Wednesday List: three fave op shop finds, their histories, and where they are now

I have been quite the op-shopper in my time, and have bought many a fine and ironic garment. I went through a big animal phase, and developed quite a passion for embellished t-shirts at one point during the mid-2000s.

Op shopping is: the thrill of the chase, risking something strange and having it pay off, and persistence (especially if you're op shopping for jeans or oversized men's tuxedo shirts). Op shopping is also about the Story of the Find - where and how.

While I op shop much less these days because of my puritanical thrifty ways, I still think fondly of my best and most favourite purchases.

So - here are some good ones, where they came from, and their histories.

1. Black “Julia Roberts” dress

What: An early 90s black silk cocktail dress, with a drop waist and pleated skirt. It came with long sheer sleeves that I tore off immediately.

Where: An op shop in Perth. It was next door to the hostel I was staying in at the time.

History: I bought this during a road trip in the summer of 2005/2006 that took me from Adelaide, to Perth, to Melbourne. I was very excited when I bought it (you can read about it in a sort of stream of consciousness post I wrote at the time).

Shannon read that blog post in the very early days of our relationship, and commented that Richard Gere in fact drives a Lotus in Pretty Woman, effectively clearing up the mystery that features so strongly in that rambling bit of text. So, I feel as though this post/dress is intimately connected with our early courting days.

Most memorable wears: I wore it to a quite epic party on Waitangi Day eve in 2008. I thought I had a picture of this, but you can't see my dress in the picture.

I have hazy (drunken) memories of wearing it a lot during 2006 and 2007.

Where is it now: Dear reader, this dress was a size 10 - and as I became happier and better paid, I was no longer a size 10 myself and had to stop wearing it.

I hung on to it for a while, but at some point between (I think) the great declutter of 2010 and the present day, this dress was given to another op shop where it rejoined the great recycle of life.

It was a good dress though, and I’m pretty sad that I don’t have a photo of it anywhere.

2. Fawn cable-knit cardigan

A photo of a Polaroid of me wearing the cardigan and standing by a camper van. I was trying to do a sort of “American Gothic” thing.

What: A hand-knit cable knit cardigan in a delightful fawn wool. Features cream vintage-looking buttons.

Where: Either an op shop in Taranaki or in the far North. (I’m a bit vague on this as I did a lot of op-shopping in small towns the year that I bought this).

History: Two options

1. Shannon and I went on a road trip in 2008 and this was one of my many (so many) purchases on this trip. 
2. Or, I bought this during a lunch break while I was away in the far North working in that same year. 

Who even knows! Suffice to say I was spending a lot of money of second hand clothes at the time.

Most memorable wears: I found a photo where I’m wearing the cardi at Campus A Low Hum in 2010, and it was one of two cardigans I took on my trip last year (my list was very tiny).

Hey also I am wearing it in this blog post about a knitted drink bottle cover.

Another very distant photo. I’m standing in front of Hampton Court Palace, arms akimbo

Where is it now?: It’s in my drawer (or possibly my washing basket).

It’s a little the worst for wear, but is has held up remarkably well given that it’s been in constant rotation since 2008 and was second-hand in the first place. The longevity of this cardi just goes to show that hand knits are the best.

3. Pink leather orchid brooch

What: A slightly pearlescent pink leather brooch, ostensibly in the shape of an orchid. Usually referred to as my “vag badge” because - yonic much?

Where: I found this in the better of the four op shops that were within walking distance of my house in the Melbourne suburb of Yarraville. I snaffled it immediately.

History: Basically I just like wearing this and pointing out that it looks like a vulva. I've done this now since 2006. You'd be surprised how tired Shannon is of hearing about it.

At one point one of the petals started flopping forward, so I stuck them to the leather back more securely. A++ accessory management.

Where is it now? Tacked to my brooch board.

Vag badge on the brooch board

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Brief life update

I have had a bladder infection since Saturday and it's fairly misery-making.

Spend less, save more: you still need to buy stuff

The previous post in this more-than-infrequent series covered working out how much you spend each pay period and what you were spending it on, and making a spending plan. In this post I’ll look at how to stay within your allocated week's spend, some things I found helpful in breaking the impulse buying habit, and ways to better plan your spending.

