This morning we went to view a house in Ashton-upon-Lyne. Not only did this mean the chance to look round a house, but also to visit the charity shops of Ashton and get some lunch at Lily’s Vegetarian Indian Cafe. Feeling lucky, I sent a message to Twitter and my mum to take on the Charity Shop Challenge. The theme: Kitsch. The spending limit: £3.00. Mum, Aidan and Lisa (blurat’s entry here) accepted the challenge…
Aidan’s entry consists of both the retro glass elephants and this board game:
He spent the princely sum of £2.50 on his two items, leaving him with 50p change.
My mum got these:
It’s a set of retro cocktail sticks in the shape of miniature swords! My mum’s got a good eye for the kitsch. She and my sister bought these two pictures from the charity shop yesterday:
They’re planning to do up one of the bedrooms in their house as a vintage shop for my youngest sister, using all of the retro and kitsch pictures and mirrors they’ve bought to fill a wall. Fantastic idea in my eyes! Not sure where these saucy ladies have come from, but they’re definitely a good bit of kitsch.
My entry… not as successful in the kitsch terms. We found lots – which I’ll show off in a bit – but not much of it could be classified as kitsch. I think I’ll have to bend my own rules a little and use this as my entry:
This little critter came from a car boot sale in Oldham last week, and cost a whole 50p. No idea who made it and no idea what we’ll use it for, but I like it all the same. So – readers, who’s won? Lisa’s kitsch print dress, my Mum’s miniature sword cocktail sticks, Aidan’s glass elephants or my hedgehog pot pourri holder? My money would be on my mum’s cocktail sticks…
What else have we bought today and recently? At the same car boot sale the hedgehog came from, we bought a little plastic Babycham deer (which is already sitting on my desk at work), and from the Ashton car boot sale, these plates:
We only paid £6 for these! What a bargain. They have joined the Homemaker bowls and Barker Bros. 1950s plates in the cupboard. We were going to keep one and sell the others, but we’ve accidentally kept all three…
The rest of our haul from today included:
- Two old maps for Aidan – 50p
- 1965 Spy Racing Game – £1
I also got an old book of fairy tales with some gorgeous illustrations, but I’m saving that for another day. The plan tonight is to get out the retro board games with a glass of red wine. A good end to a lovely day. Just goes to show you can still find some bargains in the charity shops. I’ll get thinking about next week’s Charity Shop Challenge (possible rechristened as the Chazzer Challenge?). Don’t forget to let me know who you think wins the first one this week!
Little Owl Ski 
I can’t believe that there could be any debate, 5 elephants and 6 formula 1 cars and still 50p to spare!
Well, IMO your mum won the challenge. Her entry will need a lot of upkeep (polishing and such), is just foreign enough to make you scratch your head about use and wonder why was it purchased. It can sparkle and has colors that are not subtle in the least with engravings that will collect dust. Finally children will be attracted like magnets, adults also can fool about with them and the injury rate has high possiblities for all ages. I must say your hedgehog thingy is about as useless and kitchy as I have seen but its cleaning needs, decorative uses and injury rates fall flat. I am looking forward to the next challenge.