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Monday 17 December 2012

last thrift before Christmas ♡

hello! 

today I went into my local town to do some Christmas shopping, and of course, some thrifting. I decided that this should probably be my last thrift before Christmas, as like most of us I'm trying to save my money for some Christmas and new year plans.

I'm moving out in the new year (fingers crossed that everything goes to plan) so I picked up a few things to get me started on my 'new home' shopping. As you'll hopefully come to see, I'm not into things that match. I prefer rooms to have a variety of styles and colours; a mismatch of types of wood for furniture, curtains different to bedding, cushions and pillows that are different to bedding. I like to pick up posters and artwork that I'm pretty certain no one else will have in their house. For me personally, I think decor is a chance to show off who you are, as corny as it sounds.

I picked up this little box for £3 in one of my favourite charity shops in town. Even though you can tell it's massively old, the patterned design still reminds me of styles that are popular today, with the swallow-esque birds and dainty pink/green florals. The reason I'm reluctant to spend money on 'vintage' style items you find in mainstream shops is because of little gems like this. I don't know where it's come from, who made it, or what it was used for, and that's what I love about it. After I've given it a clean, it'll probably become somewhere for me to store my jewellery in on my bedside table.



The next item isn't really that exciting, but for 50p I just couldn't NOT. It's an unused roll of wrapping paper but I really loved the design. I have big plans for this 2m roll of floral stuff! I'm thinking lining of drawers in my new room in my new house, and for more craft things. I always find things like this are good for backing of photos in photoframes, just to change the colour scheme, and in the past I've also covered trinkety little items such as dangling ornament hearts/butterflies in paper, and PVA glued all over. This creates a papier-mache type effect, it works really well. Hopefully I can find something to do with this soon and show you!



I didn't really find any clothes today worth buying. I found a few items but nothing that caught my eye enough to buy it. Even thrifters have to be extra thrifty and save pennies at Christmas time ;)

I did however venture into some other shops and got some cheap goodies.

I bought this set of 3 candles to go in my the ornament jar that I'm making for my mum. I like the sequins on the side, but I may try and paint them a different colour as they may not be in keeping with my theme! (£1 from Poundland)



I bought this caviar nail set from Poundland also. I've seen the caviar nails eeeeeverywhere, but refused to pay over the odds for some nail varnish, even if it did look like Nobbly Bobblys (a fave). I'll let you know how it turns out and what the quality is like, although I've used Poundland products before and have been pleasantly surprised.



I also bought these glitter tips from Poundland. They're not usually my style, but I'm planning on employing them into some festive Christmas design for Christmas eve/day etc.



Finally, I bought these lovely little heart stickers for 70p from Home Bargains. Again, these are for use on one of my mum's Christmas presents.



One particularly un-thrifty purchase I made today was this Top Gear calendar I bought for my nephew at a ridiculous £9.99 from WHSmiths. What a ridiculous price to pay for a few pictures of Jeremy Clarkson!

I have actually started working on all of the Christmas presents that I've mentioned I'm making and I think they're going pretty well! I'm taking progress pictures so that I can show you how I did things if you fancy recreating at all! Once they're complete, I'll put the snaps up here.

Will be in touch soon :)
love, rhi xo 

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Friday 14 December 2012

more than thrift ♡

HEY!

Okay, so as I said in my previous post, this blog won't focus solely on thrifting. I also frequent quite a few boot sales (Americans: in the UK we do this thing where we sell our old junk out of the 'trunks' of our cars at a specified time & place, s'abit bizarre really), and I'm keen to make my own decorations/trinkets/presents for myself and other people.

At the moment, I'm working on a photo frame and a kind of jar-ornament for my mum for Christmas. I've posted a few pictures so that you can catch a glimpse of what I'll be doing, and once it's finished I'll do a post on how I did it and what materials etc I used (that's if they turn out any good..).

Like most of us, I'm a sucker for a good deal. I know I said I don't really spend much in high street stores, but I quite regularly manage to find vouchers and coupons on the internet and so will use them in these scenarios. For example, I got 25% off in New Look and Dorothy Perkins yesterday, all in all saving myself around £20-£25. I'll also post where I manage to find things like this.

Finally, I guess I wouldn't be a 'proper' blogger if I didn't review things that I buy and use. I know that other's blogs and reviews have actually really helped me in the past, whether they've prevented me from buying something or convincing me that a product is worth it's price, so I'd like to try and do the same.

check me out and follow me on instagram : rhianaddien

s'it for now, see y'all soon. love, rhi xo


these are all of the materials I'll be being creative with!