Buying stuff is fun to do

It can be hard to stick to your budget, especially if you’re used to the thrill of the impulse buy. The plan is to ultimately get the same thrill from saving or paying back debt. Or failing that, that you get a kind of puritanical thrill from your self-control. (YOU HAVE SO MUCH SELF CONTROL, look at you, walking around wielding it like a sword of light.)

The best way to slow or stop over spending if you’re an impulse buyer is to stop putting yourself in situations where you’ll spend. Tell yourself: you have no reason to be in a place where the main purpose is to buy things if you have no money with which to buy anything. For the time being, act as though you can’t be trusted in these temples to consumerism and just avoid the hell out of them. If you have someone who enables overspending (*cough* Mum, Lizzie) avoid going into shops with those people especially.  

This precept goes for op-shopping too. Whatever you’re going to buy may be cheap, but you still if you are spending outside of your budget, you can't afford it.

If, like me, you spend far too much time on the internet, you'll see many pretty shiny things in the world. It is natural to want such things. Instead of actively buying them, why not play a slightly masochistic game of ‘online window shopping’, by filling your basket and then shutting down the browser altogether. This will demonstrate your immense self control and give you the thrill of budget control. Try laughing defiantly while you do this ("ha HA!”).

Perhaps you like looking at nice pottery, or furniture, or beautiful vintage fashions? Can I recommend museums and art galleries as an alternative to shopping? Looking at collections of vintage clothes and crockery in museums and galleries gives me much the same feeling as looking in a shop full of nice second-hand clothes and furniture, but completely removes the risk that I might buy anything - provided I avoid the gift shop.

To the left is a particularly fabulous basket chair I saw at the V&A when I was in London last year. It’s beautiful and amaze and a museum piece. No budgets were harmed in the viewing of this covetable item.

Write it down and walk away

For better or for worse, you’ll never be able to avoid buying things entirely. A few years after my initial decision to buy less stuff I had to deal with the hard reality of this - things wear out, things break, and some of these things are expensive to replace - I’m looking at you, shoes.

The plan is to work out what is a necessity and what is a nice to have - I have a list on Evernote that I update on a regular basis along with the estimated costs of what I 'need' and what I 'want'. Things often appear on my 'need' list and then waft over to 'want' during the course of a week or month. ‘Needs' are bought first, ‘wants' often never - because wanting things can be so fleeting.

I found the best way to break my impulse buying habit was, if I saw something covetable, to write it down and walk away for an hour or so. If it was still vitally important that I buy those shoes, or that bag, or whatever, then I came back. I often find that after the initial flush of discovery has died away, the item in question isn't worth the walk back to the shop.

Op shopping is a different matter. Of course, walking away is always an option - leaving the ownership of a particularly delicious item of tat up to chance. But truth be told, I find that if I'm walking around a shop and holding an item in my hand for any length of time, I suddenly decide that my desire for aforementioned item was nought but a whimsy, and back on the shelf it goes.

Buy once, buy well

If you’re going to the trouble of making mature, responsible spending decisions, you might as well buy something that’s of good quality. Stop buying things because they’re the closest approximation of what you really want, and take the time to research, price compare and weigh-up quality.

The platonic ideal is to buy only top quality goods, with the assumption that they'll last forever. Like me, this might not be an ideal that you can afford most of the time. That’s totally fine. But decide in advance (your need/want list will help) what features you want the item to have, and if you can’t find something that fits the most basic of those requirements, don’t be afraid to go without.

Can I also say that saving up for something and then buying it outright is kind of an amazing feeling. Recently, Shannon and I saved up and bought ourselves a brand-new bed and futon mattress. We knew how much we needed to save for the bed on top of what we are already saving for houses and we saved it! It felt as though it took an age - but lying on that bed is like lying on a beautiful firm cloud of smugness and financial responsibility. TRY IT.

You could also consider whether the thing you want is something you could easily pick up second hand. For example, about five years ago I decided I needed black Doc Marten boots, found a pair on Trade Me for I think $50 max, and they have lasted me forever. They saw me around England, Berlin and Paris and I have never regretted buying them.

Share tips with me on my favourite subject! I have a million more - you can try also reading some posts from 2010 where I talk about wallet feng shui and clawing my way back on to the wagon.

In my next post: food is delicious, I am spending all my money on food. Help.

