this weeks finds

donkey fabric in two colours




thorburns mammals with some wonderful illustrations



salt and pepper shakers. no stamp or makers mark but i thought the birds were nice.



1970's dickies tea towel.

I scored The Needlworker's Dictionary at the Dandenong Savers for $5.99. It's a lovely book, great illustrations, and a few pages of private correspondence tucked into the back as a bonus (I'm an inveterate stickybeak). I especially like the squirrel and bird pictured below.

Discovering Needlecraft came from an op shop in Sandringham a year or two ago. It is (or was) a monthly magazine on stitching, and came with a little project of aida cloth, threads, needle and pattern. There are 40-some issues here, most with their stitching project intact. Some day I'll tackle them! It didn't have a price on it, and when the lady at the counter said fifty cents an issue or the lot for $5, I couldn't get my money out fast enough :)

It doesn't matter if these break!

We have a friend who breaks things when he drinks. Chairs, flower pots, shoes (don't ask me how, it's a mystery!) and of course, wine glasses. I looked in the cupboard the other day and saw a measly three glasses left.

So I took myself off to the Sacred Heart Mission op shop on Clarendon St, South Melbourne and scored these glasses for only $1 each. Now our friend can break as many as he likes!


While I was there, I couldn't resist picking up these Mossimo heels for only $10. They're in fabulous condition and a perfect fit. And with a cute, furry leopard print lining on the inside to boot!

Brotherhood of St.L.

I went for a walk today with a friend, and we ended up at our local opshop - small but interesting. I found four more ties (75c but the lady only charged me 50c) for my collection waiting to be used for a patchwork something (dream on). Three different tartans to go with another tartan tie I found recently...is there a disillusioned Scotsman walking around Melbourne? The blue tie on the left with "Rainbow" on it is a company tie of some sort, but I liked it anyway.

A stunning scarf ($3) which has a label claiming to be made in France

And an interesting thingy that was in with the jewellery - $3. It has a tassell attached to it, so I don't really think it could be a pendant, but who knows? I'm not sure what I'll do with it. The Thingy is lying on a folded sheet of iron-on backing fabric used in patchwork - 50c - bargain! That stuff is expensive!

picked up the little strainer - at least thats what i think it is today for $4. the jan messant wool'n magic book i picked up for $1 and will be making its way to a friend in the UK. the head vase cost me $10. vintage repro of the ones that were made in the 30's and 40's. any ideas?
the little table cloth is lovely with its embroidered daffodils. one of my favourite flowers. $2

Melbourne bloggers meet

This is not strictly an op shop-related post - apologies - but I wanted to let all who participate here know that there is a Melbourne bloggers meet on Sunday 31st May. All the details are here - perhaps a great opportunity to meet some fellow op shoppers and plan your next shopping spree?

Thank God for the Salvos!

....in more ways than one!! I've decided they are the best opshops around. Over my side of town, anyway. The one I have been visiting several days a week lately (because I drive past it on my way home from work) is in Doncaster Road, Doncaster. They seem to have a huge turnover, as everytime I go there, the displays have changed. It is no use going in, seeing something you like, and going back a week later - it will be gone! A week ago, I bought a pile of patchwork magazines, and left a bigger pile behind. Last Friday I went over to the books section and there were more patchwork mags - but not the ones I'd left behind - they'd gone. This was another lot! The girl behind the counter said they fly out the door whenever they get them in. Here is my Friday stash:

Gorgeous ties!! Just look at those colours, and most of them are pure silk. I buy them to use in patchwork projects because they are so cheap and colourful. $3 each.


Some of the above mentioned patchwork mags, along with some Mills & Boons by MIL's favourite author, Betty Neels. MIL has got a lot of time to read now, she is in aged care accomodation. Mags. $1 each, books 50c each.


Told you I love chooks! Couldn't leave this au gratin dish behind now, could I? $3.99 (well, $4 really. Why do shops persist with this 99c bllsht?)

scarves, shawls and wraps..

Whatever you call them, scarves, shawls, wraps... this is a selection of our collection. They are so great for instantly adding a bit of life to an ordinary outfit.
They've come from various op shops, including the Salvos in Abbotsford, St James Op Shop in Malvern and the Salvos in Richmond.

Come and say hello at www.adelle.com.au

More Recent Finds

A herb chopping thingy - $3.50. CMS Opportunity Shop, cnr. High & Pakington sts, Kew. (With superbly matching egg cups from an op shop in Narooma, NSW - $0.10 each!)


Evening bag - $15. Toorak Opportunity Shop, Canterbury Rd, Toorak.
Bit hard to date, but perhaps 60s? Any suggestions? It's marked 'Made in Spain Fortnum & Mason Gift Dept.' I just love the wee details like the covered button, the interior stitching and the coin purse and its chain.
Mikasa Sugar Bowl - $3. Vinnies, Johnston St, Collingwood.
Cake tin - $4. Vinnies, High St, Kew East.
After reading Adelle's post I trotted out to Yours Now Mine in Greythorn, Doncaster Road - didn't know it existed - and they happened to be having a 1/2 price day. Vase - $4. So, thanks Adelle!

apron and fabric

the only 2 things i have managed to pick up of late. poodle apron which needed a good soak in napisan as it was quite yellow down the front and the pink floral fabric. about 1/2 metre.

