Boot sale bargains (part 8)

It’s been a whole year since I last visited the Chiswick boot sale, which is probably for the best given my inability to say no to bargains!  I picked up some lovely bits and pieces today…

So, we have eight volumes of Shakespeare, for a grand total of £4.

A copy of Robinson Crusoe for £2 (the spine is knackered but the covers are gorgeous).

A pretty book for £1

Another pretty book for £2 (look at the spine on that!)

Observer book of military airplanes, £1.

Four ladybird books and a couple of Beatrix Potter books, £3.

Big book of animals.  Knackered spine on this one, but the covers are still vibrant.  Full of beautiful line drawings (although some have been defaced by the original owner).

Some lovely vintage Look & Learn comics, 20p each.

A huge stack of vintage Dandy comics for £10.

Last, but not least, this HUGE book (see the first photo at the top which will give you an idea of the size) which I have grand plans for.  £3 for this beast.  The woman had another two copies and wanted £10 for the lot, but I really only needed one (see, I can say no occasionally!).

Not a bad haul, and I bought a very pretty linen dress too (brand new, and sadly not cheap in the grand scheme of things, but it’s gorgeous)…

That’s it for this month!

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Boot sale bargains (part 7)

It’s been over six months since my last visit to the Chiswick car boot sale, which surprised me when I realised how long it had been!  Still, I made up for it yesterday.  First up we have a gorgeous folio type thing:

I don’t really need it, but at £6 I couldn’t resist.  Then there was this little map

which was just £2.  Next up we have some Beatrix Potter books (£6 for seven books)…

…another vintage Scrabble set (£1)…

…these little pocket sized books (£5 for the three)…

…some DVDs (£1 each – don’t judge me on these, The Princess Diaries is for my mother!)…

…some crochet cotton (£2) which I couldn’t resist at that price, even though I don’t need it…

…a book I’ve been eyeing up for ages but didn’t want to pay full price for (it’s £25 on Amazon!), so was utterly delighted to pay just £1…

…and last, but no means least, we have some more hand thrown terracotta pots (these were from different sellers but worked out about £2 each on average).

…so it was a very good haul!  I had a lovely morning browsing to my heart’s content, and didn’t spend too much so all is good!

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Boot sale bargains (part 6)

I can’t believe that it’s September already, this month has flown by.  Still, time waits for no man and so on Sunday just gone I made the usual pilgrimage up to Chiswick with my mother to see what we could find.

I hadn’t intended to spend much money (as I’m broke), and thus hadn’t brought much with me… so it’s good job that I did go with my mother as I had to rely on her purse in the end.  Bargains really do need to be snapped up when you see them, they might not be there when you go back!
First up is this fabulous vintage school desk.  I’ve wanted one of these since I built the studio in my garden, but they’re usually far too expensive (ranging from £40 for a single desk to £100 for a double like this one), so I’ve had to reluctantly walk away from all the others.  This one has been painted black at some point, but the wood is sound and I intend to strip it back to the bare wood at some point (probably next year).  Bargain price of £35, from the very nice man who sold me a trunk this time last year!

It’s the perfect size.  I’ve removed the two cheap and cheerful Ikea desks I had in there, and this one allows room at the end for the cupboard I bought last month!  Of course I had to half empty my studio and tidy up again in order to rearrange everything, but it was definitely worth it.

Next up we have a load of DVDs… this first lot ranged from 50p to £1 each (Sleeping Beauty was a particular bargain, Disney classics are usually £5 upwards)…

… and then I just couldn’t help myself when I saw all eight series of Charmed… a bargaintastic £30, and they threw in the Back to the Future trilogy as a freebie!

That lot ought to keep me entertained for the foreseeable future while I work in my studio!

Last up from Chiswick this month were some nice wooden boxes.  The first one was 50p, and the second one £2 – I plan to make a miniature book to fit into each section.

A trip to the boot sale wouldn’t be complete without books of some description, and I was pleased to find some more Enid Blyton books at 50p each.

These last items weren’t from Chiswick, but I picked them up on Saturday at a sale being held by a prop hire company.  It was a pretty random discovery, I passed by their premises when I was on my way back from the tip and saw them setting up tables so I went back a couple of hours later to have a rummage.  Lovely old cigar boxes, sturdier than the usual ones I get, £1 each.

That’s it for this month, and I do need to be a little more frugal so hopefully I won’t see anything too tempting next time!

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Boot sale bargains (part 4)

A whole month has gone by already, can you believe it?  It’s the first Sunday of the month so off I toddled to the big car boot sale at Chiswick Community School this morning and (as usual) ended up buying far more than I intended to…

…first up we have a couple of hardback Discworld books.  £1 each, and perfect as I’ve only got the paperback versions of these two.

… then there was this unremarkable looking book…

…which, upon closer inspection, turned out to be a little treasure…

Gorgeous, isn’t it?  I picked up a few more vintage books too…

The most expensive of those was the Home Baked one, which was £3, the rest were picked up for between £1 and £2 each.

I was really pleased to pick up this pocket bird guide (£1.50) which I’ll keep in my studio to help me identify the birds that come to my feeder, and was also very chuffed with these three classics at £1 a book, and they’re going to look lovely on my bookshelf.

I can’t keep away from old comics and today was no exception…

The ones in the first photo were 10p each, and the ones in the second photo were 50p each.  Not sure what I’ll do with them but I’m sure I’ll think of something!

