This weekend was a long weekend (Queen's Birthday, even though her actual birthday is in April, go figure) and we were very pleased to see that every single op shop in town was open, a rare occurrence indeed. What a lot of treasures we found. This very softly coloured water colour will look pretty in the bathroom beside a slightly similar one I bought a couple of years ago. The frame was so dirty that it took a while to clean it up, but it's in place now and looking much better for a bit of a polish.
And this very curiously shaped old tin will be just the thing for putting a stitching project into, for travelling. (I don't actually stitch while driving, you will be pleased to know, only when a passenger. Once when in an embroidery shop I overheard a customer enthusing over how much a person could get done while at the traffic lights and idly wondered how many cycles of lights she had stitched through in her time, no doubt to the frustration and annoyance of other motorists.) I was somewhat perplexed to see that the view of Auckland was on the back of the tin, while the view of Wellington was on the front, a grave error in my opinion, being an Aucklander born and bred. Though I know The Dancing Queen, who comes from Wellington, would beg to differ, saying that Wellington is The Riviera Of The South.)
This pretty bird cushion (why am I so partial to anything bird themed I cannot fathom, but it seems to be an enduring passion) will be just the thing for the outdoor furniture next spring, which can't be that far off now, surely.
There were several large plates which will look great on the pink wall. Actually we have accumulated a collection of them, waiting to be hung, but we need scaffolding to put them up, having reached so high up the wall already.
This embroidery is on a perfect tablecloth, and it has the most pretty hand tatted edging. I was going to cut it up for one of my crazy quilts, but I can't bring myself to do it since it is in perfect condition. It will be useful for the dining table instead. I am a person who actually rather enjoys ironing and laundering these linens, even the damask table napkins. so it won't be a hardship.
I particularly liked this one. I was hoping to find other "days of the week" to complete the set, but had to be content with Church On Sunday.
These three are to be used as hand towels and I have sewn tags onto each of them so they can easily hang on a hook. I am embarrassed to admit that I was deconstructing silk ties for a crazy quilt and used the little loops off the back as tags for the the hand towels. In coordinating shades, naturally. Getting just a bit too particular, perhaps.
These artist easel earrings are "clip ons", which I cannot understand anybody ever having worn. I have tried once or twice and after about half an hour end up with ear lobes painfully throbbing and a powerful headache as well. Luckily for me, Mr Shoestring is a dab hand at converting clip ons to pierced ear variety and is very obliging about doing so. I think these would look just the thing at Art Deco weekend for a person who had artistic pretensions, and wore long strings of jet beads and clattering carnelian bracelets, just the sort of individual I plan on being one day next summer in Napier.
Things in the garden are looking surprisingly cheerful. Even a few roses blooming, and the pansies are putting on a show.
In a fit of impatience or optimism I put some sweet pea seeds in a while ago and I'm very surprised to see that they seem to be coping with the colder weather very well, having germinated well and now scrambling up their trellis already. Maybe in future I will rely on autumn plantings of them, since they (so far) don't object.
The most gratifying thing this week though was that Madame Canuck, who is becoming quite the talented painter, offered a while ago to "paint out" the people and tractor on an op shop painting I had bought. I had always detested the tractor and people gathering up stooks, and went so far as to put a picnic hamper in front of that part of the painting, so as to conceal that part of it. When Madame Canuck took the painting away I didn't dwell on the possibility of a priceless work of art being desecrated, having supreme confidence in her abilities, but I was absolutely thrilled when she returned the painting this weekend. No trace of humans or machinery, and she had also converted the foreground into a waterway, and put in some trees for good measure. The whole thing looked so much better, I was very grateful and full of admiration.
