My week of vintage love!

Wow this week has gone so fast! Last weekend was a holiday weekend so we had Monday off - which makes for a short, quick week. It was also the first week of the school term after two weeks holiday and boy am I out of routine. It's funny how your body clock gets used to school pick-up times, but this week I am constantly checking my watch! Hopefully by next week I will feel back to normal. Anyway - I am making good progress with my new blanket and I am loving every minute of it. As promised, I am tying in ends as I go which is soooooooo much better. I am truly converted. So for every 10 or so flowers I make, I join them up. No threads, no mess - you gotta love it.

I'm really enjoying having a fairly limited colour palette too. I popped back to the wool shop this week to get the next installment of wool so hopefully I have enough now to make a decent sized bed cover. I will just keep going until I run out! I love that my local wool shop is happy to hold wool for you for several months so that you can guarantee you'll get the same dye lot etc. My Mum was telling me the other day that that was how she bought her wool when she was younger. It's a brilliant system.

I have to show you a few little op shops treasures I got today. I bought two of these wee lime green pots/bowls for $1 and have popped a mint plant in one of them. I read during the week that having mint plants around the house will keep flies away. Now that we are coming into finer weather (although you'd never believe that if you could see out my window just now), I will give anything a go to keep those little black critters out of my house. I hate fly spray and am trying to reduce chemical usage around the house - so fingers crossed these lovely little plants do the trick. I'll keep you posted!

Now this is actually an old op shop purchase from maybe 2 years ago. Sadly when I bought it there was no cup to match.

So in the meantime I used this little cup which went fairly well.

But this morning I walked into my favourite little op shop and I spotted the matching cup sitting there on the shelf, all alone, just waiting to come home with me and be with the matching saucer and plate. So $3 later and I was a very happy girl! I love being able to complete a set even if it does take years. This is my new favourite set and I can't wait to sit down and have a nice quiet cuppa with it.

It was a pleasure to add it to my mix and match collection of china. All but maybe 4 pieces have been bought from second hand stores over the last 2 years and I adore each and every piece. I haven't spent much at all on any of it - I think only one piece was over $20 actually - so this is my cheap and cheerful collection.

Still on the op shop finds but with a bit of a story first. I went to see a fundraising screening of Breakfast at Tiffany's during the week. I absolutely love this movie and it was fabulous to see it at a beautiful theatre on the big screen. I well and truly fell in love with the orange coat worn in this scene and sat there jealously watching it. Well ....

I know it's not identical, but I found this brand new pattern for $1 today and I think that the style on the right could be made into a fabby orange coat for me. Even better, the pattern says it's Very Easy - two important words when it comes to my sewing ability!! So over the next few weeks I am going to have to sneak a peek into a few fabric stores and try and find some orange fabric!

Still on the vintage theme but this time a purchase off Trade Me (our version of Ebay). This stunner was $20 and she arrived today. I am thrilled to bits with it and can't wait to use it.

I just love how these old bags fasten. I feel very classy just holding her over my arm. I think that I should be wearing that stunning orange coat, gloves and a hat when I use this bag though!!! I sometimes think I was born in the wrong era. I would love to have been around in the 50s or late 60s.

Well that has sure been a lot of vintage love going on. I am going to say goodbye now and go and make a nice cup of tea, in my new cup of course, and maybe a nice fat piece of caramel slice to go with it. There goes the diet ...

Have a fabulous week everyone. See you again soon.

Leah

xxxx