My Myer Victor

I love my beautiful old Myer Victor. I got it a couple of years ago, not long after my 11 year old Husqvarna died and could not be revived. I bought it at a garage sale. I still have the tag attached to the handle on the case: “Good Working Order $20”.

Stupid me at the time went away to think about it. I always do that and when I go back to buy, the thing I want has gone. But not this time. It was still there. I paid the man my $20 and just as we were leaving his wife said, “Oh no you didn’t buy that heavy old thing did you?”. There was an air of guilt in her voice, like she didn’t want to pass the burden of it’s heaviness on to anyone else. She then proceeded to tell me about how her husband had given it to her as a wedding present 38 years ago, and how she could only use it when he was home ‘cos she couldn’t lift it onto the table. But I love it’s heaviness. It feels sturdy and solid – a bit like an old car. I love that I have a space in the corner of the dining room where I can leave it on the desk and not have to lift it up when I want to use it.
I love how the needle is not centred and sews on the left and I love how the needle is threaded from the side rather than from the front. I love this gorgeous green machine!
Visit Sophie’s for more Flea Market Finds.

Flea Market Finds

Just because I have been silent the last few Sundays does not mean I haven’t been bargain hunting. I have been hunting and I have found stuff, but it wasn’t until this week that I was excited to share it with you and play along with Flea Market Finds.

During our visit to the in-laws, we had the opportunity to visit a few country oppies (without the children – thanks J&B) and boy have they come up with the goods!

My favourite find was hiding high up on the top shelf. First it was the colour and then I spotted the price…far out…$2!?!? The lady told me it was $2 because it was old and a bit scuffed up! I really don’t care! How good is it to see Maya taking an early interest in vintagey stuff!

Anyway luckily I found the case ‘cos I needed it to hold all these gorgeous fabrics and wool I collected. Fabric scraps, sheets, pillowcases, tablecloths, curtains, upholstery samples… you can never have too much fabric… until you can’t close the cases or the cupboards I guess!

Then there were the books. The Crochet Book published by the Australian Wool Corporation has some fantastic 80’s patterns that I can’t wait to try. Of course there were more Little Golden books to add to the ever growing collection and Sean found a couple more Enid Blyton books to add to his collection.

And lastly there was this little white wicker shelf which will be perfect for displaying softies on my stall … after a bit of a clean up and coat of new paint.

There was more stuff than this though. I just haven’t photographed it. There was the $1 single bed wool blanket destined to be used inside a quilt, the hessian I’ll use to teach Khye how to sew, more self cover buttons, the lovely original painting complete with falling apart frame and the beautifully soft lambswool jumper for making more softies.

Hope you had a good bargain hunting week too!

Opping the blues away

Friday was a freezing, foggy day and I didn’t want to face the thought of spending the afternoon saying “Khye get off Maya” and “Khye don’t pull Maya’s fingers” and “Khye take the blanket off Maya” and then finally cracking it with frustration “Khye just leave Maya alone”!!!!!! I’m sure I sound like a broken record and that he doesn’t even hear me anymore. But that’s another story for another time … sigh ... So anyway I packed up my winter blues, my hopes for a peaceful afternoon (and my cash) and took a little trip to a couple of neighbouring little towns to visit their fantastic country oppies. And rather than enjoy the afternoon on our own I invited a friend and her two kids to join us for some op shop fun.

There’s nothing quite like a bit of opping with a friend to cure those gloomy winter blues. Not only did the fog clear, the skies open up and the glorious sunshine warm us, but I found some op shop gold.

First were the brand new, still in packets, never used, all cotton vintage sheets.

Then there was the dear deer that the kids spotted, looked at briefly then returned to the shelf. I couldn’t let her go, particularly seeing as though she was only 50 cents. There were these little golden books. My favourite is the growly bear book, published in the early 60’s, and it’s beautiful illustrations. There were lots of other bits and pieces – fabric, wool, doilies, more books, kids shoes, embroidery hoops, stranded cotton, a kids coat, wire bowl for my market stall and lastly there was this. Oh my how gorgeous! And then to discover it was only 50 cents too!