I've been everywhere, man!

Hi hi!
Trish from Trish Hunter Finds here.
So today was my day off.
I decided to take off on a massive opshopping binge, and do the eastern suburbs.
I used to frequent these spots, and would come home with garbage bags full of things, so today I was very excited.
I planned my route. I'm a big planner, it's half the fun!
Traveling via public transport, this is where I went.

Home > Greensborough > Box Hill > Ringwood > Lilydale > Croydon > Ringwood > Bayswater > Ferntree Gully > Box Hill > Greensborough.

Big day.
All together I went to 21 opshops.
TWENTY ONE.
Who would have thought that was even physically possible in one day, never mind adding the whole public transport element to it.
I bet you're pretty keen to see what I picked up!
Would you believe me if I told you that I bought absolutely nothing?
Well nothing for me anyway. I bought a costume for work but that's not included.
I got back to Greensborough feeling very sorry for myself, so reverted to Savers to try to remove the pout that had stuck pretty firmly to my face.
I didn't buy much, but at least I got a couple of things.



I'm always on the look out for these cute, or in this case kind of scary, plastic toys. Deb from Angel Wings and Hearts seems to pick them up like they're as common as 'Scream' on VHS is.
I'm always very very jealous!! I was oh so excited when I found this guy.






Another set of scales. I don't have a set like this though.
These are to be mounted onto a wall, and the cover flips down to become the (not sure of word) plate?



This bath robe is fabulous! It's new vintage, and so cute I just adore it.

I also got a pair of bathers and a black dress that was torture to photograph so I'm just going to wear it and show you then... well the dress anyway.

I really had no need to venture out of my territory today.
I guess I can tell myself that if I hadn't have gone, I wouldn't have known.
A large grudge is being held against the eastern suburbs and I don't see it budging for quite some time.

Oh and Lilydale!! My favorite opshop there now has a dealer from Camberwell come down to price all of their stock. They have some really great items, but they're at just below antique shop prices. Not a bargain in site.

Oh well!!

That was my day!

Feel free to visit my personal blog to view the rest of my finds!
Trish Hunter Finds

A few odds and ends.

I mentioned on a previous post that I'd bought some ties. If you bring them closeup you will see that the first one has elephants, the second dogs, and the third fish. And why do I want them? I use them for crazy quilting and patchwork. I have some neat patterns of things to make with ties - tote bags, skirts, aprons, just about anything really.


Having an interest in calligraphy, I snapped this scarf up - the design is based on a famous calligraphic work of art.


Found this old book (cc 1960) on Tartans at the back of an antique market. It is fascinating reading, if like me, you are interested in Tartans.

Hello. I am a new girl. Can someone show me where the tuckshop is?

I do most of my op-shopping at The Brotherhood of St Lawrence (12a High St, Northcote) because I don’t have a car and can walk there. Although I do sometimes go hunting with Zigsma, who has a far better eye for knickknackery than I (as can be seen from the post below). I’m usually looking for clothes.

So, some recent acquisitions:


Lovely 70s cape thing. It had a matching dress which didn’t fit me.



Red and white top with a jaunty nautical flavour.



Spotty shirt with bonus frills!



Ancient Miss Selfridges clingy dress.




I usually don’t like ballet flats (girlish without being feminine, a friend once remarked), but these rather appealed to me. I think it was the spots.




70s vinyl slips ons. They’re too high and uncomfortable to wear out, but I prance around the house with them.

Recent Finds

Card games: Golden Egg, Happy Families and Donkey - $0.50 x 3. One of my mostest favouritest op shops, Mental Illness Fellowship of Victoria, High St, Kew East.
Basket for my son's cars - $2; vase - $3; four Figgjo egg cups - $9; proper cup of coffee from a proper spankingly shiny Kontessa coffee pot - $15. All from Salvos, Whitehorse Rd, Balwyn.
A pinch of salt. Mental Illness Fellowship of Victoria, Kew East - $3.50.

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? Vinnies, Auburn Rd, Hawthorn - $5.

The Ever Colourful Salvation Army

Look at this skirt! I haven't worn it yet.. but look how mermaidish it is! I think it's brilliant. It had an original price tag of $365 - not sure how accurate that was tho. Anyhoo, I paid a humble $24. Hmm.. I need to find somewhere appropriate to wear it....
Salvation Army
42 Victoria Street Richmond, VIC 3121


Another Salvos find... my somewhere over the rainbow scarf.... $7.
81 Victoria Crescent Abbotsford, VIC 3067 (03) 9419 7410


More colourful finds at my colourful blog www.adelle.com.au Come and say hi.

some things i got today

for the grand sum of $4. pincushion cup. some lovely laces. gorgeous little blue lace flowers and some pyrex salt and pepper shakers. oh and a little crystal salt shaker which i will use as a vase.

Busy two days.

