Nice colours.

Again in Daylesford, I found this old odly colourful Postcards, I think there rather nice

greeting cards...lovely.

While avoiding study the other day I came across these old cards I found once then stashed away and forget about. pretty lovely i think.

Recently Found.

My Collection

This is one of my newest collections, it is very fast growing. I know it won't be to everyone taste's, but their is something about these little praying children that just won't let me leave them behind. I also have a few mirrors with the children painted on, but they are a little tricky to photograph.

This is a good example of why I like to collect, these figurines don't cost more than a few dollars, and while not everywhere, if you look hard enough your sure to find a couple a month.

From Meg.

Dad's Collection

This is Dad's collection of bird swap cards, he's been collecting them for a very long time, since we were very small. They come from the purple loose leaf tea boxes, but I don't think they put the cards in any more. I'm sure he has more of them not glued in to the books, I can't wait to find them again.

Bendigo - Couture and op-shops!

Last Friday Josie and I travelled to Bendigo, mainly to see their Golden Age of Couture show, but also to visit some op shops. The exhibit is really wonderful, so many really really beautiful amazing dresses, they are so detailed and made of the most wonderful fabrics, its hard to believe they were actually worn. Op-shopping was good too, I visit Bendigo so often, one of the lady's in the op-shops recognised me and praised me for my persistence! Here's a little of what I found.

I also just found these maps and op-shopping guides on the Bendigo Tourism website, for anyone interested in making a day out of it. All the op-shops located in central Bendigo are in easy walking distance from the train station. All you need to do is click on the shopping and map links and all is there for you.

Meaghan...

Measuring Ducks!

I found these ducks a while ago in a Salvos in Ringwood, initialy I just thought they were a stack ducks but then I discovered they are actually measuring cups, which is really amazing, they were only $2.75, I'm missing the 1 cup one, but thats okay.

A Parliament of Owls

A Family Who Collects!

Its true, our family is quite fond of collecting, we all seem to have our favourite things, Claire's would probably be fabric, Mum is definitely a good collector of chickens and hens (not the real variety but the ceramic sort) Dad, I'm not quite sure what he collects, when we were growing up he collected the bird card's inside his favourite tea box (i can't quite remember what the tea was called but the box is still purple), I collect a lot of things like cake stands and tea cups, Nana had a great collection of salt and pepper shakers and still has quite the large collection of clowns, but our Brother probably has one of my favourite collections. He collects old ice buckets, and has quite a few of them too, at last count there were 27, but it could well have grown by then. He has lots of nice old wooden ones, with copper rings, some nice round orby ones and lots of leather bound ones and a few patterned ones too (i like the tartan one and the one with the world map on it best).

The thing I like most about Shaun's collection is that he doesn't really do much of the purchasing, himself, one day he just said to us, I think I want to start collecting ice buckets, soon after I found him one at an op-shop and then Claire found a few more then Mum found a couple and Dad pitched in to and then sooner or later his collection was huge. Not long ago I asked him how many ice buckets he thought he actually brought himself and he said maybe one, but that's okay because it still is his collection, he built a shelf for them all above his window, and keeps all of them in good view for people to look at, and likes them very much. I think that's the whole point of collecting too, allowing people to see something and think "I'll get that, that will go nicely with so and so's collection", and before you know it, the collection is huge.

I took the above photo's of the ice buckets as displayed in Shaun's room, just to prove that they are his and he likes them very much.

From Meaghan.

From Nana's Collection!

Our Nana had the best collection of salt and pepper shakers in the world. She had hundreds and hundreds of them displayed in a lovely display cabinet in her hallway, all of which were collected from op-shops right throughout Melbourne for many many years. When we were young we would sit in front of it and stare at them for hours then one day she decided to pack them all up, I guess she was just sick of looking at them all the time. Soon after that Mum brought boxes and boxes of them over to our house to sort through, we would spend days unpacking newspaper wrapped shakers marvelling at each new one we found. Nana let us keep any ones which we like the best, Mum choose these ones, I think she remembered them especially fondly from her childhood. The rest of them our cousin sold for her in bulk on e-bay, I think we were too young to really appreciate where they were going but I bet someone was really happy when the package arrived. 

From McCranky!

Lost and Found...

...or maybe this is more the case of packed away and then rediscovered again. I had forgotten all about these tea cups until yesterday when I found then buried at the bottom of a box, I think I bought them at Camberwell market awhile ago. Its nice to find new old things again.

