The Magical Wonderland of TKMaxx

Who doesn't love TKMaxx?

I popped into one of the Aberdeen branches the other week, with the intention of just checking whether they would happen to be stocking my favourite granola (The Food Doctor), as TKMaxx seems to be the only place where it can (occasionally) be found in Aberdeen. Well, you know what they say about good intentions...

I left the shop with some great bargains in my bag. I bought two pairs of pants, rhubarb-strawberry loose leaf tea, a massive tin bucket of gourmet popcorn (almost a kilo!) and some protein pasta. There was also a very pretty vintage-esque red polka dot dress that I left in the shop. For once, reason reigned over — since 90% of the clothes I've bought over the last month have been either red, red-white or polka dot patterned, I decided that it wasn't special enough.

Popcorn and tea, what else does a girl need? Pasta and knickers weren't interesting enough to be included in the photo I'm afraid ;)

I got all the food items from the clearance section, and both the tea and the pasta were only £1 each! Best before dates are well in the next year, so I definitely got lucky. :) The bucket of cookies and cream popcorn was £3, which was also amazing for the amount. I had been wanting to try some gourmet popcorn for ages, but it's so expensive... But this was going out of date at the end of the month, hence the low price. I did however have another reason for buying that massive bucket of popcorn — because of the bucket. It's just so pretty, I just kept imagining it on my desk or shelf as a sweet smelling storage box, and I had to get it. I think £3 for a good-sized storage tin is already a fairly good price, so I was happy with my purchase, even if I can't feed the almost-a-kilo of popcorn to anyone (I will not eat it all by myself).

How delicious does that look?

Apart from the treasures I took with me, my branch also stocked other temptations such as lots of TIGI shampoos and conditioners (my absolute favourites), Benefit's Hello Flawless foundations (in shade far too dark for me), some other nice make-up items, deliciously smelling candles, Emma Bridgewater mugs and Le Creuset teapots. All for well reduced prices!

Have you made any finds in TKMaxx lately?

Until next time,
Jenni

Easter Haul (and Stylish Surprise)

Here we go...! So, over the last week of Easter holidays from Uni, I had a friend over up here in Aberdeen. We both share the love of clothes, make-up, all things sweet, as well as tea. This all is somewhat of a dangerous combination, especially as the week had a sense of novelty in it, because we see each other so rarely nowadays and it was her first time in Scotland.
And so we hit the shops in hunt for bargains.

 

 

 

1) Midi Skirt £4, New Look, 2) Revlon Renewist Lipstick in Shade 200 'Red Reinvented' £1, Poundland, 3) Lace dress in Dusty Mint £5, Primark, 4) Clip on earrings £1, Primark, 5) Scented Candle £2, Primark, 5) Hush Puppies Lonna Heels £24.99, TKMaxx (currently £65 in Schuh!)

 Everything except the candle was found from sales or bargain shops, like Poundland and TKMaxx. :)

We both love charity shops, the mixture of quirky, old, pretty and downright dreadful. After breaking my beautiful glass teapot halfway through the week, we decided to go look for a non-glass replacement in the many charity shops Aberdeen has to offer. And found two. I am only offering photos of one though, as the other one (carved brass) is currently going through a thorough cleaning process to find out whether it is actually usable, or whether it will be strictly for decoration purposes.

 

As you can probably see, this beauty has some cracks below the glossy top. Which means that it does not have much use left in it. But it was far too beautiful for me to pass it by, especially at £2.99 (British Heart Foundation).

 We also had an indulgent Chocolate Afternoon Tea at my absolute favourite place in Aberdeen: Cup. When I say indulgent, I do mean indulgent. Extremely so. We had a stack of Nutella Toasties, Dark Chocolate and Banana Scones with Raspberry Jam and Nutella, Chocolate Dipped Strawberries, Truffles, Chocolate Macarons and Chocolate Traybakes. And of course, delicious, high quality loose leaf tea. No pictures though, as we are both frustrated with the photo quality of our iPhone 3GS's (but at the same time refusing the splurge on a newer model while these still still work) and neither of us had our DSLR's with us. And of course, the chocolate decadence in front of us had a very strong call. Needless to say, it was incredibly delicious.

When I got back to Aberdeen, I also had a parcel waiting for me in the flat. This parcel contained my Modcloth Stylish Surprise —for those unaware, Stylish Surprise is an event held a couple of times a year by US based website Modcloth, and the idea is that you pay $10-15 for a mystery apparel or shoes ($5 for accessories) which can be worth anything from $29.99 to $299.99. A gamble, in other words. My previous two attempts had ended with me receiving a dress completely not my style (5'2 and maxi dresses made for people a head taller than you are just not a working combination) or ill fitting (the dress was cute, but the top was horribly loose around the chest — being a 30F, I really have no idea how that is even possible). This time around however, the price of the Stylish Surprise had been reduced to $10 from $15, so I took the plunge again, hoping for the best.

I received this beautiful blue off-shoulder dress, which has fits me like a glove (not an easy task). The only negative about this is that it is not casual by any stretch of the imagination, so finding an occasion to wear it will take a while...

I don't know what happened to the colours when I downloaded these to Blogger — they look completely different on my photo editing tool.

I also received this incredibly cute pair of booties. They are not something I would have picked up on my own, but after I put them on, I fell in love with them. Somehow they manage to look really petite and cute on, rather than big and clunky, as they did out of the box! They feel really nice, but I noticed that the heel had worn off a lot at the back just after one use! Having only paid $10 for them though, I can deal with that and get the heels replaced.

 In other words, this time around the Stylish Surprise was a resounding success, and I can't wait for the next one, to grab more lucky bargains (especially shoes)!

Until next time,

Jenni