There was an Old Lady who swallowed a Fly

One of my little op shopping jaunts last week yielded me this lovely vintage puzzle game for the grand total of 50 cents.

The illustration on the lid of the box immediately drew me in, but it was stuck down with stickytape so I couldn't check what was inside.

Why do Op Shops always do that? It always manages to damage the box.

It wasn't until I arrived home that I was very pleasantly surprised to actually find the name of the artist inside the cover of the box.

A little bit of research uncovered that Pam Adams was quite a prolific illustrator for a UK company named Childs Play which produces lots of puzzles and books.

Even more interesting was finding out that her very first book illustrations were for There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.

Source

They're my kind of Op Shop gold for sure!

What do you need for hemming a skirt?

Well you need a Singer Skirt Marker of course....

I'd never heard of such a thing, but luckily my Mum spotted it at the secondhand shop in Winchelsea on Sunday.

Image source

It's circa 1960's and it's supposed to have this chalky blower thingie to mark the length.

Image source

I figure this must have been extremely messy. Good grief!

Anyway, I didn't buy it to use it. I just bought it because it's pretty to look at!

I also found this very cool Sailing Ship Tapestry at the Winchelsea Oppy. The colours are beautiful. It doesn't look like it was ever framed - just stitched and then folded up.

Soooo much work has gone into it. I think I'm going to make it into a giant cushion for the couch, so that everyone can see it.

It makes me sad to see work like this at the oppy. Unappreciated. Discarded. I like to perform little craft rescues. I'm sure the Nana's of the world would be very proud.

A Teeny Tiny Too Tight Dress Re-fashion

I picked up this gorgeous vintage dress at the oppy a few weeks ago (I can't quite remember which one as I seem to visit lots of oppies and collect lots of pretty things and lose track of where they came from).

Although it fitted me, can you see just how tight the elastic waist was gathering in the before photo?

When you can't breathe anyway, having tight elastic around the bottom of your ribcage is really really uncomfortable!

It was also ever so slightly too long for me.

It took over an hour of unpicking to open up the elastic casing and then unpick the elastic which had also been sewn into the middle seam of the dress (they certainly sewed things to last back in the day), but it was really simple to overlock it and sew it all back together again.

I now have a cute dress which I can wear in Summer (as long as it's not too hot as the fabric is quite un-natural), and over a long sleeve top and leggings in Winter. Perfect!

Birthdaypalooza

It's my birthday today. I still feel like I'm 25, except I'm quite sure that I'm most definitely not 25.

Here's an old photo I found from my 5th Birthday.... (I know that because I counted the candles)

.... and here's the exact same tablecloth on my dining table 33 years later (I'm sure you can do the math)!

It has quite a few holes (hence the strategically placed centrepiece).

I can't believe my mum held onto it for so long. She gave it to me as it was holey and she thought I might like to cut it up for crafting. But I think I might just keep it for birthdays instead.

So far, birthdaypalooza has consisted of clothes shopping, op shopping, coffee drinking and lots and lots of talking and eating.

I'm only half way through my plans.... still lots more fun to go!

Two-Way

I had to run some errands yesterday, so I took the opportunity to quickly pop in to Vinnies to see what was on offer.... where I spotted this gem.

I know that it's a Nana skirt that's totally and utterly unfashionable in its current state, but there were pangs of nostalgia when I saw the label, and there's only one word for the 100% Australian Lightweight Wool Fabric - DIVINE.

Sadly I think we all know what happened to Fletcher Jones...

But, back to the skirt, and the ingenuity of the design.

It's fully reversible, so you can have a grey skirt one day....

...and a red one the next (and you should probably iron it before wearing).

I've saved my favourite part for last. Underneath each pleat, the fabric has been woven to reveal the other colour.

Now I just need to work out whether I can re-fashion it into something that's wearable and maybe even fashionable?

And then there were three

Thankyou to my Oppy Officionado....

*One and Two

Sometimes you strike gold....

.....Op Shop Gold that is.

I've been wanting to buy vintage chairs for my dining table for the loooooongest time. I've never ever ever found a large affordable matching set.

So you can imagine my surprise when my sister and I walked into the oppy a couple of weeks ago and spotted these gems. A matching set of eight vintage wooden dining chairs, in excellent condition.

But the best bit.... they were only $10 each. You could have knocked me down with a feather!

I think they've had a previous life in a school art classroom.

They all have various splashes of coloured paint, pencil, and pastel. I think it adds to the character.

The only problem with this room of course is that there's just waaaay too much wood. The wall unit was purchased for my previous house. It matched perfectly there, but now I wish it was painted white.

I need to make myself a Go Granny Cotton Canvas tablecloth to brighten it up a bit... off to add it to the big list!

A little change goes a long way

I had a very fruitful oppy expedition with my sister more than a week ago now..... and one of the things I found was this lovely dress.

The length was wrong, and it had these weird ties connected at both sides, so you could pull it in from the front, or from the back to give waist definition, but either way, the opposite side just looked stretched and strange!

