Thrift camping!

Heading off on a camping trip soon so I was delighted to find some handy things at Lighthouse Footscray last week:

The tent didn't have any poles or pegs, so they only charged me $3 for it - score! Hopefully I can find some poles to suit.

Then all week I'd had a feeling I needed to go to Lighthouse in Laverton. I hadn't been for ages and I'm so glad I managed to get out there!

Blow up mattress! The one thing I thought for sure I'd have to buy new for my camping trip. $8! Another tent, this one had poles but not as good quality as the first one, so hopefully I'll be able to cobble them together somehow. (I have pumped up the mattress and it works perfect, no leaks! Yay!)
The Burda magazines made my day at $1 each. These were all from 2006/2007 and had all the pattern sheets intact - it's so rare to find them in op shops, I had to snap them up. I have already used one pattern to make a pair of pants!
Last but not least was this awesome dress - I'd hesitated over the $12 price tag but the fabric had so much potential I decided it was worth it - then when I got the counter I found out it was half-price! I love it when that happens.

I know it looks kind of hideous here but I have high hopes. 

Happy shopping everyone! I am off to Canberra this weekend for a few days so hoping to hit some regional oppies there and on the way. 

Crowded House at the Eltham BSL!

Today started off in a normal way at our little opshop.  It was cold and wet, and people drifted in and out with donations, and buying bits and pieces.  All of a sudden it was chaos!  A busload of footballers (or supporters, I'm not sure which) descended on us - 22 blokes altogether - and started pulling clothes (mostly womens) off the racks and trying them on, all laughing and talking the way young blokes do.   We  only have one tiny fitting room (cupboard space) so the guys were tearing off their shirts and trousers in the shop in their hurry to try stuff on.  The other two ladies on duty were laughing at them, but all I saw was clothes and hangers strewn over the floor, and I asked loudly "Who is going to clear this up?  Are you actually going to buy anything or are you just vandalising our shop?"   They all laughed and said "It's okay, we'll put everything back for you, we're going to Bendigo for the weekend football and having a party up there".

The other customers were vastly amused, and stood back out of the boys' way while they organised themselves.  They came up to the counter one by one, most of them still wearing the clothes they'd put on.  They ripped the tags off each other's clothes and presented them to me to total up.  Most of them spent between ten and twenty dollars, and some handed me fifty dollar bills, which I had no hope of changing after the third bill!   To their credit, most of them said 'keep the change, it's for a good cause', and after they had all left, we were amazed to find that they were true to their word, and had hung up all the clothes they'd tried on an discarded.

Our usual takings for a Friday is around two hundred dollars, but when I left at lunchtime it was over $400!  Thanks guys, whoever you are - and come back soon!

Ashburton Support Services Op Shop - grand opening

The Official opening to the newly renovated, brighter and bigger Ashburton Op shop will take place on 1st October 2013 at 10.00am. There is more wonderful first class stock and best of all, prices have not changed. Wonderful helpful staff make shopping a breeze.

Salvos Wheelers Hill

A little something to hold a frog-full of wedding flowers! I'm give it a little polish and it can go with the other brass I have procured.


Some really good looking kitchenware was being put onto the shelves as I headed off. Ceramic mixing bowls, anyone?

Vinnies Ringwood has had a facelift

... and I was invited to check it out! I ended up with a rather large load to carry home because the store is huge and they have added even more apparel and homewares. Are you curious about what I got?

 Head on over to my personal blog to see more - or better yet, drop in to the store and see for yourself. It's a few minutes walk from Ringwood station and there's a Salvos over the road too, so well worth any op shopping fan's time!

Savers Mill Park.

I found four terrific art books at our BSL opshop last week, but haven't got around to photographing them.  But on Monday I met a friend at Savers in Mill Park, and found some great goodies!
Two gorgeous cot quilts $3.99 each, which I am donating to the PNG Quilt Collective (see my other blog if you want to know more)

Two very sweet tea bag holders, $1.99 each.

I love journals and have at least a dozen!   This one was $1.99

The stencil below and the writing paper and matching envelopes below that, were in one bag for $1.99

Five Mills & Boone novels, 99 cents each.

A gift box containing a birthday book and notebook, $2.99.  On the box it says there is an address book as well, but as it wasn't in the box it looks like whoever donated this to Savers only wanted the address book!

Ice cream, I scream!

On the way to work on Wednesday we popped into Lighthouse on Geelong Road, where I spied an ice-cream maker, still in it's box, for $15. Unfortunately I had left my wallet at home! So I nipped back there on Thursday and to my delight it was still on the shelf. Score!

Not only was it still in it's original box, with all the original packaging and the instruction book, the warranty AND the purchase receipt were carefully tucked into the box! And in fact it still under warranty for another four months! Big thanks to the donater - it was purchased around December last year so I'm guessing it was an unwanted Christmas gift. Looking forward to some of that warm weather from earlier in the week so I can try this bad boy out!
In other news, I recently took a trip overseas to the good old US of A. Now we've all heard that 'thrift' stores over there are absolute goldmines, and I can now provide evidence!
I had a few extra days in San Francisco, which from blog-world is one of the op-shopping epicentres of the States, so I made sure I spent some quality time in the Mission District which is full of great shops, such as the mind-bogglingly huge Thrift Town:

Then there was the giant warehouse that was The Salvation Army - this pic only shows one half of the shop!
I found a gorgeous red suede jacket which fit me perfectly, and was quite willing to pay the $14 on the tag - until I got to the register and found out it was half-price that day! Woohoo!

I also went to a place called Community Thrift, but you had to check your bag at the counter and I forgot to grab my camera out, so no pics.

Later in the trip, I went to San Diego - my tour group were at the beach but I was like 'there's at least 3 thrift shops within walking distance - catch ya later!' I hit the Cerebral Palsy Thrift Store, Thrift Trader, the very fashionable Buffalo Exchange, and this Goodwill...

... where I found a pair of genuine Levi's, perfect fit, for $7.99.

I also did some shopping in Seattle, another thrift-shopping hub. For some more pics have a look at my blog posts.
Hope you're all well! Have a good weekend & happy shopping!