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?

Paper dolls and handkerchiefs

I went to visit my Gran the other day and she gave me some old treasures that she'd had tucked away in the cupboard. At first I thought this was a paper doll wearing a dress made out of the same material, but upon closer inspection I realised the dress has actually been fashioned out of a handkerchief! According to my Gran and the message on the back, this was made as a Christmas gift for my Great Aunty Ruth by her friend Lucy in 1964. It is amazingly detailed and must have taken a long time to make. I'm so glad Gran kept it all this time as it's just the sort of thing I love. I'll share my other treasures soon :)

Life is one big happy picnic

Just a quick post to share some of my recent finds. First up is this glass trinket box with yellow and silver embroidered flowers on the lid. According to the price sticker on the bottom this was meant to belong to a set of 3 but was left sitting on its lonesome on the shelf. I rescued it for $3.99 and it currently resides on my beside table happily housing some bobby pins and hair clips :)

Next is this little cat trinket that I bought for $1 much to my mum's delight- "It's a cat and a mouse with their arms around each other reading a book and they're not meant to be friends!" (I think she was a bit overwhelmed by its cute factor haha).

And finally, my favourite find (also a dollar) which is this old "Smarty Pants" notepad by Paula Presents. Each page of the notepad has the same little character in different settings with cute sayings. I've shared a couple of my favourites below and the rest can be found here :)

Show us yer clickers!

I found these old party favours in box when mum did a bit of a cleanout. They're made out of tin and are most likely from the 50s. The beetles and indian man are clickers that have a metal tab on the back and make a delightful KER-CLICK KER-CLICK KER-CLICK noise when pressed and the other two are whistles :) I wonder whose idea it was to include these in the lolly bags of party-going children who are already high on sugar?

Continuing with the party theme I found these sweet old packets of Medallion party invitations at the op shop. I haven't opened them yet but according to the back of each packet one side has "Dear____ Will you come to my party on..." with date, time place etc. and the other side is for the invitee to circle their attendance :)

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 ;)