Faith, Hope and Charity Swapping With The Comtesse

I signed up for Lakota's charity shop swap and was thrilled to be partnered with the Comtesse de Ferveur, a witty and gorgeous Irish chick with a real eye for a bargain.

I've been a follower of her blog for ages and like me she's a vintage tart, with a penchant for mixing a variety of eras into one outfit.

When the postman knocked this morning I nearly fell down the stairs in my excitement to grab my parcel off him. As it's Glastonbury next week the Comtesse had gone for a festival theme and got it spot on.

 This gorgeous 1970s mini dress fits like a dream, it's perfect for popping on after sunset when there's a chill in the air and, being synthetic, I'll be able to sponge any mud off it and leave it hanging to dry overnight. The 1980s mock croc bag's got a handy long strap that can be worn across the body so I won't loose my valuables in a cider-induced daze. My trusty knitted beanie's seen better days so this gorgeous black number is most welcome (pimped up with an antique Arts and Crafts-era Ruskin pottery brooch). The silver beads are lightweight and pretty and won't do me (or any other reveller) an injury when I'm dancing.

New bangles are always a welcome addition. You can never have enough jewellery.

There's also some brilliantly vivid welly socks, gorgeous green nail varnish (because when you can't have a proper wash it's best just to paint your nails and forget how dirty they are), a sunglasses chain (so I don't loose my vintage specs when I'm dancing), a pack of groovy nail files and Aussie intensive conditioner (which I'll definitely need when I get home). There's a sweet vintage notelet, too.

There's some fabulous tips for revamping and creating in this article La Comtesse sent me and a Coalport thimble so I don't do myself any damage in the throes of my creative frenzy.

The rules of the swap stated that you had to include something hand-made and how cool are these gift tags? My favourite's got to be the squeaky clean former Kate Middleton declaring I want dreads, blinking hilarious.

Vintage mini dress, crochet beanie and 1980s bag worn with turquoise opaques (99p, Dorothy Perkins' bargain bin), suede block-heeled boots (50p, Saturday morning's jumble sale) and Barry M's Spring Green nail varnish.

Thanks, darling. I hope you're as pleased with my selection as I am with yours. Cheers to Lakota for organising it, you're a genius.

PS I'm doing a guest post over at the fabulous Rachel's blog tomorrow, don't forget to check it out!