Green and gold

I wasn't planning a trip to the op shop, but since I was paying bills just a few doors away I found myself giving in to the siren call of the Salvos in Atherton Road, Oakleigh, last week. And, woohoo, I'm glad I did because this pair of lime green beauties in my size were waiting for me. Lime green is my current favourite colour, at least on those days when my favourite colour isn't purple, and this pair will go perfectly with the skirt I made out of an op-shopped seventies sheet a couple of weeks ago.

















And almost even better than the shoes, all six volumes of the Golden Hands magazine from the seventies, which I have lusted after for such a long time, were also languishing on a shelf as if just for me. The lady behind the counter said she'd only put them out ten minutes before, so I was very lucky with my timing - just as well I succumbed to the unscheduled visit!


















It's not just the craftiness of Golden Hands that I love, though there are more than enough projects and inspiration within the pages to keep me busy for several lifetimes, but also the illustrations. As a child of the seventies, this is both nostalgic and familiar.

Op Shop Tour of Tassie

25 Op Shops - 7 days - all off the main land!

I just had the most amazing week of bargain hunting in Tassie, it was incredible so I thought I'd share some pics with you. I set out with two of my close friends one car and a $100 to spend at the op shops. I ended up posting home 12kg of op shop goodness to avoid excess baggade with Jet star, but still it all came to under my budget. I can't list all of the baragins but my family did score some extra op shop goodness for christmas. Oh and remember the 50cent bins Salvos used to have...... well I managed to find lots of them all stocked full of great finds, like glowmesh purces, and leather hand bags, and querky braces all for 50cents. If anyone is going on holidays in Tassie let me know and I will fill you in on some great op shops, boy they know how to run a good oppie down there. Hopefully Op Shop Tours Australia will offer an annual Tassie weekend full of op shop goodness.
Some great Retro finds in the Hobart Vinnies.
The Boot after one day!
"excuse me I think the cafe is this way"
Watch out Borders there is an oppie with everything inside including a cafe!

Buttons and glassware

Today I was looking for buttons to finish some of my Christmas presents (you will see photos of the "recycled" gifts on my blog after I have given them away).

The Salvos in Sunbury did not have any buttons, but they did have this lovely set:

The price sticker on the jug reads $9.99 (including the glasses). I snaffled them up straight away!

It is not crystal, nor are there any identifying marks. It certainly looks vintage though, and I like that.

Won't they be pretty for the Christmas table? Or, a posh way to drink home-made lemonade (or should that be margueritas??).

Everybody is doing well!

I'm doing okay too! I just wish I had time to visit all the opshops you all go to, but I guess some of you wish you could come to the ones I frequent. Such as the Brotherhood of St.Lawrence opshop in Eltham. It is in a little arcade, and if you don't know Eltham, you'd never find it. They had a half price day yesterday and here is what I bought:

These three teeshirts were $1 each.




The pattern on this skirt is like Japanese craft paper, which I love, so I had to have this for $2, didn't I?

Black stretch fabric pants for $2.

Gorgeous soft leather handbag for $2

I don't wear ear-rings, but I collect unusual ones to use in my craft projects, in particular crazy patchwork. Marked $4, but got them for $2.

Salvo's in Wells Rd Chelsea Heights

Was driving by this store and thought I should have a look. Looks to have plenty of clothes but not sure if they were any good. Most of the doodads were a bit on the new side for me, not much in the way of retroie goodness. I did buy a nice Citizen Quartz watch with a brown analogue face and the day date display underneath on a led panel, nice gold band, glass badly scratched but it was only $6 and it works and I'm wearing it now.
I spied a lovely glass elephant about 7-8 cm high, from memory blue glass with green flakes inside, looked to be in very good condition. The price was $70 approx, I asked the man and he said it was Murano glass. So if anyone is in to collecting elephants or Murano glass probably worth a look. Its in the display case against the wall near the counter on the right as you walk in. Could be a nice Chrissy pressie for someone.
Cheers
Ray

Woodland sprite gives me a fright

I love freakish, silly-looking ceramics and a year or so ago I went to Oakleigh St Vincent de Paul (Crewe Rd) and hit the motherlode- there were a huge number of seriously weird ceramic vases, ornaments and containers that featured insane-looking characters, and this guy was one of the many I bought that day. The photo doesn't give justice to the sinister expression on his little face- you get the feeling he's plotting something, and you're going to find out what it is in the middle of the night...

