I have been in love with ebay ever since I discovered the joyful rush of a winning bid and a bargainous price. My budget for clothes really is teeny weeny thanks to those soaring gas prices, my food snobbery (I’m a shameless organic girl), the astronomical cost of studying these days (thank you Labour government – and can we stop calling them ‘top up’ fees please seeing as we appear to be paying for the whole thing??!!) and the irritating cost of commuting to London – soon to stop what with my impending move from Brighton – hooray! Sooo, for quite some time I have needed to become creative with my cash without depriving myself of the joy of constantly experimenting and evolving my look. I do also like the idea of recycling and reusing, and I sell as well as buy which means that things go to a new and hopefully happy home as well as things coming to nest with me. It’s not necessarily a solution to our consumption issue but it makes me feel much better than coming back from Primark with a bag full of cheap crap.

So a recent purchase was some beautiful beaded epaulets. No idea what search i entered to lead me to them but they were lovely and a very cheap fiver each. Get them here. Wanted to look for a jumper to add them to but thought that in the meantime they made a beautiful prop for my recent photography project…need a lot of tit tape to stay in place for any length of time but beautiful skin jewellery non? Can see them being worn with a strapless dress or jumpsuit…

However, stuck to the original plan and with the addition of a 99p M+S skinny navy jumper (listed as black but i don’t think so!) and a little bit of handsewing – voila! Very pleased with result, many compliments today on its first wearing (first one coming from the bloke selling me my cartridges in Rymans!!) Never underestimate the power of the epaulet…

R xxx