From Meaghan.

New Old Things!

This is just a few of the things I have found on my market or op-shop trips of late. The rabbit is old but still a favourite and the ice bucket in the back is for my brother, he has quite a large collection now, and I think this one will fit in nicely. I'm especially happy with the children's books, just recently I was talking about my eagerness to acquire some of these, and then yesterday at the market there they were. I even found a name mug for pip and was delighted by her reaction when i delivered it to her on Friday. The tray-table that the things are sitting on was also brought at the market yesterday, i'm aiming to use it as a small desk for my computer, as i'm currently living in a room that is to small to accomodate a desk. I like it because it looks like the flowers on it have been stiched on when really they haven't.

From Meaghan.

Op-shopping in Ballarat and Daylesford!

Yesterday, my housemate Josie and I visited Ballarat and Daylesford again. This time we brought Josie's French friend Lucy along, who is down visiting from France for the winter. It is really nice visiting places you have perhaps visited a thousand times before with someone who hasn't even sen them once, things become exciting and new again. On this particular trip we introduced Lucy to some extreme op-shopping, and Australian Bakeries, both of which left a good impression I think. We all managed to walk away with some amazing purchases. I collected some great serving trays, a number of dresses, and some lovely novels.

P.S. The shoes I mentioned in a couple of posts below were purchased from the big shoe shop on Brunswick st. just down the road from Meet Me At Mikes. I'm not sure what the shop is called but its signs are blue, and it sells heaps of shoes.

From Meaghan.

Our Favourite Kind of Op-Shop!

Last Friday Claire and I made our way out into the country to visit our Nana. This is definately one of our favourite things to do. When we were young our Nana used to work in her local op-shop, which was in a lovely old barn, a little removed from the main strip of shops (similar to the one photographed). Each time someone came in and donated clothes Nana would always bring them home and give them a good wash before returning them to be sold. When we would go up and stay she would take us up there and let us have a good look around to see if there was anything we liked, meanwhile she would have a good rummage around too. Her house was always full of amazing things she had found in op-shops over the years, sometimes we would just sit and look at all the things, she had tea pots that looked like houses and the biggest collection of salt and pepper shakers I had ever seen. Now whenever we visit Nana a trip to the op-shops is definately in order. The photographs above are pictures of a new op-shop we just discovered, not to far from her home. It took us a while to find but once we did it was amazing. Walking in we didn't know where to start, and just kind of rushed everwhere. Eventually we calmed down and managed to find some really great things. The best thing about these kind of op-shops is the pricing i think. All dresses $3 and all jumpers $4, not like the individually priced items in some big city op-shops. I also like how the floor creeks and the ladies who work there are always doing something crafty, this particular op-shop had a lovely selection of hand knitted bed socks.

After Op-shopping we head of to Nana's for some lunch. For some reason lunch always tastes better sitting around Nana's round table, no matter how simple it is. Last week we had cheese and pickle rolls, lamingtons and jam tarts and a few cups of tea too. Yumm.

Collecting!

For as long as I can remember, I have been collecting things. It started when I was little with things like Polly Pockets and Teddy Bears. Now I collect almost everything. My largest collection would probably be of tea cups and cake stands, most of which I have found in op shops or were given to me. I also collect wollen jumpers and clothing from op-shops which are from the clothing label Katies, and various other things. All of these collections I see as very functional , as most serve a purpose. I mean I can wear the jumpers and Katies clothes, I can drink from the tea cups and I can serve my cakes on the cake stands, but some of my collections are not so functional or exciting perhaps. This is primarily my collection of Tic Tac containers. Since about year 11 (4 years ago) I started eating tic tacs, as they were the only mints sold at our school canteen. After buying a few packets I realised how amazing they were, I just really liked the taste I guess. After I discovered a few empty packets in my school bag, and putting them in a draw I just kept adding to them until the draw was full. I really couldn't bring my self to throw the empty packets away, I still can't. At this stage I have a few boxes full with empty packets, and a couple of bags. The ones in the photo above are quite special and remain on my book shelf, they were given to me by a freind who has just returned from a trip around America, they are great because unlike Australian Tic Tacs the actual mint is coloured not just the outside packaging. I'm still not sure what i will do with all these packets, but like with most collections i just can't bring myself to throw them away.

I should probably add that i don't collect all flavours of Tic Tacs, just the pepermint and spearmint ones, as these are my favourite flavours.

From Meg...