Stuff

It's hot here in Sydney today, I've spent the morning running around the garden and jumping on the trampoline with my littler boys and am totally exhausted, so forgive my inability to come up with a better post title. Say it like it is, here's some recent stuff I've bought...

The anglophile in me couldn't resist this Union Jack Tray for $5 at a market, very timely considering the recent royal engagement.

Another tray, this one was $2 at a market, it was made in Italy and features lovely botanical illustrations with latin titles.

This lovely rustic wooden model of a sewing machine was $2, it makes a nice display piece.

I really adore this sweet apple circular cloth, I think it's for a table as it's quite large, will look cute in the playroom. Made in Denmark - $1.

These pieces of fruit are really heavy, I think they're made out of granite or some sort of stone - $3 each for the larger ones, $1 for the small one.

Continuing on the fruit theme this beautiful large carved wooden fruit bowl was $5. There should have been 3 apples in this photo, after I set it up I went off to get the camera, when I returned there were only 2 apples. The distant sound of munching led me to D scoffing down the missing apple in the hallway ;-)

A fabulous casserole in the most beautiful green glaze. Made in Portugal -$4 in Vinnie's.

Another lovely glazed piece, made in Japan - 50 cents in Salvos.

I think these deer and bowl go really nicely together.

The bowl cost $2 at a market.

And I think I paid $5 for the pair of brass deer at the same market.

Head over to Sophie's to check out others' fab finds...

I'm going to go and climb into the fridge to cool down now ;-)

Please be seated

On the way home yesterday, after an appointment a few suburbs away with my 2 younger boys, I stopped in at a Salvos store. I have only recently discovered this store thanks to a friend and have since found some really great "stuff" there. I can't believe I have been going to fortnightly appointments around the corner from this store for 16 months and not known it was there!!!

Anyway, they had stacks of matching gorgeous retro style Italian chairs for sale at $10 each or 4 for $30, BUT it was 50% off day so that made the chairs 4 for $15. I pretty much fell in love with them and hurried to the counter to talk about delivery. Alas the sales lady said they don't deliver to my suburb. I was gutted. If I had had my thinking cap on I would have bought the lot anyway and booked a van to deliver them (I am on familiar terms with the guy who does Vinnie's deliveries by now and have his card) but my boys were being excessively feral in the stroller, SCREAMING, hair-pulling, scratching, it was like a cat-fight, I think I can safely say it was the worst behaviour I have EVER seen from my little angels so I fled the store in mortification and promptly caught the next bus home.

Later on I researched the lovely chairs online and saw that they retail at $159 each new! They are made in Italy and come in a variety of colours. Of course I started to obsess about missing out on $159 chairs for such a ridiculously fantastic price so I called Salvos this morning and after some wheeling and dealing I got them to agree to deliver them to me, I think they were glad to free up the floor space for more stock.

Anyway, the point of my long-winded post is that about an hour ago, 18 of these beauties arrived at my house for $90 including delivery - yep, that's $5 EACH!!!

I will take some photos of them when they are all cleaned-up and in situ. Did I mention I LOVE them?

and again...

Oh dear, I was at a church sale last weekend and saw this typewriter for ONE DOLLAR. So I bought it :-p Needless to say my husband was delighted to see I'd brought home "another bloody typewriter". But what was I to do? Spend it on half a twix instead?

The cases vintage typewriters come in are often in pretty grotty condition but just look at the lovely red-lined interior of this one, it even had the instructions and some sheets of old carbon paper tucked away in the pocket.

I repeat - ONE DOLLAR!

Divided We Stand

I was just clearing out my kitchen cupboards and rearranging things and thought while they were out I'd share my little collection of pyrex divided dishes (a couple of images are from previous posts)...

Opening my cupboards and seeing all this retro loveliness makes me smile, if you think that's tragic visit the Pyrex Collective, there are others out there :-)

In-credenza-ble Find

Sorry about that AWFUL play on words in the post title, I can't help myself!

The study in our house is very much my husband's domain, full of files, papers, gadgets and other officey-crap. But I haven't been able to resist putting my stamp on it decor-wise and trying to make it a nice space for him. I have been really lucky with the pieces I've found for this room such as the bookcase and filing cabinet I have previously posted about. But up until recently there was a blank wall crying out for some storage. I was frantically looking for something fab in the fear my husband might beat me to it and bring home a beech-effect-flat-pack-storage-solution...

I finally found the perfect piece of furniture last month, ta-daa!

This retro credenza/buffet/sideboard was a steal at $40 in Vinnie's. These are very much in vogue at the moment and go for a lot on eBay so this was a major find! It fits the space perfectly and is the perfect solution to hide away all those ugly computer files, text books and disks etc. This photo only shows two thirds of it as the desk juts out in front of it, will need to move that over a bit (I'm actually on the hunt for a really nice desk too, the one we have is yuk).

Another surface to put "stuff" on, yay!

I picked up this vintage heat lamp for $5 at a market recently.

And this lamp at the same market for $5.

I'm extra-happy with this purchase because I really missed the credenza we had in our last house, it was on-loan from friends but I gave it back when we moved in case it got damaged.

The study is really starting to come together, now I really, really need to find a desk before my husband does!

Oops, I did it again!

You may remember me posting a while back about picking up an Olivetti Lettera at a flea market, and then posting about selling it quite recently...

Well, a few weeks ago I was at a garage sale and what did I see with a $2 sticker on it???

Another Olivetti Lettera 32.

Yes, I did buy it. But who, in all honesty, wouldn't have for $2? I missed the one I sold so much, its lovely greenness had been replaced with an empty space, now it's filled again...

Don't judge me :-)

Shades of Teal

I have noticed a predominance of teal and peacock greens in recent home decor magazines, greens and blues are my favourite colours (no surprise there) and I love the richness of these shades. I have been drooling over some of the beautiful items featured in Real Living and House & Garden and online magazines and was happy to find a few really nice pieces of my own on a recent Op Shop hunt.

Firstly, I picked up this cane side table for $10 at Salvos, it was dusty and flaky and was practically screaming "Paint Me"!!! Coloured cane, rattan or bamboo is another popular look at the moment and one I love.

A couple of coats of "Heritage Green" spray paint have transformed it into something really pretty...

For once I had the foresight to take a "Before" shot.

This lovely teal lamp base was $6 in Salvos, the shade is from Target.

A peacock green vase - $3 in Salvos. Birdie - $2 in Salvos.

A squiggly wicker bowl - $4 in Salvos (I say bowl but my youngest has decided it's a hat and wears it accordingly :-)

We meet at last :-)

An early birthday present arrived this morning!!!

A very wonderful pressie from all my boys. How did they know how much I wanted one? Is my husband a mind reader? Or could it have been the 6 month campaign of "hinting" through my blog, facebook, email, text, by phone, in person and by means of leaving Kitchenaid adverts lying around oh-so-casually? I will never know...