Op shop finds and a couple more blocks ...

One of the weekend's garage sale was more like an English jumble sale - in a church halls and mostly clothes piled high on trestles.  Unlike an English jumble sale there was no queue to get in, no entry fee and you could fill a bag up for $2 - how can you not like that.  Most of the things I found are to be used for the material - silk, linen, wool and a couple of stripy jersey tops to make some trousers for the girls.

a small selection of my finds!

and a couple of items were put in the bag solely for the buttons!

Some vintage embroidered doilies from the local op shop

Embroidery detail

Now you might be asking isn't the second photo just another close up shot?  Well you would be right!  But it's the BACK of the doily.  Can you believe it?  The neatness of the work is amazing - and I got the whole set for 50c!

I'm still working away on my quilt top from the ANZAC Bee - it's maybe about 2/3 done now!  A couple of extra blocks I've made:

appliqueed tumbling hearts block

paper pieced heart awaiting border

I can't seem to be able to get into anything but the heart quilt so I had better get it finished soon to allow some other creating into my life!  (And also get the kitchen table and spare bed back!!!!) xx

What a wonderful weekend ...

including lots of my favourite things.  

Saturday was filled with:

garage sales

op shoppping

coffee

clear blue sunny skies

washing drying outside in winter - including some of my garage sales finds

outside playing

being able to have the windows and doors open all day

our beautiful rosemary which will be full of the beautiful flowers from now until December

playing about with my ANZAC Bee blocks

sewing

Sunday dawned grey and wet so a day inside was called for, including:

cleaning

friends for morning tea and playing

sorting through my op shop finds

reading the Sunday papers

more coffee

a little bit more sewing on my quilt top

cooking something new for tea.

chicken and mushroom pie followed by ice cream - delicious!

All in all a lovely time had by all.  How was yours? x

How apt ...

that I should find this book at a garage sale this morning when we are off on an Outdoor Survival Course tomorrow!  I know I should have been getting ready to go but garage sales are few and far between in this little town at the moment so I just had to go and have a look!  More goodies to show next week. Now we really are going ..... x

My creative space

We're off on holiday (and a little bit of crafting is coming too!)

We're going away tomorrow for a week's holiday - hurray!!!! Up to the sunny Bay of Plenty (oh please let it be the sunny Bay of Plenty!). Although there'll be lots to do up there I still might have the urge to be crafty so I've packed a little case (in fact it's the first and only thing packed so far!).

The case's contents:

2 embroidery hoops

linen offcuts

embroidery silks

scissors

material marker

ball of chunky colourful yarn

bamboo knitting needles

And the best about it to me? The case was found at a garage sale for $1, the embroidery hoops, linen and silks were all received via Freecycle, the yarn is new but was reduced and the bamboo needles cost me 50c, yes that's right reduced to 50c. So a whole case of loveliness for very little money - what more could you ask?!

All packed and ready to go! Until we get back - au revoir! x

PS To check out lots of other lovely creative spaces take a peek over here.

A couple of sneaky peeks!

Some linen found this morning at a local garage sale

Something that's been in my head for a long time and may almost be at fruition!

Ask and you shall receive ...

Just this morning, whilst talking to Craig, I said that we had a serious lack of storage in our new house. Having just moved I have not yet frequented the local Sallies or op shops so haven't seen what furniture is on offer. The local paper only listed 2 garage sales much to my disappointment and I was tempted not to even bother. But 2 is better than none surely? Well it certainly was when I walked down the drive to the first one and came across an old kitchen unit in excellent condition. I wasn't quite sure exactly where it would fit but knew it would go somewhere and for only $6 I wasn't going to pass it by. And as if by magic it seems to have been made for this exact space in the laundry (yes I am now the proud owner of a separate room in which to do the washing and ironing!):

If you look closely you can see that it's sitting on a piece of hardboard that is covering a rather large hole in the floor - so perfect positioning when there's two little ones around the place! The photo's not great because we've no light in the room, as evidenced by the wires hanging out of the hole in the wall. But it will be lovely - the walls are all the orginal panelling so once I rip off the nasty, nasty hardboard covering I will have a room where I actually like to be (once I've treated the borer/woodworm in the wood that is, but that's a another story for another time!).