Teeny crochet squares and a pile of loose ends

The word of the month around here is TEENY. Liongirl has a little bit of a thing for very small items. She has 2 teeny bunnies that she cannot sleep without, loves teeny cupcakes and likes her morning milk in a teeny sipper cup ie. small tupperware container with a sipper lid on top.

It's kind of rubbed off on me and here I am producing teeny tiny crochet squares. These are the nine small squares that will be blocked then joined together to form a  larger square with the dark brown one in the centre. The best thing is that it is an easy pattern and each one can be whipped up within the time frame of a toddlers swimming lesson. If I like the look of the square I might make a few more and turn it into a rectangle.

Today was a glorious taste of typical Brisbane autumn weather. I had never really embraced autumn as a season here before as all the storybook versions of autumn with piles of leaves on the ground doesn't really happen here. Our old neighbours had a persimmon tree which was deciduous so it was easy to peek out the dining room window to see how that persimmon was going. Besty has no deciduous trees near her but she does have a north facing lounge room.  And the light has changed already. It's less vivid  and is now pouring in over my lounge chair for the first time in months. So Bella and I sat basking in it, while I tucked and trimmed all the loose ends on my squares. And now there is a little pile of short threads, what to do with them? I vaguely remember reading a blogpost where threads were left outside for  birds to incorporate into their nests. Would be quite funky nests wouldn't they?
I slapped on a little white interior paint to day. Not enough progress to justify a photo yet.  Still tweaking in order to get just the right white to enhance our artwork as well as the beautiful light in our living room. Also it was a Thursday thrift kind of morning- a tablecloth with cherries, a vintage home made toddler dress . Photos for this coming soon.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Ode to a new pink dress

Today started out just like any other Monday. And then we checked the letterbox, Liongirl and I, and there was a parcel from Kate at Foxs Lane . Inside, the most beautiful vintage sheet inspired dress in an ode to the colour pink and with a crochet pocket for storage of essential small bunnies. And just in time as we were down to a sum total of 4 acceptable outfits as anything without a pocket is completely not negotiably not happening.

In about 10 seconds the dress was on, crazy bunny/piggy creature deposited safely in the pocket. Then it was time for all our morning jobs now that we were suitable attired.

Firstly let the girls out of the coop and treat them to some corn kernels.

Hand feed Sooty as she is the tamest.

Find missing strange teeny bunny/kitty/piggy creature who had been brought home from Rummage yesterday.

Deposit safely in specially designed crochet pocket for carrying strange teeny non specific animals. Pronouce said pocket as " Crushay" in every future conversation.

Time for a quick spot of mowing.

Long lingering solo tyre swinging, followed by crazy wild trampolining.

Detailed discussions about plans to build a treehouse (with sticks in hands).

And using  a rope to climb up to it.


Phew, and all that  before nap time.
Thanks again Kate for creating such a gorgeous pink  crochet pocketed dress to bring out the garden adventurer in my little Liongirl.  Hope you all had a great day with your tribe.

Great Day for a Rummage

Today I was so lucky to get to go out on my own for a few hours to sample the wonder that is Suitcase Rummage. This is a monthly extravaganza where lovers of all things old and vintage get together to unload their little red suitcases full of clothes and shoes and all sorts of wonderful old bits and bobs.

It was held in Brisbane Square which is a lovely open area at the top end of Queen Street. With the grey skies, slight nip in the breeze, gorgeous grey stone paving, steel sculptures and an eclectic mix of bohemian fashion it felt like stepping into Paris for a few hours.

This was the gorgeous Anthea who had unpacked directly adjacent to one of those giant steel baubles and displayed all her hand made treasures on vintage plates. She took the cake for vintage style in my opinion.

While wandering I came across this artfully displayed collection of crockery, buttons and fabrics. Now this was right up my alley for collectables. After choosing some fabric, the finder of this treasure had to share with me the story of it's origin.

