While we’re on the subject

I have been meaning to blog this since before Christmas. Remember this box I got at a garage sale? I was going to do it up for my brother’s 21st birthday…

Here it is all done up to the nines’. 

I painted it a slate grey and attached new handles.

The outlines of the letters were lightly printed on to old pages of Shakespeare plays, then I cut them out and modge-podged them on to the box. I did several layers over top of the letters to make sure they wont come off.

I managed to get it to him only 6 months late… a record for me!

Who knows what he will put in it, boy stuff no doubt.

What should one do with these?

You’ll see what I’m doing soon, but I want to know what YOU would do with them?

Op shops strike again!

Look what ‘chose me’ in an op shop in Bateman’s Bay!

This is white gold with 2 sapphires and 2 diamonds! It was pretty beat up and dirty so I whipped it back into shape and gave it a good clean. Now it looks brilliant!

If only it were my size!

Anzac Weekend

This weekend was full of fun packed family time, staying with friends in Melbourne and a party after my own heart.
I'll share with you a few photos of the 'Op Shop' themed party, as I know some of you are keen op shoppers. There were many and varied outfits, including a lot of shimmering 80's party dresses (some worn by males) and a bit of stone-wash denim teamed with a 'just do it' t-shirt and retro jacket as you see my cousin wearing here:



Flashback! :)

This one is my brother and his girlfriend.
Him: A quality dark green suit with gorgeous matching multi-colored body shirt
Her: A darling long golden frock with very stylish over-sized hot pink cardi, sporting huge white and black flowers... stunning.



This is my Mum and a good friend.
Mum: Beautiful floral dress teamed with a grey/white fake fur jacket (which incidentally she was offered $20 for by one of the younger ladies there on the night)
Friend: A hot pink frilly dress with (and this really makes the outfit I think!) socks and heels! :)

And here I am with the birthday boy:



It's a shame you can't see his coral colored pants and bowling shoes that go so well with his floral shirt and suspenders! :)
I wore a beautiful matching pink sparkly cardi and singlet with a floor length brown skirt and gorgeous boots. I could have passes for at least 70 I think!

Well thanks looking and laughing! Hope you had a great weekend!
Freebies tomorrow!

Something unusual...

I found this at an op shop today. I have no idea how old it is but I think it's really cool!
The globe pincushion is stuffed with straw I think and there is a place to hold your thimble down the bottom.



And look what is in the base!



Everyone has more than likely seen these before, but seeing as I haven't I'm quite excited!
It will be very handy next to my machine!

Ok I said the next post would be about last Saturday (aka the bestest day out ever!). So here it is...

My friend Min and her Mum and I set off at 6am last Saturday morning for Bendigo. We arrived at 7:30am and the fun started. We went to approximately 15 garage sales up until about 11am! Oh the giddy bargains to be had!!
Then, as if that wasn't enough, we went to 4 op shops and then out to lunch! Oh it was fabulous! No kids, just females and female talk, laughter and happiness!
After lunch we wondered thinking about what we could do and of all things, went to find more garage sales! I think it was about 1 o'clock and I think this is still a good time to go to garage sales- by this time they just want to get rid of the stuff so they don't have to pack it up for the op shops! The bargains we got were unbelievable! I paid $2 and came away with a small set of draws, an aluminum case and a fishing rod for Aus from one garage sale!
Here's a small list of what I can remember buying (there was quite a lot of things)
- An entire box full of Hawthorn memorabilia (for Husband, who nearly wet his pants when I gave it to him!) for $10
- A new Olga Berg nappy bag for $20, when I got it home I looked at the tag which said $130
-Several sets of small draws for my studio in bright colours
- A queen size heated blanket $5
- Some toys
- Heaps of silverware, including a sterling silver spoon!
- A HUGE bag of cottons for $3
- Several photo frames and bits to put in them

I took some photos of all the thread in the colour allotments just because I like colour sorting :)


This is one set of the new draws















Sorry it's dark- kids don't allow enough time during the day for pictures! :)

That's all I can remember for now. We took a big 4WD and when we came back there was not a single place you could see out the back window, it was packed!

But wait! There's more! After all that walking around we wanted a coffee and sit down. So, why not at the cinema?! Off we went and watched 'It's Complicated', which was hysterical. I don't think I would have laughed as much if I wasn't married and had kids, it's definitely not a 'teeny' movie. It was seriously good. And it topped to day off beautifully!