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Brief life update

Have I already mentioned that I’ve been feeling quite fragile lately? Because, guys, honestly I have. I am working on it though. It’s tiring.

I also want to take a moment to briefly discuss two recent baking disasters.

The first featured an apricot cake that I attempted to take as a dessert to a friends’ house - the oven switched itself off (as it’s wont to do during periods of extreme haste) and so I was already running late/in a panic. When I tested the cake with my trusty skewer it defo seemed cooked. However, apparently not, which I discovered to my utter chagrin at the moment of truth (i.e. when I attempted to cut a piece and the centre oozed. Cake centres should not ooze). 

The second baking disaster involved a carrot cake I made on Saturday as a late birthday cake for Shannon, and again, I tested the cake with a skewer and everything seemed hunky dory. This time I had iced the cake and we’d sat down with a cup of tea before the oozy centre of the cake was revealed. I wanted to (╯'□')╯︵ ┻━┻

Today I successfully made some muffins tho, so maybe I am winning now. LOOKING GOOD.

Frock from a bed sheet

I made this summer frock during the in-betweenie time, and completely forgot about it - because it was in the wash due to my inordinate love for the dress.

It's made of an old bed sheet that I picked up while op-shopping last year - a delightful brown gingham print bed sheet. The sheet had a white trim which I re-purposed as the band at the bottom of the dress. I think the band breaks up the relentless brown check of the dress quite nicely, and it also saved me having to hem! Luckily I had already shortened the skirt on the pattern, as this made working out the skirt length a helluva lot easier.

The pattern is this terribly 80s - Style 4353. I was not put off by the terrible poutiness of main model or the freaky length of the dress, however. In fact, this was my second attempt at this dress: my earlier version was in a knit rather than the woven that is SPECIFIED by the pattern. Apparently I must learn by my mistakes.

The pattern:

And the finished product.

Can we just agree, infinitely better than super pouty 80s lady above.

Thoughts on this pattern/make:

• In future I would hem the sleeves very simply - on this version I used very narrow hems, and this, along with the heaviness of the fabric, means that the sleeve hem cuts into my arm a bit: less than Ideal.
• I could defo get away with making this  a tiny bit bigger if I'm making it in heavy fabrics.
• I could probably re-shape the sleeves, although I quite like how low they're cut under the arm (Crystal-wearing lady over here - less opportunities for sweating onto the dress the better).
• I'm stoked with my darts and with my zip insertion, and on how well I did the gathers and attached the dress to the bodice. So, you know, most things. Also, my facing is deliciously great, and overlocking the facing edges gave a much neater finish.
• In conclusion: A++ Would Make Again. Albeit perhaps in a softer drape fabric.

Have you ever remade an 80s pattern, or made over a super 80s dress so that its more *ahem* contemporarily styled? I have some other 80s patterns of which I think I might do a remake, and I love me some inspo.

Visitors and a Martinborough mini-break

January is a sad-glad month for me. Usually, over the Christmas and New Years period, a bunch of friends come home to visit home (their parents and families) and I get in on the action. It's great to see them again but enjoying them so much makes me realise how dreadfully I miss them for the rest of the year! 

This summer brought a bumper crop of visitors - including the family I mentioned in the last post - Bex, her partner Sebastien and their son Julian. It was super great having them stay with us, and it's really nice to be able to play host to people without having to worry about flatmate etiquette. Julian is a year old and he was a star, definitely the kind of baby that makes you think "oh... it wouldn't be so bad...", even though he was a bit crotchetty from all the travel.

The family left on Thursday, and Shannon and I went across to Martinborough with a group of friends for the weekend, getting back at about midday today (Sunday). We stayed in a super lovely house in the middle of a vineyard, ate a great deal, and spent the evenings drinking and staring at the stars. Everyone else saw approximately one billion million shooting stars and I saw none, and I took no photographs whatsoever of the entire weekend which I'm sure makes me the world's worst blogger.

On Saturday day the associated menfolk took themselves to a golf course and spent the entire day ruining a good walk; we the ladyfolk drank coffee, lunched at a vineyard, went to a PRETTY FREAKING AWESOME VINTAGE STORE, swam in the river and came home via the ice-cream shop. While in Martinborough we looked at all the giftish shops which were full of things that were very nice, but not quite nice enough to buy (sometimes I am scared at the quantities of (designer) dross in the world).The sun was lovely and the wind infinitely ignorable so I feel that we definitely won on the weather front.

