Wollongong Op Shopping Haul

Hi Y'all!
No, don't have a heart attack , I am posting again! 3rd day in a row! Amazing!! (One day I'll post a whole swathe of Project 365 collages and you'll have to sit through a month of my happenings! Busy busy! Lucky for you that's not today).
I've been on lots of Op Shopping Adventures lately, so it's time to show you some of the Treasures we've found! And I can say "we" cos Willy and Jaimeson have been helping me seek out treasures unknown, we've made it a family affair, and it's been so much fun!
Last week we went on a trip to Wollongong, to call in on Mum and Dad and brighten Mum's spirits, cos she hasn't been well, and also cos it gave us the opportunity to go on a little Op Shopping Safari!
So here is the overall haul:

Not too bad! Though we did visit 7 Op Shops, so we should have done well! LOL!
There is a bit of everything= Pyrex, orange Kelco (cups, saucers and plates for 4 people- $8), vintage linens, the start of Will's new "collection" and some toys for Jai (little people helicopter for $1, LP plane $2.50 and LP Garbage truck (his fave) for $2!). We all got something good!
 Will has been trying to think of something to collect for ages. I pointed out that if he has to "decide" on something to collect, then his heart isn't in it. Why doesn't he wait til he sees something he really likes, and then say "I'm going to collect.... {insert random objects found at Op Shops}"?

Well, after dabbling in paintings (there is only so much wall space) and joking about collecting vintage pencils (honestly!), he came to me at Dapto Vinnies and said "I'm going to collect novelty teapots" ....... {crickets chirping in background}. .................then I reminded him he was a man...............And yet, he prevailed! He wants to collect novelty teapots. Oh. My. Gosh. I'm married to an 80 year old woman. {giggles!} And they are surprisingly hard to find after this inital $4 teapot! I said "Where will you keep them?" He: "well, once I get my collection together, say 3 teapots...." LOL! 3 teapots constitutes a collection in Will's mind? I must have a warehouse of Pyrex then!
So here are some of my finds:

Aren't these starburst dessert glasses just gorgeous?! I love them! $4 for the set at Unanderra Salvos.

 

And remember how I recently found a whole set of the Butterfly Gold Mixing bowls and 2 Butterfly gold casserole dishes? Well now I have a setting for 2 people to match too! HOw cool is that! I did have to fork out about $10 for the 8 pieces, but that's ok.

And then, the icing on the cake was finding my MOST FAVOURITE COLOUR AND PATTERN OF PYREX EVER! The Blue Flame! I have a Blue Flame mug, but all my other "Flame" pattern Agee are in reds or oranges. I was stoked to find this at Wollongong City Salvos for $6! Six dollars! What a bargain. And I had a spare lid to fit it too, so I was muchos happios {doing a Mexican Hat Dance}. I also got this sweet heart print glass jug (not pyrex, but a knock-off) for $5 and the orange swirl casserole (also not pyrex, but I loved the pattern) with lid for $8 at the same Salvos. Actually, the Wollongong City Salvos was our last stop, and the best one of the day! Maybe we should have saved ourselves some time and gone there first, then we wouldn't have needed to go to the others too! LOL! The plain turquoise divided dish was $4 at Dapto Vinnies.

Here is my quick breakdown of the Southern Op Shops:
 1. Wollongong City Salvos- massive Warehouse store, go there.
2. Wollongong Vinnies- smallish store, some good homewares and linens.
3. Unanderra Salvos- big store, lots of homewares. The Pyrex owners in this area like to put them in the dishwasher, very sad.
4. Dapto Vinnies- big store and might get lucky to find a gem.
5. Dapto Uniting Church Op Shop- tiny, few homewares. Lots of linens and lovely old ladies though!
6. Brownsville Anglican Church Op Shops- awesome retro homewares collection, could find a gem here!
7. Dapto Salvos- massive store, empty of homewares, don't bother.

I hope you enjoyed our Adventure!
:) C

Op Shopping With Fliss

Last week I was heading over to Fliss's and she said "Why don't I meet you at Salvos before you come over?" Well, you don't have to ask me twice!

Here are my awesome finds!

My arms were quickly filling as we toodled around with our prams, before we found a little trolley, then I had the awesome task of pushing a trolley and a pram at the same time. Lucky I'm a Mum so am naturally awesome at multi-tasking.
My first awesome score was some Teal Kelco cups and saucers! Oddly, there was 2 cups and 6 saucers. Well, I've got spares now! THey were priced at $8 but because of the weird collection the lady serving gave them to me for $5 {high five!}. I also got the cool crystal tumblers for $1.50 each. They are so heavy! I thought Will could drink his Ginger Beer from them, while I have a wine from my crystal glass. So posh! LOL!

