Le Creuset - Old & New

I have made a few additions to my collection of Le Creuset cookware recently. First I'll share my gorgeous new giant casserole!

I absolutely love this Caribbean / Teal colour and have wanted a HUGE casserole for ages for my bulk cooking of dishes such as cottage pie, meatballs, fish bake etc. This is the 28cm casserole which costs $579 in stores such as David Jones. I got mine from UK Amazon for $175, had it shipped to Ireland for free and my lovely Dad brought it over for me on his last visit. Thanks Dad! You saved me $400 :-)

Now for my cheapest Le Creuset find ever! I got this 20cm pot in a Church rummage sale about a month ago, it was marked $2! Look at the lid...

When the lovely old lady behind the counter saw it she said "hang on, there's a chip in it, I'll give it you for one dollar"! I nearly cracked up, this little crack does not affect the function of this pot at all, I actually already have a couple in this colour (posted about here), one the same size as this with a different style lid, but these pots are so fab for cooking soups and making sauces I could never have too many :-)

At the same rummage sale I picked up this lovely 20cm gratin dish for $3! I have 2 round ones in the same style that I use all the time, love them!

And finally, at another flea market a few weeks ago I bought this Le Creuset skillet for $3. It was in HORRIBLE condition, the whole outside was caked in black baked on crap but I knew a good soak and some elbow grease with wire wool and it would clean up a treat :-)

The inside still needs a bit more work but for $3 I'm not complaining!

Let them eat cake

To be honest cakes never last very long in our house, but I still like to display them prettily for those few minutes before they are devoured by my 3 little horses (and myself).

I have built up a little collection of cake domes and stands, some new, some old...

This lovely 2 tiered cake stand is by Laura Ashley, it took a lot of perseverance to get my hands on one of these after seeing them online in the UK store who unfortunately don't deliver to Australia, they weren't available in Laura Ashley Australia stores who charge about 4 times the amount for their products as the UK stores anyway. Luckily I finally found a UK eBayer who sells brand new Laura Ashley homewares and was willing to ship to Australia. Hurray!

These vintage glass cake plates with domes cost a few dollars each in Vinnies.

Vintage glass cake stands in small, medium and large...

You can't have too many cake stands can you?

This glass dome cost $2 at a market.

It looks great teamed with this cake stand...

Or this pretty vintage cake plate.

And lastly, a simple white cake stand from David Jones :-)

That's all folks.

Now if you'll excuse me, there's a vanilla slice awaiting me, better wolf it down quickly before school pickup!

The trouble with Pinterest...

The trouble with Pinterest is that once you have all your lovely things sorted into neat moodboards you just can't help going back and looking at them, and of course the more you look at them the prettier they are and then who can blame you for making a few little purchases here and there :-)

And soooo, I popped over to Anthropologie's online store and bought myself a few lovely things I'd been admiring from afar for a while...

I have been in love with this ceramic farmer's berry basket for ages, it looks so pretty filled with fresh strawberries :-)

I already have a lovely cream ceramic egg crate from Wheel and Barrow but this one is TURQUOISE! How was I supposed to resist?

Gorgeous bowls, you can't have too many bowls, can you?

A is for Alice. I don't drink tea or coffee but think this will be lovely filled with hot chocolate :-)

One of the prettiest ceramic tumblers I have ever seen.

And lastly, a gorgeous little handle for my linen cupboard.

Must. Stay. Away. From. Pinterest.

Today's Finds Today!

It's been ages since I've come home with a big pile of "stuff" and shared it that same day so here's what I bought today :-)

A lovely collection of soft pink ramekins by "Wheel and Barrow" for 50 cents each. I have some gorgeous pale blue ramekins already so they'll look gorgeous stashed with these :-)

A pair of gorgeous little ceramic tumblers for 50 cents each, I seem to building up quite a collection of these in different patterns - I'll do a post on them very soon.

A very lovely vintage "Pontesa" cake plate for $2, I love the retro swirl pattern.

Again with soft pink - I don't even usually like pink but this has a bit of an art-deco feel about it. It cost 50 cents, I'll use it for stashing cutlery.

I picked up this gorgeous huge "Claire's Kitchen" pie dish for $3, these retail new at $36. I am itching to bake a big berry pie in it :-)

These gorgeous crystal tumblers were 20 cents each - perfect for Baileys on ice, yum, or for using as tealight holders. I found some other really beautiful crystal tumblers recently and will share them soon.

A couple of lovely simple sauce dishes - $1 each.

I love the elegance of these champagne flutes - $1 each. I didn't really need any more champagne flutes as I recently splashed out on a gorgeous set of Royal Doulton "Mode" flutes I had been ogling for ages since seeing them in David Jones. But it's a great excuse to have a big celebration!

All this for under 20 bucks! This is one happy shopper signing off :-)

Pinned!

I recently gave in to the Pinterest bug and really love being able to organise my stuff so much better than having heaps of bookmarks in my browser that I never look at.

And look, not only do I pin but I have been pinned!

I decided not to link to my Pinterest account here on my blog as it's just a personal mood board of bits and pieces I like rather than vintage stuff but it was interesting to search and see what others out there have pinned from my blog :-)

Are you being served?

One of my biggest addictions is servingware! I have so much that a lot of it has just ended up stuffed away in cupboards unused, so a couple of weeks ago I did a big clean out and put the pieces I liked best into the sideboard in our dining area in the hope they'll get used more often.

Here are some I don't think I've shared on the blog before...

I bought this lovely elegant salad bowl in Vinnie's for $10. It's "Country Road" a designer Australian brand, in perfect condition and would have cost about $60 new. I also picked up the salad servers the same day for $2.

These dishes are also by "Country Road", great for olives etc - $2 each.

Another pair of olive dishes - $1 each.

MORE olive dishes, these are new, I got them in David Jones but just fell in love with the fish design and deep blue colour.

A couple of more fishies, the top one was bought in Vinnie's for $5 and the bottom one was bought in a lovely little homewares store in a country town called Bowral.

From fish to fruit, a cute pair of glass apple dishes - 50 cents each.

I have seen these lovely pottery apple dishes crop up on Etsy every so often, usually just single or a few, so I was delighted to pick up a full set with reasonable shipping to Australia :-)

I love this huge wooden platter, I bought it ages ago and can't remember what I paid - only a few dollars I think.

Yet another platter, you can't have too many, can you? $4 in Vinnie's.

This bowl was from a craft shop, I love the ethnic design :-)

A cute bowl and dish - perfect for chips and dip - $2 each.

I love serving up cake on pretty plates - these cost a couple of dollars each. The bottom dish is one of my favourites, it was made in France by "Gien" and features a beautiful bird of paradise painting.

Now do you see why I'm so desperate for lots of open shelving in my dream kitchen? Such a shame for all these lovely things to be hidden away :-)

Finding Figgjo

One of the loveliest things about browsing through thrift stores and wandering around flea markets is not knowing what on Earth you may find. I often come home with beautiful vintage objects I never knew existed, fab kitchenware I have never seen before and rare little one-off pottery pieces. Now what could be better than that?

Well, finding something that's been on your wish list FOREVER of course!!!

Please allow me to present my gorgeous retro Figgjo casserole...

Isn't it adorable? These gorgeous casseroles were produced by the Norwegian manufacturer in varying designs, this one is called "Market" and I have wanted one (along with the other designs too of course) since first seeing it on a retro blog a few years ago. They crop up on eBay occasionally but always at pretty high prices so I was delighted to pick this up at Vinnie's a couple of weeks ago for only $8!!!

Yay!!!