Tropical

I often find that my mood or the weather can totally affect what I end up bringing home with me from a market or rummage sale. On a gloomy cloudy day I often bring home dark teals and blues and heavy wooden homewares or on days where I am in a fantastic mood I bring home bright cheery retro items. Today for example is a beautiful sunny day here in Sydney, it's the second last day of Winter and 25 degrees celsius! I visited a church sale this morning and it was only when I got home a while ago that I realised my purchases have a definite tropical outdoorsy feel to match the fabulous sunny weather :-)

I love French shopping baskets, they are very in style at the moment and can cost a lot, this one was $3.

This cute hurricane lantern was $1, it will look fab on our deck!

I can never turn down a gorgeous jar, I have been looking to find one big enough to fill with fairy lights and leave outside on our porch, this is perfect - $2!

I usually don't even bother opening picnic baskets to look inside anymore having found they are usually pretty nasty but the cute compact size of this one drew my interest, it's in fab condition and I love the palm tree motif on the fabric, so tropical! And only $2!

You know what's going to happen to this raw pine little key cabinet don't you? Yes, it's going to get a good old coat of Duck Egg blue paint and a cute new handle :-) It cost $2.

My boys have outgrown some of the cutie vintage items I bought when they were younger but no boy is too big for a boat - $2.

This bamboo trivet was $1!

Cute little wire home scene - 50 cents.

I bought 6 of these love heart wire hangers in varying sizes for 50 cents each.

And what have all these finds been sitting on for their photoshoot? This fab cane side table was $2!!! I put all my other stuff in it and lugged it home on the train and bus, well worth the effort.

So including the brand new black leather Kindle case ($2) and three Mr. Men books I also bought (50 cents each) my entire spend was only $22!!!

Now to hide all my stuff and hope that since it's been so long since my last post my hubbie doesn't bother reading my blog anymore. But I hope someone out there still does :-)

My type...

At our local bi-annual flea market last Saturday, I happened upon yet another typewriter I couldn't resist. Even though I thought I'd broken the habit, done a clearout and vowed not to buy anymore, how could I resist this beauty?

A "Brother Deluxe" in the most delicious duck egg blue colour with beautiful art deco logo and font, sigh...

When I asked the seller how much she wanted for it she replied "$30", inwardly I was saying "yes!!!" but stood there thinking about having to carry it on into the city where I was going to meet friends...

The seller saw me hesitating and said "I'll take $20"! Deal done! Yes I did have to haul it on into the city on the train where I was going for a girls' weekend but I went straight to the hotel we were staying at and left my bags there, so no worries!

Thought I may as well recap on my little collection (much smaller than it used to be thanks to eBay :-)

Olivetti Studio 44.

Imperial 200.

Olivetti Lettera 32.

Hmm, I guess when it comes to vintage typewriters I definitely have a type :-)

Cane and Able

Last year, when we were still living in our previous house, I spotted a neighbour putting out some weathered old cane chairs for council cleanup. 

I wandered over to chat and saw that even though they needed a lot of TLC they had a really beautiful design and I would be able to make them look fab with some work! So with my neighbour's help I hauled them back to our front verandah...

...where they remained for several months in their unloved condition. Then we moved house and refurbishing chairs was the last thing on my mind in the midst of a busy move. But finally, last month after pondering whether to stain or paint them and much time spent stalking the internet to find the perfect large cushions to fit the seats I finally gave them a makeover!

Voila!

I decided on a dark stain and gloss and am so happy with the result! The large cushions on the base are Scythia floor cushions by Kas Australia. The other cushions are temporary until I find some I love.

I have put the chairs in a lovely little sunroom area beside our kitchen, it looks out on the front deck and gets beautiful light during the day. It's a great spot to curl up in front of the wood stove or to watch the boys while they're playing out on the deck.

Even in a house full of boys...

... a girl's still entitled to a little pink, right?

Sorry, I couldn't resist...

Turkish Delight

Look at the gorgeous bowls and dishes I bought today at Target!!!

Aren't they lovely? I think turquoise and purple look so gorgeous and exotic together. But as I stashed them in my shopping basket something was nagging at the back of my mind, they were familiar somehow. Then when I laid them on my table to photograph them I was getting serious deja vu...

Bingo! I remembered this fab image I had pinned on Pinterest AGES ago...

Image from the ever-fabulous Decor8 blog

Spooky or what? ;-) Pinterest has crawled into my subconscious...

Seriously though, I LOVE them! The pieces pictured above are beautifully hand-crafted in Turkey but I'm still happy with my little "Made in China" collection :-)

Nesting

Wow! I HAVE been a slack blogger so far this year but I am officially back! It's been a busy few months with D starting school, recovering from our big trip and moving house. It always takes a while to find the right place for everything when you move doesn't it? But here's a little corner of our new kitchen that I am 100% happy with :-)

You might recognise my pale blue painted shelves from a previous post on the playroom in our last house, well let's just say that "display" is not a word in my boys' vocabulary and this shelf always ended up lying empty despite my efforts to make it "all nice" so now it has a new home in the kitchen :-)

On the top shelf (left to right) a cute vintage blue flowered canister, Villeroy and Boch "Acapulco" ramekin, retro aqua and white egg cups, red and white dandelion bowls from "Meadows and Byrne" in Ireland, a Nigella Lawson ceramic blue juicer and tiny duck-egg blue tagine, I bought a set of 4 of these in TK Maxx in Ireland, they are so cute for storing spices, salt and pepper :-)

On the next shelf are a pair of birdie bowls, blue and white on top is by Marie Claire from Myer and the bottom bowl is from Target, a set of 4 dessert bowls from Kmart, 2 more of those tiny tagines and a gorgeous pair of turquoise Le Creuset hearts from TK Maxx in Ireland.

On the bottom shelf a set of Jamie Oliver blue fluted bowls, ANOTHER tagine, a tiny orange Le Creuset cast iron casserole, a pair of bowls from Anthropologie and a Fortnum and Mason tea caddy.

Up on the white built in shelves are various vintage "things" (left to right), vintage green Royal Staffordshire plate, Finel teapot, Krups white scales, made in Ireland, specials chalkboard and red Persinware scales, made in Australia.

On the lower shelf (left to right) gorgeous Gien French vintage plate, aqua berry crate from Anthropologie, Nigella Lawson cookie jar, red vintage plate, Nigella Lawson cups and saucers, white rooster platter and pair of Fowler Ware bowls, Made in Australia.

I love the sight of all these little bits and pieces brought together, they get used a lot and I love the mix of old and new. I did a LOT of shopping in Ireland actually, so I foresee a post on that in the near future as well as a heap of photos from our trip, there are just so many it will be a mammoth task going through them all!