I picked up this set of linen placemats last week whilst staying with my friend who lives out in the sticks.

No, I don’t mean I stole them.

We went on a tour of charity shops. Another friend of my friend had told her that one particular village’s thrifty possibilities were particularly promising.

However, just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, judgement on the quality of a charity shop is also a very individual thing.

My favourite ones are usually a bit ramshackle. A bit disorganised, with lots of promising boxes and piles in corners.

Possibly, even, dare I say, a bit smelly.

I like seeing garden tools stacked up next to the toys, and rummaging through a tangle of costume jewellery instead of asking for it from out of a glass cabinet.

Places where the clothing ranges from tweed to Crimplene and back again, rather than from Primark to New Look.

I disapprove of charity shops that have pretentions to being boutiques, rather than purveyors of other people’s cast-offs.

And although I’m happy to pay a fair price and realise they’re only trying to raise as much money as possible, I don’t want to pay four times as much for that bobbly acrylic jumper and those jigsaws with pieces missing, just because they put “vintage” on the tag.

You know the ones I mean.

Well, the places we visited were, unfortunately, a little more like the latter than the former.

But I can’t really complain, as I thoroughly enjoyed exploring thrifty pastures new. And I did snag these placemats from one of them.

Strangely enough, they were from the one most like my idea of a good charity shop.

Funny, that. ♥