around here.

current happenings...

i hit up one of the many vintage bazaars in town yesterday with my mother in law and picked up some much needed summer-y and breastfeeding friendly pre-loved clothes. including this beautiful french chiffon number. i'm in love!

the reading pile beside the bed doesn't seem to be getting any smaller, but certainly has a theme... simple living and food abounds!

a wee bit of sewing has been happening... some cushion covers that i had been meaning to make, for oh, close to an eternity have FINALLY come to fruition! the patchwork one was put together at the craft sessions circa 2013, and the ink and spindle piece was from then too i think. both were backed with some calico i had in my stash (some perhaps bought for this purpose, or maybe leftover from the wedding bags? and one piece was actually used as wrapping for a christmas gift i received the year before last) and finished with buttons from my button box. the button on the right worked perfectly with my patchwork cover, with an imprinted leaf, very similar to the one i block-printed and used as my starting piece.
the perfect stash busting project!

there's also been a little bit of picking for breakfasts from the garden... i got fed up with sharing the blueberries with the birds (and by sharing i mean, never getting any) and netted the living daylights out of the bush. while i was at it, the strawberry plants next door got a covering too and i've been enjoying the spoils for breakfast every few days for the last week or so. and the raspberries, well *touches all the wooden surfaces* the birds haven't cottoned onto their location yet... so nice to know EXACTLY where my berries are coming from!

and a fair bit of progress has been made on these socks for bb. the heels are both turned and i feel like i'm on the homestretch! i'm getting a wee bit weary with them, but i'm also grateful for the slow and simple nature of them. i always know what i'm doing when i pick them up!

and that about sums it up... well there's the normal life stuff too, catching up with friends, eating, sleeping, keeping the house looking nice and ALL of the baby goings on, snuggles and crying and giggles and dirty nappies.
it's a happy, messy and tiring time he he.

ps. i'm hoping to make tuesday my blogging day every week. check back next tuesday and every following tuesday for different bits and pieces; greenery updates, crafting, probably baby toes every now and again, and maybe, when i'm feeling brave enough, a birth story...

day 17 - flea market finds.

so technically this post is from yesterday so probably shouldn't be a flea market find post, but whatever, i live by my own rules!
i also don't think that sophie is running flea market finds today, but as i said, i make my own rules. i will fly solo ha ha!

anywho, onto the find! the other day, while visiting brianna at her new house, we went in search of something yummy to eat and stumbled upon a lovely little op-shop.
i found another frame, for attempt number 2 at hanging vintage tea towel. it again was a complete failure, this time it didn't ever get to the wall. i knelt on the glass and broke it when i was trying to mount it in the frame. suuuuuuuuch a framing failure!

i did however find something lovely and cute in the opshop too!




can you see it??? don't mind my mess of a kitchen. keeping it real with this picture ;)




this little canvas print! cost me a measley $2 and will hopefully assuage my kitchen picture cravings until i can find ANOTHER frame to mount the tea towel in. keep your fingers crossed for me?


also, have you entered my giveaway yet? you could win a very nice hand-knitted cushion! all you have to do is leave a comment on that post! easy as pie!
i also extended the deadline because i mayyy have forgotten to draw it on sunday. i'm drawing it today instead! better hop to and enter because this is your last chance!

day 5.

late again, late again! but after posting so late last night, i thought i'd wait until the morning for another post!
i thought i'd share some shopping that i got done yesterday.





these are (hopefully) the last of the frames i need to frame up everything for my much talked about hanging feature wall above bb and my bed.
if i get the picture in these frames today, they might get hung some time before the end of the year! shock and horror!
i did actually pick up something else yesterday too. and by pick up i mean pick up from the side of the road...
i think i'll share it a bit later though ;) stay tuned!

also,have you entered my giveaway yet? you could win a very nice hand-knitted cushion! all you have to do is leave a comment on that post! easy as pie!

flea market finds.

it's been a while since i've played along because honestly it's been a while since i've been op-shopping. i think you really have to be in the right state of mind to go op-shopping, you've got to be in a patient mood to sort and sift through stuff to find the little something you're looking for.




thursday afternoon, after posting off my bunting flags, i popped into my local op-shop and almost the first thing i saw was this little milk jug, which perfectly matches another of my finds!

i also found a bigger jar for my rice and a couple of pairs of work pants for bb. i then went back to the same op-shop the next day with a friend and found a couple of work skirts and a nice sweater dress :D

more flea market finds with sophie

flea market finds.

