A little karma.

I have been decluttering my house. This is always a good thing, for two reasons. A) I have less things around me, I feel lighter and happier. B) The thrift karma from donating carloads of stuff is quite amazing.
It might seem a little silly to get rid of a tonne of belongings, only to be stoked to come home with replacements, and it is probably. But I comfort myself in the fact that the majority of my op shop purchases these days are Croutons-related, meaning they will (eventually) leave as something else, or can at least be counted as business expenses.

This wee case was something I needed to umm and uhh over a little. I have quite a few suitcases now, and am not in dire need of a new one - but it was $2 and I remembered that I needed something to store my patterns in, because my current system is not working.
This used to be a sewing machine case, in it's past life, and the extender arm, feet and manual are still in it. Even the warranty for the machine is here! Anyone have a Husqvarna machine and need bits and pieces for it?

I rarely ever find tapestries in the op shop anymore. Today I found a big pile of them! I, in my desire to strive for quality over quantity, only took half of them. They are quite big ( my feet are in the picture for size reference!) and I'm picturing oversized tote style bags..

And, finally, my usual weak spot - fabric. There are some real treasures in this pile. The bottom piece is a thick linen type fabric, covered in big peacocks, the purple floral feels like it might be silk.. and all the pieces are quite big (well over a metre, some of them a few metres). Score!

Thank you, thrift gods!

Dressed to, erm, thrift.

I have a terrible habit at the moment (probably more than one, but for the purpose of this blogpost, let's just say it's one..), and that habit is buying dresses that noone in my house fits.

The number of dresses I have bought recently that are too small for me, and too big for Mollie, is quite ridiculous. I mean, sure, Mollie with grow into hers but there is no guarantee she will let me dictate what she wears at three, four five.. and I miiiight lose weight and fit into mine, but that would involve a little effort on my part, and who has the energy for that?!
At this rate I could almost open some sort of online vintage store, but then again, if I had that much energy I might fit the dresses. Haha. Such a catch 22.
In the meantime, they sure are pretty to hang in the closet and daydream about wearing..

These are the dresses added to the collection this week:



One for me, a fifties silk frock that is so close to fitting it almost hurts.
Put down the cupcake, Rhiannon. Honestly!




And these two for Mollie aged maybe 4?



This one is for Mollie too, but how cute does it look on Iron man? I especially love it with the dino socks - such a fashionable superhero! Cutie-patootie!

Browns and reds.

 

 

I picked up a few wee bits and pieces at the op shop this morning (as I do..) and, as I was photographing them, I looked around and realised there was a lot of other things around in similar tones. I ended up with a wee red and brown collection of sorts.
These are colours I often find myself drawn too, especially when it comes to homewares. Something about them feel very homely : )
The things I purchased (this may be obvious) were the wee hat, the plate and the smocked dress. I'm particularly pleased with the dress, it is the softest fabric and should be just about the right size for Mollie come next Autumn/Winter.

Collections/amassings.

Amy and I were texting about collections a wee while ago, and I said I wasn't sure I really collected anything. Both she and Abraham disagreed. So I picked up my camera and walked around the house looking for collections, and realised, as I looked, that I 'collect' a lot of things. Some of them are more deliberate collections than others, but there are lots of lovely little groupings.

Deer - I've added three more since this photo, so perhaps this is becoming quite an 'actual' collection rather than just a smattering of figures I happen to have found one day at the op shop.

Children's artwork- This one is perhaps inevitable when you have kiddos, but is still one of my favourites. I love watching the progression and improvement in motor skills and seeing the different perceptions.
(Yes, the lady is saying 'I wish I was as pretty as Mum'. Precious, no?)

Robots - These are actually Abraham's collection. He usually receives one on each birthday/Christmas.  He also collects records ( about 2000 of them...) but the lighting in our hallway is so miserable I couldn't photo graph the record shelves.

Religious/catholic iconry - This one surprises a lot of people. I'm not a religious person at all (still waiting for for something to ring true) but I'm intensely drawn to this sort of thing. I also have some bigger statues in the kitchen, and lots of paintings but those are all packed up in the shed as this house has no wall space for them.

Tea cups - For someone who doesn't like hot drinks, I have a rather silly amount of tea cups. This is just a few of them! Lots of these belonged to my Nana, some came from a cafe I worked at (we served tea in them and when handles would break I was allowed to take them home and glue them..) and others have been gifted or thrifted. There's just something so lovely and ladylike about them!

