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 :)

Saturday scavenging

While running some errands with mum today, we popped into a couple op shops for a bit of a scavenge. It's good when you haven't been to a particular shop for awhile and can have a good rummage :) Here are the results...

Our first stop turned up this pile of goodies including an old book called 'Successful Dressmaking' by Ellen and Marietta Resek for $2. It was published right here in Adelaide, most probably sometime during the 50s by the looks of it. The previous owner has written notes in the back so they must have found it useful :) We also found a little book of Regency Greetings 'Fantasy Postals' for 50c. I love the colour of these cute kitten postcards. Our last treasure here was a vintage Avon 'Fluff Puff' brand new in its box for $2. The back of the box describes this as a 'Practical Luxury'. You use it by removing the cap on the puff, filling it with talc and then "fluff lightly and smooth evenly over the skin".

At our second stop I found two drinking glasses for 50c each that will go nicely with these ones that I found last year. I actually found another one of those retro glasses in the same shop a few weeks ago so now I have seven plus these new additions :)

Our last find was this small table-topped magazine rack for $1.50 (steal!). It kind of makes me want to start drinking tea so I can pluck a magazine from the rack and rest my teacup on top! If you have any tea recommendations I would love to hear them :)

PS. I've added an RSS link to my sidebar. I'd be interested to know what everyone uses to subscribe to the blogs they read - do you use a feed reader, blog reader like Bloglovin' or Google reader, or just bookmark the ones you like to read?

Old fashioned letters

Besides op shopping and old things I also love stationary and was really excited to combine these loves in the form of vintage stationary! This first set is from Avon and contains 15 'delicate daisies gift notes' that you write on and fold into sealed envelopes. It also came with a scented talc sachet inscribed with a sweet message "This special perfumed talc sachet gives your gift notes the delightful fragrance of Delicate Daisies" and is meant to be left unopened in the folder.

I also found two wonderful Peanuts letter sets from 1958 (same year as the mug in my previous post!). One of them shows Snoopy dressed as an artist painting "Have a nice day!" on his canvas, and the other has him following a trail of butterflies :)

I can't wait to use these :) I don't often get the chance to write snail mail but I'm sure I'll think of something. I'm still keeping my eye out for some goodies to give away in celebration of reaching triple figures and have collected a couple things so far but for now they remain a secret ;)

Nutrimetics calling

I found this cute beauty case a while ago in my favourite op shop. It's from Nutri-Metics and must be fairly old as the modern brand is no longer spelled with a hyphen. It has snap buttons on the inside so the whole case unfolds to reveal a mirror and little plastic pockets to hold products.

This case is a more recent find and is larger than the beauty case. I imagine a Nutrimetics lady would have used this to cart around her products door to door. It's currently sitting empty on my shelf as I'm kind of stumped as to what to store in it. What would you use it for? Some of you are probably thinking this has turned into another of my 'collections' BUT (!) my rule is that two's company and three's a collection. Although if I sit them together on my shelf I'm sure one day they will undoubtedly spawn and become a collection...

Three little earrings all in a row

I took about fifty million photos of these earrings trying to get a decent shot and of course in the end the one I took first turned out the best. Oh well at least I got out in the sunshine for a bit. The little bells in the middle are the Avon earrings I mentioned in my previous post. I found these in a junky box full of bits and pieces of jewelery (You know, like those metallic pom pom earrings people wear around Christmas and those thin rubber bracelets that were cool in the 90s. Well I thought they were cool. Especially if you wore two linked together). I asked the op shop lady how much they were and she said that they have a minimum of 50c for items to which I casually replied "oh ok" and handed over my coin.

The flowers I found for a couple dollars at my favourite op shop and the Pharaohs were $5 from the Salvos which was probably a bit much but I thought they were interesting =)

Pin me!

I've been meaning to do a post on my Mum's brooch collection for a while now. Most of these are op shop finds but a few Mum already had in her collection before it officially became a 'collection' (if that makes any sense at all haha). I can't really remember what sparked the beginning of Mum's brooch collection. We always keep an eye out for interesting jewellery at op shops and I think it just grew from there, as collections do.

I found this guitar brooch in an op shop on Chapel Street in Melbourne and thought Mum would love it. The back is stamped with 'BROOKS' but I haven't been able to find much info on it's significance. I thought the design was really unique and love the gold wire strings and pearl on the base.

Mum found this one in our favourite op shop. The gems are such a beautiful blue colour and so sparkly. I can't remember the exact price but it was under $4 which is amazing because once we got home we inspected the back and it's stamped with '9CT' - 9 karat gold! It has one of those fancy little chains to make sure it doesn't fall off. The gems could be real, who knows?

This last one is one of Mum's most recent acquisitions and a definite favourite. I was looking on Etsy for vintage Avon brooches and came across this artiste's palette for $15 plus postage. I decided to try my luck on ebay first and see if anyone was selling any on there and found someone in Adelaide who had it listed for 99c. Thought I might as well try my luck so placed a bid, and after a few days when the listing ended no one else had bid! It turns out the seller actually lives in the same area as me so she dropped it in our letterbox free of charge; how lovely is that! It also came in its original 1970s box with a pair of stud earrings that match the red stone on the brooch.