I wasn’t actively looking for clothes but chanced upon a few things I had to have…

…this lovely bodywarmer (or gilet, if you prefer) was only £3 and is like new…

…a very snuggly jumper dress (I do like a big cowl neck) was £2…

… this random red shirt (£1) came home with me and will be good for summer days in my studio…

…this beautiful dress from FatFace is like new, and was only £3…

…and this snuggly long cardigan from Jigsaw was only £1.50.  Bargaintastic!

The last random bargain I got was this learn Italian set (£3), I’ve been wanting to learn for a while and now I have no excuse.

Not sure if I’ll be going to the boot sale next month as my mother will be away, and it’s very much a mother-and-daughter outing for us (plus she’s much better than I am at haggling!), but check back at the beginning of June and if I’ve got more bargains I’ll post about them 🙂

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Boot sale bargains (part 3)

It’s been quite a while since my last boot sale bargains post but circumstances seemed to be conspiring against me.  The big sale in Chiswick doesn’t normally take place in January, it was cancelled in February due to the snow, and the one in March was pretty much a non-event due to the torrential rain.

The first Sunday of April dawned bright and clear though, so off to Chiswick I trotted and here’s what I got…

The complete DVD set of This Life, £2.  Complete and utter bargain considering this normally goes for upwards of £20 on eBay!

Vintage Scrabble set, £2.

Vintage Beatrix Potter books, seven for £5 (should have been £1 each but I haggled).  They’re a bit tatty but I have plans for them…

Vintage map, £1.  This might not seem hugely interesting to most people but I bought it because of the area it covers – it’s got my dad’s home village on it (Titchfield, in the close up)  and I know he’d have liked it.

Vintage book, £3.50.  This was a bit more than I wanted to spend, but I did haggle him down from the starting price of £5.

Victorian plant pots, 50p each.

Gorgeous obelisk, £20.  Quite pricey but it was brand new, and that’s actually a pretty good price for a good looking obelisk!

There was, once again, so much I wanted to buy but simply couldn’t afford.  Here are some of the ones that got away.

I desperately wanted this portmanteau (is that the right word?!), and it would have been so perfect for me… but at £100 I had to regretfully walk away.  I thought it was actually a pretty fair price, but fair or not it was out of my very small budget.

Old French bottles, £10 each or £90 for a full crate load.  I don’t really have room for these either but I did like them!

I thought this vintage egg case was beautiful.  Still complete in every detail down to the cardboard between the two padded layers.  Gorgeous but definitely out of my price range at a whopping £160.

Once again I left the boot sale wishing I’d had a bigger budget (and a bigger house in which to hoard things!), but it was a great morning and I was really pleased with the bargains I picked up.  Looking forward to the next one, and fingers crossed that the weather is just as good next time!

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Boot sale bargains (part 2)

Back in September I wrote about some of bargains I picked up at the big car boot sale in Chiswick.  I didn’t get a chance to go there in October, but did pop in this weekend (remember, it’s held on the first Sunday of every month).

I was much more restrained with my purchases this time, and managed not to come home with anything bulky (not for lack of choice though, I saw some gorgeous chairs I wanted!).

I got this gorgeous vintage book (£3).  No idea what it’s about, but the cover is so beautiful that I had to have it.  I have plans for this which hopefully I’ll be able to show you at some point in the near future…

I have a bit of a thing for old frames, and I picked up another one today (50p).  I’m going to go through my stash of old book pages and find an illustration which will fit perfectly into it.

Last, but certainly not least, I found some vintage boardgames.  Monopoly (from 1961) and Clue (I can’t find a date but it looks to be from around the same time).  These were a billy bargain at a total of £4.50 for the pair.

Both the sets are missing one piece (Electricity Company card from the Monopoly, and the lead pipe token from Clue) so these are destined to be turned into notebooks which I hope will appeal to the child in everyone.

I’m planning to visit the Chiswick boot sale again in December, and hopefully I’ll pick up some more bargains to share with you.

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Boot sale bargains

The first Sunday of every month sees the mammoth car boot sale at Chiswick Community School (click here to view details).  It’s one of the largest in London, and it’s an absolute treasure trove.  I haven’t been for a couple of years (and when you see what I bought today you’ll understand why!) but this morning I went along and picked up some fabulous bits and pieces.

First up is this shirt (originally from Next), which is going to be perfect for wearing in my studio.  £1.

Next up we’ve got a selection of vintage magazines, comics and books (all £1 each)

I always end up picking up some DVDs whenever I go to a boot sale, and today was no exception (£5 in total for these)

Then we got to the bigger, heavier stuff… like this set of filing drawers, which I couldn’t resist at £8

… and this old crate, which I think is beautiful (and was a bargain at £5)

… and last, but certainly not least, this fantastic old trunk.  It’s HUGE, and I intend to use it as clothing storage once we’ve finally converted our loft (where I’m going to put it in the meantime is a bit of a puzzler…).  I let my mum do the haggling for this and it cost me £10 and a kiss.  Perfect.

A lovely morning and lots of lovely bargains.  It really is a huge car boot sale and if you have the time and inclination it would be easy to spend most of the day there just rummaging through everything.  I was quite restrained and didn’t really look at the clothes and wotnot (the shirt jumped out at me, I hadn’t intended to buy clothing at all!) but there is SO much to see and buy.  First Sunday of every month, try and pop along if you’re free for the next one 🙂

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