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After spending the last few months bitterly complaining about the fact that spring seems to have forgotten to arrive, avoiding the gas and electricity meter man who wants to send my readings to the energy company (he caught me – darn!) and willing the sun to shine so that I can get outside in the garden, you could say that I’m ready for Summer.
Being so very ready for some sun it might seem a bit bizarre that I am already thinking about Christmas. I haven’t got one of those “days to Christmas” tickers anywhere I promise however with a huge family and our four, lots of traditions and more it is so important to plan ahead.
For the first time in years I have vouchers coming that will cover the majority of our Christmas shopping (Thanks Park!), I already have lists of what to get who so that I may keep my eyes open for bargains and I already have a few fabulous homemade wrapping paper ideas pinned in Pinterest. I’m good to go.
Being so organised I’ve started thinking about perhaps going way just before Xmas for a short holiday. In my other life as a freelance writer I’ve written a couple of articles about Lapland at Christmas and I find the idea enchanting. I’m not sure if at 2yrs old Taylor would get the full benefit yet however if not this year I’m definitely hoping to arrange magical Christmas holidays Lapland style for next Christmas. I mentioned this once before on Facebook and was surprised and secretly thrilled with the amount of people who piped up with “Yes, do it, we did and it was amazing!!”.
It really does sound like the sort of trip that would make a fantastic memory for the boys.
What do you all think? I know it’s barely spring but if we were to go away this year we’d have to think about saving, planning etc now. Have you been? What would you recommend or tell me to avoid and should I wait until Taylor is a tiny bit old (he is two now but will have just turned four before Xmas next year)? We’d like to go for a long weekend ideally but is this enough? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
My snow-loving 6yr old
*Written in collaboration with the mentioned business yet true to my thoughts, feelings and experiences
Did anyone else thoroughly enjoy watching the Antiques Roadshow and try to guess how much each item was worth before the expert let on? I haven’t watched it in years although will now that I’ve been reminded of it look it up once more. What a rush it must be to find that something in your possession might be worth a pretty penny.
(Highest valued item to date on Antiques Roadshow – and Northern in nature too!)
I can’t boast that I have anything of any real worth amongst my vintage finds (although I did pick up recently a perfectly kept Singer sewing machine in its case for a mere £5 and am sure I could, if I ever decided I could bear to be parted from it make a few extra pounds on top of it. I do regularly hit the car boot sales, fairs, charity shops and even the Facebook buy / sell pages looking for items of interest for our home.
When looking for items like these it is often easy to overlook the real worth of a piece of china or an ornament and you have to wonder if people have bargain buys sat around their garage ready to go to the car boot sale that really are worth substantially more than they know.
Carting your charity shop bags after each declutter to the Antiques Roadshow is hardly practical however if you feel you might have an item that you feel could be worth some real money there is a very easy way to check which is considerably cheaper.
Finding a service that offers Antiques Valuations has not be easy as there has been nowhere local that offers it without a hefty fee which I’m not going to pay unless I have a decent idea that an item is worth a substantial amount (not that I have yet found anything that would fit this criteria but you have to keep trying!). Value My Stuff is a website that does the hard work for you. For my friends who are into charity shop hunting and scouring the countryside for vintage or antique shabby chic items this site might be of use to you.
How it works is very simple. You upload picture of your item or items, send and within forty eight hours will receive an email from one the site’s expert Antique Valuers telling you what your item is worth. It really is as simple as that and valuations cost as little as £5.99. There are additional post-evaluation tools available too such as a html badge you may use to upload to Ebay etc if you are choosing to sell your item which shows how much it is worth and that this has been verified.
I haven’t had the chance to have a valuation done myself however I might well be using the site soon as I’ll be back on the car boot and vintage fair trail as soon as the weather picks up a little! In the meantime hopefully this is something that is useful to some of you.
*Consideration was received for writing this post
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