I love a bit of random graffiti.

I’m often in awe of other people: how their minds work, the pictures they can create or the witty remarks they come up with. You know those lists on Buzzfeed and the like? ‘100 Greatest Tweets to Make You Piss Yourself Laughing’ and so on? I love those. I can never get over some of the things people think of. Have you the seen the picture of the car registration plate that says ‘NA02 FAM’ with the caption, ‘You on EE, bro?’ Some witty woman saw that number plate and came up with that. Straightaway. If I was still teaching, I could do a lesson around that tweet. Anyway, my usual tangent travelled, I love a bit of graffiti. And in the heart of an industrial area of Stockport, we found this:

Good, isn’t it?

It feels like ages since we did a properly good charity shop hunt. I went with Dexter to Marple on Thursday and had a little look round; we don’t get long though as have to be back to pick up Corliss from pre-school. And it was bitterly, bitterly cold on Thursday. I did find a couple of bits and bobs. A brand new stripey top with lime green zips on it (which I was really pleased about, until I got it home and realised the reason it was in the charity is because the arms on it are made for a different person. A tiny person. Not a my size person at all), a retro necklace and some Avon goose stacking measuring cups. They are as amazing as they sound. I even attempted to do one of those flatlay pictures with them that are doing the rounds on Instagram at the moment. But it’s tricky to make anything look good when you just lay it out flat. Not my style at all.

See what I mean? If I’m going to do these properly, I’d like them to be more symmetrical, neater, lined up… etc., but seriously, that’s ten minutes of my life I’ll never get back making that picture, so I’m never going to be arsed to make it look any better, am I?

We spent the whole day in Stockport today. The whole day. Arrived about 11ish – after rinsing Romiley of all its priceless gems – and didn’t leave til 5 o’clock. We were supposed to be going to the Hat Museum with some friends, but they couldn’t come and then we never made it. We spent so long trawling the charity shops, having a hot chocolate in the cafe, looking in the 20th Century Vintage Stores… it was great.

And did we find much?

Um, a few things…

You know, the days of hunting exclusively for retro and vintage booty have long gone, my friends. My eyes sweep the chazzers now, seeking out Happyland, books about phonics, toys for the kids, vintage kids books, princess dresses and any other assortment of toys. Duplo. Always Duplo. We have far too much of the stuff, but we justify it every time with, ‘We’ll be able to sell it all for a fortune once the kids are older!’ This may well be true, but our attic is still creaking under the weight of everything we’ve purchased under that persuasive proviso.

My personal favourites from today are these:

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned my love for these before – and I’m not even being sarcastic typing that, I really can’t! I go through so many phases… I had a illustrated copies of Peter Pan and The Enchanted Wood by Janet and Anne Grahame Johnstone as a child; spending hours reading them, looking at pictures and trying to trace them. The book in the middle was in the £1 Cancer Research in Stockport and I found the other two in the very last shop in the 20th Century Vintage Stores just off the old market place. So pleased to have found them!

The kids have come back laden down today as well. When we go on a chazzer hunt, we let them have £2 each to spend on what they want (within reason). This means that we can look around without being nagged constantly in every shop and they learn to spend their money wisely. Hopefully. Well today, they hit lucky because lots of things they liked turned out to have some resell value on t’internet so the Bank of Mummy and Daddy loaned them the monies to buy. So they’ve now got a VTech robot, an activity table with balls you put in everywhere (not a euphemism), Duplo, a Happyland caravan and horse and probably a few other things that were snuck in. So actually, now that I think about it, Corliss only spent 45p and Dexter 25p! Hmmmm, maybe this system isn’t working as well as we thought.

A busy day, tiring as well. The kids were troopers and walked miles. Dexter has hit that stage where he doesn’t want to go into the pram, but can’t usually walk too far. He did do well today though and walked further than Corliss probably did. She snaffled a few shoulder rides from her dad. I didn’t actually take many pictures as it was a bit cold, drizzly, grey and I forgot to charge up my power pack so my phone ran out of power halfway through the afternoon.

How did your charity shop hunting go this week? Let me know about your finds; I always love a good nosey at other people’s treasure.