Tk Maxing

The Tk Max shopping experience for me is so similar to Charity shopping and Car booting. It’s as close as I get to shopping in the real commercial world and Tks on clearance sale can be better than charity shop prices. As mentioned I adore the thrill of the find, rummaging and valuing anything if it’s my style and it doesn’t matter where it’s from. Below my latest designer finds from Tk Max in Staines (out of town Tks even better just as the Charity’s, same, same)



Antoni and Alison orange striped Cardigan £18.I have noticed my uniform appearing before my eyes and a little patterned cardigan is one of the things I always need to have and replace. A good quirky little number useful layering option that so needed with our British Springs and Summers.







The hippie in me just wont give up the ghost of 1969 with these J Brand Jeans £7, Tk Max Staines, and Gharani Strok floral floaty hippy top again £7, Tk Max Staines. I am not usually that keen on see through tops on ladies over 40 but this one looks smashing with a little cotton vest under and digging the puffy shoulders too man.

Under the Mulberry bush

To find one Mulberry bag in an Antique Shop in Hampton Court ( check out my fist post “the beginning” in January )and then return months later to find another bag felt like it was to good to be true. This one is a great user and a brilliant school - work type of bag. Just realising how sensible Mulberry bags are and I am sensing sensible is the new rock and roll these days.

Garden gnome make over

Sunglasses can’t get enough of them and find it so hard to resist them in charity shops.
I found this pair of Vintage 80s tortoiseshell look sunglasses in a charity shop in Birkenhead. Whilst deciding to buy, do I really need another pair of glasses and then justifying well they don’t take up to much space and they are only 50p, done, sold to the lady with a draw full of sunglasses already. Inspired myself with my last “little I-deer for the garden” post styling the found objects around the garden and decided to give my gnome an ab fab sunglasses makeover, ohh sweety.

Little I-deer for the garden

So into grow your own, it’s my third year dabbling growing things to eat in the garden. There have been successes and failures galore, tomatoes, salads, potatoes, and raspberries great and radishes and peas not so great. I found this little deer ornament at a boot sale in surrey and bought it for 50p and thought she would look just fine hidden between the salad leaves in a big pot in the garden. Gives a new spin on ornamental garden!

Tea with the Queen

Royal mugs are where it’s at! Not last Christmas but the one before I bought one of my sisters a selection mugs featuring the royal family as a Christmas present. The credit crunch had just hit and I was looking for creative and thrifty way to buy gifts that year. After giving it to her, to my horror she couldn’t hide the disappointment on her face and said “oh no karen these are so wrong, I don’t have a cabinet and I am not into displaying things and letting them gathering dust” Once I explained the concept behind the gift that they are not for display and are not for best but for everyday normal best, she got it! I recently found another 6 royal mugs for my own use at a boot sale in Surrey. I bought them for a £1 each from a boot seller who told me he had another 38 boxes of a collection to sell. So I say go buy royal mugs for a pound and have tea with the queen and the royals for everyday best!

First Boot sale of the season and whatwefound there !

Roll out the green carpet, get the tea earns full to the brim, drum roll, first boot sale of the season few weeks ago. Never mind big fancy celebrity premiers this first was so full of it, real life , the type of public gathering Martin Parr would of wanted to photograph until his hearts content. Since being with my fella in the burbs (vintage retro heaven) and him being fully converted to shopping alternatively (he was half way there before I met him) I have noticed a cycle to finding and buying vintage clothes and retro home wear. It’s all about the charity shops in Autumn and Winter and boot sales in Spring Summer. Although its a double edge sword in the Summer the weekend booty’s may be full of finds galore but the empty space that occupies Sunday early evening without the Antiques Road show is to much to bear.

Never mind, moving on, for me boots sales are fab because they are unpretentious and democratic. Everyone has the same size pitch and I sense it’s what life must have been like in the olden days (love that saying) at markets before we had shops and shopping centres. I love snooping and rooting through what people don’t want anymore and guessing their lifestyle. Also how they display their finest goods and what prices they ask, their homemade graphics and how they decide to label goods or not. The fact that you can buy something and if your lucky enough to get offered a carrier bag the brand advertised on the bag is insignificant and doesn’t relate to the item inside, anti branding, love it ! As well as the mix of goods on sale or for free, yes for free I spotted one stall with everything on a plastic blue sheet with homemade signage saying “Everything Free”. I missed out on a free big Roland Rat costume head, don’t ask me why but I am sure it could have been used for something somewhere in my life .How could a big brand compete with this sellers generosity and green heart? I have been informed by my fella in the last couple of weeks he has noticed how physically bigger boot sales have got expanding into the farmer’s next field or the next car park. With more boot sellers since last year it’s a clear sign that austerity is going to be so very in for the next few fashion seasons!

