Ye Olde Charity Shoppes of York

What comes to mind when you think of York? Perhaps the world famous Minster, maybe the medieval streets or the Roman city walls. I’m guessing your thoughts don’t immediately turn to charity shops, right? Well, let me tell you that we have a fantastic selection right in the city centre, so get thee here and have a rummage.

The area in question is Goodramgate, which runs from the centre out towards Monk Bar, one of the old entry points through the city walls. Now, I’ve never counted how just many charity shops are along this street, but it must be about ten. There are the big boys like Oxfam and the British Heart Foundation, but also some smaller ones such as PDSA and an autism charity (when M was a toddler , I spotted a brilliant little play kitchen in the window of one of these shops. I think it cost a tenner and I remember being very pleased with it. The shop even delivered it for me the next day). It’s great because you can work your way up one side of the street and back down the other and incorporate the whole thing into a trip to town (if you’re local) or a sightseeing tour (if you’re visiting). Anyway, it’s definitely worth a look, so here’s a little map to help you out.

Hold on though, I’m not done yet. As if that wasn’t enough, if you head out of the city centre to an area called Acomb, there’s yet another run of them – just head for York Road and Bob’s yer uncle.. This just happens to be my ‘hood too. Quite often when I’ve dropped M at school, I carry on walking a bit further and have a little mooch amongst the second hand shops. Again, there must be getting on for ten in this small area, one of which is huge and has a separate furniture shop next door. If I’m honest, I think there are more bargains to be had in these particular shops than the city centre ones.

So, I’m linking up to the charity shop blog hop over at the wonderful Lulastic and the Hippyshake – if you know of a place bursting with charity emporia, then join in too!

Busting the Myth

M lost her first tooth a couple of weeks back and was VERY excited. She was one of the remaining few children in her class not to have lost one yet, so when it started to wobble, she fiddled with it more or less constantly until it came out. In fact she came running through into our room at just after 5am the other morning to tell us. So, anyway, it was a big deal. Obviously we made a whole hoopla out of it and discussed the procedure for the tooth fairy and M went to bed that night in a state of extreme anticipation.

Well, the tooth fairy came and deposited what M later described as “a fancy pound” under her pillow (the coin had the leek design on it, this is fancy apparently). The following morning M awoke to find all was in order and that the visit had taken place as expected. We didn’t think too much more about it after that, at least not until last Saturday when M was hanging out in our bedroom and just happened to open my bedside drawer. You’ll never guess what she found in there, secreted in a little jewellery box. What, you guessed? Really?

My heart missed a beat while she held out the box saying “What’s this Mum? It looks like my tooth!”. All I could think to do was burble something about how the tooth fairy must return teeth to their owner and that we wouldn’t have known that as it’s our first visit etc… etc… I think she bought it, but I felt BAD. When I told G what had happened he said “Yeah, she often rummages in that drawer”. This was news to me.

So, having managed to chip away at my daughter’s innocence, the main thing is that the myth appears to remain in tact, unless M’s just humouring me.

Festival Finds

Pretty little jug (or is it a gravy boat?) I love the design.

Always a sucker for stripes

Cute pink thirties tea set - only a fiver!

We went to the Festival of Vintage at York Racecourse yesterday. The weather was horrendous but fortunately all of the lovely vintagey stuff was indoors. This is its second year in York and it was bigger and better than before. My girls danced to live music including a mum/daughter duo in full forties dress and a rock ‘n’ roll band who were fab. There were stalls aplenty, fashion shows, a vintage beauty parlour doing Victory Rolls, films shows and tutorials on all manner of subjects.

As it’s Magpie Monday, I thought you might like to see some of my finds.

Review: Lush Caca Marron Henna

I have dark brown hair. The trouble with having dark brown hair is that it really shows any, ahem, silver strands. Now, I’m not particularly vain and have no problem with grey hair per se, but I don’t like it when there’s just a smattering in an otherwise relatively youthful head of hair (I’m 37 in case you’re wondering). It makes me look a bit uncared for.

My usual strategy is to zap it with a chemical-based semi-permanent hair dye in a dark brown colour – quick, easy-ish and does the job of covering those pesky greys, but this time, I fancied a change. I’ve been having a bit of a flirtation with Lush products recently. I got a copy of the ‘Lush Times’ on a recent visit and it was there that I came across their range of hennas. To be honest, I wouldn’t normally have contemplated henna-ing my hair. I did it once when I was younger and I remember it being messy and smelly, but something about the Caca range really appealed to me. I liked the fact that there are different shades and that it contains cocoa butter and something to help with the, er, aroma.

There are four different shades: Brun, Noir, Marron and Rouge. I chose Marron as it claimed to be great for giving brown hair a chestnut tinge whilst covering grey nicely too. It comes in a kind of bar of six blocks and basically, you break off as much as you think you’ll need. (I started off using two thirds of the bar and this was enough for my very thick, shoulder length hair). You can then either grate it or bash it up a bit before placing in a heat proof bowl and covering in boiling water. Next step is to mix to a runny paste (I was told to make it the texture of double cream). If you can keep it warm whilst applying it, so much the better. As with any hair dye, you need to wear old clothes, gloves and use old towels. You should rub some vaseline around your hairline and over your ears too! Dollop the henna paste onto your hair then wrap in cling film and leave for upto four hours. The guy in the shop said that you can leave it for longer but it won’t make any difference to the colour after that amount of time.

I only left mine for two and a half hours as we were going out. Washing it out is a bit of a challenge as it’s VERY thick and grainy. I started with my head over the bath using the shower attachment to get rid of the worst, and then got into the shower and shampooed it three times. I conditioned it too. It probably took half an hour of rinsing, so be warned! Also, be aware that your bath and surrounding area will get incredibly messy, so have something to hand to clean as you go.