I went totes nuts in the vintage shop which had a veritable plethora of knitting and sewing supplies, including quite a lot of vintage trim, buttons and the like. There was no fabric or patterns about which made me feel simultaneously full of sadness and deeply, deeply relieved. My stash also thanks me - while it's nowhere near as extensive as it could be, I am hoping to be increasingly stash-less and try and buy for patterns as I go. I am so frustrated with having not quite enough fabric to make any one thing at any time.* 

My haul!: I bought a bunch of transfers and trims from the vintage shop:

I'm planning to use the bigger transfers (they're a bit smaller than A4 sized) on baby blankets etc. The transfers in the book are intended for embroidery and are 1940s/50s I think - I LOVE them. I think it would be awesome to embroider them on a super simple t-shirt - something like the Sewaholic Renfrew or the Grainline Scout Woven Tee (which I've actually just ordered). The trim is quite hard to see in this picture - I bought about a metre of navy/white/red rick-rack, and some kind of bizarro Oroton-mesh style metallic ribbon which is edged in white crochet. I think this would look great inserted into the shoulder seams of a simple raglan sleeved top.

With all these plans, I am rather itching to get started - I am sitting in my sewing room right now, but it's still missing most of my crafty bits as I'm expecting my favourite family to come through again on their way back up the country. Having emptied the room, I've had a chance to think about how I'd like to set it out.... I know that things aren't ideal right now, but I think for optimum awesome room-ness I will have to buy some additional furniture. I like the idea of having cubby holes for my fabric and yarn stashes, and perhaps i would be able to store my sewing machines on my desk if I gave up my second computer screen which I'm not really using at all. I'll have to have a think and maybe a perve at some other people's sewing rooms for inspiration.

I'm trying to soothe my sewing desires by knitting myself a top: this one, from Purl Soho. I tell you though, when you're on a sewing kick, knitting just isn't the same. Going to stop drooling at patterns and dreaming about what to sew next, and sit myself down to some knitting for half an hour or so.

*Vintage fabrics are, of course, totally exempt from this rule, due to my lack of self-control in this department.**

**the moment I wrote this I found fabric to buy on Trade Me [help me I have a problem].

Another New Year and 365 Days of Peta

Happy belated New Years to All the People! Yesterday I spent most of the morning recovering from New Years dinner and drinks with Bea at Chap's parents' house, and the afternoon putting together 365 Days of Peta, the Julie/Julia style-project that I mentioned in my last post. I'm pretty happy with how the site looks at the moment, although I have no doubt that I will spend much time tweaking it in the future.

At the moment I am baking a Tarte au Citron as part of my first 365DOP cooking experiment, I have some gorgeous little lamb loins marinating in espresso coffee, sugar and various spices, and a box of Jersey Bennes waiting to be lovingly boiled and coated in butter and fresh mint from the giant bush in the back garden. I'm considering cooking the lamb loins on the barbeque, if the weather stays nice (PLEASE STAY NICE). I am using my brother Tom coming around as the perfect excuse for cooking this mountainously decadent meal, but really in the actual fact, it's ALL FOR ME.

Mostly, I've spent the last week of my holiday sewing and adjusting various op-shop pick ups. I made another full gathered skirt similar to previous ones that I've shown off, this one out of some vintage fabric that I picked up via the ubiquitous Trade Me. Quelle fab, non? Blue roses are the perfect flower.

Also, I finally made adjustments to this dress that I picked up in July when we went up north. It's red and has a jaunty white with red polka-dot Peter Pan collar. Delish, and I think probably appropriate work wear.

Finally, I am excited because lovely Bex has had her adorable son! Congrats to you and to Sebastien and to bubs. I am gagging for pictures lady.

What I Have Been Doing

... apart from disappearing off the face of the planet.

