Yesterday I received a Liebster Blog Award from Scarlett of Scarlett Loves Elvis fame.
How lovely is that...thank you Scarlett x
This award is for bloggers with less than 300 followers (which makes me the perfect candidate! Ha!)

The aim of the L.B.A. is to spread the word about wonderful but currently lesser known blogs, and as a new blogger I think this can only be a good thing.

Here are my nominations - all Australian and all beautiful in slightly quirky ways. They are inspiring, interesting and a little bit different...
Please have a look at them BUT be warned, you'll be hooked once you start!

My nominations are...

kit and nancy        http://kitandnancy.blogspot.com/

curbside style       http://curbsidestyle.blogspot.com/

green tea and red nails http://greenteaandrednails.blogspot.com/

ask alice stationery
http://askalicestationery.blogspot.com/

I'm just going to sneak this one in too  http://slownoodle.blogspot.com/ while I don't think it fits the criteria it's a lovely blog and definetely worth checking out.

With the tragedy unfolding in Japan at the moment blogging does seem rather insignificant... mother nature has been extremely cruel lately and it is very sad to see so many people suffering. I do think however, that the connection that blogging allows us to make with people all over the world is very important.

    tiny peace crane made by my daughter...

Over the wintry

forest,winds howl in rage

with no leaves to blow.

Soseki Natsume

Enough pontificating from me. On to happier news...my vintage Pierucci dress has a new owner! It's Vildes Verden from Norway! Please email me your details Vildes so that I can post your new dress to you. I hope you get lots of lovely compliments when you wear it. To the girls who missed out - stay tuned, I'll have more giveaways down the track...

To end, the tea towel

it really is "the lucky country"

Well the long weekend has been and gone. One minute it was nice and quiet, peaceful and relaxing...the next, crazy and slightly manic! On Sunday our faithful hound Jed, was stung by a bee and had a serious anaphylactic reaction. It was very scary and let's just say there wasn't much wow  left in our little Chihuahua by the time we got to the vet! Thankfully all it took was a quick jab of adrenalin for him to recover (and to return to his normal size which had almost doubled!)

Anyway despite that drama I still had plenty of time to hunt for treasure, one of the things I found was this book

It's full of beautiful things made by Australian women, often with very little money or resources. Like...

This was knitted by Mrs Gertrude Pepperell from odd balls of wool when she was in her eighties! She was almost blind but kept up the tradition of never being idle! Amazing!

When I saw this picture I thought how lovely it would be to have a blanket like this, and then by chance (no lie!) I found one. Slightly wonky and a little bit crooked but to me still beautiful. Have a look...

Not a patch on Mrs Pepperell's! But mine has doilies AND granny squares!!!

I also found some very pretty old tablecloths and a pile of unused tea towels (including a Rodriquez)

This mirror and china lady vase



And this too

It's a writing set. Made in Italy. Love that scarf and red bikini!

I think that's enough show and tell for today-I'll show you more tomorrow. Before today's tea towel a quick memo...If you are crafty (or more like me, a crafty wannabe!)have a look here http://sarahhodgsonblog.blogspot.com/ to find out more about a brand new

charter Sarah and Megan are starting in Perth. You can also learn more about Brown Owls here  http://brownowls-members.blogspot.com/ Should be lots of fun and the more the merrier!

And without further adieu the tea towel

One of my favourites!



Today I'm going to show you some more of the treasure we discovered on our great op-shopping adventure last Friday. Let's start with something pretty...

I love old tablecloths almost as much as old tea towels and for the same reasons.

See.

And not just Australian ones although they are probably my most favourite. How gorgeous is that wattle! (it smells delicious too-a bit like honey) I like the way the map of Australia looks like it comes from the pages of a child's colouring-in book.

I might as well stick with the touristy theme...

I have never been to Exmouth, it's a l-o-n-g way from Perth and I've only driven through Geraldton. Exmouth is obviously a good place for a spot of fishing and one of Geraldton's main attractions is the Windswept Tree!

We also found  a few trays with more of an international flavour...

These were all one dollar each AND we left a pile behind for the next lucky person!

Now perhaps you can help me with the next thing?

My poor old camera (and lack of skill) is clearly evident in these snaps! Sorry. On the back of this little scoop(?) it says Denmark and there is a picture of what I'd describe as a hill with three rings around it. It also has the monogram Mj and a funny N-shape with a line through the middle. 2900 of these were made and ours is number 147 so I suppose it's not worth terribly much but I'd just like to know something about it. Please drop me a line if you do. (And thanks for reading through this) 

Now, one more thing found on Friday

It's a bread slicer. This one is made in Germany but they were also made in Ireland too. Love the colour. Love the word Toledo. Hate my kitchen bench top!!!

