Another trip to the Refill Room (Zero Waste shop)

I mentioned visiting The Refill Room, a Zero-waste shop in a seaside town not too drastically far away from us.

On Saturday (actually now 2 weeks ago! Forgot to publish this!)  when the sun was out, we decided to pay a visit to that Seaside town so I made sure to bring some containers and bags in order to take advantage of being there and being able to get to the Refill Room.  Because just going there to visit the shop would not be very eco-friendly!

So....what did I buy?

1.  Well, at the back, we have a big brown paper bag.  That is a bag of Branflakes.  The dried goods all come in big pick-n-mix style containers. I filled a brown paper bag with bran flakes! They are all Organic so worked out more expensive than my buying my usual Own Brand Lidl ones but I was happy with the price.  I think they cost me about £2.30 for 500g.

2.  In front of those, you can see a Killner bottle. I filled this up with Organic Gluten free Tamari sauce (this is Soy Sauce basically).  I bought this Killner bottle to fill up as I use quite a lot of this.  This was a lot more expensive than I would have liked. Although buying Top Quality Organic Soy sauce would cost this much, I usually use Lidl or Aldi's own so paying around £5.80 for this (around 300ml)  was quite a hard but it was already dispensed!  Still, I am glad not to be making any waste from this.

3.  To the right, we have a White Shampoo bottle.  In this, I have purchased the Organic Sea Buckthorn  shampoo which cost me around £2.30 for around 300ml which seemed a good price as I like to use Natural Products anyway which are more expensive.

4.  In my blue Tupperware box, I purchased a large quantity of Butterbeans £1.57 for around 580g which is cheaper than buying tins of these already cooked.

These were all my purchases from the Refill Room but I also bought some vegetables (without packaging) in the Greengrocers nearby which were all cheaper than supermarkets.

Last Saturday, because of Engineering works, CBC and his Mum drove me to this town so I could catch the alternative train line to London so I took advantage of being in the town.

I took along 2 empty shower gel bottles as I thought we were out of Shower gel (it turned out I found 2 more bottles under my chest of drawers later).  Because of traffic, I ended up not having time to actually go to the store myself so I left the bottles with CBC who promised to fill them up.

As it happened CBC couldn't find a parking space so he sent his Mum in.  Who misunderstood the 'weighing your own bottles' concept and ended up paying for the bottle weight also so I can't comment on that!!!

He also went and filled up my Ecover Fabric softener bottles from Greens, the health food store round the corner.

Here are some pics from a precious visit where I bought various herbs (much cheaper) , red lentils and Jasmine rice!

Next time, I'd like to fill up on Olive Oil and plan to use an old Lemonade glass bottle.  I have to say, I have a lovely warm feeling that comes from knowing I have used an old container rather than generating new plastic or other waste.  Though some things are a little more expensive, others balance them out so I am pleased to continue with this endeavour!  As Jesus said, "Many drops make an ocean!"  My little corner of the waste may not do lots, but it is SOMETHING!

x

Advent Day 10: Pretty shopfronts!

I always love the effort and ingenuity that shops put into their displays, particularly at Christmas.  There is such a variety from the traditional to the modern, to the quirky, the slightly odd and downright adorable.

This Brussel Sprout on Skis in J Crew's window on Sloane square made me giggle

 I also loved this pretty display in Oasis with all the woodland animals, fun pastel pom poms and generally beautiful flowers.

 I always wonder what happens to all the decorations post Christmas. Are they just binned? Recycled? Saved for next year?  Sold?  Employees take bits home?  

I'm really not sure but I hope that they are recycled or reused in some way.

Many years ago now, at least 10, when I was starting to make cards regularly, I saw these massive metallic circles hanging in Tescos for ages.  I thought how much raw material (I.e it was like a large sequin) there was and so when I happened to be in Tescos just after Christmas and saw an employee taking them down, I cheekily asked what happened to them and if I could have some.  The employee went to check and let me take a few home!  I guess they can only say no!

Do you enjoy the shop fronts?  Have you seen any particularly good ones this year?

This is Day 10 of my Advent Calendar with Julie at KC's Court.

The House of 1000 Cuckoo clocks

For some bizarre reason, when I think of Cuckoo Clocks, for some reason, I didn't make the connection to Germany being the origin of them. Not sure why, but there you are.

When we visited Triberg in the Black Forest region, we saw that one of the starring attractions was the World's largest Cuckoo Clocks.

As we walked down the main road in Triburg, our eyes were drawn to the myriad wooden products available in the shops.  And then we saw the House of 1000 Clocks.  Not being able to resist, we went in.

Cuckoo clocks and clocks there were, a plenty. And a whole load of other tourist tat.
But I was amazed by what a roaring trade there was in Cuckoo clocks. The shop was teaming with tourists from Stateside and they were shipping back Cuckoo clocks galore! I don't know why I was so surprised.

Anyway, I shall leave you with the traditional, the more wacky, the contemporary and the downright scary examples of pictures that CBC took. My camera battery had died and my spare was in a suitcase somewhere..,
Enjoy...

Yuck, is the word that comes to mind...

We really were tempted to buy this...

Button Moon style..

Alpenhorn and Dirdnl-wearing dancing girl for anyone?

Hansel and Gretel plus the witch..

