Jumblist Massive - Tuesday 19 January

Photo: The Bounce Effect

Thanks to my girl over at Sack The Stylist for bringing this one to my attention!

TOMORROW (Tuesday 19th January) is the Bounce JUMBLIST MASSIVE. London's biggest charity jumble sale and music MASH UP! Wooooiiiiii! What will they be selling I hear you cry... well how about brand new Urban Outfitter garments from crazy thick knits, hoodies, gloves, scarves you name it all for the brrrr cold outside (samples) or even get hold of some bikinis and shorts (end of season) all BRAND NEW stock! There will be other high street clothes to get your hands on and of course 2nd hand goods. Not just clothing, there will be accessories, bric and brac, CDs, shoes and books!!! Waaaaahhhhh! Oh and the BEST BIT? Errrr there are NO PRICES so YOU decide how much you want to buy something for.... errr hello could this get any better??? Oh actually how about live music and DJ's from Warrior One and Rhys Adams, a bar selling all types of delicious refreshments AND the fact that all proceeds go towards Bounce fun projects for kids?!

FREE ENTRY recessionistas! What's your excuse??

Date: Tuesday 19 January
Time: 6-11pm
Venue: The Phoenix (downstairs) 37 Cavendish Square - 2 mins from Oxford Circus, just turn right off Oxford Street after H&M and before Zara.

For more information check out the Bounce blog HERE

See y'all there! x Mets Thrifty x

Hermes Sample Sale - Saturday 16 January

Photo: Hermes
Courtesy of my girl over at Sack the Stylist, top fashionista/recessionista tip-off is the Hermes Sample Sale! (by the way you really need to follow my girl's blog!)  Last day is SATURDAY 16 JANUARY so either get there early to get the best picks of what is remaining OR get there later in the afternoon where they'll slash prices to get rid of everything.  Personally I prefer to go later in the afternoon. Yeh it's a bit of a mess and you'll find it hard to find your size but last year I went to the Reiss Sample Sale on the last day and bought a gorgeous gold sporty luxe jacket which got slashed to only £35 as I was searching for my size!!!!

Date: Saturday 16th January
Time: 10am - 6pm
Venue: The Music Room, 26 South Molten Lane, W1

FREE ENTRY!

x Mets Thrifty x

Vauxhall Ice Skate: Thursday 28 January

Woop!!! I just got my 2 FREE tickets for the Vauxhall Ice Skate on Thursday 28 January... Err what's this about I here you say?

"... excape to an enchanted evening of frozen fairy tales, celebrity DJs guests, and a scattering of top UK designers strutting their stuff at a central London location as Vauxhaull Motors brings you Vauxhall Ice Skate"

Paloma Faith, Coco Sumner and HEADLINER Mr Hudson will be providing the choooons... Ohhh I can't wait to get my skates on this sounds soooo fun!!!!! I haven't managed to get the time to visit any of the outdoor skating rinks in London this year so this will be perfect!  There are very few tickets remaining so get in there quick!!!! Visit the link HERE and sign up ASAP!!
Follow Vauxhall Ice Skate on Twitter for the latest and whilst you're there don't forget to Follow Me!

A Tasty January at Brixton Village - Sat 15 Jan

Photo: Cornercopia at Brixton Village, Spacemakers UK

Date: Saturday 15th January
Time: 11am- 5pm
Venue: Brixton Village, Atlantic Road, Brixton

For a while now I have been meaning to head down to Bixton Village but the snow has kept me hibernating indoors... that is, until now! I'll be flying the flag for South London this Saturday (tomorrow!) at Brixton Village for it's A Tasty January event.  With food tastings, pop-up one day restaurants,  restaurant openings, pop-up theatre festival and children's cooking competitions this will be lovely day out for the whole family with a fantastic community feel. I can't wait to get my food/drink and cake on! And if it snows I'm still gonna make it, nothing will keep me away this time (duh food is involved! that's the monster inside of me)

My top 3 highlights that I'm uber-excited about:

- Brixton Cornercopia: FREE foodie and drinks tasting galore (you know that this will be my station lol) including 'hot cider punch, spicy harria soup, a slab of Ian's grandiose apple pork pie and some spanakopita'. I'm interested in tasting Cornercopia's infamous plantain chutnye. I LOVE fried plantain but will this chutney be as nice?? Hmmm... Recipe-sharing will be rife so there is no reason not to practice your cooking when you get home... I need to up my game in the domestic goddess stakes!
- Etta's Seafood Restaurant: New seafood restaurant opening. You know I'm a prawn fiend and I love fish, so much healthier for you! I'm up for some prawns and snapper with fiery Carribean twist!!
- Olive Tree: Morrocan and Mediterranean restaurant opening.  I love tagine lamb - clearly one of the most tastiest and succulent ways to eat lamb! And cous cous when cooked perfect is so wholesome. Olive Tree has got strong morals and ethics behind it and was set up by to create a ommunity space and offer young people an alternative to extremism - LOVE IT!

