The Hewn Spoon. Op-Shop Show-Off: 30th July, 2013

This flat bottomed wooden spoon was thrown in when we bought pottery from an elderly local craftswoman/ex-craft gallery owner. She suggested it was made by Levi Borgstrom, but its not. It's teak I think, not a local timber, and it's rustic with a capital R.  It's clearly hand hewn, somewhat inexpertly too as there is a random chisel scrape in the bowl of the spoon, and the tail is just unevenly hacked off. What it does share with a Levi Borgstrom (we're into treen and have a few) is it's ergonomic comfort in hand. The handle still feels like a branch rather than dowel.

The main point of difference from a Borgstrom though is that I'm actually allowed to use this one! The husband lives in fear of dying before me. Not because you know, I'd be lost without him, or he'd have a shorter life or anything, he just worries I'd feed the cat out of the Hamada and stir my broths with the Borgstroms. (I will too, I hate fetishising craft). In the meantime this wannabe is perfect for scrapping off all those congealed, slightly burned bits in the bottom of a pan after a roast which taste so good or make gravy, and hack you off when it comes to pan scrubbing hours later.

I have several well used wooden spoons in my kitchen, including one that always smells of curry, but I could never contemplate buying a used one though my local salvos stocks them. Ick and tut. Surely it's unhygienic?! Except, perhaps if it was old/carved then I might scald it before I used it? Not that I ever scald any of mine. Also, a sycamore chopping board is high on my op-shop wish list and I wouldn't mind if that was obviously used either, just because I'm just so desperate for one. And I probably wouldn't even bother scalding that. No. Logic.

So, I'm interested to know, is there anything you just couldn't contemplate buying second hand, logically or illogically, or is it all fair game?

At which juncture I'll just mention one of the highlights of our honeymoonal trip to Paris; the obligatory flea market jaunt. Stop romanticising about pre-loved Hermes scarves and chipped stoneware jugs right now and instead imagine...a second hand g-string stall (true story).




As always, I'd LOVE it if you linked up any second hand shopping related posts x

Trug up for winter. Op-Shop Show-Off: May 28th, 2013

Trug. Such an unglamorous name. So close to thug, and trudge, it sounds like the name a troll would go by. Trugs. Not that pretty to look at either to my eye, you know, compared with a fitched basket, a macrame shopper, or a Maori kete. But like all those lovely things a trug is practical and natural, traditional and handcrafted, and therefore ticks lots of my boxes. Terry gave me a Bill Blair trug a few birthdays ago when we holidayed in Oamaru, and I use it almost constantly to cart around gardening bits and bobs, especially growings. They are at the height of their limited beauty when displaying home grown produce. This child of Trug was holding plastic beads on the counter at a local oppy, a very undignified a job for the workhorse garden carrier, so for 20 cents I repatriated it. It looks like it is made of the traditional Sussex Trug materials: cricket bat willow, coppiced sweet chestnut bark and copper nails: and has the makers/company stamp on the base "Chairworks, London, FT1".
The perfect size for garden berry pickings; and little person nature collectings in the meantime.

and speaking of Trugging rugging-up, if any of you guys see nice woolen blankets on your op-shop travels, think about a donation to The Hottie Project. The New Zealand crafty-bloggy community are making hot water bottle covers to keep Christchurch kids warm this winter. Or even better, have a bash yourself! Or just help publicise it. Or make a donation to buy the hotties to put inside. All the deets you need are here. Thank you x

pps. I'm in full-time manual mode on the camera as of today. You wouldn't not believe how long it took me to get those pictures *flops down, mopping brow*

But anyway, camera talk is not what you're here for, op-shop talk is what your here for: so spill...and link up!

are you an Op-Shop Show-Off? or more modest about your superior second hand shopping abilities? 

do you like to linky?

it’s charitable, green, cheap, exciting, fun, nostalgia inducing, potentially lucrative and often just plain necessary. whatever your reason for second hand shopping we’d love it if you joined us on Tuesdays here at blackbirdhasspoken.blogspot.com for Op-Shop Show-Off, 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 second hand shopping related 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 three easy steps.

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

 5. have a look at some of the other linkers posts/blogs, they're all people after your own heart!

 6. 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).

Op-Shop Show-Off : Bloggers Connecting Special Edition: April 16th 2013

                                                    Hands Up.    Who likes op-shopping?

