This Weekend in Ballarat

If you're anywhere near Ballarat this weekend, then make sure to check out the Get Down Market.

It's at the B1 Gallery at 14 Camp St - Saturday and Sunday from 10AM - 4PM

There'll be Vintage, Retro, Collectibles, Art, Craft, Handmade, Recycled, Plants, Cupcakes and more!

My sister is having a stall, so look out for The Essess sign and tell her I said HELLO!

Sunday Snippets... Saturday Road Trippin'

Saturday Morning - Middle of nowhere traffic jam for a CFA controlled burn off.

Saturday Middling - A visit to Red Brick for Blossom and Bloom

Saturday Lunchtime - Baconpalooza at Cafe Muzyka

Saturday Early Arvo - The Crafty Squirrel

Saturday Late Arvo -A detour to visit my sister

Saturday Evening - Back home.... just me and my moon tan.

The Mill Markets - Ballarat

Did you know that The Mill Markets have opened another outlet in Ballarat?

My little sister has opened a stall to sell her vintage and retro collectibles....

but now you can also find some lovely handmade CurlyPops goodies there too!

You can find the Mill Market at the Ballarat Woolshed - Western Highway, Ballarat (it's on the left hand side as you drive into Ballarat coming from Melbourne).

They're open from 10 AM to 6 PM - 7 days a week, and they even have a cafe which opens every day at 11AM.

Pop in and find yourself a little bit of treasure!

The Op Hopping Adventures of SupaSel and CurlyPops - Day 1

After all of the excitement this week, I hardly know where to begin!

I've been meaning to head down to Ballarat for an op shopping adventure for the longest time, but just never seemed to get around to it, so the summer holidays seemed like the perfect opportunity.

I was a little late arriving in Ballarat Monday morning due to misplacing my prescription sunnies. I couldn't possibly drive all that way without them... so after a 20 minute delay where I realised that I'd left them at my older sisters house, I was on my way....

I met up with SupaSel and we both decided that it was high time for a cuppa before we began our adventures. The Queen of Craft came to the rescue, and provided cups of tea, and muffins too (not baked in her oven). We even got to have a tour of the craft room, which is filled with the most amazing creations you've ever seen..... and we met Grocer too!

It's amazing how you can just pop around to a bloggers house and have a cuppa and feel completely at home..... just like you'd been friends for years, yet we only met last year.

After lots of chatting and laughing, it was time to make a move and begin the search for bargains. We visited around six oppies in Ballarat and a couple of second hand dealers too. My best find for the day was little zip lock bags with 5 rolls of Gutterman thread in each, for $1.99. Hence, I bought 4 bags full!

My next best find for the day was this spool holder for $6.... I'll eventually put it on the wall (these things take lots of time and pondering at my place).

By that time, it was getting close to closing time so we headed back to Clunes to plan our next days adventure.  Tune in tomorrow for the next installment!

PS - I forgot to give a huge thankyou to Jodie for yesterday!

Dressing (or Skirting) appropriately

A huge thanks for all the skirt love yesterday.

I was taking my sister out for a belated birthday dinner and a trip to the movies lastnight, all dressed up in my new tablecloth skirt.... when I realised that we were planning on heading to a local Italian restaurant.

I decided not to match the decor..... so I got changed.

Instead, I'm giving it a test run today. I'm heading down to Ballarat for the day for some op shopping adventures with my little sister. With any luck, I might even find some more tablecloths!

Sunday in the country

Talbot

Sunday was a perfect day for a road trip to the country to catch up with my younger sister and BIL, and my dad.

My older sister has a Hyundai I-Max, so we had her and her hubby in the front, Moo and the twins in the next row in three baby seats, and Mr X and myself in the back. It was just like being a little kid again.... Mr X had his Nintendo DS, and I had my old school brick game (a Tetris rip off) which I remember buying from Dick Smith Electronics in about 1994. Mr X also offered me his Gameboy to play Super Mario Brothers, but it was some new fangled version of Super Mario that I couldn't work out. I only know how to play the original Super Mario Brothers from the 1980's.....

To make it even worse, I was playing Mr X's DS and I was pressing buttons but nothing was happening. I asked him what was wrong, and he explained that it has a touch screen - you don't press buttons for everything anymore. Now that made me feel like a really old fuddy duddy.

We made it to Clunes, and met up with my younger sister and BIL, then we formed a convoy and continued on our road trip until we reached Talbot.


Talbot has a fantastic farmers market on the third Sunday of every month.



All of the main streets in the town are blocked off and filled with stalls ranging from fresh fruit and veg, jams, sauces, nuts, olives, handcrafts, woodwork, lollies, antiques and collectibles, books, chooks, pigs, goats (yes - you can seriously buy a chook, pig, or goat at the market), wine, sauces....etc etc.


We walked around the streets and checked out all of the stalls, made some purchases, listened to some buskers, chatted with some of the stallholders, and then we finished off by letting the kiddies run around at the local park in the centre of town.


We loaded everyone back up into the bus (no mean feat with three babies and the associated paraphernalia), and headed to Maryborough for the Antiques and Collectibles Market at the historic Railway Station.

There was a great range of stalls and plenty of things to look at. The prices were also good which is always a bonus!


There's also a cafe and antiques emporium which is open every day except Tuesday.

So of course, we just had to sample some of the local delicacies on offer..... Devonshire Tea

Banana and Toffee Cream Pie

I haven't managed to take any photos of my goodies yet, and I also had to leave a rather large purchase with my sister in Clunes as it wouldn't fit back in the bus to Melbourne.
It's pretty special and I can't wait to show it off when it finally arrives (although there is a sneak peek of it in one of the photos above)!