Thanks AM for coming opping with us. The kids managed to entertain each other and they were even pretty well behaved, except when they ran around the shop shouting and laughing with that huge purple teddy that was bigger than them. The “Pru and Tru” ladies behind the counter weren’t very impressed though, glaring at them disapprovingly over the tops of their glasses!

Anyway hope you all found some op shop gold this week too! Check it out over at Sophie’s.

Flea Market Finds

Thanks to Sophie for hosting Flea Market Finds every week. I love sharing my finds and ooohhhing and aaahhhing over everyone else’s fantastic finds! Here are my finds for the week:A long wool blend coat desperately required for winter.
Now that I can crochet, I can collect crochet patterns. I just have to learn to read them now. Don’t you love the mother and daughter crocheted bikinis!
Golden Hands Volume 1 for $1. Lots of good stuff inside and more crochet patterns!
And finally a bunch of self cover buttons, jeans buttons and eyelets, and a couple of metres of this great green paisley fabric.

Now I’ve gotta stop blogging and start sewing – only 3 weeks till the Sugar & Spice Children’s Market.

Flea Market Finds

Oh my, I AM HOOKED! I am sorry, very, very sorry for that much overused pun but I don’t know how else to put it. Why have I not learned to crochet earlier? I am loving it! I bought 3 full balls of this cotton yarn from the oppy this week that I absolutely love. I just hope I have enough to finish this dress I’ve started to crochet for Maya. I can’t believe how quickly it is coming along. It’s much faster and I’m more coordinated than knitting.

I’m thinking about using this cute little embroidered doily that I also bought from the op shop this week, as a pocket on the dress. Not sure yet. I also found this 3 tier wire basket to use on my stall at the upcoming Sugar & Spice market – less than a month to go now, aarrgghh. And last but not least is this minty green (loooove this colour!) chenille single bedspread to go with the peachy one I found a couple of weeks ago. It always pays to look in the dog blankets box at the op shop ‘cos I have found some great stuff in there. I thought this was a bit faded but after a wash I think it was just a bit dusty and grimy.

Visit Sophie at Her Library Adventures for some fabulous finds!

Flea Market Finds

I have had some luck recently finding textiles books (here and here) at the oppies and this week was no exception.A lovely hardcover needlework book first published in 1950, this book is the “Fourth Impression 1972”. And with these clear step by step instructions on how to crochet, hopefully I will be joining the “crochet club” soon.
This book, while not exactly a Flea Market Find, was very cheap – only $4.50. I found it at Lincraft!

This week I have been inspired by my find last week and by Kate’s gorgeous dress making, and have been flicking through all the patterns at the oppies. I found these. These illustrations of elongated models always make clothes look so good don’t they? But I love the dress pattern on the left. Not sure if it would suit me but I can only give it a go. Now to choose some fabric…

Oh and one of them came with the pattern cut out of an old 1975 newspaper. Just look at those house and land prices back then!

Visit Sophie at Her Library Adventures for more Flea Market Finds.

Flea Market Finds

I had the opportunity to go opping by myself for a couple of hours this week. So opping I went and I went with intention. Never a good sign because we all know how that usually turns out – disappointment. Not this time! I went opping with the intention of looking at, trying on and hopefully buying some clothes for my sad looking wardrobe. I rarely bother looking at clothes for myself because it’s just too hard to try them on with the kiddies. But without them, I had some success bringing home a pair of jeans, a couple of jumpers and some tops.

And what would a trip to the oppies be without some sort of fabric purchase?!

I love the colour of this wool fabric and hopefully it will make a good winter skirt.

Check out more oppy finds over at Her Library Adventures.

Hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day!

