(op shopping) frocking it

Most of the clothes I wear are from the op shop (save the underwear) but I'm not an adventurous wearer of clothes. I'm far too conservative for my own taste. I love vintage and retro, but I'm not good at wearing it. I'm trying to inject a bit into my everyday wears.

One of the reasons I'm stepping out of the shadows is I've been following Kylie who has been frocking it (and blogging again) for Frocktober. Now Kylie is quite a shy girl too, and I thought if she can do it for a month, I can do it for a day. If you don't already know Kylie, please go and visit and support her in raising much needed funds for ovarian cancer research. 

Also I've often wanted to join in with Jane and her Shiny-T Tuesdays. But I've always felt too shy - well not today! Her theme for this week is The Big Top. Well not quite sure how my get-up fits this theme, although I did feel like a bit of a clown taking selfies, and my footwear is clownish (although several sizes smaller). And I maybe be more Big Bot than Top, but if I don't do this now I might never pluck up the courage again.

So what am I wearing:

The shoes are Deuces (cos my feet are too wide for Converse) brought off Trade Me for half the price of new ones, even though they were new.

The leggings are new from The Warehouse ("where everyone gets a bargain" but they might have changed their branding recently).

The cardy is a stripey Max merino (op shopped) but you'll be pleased to know I replaced it with a black one after seeing these photos (what was I thinking!)

The brooch is one of my latest creations, based on a kina (sea anemone) shell.

The dress is a a 1950s polished cotton shift dress, although I'm not sure it was made in the 50s, probably more 70s. It's been lurking in the wardrobe for months, so long I can't remember which oppy I brought it at or how much it cost. It is sleeveless, hence the cardy, as I don't like displaying my wings, and it also nips in the volume of the dress. After these photos were taken I quickly made some alterations to the dress. It's homemade, and had strange pleats at the seams on both sides at the hem. When I unpicked these and ironed it I noticed that is was very bell-shaped, which was adding to the volume. So I quickly took in the side seams, and rushed out the door to get to the hairdressers.

The last shots I took in the car when I'd arrived home from the two and a half hours I'd wasted spent at the hairdressers. Now I know why I don't go and get turned back into a redhead very often, it takes too long! But I did gain a fringe, something I haven't had for a while.

Now if you're still here after all that, here are some photos of the lovely evening light we've been having lately.

Ah, that's more like it. Linking like crazy here and here.

airing dirty linen

Well I had to get your attention somehow! I love a bit of old linen, but preferably not too dirty. But I have been know to gingerly pick something out of the free bin and take it home and throw it in a bucket of soaker and be thrilled when the dirt vanished.

For the two weeks of the school holidays my op shopping was severely curtailed, but I did manage a couple of quickies. Amazingly when we were in Greymouth in the first weekend of the holidays the Sally Army was having a late opening on a Saturday afternoon, and between dancing we got in and had a bit of a rummage. The find of the day was the bright checked Onehunga woollen travel rug for 10 bucks.

With school going back on Monday my ability to op shop fully has been restored. Most of what I look for is linen and haberdashery. These are the ingredients for making things for my Mahana Redlegs label, where I try to be as close to 100% upcycled as possible.

In Motueka this week I found the two large pieces of floral fabric. The top piece was $2 and the bottom was $8, which I did hesitate with, but if I average it over the two pieces I'm happy. The photo doesn't really show the amazing neon pink flowers it the second pieces. I'm not quite sure what I'll do with it. There's enough to make a dress or skirt, but it'll probably end up lining my blanket bags, as it's a heavy twill.

In the Red Cross in Nelson I found this old blue cardboard box. It may have been a chocolate box once, and it used to have wee metal feet, but only one of those is still there. It was full of cottons, bias binding, needles, domes and embroidery cotton, again I hesitated at $6, but I think it was worth it. Has anyone else noticed that the prices in the oppies are getting higher and higher?

And I also scored an old cotton tea towel for $1 (that's more like it). I love these ones with the crochet edging, but after it's wash it hasn't remained whole for long. I've had fun cutting out the flowers and leaves and machine embroidering them onto my homemade wool felt to make into brooches. I'll save the crochet edging and think of something to use it for too.

Joining in with Max's Op Shop Show Off for the first time in weeks. 

op shopping

The last 10 days have been a tad busy, with a ballet exam (not mine, but being a ballet mum is almost as hard!), a small operation (which has taken longer to recuperate from that what I thought), organising and having a table at a craft market and hanging my 100 sharpie drawings in an exhibition (there will be a blog post soon I promise).

So yesterday was the first day I had time for a quick op shop in what felt like ages. I decided to go to Motueka for a change of scenery. And lo and behold in the Sally Army I found a little bit of op shop serendipity in the form of a black pottery mug.

If you saw Max's op-shop show-off post two weeks ago she shared a lovely black dish made by Chris Weaver a West Coast potter. And I lamented to her how I'd once found one of his teapots, but had in a fit of purging sold it on Trade Me. Reasoning that I'd buy another one, with the wooden handle, from his Iron series.

