Anyone up for a Wardrobe Swap?

Here are a few of my most recent purchases from charity shops, I found this gorgeous silk polkadot dress for £7.50. The small boots were found whilst rooting through the unwanted things in my parents spare room, they fit perfectly and are so cute!

Recently I have found dressing up in interesting outfits to be somehow difficult, like a dry spell. I don't feel especially inspired to dress up in anything fun or new and I feel myself leaning towards the same old things over and over, looking at myself and generally feeling bored with my look.

Summer is upon us and that to me means exciting clothes! The warmth means I'm not confined to a more limited clothing pallete and there are so many bright colours and cute patterns in all the shops, I really want to get excited about wearing them!

I've come to a point where I look in my wardrobe and see a lot of things that don't really inspire me yet I don't exactly want to get rid of.

So I had an idea of doing a wardrobe swap.

Basically it would involve me sending you a piece of clothing and you sending me a piece of clothing that we keep for a few months and then send back to eachother or keep forever if you or I doesn't/don't want it back.

It can be any item, a dress, skirt, trousers, t-shirt, accessories or even shoes, I'm up for anything really.

Obviously we would have to check with eachother our measurements or general sizes, it wouldn't be much fun sending something that wouldn't fit and shipping for things like shoes and big things like coats would be a little more costly but otherwise I think it would be great fun!

If you'd be interested in that then please feel free to leave me a comment here or send me an email to dear.sweetlings@gmail.com and we can arrange something.

Second hand and Thrift shopping survey from Superbeckyy

I spent some time at my friend's house last night and she showed me around her library. Amazing! I love all of her old toys too. The dinosaur in the back is called Blue.

Here she is putting some books away. She has them all alphabetised and catagorised, she has a lot of books in that room! Heaven.

On the way to her house, my town is filled with Churches.

This is Drusilla ^^ she hardly makes an appearence in photos because she never sits still long enough for me to take one.

The light settings on my camera are strange at the moment but it can give this odd blue light effect that I love.

Related to this post my friend Becky of Love, Lust & Pixie Dust (http://superbeckyy.blogspot.com/) recently made a post about shopping for second hand clothing, especially in charity shops.

She made many good points about societies perception of second hand clothing and gives a lot of good tips for finding good clothes in these places as well as things to look out for. I would reccommend reading her blog if you are interested in fashion, she gives lots of good tips there and posts outfit photos also.

I would like to make a simillar post here at some point soon as I enjoy browsing second hand shops and charity shops very much. I like the mystery of going into one, you might not find anything but you might find something amazing. I usually come out with at least one thing that I love whether it be clothes, books or little trinkets.

Becky posted a questionnaire regarding second hand shopping so I thought I would fill it out and share it here.

1. What kind of clothing would you consider buying/would never buy second hand?

I will buy most things from a second hand shop as long as I like them and they are in good quality. I don't see any good reason to look down on clothing purely because they have been owned before, just because somebody else does not want them anymore does not mean that they are not good clothing and won't be a great piece for somebody else.

The only things I don't really feel comfortable buying from second hand shops would be underwear, undergarments and perhaps china wear.

2. Favourite/least favourite aspect of buying pre-used?

I think my favourite part is the history. You'll never know who owned that item before you and it can be really fun to try and guess what kind of person they were. There's also something fun about knowing your clothing has been through history, it's been around in a time that maybe you weren't able to partake in. Maybe it's even older than you are! It feels like you're literally wearing a piece of history when you put it on.

I also like the price, it's usually a lot cheaper than buying new. It can also be particularly useful if you're more interested in older styles, I know 50's, 60's and 80's is still popular. A lot of older items turn up in second hand shops.

I suppose my least favourite part is that you can't be sure exactly where that item has been before... I suppose I get a little paranoid about catching something from the clothes at times and it's the reason I wouldn't buy cups, bowls and so on.

3. Best finds from the charity shop / vintage store / Ebay?

My best find on Ebay that I can think of is my white and black sailor lolita dress, it wasn't especially cheap but it's well made so it was worth the money I paid for it. I've found some really cute old fashioned clothing in charity shops as well. If you look at most of my outfit photos at least one thing I'm wearing at any time tends to be second hand, about half of my wardrobe is second hand clothing.

The best vintage thing I have wasn't actually found by me, a friends mum gave it to me instead of selling it on Ebay. It's a velvet and lace ball gown from around the 60's I think with puffed arms. It's amazing!

4. Do you ever give to charity shops?

I'll be honest and say I haven't given much recently but this is mostly due to the fact that I haven't had a wardrobe clean out of late. I did one just earlier actually so I'm sure some of those items will go to charity shops.

I tend to take clothing I don't want anymore and sell it online or give it to my friends, if nobody wants it and it's in good condition then I give it to charity shops. The same goes for books. I wouldn't donate something in bad condition as I don't like to buy these types of items myself.

5. Uses for clothes from the thrift stores & charity shops?

I just wear them for my every day clothing. I have so many that there would be no point in seperating my clothes into 'new' and 'old' clothes in such a way.

The great thing about the low cost of these clothes is they're easy to experiment with and try new styles out with without breaking the bank. It also makes changing your style easier I think, when you buy expensive clothes you can feel somehow obligated to hang onto them even if you don't like them anymore but with second hand it can be easier to part with them because they didn't cost so much.

Second hand clothes can also be really useful for experimenting and learning things or making new things with DIY. You can make really cool new things relatively easily because you can afford the supplies and if it doesn't go quite as planned you haven't wasted much money.

Fires and Friends

Bonfires in fields into the night with your three best friends in all the world, good friendss and new friends , owls hooting and wood burning, listening to music, toasting Pains au Chocolat with Cherry sticks pulled out of trees and stars, stars, stars.

These girls have been my friends since I was 8 years old. I love them!

Toasting Pains au Chocolat on Cherry sticks we pulled off the trees and peeled. Amazing!

Jasmine (to my left) and Corrie (to my right) and me looking silly in the middle!

Hello! My body looks strange in this one doesn't it?

hehehe Jaz's face is making me laugh every time I see this.

Making the fire! The man and the girl in this picture are both called Jaz ^^

The light was lovely coming through the trees.

We found this log, it was huge and it got there naturally... I have no idea how! Of course I had to take a tourist photo on it.

I have some more pictures of my friends amazing library room and her adorable cats that I took last night. We spent an hour in her little room listening to ragtime music on her record player, talking about books and all the little trinkets she has in her room and about books and tea and laughing and having fun. I miss her so much when I'm in Lincoln, I hope she moves closer!
Next year Corrie will live closer to me, only an hour and a half away so I will see her more often, if I can get Jaz to move closer I will be in heaven.

To that blue blue sky

This is where I grew up, I came back for the weekend to stay with friends. My boyfriend and I took these photos whilst wandering around early in the morning in the bright sunshine.