Yesterday and today I have had some spare time, so I used it the best way possible and did some more opshopping! Yesterday ended in a small catastrophe. I had been to the Salvos at 403 High Street Ashburton (just near Warrigal Road) for the first time and was very impressed with the shop, the stock and the staff. I found a willow pattern teapot in perfect condition for $10 and snapped it up along with three cute ties (more about them later). The lady wrapped up my teapot in loads of newspaper and put it in a plastic bag. When I got home, I was in a hurry to get to the loo, and so I got out of the car, grabbed my bags and headed out of the garage....CRASH! I'd picked up the plastic bag at the wrong end and the teapot fell out. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!


Today was a very good day. I started at Vinnies in High Street Ashwood (the other end of High Street, which incidentally is one of the best roads in Melbourne for opshops). There, I bought a lovely teal coloured two piece outfit for $12, and some craft bits and pieces for $3.50. (this photo also includes clothes from the last store I went to).


(this photo also includes the laces I bought at my last stop).

Then I trundled over to Savers at Greensborough and bought 3 wire baskets for my stash $11, two blouses $15, a vest $7, a pair of slacks $8, and a wooden stirrer spoon for a friend $6. I got 10% discount off all that though, through my Savers card.




On the way home from Greensborough I stopped at another Vinnies shop in Montmorency. This is a great shop - very spacious and lots of goodies.
I found some more lace - $3, two cute ties for $1 each, a red vest $3, a pair of off-white track pants $5, and two cushion inserts for $1 each (the cushions on our couch are flat as a tack)




Now I'm broke until my pension hits the bank!

Jigsaw puzzles anyone!!!!!

Murrumbeena Lions Op Shop have a lot of Jigsaw puzzles at the moment if you are in to them.
Also trying to find the person who said their friend was taking some stuff to Camberwell market last weekend to sell on stall 58. I couldn''t make it there so I wanted to know if there was any stuff left over. Please leave me a message on my blog.
Also the Lions Op Shop has a great selection of books, in the little shop they have next door they have lots of Shakespeare Plays, some photography books, advertising texts, always interesting browsing. Also anyone who's into Retro should check out the auction at The Collector Auction House this Thursday starting at 6:00pm. (www.thecollector.com.au)'. Not really Op shop action but of interest to retro addicts.
I have now taken The Posh Opp Shop of my list of stores to visit. Prices are unbeliveable and unfortunately the staff are well...rude. No such thing as a friendly chat like you get at most Op shops. Perhaps they just dont like the look of me but I dont think thats it.
Have fun opping. (In Australia we Op)

Recycled yarn

Before: imagine this op shop jumper is twins - I bought two of them for $1 each in Oakleigh Salvos. Abercrombie & Fitch, womens size large (perhaps that's why they were in the op shop - this looks like a small to me!) with bonus gorilla arms, 40% lambswool/30% nylon/27% acrylic/3% polyester.

After: this is one of the jumpers deconstructed into its constituent yarn, and partly reconstructed into a pair of Bloke socks. There are little navy blue squiggles of yarn throughout the house, turning up in the cat's food bowl, and even one or two magically transported into the backyard, byproducts of the unravelling process. Undoing a jumper is strangely satisfying, both in a destructive and constructive way: watching the progress of frogging versus the steady growth of the new balls of yarn. By the time I undo the second jumper I will have a surfeit of navy blue.

Let's take a little gaze into my crystal ball...ah, the mist is clearing...I see...navy blue knitting...socks for me, handwarmers, maybe a beanie...lots and lots of navy blue knitting!

Doncare Op Shops.

I spent this afternoon re-visiting some op shops in my area that I hadn't been to for a while. One of them had a stack of brochures on the counter, titled "The Op Shop Trail", so I picked one up to bring home. What a super idea!! I wonder why other charities with a chain of opshops don't do this?

In this case, the charity is Doncare, and they have five excellent opshops, which you can see online at their web page here. The pictures show the outside as well as inside of each shop, so if you go looking for them you'll have an idea of what you are looking for. By the way, the shops are run mostly by dear old ladies who don't want to rip anybody off, so they tend to undercharge rather than overcharge. I added my items up myself before I approached the counter, and in both shops, the total was less than what I figured. Rather than correct them and make them feel stupid, I handed them a single note which was higher than what they quoted me, and said "Keep the change", and they thought that was nice! Here is my stash:
Heap of lovely old stitching magazines.

Bundles of laces to use for crafty stuff.

I have several embroidery hoops, but smaller and larger than this, so this one is a valuable addition to my collection.

I guess most people would wonder why I looked twice at this handkie, but it is a beautiful example of 'shadow work', a type of embroidery.

The rest of these are doilies, all with exquisite stitching. I've added a closeup picture of the centrepiece with fuschias, as it really is a show piece.







Sorry if I've bored some of you with my doilies, but I've linked my post with one of my other blogs, so that my fellow stitchers can come across and have a look.

Lunchtime op shop finds in Windsor, VIC

3 teatowels (two English one Australian)

Cute spotty pyrex glass bowl

Belt making notions