Sweet, sweet vintage!

This has been a great week for me. Thursday my daughter and I headed for her favourite Op shop after kindy, as is our habit. There I found a minty crisp, still in packet, lime green floral sheet set and two gently worn orange floral sheets. Yay! I feel a patchwork sheet quilt coming on! My collection of sheet colours is expanding.

The next stop wasn't far away and there I spotted a lovely sewing basket, with original contents. :D My sewing basket collection is also expanding.

This Saturday my sis and I first stopped in Springfield right in the frosty foothills of Adelaide. The knitting basket below was the prize. It has faux crushed satin side panels. *LOVE* and sweet rose inner.
The pink glasses have frosted swirls and gold stars and rim. atomic 50s style.
A pretty tin bird cutter was found at Cross Rd Collectables. There were a bunch of others that my sister bought too. And while I was there I spotted this cute gingham apron. I thought I'd show a couple I picked up for just .50c, never used!

A couple of pretty milk glass pieces joined my collection as well.

But my most thrilling find was at a most unlikely stop  on the way home. We stopped at a garage sale that was mainly kids stuff and modern junk. I had promised a little something for Pearl so it looked likely for the purpose. Under the front table was a large carton full of kids books. My sis and I started digging through and found some books each. At 3 for $1 I was pretty pleased with a few beaten up oldies. One golden book was coverless but good as a cutter for crafting.

A little girl told us there was another box on the verandah, so I headed over. I spotted what was on top and stepped livelier. Unfortunately my sister also spotted it and just about sprinted there, grabbing the book out from under my hand. (That's not nice, lol) Luckily there were lots more treasures amongst the ordinary kids books (that ordinarily might have been good finds in themselves, but by comparison were riff raff).
Take a look at these sweet, sweet, vintage book prints from the 1930s.

This book is about 12" tall and I saw the pages selling online for $15 each! I agree they would make absolutely awesome nursery prints framed. And how cute is this book about two naughty kittens.

But the most awesome book, was one by Mabel Lucie Atwell, a well known children's illustrator. I couldn't believe the asking price for this book! Take a look here or here! I was flabbergasted! And this from a 1970s cream brick on Railway tce. WooHoo!

Weekend Sale-ing

My sister, (I can see a pattern emerging here) rang me excitedly on Friday to tell me of some exciting garage sale ads she had seen for the next day. One street was in a nice neighbourhood with 11 houses, another street with 4 houses and a few others here and there.
It was a fun morning out and the street with 11 houses was a LOT of fun. A bit like trick or treating but with trash and treasure! There was a nice atmosphere amongst the sellers and buyers. 
These pics of my vintage "treasures" are in random order and not necessarily bought together.
First up, 3 rather shabby  vintage editions. Two have lots of lovely illustrations which will hopefully star in some future crafty creation. Behind are 4 excellent condition pillowcases. And everything here was .20c each.

Another two books included an old Wide Range Reader that was the same as one I learned to read with 43 years ago or thereabouts. This particular one has stories that I will always remember fondly. Alongside it is an old diet book from the late 1940s. That should be an interesting read. To find the clues of what we have lost or perhaps where we started going wrong with our modern diet. A 20c read too!

My sister found this pretty duck egg blue Bessemer sugar bowl. And then kindly gave it to me, along with two Fire-King milk glass rose bowls.

I have a set of butterfly gold Pyrex mixing bowls so this sweet casserole in the same pattern was a quick pick for just $1. Not exactly practical though. It's a nice size for a family of maybe 2 or 3. A family of 12, not so good! Inside is a sandwich bag full of jewellery bits and pieces. Handy for anything crafty and dress-ups for my 4yo.

It was quite serendipidous to find this pretty green compote. I already have 2 the same, so now I have 3. I only need another 9 now. I have seen some priced ridiculously expensive at a local antique store and didn't expect to fine one at a garage sale for a few dollars.

Probably my favourite find was this busy bee basket with black and yellow stripes. There's something about baskets like this that remind me of fairy stories and my childhood. This was made by the grandmother of the  family holding one of the garage sales. I spotted it under a table of rather mundane stuff and my heart skipped a beat. If my Grandma had made it, I wouldn't be selling it!  Inside is a lovely textured vintage table cloth, a mens tweed hat (whaaaat!? my boys love silly hats, you never know when you need one for dressup or a play) and a .50c sheet with pretty blue flowers. It's funny about the sheet because as I was leaving with it, the seller picks up another random sheet from the tub and insists I take it too! It wasn't a lovely vintage pattern, but I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth so accepted it with thanks.

This cute little pyrex bowl was marked $2 but even first thing in the morning, I was offered it for .50c. I didn't need to haggle, the sellers were doing it for me! LOL I really like the diamonds and the fact they are green is even better. I wonder if the diamonds were different colours in a set when they were new?

This cute little portable record player is just waiting a new lease on life. I love the textured case and interior. Sadly it's not working but again, the sellers told me their price, and then halved it! How could I resist for only $5. Lucky my sister's husband is a sparky. I'd love to get it up and running again.

Lastly, I found some lovely pink fluted wine glasses. I already have some of these so I was happy to be able to add a dozen to the collection for our lemonade drinking celebrations, ;) . They are marked France, so perhaps they are made by Arcopal? They look so pretty all together on a white shelf.

Opshopping Adventure Time!

Welcome to the very first Vintage Aussie post. I decided to start this blog to have a place to share all sorts of vintage things as well as my Opshopping Adventures and Garage Sailing. That way I can keep my stitcharooney blog for my family, sewing and crafting. Sometimes they will cross over so I will post to both. Afterall, vintage sewing is the epitome of both!

Yesterday my sister and my niece, who is visiting from Canberra turned up unannounced and dragged me off to go opshopping (hahaha). It has been a while since we have hit a few of the local stores. It was very hit or miss. But the hits were very BIG hits. One of us would find something amazing at most of the stops. So here's my haul.
 After 3 stops nearly empty handed, the fourth provided a veritable treasure trove. I had been admiring the exact same ship tin at Cross Road Collectables just last weekend, with a much higher price tag of course. To find the same one for just $1 was very exciting. As you can see, the lovely tin below was more expensive, but there was a reason for that.

 When I went to the counter, the lady saw the ship tin and said, "oh, you have the button tin from the shelf over there", but I didn't. But I soon did and yes, the red tin is FULL of buttons. And not jsut your regular garden variety of buttons either, but beautiful, gorgeous and spectacular glass, bakelite and moulded plastic vintage buttons!! Squeeeeeee!

The multiple glass buttons:

Lots of pretties (the flash has lost a lot of the detail from the white ones which are very nice):

And I need to share some of the pretties that my brother in law found in a bag under the seat of his car. no-one knows where they came from! Maybe the previous owner? Lots of large glass ones here too.

Now, back to the op shop.. At the same store I also found an amazing plastic "crystal" divided dish with lid in a gorgeous pink. It would be lovely for holding beads or buttons don't you think?

And then I found this lovely large milk glass cake stand that is perfect from my collection:

I spotted a pretty cardigan for my daughter, my niece spotted this cute plastic moulded deer bowl and I picked up this autumn toned blanket. I have plans for a lovely coat or cape from this one.

And lastly, from a intage linen closet, a whole 20!! crispy new or nearly new, pillowcases in sweet coordinating florals and stripes. they were all sitting together in a basket. It would be a shame to leave some behind don't you think? At .50c each how could I?

Now that's what I call an Opshopping Adventure!