                             

i'm still buzzing from my fantastic weekend at Bloggers Connecting. the gang of 64 included several of our loveliest op-shop show-off linky-upers: Heather, Louana, Justine, Holly, Laura, Kelly, Nin, and Maria, and even a self-confessed op-shop show-off lurker...(come on Lisa, JUST PRESS PUBLISH lol!).

i may also have been 'strong-armed' into leading a blogger raid on Christchurch's best oppie (the Lincoln Road Salvation Army Op-Shop in my humble opinion) by Ms's Cat and Leonie amongst others. i don't believe any of us left empty handed? me, i was delighted to pick up a couple of just-the-right-shade-of-beige wool blankets for my latest braided rug project.

pic-nz grooviest bloggers getting down at the dance-o-mat (come on, you know what beige blankets look like!)



are you an Op-Shop Show-Off?

 or more modest about your superior second hand shopping abilities? 

do you like to linky?

it’s charitable, green, cheap, exciting, fun, nostalgia inducing, potentially lucrative and often just plain necessary. whatever your reason for second hand shopping we’d love it if you joined us on Tuesdays here at blackbirdhasspoken.blogspot.com for Op-Shop Show-Off, 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 second hand shopping related 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 three easy steps.

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

 5. have a look at some of the other linkers posts/blogs, they're all people after your own heart!

 6. 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).

an easter op-shop show off; 26th March, 2013

i found these two Tolo toys separately at op-shops over the past few weeks, both immaculate, both rabbity and therefore cute, if slightly early developmentally easter presents for the boy baby Findlay. i don't like his chances of fending off Claudine who is rabbit-mad, bigger and currently slightly regressed in her choice of toy play. she though has her sights set on a dora-and-diego easter special dvd and has asked princess ballerina to have a word with the easter bunny (they're cousins you know) on her behalf, so no op-shopped gift for her this time around. i'm also having a go at this easter bunny russian doll cross stitch-i won the pattern from cupcakecutie. not a chance it will be completed by eater, but ah-well, it's bunnys all year round around here anyway!

what are your easter plans? any easter specific baking, crafting or outings?
we're off to the Cheviot Domain for an autumnal easter egg hunt in the leaf litter and a stroll among the english woodlands there on easter sunday, weather permitting, and i shall cook up a batch of bonfire toffee at some stage too. but mainly i'll be catching up on sleep, precious sleep!

and, what kind of chocolate egg are you hoping for?
I'm a loyal cadburys creme egg girl myself-best eaten sun warmed and gloopy in my opinion!



here's what we did in our prior easter hols

easter 2011

easter 2012

yes, two years blogging. crikey!



are you an Op-Shop Show-Off? or more modest about your superior second hand shopping abilities? 

do you like to linky?

it’s charitable, green, cheap, exciting, fun, nostalgia inducing, potentially lucrative and often just plain necessary. whatever your reason for second hand shopping we’d love it if you joined us on Tuesdays here at blackbirdhasspoken.blogspot.com for Op-Shop Show-Off, 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 second hand shopping related 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 three easy steps.

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

 5. have a look at some of the other linkers posts/blogs, they're all people after your own heart!

 6. 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).

pink flowers & blue-green jars Op-Shop Show-Off-Jan 22nd 2013

my granddad made me love gardens. below the fields at his back gate he had a large rose garden set out like a chess board with a paving stone between each bush; opposite a market garden sized vegge patch, then layers of hedging, flower gardens, jungle, chooks, rabbits, goat and lawns. we, the hoard of cousins who congregated there every saturday afternoon, eating hand dug veg raw, jumping hedges, raiding the preserves and making bonfires, played amongst the roses too. slow, careful races;  rose petal shower fights, perfume making. our mothers all left late afternoon with with a sunburnt kids, a palm prickle of roses and a clink of preserve jars.
i feel very close to my grandad when i garden, especially when i do anything with roses. and i love pink roses in blue-green jars. pink any flower in blue-green jars. all jars op-shopped of course.

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)

Choo choo's

Cool screen printed Swedish wall hanging.

Comes with the wooden hanging bits too.

Very film noir!

Frances Butler turns out to be a very interesting individual.

She was the Professor of Environmental Design at Berkley, who having been taught to sew by her mum started up her own fabric printing company, Goodstuffs Handprinted Fabrics, in 1969, with the intention of making clothes. Instead she produced wallhangings and fabric sculpture and then started up an letter press/graphic design book publishing company-her books are in the collections of the V&A and MOMA.

These days she is apparently building a massive mosaic garden in France.