We were all happy and tired on the way home and so glad we'd made the effort to go (and nudged our husbands into having the kids for a day! Which, by the way, both guys did really well and both had dinner waiting for their wives when they came home!! How often does that happen!?)

I only wish that I had remembered to take photos!! Gah! I had the camera and everything! Oh well, I'll remember it even without photos :)

And what, might you ask, is planned for this weekend? Yep, more garage sales, although not quite as far away :)
What's on your agenda this weekend?!

Ginormous weekend!

Yes I'm just getting around to writing about my weekend now... I'll admit it, I'm lazy. And it's hot. Like 41 degrees at 2pm hot! Gah! The house is starting to heat up despite my best efforts to cool it. 3 days of baking heat tends to do that I guess.

Anyway, last weekend was the most fun I've had shopping in ages. Not normal shopping though, I think the count ended at 6 garage sales and 4 op shops in the Bendigo area. We stayed at Jem's brother's house and I snuck off at 7am to visit the garage sales I mark on my iphone map! The first one I went to was AWESOME! It was at the fire station in Maiden Gully and all the profits were going to the local stations. There was so much stuff! These are what I took home with me...


The coolest retro 70s lamp ever!! I love this so much that every time I look at it I get all warm and fuzzy inside. $5 was beyond a bargain!!!


A Holly Hobby sewing machine for $2. I don't know what I'm going to do with it though, I was thinking of putting it on ebay but I think it looks nice just being in my studio!


And this wooden box sort of like a foot locker. I'm going to sand it right back and either paint it or give it a glossy coat.

I also managed to get a $15 black LEATHER lounge suit for my brother when he moves into the batchelor pad next year. It was in such good contidion and had a 3 seater, 2 x 1 seaters and an ottoman. Seriously it was worth so much more and my brother was pretty pleased :) (it's part of his christmas present)

Then it was off to the oppys, where I found this:



A pretty cake plate right? I thought that too but I was wondering if $7 was a little too much. Until I turned it over and saw that it had 'Royal Albert' written on the underside. My Mum taught me a bit about plates and which manufacturers are worth collecting. So I took it home and perused the Royal Albert website and eventually found it... you can still buy them for a neat $100. *Happy Face* So all I have to do now is hang onto it for another 20+ years and it might worth more :)

There were lots of other goodies that came home like toys and balls etc. which Aus has been having a lovely time playing with.

Then we came home and Sunday was a big day. After much hard work this is what my studio now looks like:







I made myself a new bench (with a little help from Hubby)! Oh the delights of having space!! Now all I need is new curtains and it will be the perfect space for my needs. Oh and I so have a few recent additions:


My new rock tumbler- don't worry, I'm not tumbling rocks. It's going to make my jewellery all shiny :)


And these little doo-dads are for my new dremel tool that my parents gave me for my birthday... hours of fun to be had with this stuff!

So there it is, a huge weekend, filled with shopping and building and creating!
Hope the next one is as exciting for you, seeing as how I'm off to an auction and a twilight market! Yay!

Vintage find, Bigamy- we could all be at risk!

I found these 2 magazines at a garage sale on Saturday. They were $2 each and are from 1958 and 1951 respectively. I've put them in frames because they are so cool but now I am kicking myself that I didn't buy more, there were at least 10 there! DOH!

Before they went behind frames I had a good old read. Some of the articles are gob-smackingly funny! Some make you cringe at the lack of ambition or women (I'll show you) and some and are just weird. Let's start with the headline article shall we? (if you can't read any click on them and it will take you to the flickr page where you can see them bigger)



Moods, tantrums and peculiar logic? AHEM!



Hmm... could it be you?!



According to this, it could!! Lol. I'd like to know where they got their statistics from!



This is what I meant about women. Numbers 1, 10 & 11 are cringe-worthy!



And just to prove how long the paparazzi have been around...





Look what is forecast for fashion in 1958!



Organ donation way back when, why not get your eyes cut out? Do you think many people signed up after reading that?





And here are some weird stories and funny headlines:



'Even Diana has gone all spiritual'- lol



Oh no! Not from the nurses panties!!



I just like how happy she looks about having those things stuck to her boobs!



'Hullo Murderer' lol



Really? In their sleep? Was quit smoking hypnosis around that far back?



Hubby will like this one...



There is more on my flickr page if you didn't get enough in this post. I'm so glad I got at least these 2, it's like a window back in time!