After the Cricket

Taph and I made our annual pilgrimage to the prime ministers eleven cricket match. We spent a morning in the grandstand while it rained, and at around 2pm the announcement was made that the game was a washout.

“Yippee” we both said, “We have an afternoon of op-shopping in south Canberra”.

Our first visit was to St Pauls, where I picked up two shirts and a pair of florsheim shoes for the grand total of $9. Taph pick up a silk scarf and two vintage necklaces for $1 each.

Our next visit was Salvos where we got Xmas packaging very cheaply.

A visit to Vinnies Narrumbah found us four Tupperware pantrymates for $2 each.

Tinys tip shop, Mugga got us five Rutherglen Winery Walkabout souvenir tasting glasses.

Not a bad afternoon following a mornings washout.

Mad Hatter - move over.

After Christmas, I was in the Vinnies at Dickson, when I spotted a teapot in my pattern.

So I had to get it. But there were many reasons why i should.

1. It was in my pattern and to leave it behind would be wrong.

2. It had $5 on it, and they were having a half price on Bric-a-brak sale, so it only cost me $2.50.

This presents me with a problem. I now have four teapots, and one coffee pot.

Is this too many, I hear you all ask? I say not, and Taph, says it’s no coincidence that they are in Hat Boxes.

Good Karma

I had an interesting week. On Sunday Taph and I were in the queue at the local Aldi getting our groceries.

A lady asked is she could jump ahead of us as she needed to buy one of the Aldi trolley tokens. Following my free range money challenge, I have managed to collect 15 of these little buggers tokens, so I offered her one, and suggested she pay it forward.

Later that evening, Taph reminded me that my parents wedding anniversary was coming up, and what was I going to get them. At the time I had no idea, so I said, I don’t know, however, something would turn up.

The next day I was in Salvos at Belconnen, when I spied this vase on their shelf.

This vase, along with another vase I had picked up earlier were both Johnson Brothers Summer Chintz patten, and would match thier dinner setting. I figured these would be great presents for their anniversary.

Later, when I mentioned this find to Taph that she said that Karma had decided to repay my previous good dead in full.

And the toy car? Dad collects the old matchbox toy cars, and I just gave it to him. .

Some days you can get so lucky

Over the past few weeks, it felt like every weekend involved a trip to Tinys Green Shed in-order to collect some more free clothes. This last weekend was no different.

With the Thrift-mobile filled we headed for home, but the car made a detour via the Narrabundah Vinnies.

While Taph was busy going through their knitting and sewing patten, i had a quick flick through their mens wear, and continued looking at their suits. I picked out this one suit and had a look at it. Fine wool and in a size that should fit me. I tried it on, and it idid fit me. Not only that but it came with two pairs of trousers.

Now, I do own a couple of suits, however they came from Lowes, so they are a little cheap and nasty. Here was a perfect chance to upgrade.

The suit cost $35 and this got us a discount voucher for our next visit to a Vinnies.

Later that day we were down at Gungahlin and we paid a visit to that Vinnies. We found another suit there that fitted me, and they only wanted $10. However, we could not find any labels on it that said who was the maker, the style and size.

However when we looked at the lining in the strong light coming in through the window, we saw those magic words in it. Pierre Cardin.

In disbelief, we checked the Price again. It was still $10. We checked the other stuff in Taphs hands. They came to $10. This means we could use the discount voucher we had been given earlier in the day, and bring down the purchase price to $15.00.

So for $42.50 we got a Pierre Cardin suit and an fine wool suit. Both suits need to have the legs on the trousers altered and one suit needs the sleeves shortened, but still they are bargains.

When we were outside Taph and i looked at each other and said "Cue maniacal laughter".

Lifeline Book Fair

Sunday was the lifeline book fair. To Taph and me Sunday is the day to go as after 2pm they mark down the books to $10 a bag (or $15 if they decide your bag is “bigger than an average supermarket bag).

We had a somewhat quiet day only returning with two bags full.

I will show you my stash at the end of this post, but a couple of things first.

In my search of the books I found 16 copies of “Dan Browns: The Da Vinci Code” Could there have been a bigger piece of pulp fiction ever written?

Well maybe by John Grisham, or Tom Clancy. There were numerous copies of their books there, but there did not appear to be 16 copies of any one of their titles there.

However in my search, i only found one book by Michael Moore.

Anyway here is a photo of my stash from today.

A quick poll for readers. What is the collective noun for a stack of “Dan Browns: The Da Vinci Code”. A couple of ideas are A Conspiracy, A Pulp or A Pyre? If you can think of anything that seems appropriate post it. The best suggestion posted by 3 October 2010 will win a prize. (it may or may not include a copy of Da Vinci Code).

Oh My God Moments

In my search for a new dinner setting I have had several "Oh My God, Oh My God" Moments when i have found items in my search for the new dinner set, but i have had two recent events that are worth putting up here.

The first was while up in Sydney with Taph. In the vinnies at Summer Hill, i spied this little collection of Johnson Brothers china on the shelf. And even better it was half price. There were four cups, eight saucers and six dinner plates. I left four Cups and Saucers as part of a "catch and release" program, and took the Plates and the other four Saucers.

