A Trip To Bilston Market.

A week or so ago, while I was back in Wolverhampton for a couple of days, Lu and I decided to nip over to Bilston for the morning. Bilston being the town where I grew up and where Lu loves the charity shops with their £1 racks and the historic, exceedingly brilliant and “proper” bustling market, something sadly of a rarity these days. Last time we were there we found a wonderful “Pound Stall”, where everything was just £1 and we hoped it would be there again.

Let’s just say Bilston didn’t disappoint!  There it was piled high and constantly being replenished from huge laundry type bags, all we had to do was wheedle our way to the front and then rummage to an inch of our lives, not knowing what on earth we would find. 

A lot of the bags were printed with the name “Whaline” which, after some research when we got home, sells on, among other places, Amazon, so I am guessing that what was mainly on the stall that day was Amazon returns and overstock from Easter, Halloween and Christmas, wrapping, decorations, party items, balloons, silicone moulds, giftware, homeware…….. it was glorious! So did I make a considered purchase or two?  You bet I did ………..

……… 12 green pumpkins with gold stalks, shared with Lu, currently selling on Amazon for £12.99 ……

…….. 10 assorted gourds, also shared with Lu, currently selling for £10.99.  I may re-paint a few them later on in the year ready for the autumn, in orange, green and yellows etc. just to add a bit of variation.

Then there was this mixed bag of autumn pieces (shared again) ……….. £5.99, again on Amazon ……. perfect for wreaths or a centre piece or two

……. along with a pack of 300 mixed maple leaves for £6.98.  Can you imagine my excitement, when one  pack of 50, alone, costs £1 in The Works

I couldn’t believe these Christmas Trees either (always expensive and currently on Amazon for £10.99), It was the bigger ones I was most excited by. I really hoped I’d be able to find another pack, but it’s the luck of the draw.  As the vast piles on the stall went down, the sellers would throw on even more treasure, even Lu, who is usually very restrained, said she’d give (almost) anything to be able to have the first rummage through all the bags still stacked in the van all to herself.

Lu loves a diamond dot, so she was well chuffed when we each found a set of these Christmas keyring/decorations. There are 8 pieces in each pack (currently £11.99 on Amazon).  Happy days!

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a few gingerbread men (currently available on Amazon for £8.99).  There were 15 in a pack, with gold threads to hang/tie them by.  I am thinking parcel tags, bag favours, or obviously, tree decorations.

I also found  a pack of 20, sizable hessian/organza drawstring bags (currently £11.99) …………..

…… as well as a pack of 24 bunny bags (£14.99) that’s 4p each! How cute are they? There may not be enough to give to the  whole class of my little readers next Easter,  however at that price I am more than willing to shop around when the time comes, to find a few more and then average out the price.

Goodness where I am going to keep these for the next year but at for £1 for 36 hanging Easter eggs (in two very generous sizes), it would have been rude not to.  I am thinking for Iris and Bertie to decorate an Easter Egg tree along the path in the school grounds as they did this year. I think a few could also be drawn on, Decopatched or decorated with stickers overtime.

However, I think I may have left the best ‘till last …… I had actually put these generously sized cushion covers in my basket on Amazon back in March, but I couldn’t justify the £15.99 outlay for just a week or so …… but for £1, that’s 25p each, well what’s a girl to do ………

…… and then, there were these, again a pack of 4 for £1, destined to be presents, I think.  How cute are they?

Then my heart skipped a beat when I found these, obviously I couldn’t get them out of the bag at the time, but I had a pretty good idea what they were likely to look like (still available on Amazon £11.99). Oh how I LOVE them!

My only “not quite sure” purchase were these 100 lollipop cards, because children with lollies, really gives me the eebbie-jebbies, however I am sure I can find an alternative to thread through the slits on their arm, chocolate lollies (Home Bargains) or small candy canes?  I will make sure have one in my bag at all times for when I am out mooching. If I don’t come up with anything, well, they’ll make cute tags or embellishments on cards.

In all, can you believe I only spent £14? Did I leave anything behind which, with hindsight I wish I had bought? Well, I should have bought a couple of packs 120 A4 sheets of Halloween or Christmas tissue paper, which would have come in  handy on numerous occasions when making favours etc., and I wish I’d also bought a couple of boxes of the various snowflake decorations they had, because at that price I could have banged out several very simple door wreaths to give as presents, if I’d thought about it at the time, but hey ho, the gurl dun gud!

Both Lu and I thought it would be well worth popping over every couple of months for more rummaging, although as I said, it’s pretty much the luck of the drawer as to what they would have ……… but if I do get over to Bilston soon, no doubt you’ll be the first to know.