retro renovation

I have discovered a wonderful blog and website caled retrorenovation.com, possibly the only interior design blog that urges you to hold onto your 1950s and 1960s pink sinks, tiles and bathtubs, and not replace them!

The host of the blog takes you through her own renovation, pointing out was found in op shops and similar. It's inspiring and has made me rethink whether we should completely rip out our 1962 liver-pink coloured nightmare. Perhaps it can be 'tweaked'....?

More from Mitchell

Salvos Mitchell is having a book sale until Saturday, with tables filled with books priced from $2.00 to $4.00 each.

I may or may not have staggered out with a rather large pile after my visit this afternoon...

Vinnies Mitchell reopens!

That's the good news: The woman behind the counter explained it's like the factory outlet of op shops: the stuff that doesn't get sold comes here and what doesn't sell is compacted and sent overseas to sell.
( It was weird being back there)
The bad news?
At this stage they're only open during the week...

Beady eyed

A quick trip to Vinnies Dickson on the way home from the Post Office this afternoon to check out their craft sale.

A $1 bag of large wooden beads. Makes a perfect stash of miniature lamp bases!

From the latest issue of BRW

Charity begins at the stores: "The Salvation Army's shops have gone from cluttered to classy. The cheak and now chic Salvos stores have had a professional revamp and it's worked."

Poplarves to offload stuff

I found these placemats at the tip shop. We had the exact same ones when I was growing up. They remind me of brussels sprouts being covertly concealed in napkins. Aaah, nostalgia.

And this sweet little pot. I found that in an op shop.

My father brought some figs around and I'm going to make this which I saw over at chez MMMC. And I have to copy everything she does.

This wall hanging was retrieved from father's garage. It used to hang in my childhood kitchen. I love it. For many reasons.

And this! This was also retrieved from puppah's garage. (Note the crepuscular light in this shot.)

It (and the two armchairs) will require new foam and fabric. I have no idea what kind of fabric. Maybe I'll sew some child smear-hardy calico just for the interim. From what I've seen people reupholstering Fler suites tend to remain faithful to the era's muted hues - greys, greens, blues.


image via

image via

But I'm tempted to go for something bold. Husbandido has suggested cerise. (I know! Who knew?) Any other suggestions?

Autumn in onkytown is rather stunning. The light, the turning leaves, the sunshiny days. There are quite a lot of poplars in these here parts. I love poplars.

image via

And my mind is turning, as it does at this time of year, to cashmere and US ebay.

I think I may buy these:

image via

Can you think of anything more luxurious and snoogly than cashmere knickers?

And socks. Some cashmere socks.

Playing along with Sophie

Just in time to stock up on winter clothing...

(Particularly useful as autumn seems to have disappeared off the calendar)

The Zonta sale is this weekend:
(Thanks to Maria)

And reader Cindy emailed us today to pass on details of the next Vinnies Monster Warehouse Sale, which is on 15, 16, 17 March, 9.00 to 4.00 pm each day. For those going for the first time, Vinnies is at 10 Buckland Street in Mitchell. Eftpos and Cash Sales only.

Cindy points out that the sale overlaps with the Lifeline Book Fair by a couple of days. Smart thinking Vinnies!

Lunchtime finds in Braddon

Another city worker here, I planned a city op-shop visit for last Friday with a co-worker. So in the pouring rain we visited the ADRA Shop in Braddon and Brain Injury Foundation Shop.

All my purchases were from the ADRA shop, the sewing pattern and Little Golden book were both only 50 cents, and the bag of lace and trimmings was $1.50. There is a lot of women's black suit jackets in stock.

No purchases in the Brain Injury shop, they did have a rack of BNWT, plus size clothing suitable for travelling - all in black and all knits.

Brain Injury Foundation Op Shop Genge St Civic (Canberra)

I'm fortunate enough to work as a volunteer with community radio (2xx 98.3 fm) in the Griffin Centre; downstairs of course is the wonderful Brain Injury Foundation Op Shop.. It's small but that's perfect for me to duck into on the way through to help with our Monday morning show 'Words Apart' (10:30 am Mondays). Today I was delighted to have found a wonderful old picture frame ($2) AND J.R.R Tolkien's 'the legend of Sigurd & Gudrun' ($3); which frankly is wonderfully serendipitous (spelling?) as I'm currently reading a lot about mythic poetry..

On my budget (working part time) the $5 is affordable even for me. Wonderful feeling to get these two; now I'll need to find something to place in the frame AND make a bit of time to skim through Sigurd & Gurdrun...

Picture to follow (I'm posting from my phone which doesn't seem to want to upload the photo I've just taken...)

Creative Commons licensing of I Op Therefore I am - ACT

Hi fellow I Oppers

We will be adding a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license to I Op Therefore I Am – ACT at the end of March 2012 in order to comply with industry best practice.

This licence allows others to share your posts and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.

We have emailed all contributors today asking that you reply by the end of March (if not sooner) with your agreement. We are also blogging in case we don't have your current email details.

If we don’t hear from you we will assume you are not interested in continuing to contribute.

Looking forward to hearing from you!