I've been mostly *ahem* shopping on Trade Me where I bought this coat... red and woollen and with BEAVERS on the pockets and a CANOE on the back. Easily the most fabulous coat ever made. Check out my haute couture pose, the only thing that one can see in the above photo - lighting in my room SO BAD. Also, I now have the two most fabulous winter coats ever made: this Bad Boy (above) and my light brown duffle coat with leopard-print fun fur lined hood. It's all Study at the front and Party at the back. I like riding my bike in it and putting a note book in the pocket, so I can stop and write poetry whenever the mood takes me. Tra la la!

I may have already mentioned this, but I've been obsessing over the early seventies BBC doco "The Ascent of Man". I adore how self indulgent those early colour documentaries were! Just amazing. Like "Civilization", but slightly less Eurocentric; definitely a relic. I had to fast forward through his opinion of Pacific migration though, I felt rather nauseous hearing about the Easter Islander's lack of navigational skills... Even so, I now know more about science up until the Seventies from a mid-twentieth century perspective than I ever knew before! Who knew I was missing so much!

I read some, but not as much as I'd like. I'll review these proper-like, later.

I listened to the abridged audio book version of Cold Comfort Farm about a hundred times. J'adore. And now I want my own copy, because I'm upset about the abridgement.

 

 

 

I have knitted and knitted and knitted like an obsessive lady. I am making a sort of cowl/neck warmer for myself (the green and the circular needles and the complicated stitch) and the red woollen whatnots are handwarmers for the Boy when he rides his bicycle; the red will make him go faster, as well as keeping his hands from freezing to the handlebars. (I was so sure this was going to happen to me this week, and have been thanking the Zombie Jeebers for my own handwarmers. Which are navy blue.)

I've also been baking and making soup.

Otherwise, I have been suffering from hideous poverty and trying to keep warm. Things are only going to get colder... I'm trying to think happy boot/woolly thoughts. And I do have the two most fabulous winter coats ever made.

Newtown Fair

It's still fair season, another big weekend with the Jackson Street Fair in Petone and the Newtown Fair. RCRD was at the Mighty Mighty Markets all afternoon on Saturday which was rather good fun, beer and toasted sandwiches and talking people into a raffle. Went to the Southern Cross afterwards too for cider with Mon. Mm, cider goooooood. Cider for Ginger. Cider Rules.

Today the Boy and I missioned to Newtown on our bicycles, parked up by the school and wandered about. SO MANY PEOPLE. And an insanely beautifully sunny day. I bought a new hat, a sexy straw number... I spent all summer desperately looking for the straw hat of my dreams, and typically I found it RIGHT AT THE END. In fact, I think we may be in Autumn officially.

Did I mention the amazing sun? I am sunburnt. My neck is especially bad, except for a small patch on the top of my neck where the hat worked with its powers of shade-creation. How about that.

A Fair also means many many junk/"antique"/NZ Pottery stalls. I managed to avoid acquiring anymore teacups or Crown Lynn plates or bowls, but I did buy this amazing little picture disc, a 45 single of "The World is Full of Married Men". It has a fabulously Attack-of-the-60ft-Woman-looking puppeteer printed on it.

I did some reading and apparently its a single from the soundtrack of a TV dramatisation of a Jackie Collins novel, and the soundtrack is basically all disco music. I might hijack Tom's turntables and get down with my bad self.

In other exciting news, Mel is back in town for a week. She's been studying at Yale, and has come over for a couple of weeks while she's on spring break. We went to the beach, Merryn and Mel and Merryn's Mysterious Melbournian Man-friend and myself. It was cold. Mel and Merryn went swimming. I thought they were mad.

Mmmmmm, like that song by the Crash Test Dummies.

Miscellaneous Found Things

I adore it when I find little ephemera of other people's lives in my op shop finds. The other morning, I was on the train and I found a pocket on my new-old bag that I hadn't seen before... dipped in and found this little gem. How ironical that I was on the train and that this appears to be a list of train stops? So ironical.

Arohanui

More things to love this week

• Yeasayer date with the Boy last night. Yeasayer = an amazing band with great on-stage presence, beautiful music and a bass player who looks as though he's stepped directly out of the Seventies. AND better still, I had the fantastic company of my favourite Boy. I danced! I drank! I jumped around a little! I was happy and I smiled and it was awesome.