Kimberley told me that she had found the fabric at an estate sale of a very frail elderly lady whose husband was packing up and selling most of her treasured possessions. She had been the shipping mistress for a spanish shipping company based in London and had collected fabrics and buttons and furntiture from all over the world and brought it all back to Australia in shipping containers. She had never had children and had accumulated all these glorious things in her house on Bribie Island. Hopefully she would be pleased to know the lovely floral fabric will be lovingly made into a dress for a little curly haired two year old.




While chatting to Kimberley I explained that this was my first Rummage after learning about it all from a gorgeous blog that I have been following. Lo and behold right beside her was Laura from Kit and Nancy . Laura writes and photographs for her blog with the kind of experience that would make you think she was actually a vintage icon herself. It was nice to put a name and face to a fellow blogger with such a flare for finding and displaying vintage treasures.

Kimberley has  a regular day job but her true passion is also the thrill of the find and she spends many of her weekends at estate sales, garage sales and op shops. She has a very new blog about her adventures over here so lets pop over and give her a  rousing welcome to the blog world.

This one was for Legoman. Earrings and rings made of lego bricks, parts and minifigures. He's hoping they can custom make some cufflinks for him .


So, what did I find on my travels? Best find was this groovy bag for $5. Complete with pvc lining in the event that a pear is inadvertantly left in there ( I think I've previously admitted my issues with handbags and fruit). Overall it was the combination of chenille ( love it) and the mustard colour that made it a complete winner.

And the fabric with it's own story - the blue floral one, but the others are wonderful too.

So, see you all at the next Suitcase Rummage  on the 8th of May. Oh yes, my fashion tip from spending a day with many many groovy childless 20-somethings......... black floppy felt hats appear to be the IT item.

Fortuitous chair finds and Thursday Thrifting

Look at these beautiful pieces of art found op shopping today. They are "Kristaware" from Melbourne. Again means nothing to me but gosh those colours, hard glossy plastic and funny dimpled lids are just super yum. The kids were in awe of these and were both drawn in by their magnetic appeal. Note the splendid job that my silky oak table is doing as  a backdrop as well as showcasing the colour and grain I was raving about last post.

The big news is the fortuitous find of 6 chairs only a day after the arrival of the new table.  I had a pretty good idea what I wanted and lo and behold there they were on ebay with a local pick up and no other bidders. Done and dusted that night, the  kids bundled into pyjamas for a mini adventure at 7 pm on a school night no less.

They are replica Eames DSW chairs. They are the only white chair I have seen with wooden legs which was a big part of the appeal as it takes away from a completely plastic look. The metal bracing was apparently inspired by the Eiffel tower.  The low profile of their backs has really opened up the space in our living room compared to our old dining setting which you can see here (this is new table with old chairs).

Here is the new ( while being both antique + second hand ) improved version.

 And I'm already in love with those wipe clean surfaces. I'm still trying to fossick all the ingrained food out of the crevices in the old upholstered chairs before I sell them on ebay. In my defense they were purchased before the arrival of children ie when such things as food hygiene were not considered when making furniture purchases. I'm also taking it as a positive that the seller of the chairs had already owned them for several months, exposed them to 2 small children and they still looked in new condition. Now all I need to do is hurry up, choose a white and get those walls painted.

No table, how about a buffet

Unable to do justice to my new table due to old non complimentary chairs, I thought I would share another piece of silky oak gloriousness with you all. If you were  getting the idea that there is a  bit of a silky oak thing going on over here at Betsy's  you would be on the right track. It all started with a dresser bought unrestored 11 years ago just after we bought our old house. Since then we have intermittently added to the collection along the way, replacing other wooden furniture as we find the right silky oak pieces.

This buffet was an ebay find about 6 months ago and has been languishing in the office awaiting restoration. With the arrival of the dining table it has been pulled out of hiding in order to best display the new posy pansy vase. I love the art nouveau style carvings on the door. I don't like a lot of fuss and bother with wooden furniture, no glossy mahogany or elaborate carvings and frills and furbelows for me thankyou very much. But a little art nouveau detailing is quite delicious.