Well now I am the proud owner of one cup from the same series, and I'll not be selling it on Trade Me.

Linking up with this weeks Op-Shop Show-Off.

Now in a completely different tangent, a sunset from last week.  For some reason we don't get a lot of brilliant sunsets. I'm not sure if it's because we're too close to the mountains, or what, but when we lived on the plains we saw a lot more than we do now. And I discovered how to make a palette from a photo. These programs might be a dime a dozen, but this was the one I used.

It's the last day of term 3 tomorrow, so the school holidays are about to kick off! Wish me luck.

making

Yesterday as the southerly storm thrashed the South Island, I stayed at home and sewed. Luckily our area was not badly affected, there were some loud thunder claps overhead, enough to make me unplug the modem to avoid the computer getting fried, but compared to other regions we escaped damage.

Daisy had the right idea and slept all day on a pile of freshly thrifted and washed woollen blankets.

Before I could get down to the business of making I had admin duties for the upcoming Mapua Makers Market that I'm organising with my friend. It's the 4th one we've organised and I wished it got easier, but alas not yet. 

By the end of the day I had seven freshly made zipper pouches/purses. I'm trying to be more efficient in my sewing, but as each piece is a one-off it's hard to get a production line going. I make according to the materials I have on hand, what inspires me, and often one thing leads onto another.

I enjoyed the free stitching, or as The Teenager said "Mum it looks like you can't sew a straight line". So now I'm ready to try this on a larger scale and make some cushions.

A couple of weeks ago I found a 95% compete tapestry of a Constable painting at the dump shop. After a warm wash and iron, I turned it into four zippered pouches. I love these so much I've kept one for myself!

All of the materials that I used to make these pouches were sourced from an op shop (or the dump shop) - the wool blanket, the fabric used for lining, the zips, the doilies and the thread. As my motto for Mahana Redlegs says "I'm upcycling as fast as I can."

Linking up with Christina's Made By Hand and Leonie's Show & Tell.

a road trip & books

Last week hubby and I had a quick road trip down the West Coast and back to collect some meat from my brother's farm. We are lucky enough to know exactly where our meat comes from but not have to deal with any of the gory bits.

We left at 6.30 and were back by 3.00, which meant it was a quick trip with only an hours rest at the farm. As we travelled south the dawn greeted us and we drove past hills dusted in frost so thick it looked like snow. 

 Once on the West Coast it was a lovely sunny winter's day. I took all of these photos out of the car window, which is a bit hit and miss, but can give some nice surprises, as long as you ignore the crooked horizons.

 It was nice to spend some time together to talk and enjoy the amazing scenery.

My husband is a hard man to buy presents for - a task I dread almost as much as he dreads buying for me. So with his birthday looming I was clueless what to get him until I walked into a shop and saw Maddie. If you haven't come across Maddie the Coonhound before do go and check her out here or here. Theron takes the most amazing photos of his dog Maddie on a road trip across America. They are sure to bring a smile to even the most dedicated cat person.

A couple of days after his birthday I did find a book in an op shop that he really was pleased about. He'd told me years ago that there was a book on Wellington which had a photo of his dad in it, but didn't know what the title of the book was.

When I picked up this book by Ans Westra, I did go through it looking for my father-in-law, but couldn't see him. Still I brought the book as it was full of fantastic photos and was only $2. When I told hubby I'd found a book on Wellington, he said the photo was taken in front of a movie theatre, and straight away I knew I might have the right one. When I turned to the following page, there he was on the right looking straight at the camera.

When hubby had a look he was amazed to find his mum, aunty, uncle and grandma also. He'd never remembered that they were in the photo, as he'd only seen the photo once many years ago. His grandma is right on the edge of the photo next to his dad. And somewhere in the throng there would have been three very excited boys about to see a James Bond movie on a Saturday afternoon with their extended family, similar to the three hamming it up in the middle of the photo.

Ans Westra is a very well respected NZ photographer, there's a great interview with her here. This book on Wellington was published in 1976 and while I don't recognise all of the places, I do remember the times (just!). Here are a few of my favourite photos.

Meat workers picketing the offices of the company, with a bit of light reading to pass the time.

Two chaps enjoying a bit of a bogey.

Mowing lawns on steep sections in the city is still hard going, this guy has a rope to stop the lawnmower getting away. He was also working on his tan, something you don't see so often now with the Slip, Slop, Slap campaign against skin cancer.

Two girls with ice creams sharing a pair of wooden Japanese jandals, hence why they need walking sticks?

Love the kid wearing gumboots a few sizes too big, and the writing on the footpath.

A typical pub scene, I didn't started frequenting such fine establishments until the late 1980s.

These guys were getting ready for Friday night. The council was a bit lax on repairing the footpath in this street, or is it a construction site? That might explain the helmets too.

