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A new favourite shop in Oxford and random thoughts for Friday

I actually went to Scriptum, the most beautiful fantasy shop that any lover of paper products and all things writing could ever imagine to shop in, but look what I found around the corner!

A brand new shop! ๐Ÿ™‚

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Objects of Use, how fantastic is that name? Doesn’t it absolutely label everything in the shop as practical, useful and maybe even needful?

Well done marketing people, well done. Even better than wrapping cars with ads, really (here’s what am talking about – https://fleetwraphq.com/).

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Inside is classic old world simplicity with an industrial modern edge. One of my most favourite things about England is that people know how to seamlessly blend, say, a 17th century Cotswold stone wall with a steel and glass ultra modern door and it looks so fantastic.

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Ok, So I’m walking around, totally in love with everything in sight and I see these beautiful balls of garden twine. HAVE TO HAVE ONE! So I flipped over the luggage tag…GULP ยฃ27!!! That’s $42.25!!! FOR A SEXY BALL OF GARDEN TWINE? Why?

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It got worse…or maybe I should say stayed consistent. ยฃ25 for a small whisk broom.

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Don’t even ask how much those sexy tea towels cost. No wonder I tend to source old things in thrift stores and flea markets. Sometimes I wonder who would pay this kind of money. Is it for people who don’t care? Don’t know any better? Think, “what the hell, we’re on vacation, let’s go for it”? I’ve no idea.

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Maybe it’s me. I know I’ve got more imagination than money. But for me, that’s a fantastic thing.

So goodbye beautiful sexy new store, see you in my dreams. ๐Ÿ™‚

Linking with Nancy at A Rural Journal for her Friday Five. ๐Ÿ™‚

Comments: 28

  • August 2, 2013
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    Yikes! Very nicely displayed – but…. I think imagination is a great thing to have!

  • August 2, 2013
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    i think dreams keep us going – they health us, makes us smile & they work things out in ourselves. or at least i think so. ha. ha!! ( :

  • August 2, 2013
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    Neat store find, Veronica! Looks like a place I could spend hours in. Treasures!

  • August 2, 2013
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    I love the name of the new store and it looks like it would be fun to explore and make notes of what to look for at the thrift stores! ๐Ÿ˜‰ Fun post.

  • August 2, 2013
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    I have to simply laugh out loud sometimes when in stores and I see their prices. I know they need to make a profit but the greed is sometimes so evident in their prices. Yikes!

  • August 2, 2013
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    I want to see who buys a $42 ball of twine. It’s a great looking item and I would be attracted to it in a store – until I saw the price.

  • August 2, 2013
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    Lovely! We have stores like that here as well and people do pay! I will take an old Tea towel which is softly worn any day !

      • August 2, 2013
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        I think so too. It brings elusive history !

  • August 2, 2013
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    Hi Veronica: That shop looks like so much fun. So glad you are having such fun. Blessings, Martha

  • August 2, 2013
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    It looks like a fun place…

  • August 3, 2013
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    Oh, how sad that things in that lovely store was so expensive. Well, we all can dream, can’t we?

  • August 3, 2013
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    It would be hard to resist any of these beautiful trinkets. ๐Ÿ™‚

  • August 3, 2013
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    Wow…I want to visit that shop, too!

  • August 10, 2013
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    Veronica,
    The German cotton tea towels are ยฃ4.50 which I think is fairly reasonable, Irish linen glass cloths ยฃ6.50. Simple spools of British made twine are ยฃ3.90 or ยฃ5.50, the ones with antique bobbins from long closed Lancashire cotton mills are I will admit ยฃ27.50 but we’d rather give people the option and the chance to make up their own mind as they are historically interesting and beautiful things – you probably can buy a cheaper far eastern copy, but what would be the point? The ‘enamel bowl’ is a porcelain shaving mug and ยฃ20 not ยฃ32, so it’s unlikely you would find one in a camping shop, or a significantly cheaper one in a gentleman’s shaving shop. We sell German made rice straw brooms from ยฃ12.50, and English made natural bristle room brooms from ยฃ17.50, neither of which seem over expensive to me, given the quality of manufacture, materials, and perhaps as importantly the working conditions under which they are made.
    We try to consider the origin and manufacturing of everything we sell, as well as its good value, but value does not simply mean a low price – some things are cheap, just because they are, like Duralex glasses, others are more expensive perhaps because they have taken a skilled craftsman over a day of labour to produce, so naturally these are more expensive, but that hardly means they should not be made, or sold and every shop should resemble Robert Dyas, does it?
    If you still believe we are greedy compare the following:
    http://www.johnlewis.com/redecker-carpet-beater/p164628
    http://www.objectsofuse.com/products/clean/131-carpet-beater
    It’s the same item and for those who may not know the first store is ‘never knowingly undersold’ so is generally regarded as a good indication of a fair price and yet like for like we consistently come up cheaper. I suppose to paraphrase Ruskin, it will always be true that you can buy similar things to ours – made in distant lands, in uncertain conditions, by workers of uncertain age, of unsustainable materials, and without environmental controls – for a little less, and simply turn a blind eye to future generations, and even your own conscience.
    I hope this doesn’t seem like a rant, but it is frustrating when people jump to conclusions about a shop based only on appearance without taking the time to properly browse its range and prices – my experience is that most who do take the time are often pleasantly surprised by both.
    All the best, and thanks for calling us your new favourite shop!

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