Thrifted Things : Melbourne

On my last trip to Melbourne (which was a bit before xmas, seems like an age ago now!) the thrift gods/dogs seemed to be smiling upon me - hurrah! A trip to the op shops near my folks place in Kew, and a visit to Savers in Brunswick, yielded a lovely little bounty of reasonably priced goodies. A little demitasse cup (from Bavaria no less), some Fire King bowls and a stack of wonderful fabric finds - two as new Australian wildflower tea towels, some check fabric and two beautiful embroidered pieces (one small table cloth and one table runner). Well worth the suitcase space required to bring it all back to Seoul!

Cookery in Colour

Introducing the greatest thrifted cook book in the history of the world - Cookery in Colour (the Australian edition), published by The Australian Women's Weekly some time in the mid 60s from what I can gather.  

Yes, the cover looks just like any other old cookbook, food splattered and a little bit boring.  But look!  Inside is a treasure trove of clashing colours, fabulous fonts, checks and stripes and all kinds of food involving toothpicks.  And then there's the completely psychedelic 'easy party sweets' page.

From hence forth, all of my crafting inspiration will be guided by the patterns and hues in this glorious tome.  I love it so much I could post a photo of every single page, but then you might hate me, so here's just a little taste:

(Instant) Collections: Sheet Music

I've mentioned before that any time I head back to Melbourne I always make time for a spot of op shopping.  Here's an instant collection I picked up from my last visit - sheet music from the 1940s. The illustrations and fonts are simply wonderful, and I love the soft thickness of the old paper.  And that's not to mention the history hidden in the titles and lyrics.  

When I originally started searching for sheet music I was thinking of making envelopes, gift tags and the like, but these are way to precious to cut up!  I might have to scan them and use them that way?  Can you guess which one is my favourite?

Thrifty craft!

Whenever I go back home to see the folks I always make sure I set aside some time to visit the op-shop that's just around the corner from their house.  It's big and is constantly getting new stock, and whilst it can be tricky to find a real bargain there anymore (do all the op-shops employ expert pricers these days?), I always find something fun in their book section.  I'm a sucker for vintage penguins, kid's books and yes - old crafty things!  

On my last visit I picked up these three beauties:

Everything about this little book is great!  From the title (string things!), to those graphic diagrams, to the gorgeous examples of completed work.  I especially love the line drawings, I think they could be transferred to a whole bunch of things aside from 'string' art (embroidery anyone?).

My name is Emily and I am a font junkie...I'm not sure yet what use I'll get out of this fabulous font how-to but I couldn't possibly have left it lying on the shelf now, could I?

And how about this for a box of fun?  So many needlessly bright things to play with!  My friend got me a Knitting Nancy a while ago and I've quite enjoyed playing with that, so I'm looking forward to finding the time to figure out how all these plastic bits and pieces work.  Also, I kind of think no craft stash is complete without a fluorescent orange weaving aid...