Vintage bag and a giveaway

Some women love Oroton, some must have a Burberry, or perhaps a Gucci. For me, it seems that gorgeous retro colours, a ridiculously low price and pvc lining  sum up the kind of girl that I am. You might remember this bag that I found a few months back at Rummage for $5. The new bag trumped the mustard wonder big time at just $1 and I am so in love with all the colours that it completely inspired  my recent blog makeover. It was scrunched up on a pile of shoes looking like a worn out dishrag. All it needed was a loving handwash and presto, even the pvc lining looks like new.

Things are starting to get very busy over here at Betsy's this holidays and  I haven't even been able to photograph  all my finds from last week yet. I did manage to iron the two fantastic teatowels that I found though. Now I  just can't wait to get my sewing machine humming away turning these into a cushion or two.

Remember, I said I was working on my sewing space? I did manage to clear a table and make it all mine. Here is the proof. (The sewing machine is, however, still in the box as I am still finding it a trifle intimidating).

And so with all these holiday goings on I have decided to take a little bloggy hiatus. You know, to squeeze more of that real life stuff in. (There will be photos I promise). To fill in the gap, and also to celebrate my 100th post I have decided to have a giveaway. I was fortunate to be given not one, but two copies of this lovely book (by the same well meaning but slightly scatty relative I might add) so I would love to share it with one of you.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and I will count you in the draw. All entries will be included until next Sunday afternoon the 2nd of October but it is only open to Australian residents. Have a wonderful week and I will be back soon with more treasures to share. melx

Thrifted pretties

I had a wonderful time at a few op shops this week. Went exploring a few suburbs I have never opped in before and found some treasures. The pink jug was $5, loved the colour and the shape. The milk glass was $1 and the teeny tiny tea cup and saucer was $2. I am hoping to find a collection of these to make a mismatched tea set for Liongirl who is completely smitten with tea parties. The lady in the opshop told me when she was a girl her grandmother would give her one of these tea cup sets at every birthday, and all her friends were collecting them too.

The pink fabric is actually a dress that I found a while ago that I plan to cut up for Liongirl, when she first saw it she practically ran up and gave it a cuddle she was so excited about its pinkness. I really like the yellow and pink together. Despite leaving my bag of opshop donations at home, I found some lovely finds.

This tablcloth and teatowels had only come in that very day. I think I have the same one with blue flowers but the orange and pink is gorgeous.

And this 70's inspired wonder.

And this one is for Roboboy, he loves yellow and maps.

And some teeny tiny wooden blocks. I am a complete sucker for colourful wooden toys. I did restrain myself and leave behind the wooden trainset complete with wooden peg people.

And the best thing of the entire day was an amazing vintage bag which I will share with you tomorrow as it is still on the washing line. Along with some more teatowels and vintage sheets. Linking in with Sophie to share all the  thrifted loveliness. All this plus massive progress in the setting up of my sewing room. Can you believe it's only day 2 of the holidays?

Nuts and Crosses

Well after about five minutes of Spring, it appears Summer arrived today. Clear blue skies, hot sun and plenty of time amusing ourselves in the backyard. I love it when you supply the kids with a few basics and they get some kind of creative momentum and the art just evolves.

We started out doing this. Look at the little weasel suggesting where I put my next nought.

Plenty of room on the random 70's slab for everyone and shaded all day by our macadamia nut tree.  Liongirl on scrub duty, Legoman cracking the nuts and Roboboy providing the crosses.

Then in miss Liongirl's opinion we needed a bit of this.

Which then prompted a bit of this. Amazing how vibrant the colours are with wet chalk.

Which then inspired Roboboy to release an exclusive print run of chalk lithographs.

Sun + concrete slab + chalk + water + paper = about 2 hours of very happy, creative children. A perfect start to the  school holidays really.

Additional note : chalk lithography appears to have limited durability as when they dry most of the chalk flakes off, but we didn't seem to mind about that. We are a little more concerned about the fact that it was 29 degrees on only the 17th day of Spring.

Curbside reveal and a whole lotta pink

The start of the whole lotta pink this week was this glorious miniature crochet bouncinette found in a tub at the oppie for $1. Luckily within Miss Liongirls veritable family daycare of baby dolls, we had a baby just the right size and desperate for a bounce. While she was tending to the posse of dolls, who largely seem to be called "Baby", I snuck in to Roboboys room to take some snaps of the curbside find in all it's shiny white glory.

Remember this glorious piece of unwanted furniture snaffled by me from the curbside on the school run a few months ago?

Flipped around the other way and vigorously sanded. Nasty damp vinyl padded door coverings removed.

Well, take a look at it now, 4 coats of white paint and about 4 months later.

Roboboy loves it. So good for lego display which is frankly essential around these parts. He intermittently pesters me about getting a fish tank for up top which I think would be fantastic if I could trust him to actually keep them alive. We still need a knob for the door. I haven't yet found any funky boy suitable fabric to recover those padded doors but they have come up quite well just with the white paint.

And the other treasure this week was the remaining  factor responsible for the "whole lotta pink". This fine specimen of a tutu was $3 from the oppie and had never been worn. Liongirl wishes to make known that Spring fashion still includes beanies but gumboots are so last season and  gold flats are in.

Here she is attempting to indoctrinate one year old friends in her playgroup into the world of pink fashion.

Is everyone feeling all the Spring in the air?



Trolling for treasure

Who's that trip-trapping over MY bridge? Why that would be Liongirl and one of her besties. We rounded up some nerd friends good mates and went on a Geocaching marathon.  The clue for this location was that we would have to "troll to find this cache". The boys found it almost instantly, tucked under the end of this bridge. And look who we popped back into the cache to continue his adventures.

