Opportunity Adventures

To find craft items at low cost I often score the op shops and second hand stores.
Often wool and embroidery threads are found at reduced prices and a fraction of what you pay for in craft shops.
With my re enthused passion for crochet I have been on the hunt for crotchet cottons. The local Goodwill Store has very kindly made up bundles of crochet threads in brightly coloured bundles for me to find on my bicycle adventures. I was very excited to  find these bundles but alas didn't have enough shrapnel to purchase them and wandered off on the deadly treadly to obtain the necessary  funds. I have resisted the temptation  to commence crocheting with my find straight away wanting to complete other  UFOs in my basket and continue to produce items for the craft stall at the school fair. Ill just have to wait until mid September or so. They look pretty in my woven basket which is also pre loved. It was not purchased at a second shop but at a shop which retails hand crafted items and other desirous things. It was probably over priced but my pre loved basket from a Chinese village has a lovely shape and interesting weave.

I have previously bought crockery cheaply under the guise of wanting to smash it up for tiling. Instead of smashing the china I found I loved the colour and quality of china so much that I have started to collect the Jade Glamour set from J &G Meakin. It has a contemporary art  Deco appeal about it and was produced in the 1940s. During the period of WWII English crockery was sombre and plain, manufactures were not allowed  to produce printed designs on crockery,  instead injected style and design into their production.

Things that are usually hard to find in second hand shops are honey pots and egg cups of quality. This week I have found two lovely honey pots and although worth  little are still a pleasure to own.

Green is one of my favourite colours and I also seem to be developing a love and fetish for cabbage wear and other manor of green crockery.

Buttons are often collected on mass in jars and sometimes can be bought cheaply this way. I particularly  like dealing with men when  it comes to buttons because generally they have little sense of value and worth for buttons. I just about danced away from op shop after buying a box of buttons for $5 from a gentleman whom was only to happy to get rid of them. The same week in a shop around the corner a medium sized jar was up for grabs for $20 and not of the same calibre of buttons, needless to say I didn't buy them.

Todays purchase is a totally frivolous teapot most suited to Halloween which we tend not to celebrate  in Australia but I liked it because it was colourful and cheap

I am loving Carlton Ware Australia Design hand painted ware.

This one looks to have lost its colour over time I think but is still beautiful in its own right

Hand painted tomatoes a reminder of summer.
All these lovely little pots and plates have to find a home in my very limited cupboards, time for a clean out before the school fete! More work!
Anyway have fun trolling through the opportunity shops and second hand stores. I'm addicted.