Market days

The market culture is alive and kicking in New Zealand I am happy to say.

 A vintage 'domestic' stall in the Sunday Otaki  open market. Very appealing.

 Community Saturday market at Paruparaumu, that was very lively with

 the largest cabbages I have ever seen at $1 a piece (50 cents for half)

Both  small towns on the Kapiti coast.

A few Op shops in Nz

Op shops in NZ are proving fruitful, though it is a bit nerve wracking with R waiting outside in the car (or worse, coming in to get me).  Vintage knitting patterns are plentiful and easy to take home.

10 balls of hand dyed pure wool...not dirt cheap, but good enough. I wish I could have bought that spinning wheel on offer at the hospice shop in Levin.

 Exquisite kid gloves from Upper Hutt, fortunately I have very small hands.

Wool and gloves shown on 1930s 40s scarves that will go into my etsy shop.

Dear blog buddies, I am still having a hard time accessing a nice Wi Fi spot ....at the moment I am in a nasty, stuffy internet place/thingy and it is a lovely day outside...hopefully things will improve as I have so much to show you and I miss reading your blogs....

A day at the races

I was lucky enough to be in Wellington for a meet at Trentham  race course , where ever I travel I try to catch a local race day, you always get to see a slice of life.

 Trentham is set in the picturesque Hutt Valley and the weather was co-operating.

 The girls were showing off their assets,

 and the gents looked rather natty too.

I always have a little flutter, but alas, the gods were not with me until the  last race when I managed to place. 

Just about (but not quite) paid for the day.

 

Thank you Sam.

New Zealand at last

 I always know I am really in New Zealand when I see the masses of agapanthus ....
.

 spy the rata, still in bloom

and, of course, commune with the sheep.

Blogging has been a bit of a problem for the last week as I have no immediate access to WiFi......am bought down to trying in a very noisy  Starbucks......R refuses to try McDonalds, that I understand has WIFI also.

I am working on it and will try again in a few days as there is masses to blog about.

A new shop

I bit the bullet and opened a new etsy shop devoted to vintage scarves.

 Probably would have done better if I had done it in November, but one does what one can. Name?....foulardfantastique 

Actually I am quite pleased, I started to sell right away and have been featured in quite a few treasuries already.....like this and this.

There is a method in my madness. Tomorrow I am off to New Zealand for 2 months. The scarves are coming with me and hopefully I can continue to buy and sell from there. It  gives me a great excuse to visit every op shop I come across.
I have been to New Zealand many times before, if I were 20 years younger I would emigrate.
I will be blogging and hope you will enjoy following along..

St Lawrence Sunday Market

A medium ( but long) day at St Lawrence Sunday Market. Lots of people, started out with a bang, but not much action in the afternoon.

some of my  vintage fabrics

 The lovely 40s floral, full length drapes finally found just the right home.

basket of firoshiki

 Vintage furoshiki drew much attention but none sold.

ethnic textiles

 Asian and Oriental textiles did not do so well, either.  I can't get it right every time, I suppose.

Jeanette set up an all yellow table and was having a half price sale. Wish I had bought that lovely big platter.

Etsy has added a link button to Pinterest... I have been busy pinning all my etsy items. But I don't quite 'get it'. What do people do with Pinterest?

A Liberty surprise

Imagine my delight when I received an email from the archivist at Liberty's of London. I had blogged about this scarf some time in October. Anna Buruma informed me it was from 1968.... Thank you Anna,   sounds as if you have an enviable job.

1968


Wonder what the date is on this one with a Canadian theme. Most likely a royal visit year. Could be 1959, 67, 70, 71. My money is on 1967, Centennial year.

However, this one presents a problem for me. A rather Moorish design, with an old label rather than an imprint......early-mid 50s perhaps?.

post 300

Can you believe it? How did I get here?

As it is such a miserable day I thought I would look forward to next summer when I can start to go to our cabin again.  

and watch the moon rise over the lake.

Perhaps my grandchildren will come to stay.....here is Maddie meeting her new cousin.

and I can mend many more quilts . I do mend quilts here in the city, but its not quite the same.

what a busy bee I am

The warehouse/garage wall are feeling a bit damp, no heat this winter, so I decided to move some of my quilts down to the basement to a newly cleared locker....we used to keep all the skiing equipment there. R is the only skier in the house now.

 

 Sam, my summer student was home for the hols and came to help. Pallets and wood on the floor.
Just starting,...... figured I could get two stacks x 3 in there.

 Nearly finished one level.

.

starting on the second lot.

 Hmm...its taking more than I thought. Guess my spatial  awareness is not what I thought.

 I hope I remember what the hell I have got.

 Third lot coming down......calling it quits for the day, but there is still lots of room.


Like others I am having problems with the new blogger set up, I am a bit of a techno dinosaur.