So much stuff, so little car space....

The fire is glowing,the house is warm, might be time for the ugg boots and some Saturday night telly.

Thin pickings indeed during the week at the op shops, despite dedicating lunchtimes to the trawl. O well, can't always be lucky. Or can you? (cue sinister music). A trinket here, a tiny treasure there.

Today was a bit of an exercise in restraint, partly due to the long, dark teatime of the off-pay week (the only thing slower is the day before payday), and partly due to a shortage of space. Well, there is space, but I use it to walk in, from room to room.


A garage sale advertised as the sale of a personal library was particularly disappointing, unless you were looking to increase your own personal esoteric entomology library - and while some of the books were interesting looking, they were really a bit specialised. I did manage to get a 1961 Alice in Wonderland but I had to haggle. Well, for haggle, read look stunned at the price until it came down in increments to the price I was prepared to pay.




The panels from a dismantled organ, oak, really good condition. I'm thinking cupboard door? Bookshelf? Coatrack? Hmmmmm. So tempted to go back for the rest of it, must not, must not. Even just to take it apart and see how it works. The corpse of the organ was free. Sometimes the smaller car is a blessing.

1931

Couldn't leave this behind - but I had to resist 2 gorgeous 50's upholstered footstools. Luckily, got distracted- something to do with my partner in Saturday saling crime and a leather lounge suite.
She called this afternoon to say it had been delivered. Apparently there is assigned seating in rows of couches in her lounge. Something may have to go. Maybe. I think the seating in rows thing could possibly catch on.

Alice - a tribute and some other stuff

Some more little things from the gallery.....





This is my tribute to Alice in Wonderland - maybe the first of a small series, I have some others in the making.



A couple of little drawings, silly little things really.






And, of course, even my little pony grows up......and goes goth.




and Obie, who likes to help.

Clean sheets, dried in the sun

There is nothing like a warm sunny Sunday for drying the washing. And the smell of nice clean sheets, dried on the line in the sun has to be one of the best. Its totally worth putting them straight on the bed and not using the clean ones in the cupboard - like a little scent of summer in the winter.

Even the little doggie smells better for a bath and a brush. He dried in the sun too, and rolled over to have his tummy brushed because it was so nice and warm. He looks positively fluffy, to his disgust.

The pickings were a little slim in the opshops this week. Last week I had a jolly good trawl through the big city opshops, got a few bits and pieces but seriously limited by room in the suitcase. Got some gorgeous books though, Elizabeth's Secondhand Books could be my second home. Lucky I don't live too close, really. The serendipitousness of the place is what makes it exciting.



I managed to limit myself to "Out of Picture, Art from the outside looking in (Volume 1)" having managed not to splurge on both volumes 1 and 2. Unfortunately, Boffins, that mecca for devotees of non-fiction, was also not only just down the road but also open. Savings expended. Oh, well, I tried.

To continue the theme, a rather lovely book on the history and architecture of Rottnest Island, wittily titled ROTTNEST ISLAND - HISTORY AND ARCHITECTURE by R J Ferguson popped up at a garage sale for well under it's secondhand list price. Should keep me going till the next booksale. Maybe.

There is no piece of furniture which cannot be moved by a determined woman with a towel...

It's true. Or two towels for a very large and heavy jarrah bookcase.

Enough on the back verandah! I usually do all the sanding and oiling before it even gets near being inside, but the nasty weather and early dark and this damned working for a living conspire against me. And its really in quite good shape, no extraneous coats of hi gloss lacquer, or thousands of coats of nasty paint, so into the lounge with you, you bookshelf.

Which of course requires the moving of books - like visiting old pals, and spotting things you want to re-read or you got in a sale and haven't gotten to yet. Happy times.

The weather this week being - well, lets face it, crap - the morning dawned crisp but not bucketting down. After a lacklustre day in the opshops yesterday, today started rather well with a wooden box spotted in a skip outside the first garage sale. Ahem, were you wanting that? No? would you mind awfully if we took it? Excellent. The whole fitting it in the car thing was a bit of an adventure (especially without a towel). Onwards, unrelenting.

Today was wooden box day. Some weeks it's sewing machines, treadmills, or exercise bikes - today, wooden boxes. Everywhere. Some great fishing gear - I love those wooden floats, and some interesting metal bits - some sort of hooks? Or rocket ships or possibly four legged ladies. We'll see.

Some lovely but pricey real antiques were rejected due to lack of funds but - surprise - a gorgeous blue and white metal and plastic 1950's/60's Wisk - (the world's first perfect non-tangle wool saver winder). In the box. With the instructions.

I have a good friend who is quite interested in knitting, I just have to remember which one...

But first, I have to deliver the wooden spoons - or, in Etsy speak - "vintage farmhouse kitchen utensils" to another friend. I hope she didn't mean wooden spools.

A couple more gallery bits

A little light reading

This week's pickings were a little thin on the ground - in numbers as low as the temperature. However, in as many layers as an onion, with a huge padded coat, gloves and scarves, the feeling seeps away mainly in your fingers, toes and nose so there are a couple of hours available for scavenging.

A pair of real (authentic, genuine) RayBan sunnies - OK, not really needed at this time of year but the sun WILL shine again - in a truly funky style and a couple of books were all I managed yesterday. The reduced spend will possibly offset the mega-spend in glorious books awaiting me under the counter at Angus and Robertson in Albany. There is nothing like finding fantastic interesting and inspiring books in a big lump all on one shelf, unless it is actually buying them.

Is there some sort of group for book addiction? Luckily I got that jarrah bookcase last week....

Today, apart from the homemade biccies and even more wooden spoons, there was a bundle of 1960's do-it-yourself home-decorating magazines. Full to the brim will faaaabulous decorating ideas as well as wonderful wardrobe tips for the lil woman at home.

I may share some of the more interesting projects at a later date, when the twitching stops. And for those who have ever rented or renovated a 60's house, I found the cow who put up that timberpanel.