Mail

I made some mail for a few of my friends to wish them good luck for our uni finals. I love red and pink together lately! Speaking of uni finals - I have mine coming up which is why I haven't been blogging much. That and the fact that I broke my laptop :-(   

Some mail I recieved this week. A vintage postcard from Jaime :-) and a purchase from etsy that came in a cute drawstring envelope

Op shop goodies

I went for an op shop day last week with my mum and we came back with quite a haul. All this (aside from the deck chairs which my mum bought for $8 each) cost $30 which I thought was pretty good seeing as the lord of the rings books set me back $15. They were a bit pricey but they are from the 1970s and in perfect condition -also I'm a massive fan ;-)

The wooden board is apparently a cheese platter, which I have absolutely no use for but I love kitsch Australiana and it was cheap. The wire thing is a record holder, which I'm awfully happy with.

A cute saucepan, little orange dish and some pyrex. The mint one isn't actually pyrex but I really liked how it looked with the orange one.

The hideous golden thing is a thermometer made in Japan. I have a few of them now, they are so tacky! I actually found this one at the same dump recycling place I found my last one almost a year ago which I thought was a bit of a crazy coincidence. The rose wall hanging was made in West Germany and I love it!

And it wouldn't be a good op shop haul if I didn't pick up some christmas goodies.

I am in love with these deck chairs. They are so darn comfy!

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

Christmas seals

I'm hopeless when it comes to vintage christmas, I just keep buying! I bought a heap of seals off etsy and I can't wait until I can send out some christmas mail adorned with these! These are my favourite ones :-)

Op Shop Finds

I only went to two op shops this week but I still found a few things :-) 

This little tin globe was $8 which is usually more than I pay for anything but it was just too sweet to pass and my mum collects vintage globes so it will make a good chrissy present :-)

A great pavlova plate and some weird 70s coasters that seem to be made of marbelised sand (there are 6, but only 3 made it in the photo)

And some sweet unused vintage cards

I'm linking up to Sir Thrift A Lot and A Living Space and We Call It Junkin :-)

post office

My internet has been down for the past few days, hence no posts, sorry. It's back as of this morning, hooray! there are so many blogs I have to catch up on which is pretty much all I have been doing this morning as I'm on a study break for a week :-D

I am in love with this building and its red railings and hand painted postage stamps. Until recently this was my local post office, but it has now moved next door and the building is for sale :-( I thought I had better take a photo in case they knock it down or do something terrible to it.  

Sorry, it's not a very exciting post or a particularly good photo (it was taken with my phone) but I thought I would share because its such a sweet little building. 

Outgoing mail

✰ Some outgoing snail mail ✰ 

I've been waiting to post these pictures because I didn't want to spoil the surprise, but it seems that this one got lost in the mail :-( So Sara I will send you a new, even better letter! 

For Marisa from Omiyage who sent me this lovely letter :-)

Oppy finds

Thought I'd share some of the stuff I found last week at the oppys. It all seemed to match a colour scheme by some crazy coincidence. 

I am in love with this orange thermos, but sadly my boyfriend got to it before me :-P The hedgehog one is pretty sweet though and it was made in West Germany :-)

My mum collects these vintage Japanese teapots and cups so they will go in the stockpile for christmas :-) 

The yellow floral wallpaper in the photos I found for 50c. I also found three unused rolls of 70s wallpaper in a street junkpile which made me awfully happy because there is enough to do my wall! My brother found two working turntables in the same junkpile! It always amazes me what people throw out- he looked them up on eBay and they are worth about $100-$200 each!

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

♡ cacti ♡

I seriously can't get enough of cacti!

I took this photo on a stroll through Wollongong Botanic Gardens, which is right across from my university :-D

Some sweet little cacti I saw on a bike ride in Thailand. I adore the pink spotty pot!

pompoms!

Ever since I saw Mr Printables amazing tutorial for making pompoms, I have been more than a little obsessed. I made these hello pompoms a couple of weeks ago, and Mr Printables put up an alphabet tutorial a few days ago, which is great because I would not be able to explain how I made these :-P It's actually not too hard once you understand how they work, and they look so darn awesome! I've been making a heap of other patterned pompoms and I will show you once I get around to taking photos :-)

my rather poor attempt at a star pompom. 

incoming mail

Some lovely mail that has graced my mailbox recently from linda, doro and able and game. My cat zinky decided to join me and stick her paws in the picture.