This is no way a comprehensive list of what will be happening on the day, there's just too much good stuff for me to put into my tiny blog! There are also non-food events going on at Brixton Village including exhibitions and the opportunity to star in your very own remake of an 80's movie!! For full details of the event and how to get there visit the Facebook event page HERE

What is Brixton Village all about? SpaceMakers has basically transformed the abandoned and derelict Granville arcade into a buzzing indoor market with vintage stores, old fashioned sweet stores, pop-up textile stores, galleries, art/exhibition spaces,Okido Doodle Shop and not to mention stalls of excellent quality local produce. Learn more about the project HERE and follow Spacemakers on Twitter to stay up to date!

Photo: Granville Arcade. Spacemakers, UK.

Look forward to bumping into you all! X Mets Thrifty X

Please Help Haiti

I've not blogged in a few days - been unber-busy with work grrr... but this is something that is really touching my heart like crazy. The devastation the earthquake in Haiti has caused is just astounding and watching the news I can't believe the country has no doctors, police, ambulances and support of any kind.  I await in anticipation for all of the aid workers to fly over and help the Haitian people.

What really stands out however is that despite the destruction and devastation, the Haitians live in hope; they are not angry people, they are not even devastated, they are not shouting or screaming and moaning... they are grateful and appreciative of their lives - despite losing their houses and having injuries, not everyone made it and they are fully aware of this.

I think that's something that everyone needs to take away with them.  Whenever we feel that our lives are really bad and we can't afford that little luxury or it's snowing and we're p*ssed off because it's disrupting our social lives and our work or anything of that kind, we all need to wake up and be aware that there is ALWAYS, without fail, someone is worse off than we are.

Please donate if you are able via the following charitable organisations:

• Red Cross
• Unicef
• DEC (Disaster Emergency Committee)

FREE Friends of The Earth bag making workshop - Wed 13 Jan

Photo: C73, creative space currently inhabited by CutShuffleDeal

Head down to C73 the creative space in Camden this Wednesday where CutShuffleDeal are hosting a FREE Bag Making Workshop with Friends of the Earth THIS Wednesday as part of it's pop-up clothing exchange (click HERE for more info on the clothing exchange). Everyone is welcome and I'm pretty sure this will be a very interesting workshop where you'll come away having learnt how to make a lovely bag (no doubt with recycled materials or some sort of sustainability involved)! It's all good, times are hard and if you learn how to make your own bags, no need to fork out for 'em but even better TRES UNIQUE! No-one enjoys going out and seeing the chav down the road rocking the same bag, right?? (no offence to any chavs out there!) RSVP by emailing cutshuffledeal@gmail.com so they know what numbers they are dealing with and to ensure a massive welcome :-)

Date: Wednesday 13 January
Time: 7pm - 9pm
Venue: C73, 73 Parkway, Camden, London, NW1 7PP

Don't forget that CutShuffleDeal's FREE clothing exchange finishes THIS FRIDAY! Check my other blog post HERE for details. For more information on CutShuffleDeal visit their bloggage HERE.

See you on Wednesday if you decide to attend the workshop - this is going to be the highlight of my week!

x Mets Thrifty x

Photo: Clothing exchangers getting involved in free funky badge making.... need to get my hand on a Mets Thrifty badge!!

CutShuffleDeal - FREE clothing exchange ends Friday!

Photo: CutShuffleDeal

Have you received any unwanted clothes for Christmas that you feel guilty selling on eBay or returning? Or are you busy doing a New Year cleanup of the clothes you'll never wear again, or the clothes you never wore in the first place? If that's the case, head down to the FREE pop-up clothing exchange, CutShuffleDeal in Camden. Ending on Friday 16 January (that's THIS Friday if you didn't realise!), you simply can rock up with as many clean and complete items as you like, browse the racks of lovely items for exchange and walk out with a new set of items! Sweet! And if you find something that you want but didn't bring enough items to exchange, you can simply purchase them for around £3 or £5 (approx) - all money made in this way will be donated to Greenpeace UK. CutShuffleDeal is all about creating a community spirit with a focus on sustainability - you're basically recycling unwanted clothes so this is not only to satisfy your fashion desires but to help the community too! Kudos!  Once you've exchanged your baddies for some goodies, take the time to chill out on the comfy sofas donated by the ReStore Community Projects and have some hot refreshments courtesy of ethical Fairtrade coffee, tea and cocoa producers, CafeDirect.

Photo: browse the racks of goodies and exchange your unwanted items for something new!

Date: On NOW until Friday 16 January
Time: 10am - 6pm
Venue: C73, 73 Parkway, Camden, London, NW1 7PP

For more information on CutShuffleDeal visit their website HERE.

xX Mets Thrifty Xx