paid that without thinking in a vintage shop and the condition is great. It's making me excited for autumn outfit planning!

This cocktail tray from PDSA was quite a find, again at £4.99 it wasn't cheap, but as soon as we saw it we wanted it. At first I thought it was modern but in a fifties style, but looking at the mark on the back on the sticker confirmed that it is actually pretty old. Perhaps we need to throw a cocktail party now?

I have a bit of a thing for kitschy little animal ornaments and coloured glass, so I am always finding ways to feed my habit. This cake tray is so pretty in this vivid pink and the little cat and dog (who do look a bit grumpy, I'll admit!) were only £1.50 each and are just so cute. The little deer came from the Sheffield Vintage Fair a while back and makes me smile each time I walk past him on the hallway windowsill.

So that's it. I could easily fill my house five times over with charity shop bits and bobs so it is probably for the best that I don't get the chance to go too often! Do you have any favourite charity shop finds?

A Fun Weekend At The Retro Festival 2013

We spent the weekend trading at The Retro Festival in Berkshire. The festival is in its fifth year but it was our first time attending it. It was very different to the usual type of festivals we trade at, but it was nice to take some of our older vintage stock out to this event and experience something a little different. It was certainly a lot more civilised - with very family friendly feel and all the entertainment wrapping up at eleven, it was quite a pleasant change to be tucked up in bed by midnight in a field so quiet you could hear a pin drop. I must be getting old!

The festival featured air displays, military vehicles, a very extensive display of folding caravans (yes, such a thing exists) and classic cars. There were also music stages with the focus mainly on rock n roll, and dance workshops for those wishing to brush up their jiving skills. There were also a lot of stalls, with plenty of vintage clothing, records, homewares and furniture from all eras available. There was even an onsite tattoo artist! We had lots of fun trading alongside our buddies from Second Hand Rose again, our best selling items of the weekend were dresses, bright patterned shirts, retro cat's eyes sunglasses and lots of hats.

Excitingly, they were filming an episode of Midsomer Murders at the festival. They had a special area of the festival set up as a film set and I managed to spot Barnaby getting ready for a scene. Gosh, I really am getting old!

Here are some pictures from this very retro weekend-

A busy morning on our stall

Dream car!

Pretending to be the perfect 1950's housewife, but the flip flops rather ruin the effect!

Cutest spot of the weekend!