Something about this cup, with the "Portugese Rooster of Luck and Happiness" on it, really spoke to me so I had to have it for 50c! Then when I'm over it, I can just send it back to the Op Shop! LOL!

When I saw this gorgeous little German Wetterhaus I had to have it! Mum and Dad have one that used to belong to my Nanny and Poppy, and Mum tidied it up and even gave the couple a little garden out the front using some of my Dollshouse garden supplies! I think my people need a little garden too. So you know about the Wetterhauses? It's a Weather thing. They have 2 people inside, a lady with a basket and a man with an umbrella, and depending on the humidity (or is it air pressure?) the lady will swing around and be outside, indicating it will be a sunny day, or the man with the umbrella will come out indicating it will be a rainy day. It's so cool! It also has a thermometer on it. They are usually a souvenier from the Black Forest in Germany, and this one has even got the instructions in German on the back! So cool. It was $3.
The Johnson saucer with Humptey on it was $3 too. Mum, did we used to have this one? Fliss and I both recognised it and she thought she might have had it. He's ugly but cool at the same time!
I got the cute little J&J Pyrex dish for $3.50, the awesome retro print mug for 50c, some vintage children's coat hangers and some fun children's books for Jai. Total $24 (that seems to be my magic Op Shop number!) What a great haul!
:) C

Happy New Year!

Hi Y'all!
Hope you had a wonderful New Year's Eve! Will and I did what we usually do... nothing! Well, usually we're working til midnight so it's no surprise we do nothing. Will actually finished at 6:30pm last night but I was asleep by 10:30pm! That's what it's like with a baby I guess, I couldn't keep my eyes open {yawn!} Luckily we had already popped our bottle of Champagne at 7pm and had some with dinner cos we didn't make it til midnight.
Anywho... As is my little personal tradition (as a child we used to always lay out our presents on the bed and Dad would take a pic, I still do it!), here is a pic of what I got for Christmas..
As you can see I got TOTALLY spoilt! My family LOVE giving and receiving presents, and we always get cool stuff (not just a gift card or voucher, though they are useful too). I was sooo stoked to get some vintage homewares off Willy and Yvette! Yep, Willy snuck off to the Op-Shops without me knowing and got me a set of Orange Kelco cups and saucers that we saw in there together, and he also got me a set of 3 Pyrex casserole dishes with daisy lids, which I saw in there and described to him. He told me he was going to the bank one morning which, at Christmas, he confessed was actually a cover for nipping off to the Salvos at Chester Hill to pick them up! He said 2 ladies were looking at them and commenting on them, and when they walked away Will grabbed them and when they saw him with them they lamented that they hadn't gotten them after all! Sorry ladies, you snooze you lose! He also visited the North Ryde Vinnies and picked up some Pyrex ramikins for me, which he chose all on his own. So sweet!
Yvette also got me some awesome Pyrex for Christmas- the 2 big white casserole dishes. One is matches the Friendship pattern bowls I already have and one is a totally new pattern for me, but matches in with my colour scheme. Awesome! The Op Shops actually did really well out of our whole family this Christmas, cos I bought Will paintings, Yvette Pyrex, a doily and vintage sheets and Mum a pavlova plate and small dish all from the Op Shops; Will bought me stuff and Yvette bought Will a painting and me some pyrex and made all of us a gorgeous necklace out of a Typewriter Key! and I think maybe she got Mum something from the Op Shops too? It was a Charity Christmas!
Other awesome gifts you might be able to pick out from the pic were: the big Canvas photo from Willy, a gorgeous blue striped summer dress from Mum and Dad, 2 pairs of gold sandals from Mum (one pair by default, cos they didn't fit Yvette, but I love them!), a beautiful Hot Air Balloon necklace from Fliss, a cool tie-dye effect top with cut out sleeves and an awesome collection of jewellry from Alicia, the new Diana Gabaldon book {cheering!}, heaps of owl stuff like a notepad, pencil case, journal, mirror, some scrapbooking supplies and vintage trims off Yvette etc etc... Wow! Too Spoilt!
And cos he shouldn't be left out... here's what Jaimeson got! I'm totally keeping this tradition for him too. I look back on my previous years and think- "Oh wow, I've had that for so long!" or, "I wonder what happened to that?" LOL!
Jai got spoilt too! Yvette cross stitched him a gorgeous Christmas Stocking, so much time and effort Yvette, THANK YOU {hugs!} He got lots of cool books to read, some ones with sounds off Granny and Papa, a gorgeous book about a Fox and a homeless dog off Aunty Fliss and some board books off Will & I, a Fisher Price walker off Will and I, sweet Skip Hop backpack and lunch bag off Aunty Alicia (which I have been admiring in David Jones, YAY!!), a ride-on bike off Aunty Lil, a giant Teddy Bear off Uncle Vincent (you know Asians LOVE the giant bears, have you ever been to a Morning Glory shop? Oh man, they love them big! And it took Jaimeson 7 months to get one. That's a record! I thought someone would have bought him one by now, LOL!) Some toys including a fleecy Farm off Aunty Fliss, complete with extra Little Lamb for Our Little Lam!, a musical hammer which he loves already and a Dorothy the Dinosaur hand puppet. Some clothes off Alicia, Felicity and Mum and a bouncy cow off Will and I, the same one that he bounced on at the Teddy Bear's Picnic. I loved them!
What a Christmas!! I'm looking forward to using all my presents now!! Thank you Family!! xoxoxo {smoochies and hugs!}
:) C