• Op Shopping scores from last week - including a great pair of jeans and a beautiful sparkly cardigan. Mmm, glitoris.
• The best lasagne ever on Sunday night.
• Making interpretive brownie and eating most of it myself.
• Audiobooks on the train. I know, SO geeky, but there is nothing like it, so meditative.
• Watching episodes of the Mighty Boosh until my head explodes and I'm unsure about reality and my place in it.
• My first launch invitation through work - the first time I've received an invitation to something through a grown-up job.
• This post by Gala Darling. I've printed it out, it sits on my desk, I think it is gorgeous and super cute.
• Anticipation: Whippersnapper this weekend (Bex and Peter's Birthday), Richter City Roller Derby/Film Archives showing of Hell On Wheels, Kylie in December!, Tauranga-and-further-North Adventures.

Arohanui

• Going on dates with a person you're super close with... the most fun ever to hang out with a person who you adore and who adores you and whose company is fabulously good.
• Eating well... during the day at work, and at home. So great feeling wonderfully satisfied, wholes and a little more than slightly smug. I am eating huge amounts of fresh brioche with home made quince jam at the moment. Too good.
• Bright red cowboy boots, the greatest Trade Me purchase ever... Huzzah! Only a poncho could make me happier.

• Sitting in my bedroom with Bex, drinking wine and gossiping like school girls.
• Having a super sexily de-cluttered room with super hott clean sheets. I am wallowing in smugness. And I have room to THINK.
• Op shopping. God, I love it too much. I now have a 70s duffle coat with a fun fur lined hood and it blows my tiny mind.
• Writing on the train on the way to and from work. So much bogan deliciousness to record, heaps more time to navel gaze and contemplate.
• Friday afternoon at new job = glide time + booze.
• Books: crushing Djuna Barnes/Anais Nin's diaries/biographies of 18th C courtesans.

North Island Road Trip - Tokomaru Bay

Just arrived back from a week road tripping around the North Island with the Boy. We hired a campervan, and I completely fell in love with cooking in the ticky-tacky Wendy house kitchen. Against my better judgement, I also fell in love with cooking for the Boy in general – making masses of dishes and then lapping up the praise while watching him wash up. Cooking – fun, dishes – a bitch.

Our trip revolved around declining rural centres, rotting industrial architecture and op shops. Our photos are a collection of images of the burnt out meatworks at Patea and the abandoned freezing works and shipping centre in Tokomaru Bay.

At work I’ve been reading mostly about how important coastal shipping was in the past, building up New Zealand’s economy; without knowing the histories of these places these industrial complexes are arbitrary and bizarre, completely foreign in the landscape.

Tokomaru Bay takes the prize for bizarre; such a huge decline in population, a thousand less people living there now than during its heyday. Signage on the shops is the same as it was when the owners abandoned their businesses during the 1960s.

The local motorcycle gang has a beautiful Art Deco bank as their headquarters; the original glass still identifies the building, “Bank of New Zealand”. As you drive towards the freezing works, you pass through an avenue of huge exotic palms; the carnival atmosphere evoked by these is jarringly at odds with the town itself and only serves to draw more attention to the disintegration of the houses around them. The avenue leads ultimately to Tokomaru wharf, a rotting concrete structure from where meat and wool was once shipped internationally. Today the thing shakes like a leaf in the wind and against the tides and currents of the sea.

I write this as merely a sketch of a town that fascinates me in its present day appearance and in the history of its rise and decline – I really can’t say anything novel, or new, or interesting, or even Not Trite about the area. The buildings themselves just seem to stand so resolutely despite their complete neglect – fascinating, to visit, like tourism in the bones of history.

Roller Disco - TONIGHT

Can you IMAGINE my excitement. It is very great. My skates have arrived and I bought new shorts to skate in - highwaisted, sailor-style, very 1950s and evocative of say, Gorgeous Gloria. You should all come. Tonight. At Kilbernie Rec Centre.

FUN.

FUN.

FUN.

Also I am doing my laundry, of which there seems to be a HUGE amount. I'm trying to remove marks and stains from Op Shop clothes I bought while a little overexcited. This is just about semi-successful. Have to use the bleach pen again on a new fave top. Lemon yellow 80s dress luxuriating in Napi-San. Washing out woollens to get that weird musty/mothball smell out. Soon I plan to do a massive sell off of my stuff so that I have money to buy MORE clothes while I am away on holiday with the Boy, very soon that shall be.