 We had been speculating about how the cuckoo clocks made their sound. I suggested that it was like a pipe-organ and this little interactive workshop at the back suggested I was right.

 The clockwork mechanism turns a cog which has a long part attached bellows which push air into the pipe.  This produces the sound.

 Oh look- trout again!

 Check out the scary-faced Pan-pipe player...

So...if you were in this shop, would you have bought one?  Which one if so??

We didn't make it to the World's Largest Cuckoo clock as it was a bit out of town and we forgot but I am sure you can google it..

xx

Fable and Black lucky dip box

I cannot resist a good lucky dip box!! I've bought them from Punkypins, Goodnight Boutique, Ladybird Likes and I've always found them really great value.  

I was looking on Etsy recently and I discovered Fable and Black who make wonderful contemporary-looking book-themed badges, brooches, cards, tote-bags, jewellery and prints. 

 They have Lucky Dip boxes which cost either £10 (for £20 worth of products) or £20 for £40 worth of products. I decided to give one of them a go and ordered.  The postage was free so it seemed a fun idea.

 When it turned up,I was super excited to open it!

 The Drink tea and Read Books is right up my street and I LOVE the Sherlock Quote 'I'm a high functioning Sociopath'.  The 'I'd rather be a mermaid' keyring  is not so much me but it is still nice!

 The next item was a book locket ring. It is very pretty even though it got a little squashed in transit.  I'm not really a ring wearer so I won't be wearing it but it is still sweet!

 Two cards with the same Tea quote and a Tolkein quote card look decently made and very bright and fun fonts.

 The C.S. Lews book marks suits me down to a tee. The little mini print is sweet.

Finally,the last item was a Tolkein quote note book. 

All the items were well made and robust with good quality materials. I'd consider buying one of these for a book-loving friend!  All in all, it was quite good value.

If you wanted to buy one, get in there quick because Fable and Black are giving you 25% off everything until the end of April (I think) with the code BDSale as it is their birthday month!!!

With the Lucky dip box being £10 normally, it's an absolute bargain at £7.50 AND free postage!!

xxx

The brilliant 'Barter books of Alnwick'

Hello!

Rather like my Steampunk and Museum of Power posts, this one has been languishing in my drafts for a while- I didn't post it because I wanted to photograph the books I bought, except they've kind of spread out now through my house, so I figured I might as well post it!

If you don't know about it, it is the most amazing 2nd hand book shop!!!!!

It can be found in Alnwick in Northumberland in the old Alnwick railway station (you pronounce it Ann-ick! Not to be confused with the Northumbrian village of Anick, pronounce Aye-nick which confused me somewhat when I saw the signs)  It is found near Alnwick castle which has the most wonderful castle and gardens (it was in the Downton Christmas special) so you may as well make a holiday of it.

 I posted about it back in 2011 about it.
Reasons to love it:

• It is a veritable labyrinth, you can lose your spouse and sneak off to peruse books for hours and can use the excuse of getting lost
• So many books.
• Amazing model trainset that runs round the ceiling.
• It's an old railway station. So picturesque it's untrue!
• It has an amazing cafe inside. You can sit and peruse your finds at the table.
• You can sit in railway chairs!
• You can sell books to them too (not tried this but I have a suitcase full of antique books for next time I go!)
• They found the original Keep Calm and Carry on poster that inspired the modern obsession with it!
• Hilarious books, old and new to look at
• Lots of unusual books

I thought I'd leave you a selection of photos so you can enjoy them without my witterings *Well except for captions which will probably witter...it's inevitable.

Get on board the Barter books book truck. I spent a lot of time in the Children's literature room.

Yep, loving the children's fiction.

Oooh, school stories- I love them!

I was searching for Chalet school books...

The poetry on the walls is great. All linked to books and trains.

Books forever! Boo hiss to Kindles

 There's so much to look at even if books aren't your thing (she says incredulously)

 This cog is soo cool!

 Leading like spokes of the wheel, these shelves lead off from the iron construction in the ceiling,

 I tried to take several pictures of the amazing velvet seats but this was the only non-blurry one I caught!

 What a glorious edition of Chaucer!

I really like rail stations- this makes this place all the more exciting!

 So many categories to peruse.

 This is the first room you enter- love the retro globes.

 It was really buzzing and busy- comfy sofas galore.

 Here in the main atrium,you can see the train riding round the ceiling,

 Choo, choo!!!

And finding amazing and hilarious dated gems...

Who can forget the terrifying doll-sacrifice book I saw in the summer?




The enjoyable task of perusing books is hungry work so we headed for the first class ladies waiting room for some food.

I found CBC there with a salad.

He pounced on my pile of books: I am sure you wanted to know what I bought. If you know my book tastes, you might suspect I bought historical whodunnits. You would be right.

I discovered a few new series:

• Michael Bond, Mr Paddington's French detective, Monsieur Pamplemousse- two of them which I devoured and loved. There is a wonderful Alexander McCall Smithness to them!
• Wycliffe and the dead flautist by M.J Burley- not read any Wycliffe but a dead flautist- ha, you know I bought it purely for the title.
• The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin - excellent, with a bookish professor sleuth, Gervaise Phenn.
• A summer birdcage by Margaret Drabble- not a whodunnit but a really interesting vintage book.

Have you been? 

DO go if you are on your way up north, or just go to Northumberland for a holiday- it's so beautiful!

xxx