Workin' 5 to 9

What A Way To Make A Living!

.......And that's 5am till 9pm, not the other way round.

Sunday took us to Balham in South London, which turned out to be a great day despite the 3.45am start.

On Friday we popped over to the next town to see a friend and had a quick tazz around the chazzas. In a shop we usually dismiss as being hideously overpriced Jon snaffled this 1970s belted wool jacket by Dhobi (which is an odd name for a line of posh vintage menswear as it's the Hindi word for laundryman) from the £1 rail. A quick going over with the car boot sale steamer and it was ready to wear for work.

I thought this radioactive pink chiffon maxi was quite appropriate for my working day. It's labelled "Young Mayfair" and Balham's only 6 miles away from there. Ain't blogging great? After scrolling through some old posts I discovered that the last time I wore this dress was four years ago, high time it got another outing. 

A lot of traders say they find maxi dresses a hard sell. Not me. I wonder if it's because I wear them to work so people can see that they're not something only worn for fancy occasions. How incredible does this gorgeous customer look? She called this late 1960s lace number she bought from us her Hero Buy. It fits like it was made for her.

Of course when you're self-employed there are no set hours. After unpacking the van yesterday,   washing off the make-up stains and replacing busted zips, the inevitable stock casualties from being tried on over the weekend, we were out on the hunt again this morning. While the hours may be long at least I can dress in whatever I want, no more f*ckin' corporate pinstripes, pencil skirts, court shoes or flesh coloured tights. Amen to that! Dressing in happy clothes is good for the soul.

Topped with my turquoise leather coat (and with thermals underneath) this was today's charity shopping outfit. It got loads of love and brought some chazzing luck, too - we found some cool stuff.

1970s Tori Richards, Honolulu maxi (last seen HERE), Vintage Mary Quant scarf (jumble sale), Gold leather boots (retail, in the sale), 1960s plastic earrings (Car boot sale), Pink cat's eye glasses (Retro Bambi)

So what do we do when we want a break from vintage? A large rum 'n' coke, a cat or two for company and some quality viewing...like The Lunchbox.

This wonderful offering is currently available on the BBC i-player and is utterly captivating. It's Bollywood but not as you know it, there's no singing and dancing, just a beautifully written story, romantic without being mawkish or overly sentimental. You might recognise Irrfan Khan from Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire & The Darjeeling Limited.

I'm itching to get out in the garden but whenever I have time to spare it's either chucking it down (yesterday) or bitterly cold (today). There's definitely a hint of Spring in the air though, I spotted this Snake's Head Fritillary in the garden when we were taking photos earlier.

Right, I'd better crack on, today's charity shop finds need sorting out and washing before the cats decide to make a bed out of them.

See you soon.