A very quick and very easy re-fashion was all it needed. It probably took me about thirty minutes in total.

I snipped off the ties (leaving them about 3inches long), overlocked the edges, turned them in and and stitched them down to make belt loops.

I cut four inches from the bottom of the dress and overlocked and re-hemmed.

Then I took the dress offcut and the tie offcuts, and joined them together to make a belt.

So... $4 and thirty minutes of my time. What do you think?

Whoooooooah we're halfway there... Blogtoberfest 15

I've had this little floral plate sitting on my bench for a couple of weeks now....

Tinniegirl spotted it for me on an op-shopping jaunt a few weeks ago.

What's the thing that I love most (well, apart from that gorgeous floral design)? The fact that it fits an entire packet of Tim Tams perfectly.

Humphrey Put A Bird On It

I'm sure you already know how much I love Humphrey B Bear. He'll always be a 70's classic to me.
He was soooo ahead of his time - check out that Put A Bird On It artwork and that glorious patchwork rug - ahem!
 
My original 1970's Humphrey lives in my lounge room. He's still awaiting a repair to his split side (whoops).

Anyway, I was delighted when my sister found this during our little op shopping mission on Monday.

But, I didn't check inside until I arrived home.

This copy is a 1977 re-print..... so I wonder where a 37 year old Aaron is now?

Delivering Chooks

Nooooo, not those sort of chooks!

I headed off to the country with my big sister in tow yesterday to deliver a Technicolour Chook for my Mum's birthday.

I remembered the leftover bread from my freezer for the chooks, her birthday pressies, and her poor old forgotten puppy dog (under the table above) that I've been fostering (long story), but I managed to forget my camera, so the little late adopter Sony Ericsson phone had to suffice.

We were early getting into town to take my Mum out for lunch, so I suggested a spot of op-shopping.... when suprise suprise we just happened to run into the very famous Chook Artiste herself , along with Punky & Suspence (who are just as uber-cute in real life by the way)!

We couldn't have timed it better if we'd planned to meet up!

After a spot of Op Shopping, it was time for a nice long leisurely lunch by the lake.....

.... and I picked up some yummy tomato and chilli relish to bring home.

For old times sake, we took a drive through the Botanic Gardens. I remember having picnics here as a young kiddie with all of our Aunties and Uncles and Cousins.

Time was pressing on and we had to back in time for the school bus, so we took Mum back home, bid farewell to Mr Limpy Turkey....

.. and Gypsy the Shetland Pony and No Name the Goat (he's a recent acquisition so I really have no idea what his name is), but you may notice that he's sporting a very spiffy goat coat. It's all the rage in goat couture apparently.

The End!

Ole - Part One

My SIL is having a mexican themed birthday bash in a couple of weeks time and all the guests are required to dress up (eeeek)!

My first port of call for dress up occassions is always the oppy...

I was in search of something for myself, and also for my sister.
I found this bright stripey dress / tunic thingie, but looking at it on Frances, I have a feeling it may be a bit too small.

Luckily I also found this ginormous skirt.

It's long and wide with heaps of fabric, so I can quite easily transform it into a simple tiered skirt - a la mexican style (or so I'm hoping).

Stay tuned for Ole - Part Two... coming soon

Oppies and Karma

After a torturous pulmonary rehabilitation session Friday morning, I took my poor exhausted muscles off to meet Carly for lunch.

I asked her to choose the venue so that we could meet up in her neighbourhood. Lo and behold, as I found the Union Rd Deli where we were meeting, I managed to park my car right outside an oppy that I didn't even know existed.

I managed to find myself a nice pink cardi and a little wooden spice rack, and then Carly spotted this shirt for me.

The fabric is just lovely....... 'twas meant to be!

For Owls Eyes Only

I've been cutting into all of  my 'designed by me' fabrics lately (instead of hoarding them like I would normally do).

There should be a huge package of goodies arriving at Little Shop Of... today, including these super cute Sunnies/Specs Pouches.

Check out that pink fabric underneath - it's one of my scores from last weeks op shopping adventures.

I found this handmade skirt on the rack which I snapped up immediately, either to refashion to an a-line skirt, or to chop up for fabric......

.......but then it turns out that all of the leftover fabric was there too, along with this lovely turquoise crochet fabric. The op shop lady hinted that it was from a deceased estate, and asked if that bothered me at all.

Of course it doesn't bother me in the slightest - it's all just part of the magical recycling / reusing circle of life!

Lucky Dip

One of my absolute pet peeves about Op Shops is the way that they write directly on objects with permanent marker, or use lots of icky yucky sticky tape that leaves a horrible residue all over things.

Stickytaping the lid shut on any type of boardgame fits into the abovementioned category!

When I spotted this little beauty (securely stickytaped of course), all I could do was shake the box, guess what was inside, pay the $2, and hope for the best.


I found it well over a month ago, but it somehow went from the back of my car and ended up in the garage?

On Sunday, I finally cut open the stickytape and was ready for the big reveal.....

Now what on earth am I going to do with fifty plastic owls?