Thrift finds

Ok so I've been super bad at posting on here, I'm at uni now and I've been so busy! You will just have to ignore the terrible quality of the photos and admire all the tacky goodness. 

The thrift shops in America are AMAZING! I've been to about 5 in the past few weeks and all have had so many goodies. It's been so hard to resist, knowing that I somehow have to get it all back to Australia. 

There is so much american kitsch stuff here. I am in love! I am especially taken with the 1977 plaster horse wall hanging! Pretty darn ugly, but so good. I have two that are really similar, so that makes it a collection, yay!

I hardly ever find vintage planters and one goodwill had a whole heap, all for $1-$2, each! Isn't the donkey one too cute? Can't wait to plant a cactus in him :-)

 I've also found about a dozen beautiful cards to add to my ever expanding card collection. I find it so hard to actually use them because they are just too lovely! 

Hope you're all having a lovely week and having good luck at the op shops! 

Tassie Oppy Finds

Of course, whilst in Tasmania we managed to fit in a little bit of op shopping ;-)

I found this sweet little tasmania souvenir hankie which I have taped to my wall at the moment, along with a cutout from the packaging of a bag of apples we bought.

I also found some more patches to add to my collection! There was a whole pile of them but they were $2.25 each so I had to restrict myself :-( It was so hard to choose but I loved the sparkly ones (you can't really tell in the photo but 3 of them have gold and silver sparkly thread). 

I also found a sweet little swan planter. I now have three swan planters which makes it a collection and gives me an excuse to keep buying them :-P

DYMO

Hello all, so I'm back from Tasmania and I had a wonderful time! But more on that later when I get around to doing a post with tassie photos. But for now I'll show you my new dymo labeller :-)

I already have a cheap labeller and when I saw this vintage dymo one for $10 at an op shop I almost wasn't going to buy it, but then I saw that it came with old tapes. I normally buy my tapes for $4 a pop and this labeller came with 7! 

It's a lot easier to use than my other one too, and the tapes are pretty colours and matte, unlike the shiny ones you can buy today. I've been using them on all my mail lately :-)

Anyway I'm off to go camping for a few days so till then toodaloo x

Collection Post: Patches

 This is my latest obsession. At the moment they are all blu-tacked onto my wall but when I collect enough, I have grand plans to sew them onto an old woollen blanket like this one (isn't it perfect!) and pretend I'm a scout.

The one's above are probably my favourite.

This is basically my whole collection so far (minus a few that didn't quite fit)

I like vintage ones best, but I couldn't help but buy these new ones from the internet. I'm meant to be saving for my trip to America but I have no restraint >_>

Speaking of travel, I am off to Tasmania with the fam on Saturday - we're going to be hiking in cradle mountain in the freezing cold (wish me luck). So I will be back in the blogging world in a week or so, but until then, adios xx

Birthday Goodies

So it was my birthday a few weeks ago and I got a heap of awesome op shop goodies from the fam, including the cute birthday golden book below. 

It has all these little name cards and lolly cups etc. you can cut out for your own party. so sweet. 

My mum gave me the awesome brown crochet poodle thingo. I bought the orange one a few years ago and use him as a door stop because I have no idea what they are actually meant to be aside from brilliantly tacky ornaments. Any clues anyone? 

I also received some lovely flowers from friends. The Australian ones my friends just picked in the bush and are still going strong almost 3 weeks later.

I went antiquing on my birthday and treated myself to the board you can see in the photo- it's from a local(ish) RSL that shut down. It has the names of the club officers and life members etc. and it came with a box of letters that I can add on (although I probably won't). I am so in love with it, not really sure why, but it's just so daggy and cute!

The wooden cookie box is probably one of my favourite gifts from my birthday.  You can't see the detail in this photo but its hand painted and the cookies have embossed patterns on them. I can't wait to take it on a picnic! 

And I am now the proud owner of a plastic flamingo!

I also got an instax mini 8, from my brother and sister, which takes the cutest little polaroid pictures! I was awfully spoiled :-)

I'm back!

Hello all! Sorry, it's been yonks- about a month now! I finally bought a camera yesterday, hoorah! I didn't end up getting an SLR coz they were a bit out of my price range (thanks for the advice though everyone), but I bought a sort of in between camera that takes pretty good photos, so I'm back now, yay! 

To be honest not much has been happening in between uni work lately, but theres some snail mail that I need to catch up on and share with you all. Below are just a few little things I've bought lately- there's more to come :-)

I bought a set of cute little watermelon coasters and a serviette holder, which I have absolutely no use for, but I can't help but join in on the watermelon craze.

I love the bright colours and the cute typewritten book plate in this sweet little golden book

I found this Ken Done scarf which I am super stoked about. Ken Done is a rad 80s Australian designer who I am a little in love with. A lady at an op shop the other day found an amazing Ken Done doona cover, which I only noticed after she picked it up, and she bought it to use for her dogs. I already have one like this, so it's not like I need another one but it was so cringeworthy :-P

Anyway it's good to be back in the blogging world, talk to y'all again soon :-)

Oppy Finds

I went on another op shop daytrip in the southern highlands with my mum the other week. 

Here's what I scored:

Some chrissy decorations- it's never the wrong time of year to buy more christmas things in my opinion. I am rather sad though because I will be in America for christmas (I am going on exchange to colorado next semester) so I won't be able to use all my beautiful decorations this year :-(

A mosaic tile dish, another australiana dish for my mum, wrapping paper and some butterfly coasters. Does anyone know anything about these coasters? My mum doesn't even think they are vintage- I'm leaning towards 70s? I bought them anyway because they were only $2 and they are definitely growing on me.

A pineapple candle, an old isle of man perfume bottle, plastic palm trees and a mini shell box to add to my collection.