Tins - This collection is quite a bit smaller than some - consisting of just these and two more. It's another one that has happened over time, rather than purposely. The baking powder and Milo tins were found in Abraham's Mum's shed, the Maltexo tin on the end was sold to me filled with buttons, and the two in the middle were bought at the one and only auction I've ever attended. It was the only lot I could afford!

So there you have it, a few of the collections around the house (I did find more.. fabric, buttons, bright knitting needles, crown lynn dinner plates, wool blankets.. the list goes on..)
Funny what you don't realise you've collected, huh?

Mollie's wardrobe: Part 1

I've been collecting vintage baby/kids clothes since before I was even pregnant. I knew I wanted to have children quite young, and I guess I just figured I might as well start buying! Needless to say, after 10 years, I have also picked up a few 'just in case' girls things. I very nearly gifted/sold them on after having Otto, and I'm now entirely relieved that I didn't!
I have three posts worth photographed so far, to share over the next few weeks, but I'm sure I'll unearth more as I find more time to sort through the bags.
Safe to say I've got ya covered on the dress front, Mol.

(Reversible!)

 (I think this might be my favourite of this lot..)

I pretty much wish all of these were in  my size - especially the wee coats!
Fingers crossed Mollie-mol is the dress wearing type, aye?

Forgotten treasures.

 

As part of our mad 'get ready for baby' dash, we recently cleared out our garage.
It was so nice to be ruthless and get rid of things we've been holding onto 'just in case' and to sell a few bits of furniture etc, that really we will never use again.
I looked through some boxes that have been hiding down there since we moved into this house, over three years ago now, and in one of them I found a wee collection of vintage dresses.
These are dresses that were gifted to me some time ago, by a friend who was moving out of town and downsizing. They were her 'op shop pile', if you will. (Can you imagine what her keeping pile looked like?!) I inherited a bunch of other clothing too, but these were the pieces I knew I had to keep. I will never (ever) fit them (most of them are between a 22 and 24" waist..) but I just like to stroke them now and then. That sounds a touch creepy, but somehow I know you will understand.

They look so pretty all freshly washed and blowing in the breeze.

 

I'd like to say they were the only teensy-tiny-only-for-looking-at vintage dresses I hang onto, but I also have these ones hanging up in our bedroom.. and let's not get me started on my actual wardrobe.. NONE of which seem to fit right now...

I'm so lucky I have such a patient and understanding husband! And, perhaps, even luckily that he has 2000+ records filling up the hallway...

Tick, tick, tick.

The hormone-induced crazy has officially set in.
I walked past the window of the op-shop today (after going in, of course.. I can't pass a second hand store by!) and spotted this clock. It's beautiful, right? It had a tag on it that said it worked perfectly, had the winding key etc, and it was even fairly cheap. Any clock lover would have been sold on it.
And that there is the problem, I don't like clocks. I don't like the ticking! I can't stand it, in fact.
(And, to make things worse, this one chimes every fifteen minutes?!)
BUT I knew, the minute I saw it, that I needed this clock. It called my name. It was like fate. And I wasn't going to feel happy until I had it in my sweaty little mitts.

That, my friends, is how I know that the pregnancy insanity seems to have well and truly arrived.

Now that I have this noisy wee clock in my house, I need to figure out quite how on earth to get it to tell me the time. At the moment it seems to tick in double speed, and chimes a different time than it shows. Do of you happen to secretly be clock experts?

Ahoy!

I have a certain order of things that I look at when I go to the Salvation Army.

I start at the cardigans. After a quick flick through, I head onto the dresses. This section takes a little longer, I make sure to look at each one so that no potential is missed. From there I go to the $1 rack, looking for things to alter or restyle, then onto the kidswear, kitchenware, linen, and then skirts.

I almost never look through the tops, I mostly only wear plainish tops and they rarely turn up in good condition. I also skip the undies, the toys, the menswear, and the pants.

Where am I going with this?

Well, another section I nearly always skip is the artwork. They have a strange pricing system at the Sallies, and even hideous 80's prints in plain glass frames are, nearly always, priced at $20 or more. The kitschy religious prints are usually more like $30. Not my price bracket!

Yesterday I was wandering through, doing my usual circuit, and I happened to see four huge paintings sitting by the backdoor, waiting to come out into the shop. A gold frame caught my eye, and I decided to hang around a few minutes and see what they were like.

