To market, to market to gather some treasures......

Home again, home again with a bounty of pleasures!!

Yes indeedy, in celebration of Mother's Day, last Sunday, our li'l ole tin lizzie took it upon itself (again) to manoeuvre my good husband and his good wife on a fun-filled day trip through the Autumnal Tassie countryside, in search of some markets and some mighty fine coffee houses to whet the thirst throughout the day. After all, roaming around markets, fossicking for treasures is thirsty business which needs plenty of caffeine.....oh and of course enjoy the odd delish treat or two!!

And......... it was a wonderful day. A sun-kissed day with Old Man Sun stretching out his radiant arms of warm sunshine and lighting our path with a spirit of cheeriness.

One of our favourite pastimes is to embark on long drives throughout the glorious countryside of Tassie with no idea of the journey's end, stopping at markets and quirky places that we might discover along the way.

And.........of course our li'l Chitty Chitty Bang Bang-ish, tin lizzie, never fails to deliver. It just seems to know which winding road to jaunt along to explore out of the way quirky li'l places.

So with a special Mother's Day breakfast having been served and enjoyed.......we were on our way.

 And.....what treasures jumped out at me. We happened along a li'l market in a quaint town hall in a pretty town called, Lilydale where we discovered a lovely antique/bric-a-brac booth. Such, such pretties.....embroidered pretties, just waiting for li'l ole me.

Lookity look at my pretty gal hanging her washing on the line. Love it!! Though it is a laundry bag, me thinks I will make it the centrepiece of a new laundry window curtain, surrounded with other embroidered fineries found in my dowry of cloth. Oh dear, but a new curtain, demands my laundry to be painted in a crisp white as a little pick me up from those wash day doldrums.

Imagine my surprise when I ever so 'nicely' asked my husband if it would be at all possible to add a lick of white paint on the walls and ceiling and he answered....."of course"!! Wow...such a sweet man. I did search his face for the look of  "what is she dreaming up this time"....but no, nothing but sincerity and genuineness to be seen. This pretty bag with the most gorgeous crewel work was also added to my dowry of cloth.

But enough of painting and tarting up laundries for now....there are more important matters at foot.

A pretty hand embroidered floral filled tablecloth and a whimsical 1960 printed tablecloth with a smattering of cute as cute furniture dancing around the tablecloth. I love this....not only to be used as a tablecloth, but there is oodles of fun inspiration to be had, as I design for the free hand drawing with my machine that I love to do. There is actually a fun project formulating in my brainpan as I 'chat', just looking at this fun tablecloth. That's the thing with inspiration.....it can be found everywhere, any moment of every day.

With a little do-ray-me having exchanged hands, snug as two bugs in our tin lizzie, we were then off to Evandale Markets and then to meet up with our daughter and son-in-law for afternoon tea. Evandale is a very pretty, historic Tassie town which oozes charm of a bygone era filled with charming historic buildings and churches with streets lined with glorious autumnal trees, clothed in lovely shades of burnished yellow, russet brown and ochreous orange leaves, slowly falling to the ground forming a crunchy carpet......'tis rather heavenly.

I found this pretty mirror. Though I have many looking glasses scattered throughout our li'l ole abode, I couldn't resist this one. As I have a penchant for Southern Belles, I just had to, had to take this li'l lass home with me. For now, she is keeping my other mirrors on my bedside table company.

Also unearthed was the sweetest print of the cutest little boy.....love, love, love!!

I also found this pretty inspirational plaque with an English scene. As a gal with a deep faith in God, I love collecting vintage inspirational plaques and placing them throughout our humble abode, reminding me each day of God's love and His goodness to me. The particular ones that I favour are hard to come by, so when one discovers one of these plaques hiding in a market, they somehow or other find their way into my thankful li'l hands.

My whimsical plaque has found a home on my kitchen mantle sitting on a beautiful runner that my daughter bought me as a Mother's Day gift, when holidaying in China.

 Isn't the runner gorgeous? This photo doesn't do it justice....it is embroidered with a riot of beautiful, bright colour.....I could look at it all day!

Mmm........I left this lass sitting on the shelf, even though it had my moniker on it!

And of course Mother's Day just wouldn't be Mother's Day if flowers didn't make an appearance somewhere throughout the day. When we stopped to fill our tin lizzie with some juice, lo and behold these beautiful potted chrysanthemums were sitting at the petrol station! I know....a petrol station! Unbelievable!

So of course my husband thought that he would buy them for me (not that he needed much persuasion, especially with his predilection for all things pertaining to plant life). They are truly gorgeous. Big, blousy, plate-sized flowers. Just gawjus!!

These beautiful chrysanthemums will add a lovely splash of colour to our Autumn garden. I am afraid that the curtain has been lowered on our glorious Spring/Summer garden, which  has been decimated to a black, burnt mass of organic matter by 'good' old Jack Frost!! Beautiful flowers one day, flowers that are no more the next!

