Love Leigh, Christmas lights & DOV discounts!

Well hello there.

So close, so very close to Christmas. So close in fact, the Christmas lights in Leigh are being turned on TOMORROW! 

The event includes stalls, entertainment, fair rides, live music and a procession. Plus food and drink: including roasted chestnuts and HOT. MULLED. BEVERAGES. And of course the lights get turned on. 

Then on Saturday it's the Love Leigh Road day. Where you're invited to experience all the wondrous shops, cafes and restaurants along the Broadway's younger, cooler sibling of a road, Leigh Road. I hear there will be lots of discounts and promotions going on! Check out the Facebook page for more info. Or follow @loveleighroad on Twitter. Another great local Twitter account to follow is @LeighonSeaSS9 who have all the current news and info on Leigh life and events. 

So, at What the Butler Saw it's a late opening on Friday for the Leigh lights event. And we - Den of Vintiquity - will be there with 10% off everything! Even already discounted items! 

We'll also have 10% off on Saturday too, for Love Leigh Road. So for Christmas present buying - get you tush to Den of Vintiquity!  

Check out some of the items we have in at the moment. 

Last weekend we brought in a painted cabinet that has had lots of interest. It's vintique and painted with Farrow & Ball's Incarnadine. The photo does not do it justice. 

If you can't get to Leigh, but see something you like, contact me!

If you do come down, make sure you wrap up warm. 

So, hope to see you tomorrow and Saturday for all the fun!

Dawn

Vintage cocktail cabinet & charity shop furniture.

Hello again!

Just posting some pictures of our newest vintage piece of loveliness: a cocktail cabinet!

My husband and I went for a mooch around Leigh Broadway on Saturday and saw this in the window of the Sue Ryder charity shop. It was a bargain and we had to have it. I say it was a bargain, as a quick Googly-type search brings up cabinets for hundreds of pounds... this was £45.

When we went to collect it the next day, it didn't fit in the car. We CARRIED it home. CARRIED it, I tell you! A ten minute walk home took 40 minutes. Which, thinking about it, isn't bad actually. My arms are still aching now though.

We're on the look our for vintage cocktail ware now.

There is a light here but the lead/plug are vintage - and dangerous - too, so we are looking to get that updated. 

More storage for my vintage medical/science books.

This will be the third large item of furniture we've bought from Sue Ryder. Here are some of our other charity shop furniture bargains.

A useful small book case in the back bedroom.

This has to be one of our best finds at Sue Ryder.

My husband and I swear by second hand/vintage furniture. We both agree it's well made, sturdy, beautiful and generally cheaper. (I'm sure I'm preaching to the converted!) 

We don't have a specific style/era of furniture throughout our home, or even in each room. It's total eclectic, mismatch galore. 

Thanks for looking at my poorly taken photos. 

Dawn x

At Den of Vintiquity this week!

Hello! 

I went into the unit today, tidied up and put some new items in. 

 This is the last upcycled French chateaux shutter we have left!  

Oh, and here is the ad taken out in the Leigh & Westcliff times by WTBS. 

 A gin based treat for tonight!

We sell vintage, upcycled, handmade, vintique, antique, kitsch, retro and Cox and Cox delectables, gifts and furniture!

If there is anything you see and want, pop into What the Butler Saw, Leigh Road, Leigh on Sea, or contact me via Twitter. All reasonable offers accepted! 

Going to start a blog!

But will anyone check it out? Time will tell. Time will also tell as to whether I actually blog!

It's been my NY resolution to get more involved with the local (Leigh, Essex) vintage community. Really, it means getting involved with the national vintage community. Everyone seems to know everyone. Well, everyone follows everyone on Twitter anyway.

My plans for this year are to get more followers on Twitter than my brother-in-law Glen, and to start sourcing and selling vintage and antique science and medical items.

Unfortunately, Glen is beating me on the follower front. Although he used to play sort-of-professional football and owns a successful goal keeper glove company and has many contacts... Hmm, erm yes,well. It's not about the quantity, it's about the quality of the followers. Most of my current followers are all lovely. Although I do have a few who have some odd things in their bio... about wanting stuff done to them... I don't follow those ones back.

I am currently having more success with the sourcing of vintage/old almost antique science stuff. Woo! Due to the bosses "LEAN-ing" the lab, we are clearing out old rubbish. Some of it has been there years... and I mean years. If I could sell the solutions and powders I'd be going into antique territory! Some of our stuff has been stored in a place called The Dungeon, which has now sadly been cleared out and we can't use it for health and safety reasons. I did miss out on a couple of beauties which got re-homed; some glass jars which I hear are now pasta jars and some old scales... boo. BUT! I did acquire some old bottles that held solutions. They do need a clean but they are about 30 odd years old and would look great with pretty things in them... or used as a smelly room diffuser thing or a perfume bottle. Who knows?!

So, I'm sort of on my way to starting this collection of vintage science paraphernalia, although I could start selling stuff now. My house if packed full of old vintage gear. The thing is I don't want to sell it; it's too beautiful and it's all mine! (Oh, and my husbands too, sort of obviously).

Hopefully I learn how this thing works and that this is not that last you hear and see of me!

The bottles. The start of my niche empire?













The Vintage Scientist

You can (please) find me on Twitter @vintagescientis

*sigh* and you can find Glen @sirglenyj and @PROGK