Fine day for a fair

Today mum and I headed off to the biannual vintage fashion fair held at the Burnside Ballroom. This was about the fourth time we'd attended, so I think that officially makes us regulars ;) We definitely have our plan of attack down pat, which basically involves spending the first hour and a half browsing through all the stalls, heading back to the car for a pre-packed esky lunch, then going back in for round two.

I bought this beautiful full skirt made of a shiny crepe material with black velvet roses. The colour is a bit hard to describe but it's like a lovely mix of purple and brown, almost a dark taupe. The stall owner runs a consignment store and she was telling me that the lady who brought this into the shop wore it in the 1950s. There were some other clothes which came from the same lady including a mustard coloured linen dress with buttons all the way down the front and a tie at the waist that fastened with a buckle. I think clothes like this are made even more special by the fact that they were worn and loved by someone so many decades ago and are given a second life all these years later. That they have survived in such good condition is amazing.

I thought this penguin brooch was too cute. It's as if they're all holding hands and about to go for a penguin family waddle.

I found this little squirrel sitting amongst a table of bags, purses and other bits and pieces. After bringing him home I realised his ear had been re-glued at one stage. He's now sitting happily amongst my other woodland critters despite his wounded state :) My last purchase was a pair of sterling silver marcasite earrings. I love marcasite jewellery and these are a perfectly dainty shape.

The fair is heading to Brisbane next in a couple of weeks, so make sure to get your skates on :) Did you have any thrifty adventures over the weekend? Check out lots of other flea market finds and share your own over at Her Library Adventures.

Glomesh Monday #4

Today is the final edition of Glomesh Monday. I hope you've enjoyed taking a peep into my (continually expanding) collection :) For this last roundup I have four more bags to share, including my most unusual Glomesh find.

I found this white bag brand new in its box for $5 at my local op shop. I think it looks rather ladylike with its 'vintage' shape and white and gold enamel clasp.

Next we have a black bag in a similar style to the one above, but with larger mesh pieces. I think I prefer the style of bags made of smaller mesh but it's nice to have a bit of variety.

I'd never come across a square Glomesh satchel until I found this cream one in an op shop for $4. It's one of the most unique pieces in my collection but I do have one that's even more unusual...

...which is this light brown mesh-suede hybrid ($2). Unlike all of my other Glomesh bags which are completely covered in mesh with a satin or cotton lining, the front and back halves of this bag are joined by a suede-like material. It has an unusual yellow and gold enamel clasp and the strap alternates between a thin and thick chain. I'd be interested to know when this style of bag was produced so if you have any insight do let me know :)

So that concludes my Glomesh collection. I'm fairly picky with what goes into my collection now (running out of space in my drawer!) but I'd like to find a maroon bag and I always love finding Glomesh accessories - a lipstick case is next on my list. The Burnside vintage fair is on again next weekend so I might pick up a couple things there :) In the meantime I'm eagerly awaiting the relaunch!

If you missed my previous Glomesh posts, you can find them here 1, 2, 3. What is your favourite or most unusual Glomesh find?

Glomesh Monday #3

I'm a week behind in my Glomesh Monday roundups but not to worry. Today I'm sharing my collection of medium clutches and sling bags. I have a bit of a soft spot for sling bags. I think it's because they're so easy to just wear across your body, leaving your hands free to do some serious op shop rummaging. Anywho, enough chit chat and onto the pictures...

I'm not too sure where I found these cream bags but both are fairly similar. The first one has a diagonal flap and is a little sturdier than the second, which is more slinky and closes horizontally.

This navy clutch is my favourite Glomesh bag and the one that gets the most use. I found it when I first started collecting Glomesh at a Salvos op shop for about $5.

I bought this grey sling bag still in it's box at the Burnside vintage fair for $15. I was really excited because I'd never found one in this colour before and I love the gold tassel! The black one was found at my favourite rummage-y op shop for about $5. I seem to have a lot of luck finding different Glomesh goodies at that shop so no wonder I always go back! I love the small gold G on both of these bags.

We're almost at the end of my Glomesh collection now, with just the larger bags left to share. A couple of them are a little unusual though so keep your eyes peeled for the final roundup next week :)

Garage Sailing

When I was little I loved going to garage sales on the weekends and seeing what treasures I could find. We used to hold a garage sale about once every year or so with our neighbours which was a lot of fun. I'd get really excited about setting up my own table and selling my books and toys for 20c to $1 each. Some of the smaller bits and pieces I would wrap up and put in a lucky dip box. And of course I loved counting up all my loose coins and seeing how much I had made at the end of the day :)

Since the emergence of op shops, we haven't really been to many garage sales. When we do, they all seem to be selling either kid's or baby stuff and can be a little disappointing in comparison to what you can find in op shops now. Every now and then though we do strike a good one, like today (while on the way to the op shop haha). The owner was moving house and had held another four garage sales prior to this one. I really wish we had known earlier because he was a vintage collector and it was like garage sale gold! I can only imagine the great furniture and other items we could have picked up, but we were still lucky enough to come away with a few things :)

The first thing we spied was this sweet floral hat. There were a couple others but I really liked the colour and arrangement of the flowers and netting on this one. I would love to find an old hat stand to hang this and some colourful coats on. I also found this old story book with cute fairyland creatures on the front. It reminds me of the Shirley Barber books I used to read when I was little.

There were lots of little knickknacks to rummage through and we came up with some old keys, a small black and gold bag, an Avon cream perfume jar and atomiser, and an old set of paints from the 1950s. The owner gave us the wooden tray to hold everything in while we looked around and he ended up throwing it in for nothing which was nice.

I ummed and ahhed about this old biscuit tin but decided to take it in the end to use for keeping in the laundry to store clothes pegs (plus everything was cheap as chips but I shall get to that soon). I wish biscuits still came in cute tins like this :)

And of course, how could I resist these colourful drinking glasses? They'll go nicely with my growing collection (here and here).

Finally, my favourite find was this nifty wooden deer which is actually a salt and pepper shaker! The pepper goes in the head which comes apart from the neck (a little morbid perhaps!), and the salt goes in the body.

The best part is that all of these finds came to a grand total of $8. The owner mentioned that he may have another sale before moving at the end of the month, so we might pop back another weekend. Whatever he doesn't sell is going in a big skip out the front, which is a bit sad because there were lots of lovely old children's books, bags and kitchen knickknacks still left.

Have you been to any good garage sales lately, or maybe held your own? I would love to hear your stories :)