Wednesday 12 December 2012

enchanté ♡

hey :) my name's Rhiân or Rhi, and quite obviously, this is my new blog -  thethriftoflife. As the name may suggest, I've decided to create this blog as a platform to share and discuss what some call 'thrifting' - or as I know it, charity shop-shopping. I began shopping in charity shops as a young teenager, years back when my sister became the manager of a local charity shop in our town. As a family, we were all used to hand-me-downs; I remember my mum coming home from work with bags full of donated clothes from her friend's daughters, and I thought it was brilliant. But before then we'd never shopped in charity shops, and as someone who now has what you could call an obsession with thrifting, I reeeeally can't imagine why. 

Not only are things in charity shops, as you would expect, ridiculously cheap; the thing that makes thrifting exciting for me is the variety of items that you could come across is huge. There's a misconception that charity shops are solely clothes shops, but even now I'm amazed at the things that I come across. Furniture is a huge deal. From 3 piece suites to dining room tables to huge bureaus to coffee tables to chests of drawers - all in near perfect condition for a third of the price you'd pay in any outlet. 

These days, I very rarely shop outside of charity shops and the reason is two, maybe three, maybe fivefold . 


  1. When many charity shops do deals on garments such as "3 for £3", and when a lot of these garments have the potential to have been donated to shops completely new and with tags on, it really is too hard to say no. Because of this, I get frustrated with any high street store re the price and quality of garments to tolerate trying to shop in them. In places such as New Look, River Island, you simply aren't getting your money's worth. 
  2. Without trying to sound like a hipster, I can't stand to wear the same as everyone else. There's something marvellous about wearing a blouse or skirt that you know isn't in production any more, or wearing a jumper that's been handmade, or hand-stitched. What you buy doesn't have to be completely different to what's in fashion at the moment, but your purchase can always be original. So many people are surprised at the answer they get when they ask me where I got something from. 
  3. There's always huge opportunities to find clothes that are too big or out of shape, and then be able to alter them to fit you. I have an abundance of blouses that were a size 16/18/20, but have managed to sew them and alter them to my size. The same goes for furniture; you may come across a table that's covered in awful paintwork, or the colour of the wood is unsuitable, but you love the shape, the size, the pattern, whatever. In our house, I can think of at least 5 pieces of furniture that have been reworked, repainted, sanded down, and transformed into something new and original.
  4. Rummaging. Scouring. Sorting through the rails and rails of clothes, or peering behind row upon row of books to find something that catches your eye is all part of the excitement of thrift-shopping. You don't know exactly what you're looking for, and you never know what you're going to leave with, and this is all part of the charm. 
  5. If you find something that you can't alter or rework, there's the opportunity to sell on your purchase. I find myself growing out of things, or buying items that are too small/big/unsuitable when I get home, and there's just something not quite right (in my opinion) about taking things back to a charity shop for a refund. Many of the things I buy end up on eBay (another of my favourite things). 
thethriftoflife will be somewhere I document my thrifting purchases, document how I change and alter garments, revive bits of furniture. I'll also create posts, what I don't want to call 'tutorials', but some people have already asked me how I've created some of the things I've got in my bedroom etc, so I'll show how to recreate! The inspiration for thethriftoflife came from a variety of places - mainly other blogs that I follow where authors document their fashion choices, their vintage finds and creations, and some blogs that're based around DIY/crafts tutorials. I also want this to be a place where people can share their ideas, comments, and inspirations for thrifting and creating. I love seeing what others have hauled from a day of charity shop-shopping.

Looking forward to seeing how this goes, and to hearing about others' experiences of thrifting!

Love, Rhi xo

(here's some of my current favourite thrifted items)



pictures 1-3: a turquoise handmade mohair jumper, bought for £4.99. Will be putting up on eBay soon!

pictures 4-5: a very old Littlewoods short-sleeved jumper, bought for £2.99 The pictures haven't done it justice, I love the pastel colours in this.

picture 6: a snapshot of a red 'Christmas' jumper I bought as part of a 3 for £3 deal. 

pictures 7-8: a vintage St Michael (Marks and Spencer) blouse, bought as part of a 3 for £3 deal. I'm intending on altering this to my size. 

picture 9: another vintage St Michael double-breasted blouse, bought a couple of years ago. I wear this both as a shirt and as a blazer.