Pre-winter warmers

Hello! I hope you are all having a good weekend so far. 

Friday was a fairly busy day in the store with people stocking up on winter warmers after the temps have taken a slight nose dive. There was a Goldigga jacket that was displayed on the mannequin which unsurprisingly sold fairly quickly! Also there was a fabulous winter jumper in bright red and yellow patterned from Next that a young man bought. I'm sure it's gone to a good home and that he'll get a lot of use out of it this coming winter. I'm afraid I wasn't quick enough to get a photo of either of those but here are some more photos of other interesting pieces in store. 

Firstly, we have a nice beige Jane Norman bag with a safe buckle over the top.

Jane Norman bag, priced at £5.99

Also our mannequin at the back of the store has been beautifully dressed I believe by one of my colleagues who has a very good eye for layering!

Beautifully dressed mannequin in shades of green :-)

We also have this gold coloured bag which has a nice long strap. It'll be great for the Xmas/winter season as a statement bag.

Bling bling gold bag. Priced at £6.79

On the side wall we've dispersed black tops with light blue pieces. Who knew there were so many shades/stripe patterns of blue...

Light blue and black display arm

In the dresses section I spotted this nice piece by Oasis. It will certainly keep your arms warm :-)

Stripy shiny grey dress from Oasis. Size 8, priced at £5.29

If you are looking for a warm blazer then we have this nice one from Rocha.John.Rocha which is in very good condition.

Velvety blue blazer from Rocha.John.Rocha. Size 14, priced at £10.29

As you come in the store our front mannequin has been re-dressed and accessorised to match with the blue section behind her.

Blue mannequin with a matching scarf 

At the very front we still have a navy blue display which more stripes.

Stripy pieces in the blue section

Back to the dresses and this little dress would, I imagine, be good for a Saturday night with black tights to match the black straps at the top.

White party dress. Size small, priced at £8.29

In the red section there are a nice pair of New Look boots and a teddy bear, for anyone who wants to give him a loving home.

Autumn.winter boots from New Look. Size 4, priced at £6.79

If you are looking for a cable knit-style jumper then we have this lovely one from Topshop.

Topshop jumper. Size 12, priced at £3.99

In shades of blue there are two nice tops from Oasis and I really love the spotty one below from Zara.

Bright blue Oasis shirt, Size 16, priced at £4.49

Spotty Zara top. Size medium, priced at £4.49

I adore this skirt! I think the button detailing is so nice. It's perfectly possible to create a similar style with skirts/jackets/jumpers of your own. Just nip along to Hobbycraft down at Union Square or Holburn Crafts on Holburn Street and you can pick up some interesting buttons at a very cheap price. I would suggest keeping them to the same size/colour way but that's totally up to you. I personally have a stock of buttons that I store up to make into jewellery like button earrings and button rings.

Lovely little skirt with button detailing. Size small, priced at £4.29

From the window you can see another one of our lovely mannequins (minus the Goldigga jacket!) and the red and black display behind.

Red and black display from outside the store

Now if you are a fan of the cookie monster then this top is definitely for you! There has got to be something you can get this for, right? :-)

Cookie monster t-shirt! Size large, priced at £2.99

There are some great coats in the store at the moment as well such as this teal green on from Next.

Cosy jacket. Size 12, priced at £10.79

In the autumn walk section I re-organised our merchandise on Friday. Here is the right had side with a nice colour block t-shirt in the top right hand corner.

Right hand side of the autumn display

Now check our this waistcoat! It's pretty daring and I have no idea what you would wear it for but I just couldn't resist getting a photo of it.

Jammy waistcoat! Size large, priced at £4.99

Back in the autumn walk section I have replenished the dresses and done my best to sort them into similar colours.

Autumn display dresses

Over to the pinks and if you are a fan of bright colours then this polo top is definitely for you.

Polo top. Size medium. priced at £3.29

If you were really daring then you could team it with these leggings! Wow... Barbie mania!

Wow, Barbie leggings. Size 16, priced at £3.29

Also in the bright pinks we have this lovely top from M&S. It is a lovely shape nipping in at the waist to help create an hourglass figure.

M&S bright pink top. Size 14, priced at £5.99

I also really like this floral skirt. The elasticated waistband at the back gives a bit of leeway and I love the central exposed zip at the front. It would be great with a leather cropped biker jacket and some ankle boots.

Flowery skirt with an interesting front zip. Size small, priced at £3.49

In the purple and pink section I spent perhaps far too much time sorting colours into a gradient. But look how pretty it looks now!

Display arm with my lovely colour gradient :-)

We have also have a donation of crystal cut glass which is being displayed in our cabinet. The pieces have been popular with collectors.

Note to self, do not knock into this cabinet! Some lovely cut glass ornaments that were donated to the store.