Mitchell Road Antiques

Hi y'all,
Sorry to bore you with more Vintage finds, but I'm really keen on collecting Retro Homewares at the moment, and I am excited to talk about it! {bouncing on chair!}
Last week Will and I went on a Mercy-Dash to the city to check up on his Dad who hadn't answered his phone for 3 days (crisis deflated- turns out his phone was on silent & he didn't know, and he also didn't know how to check for the 80 missed calls from Will and his bro!) On the way home we had a little time so Will asked me if there were any Op shops I'd like to stop at. What an awesome husband {hugs!} Well, I had just learnt about the Mitchell Road Antiques centre at Darlinghurst while googling for second-hand homewares in Sydney so we popped by for a look. TALK ABOUT AWESOME! This place was like a giant Op-Shop that only has all the good stuff, and none of the crap {smirk!} But unfortunately it charges for that privilege, with the homewares I was interested in, being priced somewhere between expensive op-shop and ebay prices. Which really, I didn't think was too bad! I mean, some stalls have ridiculous prices, but you just laugh at them and move on.
I could have looked around for hours but we only had 40mins, can I tell you, I totally made use of that time! The centre is divided into little "shops" which are just a little horseshoe-shaped space rented out by a particular person & they fill it with whatever vintage & retro things they like. You could really tell someone's style after even a quick glance at the shop & I made a bee-line for all the people who had kitchenalia and homewares. And I came up trumps! {crown being placed on head, scepter being thrust into hands, gown laid on shoulders} I felt like the Queen of Pyrex! I found the 2 biggest Pyrex "friendship" (I think) bowls at one stall for $14 & $12 each, then after wandering around a little more I found the smallest one at a different stall for $8! Score {high five!} I was jumping out of my skin with excitement at having found 3 matching bowls! My first set! (though I imagine it should have a 4th bowl, like all Pyrex sets. Doesn't matter, I like the set of 3!) Aren't they just the most BEAUTIFUL colours! {heart them}. Then at the same stall I found the smallest bowl, I found this "flame" pattern Pyrex mug, to match my other Flameware! {yippeee!} It was $7, so that was a little on the expensive side, but I only have a ramekin in the blue flame pattern, so this is a lovely addition to that collection!
And then, back at the first stall I found a Kelco plate! That's right, a KELCO PLATE! Who knew they did dinnerware??!! It was $15 which I was prepared to pay seeing as I hadn't seen a Kelco plate before. I was just like a kid in a candy shop, I was sooo happy! It's the tulip pattern again, and it matches both my Olive Green and Orange Kelco cups, cheering!! {party hooters going off}. Can you tell I was a little excited?
Anyway, this place was HUGE, the whole top floor of an old warehouse/factory, and we hardly scratched the surface of the stalls we looked at, and we didn't get around to at least half the stalls, so I'm definitely heading back there again! {smiles}... hmmm..what am I doing tomorrow.... {wink!}
:) C

