One woman's trash is another woman's treasure...

Teapots, sunglasses, LP's, photoframes, novels, purses, cuddly toys, shoes, sofas....... spangly sequin encrusted conical bras... there is a never ending bounty of kleptomanic joy to be found down the Car Boot Sale.

I can't get enough of them. I can recall sunny Sunday mornings down at the boot sale from when I was a wee thing, still in my matching Aladdin leggings and t-shirt combo, foraging around until picking up an ornament of a pig holding a pitch fork (which, might I add, doubled up as a bottle opener) and marvelling over it like Indiana Jones to the Holy Grail.

I certainly went through a good few years during my spawn-of-the-devil teenage years whereby it was suddenly 'well not cool' to spend mornings scratching around the back of stranger's cars and rummaging through their junk. (Sunday mornings were of course for eating entire packs of Maryland cookies dunked in milk whilst watching T4 and fabricating a hangover after drinking one too many bacardi breezers in my friends garage...)

Thank the heavens that now in ripe old adulthood I am enlightened again to the wonders of the carpark, field, or disused runway which stages these fiestas of orphaned treasures and can now see that a pig ornament is in fact not a 'must have' item, instead concentrating on the real gold which is up for grabs: the weird and wonderful, albeit sometimes slightly musty, vintage clothing.

First things first, get over any 'Eww it's been worn before, someone might have died/vomitted/had sexy times in it' mentality as that will get you nowhere and we all know how to use a washing machine now don't we boys and girls?!

The threads I've picked up down the bootsale make up many of the staples of my wardrobe, and bizarrely get the most comments. I worked in Reiss for a long while and thanks to the stonking discount managed to inject a quite satisfying high quality contingent into my wardrobe - however, it was still the 20p lacey blouse that would get more "Oooooh were did you get that from"s than any £195 Reiss skirt. 

Even more substantial a reason to get yourself down the bootsale is desperate need to stop producing more and more STUFF and start appreciating that not everything is made to be used once and thrown away. Without going into too much of rant, we are all guilty to some extent of cluttering our lives up with more and more things we don't need, rather than investing in things which we adore and will last us a long time. Like the shoes you bought in Primark, which desperately need re-heeling but won't be because it would cost you less to just buy a new pair and throw the month-old ones out?! Of course, I love a bit of a Primark bargain and would never boycott anywhere which sells pretty pants for a pound (a pound, it's amazing!) but there are so many ethical and environmental issues about such shops which I will not bore you all with now as we've all heard plenty about it.

In short, giving something second hand which could be of use to you a good home means one less thing in the landfill and will bless you with that gloriously smug satsfaction when someone compliments the hell out of your thrifted handbag/t-shirt/polaroid camera and you point at it and say: 'This? 50p mate, car boot sale!"
Get in and win.

I popped down to my local just yesterday morning actually, and took these snaps with my handy phone camera (yes, I used that app which makes everything look charming and vintage and green!)