The other three were not in such great condition, but this one I reallllly liked. (I expected it would be a case of just liking the frame, but I'm actually quite taken by the print, too. ) I was chit-chatting with the woman at the counter, and asked about the price. I joked that it was bound to be way, way out of my price range. She said she wasn't sure, headed out the back, and came back grinning.

'$20?'

UM, yes?!

I have no idea where we will hang it, our house is a little short of wall space, but I am determined.

Also, I think it would look absolutely amazing with a wee Dee-style modification, perhaps an octopus reaching out of the depths? Or do you think it should stay as it is?

Either way, I think I may just have to add the art section into my rounds from now on..

Findings and precious gifts.

The last few times we have been op shopping in Tauranga have been really disappointing, so I didn't have high hopes for Friday. I thought I would be lucky if I found a few bit of fabric (I rarely don't find at least one piece!). But I was pleasantly surprised with my little bundle.
I didn't find any fabric, as such, but did find a wee stack of vintage sheets. I'm really picky when it comes to linen, but was really happy to see that these were in pretty much unused condition. Stoked! The pillow cases will find their way to our bed, and the sheets will be used as fabric.
The wallpaper is just handy to have around the place, for wrapping gifts and parcels etc. Especially at a dollar a roll!
The bag is super soft leather, with big stitching, and a really nice size. And I needed a new bag, I don't have many (aye, Abraham? haha). The jewellery was a bit out of my normal rice range, but seriously? A HUGE painted wooden necklace, and fur earrings? Who could refuse? (Sorry bunnies.)
The test tubes are a strange purchase, I know. I figure if Aesop doesn't use them for science experiments then I could always replicate this, and have a Real life pin!

Also during our trip to Tauranga, I picked up a wee basket full of goodies that were given to me by Abraham's Mum's cousin (what does that make her to me? I just call her cousin Cheryl!). She came to visit with us a few months ago and  noticed my full china cabinet. She decided to add a few treasures to our family collection, from hers. So lovely!

She wrote me a wonderful card all about where the cups came from, and even included the little notes that came along with them, and a photo of the lady who gave them to her! Such treasures.
The glasses she won in a dancing competition as a teenager in the 60's! I especially love them and their little retro sayings  'Don't knock the rock', ' Rock around the clock', 'Giddy-up a ding dong' and 'See you later alligator'! I'm a very lucky lady.

50c mixture sort of day.

 (This picture is a, rather self indulgent, picture of my outfit for today. It's completely unneccessary to the blog post, and huge to help with the blurriness, but I like it. That's also a new skirt, yes it is. It's a little snug, but I don't mind.)

I'm not sure if I can say what sort of day it has been yet, it's only lunchtime, but I have a feeling I will be able to call it a bit of a muddly, 50c mixture sort of a day.
It's one of those days where the weather is on the verge of turning to custard, you're not sure whether to put washing out or not, the kids routine is all up the wazoo and you're in between projects and are not sure quite where to start. It's a day where things are so out of routine, that you even feel like blogging for the first time in donkey years! But, most importantly, it's a day that's perfect for op shopping.
I picked the kids up from Mum (they stayed with her last night. Glorious!), and drove alllllmost all the way home. We got to the end of our street, and I decided to detour to the oppies, just for a few minutes. Well, it's safe to say I'm glad I did.

 Vintage crochet booties, in the softest yarn known to man. You know, for my imaginary third child.

 The two most fabulous fitting skirts I have tried on for some time. No altering needed, and in relatively plain colours too. Jackpot!

 A vintage Hanes tee for Aesop, and a gloriously patterned jumper for that imaginary child (oh shush Abraham, if it doesn't happen I'll open a retro kids shop or something. HA.)

 Crafty stuff. Fabric, super lovely soft and thick wool, a pillow case and some doilies.

 Men's jumpers in delightful patterns, for an upcycle project I have in mind.


As for the 'inbetween projects' comment, I'm not really.. only sort of. What I mean to say is that I'm busy stocking up for a market next month, making everything in batches, and I'm inbetween batches. The bags are done (photos later, maybe?) and I finished the rosette brooches last night. Now I need to finish scaling my pants pattern before making a few baby pants, tops and dresses. I am setting big goals for myself knowing that, if things don't sell, my Felt shop will lovely and full. (I'm considering opening a Crouton Etsy shop too. Thoughts?)
Anywho, it's nice to be around these parts, feels like it's been ages (wonder why?), it's nice to 'see' you guys again.