this weekend just gone, bb and i headed off on a weekend away to lorne. it was a great adventure for the two of us as both of us had grown up on the south east coast of victoria and therefore had never spent much time on the south west coast.
my main priority once we got there on friday night was to hunt down an op-shop or two. we found one on the main street that said it was open 10-4 every day (optimistically, no it really said optimistically!)

before lunch the next day we headed back down. after a quick look around (wasn't really in the mood for a dig through anything...) we were about to head out when i spotted this high up on a shelf.



it was love at first sight and i knew it was destined to be mine.

i have no idea what i want to do with it, or what i should keep in it, but i'm very excited to have it home and sitting on top of my heater!

more flea market finds over with sophie!

flea market finds.

this week (well actually last week), i found this cute little perfume atomiser.
again it's not actually vintage, but i'm quite happy about that! this way it doesn't smell of someone else's perfume, i can make it my very own! i'm also very happy because i've been lusting after one for ages, well one that didn't come with this in it...




plenty more flea market finds with sophie.

flea market finds.

i actually found this one a while ago and had forgotten alllllll about it until i was rummaging around in my cupboard trying to get organised on thursday!
in fact i think i found it the same day i found these, which i also forgot about for a while (definitely need to start keeping a diary again...)
in any case, this lovely specimen, isn't actually vintage as it still had the retail sticker in perfect condition on the bottom. however with such a cute pattern and at such a nice price ($4 from memory...) i couldn't let it go. not to mention the other tea pots i own are tiny in comparison!




plenty more flea market finds with sophie.

a happy friday.

today, brianna and i met up in st. kilda for the magnolia square market being held in the st. kilda town hall this weekend.
compared to our last visit, it was much less overcrowded and cramped so a little more enjoyable (even though there were no cupcakes...). i spotted a couple of things i liked (oh those dreaded wanties) but the only thing i ended up buying was a birthday gift for someone else! leaving quite proud of myself, we then did a quick google search and found some oppies not too far away from us and had a bit of a browse and a little bit of a buy.
after a lovely lunch and a stroll around to another opshop (we stopped at scout house on the way. LOVE!) we headed our separate ways home.
after getting home and getting some dreaded housework and dinner cooking done, i'm not feeling at all creative or inspired. this weather is making me crave warmth and cosiness and i know just where i'll find it!
in bed!




with this.
i've been reading it on and off for a couple of months and it is the story of a couple who make a 'seachange' (sandchange?) to a small mexican village from la. it's the second seachange story i've read in recent times and boy does it make me want to pull up my roots and get travelling through the world!
in any case, i thought i'd share as i signed up for megan's book list right at the start of the year, and i've yet to actually finish a book yet! pretty disgraceful considering it's march already!
i've got my next book picked out too...


i found this while we were op-shopping today. my cousin lent me another of rosalie's books many years ago (yes i still have it. yes i suck at life) and i LOVED it! so i'm really looking forward to getting stuck into this one!

hope you all have a magical weekend!
xo

at my house.

i was very productive! and so was brianna. she came for a visit and helped me tidy and organise allllllll my craft supplies (she may have been lured into helping with the promise of free craft supplies...). organising my craft stuff has been on my list of things to do for a long time and was definitely at the top of my organising plans list for february. come to think of it, i didn't get many of those plans done... oh well. they can be march plans now!

so do you have big plans for march?
i'm going to finish my table and little footstool, they've both been started just need some finishing touches, like complete the sanding job and paint them and well basically most of it actually.... but this month, it'll happen! i'm also hoping to get some of my kitchen painted too! the inside of the cupboards are really appalling!
i'm also trying not to drink soft drink. it's just soooooooo full of kilojoules, all that sugar, fattening my butt and rotting my teeth, i definitely don't need it! hopefully this health goal sticks a bit better than last months too, i intended to visit the gym at least twice a week, i think i did it one week, and that was it! maybe i'll be a bit more successful at the goal in march too :D

after our successful organising this morning (it went much quicker than i expected actually), we happened upon a few op-shops and i bought a lovely zipper that i'm going to sew into my pouffe tonight so all the stuffing stops falling out!

oh and i thought i'd share a quick little project that i got stuck into last night.
i took these...


and this bag of fabric scraps...


and made these! much nicer than your average fridge magnets i think!


hope your march is much better than your february!
xo

playing catch up.

oops. it's been a few days since i played along with the february scarf challenge so bear with me while i play a bit of catch ups!
days 8, 9 and 10 of the retro chart look a little like this....