Then a couple of weeks later on another visit to Salvos in Mitchell i suffered a major OMG moment. On at Table, just inside the door, was a Johnson Brother Setting for eight (including the Dinner plate, Breakfast plates, Side (or salad) plates, Cereal Bowls Cups and Saucers, Teapot, Sugar dish, Milk Jug and a Gravy dish and Gravy Plate. These were all new, still with barcodes stuck on them and most also had boxes (like i said it was a major OMG moment).

it was not for sale until the following morning when it would be sold to the first person who was able to get to the counter and say i want to buy these, and according to the shop assistant, it had caused a considerate interest.

I made a quick phone call to my Father (whatever used we do before we all had mobile phones) and he and mum came out to have a look at it too. Their decision was they were not going to try and get it, but if Taph and I decided to use our bulk to Jostle, or even Maori sidestep, the other buyers in the mad rush to the counter, then they would take them.

I felt it would be fun to go and see how much interest there was in these pieces, but ended up sleeping in and having a leisurely breakfast instead.

Stop Press: I found some pieces in my patten that came up on E-bay, I decided that i should scale back the search to a watching brief (if i found any bits in op shops i would get them but otherwise i had enough) however the search for matching bits would continued. On a recent visit to Vinnies in Woden, Taph found a Johnsen Regency Platter.

Once i pay off some debts I will be buying some bits from the US sellers on E-bay.

Another Trip to Sydney.

Taph and i made a recent visit to Sydney.
As we were leaving on the Sunday, we were surprised as we noticed that a Vinnies was open. This we felt this shop was worth a visit. when we went in it got even better as they had a half price end of summer sale.

They also had a advert saying that a number of vinnies would be open and also having this half price, end of summer sale. So we programmed Susan and set of with the goal of visiting as many as we could before closing time.

We did ok, and were able to visit four shops before they closed. My main find, well you will have to wait for the next blog post to see what that is

Taph felt it funny that the last time we were in Sydney we also stumbled onto a stack of vinnies having a half price sale, and this time we stumbled onto some other stores having a half price sale. We are hoping this patten holds on our future visits to Sydney.

Out of bed early on a weekend - it had better involve Snow or Surf

It was a cold morning that required me to be out of bed on a Saturday well before Sparrows. In fact when i stopped for first breakfast at Marulan, it was still before Sparrows.

My quick trip to Sydney was to pick up some stuff for my parents. While searching for bits for my Johnson I found bits for their Johnson . If you know my parents, then please do not mention this to them. One piece is being held for my mothers birthday, the other for mothers day. However, they already know about the teapot as i had to find out if they wanted a second teapot, but they do not know about the other bits.

After picking up this stuff i went over to Victoria's Basement at Alburn (due to a major stuff up i did not have a Sydney street directory in the car and the Alburn shop was the only one i could find without using a map and that had free parking), When i got there, all they had was five tea sets. I figured i did not need another tea set.

Following Parramatta road into the city, i passed this Salvos (which i later found was at Ashfield), and i figured i would offend the op shop gods if i did not stop in.

It was a good litle shop. For $6 i got a Bodum coffee plunger and four tulip shaped wine tasting glasses.

I continued to Peters of Kensington, I figured the op shop gods were smiling on me as the Mitsubishi-Zero got Rock star parking at the door.

I got inside and discovered they had one dinner setting left in my style. I also grabbed six coffee mugs, and the assistant asked if I did not want the last four mugs, So i grabbed them too. All in all a good shopping day in Sydney.

Finally, I had a prophecy to keep. I told Taph ages ago that the only thing to get me out of bed early on a weekend had better involve Surf or Snow, So i went to Bondi for a late lunch.

Growing My Johnson.

I have been doing the search for the pieces to grow my Johnson collection with, and i have had quite a few false positives as i spy plates that look like the set i am searching for, only to turn them over and discover that they are completely the wrong thing.

On their own the "Sheffield Bone White" looks like a "Johnson Brothers Regency White", but when you put them side by side you can see they are very different.

My reactions when finding these pieces (and one set) has ranged from an "oh dam-it" to one occasion where it took every bit of my self restraint to stop myself from smashing the pieces in disgust.

The plates at Salvos jammo

Having said that, if you are looking for replacement pieces for a Sheffield dinner setting in the Bone White Style;

• Vinnies Gungahlin have a setting for four (well they did last week),
• Salvos Jamison have 7 dinner plates (but one is very chipped),
• Salvos Phillip have a dessert fruit plate,
• as does Aussie Junk in Mitchell.

Oh well my search continues, and i hope this post helps in yours.

A quick update. Here is a photo of two plates found at Aussie junk.

And Salvos Belconnon have two cups and saucers.

M-Yass or MY-Ass

I saw a photo of this sign on the net several years ago. You would have thought Macas would have fixed it by now, seems as how it has that double-entendre thing going, but it is still next to the road between Goulburn and Yass.

When Taph and I saw it on our recent Goulburn – Yass opp shopping trip, and we could not resist taking this photo.

And for the record, MY Ass is not open 24 hours.