A typical backyard scene, rotary clothes line, wheelbarrow, trike. It could have been me on the left playing in the dirt.

Business men enjoying a beautiful lunchtime on the waterfront, one has taken his shoes off for extra sensory delight.

 

Sorry about the long post, I really should have done two, but hey I didn't - so hopefully you made it to here.

winteriness finds

Yesterday we woke up to winter. Can't complain too much it was worse for those further south, it just seemed to happen quite suddenly. Its slightly strange to get used to the new view, the mountains will look different for the next 4 months (see photo at bottom of post).

At least the sun has been out, so I can take photos of my latest op shop finds.

Find of the week courtesy of the Richmond dump shop is this Kosta Boda sunflower candlestick (ID-ed thanks to Google images). I'm not a big glass collector, probably because my sister is, and I didn't want to compete with her on Trade Me auctions - back in the days when I used to bid on them. But I can still spot something half decent from a few paces,as soon as I picked this up I could feel the weight, and knew it must be something Scandi. Thankfully the "$3 lady" wasn't on duty so I got it for $2. As for the design, it's not the best -  it took me almost half an hour in the kitchen sink to scrape the wax out of all those nooks and crannies, to bring back the shine.

 I've also added to my cheese dome collection (well not quite a collection as I need one more to bestow it such a title!) The front greener version was scored at the Richmond Sally Army for $4. I need to get the beeswax onto its base to restore it. It goes well with the first one which I got back here.
 

And yes I've been adding to the vintage sheet collection. I can't go past a good one (or two) especially when they're $3 each. This is the shameful pile sitting on top my couch waiting to be put away in the stash. One of my good friends asked me what I was going to use them all for. Good question - one I haven't quite got an answer for yet, unless I suddenly take up quilting. But look!

Yes, I finally cut into a sheet, to make a skirt for the budgies cage. It doesn't quite fit, due to dodgy corners,  but hopefully it'll keep some of the seeds off the floor. Those of you who regularly read my musings (thank you precious few xx) will know that we had a budgie catastrophe a month ago. Sometimes the best way to get over such grief is to replace what you lost with some more of the same. So a couple of weeks ago we purchased two baby budgies.

Sammy and Sylvie who are much more delightful than Jackie. We can actually touch these guys without painful bites, and they can be taken from their cage for a bit of exercise around the hall.  It also made me realise that Jackie was probably not very happy being in a cage all by herself.

Linking up with Max and everyone else at the Op Shop Show Off.

Here's the rosey-tinted snowy mountain shot from our deck  (a bit of zoom required as we're not that close to the mountains!)

getting crafty

I've had a few craft projects on the go over the last week or so, and this weekend I completed a few of them. Firstly I finished a couple of small embroidery pictures I started when we went away two weeks ago. I still need to frame them in the old metal frames that I collect then they'll be ready for the market. 

I've made two scarves which I've termed the "Frogging Scarf" because you knit it then frog half of it. I'd never done this before, my good friend was showing the kids (who are learning knitting at school), as it is what her grandma taught her when she was learning to knit. It sure is a great way to get fast results.

 
 I made one for myself, in a lovely soft wool that ended up giving an ombre effect, as can be seen with the three different colours above. Please excuse the bad selfie (complete with air freshener in the background!). Next I whipped up one for Miss L out of some wool I frogged from a hat that I got at the op shop for $2.

If you want a quick project try the Frogging Scarf.  Grab some thick and soft wool and the biggest needles you have (I used 10mm). Cast on an uneven number - 17 & 19 stitches worked for the two scarves I made. Knit in garter stitch for as long as the ball lasts or you want. On the last row as you knit across drop every second stitch, then cast off into every second stitch on the cast on row to make a loop. Sew in the ends.

Then for the fun bit - where you pull and undo every second stitch, all the way down to the cast on row.  Suddenly your scarf grows and turns into a light and lacey scarf! This one grew to 112 cm from 41cm of garter stitch. This wasn't as long as I wanted, as it only gives two loops around the head, but it was as long as the ball of wool I had, and Miss L is happy!

 Friday was a  bit of a wet and miserable day so I stayed at home and made a blanket bag, which has already been "baggsed" by a friend! She actually encouraged me to buy the two doilies at an op shop earlier in the week, when I tried to protest and said I already had plenty of doilies. I thought I'd better use them, so I sewed them onto felted wool circles with embroidery floss. She chose the first one which I sewed onto dark red wool. I thought I'd taken some photos of the finished bag, but it appears not - so here are the embellishments only! If you're interested in what my blanket bags look like here's a link.

Finally I made a kitty cat pencil case. I've been meaning to get around to making a batch as I'm going to be at a market in July, and these are one of my best sellers. Plus I've just been mentioned in a online magazine called The Jam Jar, so I thought I'd better at least have one in my Felt shop!

Linking up with Creative Spaces and Show & Tell.