It took about 4 years of waiting for a simple mirror free buffet with some detailing to appear on ebay but as mentioned previously, once I have a vision I am tenacious. This one was living in a decrepit old house with a big sister buffet much larger and more elaborate in size as well as a dining setting and several smaller pieces all in silky oak. They had been in the same family for at least 90 years but none of the children wanted the dark silky oak furniture for their contemporary homes.

 For those who don't know silky oak, it is usually a rich dark amber honey colour with a very fine lacelike grain running through it and no visible knots. It comes from the largest tree in the Grevillea family and the wood is also known as lacewood due to the distinctive grain. Not to be confused with Tasmanian oak which is much lighter and with a larger grain and commonly used to build more contemporary furniture. It is also quite lovely but to me is the poorer cousin in colour and richness.
Eventually we will restore this one, her interior has had a very slap dash white makeover and a new coat of shellac would bring out her lustre but right now I think she and the posypansy vase are already bringing out the best in each other.

Several people posted comments about the painting so I thought it was time for a mini art tutorial.

We call her "The Beautiful Lady"  but the official title was "Indian wedding" and she is by an Australian artist named Genola de Jong. She does beautiful paintings of women as well as lovely still life paintings involving interesting flowers and fruits. Have a peek here if you want to see some more of her work. She doesn't seem to have any recent work but she was quite prolific back  nearly a decade.

Her style to me is a little reminiscent of the famous impressionist Paul Gauguin during his Tahiti phase. To see a lovely tribute to this phase of his work have a look here (image is from same source).

For art to enter our house Legoman and I have to agree completely that we both love it. We actually celebrate our wedding anniversary by buying a piece of art and have something from every year we have been married. The premise being that while we enjoy the art  we also hope to ward off the perils of divorce by both being unwilling to divide the art collection.  We don't buy for the artists name or brand or hype or investment potential, we very simply buy things that we love, and usually it is all about the colour for me.

 Most have been inexpensive, two have required considerable thought (it helps to average them out over the 50 years of anticipated marriage) and last years came from an op shop as the purchase of Betsy did not leave much left in the kitty.  The Beautiful lady was slightly more his favourite than mine (I think I was not entirely sure about the orange) but I love the cyan blue and all the detail in the fruits and flowers and fabric.

The other unexpected bonus is that both my children as infants would point to that gorgeous Tahitian princess and say " Mama" . Personally, given that I have curly hair, never wear orange and neither child has ever witnessed me in any sort of reclining  position let alone draped in flowers and  fruits, I think it's a bit of a stretch. Perhaps, it's just the curved expanse of child bearing hips. Either way, she is here to stay.

Sunday Posy Pansy vase love

Legoman and I had a rare treat today. Feng shui Nonna looked after both the kids so we could have a few hours to ourselves. We had intended to sort out our office but instead ( procrastinators that we are) we snuck off for a prowl around the Woolloongabba Antique Centre or WAC as it is more affectionately known.

Many years ago we would spend many a weekend wandering through the Paddington Antique Centre and the WAC is the same concept on a much bigger jam packed scale. It is one of those places that if you were accidentally locked in for the night the fun would begin. You could try on all those scrumptious frou frou vintage dresses/hats/gloves, kick back in the rows of cinema seats with an old Enid Blyton and just take your time examining the myriad of deliciousness all around.

We had gone back to longingly look at a huge silky oak table that we had seen months ago and was now on sale. Unfortunately it was still way too expensive for us but thankfully was probably also just a bit too big to comfortably fit back with Betsy. I did manage to find this lovely vase (Legoman would debate that descriptor as it is not exactly his cup of tea) but he humoured me as a man does who is trying to convince his wife that he should be able to waste his bonus on personalised plates. I really just love the colour and the flowery texture and knew I had just the spot for it.