A lovely li'l café tucked away in the pretty town of Evandale.

So after the loveliest of Mother's Days and with 'our' treasures safely tucked away in the back of our tin lizzie, we rambled our way home, with many a happy thought that surround our two daughters and all those memories that encompass my darling mum, who is no longer with us; thankful that we are able to enjoy a countryside drive on a perfect sun-kissed day.

Just a little something I stitched a li'l while ago, pondering, "What is a Mother"??

Wishing you the loveliest of weeks, filled with many a blessing!

Oh......the treasures that can be found in a thrift shop!!

As I have alluded to before I love to fossick for 'finds' in thrift shops. The beauty of thrift shops is that you never quite know what you will discover when you step over the threshold. Sometimes there is not a single 'pretty' that tickles your fancy and then there are those times when a 'find' jumps out from it's hiding place, trips you up and finds itself in your bag ready to begin another life in another home!

Not so long ago I was looking in the childrens' dress up section of our local thrift shop (why I have no idea as my girls are grown up) and found a man's wool brown suit. The trick with thrift shops is to look in every nook and cranny.....more often than not there are treasures in the most unlikely of places.

"So".....I hear you say. "Surely there is nothing spine-tingling about a man's brown suit????" Ordinarily no.....but at a glance I could see the wonderful cut and the tailoring that one usually finds in a man's jacket. Now, I'm not a gal that wears a lot of brown, nor am I a gal that normally wears men's clothing; so to notice this poor old, may I say, vintage, piece of men's apparel was a peculiar thing for me to get excited about! "BUT.....a man's jacket; you've got to be kidding!" Yes...a man's jacket. I liked what I saw from a glance and had an inkling that perhaps, just perhaps, I could transform it into something half-way acceptable for li'l ole me to wear about town. I know, I know (yes I can read your thoughts)......but the buttons and button holes are on the opposite side to that of a lady's jacket!! I concede that point, BUT button holes can always be covered by a smidgen of lace, a trailing ribbon or some other embellishment. Actually there are so many things that lace, ribbon, buttons etc etc can cover....but I digress.

Besides, I am always on the lookout for jackets that I can tart up.  It's what one can do to tart up these pre-loved jackets which is the adventurous part. Indeed I have 'tarted-up' numerous articles of clothing in my life.....'tis such fun!

So, once home with my new acquisition to my wardrobe, I set to work gathering up an assortment of different laces, a doily or two (of course!), ribbons, a vintage brooch and a gorgeous vintage buckle, which was a present from my husband many moons ago;  and started to design and play and stitch. There was a notion formulating in my rather fuzzy head that if I added a dash of lace with hints of the colour blue, and a brown and blue length of ribbon, maybe, just maybe I could fashion something quite unique; which funnily enough, when out and about my 'one of a kind' jacket  receives so many favourable comments from people.

First things first, I snipped off the buttons and cut a doily in half and began to stitch each half of the doily along the lapels of the jacket with tiny, almost invisible stitches.

 

 

On the inside of the jacket I carefully snipped around the doily, stitching it onto the lining on the inside of the lapel, with just a hint of the edge of the doily peeping out in the front.

 

I covered the buttonholes with a gorgeous blue vintage buckle (which I love, love, LOVE)...that my husband bought me as a present and a trailing length of blue/brown ribbon stitching it in a visually pleasing effect down the length of one side of the jacket.

 

 

 

Once the doilies were stitched in place I then proceeded to stitch smidgens of lace over the doilies, following the line of the lapels, stopping at the neckline.

I then stitched another length of ribbon at the top of the lapel, trailing it around the back of the neck and bringing it round to the other side.

 

 

 

I then covered the end of the ribbon with a beautiful, vintage (of course) brooch.

 

 

  

So there you have it.....what was once a rather drab man's jacket, is now revamped into a 'new' fashion statement! I might add that my 'one of a kind Sarah Lizzie's original' is hanging on a vintage mannequin (another 'cheap as chips' thrift shop find), posing in front of curtains fashioned out of vintage Italian coverlets with a vintage hat case sitting nearby! Aaaah....yes, there is many a thrift shop, vintage find in my humble abode!

 

  

Mmmmm.....looking at this photo, my poor old vintage, stained mannequin could do with a little 'tarting up' with a dash of lace.......must see what I can do!!

 

 ........just stepping out in my 'tarted up' jacket!!

 

 

Linking up to Karen at Quilty Creations where for the month of July she is holding a Something Old Something New challenge? Thank you Karen, it has been fun being part of this linky party.....I could write a tome on the subject 'Something Old Something New'....just because of my propensity of bringing many a vintage find home to live with me!!