Early Sunday Mornings...

I love Sundays.  Car boot day.  I would prefer it if the car boot sale started at around 10am but once I am up I'm fine.  We have lots of car boots around our area so Nathan goes to one and I go to another (he goes to the one that starts at 5am and I have opted for the 7am start).

To find your local car boot sale click here

  Once I get onto the field to park my car the excitement begins, there is a sudden adrenalin rush and I need to park up and get out as quick as I can.  The parking marshalls in the car park do not stand for any funny business, there are no drops off, no one is allowed until 7am on the dot.  You will park where they say even if you have got a bad leg, 5 kids and and don't speak English.  The woman who runs my car boot sale is a scary lass who you really wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of - I have seen her take down a grown man ( I have no idea what he did but he ran, she chased him, grabbed his shirt, ripped it off him and took him to the ground for the lads to deal with).  So as you can imagine I have the correct change for entry and always smile sweetly. 

Deciding which end to start at first is a tricky one.  Do I start at the back where the cars are unpacked and ready to trade or at the front where people are just unloading?  I kind of take it in turns to get the best of both worlds.  Luckily, not many people are looking for the same things I would buy so I always manage to find some good stuff. 

I look for furniture, I like buying older bits like 1960s and earlier, you can find some really cool retro bits when people are having a big clearout.  I also love buying odd plates, cups and saucers, cake stands... Anything pretty really and I have managed to fill my dresser up with these bits.  True love between me and my dresser.

The plates generally cost around 50p each, the big dinner set at the bottom cost £5 for the whole thing and we used it for our Christmas lunch - it's one of thoses things that you can just look at.  I just look at it for ages. It brings me joy for £5.  This morning I have bought another dinner service, really pretty, a Midwinter coffee pot and sugar bowl (Emma, you will love), a dinky teapot with a jug, bowl and plate.

  

Today I also bought a big console table, a bureau, a small table and a pine wall cabinet.   The only problem is remembering which aisle you were in when you bougtht them when you go back to collect them.  I usually end up wandering about for ages trying to remember the car or the person who sold it to me, my memory is truly awful so at 7.30 on a Sunday morning this is quite a challenge.  Nathan takes a pen and paper but I always forget the pen.

About halfway round the smell from the burger van hits me, bacon rolls smell so good, but I have learned from experience that they smell better than they taste so I avoid those, sometimes I have a hot chocolate but then you have to carry the cup round with you as they are no bins which hinders rummaging.  

I love looking through the old records, usually 20p-50p each which is such a bargain for a whole album.  You always find records at a car boot sale, and the seller always says they a belong to someone else.  I don't know why people are so cagey about their music taste!  My name is Zoe and I like The Dixie Chicks.  

I buy a lot of old curtains which I use for reupholstering chairs and stools,  I pay about £2 a pair which can do about 8 chairs, I save a lot of odd bits of fabric to one day make cushions, I want to make some patchwork cushions with lots of bits of different fabric.  That is the plan anyway!  Bunting is great for using up bits of fabric.  My Granny told me that you can use different patterns as long as you have one colour the same in two pieces next to each other.  I do use this tip and it works.

I bought these 1930s prints from a car boot sale a while ago, they are not my usual thing but I fell in love with them.  They are in their original frames, the colours and detail are just beautiful!  £5 for the 2.  Couldn't resist.  Nathan is a much better car booter than me when it comes to spending, he knows how much he will pay and won't go over that, which is how you have to be, but if I love something I will have to buy it or I will think about it all day.  Hence why I am only allowed to take a limited amount of cash with me.

           These 2 gorgeous tall bottles were £1 each, 

                     the green one is Victorian.                                   

And my very favourite thing to buy at the boot sale... clothes.  It is an illness and I cannot stop.  I can't shut my wardrobe doors, I can't find anything but on the plus side I am always finding clothes that I have forgotten about.  And if you only pay 50p for it, it doesn't matter if you only wear it once!  I buy lots of dresses, and cardigans.  I buy Daisy a lot of dresses, and books.

I feel great when I get back, I feel that I have made the most of the day, I make breakfast, we have tea and then I sit down and tiredness hits me. I feel like I have just worked a nightshift but it is definitely worth it.