More Vintaging

Hi y'all!
Happy Saturday :) I am going to Miranda Fair today to meet up with Mum (and possibly AJ and another Aunty and cousin) for a spot of Christmas Shopping! I am nearly finished and hope to have it all knocked over in a week or two. Hooray!! {full-time hooter going off in the background}
Talking about shopping, Will and I have hit the Op shops a fair bit lately, with limited success. Well, I feel successful, which is great, but we have been to an awful lot of Op shops and they haven't all yielded retro delights! That's the fun thing about Op shops, it's so hit and miss!
So I did have a bit of success recently at Vinnies at Auburn where Will spotted some Kelco!! (Yep, I had missed it on the shelf {smacking forehead with back of hand} luckily I had Will!) I got the 2 orange saucers and the orange and white cup from there. They were the bargain price of $1 for the lot, cos the cup has a big chip out of the opposite side (which I don't look at anyway} so big {high five} for the score! At the same Vinnies I saw this sweet ramikin with orange slices on it. I thought it would go really nicely with my Kelco so I got it too (it was 50c). Since then I have googled it, it's Arabia Ceramics, made in Finland, and found out it is the bottom half (missing the lid) of a Marmalade Jam pot. And get this- people are trying to get $45 for them! What the???!! We saw a Arabia Ceramics Plum jam pot with no lid at Mitchell Road Antiques this week for $45! (more on Mitchell Road in another post...) and HERE is an orange one like mine, on etsy for almost as much. I got mine for 50c! {blow me down!} Good thing I buy things that I like, cos apparently I have expensive taste and I don't even know it {tongue in cheek!}
Then we were having lunch in Glebe and we "popped down" to their local Vinnies and I spotted the olive green Kelco cups! No saucers this time {frowny} I had never seen the pattern before I found the orange one at Vinnies then I found the olive ones in the same week! They were the bargain price of $1 each. Sweet!
Will and I went on an Op Shop spree in "The Shire" last week too, going to Salvos and Vinnies at Sutherland and also Salvo's at Menai (I did wave in your general direction AJ!) I had been wanting to get a cut glass vase and I found this one at Salvos for only $5 and it had the name "Grimwade" etched on the bottom. I do like vintage stuff with a history so I bought it, and a quick google search showed me that Grimwade was a 1920s-1930s release by Crown Glass in Sydney and that it's so significant that there are even pieces at the Powerhouse Museum! Noice!
I was pretty stoked with my finds {puffing chest out with pride!}, let me know if you see any Kelco cos I'd love more (don't worry about where I'm gonna put it Mum!)
:) C

Kelco Finds

Hello!
So I said I'd blog about my Kelco finds, here they are! I already had 4 Teal Kelco tea cups and saucers then I found this set at Croydon Salvos:
It's the Coffee Pot, Milk Jug and Sugar Bowl! Look at their delicious glossy goodness. They are in such good condition! I nearly jumped at the shelf holding them cos I was so excited {jumping off chair thinking about it!} Then nearly died when I read the price tag that said $6 the set!! WHAT!??!?!! {fan me down, I'm perspiring wildly!} I would have paid $15 for the set! Or maybe more (depending on my need at the time!). I recognised the milk jug first cos Mum has it as part of her orange set, and I love it's little finger indents, rather than a handle. Awesomeness!
Then 2 weeks ago at West Ryde Vinnies I found these:
It's a set of 4 coffee cups! They are taller and skinnier than the tea cups and I recognised them instantly when I saw them! I calmly walked over, picked them up and cradled them in my arm like a long lost puppy! {love!} And they were only $6 for the set too! Now I have a complete set of 4 tea and coffee cups, plus Coffee Pot, Sugar Bowl and Milk Jug! I couldn't be happier with my Kelco finds!So here's what you're looking for when Vintaging, and remember Christmas is around the corner and my birthday is in January! So keep you eyes peeled, there is always room on the shelf for more Kelco!
:) C

Vintaging

Will and I have had a super time searching our local Vinnies and Salvos Op Shops for some cool old stuff! We've come up trumps a few times too!
I love old homewares (as you might have guessed from my Pyrex Love post!), but Homewares are a little superfluous seeing as I don't have my own house. But never mind that, it doesn't stop me! I've always loved buying things from Op Shops, and homewares and buttons are my vice!
Here are some things I got on my very first Vintage adventure on my way back from vising Yvette in Canberra in August, when the Vintaging began in earnest!It was a modest gathering, but I like them all!
The books (50c each) I got at Vinnies in Bowral, I love Bambi and all things Woodland so I think that one will be staying in one piece and going on Jaimeson's book shelf. It is quite well loved already! The patty pan tin ($1) came from Bowral too and will be awesome for making Brownies with a Mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cup pushed down inside before baking.... hmmmm {salivating}. That's the plan! The tiny yellow jug ($1) just spoke to me, do things in shops ever do that to you? You'll be looking around and all of a sudden a piece jumps out at you and yells "Take me home with you"! {looking around at blank faces}, ok, just me then.
The brown cup ($1.50) has been added to my ever growing collection of Kelco cups. Mum has a Kelco tea set She and Dad got for thier engagement (42 years ago!) and her set is super bright orange. I love it! She even got it out at my Woodland Kitchen Tea! I bought a set of 4 Teal Kelco cups and saucers at the Rozelle Markets a few years ago with Alicia, I love teal colour! And now I have pretty much the whole set, I will blog about that soon!And another sweet find at the Salvo's was this set of 6 glasses ($1 each) with a blue stripe and 2 cute little Seagulls! I was thinking how cool it would be to serve milk in the glass, the Seagulls are just white so all you would see is the blue line, then as you drink your milk the Seagulls appear. Like Magic {fairy dust floating down on shoulders}. I actually hate this shape of glass, but it is redeemed by the cute Seagulls!
So that was my first Vintaging excursion. Boy have I bought some stuff since then! Keep you eyes peeled!
:) C