You know when you meet someone for the first time and you feel like you’ve known them your whole life? After geeking over charity shops online the past couple of weeks, Sadhbh* of Where Wishes Come From so graciously offered to give me a tour of ALL OF THE Bray charity shops last week. We met on Main Street in Bray and spent the entire afternoon shooting the breeze and touring the best second hand bargains Bray has to offer. Entertainment, great company, and it snowed. It was a pretty epic afternoon.
As Sadhbh so expertly advised, we started our tour at the McDonald’s [which is one of the top 10 McDonald’s in the world, if that’s your kind of thing] at the top of Main Street in Bray because that way, you’re walking downhill for the rest of the shops. That’s my kind of route.
Without further delay, onto all the second hand and charity good stuff –
1.Valentine’s Community Shop – a great selection of clothes, both old and new
2. Vincent’s – I hit gold here and bought 3 pieces. One of the larger charity shops with a wide variety of clothes, books, and knick-knacks
3. War on Want – a real gem. I bought husband the most epic tracksuit top, formally known as TraXedo [see photo below]. It was downhill after that.
4. NCBI – lovely selection of accessories and clothes for all ages
5. The Furniture Barn – really unique and antique pieces of furniture
6. Enable Ireland – great collection of antique fine china as well as a tempting selection of clothes available
7. Oxfam – solid collection of second hand books and clothes for all age groups
8. Charity Begins at Home – an amazing collection of very affordable and upcycle-worthy furniture
9. Irish Cancer Society – also a go-to for fine china and ladies clothing
10. Cast A Ways – excellent selection of second hand and shabby chic furniture
11. Vincent’s – a great variety of clothes and knick-knacks. I couldn’t resist a print of the Welsh countryside from here
12. Florence Fortune’s – it was unfortunately closed the day Sadhbh and I went, but we spent about 5 minutes with our faces pressed up against the front window. If you’re in Bray, you have to go to there.
We took our time wandering from one second hand store to the other, rummaging through all the bargain bins, and were finished in under 2 hours. But this route could easily be done in half an hour if you were on a mission. And dare I say it, the Bray charity shops put the Dublin ones to shame.
It would be a shame to not share a picture of my most prized possession from said route – the TraXedo. It’s a mock-tuxedo tracksuit top. Behold …
In case you were curious as to how it works, the bow-tie is velcrow and detaches on the right hand side for ease of access. As it says on the cuff – TraXedo; when smart meets casual. I promise, I will try and get a photo of husband in it later tonight, so be sure to check later. This was by far the best 3.50 I’ve spent in weeks.
In case you were curious as to how it works, the bow-tie is velcrow and detaches on the right hand side for ease of access. As it says on the cuff – TraXedo; when smart meets casual. I promise, I will try and get a photo of husband in it later tonight, so be sure to check later. This was by far the best 3.50 I’ve spent in weeks.
We retired to Dockyard No. 8 on Bray Harbour and warmed up with the most epic of seafood chowder. We could have sat chatting and eating for hours, but unfortunately I had to cut it short to get the bus home.
I had an amazing afternoon and if it weren’t for my knowledgeable, cool and hilarious tour guide, I would have been none-the-wiser to all that Bray had to offer. Thank you again, Sadhbh xx
*as Sadhbh puts it, her name sounds like the number ‘five’ if it started with an S – ‘Sive’.
New living room artwork – waxing moon
For husband’s birthday 2 years ago I drew the moon on our chalkboard wall to complete his space and Star Wars themed birthday. I painted over that moon 2 months later when I painted over the chalkboard wall. At the time I swore to husband I’d paint him another more permanent moon, as he loved the chalked one.
And then 2 years happened. Because I’m a disaster and terrible wife.
I was going through some old blog posts this week and was reminded I still had yet to fulfill my moon painting promise. I figured there was no better time than the present. I had an old canvas that I painted a black-on-black tree about a hundred years ago when I was an emotional teen [which you can see here], and it had been passed from room to room these past years waiting to be painted something proper. Well, half proper. It’s still mostly black.
It had been something like 7 years since I had last painted, so I have to say it was so relaxing setting aside some time to painting again.
I used a small plate to trace 3/4 of a circle onto the plain black canvas [sans emo tree], and then I attempted to mimic this waxing gibbous photo of the moon as best as I could. It took me about 2 hours from start to finish.
I wrote a little here a couple of months ago about my alter-ego career. If I were to start over again and choose a different field of work, I would have loved to have gotten a B.Sc. in Physics with Astronomy. Yes, it seems somewhat random, but I’ve always been fascinated with all things space. Case in point – when I was little, to get myself to go to sleep I’d try and think of how far away the edge of space was and what it looked like. I also used to try and think of a colour no one had ever seen before and as you can imagine, that was an utter failure. But it did nicely segue to some pretty interesting dreams and an overactive imagination.
Which is why, if you look really hard, there’s a lot of space-themed pieces and books dotted around our apartment. Husband actually hasn’t seen the new painting yet, so hopefully when he comes home tonight he, a) actually notices it so my ego doesn’t take a hit, and b) likes it.
And above, you can see how well the sockets and heater switches under the stool nicely compliment the waxing moon. I find they really add a certain je ne sais quoi to the space, no?
Happy Friday, friends. Hope you have a good one xx
Hanging accents for small spaces
I’ve written about our spare bedroom a good few times before. It’s a tough little room as the bed pretty much takes up the whole space, so adding things like accessories, can be challenging.
A couple of months ago I was struggling to get our spare bedroom ready for a guest coming over. I had some magazines, a little vase of flowers and some knick-knacks on the bedside table to make it feel a bit more welcome. Not to mention the lamp as well. Once I was finished, I realised there wasn’t enough room for said guest to even put their phone on the bedside table.
Insert obvious pun relating to being driven up the walls here. And then it clicked – the only way was up!
I bought these velvet hangers from Dunnes Stores (€5 for a set of 10), perfect for hanging up magazines and the likes above the bedside table. I didn’t put much thought into the placement of the hangers, just somewhere easily within reach from the bed, and stacked them to add a bit of variety.
I spied the glass hanging vase from Tiger just before Christmas and thought it was perfect for the spare bedroom wall. That’s the thing with Tiger – if you see something you like, you have to grab it with both hands, hold on tight and lock it down, because chances are the next time you stop in, the stock will have changed and it will be GONE. Like that girl in that GONE GIRL movie*. So I grabbed it with both hands [and paid for it, obv].
Also, don’t always believe what you see in online (and magazine) features. The rest of the room is chaos …
Just keeping it real. Bloggers are humans too.
And don’t worry Kimberly and Maria, it’ll be tidy for April. Promise. xx A
Also featured – bedside table and lamp – rescue kit for unexpected guests
*I have not seen Gone Girl so I don’t know if this is a reference that makes sense. It sounded like it would fit at the time of this being published. It’s tough trying to be a lyrical genius.
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