Story Donated By Nomie Parker

Me and my Mum spotted this lovely lady at a table top sale in Grassington. It had a post it note stuck to it that read: ‘Nina by Vandersyde- As seen in the film A CLOCKWORK ORANGE! - went for £40 on EBAY recently’

I was suitably impressed with the picture’s credentials and the level of research done by the stallholder. After a quick discussion with my Mum about the age old dilemma over whether something is Kitsch or just plain old bad taste, I negotiated a price of £10 and left triumphant. On my return home I put it on the mantelpiece sure that Stuart would love it and say, ‘Well done darling! What a glorious piece of retro paraphernalia’

He didn’t.
He said it was in fact an example of Plain Old Bad Taste.

It was in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE because I checked, and it’s still on the mantelpiece.

Nomie Parker

Story Donated By Abby Dix

I’ve been collecting these chintzy pictures of flowers for a while now. They’re kind of creepy - a bit like the porcelain dolls that my Nana collects - but they have (scuse the pun) grown on me. The two large roses I bought in the YMCA charity shop when we were doing a Hearts Content event, much to the annoyance of my friend Nomie who wished that she’d spotted them first.

The roses are a nod to the lady who used to own our house. She lived here for nearly forty years before she died and in lots of ways it still feels like her house. I’d like to think that she’d be happy with how we’re looking after it and I know she loved roses because she planted loads in the garden, so I think she’ll approve of these pictures.

I’d not really mentioned the increasing collection of chintz on the wall to my partner but I did think I was pushing it a bit with the bigger pictures. About a week after I put them up he said ‘Are those pictures new?’ but I told him they’d been there for ages.
Abby Dix

Story Donated By Maisy Orr

I bought this painting from a Charity Shop in Pudsey. I picked it out because I like the dog and it’s a real painting, not a photograph, so you can tell someone has spent a long time painting it. They must be very good at painting. The dog looks a bit like my Mom-Mom’s dog in Delaware. She’s called Betty. The dog, not my Mom-Mom.
Maisy Orr

Story Donated By Jane Earnshaw

I found this chap whilst hurtling round charity shops in a big white van to buy furniture for one of the I Love West Leeds Festival events. We visited lots of charity shops across the city and I was supposed to be looking for bookshelves and sofas. Instead i ended up parting with a hard earned pound for a tapestry framed cat from Meanwood Charity Shop. I love him not only because he has been lovingly handmade but because he isn’t a pretty pin up kind of cat, but an overweight, probably bad tempered, ginger tabby. And his eyes almost fit with the background wallpaper which makes me think if you look too hard at him he could probably hypnotize you.
Jane Earnshaw.

Story Donated By Amy Seaward

Here is my charity shop lady, ain’t she divine. I enjoy looking at her in all her soft focus glory, she was next to another lady in the RSPCA charity shop on Kirkgate, Leeds but she was far more beautiful. She came into my life in 2002 when I made my (then new) boyfriend carry her through the streets of Leeds, little did he know what he had let himself in for.

She wasn’t expensive (shame I know) I think £2.99 was all she set me back.
Amy Seaward