Thrifted

A selection of recent finds...

A few Golden Books, 50c each.

Pyrex dishes, $1 each

And I finally found one of these after seeing a few around blog land. Pies and quiche will be high on the menu now.

The red frames were what caught my eye. Pulling them out from the stack of pictures I found these two sweet prints. Opening the frames when I got home I discovered they are sheets from a 1974 Holly Hobbie calender. I can't wait to display them in our new home.

Why not add your op-shopped treasures over at Sophie's and browse through the abundance of thrifted goodness while you're over there.

New Home

Our new little cottage, our place to call home, the start of a new beginning with new faces, new friends to make, new jobs and a rather large step closer to making our dreams happen. This move is the result of three years of study and hard work, our plan is to work and save, and with a fair part of my life for at least the next year to be spent working we're on the right track.

Currently all the boxes are being emptied, their contents trying to find their perfect spot. I'm looking forward to making this little cottage into our home. I've got many a plan of sewing tasks ahead of me- bunting, cushions, curtains, finish off the quilt for the bed, slip cover for the lounge; as well as all those non-sewing related- raised no-dig veggie gardens out the back, potted herbs out the front, sweet peas up the fence, wall picture galleries, dedicated sewing room, make a recycled timber bed and sewing table, framed tea towels for the wall and Pyrex and Johnson ware to display. So with all that, plus new op-shops to explore and work commencing in a couple of weeks I should be kept fairly busy.
 
Well better get back into it, the rest of the boxes aren't going to unpack themselves.

Have a wonderful Friday.

Op-shopped Finds

Making the most of my final week of thrifting in all the local oppies before the move, and they didn't disappoint with a lovely little haul of a kitchen pieces.

Fire King mugs, only 50 cents each.

 

Pretty Pyrex, $2 each. I think I have another of the top one packed away, but the bottom one is a new design to me.

A new to me design of Johnson, 50c. I'm trawling Pinterest looking for pretty ways to display my growing plate collection. Any ideas?

A stack of Johnson, 50c each for the dinner plates and 30c for the side plate.

 The find of the week may just have to be this oval shaped Johnson serving platter. The first I've seen in this shape, and a steal at only $1.

And the backdrop is one of half a dozen vintage sheets I picked up. I hadn't found any for weeks before these, and just in the nick of time these beauties turned up, with the lovely Green Tea and Red Nails about to host another Vintage Sheet Fat Quarter Swap.

 Be sure to check out all the other lovely thrifted goodies over at Sophie's.

Mid-week Baking

With the packing and cleaning in full swing a bit of a sweet treat was in order.  
This recipe is great for using up a few of those over ripe bananas congregating in the fruit bowl. I've adapted it from bestrecipes.com.au  and it goes something like this...

Self-Saucing Banana Pudding

 

1 ½ cups SR flour (I used wholemeal SR this time)

1 tsp bicarb soda

½ cup sugar

3-4 bananas, mashed

½ cup oil

2 eggs

Sauce

1 ½ cups brown sugar

1/3 cup golden syrup

2 cups boiling water

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Sift flour and bicarb soda into a deep 2-3 litre casserole dish. Add sugar.

In a separate bowl mash the bananas with the oil and the eggs.

Add the banana mix to the flour and mix until well combined.

Combine brown sugar, golden syrup and boiling water in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on HIGH for one minute and stir to fully dissolve the sugar.

Pour syrup over the back of a spoon onto the batter mixture.

Bake for 50-60 minutes.

May be eaten hot or cold, especially good with ice-cream.

Thrifted Collection: Tea towels

This week I thought I would show you part of my collection of tea towels. I have collected these over a year or so, all from op-shops, paying up to $2 for them, with most only costing around 50c each.
On The List of things I'd like to achieve in 2012 and beyond, at no. 45 is organising my tea towel collection, this will involve sewing some of them into cushions, market bags, a sewing machine cover, and maybe framing a couple, in order to appreciate their beauty around our new home a whole lot more than being folded and stored in a suitcase, although it is a sweet vintage case.

And a few more...

The List

After having read so many wonderful lists for 2012 and for the future in general, I decided I better put pen to paper and actually write down some of the many ideas I have stored in my head.
This list is in no particular order, some I would love to be able to tick off come the end of 2012, others seem a while off for now, but that's ok.

1. Get in the kitchen more- I'd love to make all my own bread, yogurt and butter.
2. Make a timber bed base
3. Build or renovate my own environmentally friendly home, preferably one in the middle of a hundred acres or so, with a huge vegie patch, orchard, and animals, using permaculture principles

4. Grow nearly all my own vegetables, herbs and fruit; and buy what I can't from local sources

5. Get out and exercise more. The fiancé is a regular gym goer, I've never been so a gym membership is on the cards for Orange. And if there's good tracks around the area then a spot of bike riding may be in order
6. Read more
7. Make some of my Pinterest pins
8. Visit the local farmers markets every time they're on, and support the locals producers
9. Buy Australian Made/Grown products from the shops where I can
10. Sew some of my own clothes
11. Make a recycled timber desk/sewing table; and garden potting bench with sink
12. Sew my own curtains
13. Go camping. I've never been.
14. Get chickens again. How I miss the chooks antics and the fresh eggs
15. Spend a whole day on an op-shopping adventure
16. Design labels for my handmade pieces
17. Finish my patchwork quilt
18. Make bunting for every room of the house
19. Get a worm farm

20. Compost all the house scraps

21. Do a permaculture design course with the fiancé

22. Make my own pottery

23. Try macarons. First eating then making my own

24. Volunteer at an op-shop
25. Send more mail, and hopefully receive more too
26. Get involved in more swaps
27. Keep the house more organised and tidier
28. Visit new op-shops
29. Make some pocket money from the things I make (to feed my op-shopping habit)
30. Display more of my thrifted treasures and collections around the house
31. Put together a scrap book of all my ideas for my dream home
32. Make my own shampoo, soap, washing-up liquid and washing powder
33. Make new friends
34. Take more photos
35. Keep bees
36. Comment more often on the blog posts I read
37. Save more money
38. Spend the afternoon snoozing in a hammock
39. Hand rear a calf
40. Plant a window box full of herbs
41. Preserve excess produce- through drying and bottling
42. Make my own Christmas tree
43. Build nesting boxes for native birds and animals
44. Create a habitat pond in the garden
45. Organise my fabric and tea towel collection
46. Make all my own greeting cards for the year
47. Gain as much experience as I can in my New Graduate year
48. Holiday to Tasmania
49. Have fresh flowers in the house
50. Be grateful for all that I have, and for the people in my life

 As a little one. How I would love to still have this old tricycle

Thrifted

Not much thrifting this week, with most of my favourite Op-shops closed between Christmas New Year.

Four Pyrex mugs

And another piece of Pyrex.


I thrifted this dress a few months back and loved the print, but have only just got around to altering it.

Before

and After

I shortened the sleeves, took up the hem, removed the collar, and took it in at the sides a tad.

Am looking forward to some new year thrifting this week, but for now I'm off to check out all the other finds over at Sophie's.