Stromma Sweden have been making textile blinds and wall panels since 1832.

(Ain't google wonderful!)

Keeping it just in case (wouldn't it look cool in a little boys room?)

Also on a train theme I found this down the church fair yesterday.

Googled it too. One sold at Christies for over $500 pounds!

(Ok ok, so now I won't cut it up to make pweety butterflies!)

Share your flea market finds too, go on, we'd love to see, here

Cute stuff I found down the oppy

Sometimes it's impossible not to judge a book by it's cover.

(Hi toes, fancy seeing you here!)

The stories are just as good as the design and illustrations.

Some original, some re-workings of classic fairy stories, many New Zealand tales.

The full set of 6, published by the School Publications Branch of the NZ department of Education in 1963-1969.

Many famous NZ writers and artists started their careers in the school publications department.

There is a wonderful book by Gregory O'Brien about the artists who worked there called "A Nest of Singing Birds"

Roy Cowan, NZ mid century modernist potter and print maker, and a favourite artist of mine illustrated one of the stories, Penguin Island. While it's not in the style he later developed I love the story/illustrations as they remind me of Moeraki/Fleurs Place!

There are a couple of GREAT James K Baxter, (facinating and famous NZ writer) childrens poems.

The red flowering tree there is the Pohutakawa,  New Zealands Christmas tree.

Great condition! What a find! Overjoyed!

Op-shop Sunday

Been busy this week so I didn't get chance to go op-shopping. Also, I had no need.

Not no need of stuff. I always need stuff. It's just I have a personal shopper. A personal op-shopper.

(For this week only as he has a sore leg and can't run at lunch time).

Cool Christmas Tins

Cool paper holding desk hardware

Seriously cool 50's style cutlery set (minus one knife)

We really need this, the old one has gone bung in the dishwasher and I'll go bung if I have to hand wash dishes.

Spear & Jackson.

AND

Cool doll house.

I know!

It's like bringing a puppy home on the spur of the moment.

You know you can't keep it, you don't have the room, or the time. But it sits there looking so appealing

(you can see your face in that roof, and the rooms are, well roomy, compared with my current only dollhouse) that you almost give in and let it stay.

But no. I am hard of heart.

Bad hubby.

Anyone want this?

Ok. Wait. Maybe I'll turn it into a bookshelf for Clauds room...

Well done husband!

Sharing at Sophies

Op shop sunday

 

 I know its really spring, and nearly summer when it's French-fest.

Akaroa was where the French landed, just a few short week of the Brits who claimed NZ way back.

Overfamiliarity (we go there all the time) doesn't make it any less lovely in my eyes.

(As are the French sailors, in uniform, who sail over every year from French Polynesia for the celebrations, and drive the local teenage population wild. Mmmmm).

I wore these, one of a HUGE box of gifts I will slowly unveil, from Leonie courtesy of Cat's Tilda Christmas swap THANK YOU LEONIE!

We beachcombed and picnic-ed

And I saw somemore cool letter boxes whilst we were out there

Dolly house!

Tea and taps at The Giants House, a big mosaic garden thing, like a tacky Gaudi take-off. 

                                            This, I believe is where the Akaroa plumber resides!

                           And there was the lure of the annual bowling club fundraising book sale

This kids book is so beautiful, every page made me sigh and think it was written about Claudine.

Umm and the dirt wiped off ;)

There is both a play and a book about what might have happened to New Zealand had the French arrived first.

Nuclear power aside (and don't mention the Rainbow Warrior) it's quite an alluring what-if...

Flea Market Finds

Vintage Missoni silk shirt.

Look at those colours.

Fits like a glove. Best clothing find in AGES!

                                                         Cutesy National Trust tea mug.

                    (And a whole lot of doll house related guff you'll get to see over the next few weeks...)

                                           Sharing my flea market finds for the week over here

Op-shop Sunday

A little something for everyone in our household this week.

For me, simple placemats that remind me of the David Mellor ones I wanted but resisted last time I was in England. 10 c!

European dresses in lovely fabrics for the Claud, $2 each.

A Danish milk jug, for the hubby who's interested in this kind of stuff. 20c.

And the reason I've gone off the boil with Blogtober?

A combo of sick hubby, a sore throat and cold of my own, but mainly these

Not usual my type of reading matter, but for 20c I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about.

Hooked.

Just finished the last one and have ordered no 4 from the library.

Guess what I'm watching on DVD tonight?!!

Sharing my opshop finds with all the other op-ortunists here