Crystal glass ornaments 

Crystal glass ornaments 

On the bag wall I also spotted this bronze leather bag from Oasis which has lots of handy pockets and is in good condition. 

Bronze handbag from Oasis. Priced at £3.99

Finally here are some snaps of pieces from last week with their prices and sizes. Sorry for the delayed posting it has been a busy old time with final preps for my dissertation. Enjoy! Don't forget we're also on Facebook if you search for The Granite City Charity Chat you can find the page :-)

Oasis dress. Size small, priced at £4.79

Topshop coat. Size 8, priced at £7.29

Casual mannequin

Purple boots. Size 3, priced at £6.79

Hot pink display arm

Purple display area

Laura Ashley cardigan. Size 8, priced at £4.29

Ugg boots. Size 6.5, priced at £14.99

Atmosphere blazer. Size 12, priced at £3.49

Porcelain doll, one of many hidden around the store 

Oasis cardigan. Size 14, priced at £4.99

Topshop dress. Size 10, priced at £6.29

Light pink display arms 

Pink display section with 'the twins' dolls

Marks & Spencer green jacket. Size 12, priced at £10.79

Topshop poncho. Size 12, priced at £4.29

Ugg black boots. Size 6.5, priced at £14.99

Autumn Walk

This week in the store we begun to change over our displays to Autumn colours as the season is just around the corner. That's hard to accept though when it is still so nice outside. Friday was a lovely day in Aberdeen as well with mostly sunny spells which meant there was a good amount of people in the store all day. 

So to begin with, I wandered around the store to try and find inspiration for colour ways or possible themes for our new display that changed this week. I went with the suggestion of green and brown colours and loved the idea of a theme of a walk in the woodlands during autumn. So, with that in mind we moved around the stock and it was good fun as always making up the new display, as shown in the photo below :-) I also added in touches of orange just to give a pop of colour. 

Autumn walk display

Autumn top and accessories

Green top and accessories

Topshop top. Size 10, priced at £3.49

We also extended the display over the opposite wall with skirts, trousers, scarves, belts and boots. The woodland walk in this section really helps set the scene. I'm lucky that we had one in store! That's the beauty of working in a charity shop. You just don't know what you're going to get. As much as that creates challenges it is also so exciting and I know that passion is shared with my colleagues. 

Extended woodland autumn walk

Lady mannequin in summer/autumn colours

Leopard print wellies. Size 7.5, priced at £3.99

In the entrance of the store we moved navy blue which teamed up nicely with grey on the same display. There are still some summery pieces in store as well like the pieces on the lovely outfit worn by another mannequin.

Summery lady in an Attic dress and accessories 

Blue section with nautical theme developing

Laura Ashley small, priced at £4.29

*NEW* A&F t-shirt. Size small, priced at £4.29

Radley handbag. Priced at £9.99

In the other window we have kept the red and black display and we moved over this lady in a stripy black and white number. I was hard pressed to resist the lovely tartan skirt from Next. If it's still there on Friday then I might have to snap it up!

Red and black display

Tartan skirt from Next. Size 10, priced at £4.29

Next shoes. Size 5, priced at £5.69

H&M white and black spotty dress. Size small, priced at 

Dorothy Perkins red patent heels. Size 5, priced at £5.99

At the back of the store we have some lovely dresses and other bits and bobs.

*NEW* Jasper Cohran dress. Size 10, priced at £8.79

Topshop lace overlay dress. Size 8, priced at £6.29

Spiderman bag!!

Funky bag. Priced at £4.29

Adidas trainers. Size 7, priced at £5.49

On the other side of the store we have lots of board games on the top of our bookcase along with puzzles :-)

Pink heels. Size 7, priced at £3.29

We also added to the pink section with some more dresses and tops. I think the dusty pink one with lace print from Asos is really interesting and elegant. Dusty pink is going to be a big colour this next season as well, mostly in over sized coats.

Asos dress. Size 10, priced at £4.99

Back detailing of the Asos dress

Fenn Wright Mason dress. Size 14, priced at £8.29

Pretty butterfly top from Laura Ashley. Size 8, priced at £2.69

Miss Selfridge skirt. Size 10, priced at £3.29

In the window we put two of our male mannequins side by side with one looking casual and the other on his way to work.

In the purple section we have a really interesting wall hanging display as shown in the photo below. The body warmer from Monsoon would be a fab piece to keep you cosy.

Purple accessories and clothes

Monsoon body warmer. Size small, priced at £5.29

Marks & Spencer shoes*NEW* Size 6.5, priced at £7.49

Grey Primark ankle boots. Size 6, priced at £3.29

That's all for this week! I'll update again next week when we won't have a changeover but as always there will be some new and interesting things in store. I'll be busy with my dissertation still this week, less than a month left to go now. Have a good week! I'll