Weekly COLLEcTION SelectIOn - my challenge! Week 2

Fish plates!

This is for Kylie @ Lucy Violet Vintage
Yes it's one of my faves too -looks just like 50s barkcloth!
I've never seen one like this before or since!

Beautiful things

A couple of beautiful things I found the other day at an op shop.. I can't pass by needlepoint work without at least stopping and admiring it (even if it's not my style) and imagining who made it, how long it took etc..

Well these ones I most definitely did love... so I bought them and now
I just have  to figure out what to do with them..

Have to be on a wall somewhere/somehow..
The Op SHop Keeper was the usual couple in that shop.. an elderly couple, and so lovely. I've become quite familiar with them (and it's mutual!) and the MAN is the one who does the knitting, needlepoint, crocheting etc in their family, and he always has! SO cool.  He also appreciates the work that goes into something like this.

Before and After

This is inspired by THRIFT CORE .. decluttering, organising, labelling.. I need to do that more often!! At THRIFT CORE the lovely blogger there tries to have Organization Thursdays.. well for me it's whenever I get a moment! And that is not really that often..

SO this is, embarrassingly, the BEFORE view..

That is terrible!! We couldn't even shut the door without a fight. This is actually after I'd started the great avalanche - pulling everything out and starting over..

So AFTER is a relief.. I turfed out my least favourite /excess linen, and I tried storing the towels and sheets rolled instead of piled up. I think this is going to be a winner for us. I even went through the boxes of medical stuff that was in there and sorted that out.. phew!
Pat on back for me. Pat Pat. 

Weekly COLLEcTION SelectIOn - my challenge!

So I'm a collector, That's not a revelation and it's a bit of an understatement!

I am not a hoarder in the keep-every-newspaper-you've-ever-read-and-dig-a-channel-to-get-from-room-to-room kind of sense.. but I tend to collect, a bit like a magpie..

I'm attracted to gorgeous things.. and I've been acquiring and gathering stuff I adore since I was about 15. My Mum used to be endlessly fascinated after I came back from a carefree morning of Garage Sale-ing.. :o)

SO MY CHALLENGE TO MYSELF

is to document in photos my collections, one every week. I recon it will be a year or so before I run out of material!!

What I hope to get back, apart from the enjoyment of sorting and compiling and photographing.. will be that I want to see if having done that I might then be able to let some stuff go.. justify the piles of stuff a bit.. and maybe find better ways to manage and store the stuff.

I'm not totally worried about my collecting habits, and I'm not going to stop collecting.. but SORTING would be good!!!!!!!

SIFTER CITY Collection #1

Not a great photo of me.. but this is my sifter collection on display at the annual Collectors' Expo here in Hamilton  a few years ago. I won a very gorgeous kitsch rosette for the 1st prize in the Kiwiana section... :o)

The sifters are mainly PROPERT brand or TALA brand, and most of them originate from NZ or Australia. I would LOVE to get my hands on some US made ones.. all cute and kitcheny with little designs incorporating apple pies and cherries... LOVE!
I never saw a single one of these when I was in the UK! 

Linda Depledge-Brooker (irisgirl) on Pinterest

Linda Depledge-Brooker (irisgirl) on Pinterest

MY Pinterest "Pin Boards"

It's basically a way of cataloguing photos and ideas that one likes or is inspired by..

Pinterest / Home

Pinterest / Home

Totally love this. It's a real time killer though.. SO much inspiration on here and FUNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!

My Day

That was a 2 litre bottle of milk, amongst other things. Iris and Gil obsessed with mixture making. This was while I was on the phone to my mother-in-law!

So into the bath at 10am!

Op Shop outing.. treasure!

I've always wanted a matching set of funky cutlery (about 10 of each -forks, knives and spoons!)

So it was out with the old and in with the, er, old.

Linen Love!

It rained. For the first time in AGES! Garden was so thirsty.

These are some random photos from my day yesterday.

WHY BLOG?

So what is this all about? Is it a medium of communication? Is it a brag show? Is it a meeting of minds?


I think it's all of the above. I think it's escapism and it's a forum for mad Mamas like me to say stuff that we would otherwise just have to think!! And it's a creative outlet. And a time waster!


And will anyone be interested in what I say? Who knows? I'm not into marketing so we'll have to see what happens!


It's fun anyway. And it lets me do something a bit different from time to time.

CUTE KIDS!

MY beautiful little tribe.. That's Joe , Iris , Leo and Gil.
Totally crazy. Totally cool. Totally fun. xxxx`

BLOGISPHERE I'm HERE!!

So I set up this blog.. finally. Friends and family thought I might like being a blogmeister so after looking at and reading LOADS of other amazing and wonderful blogs I think I'm ready!!


I set up this site, and for some reason couldn't access it.. so I set up Op Shopping Mama instead.. And I've now worked this one out so I will consider the other one a practice!!


Always op shopping.. These are last weeks new lovelinesses! What joy and bliss...

 Exquisite little plastic tea set. A lot older than any I've seen and 

it all came in a cute little basket. $2.50.

 I have a bit of a thing about plastic basketry. We used to go with Mum when we were kids when she taught the residents at 'Old Folks' Homes' (as we called them) to make these kind of baskets. I find some really cute little ones like this intended for kids, but some others are plain kitsch. And I LOVE them!!

 Water jug for the table.. to fill up with water from our new filter tap!! 

I can't leave kitsch little creatures like these behind!! 

A fab shabby chic quilt for Iris. $5. Yes that's right- $5 and terrific condition!
LOVE LOVE LOVE!!