my attempt at day 8 sees the return of one of my furniture decorating scarves.

i'm not looking into an unorganized wardrobe today but out the window at my parent's house. watching the calves do silly things and chase one another.

for the idea for day 9, i've rescued another scarf from furniture decorating services.



and finally for day 10's idea, i'm showing off a scarf that i only bought on wednesday, when brianna and i went opping.


i quite like this idea. it's ridiculously cute and would look amazing with an open collared shirt i think.

to play along with the february scarf challenge (even if you only want to play for one day), visit sophie and sign up!

shall be back later in the day with today's scarf idiom....

flea market finds.

so i've had blog posts floating around in my brain all weekend but just haven't had the time or means to get the words down and the pictures taken, be prepared for the avalanche of posts to come!

i was completely stoked this week to actually get a chance to pop into one of my local opshops. it feels like it's been forever! normally when i'm opping, i just hang around the edges of the shop. i look at the bags and shoes and haberdashery and books and crockery and pans and such, but on this day, i went straight to the clothes racks and BOY was i rewarded :D



i found this amazing green, lacy, light and floaty dress AND a lacy black camisole to go underneath the dress as it's a little see-through. i did however underestimate the transparency of the skirt, it's completely see through!! i think i may need to invest in a half slip, or perhaps i'll invest some time and pop one together (feeling a little inspired thanks to liesl...)
i also found a cotton lace top, very cute and very summery, however i currently can't find it! probably says a lot about the state of my house at the moment... blogging definitely trumps housework!

as well as my op-shop finds this week, i was also gifted a massive bag of second-hand clothes from my lovely friends who were moving house so had an epic closet de-stash! it's like i've got a whole new wardrobe! now if i could just get some time off work so i could wear some of it ha ha!

there are wayyyyyy more flea market finds over with sophie!

in my spare time...

... i've been reading! well i'm always reading, but lately i've been able to sink my teeth into some beautiful FICTION! (as opposed to the dullness of a non-fictional text book)
i'm finding it's quite a splendid thing, to read a book that's been recommended by a friend, rather than prescribed by a unit chair.




some of these i've read, one of them i'm currently reading, and some i'm intending to read very soon.
some of them are op-shopped, some of them are borrowed but all of them i'm excited about!
what are you reading at the moment?

hope everyone has had a very happy and safe weekend!
xox

antiquing.

well i guess that's what you would call it any way. brianna and i went to two antique shops last week (well one was called a second hand shop actually) and they had 2 things in common. both were filled with amazingly pretty things, arranged artfully and creatively, and they were both fairly horribly over priced.
we had fun anyway :D








( i finally figured out how to get photos off my iphone without emailing them to myself, quite the relief seeing as how my phone screen is currently being most un-cooperative)

ps. i know where i'm getting my races hat/fascinator from for next year :D

flea market finds.

a very successful week of op-shopping i must say!
first brianna and i visited many an op/second-hand/antique shop in lang lang and kooweerup. i took a ridiculous amount of photos on my phone but with a dead screen, they're more than a little tedious to get at...

later in the week, during a visit to my grandma with my mum, i went for a sneaky visit to an oppie in moe, around the corner from where my mum was taking my grandma grocery shopping.



along with a nice haul of lovely floral fabrics, a few books, some buttons and other crafty bits and pieces, i found five tea-cups, in wonderful condition, all with matching saucers, and for less than $2.50 each! bargains!!!
i have great plans for these tea-cups... involving many afternoons of high tea :D scones and finger sandwiches and cupcakes, oh my!

pop over to sophie's for more flea market finds.

flea market finds.

oooooopsies. i'm a little late with this one. just a day though...
and it's for a good reason, i was actually studying yesterday huzzah! motivation has struck when exams are only a day away (not the greatest timing there...)

for aforementioned reasons, not a lot of op-shopping going on here, so here's one i prepared earlier (and by that i mean bought about a month ago)



i found this cute little belt the same day i found my < href="http://coledabbles.blogspot.com/2010/09/flea-market-finds.html">vintage sunnies (so maybe more than a month ago then...)
i lurrrrrrrrrve it because
a) it was 99 cents. that's LESS than a dollar! amazing
and
b) it matches my peacock shoes almost perfectly! i can match my shoes to my belt and pretend i'm a stylish fashionista (i like to dream you see...)

more fabulous flea market finds with sophie.

flea market finds.