I love weather houses but these are the only two I have ever found in op shops (the one on the right is my newest acquisition). 

I also bought this great 60s/70s? dress from an antique booth (so it was quite expensive but I loved it too much to pass up). 

I'm linking up with sir thrift a lot and a living space :-)

Oppy Finds

Hello all, I'm back from Melbourne - t'was a great trip, filled with lots of lovely shops and cafes :-) And now I can finally share my oppy finds from the blue mountains and from my trip down the coast! Below is most of what I bought. We found an awesome record sale - 5 records for $20! I bought Michael Jacksons 'Thriller' and 'Off the Wall', Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumors', Cat Stevens 'Tea for the Tillerman' and an Elvis record :-D

I can't leave any cheap Australian kitsch in an op shop and so I had to bring home the resin shell photo holder (and the same goes for the Australiana letter holder in the bottom picture). My mum collects the little dishes with gold edging - I find them ALL the time in op shops so by the time it gets to her birthday I will have a bajillion! I also found a heap of vintage patches and some christmas baubles which I picked up because they were 20c :-) 

The sad little onion face I scored for free because he has a few chips but I love how ugly he is.

I'm linking up with Sir Thrift-A-Lot and A Living Space :-)

80s Earrings

I've recently become very obsessed with wearing massive 80s earrings that I've been collecting from op shops. Last night I went to a 70s/80s themed rollerblading disco night and got an excuse to wear those massive round gold ones (which are about 5cm in diameter!).

I am renown for my lack of coordination and I think attempting to rollerblade (something I haven't done since I was about 6) was too high a goal because within the first 5 minutes I fell on my ass and now have a bruised tailbone :-( But on the bright side at least it's an excuse to lie in bed all day and read and watch movies :-)

Purchases

I have been wanting some rife paper co. cards for yonks but they are way too expensive to get posted to Australia. But I found these rifle paper co. postcards on sale in a cute shop and also some pretty coloured tape for my dymo labeller :-D

I also found this adorable case for storing vinyls in for 50c! I have never seen one before and I think the pattern is just the sweetest thing ever!

 I love the skier who can't get his jumper off :-P

Aluminium

Last week I went to Townsville for my cousins 18th and of course my mum and I managed to fit in some op shopping on the side. Golly gosh am I glad that we did because I found an aluminium christmas tree.  It's probably my favourite oppy find of the whole year! 

I'm definitely no expert but I get the impression that aluminium trees weren't as much of a craze here in Australia as they were in America? I see them everywhere on people's blogs but I had never actually seen one in real life. I've been wanting one for ages but the trees online are way out of my price limit so I was so thrilled when I saw this one for $8!

Now I have somewhere to display my meagre collection of glass baubles (another thing I don't think were very big here because the majority of these were brought back by my mum from America).  

Last week was quite a big week for finding aluminium things because we also found these: 

I have a bit of a thing for anodised aluminium so these planters had to come home with us. A fact which caused us a lot of trouble because they are actually quite large and didn't fit in our bags (we thankfully were able to take them on as hand luggage on the plane even though the customs man was dubious). They are a lot prettier in real life and I can't wait to plant something in them!

I also found this aluminium canister set. I think it's missing a size but I still love them!

I'm linking up to alivingspace and sirthriftalot :-)

Pretty things

Just a few little things I found lately :-)

 pineapple salt and pepper shakers and a crazy eyed deer.

Vintage fake flowers

Oppy Finds

These are some of the things that I've found at op shops over the past few weeks. 

Some epic shiny holographic dinosaur stickers, cardboard christmas coasters, vintage airmail envelopes, and some vintage cards. 

Lovely wrapping paper. I can't get over how great the dog one is.

I found all these beautiful nativity sets on the same day and they were all in their original boxes :-D

 

A pot holder and an almost matching tea cosy from separate oppies

This is a 1950's lino square that I got from an antique shop - it wasn't the cheapest but I couldn't resist coz it has a cactus and I intend to hang it as a piece of art. I am so going to have a kitchen with vintage lino on it one day! 

I'm linking up with sirthriftalot :-)

Christmas Mail

I finished exams! hoorah! Since finishing my mum and I went on a little op shopping trip to the blue mountains so I have some purchases to show you when I get around to it :-D

Seeing as it's almost christmas (or it feels like it to me anyway, I decorated about a month ago), I feel that it is time for me to send out some christmas mail! I have a whole pile of vintage christmas cards because I always snap them up and I would love to send some out. So if you want a little bit of christmas in your letter box just email me your address to em.odonnell94@gmail.com and I will send you a card :-)

Below are my favourite cards so I can't promise that you will get something quite as cute (I am such a hoarder and can't bear to part with them) but I will try my best to send something lovely.

Collection Post: Tea Cosies

Golly gosh, I feel like I haven't posted in ages! I've been studying for my uni exams (only two more to go!).  I managed so sneak in some op shops in between study so I will eventually get around to posting those :-) Until then here is a post about my tea cosie collection that I had saved in my drafts and quite forgotten about. 

Sadly I can't lay sole claim to this collection. It started off as my sisters collection, but my mum and I probably bought about two thirds of them at op shops and so we claim it as ours as well :-P The craze has died down a bit because of storage space issues, but whenever we see a cool one for a few dollars or less we usually buy it and add it to the pile :-) 

  

The Koala ones are probably my favourite. The one in the photo above is hilarious because of the position where the spout comes out ;-)

This pineapple(?) is fluro orange and I simply love how tacky it is.

The doll one is a tad creepy but I kinda love it for that reason. 

I think this ones supposed to be a mushroom?

We have about 50 now but my sister has some at her house. So there's our tea cosy collection. Hope you enjoyed it :-) Which are your favourites?