Just heard about the coolest concept for a boot sale at Vintage at Goodwood, it’s a car boot sale with class as the cars have to be classic to get a pitch. The Festival is 13, 14, 15 August 2010 and the first music and fashion led celebration of creative British cool from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s & 80s, featuring the leading DJs, bands, collectors, purveyors of vintage clothing and vintage vinyl from each decade, as well as contemporary bands and brands,Oh my! Many fabulous happenings sounds like and festival and beauty of booty not to miss.

My first boot sale of the season had a mission attached as I started a blog in January this year called whatkarenfoud documenting my fashion and lifestyle items I find and buy in a year (fuys) from Charity Shops, Boot Sales and the good old Jumble sales. Trying to keep up with the blog has started to kerb my buying a little, darn! I am realising even more about my style and what I am drawn to since blogging my finds. Secondly we had friends stay and entertain they like a good booty so I asked them if I could document what they bought to for my blog and they were up for it. We free styled at the booty with the photos and it helped that they can both do photography as well a many other talents. So here are some of the photos from our finding and buying extravaganza at the first boot sale of the season.

Wimbledon Boot sale - 21 Apr 2010 - 31 Dec 2010
Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium Plough Lane Wimbledon London, SW17 0BL
Public admission before 8.30am Cost: £2 after 8.30am Cost: £1

www.vintageatgoodwood.com



Hand made signs such cool graphics , real!



More books , costume for my history of fashion shelf and a picture book 50p each



Anything that says cocktail glamour I am in ! 1960s drink mixer £1



Iconic flying ducks £2 , bad buy the one of the birds beaks was missing, never mind , win some , loose some.



Fab yellow pint glass , love the frosted effect and looks like such a girly pint glass 50p



Pink bottle with stopper , great for storing bubble bath adding a bit of glam to the bathroom, star buy 20p



Pool ceramic shell , great buy collectible bought for £3



Hand made rug sold to me for £4 by the lady who made it. She told me it took 2 weeks to make, I asked her if I could photograph her for the blog as she looked great a very elegant older lady but she declined. I wish you could of seen her.



What a buy , very 80s Lady Diana, its a big size but looks great with a big belt, love it worn it lots already £1



Love the shape of this vanity case and has a laptop look to it to , a good school bag.



Keith in action finding those retro bargains.



Keith doing his display of finds.



Marinas check dress very Hoxton



Marinas amazing vintage straw hat , I wish I had seen this first , but got to admit it looks fab on her.



Marinas 80s style leather woven top very tribal.



Marinas plates



Love this plate of bits and pieces for 20p each



Mikey in action buying his lamp.



Mikeys tanker, very cool !



Mikeys lamp



Mikeys picture



A stall featuring a British bulldog as its star item !



Red white and blue girls , fab !



"Everything Free" was so impressed with the lady that did this, had a good chat about nothing with her.




Gutted I didnt take this home it was on the "Everything is Free" sheet !



A full car boot full of our booty !

Photos : Karen Savage. Keith Ellis, Marina Perez Fuchs,Mikey Chestnutt

Rye Lucky Bag

Lucky bags and not knowing what you are actually going to find in them reminds me of children’s parties and lucky bags sold in sweet shops of the 70s. I found a grown up version while slipping to shops looking for a hat pin, before a friend’s wedding in Rye. I spotted a see through plastic bag of a bundle of costume jewellery for £5 in an antique centre. An orange pearl bracelet in the bag caught my eye and so matched my wedding outfit. I knew I would pay £5 for the bracelet so the rest was a vintage bonus. Also another trip down memory lane in Rye was a retro style sweet shop with all the sweets in jars. Where sweets are sold loose by weight and packaged in white little paper bags. Cola cubes and sherbet lemons a go-go. I did end up finding a vintage hat pin for £1 but as always came back with more than I bargained for. These fuys found and bought in Rye where photographed in the swish hotel we stayed in, enjoy!



Lucky bag of vinatge baubles and a book I bought as a weeding card for my friend.



Orange pearl bracelet and finds from the lucky bits bag .



Pink and paste vintage jewellery, can’t go wrong with baubles and bows.



Finally found the hat pin in a jewellery shop in the bargain bucket bit. The black hat was bought on previous trip to Rye from a cluttered shop by the dock. The woman I bought it off for £18 was very sweet she told me it was a dear friend of hers who was a very kind glamorous. I had a bit of a moment of connection with the shop owner and after our chat I felt convinced that certain pieces of vintage do carry their story. It looked great at the wedding and hope I did the original owner proud.





Cola cubes and sherbet lemons, love the colours, came in handy on the trip home the next day.



The car full of finds after our trip to Rye and Hastings.