Meet "Travel Bug". Our friends were sitting in a Roadside diner on the way to Toowoomba when they thought they might just check their iphone app and see if there were any caches around. Lo and behold about 2 k's up the road they found a cache containing this bug who had made his way across the world from Texas in the United States. He is now sequestered in a cache under a bridge in Toowong. Apparently you can hop onto Geocaching.com and log all his locations.

Since the energy was running high we decided to push on and see if we could locate a few of the numerous        caches hidden within the sprawling Toowong Cemetery. We had a visual clue of the gorgeous stained glass windows in the Temple of Peace. Roboboy's mate found the tomb almost straight away, but where could the cache be hidden safely? Let me just say that trying to keep a gang of small children from disrespectfully walking over tombstones is no mean feat.

This tomb is a fantastic piece of anti- war propaganda. It was erected by a man who purported to have lost all 4 of his sons in the war. There is even a statue in honour of his dog "Pup" who was also killed. Tucked behind the large structure was a small bunch of faux flowers in a dish. Roboboy was the lucky finder of this cache, hidden in a most ingenious manner. Treasures were pocketed, others replaced in the cache and the logbook completed. If you stumble across "Geo-Legoman" in your caching travels, that would be us.

We found two more caches here before arsenic hour hit and it was time to get those toddlers back home. There is something gorgeous about old tombstones in the slow light of dusk. Dedications to long gone " Henriettas" and "Berthas". And some simple ones that just make your chest constrict a little.

No graves were desecrated in the finding of these caches. We did however replace some cool treasure items with some slightly dodgy bits and bobs from the coin drawer in our car. Comet boy and Magnet girl who had found one of the caches only hours earlier had logged in but not taken anything. Legoman wants to have a dedicated cache stash in the car at all times for fair trade swaps. He is even considering leaving lego bricks at every location.

 If you have not yet tried Geocaching, and you are part of the huge crowd of people who own an iphone ( that would be the entire universe minus me and a handful of others), give it a go. It's super fun, and very addictive. Legoman and Roboboy even found a cache this morning while waiting for the new tyres to be fitted onto our car.

Pedals and Poppies

I trotted off to the Flower markets at Rocklea today, as one of the school mums had given me the heads up that poppies were now available. These are my absolute favourite flowers and the window for them in Brisbane is very brief due to the heat. They started popping open almost the minute we left the cool room. What a treat to have fresh flowers again, the last time (before the snapdragons that is) that we had fresh flowers in the house was for the open inspection on our old house just over a year ago.

While there, I also did a little reconnaisance work regarding the expected arrival dates for peonies (my other favourite flower) and was super excited to discover that they are due, give or take a few days, right around the time of our wedding anniversary. Lets hope Legoman is still reading this blog.

Imagine spending all day looking at a view like this. So much choice , the ranunculus bunches were lovely too .
Pretty much the only place with such a sea of pink would be the little cloud around miss Liongirl. Check out her new wheels, the big girl sort, with pedals. Was meant to be sequestered away until her upcoming third birthday in December but she kind of found the hiding spot and was overcome with rapture. Comes with a zip up bag for snacks and a basket for friends to ride in.

We are very big on ride-ons over here at Betsy, there is an assortment scattered around the place and a few ready to be retired. Thought you might want to see where miss Liongirl developed her fearless hooning tendencies. Probably started with this, one of my earlier curbside finds.

Or maybe this. You could really build up speed  down the very long hallway in our old house.

 And when it's your first birthday, there is usually at least one of your mates to give you a lift.

But then for out and about, you need some serious wheels to keep up with your big brother. Cause prams are for babies you know. This one will be retired to some friends now but was an old faithful and has done some major mileage.

And when you want to get about under your own steam, big brother hand me downs are fine, especially if they have a trailer for your friends. This was our recent rope along trike.

And within a day of hopping on her new bike, look what happened.

Mama, let go I can do it MYSELF. Minor details like the fact that she does not know how to brake or stop at roads or the fact that training wheels cause tippage on uneven surfaces, appear to be irrelevant. Of greater concern, this was a few days later.

Roboboy backed out. She did not. Who says that 2 year olds on pink Dora bicycles are not allowed on the bmx dirt biking track?

High tea with vintage frocks

Liongirl and I were invited to a girls only High Tea yesterday. The invitation specified the wearing of frocks so we decided to go vintage.  Liongirl wore the this gorgeous little white dress that we found at our local op shop for $5 a few weeks back. Of course embellished with an underskirt of a tutu and the essential fairy wings. There was much twirling and whirling of that wonderful skirt.

I was lucky to have my gorgeous tea dress arrive just in the nick of time. The fabric has Australian wildflowers, with lots of wattle in particular, so a mustard cardi was a must. As an avid follower of Bec's blog Naughty Shorts she gave me the option of either having her original dress design, or her newer design with optional pockets. How gorgeous is this dress and her workmanship is spot on, you can tell this is a dress made with love and care.

Look at the lovely v back.

And perfect for twirling.

But enough about the frocks, what about the food? My gorgeous friend made every single treat on this table. And it was HER birthday.

The little girls even had their own table covered in miniature treats. With a resident chicken to clear up the crumbs.

Liongirl only left that table to sample the high end cupcakes on ours.

Needless to say, Liongirl could not be extracted until dark and she is still talking about it. Roboboy was most unimpressed that it was a girls only affair. We made it up to the boys today with some Fathers day celebrations  down at our favourite park.

We did so love our girls only adventure, Liongirl and I. Time to start planning our own tea party I think.