Op Shopping

There is a new Op shop in our neck of the woods and its a good'n.  It's run out of a church hall one day a week by a lovely group of Older Girls in their 70's and 80's.   It is in a pretty affluent neck of the woods and judging by some of the fancy frocks on the rails, some pretty affluent people have been donating their old wares.

The only down side is there aren't many prices on things.  The Girls invite you to  "Suggest a price, what would you like to pay for it Dear?" Oohh I don't like that.  Obviously I would like to pay as little as possible but dont want to be (or be seen to be) ripping off a little charity shop run by little old ladies!  I have a suspicion that these lovely ladies may actually get a kick out of it and think of their pricing strategy as a kind of sport?

I found this fantastic finished tapestry,
there are so many things I could do with it, I am thinking cushion?
The ladies didn't know why I wanted it and because it was unframed,
they deemed it to be worth $3.  I paid $5 so I could live with myself.

I also found this fantastic vintage jacket with tails.
A certain hard to please Mr Daddy will be getting this for his birthday.
 The Girls deemed this to be worth  about $8
 so I paid $10, again so I could live with myself.  

Sarah Watts Fabric Mmmm Nice

I got some new fabric today and it is soooo nice! It's called Timber and leaf by Sarah Watts.   Until I saw this fabric I had been so good at sticking to my "Buy nothing new & use what you have" mantra. 

 I am going to make a dress using these two fabrics...

And I am going to make a bag using these two fabrics ......

Do you think it would be too much to use the bag and wear the dress at the same time? 

Crochet Bag Number 2 - Complete

I have finished my second crochet bag, started way back here and here.  I loved the first bag but it is a bit small so this one is mark 2.  I do have plans to line it with fabric but I am too excited and have been using it as is.  

I edged the handle with a single stich to see
 if that prevents it from stretching too much.  

Dodgy self portait for scale.

The Cascade yarn is so soft and beautiful to work with.

I had fun mastering the Zig Zag pattern,
 I think it looks best with two rows per colour, the single rows get a bit lost.

Cyclone Oswald

Queensland has had some crazy weather in the last 10 days or so, with Cyclone Oswald lumbering down the East Coast.  We live in a bayside suburb of Brisbane that is usually well protected from bigger weather events but we did get some ferocious weather last weekend.    I know it is nothing compared to what many, many people experienced and our hearts go out to them.   We are very grateful that we had no serious damage but we did have our own bit of drama.  The couple of days of power cuts were also a wonderful lesson for my First World husband, children and me too if I'm honest.

We had enormous tree branches crashing down
on the roof which hit with with chilling sound effects.

Numerous trees were blown down blocking the street.  I must say
 how amazingly quick our local council were in
 coming with chain saws to clear the roads.  (Which made us feel much safer
knowing we could get out if we need to.
Being mindful of how often our family uses the local hospital!)

I know this doesn't look like much but
it is tree branches thicker than my legs
that crushed the back shed!

The day before the big storms we had a long over due visit to Ms S's house.  Ms S and her family have an amazing inner city garden.  (More of that and the virtous lives they lead in another post.)  

This is the pic I took on Saturday afternoon

This is Sunday afternoon pic ...

This is the garden the next day after less than an hours rain.   The banana grove (visible in the  top left hand corner of first pic) was wiped out.   I know on the scale of things all of this is really nothing and normality was very quickly returned, but its great  reminder to be mindful about how lucky we are and how quickly things can change. 

 I hope you were all ok and got out of the storms as luckily as we did.