Magpie Monday

The Magpie Monday movement, pioneered by the very lovely MissieLizzieB, is our new favourite Tweet trend. Every Monday, hordes of my fellow chazzers (charity shop aficionados) tweet about their fabulous findings of the week. If you fancy joining in, but are not a fan of these old lady staffed establishments with their faint odour of musk and old books, you can also tweet about second-hand finds from other sources (eBay, etsy, antiques fairs, hand-me-downs etc). Just tweet and add the hash-tag #magpiemonday.  The latest post on Lizzie’s blog details the incredible floral brolly she sourced this week. WANT. Being a total curtain-twitcher, Magpie Monday is now a favourite part of my week. I hunker down with a vat of frothy coffee and avariciously scroll through my fellow magpies’ finds. It’s like the dream collision of two very separate passions (nosiness and second-hand shopping). Plus, it’s strangely satisfying seeing all the other lovely bits and bobs and delighting in the nabbing of some great bargains by my Twitter pals (as well as sometimes being extremely jealous. Said floral brolly being a case in point.) Like shopping myself but without spending a penny (other than on my own finds, of course). Here’s my finds from last week. All culled from the INCOMPARABLE Antique Textiles Fair at the Armitage Centre in Fallowfield. I wasn’t meant to be going as attendance would be a form of cruel punishment, due to having seriously no pennies at the moment, but the Other Half was feeling benevolent and took me and the Tyrant along. I’m still recovering from visiting it, such was my extreme awe at the quite frankly vast array of textile wonders. I’ve already put in a request for my next birthday gift to be pennies to spend there. Yes, it’s that good. Anyway, here’s my treasures:

three small bunches of millinery flowers £8

(to ornament the lapels of various coats)

four yards of delicious Liberty-esque silky fabric £10

(destined to become a dress made with one of those 50s patterns of mine)

two gilt Indian hair pins

(one diamanté with droplets £10 & the other golden leaves & buds £3)

close-up for those Magpies that appreciate a good sparkle

black & gold clip-on earrings

(free gift from the very elegant & lovely stall-holder)