claudine at st clare's Op-Shop Show-Off Jan 29th 2013

naughty-but-nice, naught in the way only an enid blyton character could be-stealing strawberries from a garden, pushing someone horrid into a swimming pool, she was my heroine as a pre-teen (imagine, an enid blyton heroine, what a wild child i was!) i filed her exotic-sounding name away for future girl baby use. i found i still loved the name 3 decades later when i dredged it up from my mind and it trumped verity as the name for our first born. i've been collecting editions of the book, the fifth from a series of nine, staight-laced and stilted boarding school stories for her. i particularly treasure the eldest copy, from 1954 (it was first published in 1944) which terry inscribed and gave me on the valentines after claud was born to celebrate our first year as a family. the later copy is the cover version i read all those decades ago.

so thus i have these editions, from 1954, 1982, 1972, 1996, 2005, and i am always on the hunt in second hand bookstores with a kids section and op-shops for further editions with different covers. do keep your eye peeled for me.

are you collecting anything you would like us to keep our eyes peeled for?

where did your childs name come from?

are you an op-shop show-off?

it’s charitable, green, cheap, exciting, fun, nostalgia inducing, potentially lucrative and often just plain necessary. whatever your reason for op-shopping we’d love it if you joined us on Tuesdays here at blackbirdhasspoken.blogspot.com for Op-Shop Show-Off day, a linky open to all, all week, to link up a blog post about any aspect of your second-hand shopping life.

tell us your op-shopping philosophy, or divulge your secret hunting techniques. let us know about your wants, or skite (English translation= “show-off “) about your amazing finds. review the best op-shopping spots in your town, or request or give information on your fascinating finds, you’ll always be talking to an appreciative audience here.


How to link up?
1.   post your blog post.

2.   link to Op-Shop Show-Off in your blog post, so your blog readers can come over
      and peruse or post in the linky too

3.   scroll to the bottom of my latest Tuesday Op-Shop Show-Off post and click on the  
      linky tool, then follow the 3 easy steps


4.   don't forget to leave me a comment to let me know you linked up

5..  grab the Op-Shop Show-Off Button from my sidebar to decorate yours (paste the
     code into a HTML gadget under the 'add a gadget' part of the layout section in
     blogger and save)

Une collection Eiffel

Relegated to the guest room because they're just a bit too twee.

This charmer, which houses both a spirit bottle and plays a twinky-twonky "The last time I saw Paris" was my first. Found at a fire-brigade jumble sale in a muddy barn, I felt temporarily transported to a more glamorous world as I squelched back to the car clutching it. It's from the 1960's I think.

You can see how it might inspire a collection aye?

This stoppered glass number may be a decanter, or perhaps it came ready filled with some intoxicating liquid? I'd love to know.

This one, whilst less spectacular, was purchased in the Eiffel Tower by the hubb-ster, for me on our honeymoon. It was made in France which I like, given that most tourist-tat the world over is actually made in China. What I like most about it though was that it was given to me by the husband WHO IS MORTALLY AFRAID OF HEIGHTS, who walked up the steps to the second floor with his eyes closed just to keep me company. Bless!

This spinning top, which works brilliantly, came from a cool little shop in some backstreet of Paris. It too was Made in France and has been claimed and lost by Claud a number of times. The cat is also partial to it's spinning madness so it may not be long for this world!

And a teeny-tiny dangly brooch. Fifties maybe?

I hadn't got a new one in ages until the hubby produced this one adorning my anniversary gift last month

Bon Nuit x

Collections post

I love what op shop mama is doing, taking the op-shop show-off a little further and showing-off her fantastic collections, so I've decided to copy her.

 I was never actually much of a collector, even though I always op-shopped clothes, until I met my now husband who was a big collector of studio pottery, and a total horder. Collection=the stuff he collects that I like; Hord=the stuff he collects that I don't! Mind you when I met him all I owned was a car and a bed so that's not saying much. However, copious dates invoving vintage shop trawls and a collector was born!

I don't collects lots of lots of things, I collect a few of a few things. I have several things I fantasise about collecting, such as paintings by Leo Bensemen. Keep your eyes peeled Helga! Heh! Also I have things I plan on collecting once I find my first piece ie single colour enamel saucepans and casserole dishes-I've been watching The Delicious Miss Dahl, lusting over her kitchenware! My most recent collection was started only yesterday, inspired by a collection of Opshop mama's, about which you will find out more at the Sunday Thrift show off...
I'm not sure I know much about the psychology of collecting in general. If I examine my motivations, mainly it is about nostalgia, not in general, but specific to particular, happy moments in time I've experienced.

The inspiration for my collection was the loom woven cotton striped beach mat I bought in a harbour side shop in Cassis in the South of France on holiday a few years ago. The feel-good associations of that purchase/holiday have remained with me and I've since had a thing for thick, rustic cotton things, mainly table cloths with a woven aspect and faded colour scheme.

My collection is not large, but the ones I have, I love with a passion, and they have all been extremely cheap.

And I do use them; I like spoiling myself with a dainty high tea and half an hour of silence when my little one goes down for her afternoon nap, served against a nice backdrop of one of these.

None of them are pristine, a pale tea stain here, a tiny hole there, but I love them all the more for that. Wabi Sabi I think it's called, finding beauty in age, imperfections.

I have been contemplating asking Naughty Shorts if she could make me a summer frock out of my favourite of all...

Can you imagine one of these, from this?!!! Yes please! Not sure if there is enough fabric though...

One day, when I'm an old-dear, I will have filled that cabinet up with more of these pretties and I'll sit lovingly stroking them instead of a cat!

Ok. I've shown you mine, now show me yours!