Weekendness

Every time I think to myself I'm going to have a restful weekend, I end up doing so much more than I had planned. This weekend was no different.

Saturday I had two things planned: post office (to post another Etsy sale, yay! That's 3 in 4 weeks) and to do a little op shopping.

I found these delightful coffee mugs, but not much else. I think I need to venture further and check out some new stores. Note: the other items in this picture are from my mum - she's forever cleaning out her cupboards and donating things to the shop! I may be tempted to keep the cute purple tartan Thermos for myself though! It's practically mint!

My darling husband worked all Saturday night, so I curled up with the tv and watched The Help. What a great movie! So emotionally overwhelming and fascinating at the same time. I watched the entire thing without realising that it was Bryce Dallas Howard playing Hilly. Hee. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the story I don't recognise actors!

So at about midnight last night, eyes drooping, I decided to take a chance and put on my first loaf of bread to bake in the bread maker. The bread maker was a wedding registry gift and damn me if we haven't used it once since. So I read the little instruction book and the back of the bread mix box, poured everything in then pushed some buttons and went off to bed with my fingers crossed.

Well, if I didn't wake to the aroma of freshly baked bread! Amazing! That's not to say I was not woken by the machine beeping to itself early on at the crack of dawn when turning on, but hey presto! When I hauled my lazy buttocks out of bed, behold...

It kind of exploded at the top but I didn't mind. Hubby gave his seal of approval, and has expressed an unexpected level of interest in learning to use it, and also wants to learn how to bake bread from scratch. I suggested maybe we start with some bush bread or damper and work our way up.

I couldn't resist just one more op shop to top off my weekend so I hit my favourite down at Brendale. And boy did I hit the jackpot!

We've decided that this lovely Australian map isn't antique, or possibly even old enough to be vintage, but it's got rustic charm written all over it! And it was only $3. Winner.

I also picked up this lovely little jug, which I think might be Johnson of Australia, though I have never seen the pattern before.

I also baked this afternoon. Mum gifted me with some cupcake packet mix before going away (amongst other things, including a passion fruit and a continental cucumber. What am I going to do with a continental cucumber? WAIT. Don't answer that). So out came the Big Red Mixer (she really needs a name - any suggestions? Something 50s like Betty perhaps) and pretty soon I had 12 little chocolate cupcakes on my hands. It was a nice way to end the weekend.

How was your weekend? Any good shopping finds? Did you bake? Garden? Chill out?

Weekend op shopping

I'm now at the stage of my thrifting career where I don't consider a Saturday morning complete without dropping into one or two op shops. I have favourites in my area that I hit up regularly but I also like driving to new ones in suburbs I don't usually visit. This can be fun, other times disappointing.

Last weekend I drove all the way over to Virginia to check out the Lifeline Supastore there. I was very crestfallen - either it had been picked clean by the morning crowd or it is not well-stocked. I guess it might be a store that focuses on furniture rather than bric-a-brac, which is my thing. And also it seemed not very "Supa" in size - more the size of a regular shop.

Today I was running errands all morning but dropped into two local op shops with varying degrees of success - got a $2 necklace and an unopened jigsaw puzzle for mum from my "secret" shop, nothing at all from the second.

When I finished my To Do list I decided to spin by the Lifeline Supastore at Brendale on my way home. If you haven't been, I highly recommend a visit one weekend - yes it is open Sundays! It's HUGE. And CRAMMED full of stuff. Crappy stuff, weird stuff, old stuff, smelly stuff - I just love it. Sometimes I find nothing and then sometimes I hit the jackpot.

Today was a jackpot day...

The little brown mug and jug on the left are English Hornsea pottery. I love the glazed look and retro pattern. The plates underneath are Johnson of Australia. I hope if you are a regular reader or social media follower that by now you know I have an enduring Johnson fetish! The aluminium pot up the back is a coffee pot with a little perculator inside and a quaint glass lid! The two white cafe cups are to put pens and things in on my bench. And the black and orange creamer jug is some lovely Mikasa "Orange Sherbert". I love this set as my mum has the cups and plates.

Here are the Johnson plates all on their own. They are dear to me as they are not of the usual floral pattern you find more regularly, and thus unique in my collection. I had only seen this pattern on instagram and wouldn't have even picked them up to check if they were Johnson unless I had! So folks, it proves that it pays to do your research. I love trawling the #johnsonofaustralia hashtag on Twitter on Sundays, it's such fun! I always get envy at others' lovely finds, though...

So I'm starting to accumulate so much stock for Little Moments Vintage that I'm running out of storage space. Which means I need to move my butt and get it all photographed, into the store and... sold!

Did you find anything good thrifting this weekend?

Weekend thrifting

My mum once told me the key to enjoying your weekends instead of spending your whole time bogged down in housework was to go and do something nice for yourself on Saturday morning. First thing. Don't wash up. Don't put a load of laundry on. Just go out.

This morning I took her advice, and armed with Evernote and a list of garage sales in my area, I hit four places in quick sucession. The only good one was the last, a lady who was selling TONS of Christmas stuff - I'm assuming she was one of those obsessive Christmas lights people because she had so many items. But she also had a nice array of bric-a-brac and the most enormous glass jug I've ever seen. I bought it on the spot plus a nice little mini syrup jug.

Teacup for scale purposes

I then ran a few errands at the local mall (ugh! detestable place!) before dropping in on my favourite op shop on the way home. Bingo! Some lovely Johnson of Australia teacups, saucers, side plates and dinner plates. I didn't take the whole lot as some of it was crazed, also wanted to leave some for other folk. I also picked up a lovely little glazed Japanese coffee mug for 10c. 

Then I came home, washed up all my finds and sat down to do some stock photography for my shop! I'm getting better at taking photos, sharing my fave of the day with you below.

  Have you been thrifting this weekend? Any good finds?

Saturday

Today I did things. It was satisfying because I got to go to shops and I NEVER get to go to shops.

First I hit up my local Lifeline Supa Store, because one thing I learnt the last weekend I went thrifting is that by the afternoon, any good stuff is gone. I didn't have any luck - they had one Agee Pyrex casserole dish but it was badly discoloured. No decent Tupperware this week either! I ended up buying a camel coloured wool scarf for $2 and two floral pillowcases for a dollar apiece.

Next I was headed up to Westfield when on a whim, I decided to drop in to the Lifeline store at Strathpine. I'd never been in it before (always shut every time I go past) and blow me down if they didn't have a stack of Johnson plates on display! They don't have much bric-a-brac there so I guess what they do pick out to put on display must be the good stuff! I was so excited, because I've never seen this leaf pattern before.

When I got home I got stuck into the "present pile". This is what we have been calling the giant pile of boxes containing our wedding registry gifts, which were delivered about a fortnight ago! Well, I unboxed everything, and washed it all up... and frankly I was exhausted! I was flabbergasted by how much packaging goes into these items - cardboard, bubble wrap, plastic. This pile of junk is still in my living room, I can't face it right now. On the bright side, I have lots of boxes to ship my etsy store stuff to customers in!

After a little lie-down in front of the telly as a reward, I decided to christen THIS BEAUTY...

By making pumpkin soup! I had half a leftover pumpkin in the fridge so I chopped it up to use. I followed the 4 Ingredients book recipe, though I did saute the onions in butter with garlic first :) Is there a better smell in the whole world? I think not. It turned out amazingly. So good. I saw somewhere on the internets during the week some tip about freezing soups flat, so I bagged up some servings and they are now lying flat in my freezer, waiting to be consumed on a cold winter's day.

How was your Saturday?