Being the purists of the colour blue that Betsy and I are, we feel that it is probably a light Cyan colour but we are open to correction from higher authorities. It is a "Diana" vase made in Australia. As I am completely clueness about branding of items this meant nothing to me. A quick curiosity search on ebay revealed an entire series of similar vases and a replica of mine was titled "PosyPansy vase". Further down the list similar vases in other colours were titled "Trough vases". Strangely the image of snorting piglets was not as appealing as petite bunches of flowers. It was also nice to see that the price I had paid was modestly better than ebay.

I took a peek at Sandy's area from Paint me white . Her section looks beautiful and her prices are really reasonable. She has several beautiful fabric covered stools that have motivated me to dig out mine and make it over. We also snuck over to Add Vintage  across the road as well. While most Mid Century furniture is not quite Betsy's style it is nice to admire the architectural element to all those buffets,credenzas and crockery. I have to say after sitting in  a Casala chair they score high marks for comfort,stackability and all round good looks. I could imagine a set of those on Betsy's back deck, perhaps when we have a roof to protect them.

After such a lovely morning, we were pleasantly surprised to be able to inspect another silky oak dining table that we had found on ebay. This one was much more within our budget and came home with us this afternoon. As I have been looking for one just like this for about 3 years, I am more than a little excited about it all. Now just to find some chairs that do the gorgeous honey coloured timber justice...... will share some photos tomorrow.

Friday ferreting

What a wonderful week for op shop ferreting adventures. Two kids clothing patterns, two balls of chocolate brown crochet cotton ( still in the packet), some gorgeous fabric- the background piece is actually a huge cushion cover complete with button up back, a fruity counting puzzle and 3 glorious hardcover Enid Blyton books to match the set of three Magic Faraway Tree books I have kept since I was a little girl. Even better I don't actually remember reading the Naughtiest girl stories so will enjoy sharing those with Liongirl in a few years. The minute I arrived home I had to line all those glorious coloured spines up in a row on the bookshelf - perhaps Roboboy's desire to have a complete set of things is a little teeny tiny bit genetic......

The most surprising thing was that the puzzle and crochet cotton came from an opshop in West End. Now I assumed that Boundary St being a hive of vintage lovers that everything would have been thoroughly picked over and cleaned out. I think in actual fact most people in there were perusing all the groovy vintage fashion so the toys and craft items were not on the radar.

Liongirl and I were out on a girls only adventure ( ie eating mini chocolate mudcakes and having pots of tea and babychinos). We don't do this anywhere near as much as we should and  it was nice to have an excuse to slow down and savour the whipped cream on the side. We were actually on a mission to pop into Avid Reader and pick up a copy of this book for Roboboy.

Avid Reader recently held a book launch for the author of this awesome book. Peter William Rowe has Down's syndrome and unable to talk his family did not know he had the capacity to communicate for nearly 30 years. Finally he was introduced to a picture communication system and uses this to write and illustrate his stories. Given that this story is both about Robots and that it's ok to be different  I knew it would be ideal for Roboboy. Even better there are at least 3 more in the set..........

 I love wandering down Boundary street, we of course had to climb all over the mosaic lizard, do our fruit puzzle, have snacks and generally bask in  this gorgeous spring weather that has finally arrived about 5 months later than expected.

The other op shop find was a pile of lovely crochet doilies for 50 cents each. I am thinking of using the large round and large rectangle for cushions, the little one maybe for dress sleeves.

Finally a model shoot for the girls. The full set of white, brown and black....... or as Legoman likes to think : breakfast, lunch and dinner. The pecking order is in full establishment mode. Meek and mild Sooty has risen to the ranks of head girl. Super pretty white Rose is next in line and poor Dora 2 seems to be on the receiving end of both of them. And they are still putting themselves to bed roosting on my washing line, which is right at window level of our lounge, so they can stare us down if we are not sharing the corn cobs around.

Enjoy your weekend, lets all make the most of this glorious spring weather.