My sister actually smashed the thing by accident two weeks ago- the 'wood' surrounds broke into several large pieces that were fairly easy to superglue back together. The little leprechaun-person was unharmed no doubt saved by his own dark power...

As an aside, a few months ago I was in the same opshop and overheard some in-charge sounding person telling another staff-member that they were intending to get less bric-a-brac and furniture at this store in the future as the money in other stores was apparently in clothes, but then went on to say that particular store did very very well out of its non-clothing sections- which made me sad! It seems fewer and fewer opshops have the floorspace or manpower to cope with larger items. I know many- maybe even most?- people go to opshops for the clothes but I've always gone to them for doodads, gadgets and household things, and this shop consistently turns up treasures. I was going to pipe up but felt rude interrupting... the charity's imperative is to make the highest turnover in the space provided so they can run their social programs and help folks in need so I can't fault them at all for following what they beleive to be the profitable path...

BUT I was thinking, if you're in the area, and you're a bric-a-bracky type like me, you really should check it out. If enough of us haunt the place and buy up the doodads, maybe they won't feel the need to go clothing-focused...

New boutique opp shop

Gisborne is only 15 minutes from Sunbury (so it's on the outskirts of the Western suburbs).

Lucky us! We have been selected to host a boutique opp shop which they describe as aiming to be the "best in Melbourne". Selected items are put aside for sale in our shop. The models in the window are dressed for Cup Day.

There are new items with tags (probably unsold from department stores) as well as excellent condition and specialty pre-loved items. The change rooms are very good.

Currently there is a Singer sewing machine (with treadle table), and a sofa-bed, but otherwise there is not much furniture. It's nic-nacs, linen, clothing, jewellery, handbags and footwear especially.

I bought Kermit for $2. He hasn't been used - his tag is still attached.

This home-made cushion was donated directly to the opp shop - it was $5.

The opp shop first opened 2 weeks ago. I bought Jump and Target brand clothes. There is a lot to choose from.

The Gisborne Salvos is situated at:

1/50 Aitken St Gisborne.

Opening hours: 9-5 weekdays and 9-1 Saturday

Where is it? Travelling from Melbourne towards Bendigo on the Calder freeway take the first exit where the sign reads only "Gisborne". Turn left at the T intersection on the exit, travel down the hill to the roundabout with a fountain in the centre and turn left. The Salvos is on the right opposite Mitre 10 in a group of 5 new shops. Street parking is available.

I am not affiliated with the shop, just a happy customer spreading the love!

vintage sewing patterns

I tend to gravitate straight to the sewing/crafty section of an op shop (just as my son goes straight for the toys!). I'm a big fan of vintage notions and vintage sewing patterns. I recently came across a large box filled to the brim with sewing patterns from the 50's onwards, and could barely contain my excitement!! Only 50 cents a pattern! Below are some of the patterns from the 50's and 60's,

and the 70's.
There were also a couple of cute kids patterns, probably 1960's I think.
Who knows if I'll ever make something from the patterns, but I love to think that someone did!

op shop garage sale

There will be a Garage Sale at Churinga Op Shop (108-130 Diamond Creek Road, Greensborough) on Saturday 13^th December 8.30am – 3pm.

There will be a ½ price sale at the op shop on December 16th, 17th and 18th of December.

Lemony goodness

I haven't done much op-shopping lately, due to the press of study. BUT, having finished classes last week, I indulged in a little foray to the Salvos in Oakleigh as a detour/reward after paying some bills. The book above I'd have bought for the title and cover alone - it's so fabulous! - but it was a good read, too, so bonus (I devoured it in an afternoon - haven't done that in a very long time). There's a certain type of book that always catches my eye: 1930s through to early 1960s, great evocative covers, creamy paper, slightly musty, esoteric subjects. This fits into that category and will join my other treasures, mostly also op-shop sourced.

I also succumbed to the lemony goodness of the above cotton jumper. I've been wanting to knit with cotton, having learned to knit just a (relatively) short while ago, and kept an eye on the op-shops racks for a likely candidate to de-construct and refashion. This jumper looked to have the necessary 'zipline' construction to frog stitch back into yarn, and it took me just another afternoon (and a lot of wiggly yellow wormlets distributed liberally all over my person and the living room) to rip it back into its original constituent, pictured below. I foresee a pair of sunny yellow socks and perhaps several lemon dishcloths in my future knitting.

A grand total of $7.80, since it was pensioner's day :)