playing along this week for the very first time :D

i did a meeeeeeeeeeean number on the op-shop close to my house thursday looking for a suit for uni.
i found a suit, and a matching vest, and an amazing skirt aaaaaaaaaaaaaand
these...




yup they're amazing! love them to death and just what i need coming into sunshiney spring :D
now i just have to try not to break them in my bag (the fate of the last 3 pairs of sunglasses i've had).

i so so so love op-shopping.

more flea market finds are right here.

thrifted goodies.

thought i might make an additional post to share the goodies i bought op-shopping yesterday.
i was actually pretty contained considering the number of pairs of boots i was literally drooling over.
luckily for my hip-pocket, they were MUCH too expensive, especially considering they were in an op-shop. my hard and fast rule is, if i can buy it for cheaper in a regular shop, it's too expensive for an opshop.


so only two buys really, the wide red belt, $5 from the salvos oppie.
and that MAGNIFICENT bag, $5 from the epilepsy op-shop around the corner from my house.
i'm pretty sure it had a past life as a camera bag, but that just means it has enough pockets for all of my things. i love pockety bags ha ha!
i just spent the last half hour transferring all my bag things from my old bag to my lovely new one, working out which things needed to go in which pockets and such.

i swear i'm going to do some work now, especially as i just found out i have an assignment due monday. eep! going to be a BUSY weekend!!!

magnolia square madness.

and it was certainly mad.



ms. rolling in fabric and i arrived at about 10.30am. and started our day off with a nutritious breakfast.
then we battled the MAD and ridiculous crowds (full of DEADLY prams and strollers) to look at all the pretty and creative things that were on offer.

brianna quite fancied these two necklaces.



a hot air balloon from a skulk of foxes.



and a cute girl pendant from itchy bird.



and we both drooled over the silhouette cutouts from delilah devine.



i bought this cute ring from dames and divas,


and some chilli sauce for my lovely boyfriend from yarra valley gourmet foods.



we soon decided that we'd had enough of the crowds and the crush and headed to oakleigh for a little opshopping. after a couple of hours of browsing (and some book buying at dirt cheap books), we headed back to my place for some lunch.



monster sausage rolls with salad. mmmmmmmm. just what we needed after a big shopping day :D

tuesday (thrifted) treasures.

so this week, some new treasures. well new for me anyway.
first up, an AMAZING armchair.
found on the front lawn of one of my neighbours... hard rubbish is my favourite time of the year :D
it's in near perfect condition, except for a little rip in one of the arms. but look, i can cover it with a crochet blankie. just like new.


and while making a costume for a fancy dress party during the week, lookie what i found in my local opshop. it's a little shabby, and you have to punch the buckle to get it to close, but it's so purrrrrrrdy.


and what it fits inside of it is even more exciting :D
it fits my whole ripple-in-progress inside. AND spare wool. i thought i'd have to buy one of those big awful plastic canvas bags from the $2 shop because nothing else would be able to hold it. luckily i found this, much nicer.
i love the red satin lining :D

pop over to clare's craftroom to discover some more treasures.
and thanks everyone for your loving last week. it's a bit of a sad time but everyone's comments are incredibly thoughtful and made me smile! thanks again!

more op shopping!

this time i went with mum though! the town that i grew up in has about a million op-shops so instead of just going to one op shop, like on saturday, we went to 4!
i feel that i was pretty restrained considering i only bought things from 3 of 4.
as you might have noticed, i picked up a lovely little set of drawers, which are very well needed as my current ones are literally falling apart! and an absolute bargain for $30. might change the handles though, they're a bit tacky and plastic.


a closer look at what treasures are in the drawer... 3 pairs of loooooong knitting needles, $1 each. a nice glass jar to match my others, $1. 6 balls of navy wool, $2 for the lot. vintage sunnies, $2 (they're prescription ones, but they're MY prescription, no wayyyyyy!). aaaaaaaaaaaand the piece de resistance, a stainless steel cocktail shaker, $2. i announced last week to my friends that i needed one of these and that my next alcohol purchase would be a bottle of vermouth so i could start making martinis at home. fate then delivered this baby to me. perfect!


aaaaaaaaaaaand we found a million of these, ok well 4. it took us aaaaages to figure out what they were for. anyone know?
they're cask wine containers. in case you don't want everyone to know you drink cask wine i guess... they were in the first 3 op shops we went into. mum and i couldn't stop laughing when we worked it out.
so i don't think there'll be very much opshopping from now on, our rent's going up so we should probably save our cash!
stay tuned for beanie updates on thursday!