Flea Market Finds

My find of the week is this near new hardcover textiles book published in 2008. I saw it for only $6 at the local oppy, took it to the counter and then discovered that books were half price that week! $3! Bargain!

It has some great projects like these gorgeous slippers to knit. This folded Japanese quilt looks like fun and easy to make as you fold circles over padded squares, quilt them, join all the squares together and then you have a finished quilt at the end. And maybe I can teach myself to crochet these baubles for Maya. I also picked up another beautifully packaged set of sheets from my favourite op shop. It is only bailing twine but the blue matches the sheets perfectly! And just look at these sheets – it’s Noah’s Ark! I love the colours and I love the design. Not sure what I’ll do with them yet. I guess I’ll chuck them in the linen cupboard with the rest of the vintage sheet collection…
…just as soon as they’re washed and dried. I also found a set of these pink sheets. I don’t think they’re too vintage but they’ll look good with my other sheets. I just couldn’t resist posting another clothesline shadow shot!

Go visit Her Library Adventures for more Flea Market Finds.

Flea Market Finds

My find of the week is this cute little kids chair. It only cost $1 from a garage sale.

It took over an hour to clean with a toothbrush.

It has come up nicely now.

And most importantly Khye loves it!

Other finds this week include this gorgeous green tablecloth to add to the collection of tablecloths.

Some more sheets and pillowcases to add to the collection of sheets and pillowcases.

Some more doilies to add to the collection of doilies.

A lovely peachy chenille bedspread I plan to use as a quilt backing.

And a basket to store it all in.

But I think the basket may have become Igglepiggle's boat!

Check out Sophie's for more great finds.

Flea Market Finds

I didn't think I was going to play along with Flea Market Finds this week. My great run of oppy finds over the past ... few ... weeks finally came to an end. Nothing jumped out me saying "buy me, buy me" this week. All I found were a couple of pieces of clothing for Khye and Maya, and this pair of too short jeans in My Creative Space.

Yesterday I had both kids with me so I wasn't planning on going garage sailing, but something told me to drop by just this one garage sale nearby. Boy am I glad I did!

- 6 large pieces of fabric with about 4m in each piece,

- about 15 - 20 crocheted, knitted and embroidered doilies,

- a large embroidered tablecloth,

- and a stack of embroidered, cross stitched and appliqued napkins.

All this for only $5! Bargain!

Oh and they gave Khye this cute yellow teddy who he has named "George the teddy".

Don't you dare call him just "George". No, no, no he is "George the teddy".

What bargains have you found this week? I'm looking forward to checking out the finds over at Sophie's place.

A most opportune find!

For the last couple of months I've been thinking about how I would love to get a carpet sweeper, just to pick up obvious bits of mess without the arduous task of dragging out the vaccuum cleaner. I had decided that it was highly unlikely I would find a carpet sweeper at the oppy and that ebay was probably going to be my best bet. I haven't even checked ebay yet, but just look at what I stumbled across at my local oppy this week ...
... a gorgeous red Sabco "Whisk Away" complete with white wooden handle!

Other finds this week are these two beautiful crochet blankets.

I found these for only $3 each in the dog blanket box. I never understand why they put perfectly good blankets in the dog blankets box.

Actually these aren't "perfectly good". They both need a really, really good wash and a bit of TLC. One has blobs of melted wax all over it.
Hopefully I can get it out. Shannon Lush tells me I should be able to. And the other blanket has a dirty great hole in it.

So all you crocheters out there, tell me, is this hole repairable? I'm assuming all 3 rows of grey will need to be pulled out and replaced??? I can't crochet, but I'm hoping I'll learn one day ... or maybe I can get Mum to help me fix it!

Kiera is pretty happy with my finds this week!

I also picked up some great fabric (read pillowcases, tablecloths, and an apron) from a couple of op shops in Violet Town and Beechworth over the weekend.

I also found this beautiful cotton tea towel.

And this very cute linen pot holder with a 1977 calendar printed on it.

Pop over to Sophie's for more great finds!