Top of Town, Ipswich and Sunday Sport...

Leon was off to climb Mt Warning in northern N.S.W on Saturday so I decided to spend the morning exploring the Op Shops in the Top of Town Precinct in Ipswich. Oh what fun...I love a good Op Shop forage and the Top of Town feels so festive on a Saturday morning. The people of Ipswich and beyond all come out for a jaunt in the coffee shops and boutiques that line Brisbane Street.
There are four Op Shops in the Top of Town and several more within a 5 minute walking distance. My favorite is the Hospice which also has a secondhand book shop next door.

In the Old Flour Mill across the road from the Hospice is a Vintage Boutique full of awesome vintage loveliness...

It has lots of vintage kitchenware, ceramics, jewellery and books.
After exploring all of the Op Shops I stopped in for a coffee at the new shop on the block, Urban Pantry. The coffee here is really good, the service is great and there are lots of lovely products for the pantry to buy.
It was a lovely way to spend the morning.

On Sunday, we were off to the St Lucia campus of UQ for Leon to play Volleyball in the Corporate Games. I watched him play for a while and then found my way to the Co-op Bookshop and the Wordsmith Cafe. They serve Campos coffee here, probably my favorite coffee in Brisbane. I had a coffee and spent several hours in the Bookshop, I love this bookshop. This bookshop and Mary Ryan on Park Road, Milton are my most favorite bookshops in Brisbane.
On the whole, it was a lovely day and a lovely weekend...
Have a great week,
Mel
(P.s please excuse the overuse of the word "lovely", can't be bothered rewriting...)

Home-Sweet-Home...

Tuesdays are the day I spend at home all day, all by myself. This is the day that I can have all to myself to craft, sew, crochet, play with the dogs, bake...you get the picture. Today I decided to to a bit of redecorating. Last weekend was hard rubbish pickup in our area and I scored some new/old things to play with. I have also been very blessed with lots of Thrift Shop goodies from recent trips around the local shops, I have also found some beautiful vintage books.
On a side note, I looove vintage books. My two favorites that I have bought this week are a beautifully bound copy of Shakespeare's Histories and a book titled " Familiar Quotations".
Today I set to work cleaning the things I had found and wondering what I should do with them...among the found objects were some drawers from a Singer Sewing Machine (incidentally they are something I have been wanting for awhile as I am not about to pull apart my vintage sewing machine that is in almost perfect condition). I thought they would be lovely on top of my bookcase, here is the result...

I have used a mixture of thrift shop finds (the books, teapot, vintage stamps and vintage cotton spools) and inherited treasures from my Grandmother's (the mint green tiny tea cup and saucer and the doggies). The Peach print is a free printable found at The Paper Mama.

Yesterday when I went Thrift Store Shopping, I found a gorgeous mirror. It was only $10 so it had to come home with me. I have a T.V. cabinet that is very much like having a huge mantelpiece and I thought the mirror would be perfect on top of it.

On a crafty note, I was inspired to make a terrarium by my friend Jess (you will find her pretty blog here) who made one to decorate the food table at her daughter's first birthday party. I bought some tiny ferns from Bunnings and used some thrift shop bought jars. I searched the web for a tutorial but ended up not needing one. You just: get jar, put dirt in jar (I used Yates seedraising mix) plant plants in dirt and decorate. Joy-of-joys I found some real moss and tiny fungi in my backyard so I dug those up and put them in as well. I had so much fun and like it so much that I made three. The bambi figurine I inherited from my grandma. Take a look...

Lovely...

Have a fun week...
Mel

10 Happy Years...

May 8th...that is the day 10 years ago that my husband and I had our first date. It was a Wednesday, I think and we went to Alexandra Park in Bundaberg and had KFC for lunch. I was nervous and excited and wondering the whole time if he was going to hold my hand. I knew within a few months that he was "The One". It took us two and a half years to finally tie the knot but all that time getting to know each other was worth it. Our marriage is built on a strong friendship that has helped us through some really hard stuff.

These are the pretty flowers that Leon bought me for our anniversary, aren't they lovely...