Recently thrifted

I've had some great finds recently at charity shops, a flea market, and a little vintage/antiques shop!

When I was in Edinburgh recently, I popped into a great charity shop - the St Columba's Hospice shop on Leith Walk. I love a good old-fashioned charity shop where you can have a good rummage, and this one is perfect. It also has a great section up at the back with fabric and buttons.

This is where I found the monogram initials, which are made of wood and have already been painted with a splodgy paint effect that looks quite good. I spotted the E first, and had to have it. But then, when I had another rummage on the shelf before leaving, I also found the R! When you find both your initials, it really feels like fate!

Just off Leith Walk I went to a flea market at the Out of the Blue Drill Hall. All I got there was a postcard, but I really like it. It's of Shibuya in Tokyo, with a sea of umbrellas. This reminded me a lot of my first trip to Japan when there were a couple of rainy days! I don't often see postcards of Japan, so I was pleased to get this one, although it was actually produced in Amsterdam.

The little Chinese or Japanese box is from a tiny vintage/antiques shop also on Leith Walk. It was also a place for a good rummage, and the prices were quite reasonable - the little box only cost £2. It has a picture of blossom on one side, and some calligraphy characters on the other.

Finally, the box of rubber stamps was a lunchtime find at one of the charity shops in Kirkcaldy. I'm doing a course at Fife College on Wednesdays, so it's a good chance to get a look at the charity shops. The wooden box contains two whole alphabets of rubber stamps - an uppercase and a lowercase, as well as a stamp pad with four colours. I'm glad that, for once, I looked in the children's toys section! I sanded the wooden box a little where it had been marked by ink.