More of our finds tomorrow. I hope you found some lovely treasure on the week-end. 

Here is today's tea towel...

   

I popped into a couple of op-shops this morning while I was was out and about and this is what I bought...

The colours in the stripey crochet blanket are much prettier and brighter in real life. Crochet is the "in" crafty thing at the moment so I find it slightly bemusing that all of the op-shops I go to have heaps of these (some I think, quite sweetly less perfect than others but all involving lots of work by their makers)  and they are always dirt cheap.  This one cost two dollars and it covers the top of our queen sized bed! Admittedly the Salvo's were having a half priced sale on linen, but come on...Anyway for me this is a good thing as I've tried to crochet and I suck at it!

Sometimes the labels on things you buy are more interesting than the thing itself...

Isn't this one great. I love the artist's easel and the font and I also love the phrase "pictures of distinction" It also tells me that the print of the little girl and kitten is called Innocence by an artist called Moter. I'm sure I've seen the same print but in blues instead of pinks have you?

I haven't been able to find any info on Moter, if you have any please let me know.

During my attempted research on Moter I came across two fantastic web sites on Big Eye Art. Prints I've never seen before. I know alot of you love Big Eye pics so here you are:   

http://bigeyedmasters.tripod.com/BIGEYEDMASTERS.html

http://besmirched.tripod.com/eyes.html

I also bought this for my daughter who likes Chinese Checkers. One dollar. No missing pieces. And in a neat little wooden box too.

And here's a close-up of the little shoe lasts. You can't really see them in the top pic. Purely decorative but too pretty to leave and they were only ninety nine cents!

Alot of words today. I hope you don't mind...

Here is today's tea towel

Speaking of tea towels, my husband is in Melbourne at the moment,today he went to Chappel Street Bazaar and saw vintage linen tea towels for sale for sixty dollars!!! Wow! I may never have to work again!

And now I'll end with one more pic of our front garden which I took this morning...

I went to the Belmont swap meet yesterday, it was a very quick trip as I only had 25 minutes to spare between dropping one daughter off at the airport and picking the other up from a sleep-over. Not necessarily a bad thing though as this swap meet is not as good as it once was (too much rubbish imported from Asia these days) which is a shame because I used to find some real treasure there. On occasion I still do like...

I was thrilled to find this tablecloth and paid only two dollars fifty for it. It's special and not just for obvious reasons but also because this wonderful stadium (where I went to Little Athletics for years and where my school athletic carnivals were also held!) has been demolished.

Here it is in 1962 in all it's modernist glory and here it is in a terrible state of disrepair before it was demolished

Perry Lakes Stadium

Sadly it is now a residential site so to me the little old tablecloth is definetely treasure!

Note:the pics of Perry lakes Stadium are from a great Perth architecture blog http://perthsbest.wordpress.com/

As far as tablecloths are concerned I also bought this

and this

Then as I was racing around I spotted  this

Look inside

And here it is all laid out neatly

Amongst all this prettiness, at the very bottom I found this

Real treasure!

(or maybe not...)

Can I be boring and show you the label inside the old beauty case? It's just so lovely

From the same lady I also bought...



And

The little birds are inside old Fowlers preserving jars. Not really my style but for two dollars how could I leave them behind?

Lastly, here's today's tea towel

I collect vintage tea towels. I have hundereds of them!  When I go op-shopping tea towels are the first thing I look for-it's probably not a pretty sight to see me rummaging my way through the piles of "small assorted linen" but I can't help myself! I'm also a bit selfish when it comes to tea towels-I rarely leave any behind for the next person. Sorry.

Australiana tea towels are my most favourite and when I find these I always think about the people who bought them and the lovely holidays they were (hopefully) having. Most of them are in pristine unused condition, some still with original price tags stuck on. Too special to use?

Anyway I thought I'd share my collection with you...the graphics and colours are too lovely for me not to. I'm going to post a pic a day in random order. I'm quite excited about this actually (even though I'm sure others have done this before me) because I will be able to rediscover all of the wonderful tea towels I've forgotten about. I'd love to hear about your tea towels too.

O.K. tea towel number one...

Very hippy-trippy! Gorgeous colours. The artist's name is Pat Chambers-can't find any info about her...if you have any please let me know. Check out your star sign I'm a Virgo and it sounds just like me...

Some recent op-shop finds later and that terrarium I was meant to show you on Monday.

My search for kitschy Australiana couldn't unearth anything better than this,but please close your eyes if you're easily offended. It's lewd, rude and definetely crude!

At first glance it looks quite innocent,but then...

And

                                     Three Sisters Katoomba NSW

My daughters reaction "eww"
What do you think ?