A doll

I have to start out by saying that I'm not much of an op shopper.

When I was in high school I used to dabble in a little rummage through the white elephant stall at the community fair, with my main score being a cool (at the time- it was the early 80's after all) mens suit jacket for $2. I always regretted not getting the pants too. Since then, despite being keen on recycling/reusing/usingless, and being an avid sale shopper (content to rummage through racks of mis-matched clothes for hours, with no particular agenda other than spotting quality fabrics in colours and shapes that I like) I don't really do the op shopping thing.

I like to blame it on the quality of local op shops, which seem to have all the goods that were rejected from other op shops. But perhaps it's more that I can afford new, and I don't like to accumulate things that I don't really need, no matter how cheap or what a good find they may be. I also tend to imagine before I start, as I stare at the rack or box of mismatched dull coloured stuff, that I'm not going to find anything anyway, so why bother waste my time hoping against all likelihood that I might.

But last week I broke my habits, challenged my expectations, and called into one of the local op shops after dropping my son into daycare. After giggling to myself when I spotted the old sheets I'd deposited in their donations bin last month, I came away rewarded.



This AK Traditions doll was hiding in the bottom of a box of rather unattractive soft toys. I felt excitement well up inside me when I spotted a glimpse of the Kaffe Fasset striped fabric legs, and frantically tossed the other toys aside to see what they were attached to. She doesn't look particularly worn- nothing that a wash and a few stitches can't fix. I felt like I'd found gold. Boyed on by this success I rummaged further, coming away with a few other toys and a baby book, and a couple of glass storage jars for the kitchen.

Of course, this now leaves me with a new project for the unwritten and lengthy To Do [subsection: Craft] List: Doll's wardrobe. I might even turn her into a he.