So, to the results. Well, I’m impressed. It does what it says on the tin. My previously dull locks now have a lovely, warm reddy-orange tone and the grey bits are a vivid chestnut colour in the light. The condition has improved too, thanks to the cocoa butter. The only downside to Caca is the smell. Even though Lush have added essential oils, there’s still a pretty strong earthy pong, which isn’t unpleasant as such, just a bit overpowering. G and I were going out for the evening and I was a tad conscious of the whiff coming from my head. It was gone by the next day though.

If you’re looking for a natural alternative to your usual hair colour then I can definitely recommend Lush Caca – after all, it’s not every day you dye your hair with poo.

Running: A Very Thrifty Activity

I’ve been running for almost a year. No-one will be more suprised by that than me. Usually I’m the sort of person who starts something then lets it gradually slip, but I’ve kept going with it right through the winter and I’m glad I have. Now, just to be clear, I’m still pretty slow and can’t go for more than about twenty minutes at a time, but I head out a couple of times a week and it’s enough to keep me reasonably fit.

I think one of the reasons I’ve stuck with running is that you don’t need any fancy equipment (although you could, of course, buy all manner of accoutrements if you wanted to). All I have is a decent pair of running shoes, shorts, top and sports bra. All of these items are fairly old. I listen to my IPod too but that’s not strictly essential. The rest is free. No gym fees, no pricey paraphernalia. What’s not to love?

The Great Outdoors

First off, can I ask what has happened to the glorious weather of last week? Second off, why has it disappeared just as we’re preparing to go on our first ever camping trip?

If you know me in real life, then you’ll probably be aware that I’m not naturally ‘at home’ in an outdoor environment, so the decision to purchase a tent and borrow a load of other kit is a tad out of the blue. It’s fair to say that the whole ‘glamping‘ phenomenon has helped to sway me towards the idea although I expect our set up will be more sham than glam (do you see what I did there?). I have a vision of a pretty little campervan bedecked with bunting and strung with fairy lights. Our tent is big and green and practical looking and will no doubt end up with damp clothes hanging from it. Hmmm.

Seriously though, I am looking forward to it. The plan is that we’ll be able to have lots of short, fairly impromptu and, most importantly, cheap breaks. In theory the girls should love it too although M’s already shown a distinct lack of enthusiasm (hope she didn’t get that from me). No, they will have fun.

We’re staying close to home for our inaugural trip (heading to a lovely looking farm about forty miles away) and we’ve only booked for two nights, so if there’s a problem (what could go wrong?) at least we’re not overly committed.

Once it dawned on me this this is really happening, I decided I needed to get organised. I foolishly googled ‘camping with young children’ and was immediately overwhelmed by the search results. There seemed to be hundreds of forums dedicated to the very subject, each offering a neverending supply of hints and tips from seasoned campers. On the back of this, I began writing a list. I used one of those sticky note things that sits on your computer’s desktop so each time I log in, the list is there, glaring at me and getting longer by the day. It seems that there are whole areas of camping that we’d never given any thought to. For instance, did you know that you basically need to go to bed in your clothes so you don’t die of hypothermia, even in the summer? G’s bought himself long johns, a thermal vest and a fleece especially. I need to do the same apparently.

So, this time next week we’ll be there, hopefully cooking sausages on a little barbecue and swigging wine from mugs while the kids romp playfully nearby. I’ll let you know how it goes…

Putting the Spring into Cleaning

Let me start by telling you that I’m a bit of a neat freak. I love a tidy, organised house and often hover over my kids when they’re eating a crumbly biscuit or shove their toys back in the box the moment they’ve finished playing. Actually, that looks really bad written down, but I can’t help it. It’s like an involuntary twitch triggered by the sight of mess. That said though, I’m not so bothered by a bit of dirt or dust, particularly if it’s hidden under something or at the back of somewhere.  Strange or what?

Anyhoo, lately I’ve become aware that there are a few cleaning jobs which really need dealing with (we have the filthiest oven you can imagine and it’s not even two years old) and I thought whilst I’m at it, I might as well go the whole hog and do a proper spring clean. So, here are my top tips for getting the job done.

First off, you probably need to set aside a whole day or maybe even two, depending on your house. Ideally you should also aim for a time when nobody’s home as there’s nothing worse than la famille walking in and instantly wrecking the joint. Makes me want to shout when they do that.

That sorted, you’re free to crack on. For me, a spring clean is about tackling the otherwise neglected tasks, rather than a more elaborate version of your weekly housework. It’d be an idea to make a list of what needs doing. Mine looks like this:

*Clean oven (Lord knows what I’m going to use to do this – suspect it will need hardcore chemicals sadly)

*Empty kitchen cupboards, chuck away out-of-date food (usually something random like dessicated coconut or suet), then clean and air inside before refilling

*Defrost and clean fridge/freezer (such a boring job, but the whole thing works so much better when it’s done, right?)

*Vacuum under sofa and beds (this means shifting heavy furniture, so you may need a hand)

*Wash cushion covers on sofa (I mean scatter cushions, not the main ones you sit on – our sofa has in fact only been properly cleaned once in six years and I can hardly remember what the actual shade of it is)

*Wipe paintwork and be free of those mucky fingerprints

*Clean windows (the window cleaner does outside, but when that’s done it just shows up  how grubby they are inside)

*Wash/dry clean curtains (to be fair, this is unlikely to get done, just too much hassle)

Now, no-one said that this was going to be fun, but imagine how nice it’ll feel when it’s finished and you can forget about it for another year. Heck, looking at that list makes me realise just how much of a slattern I really am <blushes>.