Monday 26 September 2011

My first day at our opshop.

I had such a fun afternoon at the Brotherhood Opshop in Eltham! The other volunteers were very friendly and glad to have me on board, and they showed me how everything was sorted in the back room of the shop. What an eye opener!! We had about 8 people drop boxes and bags of stuff in, and that was just while I was there in the afternoon. I helped sort and price it. BSL (Brotherhood of St.Laurence) like to keep things cheap, so unless they know something has quite a high value (as in antiques or jewellery) most of their stuff is under $10.


They have re-organised their team of volunteers and asked me to work on Friday mornings instead of Monday afternoons, and that's fine by me. Now that I've had a taste of it, I'd be happy working in there every day; it was like Xmas opening up all those bags and boxes that people brought in! I was very good, and only pounced on two items! I took home a red jumper, a set of Aussie design coasters, a DVD and a patchwork chook. The coasters and DVD were already on the shelves, and I found them before I started working, but when the chook turned up in a donated bag, I begged to buy it immediately!






In the morning, before I went to the BSL, I had to go to a shop in Greensborough, just near Savers, so of course I had to pop in and see what was on offer.
I found these goodies:
A vintage Semco cloth, embroidered with Mexican theme designs, $3.99

Gorgeous scarf in my favourite colours, $2.99

Cute little cotton cloth which will be perfect on our kitchen table.

Two lengths of patchwork fabric - brown and cream pattern 39" wide by 90" long, $3.99
Multi-coloured pattern 43" wide, one yard long, $2.99.

All in all, I was a happy little Vegemite :-)

6 comments:

Erin said...

Loving the chicken!!! Tres cute!

Jac said...

Sounds like a wonderful first day! Very happy for you Gina! I'm starting a new job tomorrow (sadly will not be as exciting as yours!) and now work full time so very limited opportunities to op shop :(

Gina E. said...

Thanks Erin - chickens are always cute, aren't they!
Jac, good luck in your new job, and I do hope you find some time to opshop, even only once or twice a month. I really miss your posts!

Lyndel said...

glad you enjoyed your first day Gina, wow, Fridays I can usually pop out for a while, so who knows I may turn up to see you there. my computer is NOT co operating lately and I really miss my blogging.

Ren said...

Oh good on BSL for keeping things cheap! Some op shops are too expensive for me these days, which is a pity for me!

The print on the fabric on the right is a traditional Javanese pattern. There is a name for it, but I can't remember. I will find out and let you know. Just in case you are interested.

Good finds.

Ren

Gina E. said...

Thanks Ren - I think that fabric might have been a tablecloth, because it had a border print at each end, instead of on the selvedge.