Doro sent me this lovely letter with a hand painted matryoshka, stickers and other goodies!

She added some handmade triangle confetti and two sweet little hand-drawn cacti! Thank you doro!

Able and Game replied to my letter I sent out and sent some postcards! They also added some hand made confetti! oh how I love confetti, it makes everything so jolly! 

oppy finds

I only went to a couple of oppy's this week and I didn't find much, just some christmas decorations, a pyrex dish and a wooden poodle with jewelled eyes (which I love).

My favourite find though, was these cute poodles that remind me of this amazing collection. 

I'm linking up to Sir Thrift A Lot :-)

confetti cards

I am more than a little obsessed with confetti at the moment. Chances are, if you receive a letter from me, there will be confetti. In order to satisfy my need for some confetti goodness I made some cards :-) 

They are super simple to make- all you need to do is write what you want the card to say (I looked up some pretty fonts for inspiration) and then glue on some confetti. easy!

Picnic

The sun was shining on this winters day so my boyfriend and I decided to have a little picnic with croissants, strawberry's and homemade scones :-)

Ugly Shell Collection

**warning: If you are not one for tacky/ugly things it's probably best you skip this post**

I mentioned having a collection of ugly shell art a little while ago and a few people asked that I post it, so here goes. 

As per usual, its not a fantastic collection as I limit myself to things that are less than a few dollars (with the exception of the shell chandelier, which was just too good to pass up). They all sit on this old shelf, straight as you walk into my room so that everyone gets to appreciate my hideous taste :-P 

thermometres

a trinket box, random shell thingo and a planter

birds

possibly dogs?

and my beloved chandelier

sorry for the hideousness of this post. I will be back to snail mail and prettiness now :-)

Snail mail + Able and Game

 Able and Game are an awesome couple in Melbourne who make brilliant cards for all occasions. I am a massive fan and have their art scattered throughout my room. I thought I would send them thank you card because they always add in little extras when you buy from them and because, as you know, I love sending mail and any excuse will do ;-)  

I found these 'Thanks' cards at an oppy. They are pink and shiny with lightning bolts, I love them!

 My boyfriend sent all these cards in the mail and they are now hanging in my room :-)

You can't really see it but the top frame is an able and game card :-)

Incoming Mail

A lovely letter from Marisa of omiyage. She painted the envelope to match the squirrel card and included some heart stickers and washi tape!! It made me awfully happy :-)

Vintage Cactus Postcards

Recently I bought a whole bunch of vintage cactus postcards off eBay and they arrived!! I am completely in love with them and can't wait to send some out! So if you would like a cactus postcard for free just email me at em.odonnell94@gmail.com and I will send you one :-)

Aren't they simply divine? Some of them are used and the postmarks show that they range from the 1940s to the 1970s. I love that some of them are used, it makes them so special. Below is one of my favourite used ones. I just find it so strange and funny that they asked for a rug catalogue on a cactus postcard- so random. And I love that it's typewritten.

I also bought some vintage Los Vegas postcards - mainly because of that divine pink hotel in the bottom left, oh how I would love to stay there!

New Goodies

It doesn't get better than a giant gold flamingo and a new cactus. 

 My wonderful boyfriend brought this all the way back from New Zealand because he knew I would absolutely love it. 

A lovely surprise gift from my sister :-)

Oppy Finds

Before I went to Canberra did a quick oppy shop and found some christmas decorations that they had put out for christmas in July. It made me so excited for christmas! I go crazy at the op shops during christmas time - I filled a whole suitcase with vintage christmas decorations last year alone!

Snail Mail

Hello again! Ok I'm back to posting for good now :-) Camping was a blast! It's winter here so it was pretty darn cold but we had a campfire to keep us warm and to toast marshmellows on :-D

I got back from Canberra to a heap of pretty mail, I was ever so excited! The pile below consists of various postcards (that horse one on top is holographic!), some lovely long letters and a parcel with a new ink ribbon for my typewriter!

I spent all of today catching up on the blogs I haven't read in the past week and replying to mail. It was delightful :-)

I received an absolutely amazing letter filled with vintage goodies from Sara who always posts beautiful pictures on her blog 'random places/familiar faces'. 

She also sent me two lovely photos which are now on my wall above my new cactus :-D