So there's Mum's brooch collection. Most of the jewllery in the op shops lately seems to be from Diva and the likes so we haven't bought any for awhile. We always keep our eyes peeled though. Is there anything you like to collect or look out for when you go op shopping? I've started collecting Frankie magazines but don't have much luck finding them in the op shops. Always keep my eyes peeled for Avon jewellery and Glomesh of course =)

Christmas loot part one

With the Christmas decorations packed away the new year is well and truly underway so I thought it was about time I got my butt into gear with my blog. I've been taking lots of photos today and have a few post ideas stored up my sleeve so can't wait to publish those, although I may stick to scheduling one post to be published every couple days so it *appears* that I'm updating somewhat regularly- I hope that's not cheating!

This post features some of the op-shop related gifts I received for Christmas. Some people would probably balk at the idea of receiving op-shopped presents- after all presents should be shiny and new and wrapped in plastic packaging right? Not the way I look at it. I think a lot of thought goes in to buying someone a present from an op shop. Firstly, you have to have an idea of the person's tastes including the kinds of things they like or maybe collect. Secondly, it is likely you will have to invest a chunk of your time searching different op shops to find the right gift. Thirdly, you are essentially rescuing and finding a new use for something that would have been destined for landfill - recycling makes me happy! I've mentioned before that most op shops are charity-based, so your purchase from an op shop also helps in some small way to brighten another person's Christmas. On that subject, this year I bought a couple presents from Oxfam Unwrapped which is a great alternative to buying someone a box of chocolates or something they may not even use. Anywho, enough of the chitchat, on with the loot!

I got these cute Pierrot pieces which match the trinket box in this post. I have all three set up on my shelf displaying my jewelery, although I haven't figured out what to put in the heart shape vase yet besides maybe a pretty fake flower of something. Any ideas?

Here's a closeup of the jewellery. I absolutely love the pearl bracelet; it's an Avon one and the detailing is so pretty. The pearls aren't actually attached but are kind of wrapped in wire so they don't fall out. The ring is also an Avon one and fits my finger perfectly. The stone reminds me of an aquamarine which is my birthstone :) So nice and shiny. I'm getting a bit of a collection of Avon jewellery so it's something I keep my eye out for. I like enamel jewellery too and the earrings are really cute. Lastly is the opal necklace. It's not stamped so not sure if it's real or not but I love the colour and swear it changes every time I look at it.

Hmm this is turning into a gigantor post so I might split it into two parts. To be continued...

Tour de op shop

Mum and I had a great time on the op shop tour :) A bus took forty-five of us around to nine op shops in four hours. With a bus full of eager op shoppers (all ladies besides the driver, Bruce) Mum and I had to hone our bargain-hunting skills and put our elbows up. Our tour guide, Joanne, told us no one had ever gone home from an op shop tour without buying anything and we couldn't break the record now. Doesn't she know op shoppers don't operate well under pressure?! At the first three op shops ladies were buying bag fulls of clothing and other items, but neither Mum or I had found anything! I feared we had lost our op shopping mojo but Mum assured me not to despair...

I think it was in about our third stop where I found a gorgeous dress at the Unley Salvos. It's made of a silvery, sparkly kind of chiffon material and has a satin bow which ties around the back. I was surprised that the brand was Valley Girl because it's actually quite good quality and the last few times I've visited the shop I haven't felt very inspired by the clothing. It cost $13 and I almost didn't buy it because I'm used to the ridiculously cheap clothing at our local op shops. Mum (bascially) told me not to be so stingy and that was the end of that. I'm going to wear this to my cousin's wedding in October :) Sorry about the glaring light. Try not to look directly at it or it might temporarily blind you.

Our second to last stop was a Vinnies store which was our favourite op shop on the tour. Mum and I would have liked more time to look around, but we were on a tight schedule and it was kind of crowded. They were busy before we got there so an extra forty-five bargain hungry ladies didn't really help the claustrophobia factor. Mum ended up finding two necklaces - a silver Avon rose necklace for $4 which was for me, and a gold necklace, which we think has little bits of opal in it, for $2. I wasn't too sure about this one so Mum kept it for herself. I also got a little blue leaf-shaped dish for $1 that says "Fine China Made in Japan" on the back.

Even though some ladies were buying bag fulls of stuff, we didn't want to buy things just for the sake of it or come home with a whole lot of junk which is what I think some people did. Overall we had a really good time on the tour; it was good getting to visit op shops in areas we wouldn't normally get to, although because we had such a tight schedule we didn't get time to have a really good rummage. Some of the op shops were quite expensive; I have a thing for glomesh bags and they wanted $20 - $25 for the ones we saw! Made us appreciate the cheapness of our local op shops :)