thrifty kitsch, bobo glitz

Ballarat opshopping was fun!  We got to five of the ten shops on our map, so we'll have to make another trip at some point. While it's always interesting to check out other neighbourhoods, and regional opshops turn up some fun things, I do sometimes think the best bargains are found at the shops that are near your own house, which you can pop into really regularly. Still, I did find some really great stuff.

Kittieeeeeeeeeees! I'll have to find some latch-hooking yarn and finish up the corner... I hope you can still get that stuff!

What do you do when you want to contrive a reason to incur upon others' personal space but are too clever for Twister?

It's the mind that boggles.

Ruby glass sugar bowl.

Linen tablecloth showing the beautiful landmarks of Melbourne...



...with the puzzling inclusion of Tullamarine airport.

Milk glass comport. I had seen one exactly like it on a style blog a few weeks ago and was stoked to find it at Ballarat.

Cute patterns. The one in the centre has a sweet little jacket with a tie-detail on the sleeves. It's sized too small for me but I figured I could look at how it was done and use the sleeve idea on another pattern sometime. The Project Runway one seems to have about twenty different variations.

Who knew Avon used to do craft kits!?

Back in Melbourne, I had some great luck with books. These two in particular I was really pleased with as I'd been planning to order them at full price soon. I got them for only eight dollars each.

I would like kitschy potter Jonathan Adler and his windowdressing husband, Simon Doonan, to adopt me as their long-lost niece...

Fleur Wood's spirit is intimidatingly free, her book is about silken sequined yurts on the beach, rooftop bull terriers boogying to ghetto-blasters, fishtail braids, lace picnic blankets, redheaded children riding heirloom cattle, green-apple macarons, chaise longues perched on riverbanks, sheep with bedroom eyes, clavicles, horses in crocheted pyjama bottoms, wicker rowboats lined with swansdown, chandeliers made of pink marshmallows and mardigras necklaces.  Okay I'm kidding, but only a little. It's your basic bourgeois-bohemian nightmare. Leafing through it's pages feels like being pelted with copies of frankie, Australian Country Style and Anthropologie catalogues. Sienna Miller is lobbing them at you. Don't think I don't love it! I haven't been able to stop poring over her gorgeous food, gorgeous tablesettings and gorgeous moddlepals. 

More book luck! Clockwise from top left: I really enjoyed Julian Fellowes' Snobs; squealed when I discovered PG Wodehouse wrote a book about a gal; have been meaning to read Guns, Germs and Steel for years; I've been getting interested in fabric dyeing and printing techniques lately; loved the book and movie of Notes on a Scandal by this author; can't tell you WHY I bought this one, it's full of horribly bad news which is more than evident from the title. I want a donut.