flea market finds - treasures from the trip home

I posted a while ago about our recent family holiday, involving a big dose of en-route op-shopping... and showed you what I found on the way there... now I've finally remembered to show you what we found on the way home!


Our main op-shop destinations were Leongatha and Korumburra - we stopped in both towns on the way there and back, so as not to miss out on any shops that might be open only on certain days.


We visited about 5 op-shops in total, plus a book fair selling cancelled library books - there was at least one other shop I didn't set foot in, amazingly (I was already testing the patience of my fellow travellers...) - and had a great time enjoying generous pricing, friendly people and lovely finds...


though I wish I'd had more time to really have a rummage... next time I might make my family stay in an op-shop town, instead of a beach side village!!

Check Her Library Adventures for more finds!

PS: I'm trying a bit of Spring-inspired decluttering with a weekly "reverse finds" post on Saturdays - would you like to join me?

my creative space - books, books, books, books, books

It's Children's Book Week (as the parents of school-age children are probably all too painfully aware!)
I love books, and I remember loving Book Week as a child - here I am with my sister dressed up as Mary Poppins (with umbrella out of view) with my sister as Rapunzel (you can see a bit of her "long golden hair" wrapped around her arm).

I also love using books as inspiration to make things - so here's a little collection of some of my favourite book-inspired things:


Not a Box is a simple, stylish, fun to read book that celebrates imagination. Inspired, I took an ugly pink nappy box, and covered it with a brown paper bag and Mod Podge, to make.... umm.... a cardboard box (amazing, I know!). It even has an eye hole for when you want to be a cardboard box robot...

and makes a good Duplo storage box at other times.

This is a book that requires no introduction - a childhood favourite of mine that I have forced upon our child from birth (perhaps even before...). To try and ensure this book remains a favourite, I made a little knitted caterpillar finger puppet - so easy, just a little garter stitch "scarf" folded on itself.

Charlotte's Web is another of my childhood favourites (I'm pretty sure I walked around with a Charlotte's Web sandwich board at a Book Week Parade once upon a time...) and I'm lucky enough to have my childhood copy of the book. The spider and "web" above were actually from a "garden" themed party, but I'm saving them up as an emergency Book Week costume for Book Weeks to come...Finally, one of my favourites - Pigeon, who, while being a somewhat questionable role model, comes out with the best lines... it's always fun to hear a 3 year old say " come on, what's five minutes in the grand scheme of things?".

Inspired by all this book love, I've decided to hold a tiny book inspired giveaway - I'll make a caterpillar and pigeon puppet (as above) for the winner.

The normal rules apply - leave a comment below. Followers get a bonus entry (just let me know in your comment).

Entries close on Wednesday September 8, at 11:59pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (I'll need the 2 weeks to actually finish the puppets!).



Oh, and of course, you know where to go for your weekly creative fix.

my creative space - book inspired making

We have a lot of books in our house - often stacked 2 books thick in our bookshelves, and in little "overflow" piles on tables or cupboards. Somehow, though, we spend much of our time reading the same ones - and this is one of our favourites.

A persuasive, expressive, occasionally bad tempered pigeon who really wants to drive a bus - what's not to like? Yes there have been times when I hear pigeon-inspired complaints ("I never get to do anything!"), but isn't quoting from literature a good thing??

I decided to try and make a little pigeon for our house. I'd originally planned a softie, but was home sick, did not feel like leaving the house under any circumstances, and discovered that I had some bits of (cheap and nasty) felt in the necessary colours - a finger puppet seemed a good idea.

After designing a modified pigeon that could fit on a child's finger, and cutting out the pieces, I realised that I had no idea how to make skinny little pigeon legs - I knew this felt would not be up to the task.

I decided to try crochet, in spite of my very limited crochet knowledge - and it kind of worked...

but was a bit lumpy and gappy (poor technique? wrong size hook? crocheting stranded cotton because I couldn't find wool?) so I cheated (sssh!) and "sewed" through the legs to pull everything together.

Finally my pigeon was finished - a little plumper than the original (perhaps a few too many hot dog parties!) - but still pretty cute, and still quite talkative!

For more creative space inspiration, visit Kirsty, and for more on this book visit the author's website here.