The Thrifting Gods have withdrawn themselves to their upcycled, restyled, reused and dirt cheap palace on the lofty heights of Mt Frugality leaving their poor minions unable to suppress their instant gratification by means of fiscal self-restraint . In other worlds I have found bupkis at the local charity stores. Doesn't mean I have found nothing in my travels though. Remember I have always been a little tardy in my ability to suppress my instant gratification. Behold the treasures (read other people's trash) I managed to dig up in a couple of secondhand shops.

The Vesuviana. No not Mt Vesuvius but a vintage stove top espresso machine. Consider it a poor man's Atomic. The day I find an Atomic dirt cheap at a thrift store is the day I will sacrifice my first born to the thrifting gods. (Note to self. I am childless.) Needs a clean but it does work. Remind me to leave the lid up when I finally run the coffee through. I didn't on the water only test run .... oops.

Next a small piece of shibori. Love Japanese tie dyed indigo. No idea what I will do with this. I'll just add it to the textile collection.

How about dozens and dozens of mehndi stencils? These will become a large bricolage. Lined up regimentally in a super large frame. Just have to thrift the super large frame. Hang on there is one in the garage! Fabulous!

Sunny would like you to know that he is now known as Pookie ... or is that Pooky or Puky? He was named by the pet shop owner but it seems that every sun conure parrot that comes through her doors is named Sunny. One day while I was inanely repeating "hello, hello, hello" he was calling softly back "pook, pook, pook" and well one thing led to another and he was renamed Pookie. I think I prefer Puki and will pretend it is the Finnish spelling. Or maybe his formal name should be Puca DeLucca, the Paraguayan Parrot. Anyway Puki/Pooky/Pookie it is.

He's starting to get his adult plumage. More yellow is coming in across his back and orange feathers are coming through around his throat. He's still cheeky and still madly in love with me. He even showers with me every morning. We both sing along to the radio :)

Help the flowers are taking over! I can't believe a week has past without me posting anything here on my page and then what do I post ... more flowers. Just some of this week's offerings at ES Traders. Heliconias tied with gymea lily leaves, bunches of beautiful lilies with dozens of heads ready to open, irises wrapped in lotus leaves and those acid green mums. With Valentine's Day on Tuesday we were steering clear of roses ... for now. Nothing like a 5.30 start to the day, a mad rush back to the shop, arranging and tying bunches of beautiful blooms while scoffing down cappucinos to stop the yawning. Shame I didn't get a shot of my first two bunches (big fuschia coloured dahlias with acid green mums wrapped in lotus leaves and tied up big fat posy-like with rough string). Those first two walked out the door before the doors even opened to make their way to a double birthday breakfast. This is not my new career :) Just helping a friend add more layers to the business. Still a beautiful way to start the day.

Up soon after dawn to head to the markets to help my friend Kerrie pick up the flowers for ES Traders. The cold rooms were freezing but the flowers divine. By the time we got back to Ipswich I was ready to kill for a coffee. Thankfully the shop is right next door to Ipswich's best coffee at Bon Laneway. Next was the fun job of arranging the bunches and tying them off with lotus leaves, doda vine and string. Think faded colours for roses, lotus pods, hydrangeas, branches of summer berries and long long gymea lily leaves. A lovely and satisfying start to the day but now I need a nana nap I was up so early ;)

Start something. Something that will involve ladders you don't have. Started my entry hall. It's going to be a library seeing that we never really use the front door. It's big and heavy and old and it sticks and the step up outside is way too high. Pages from a 19th century encyclopedia vol P-O. I'm hoping that it won't look too shabby chic by the time I finish. Large art on the walls, a vintage WWII Red Cross bookcase,  a 70s fibreglass chair and a marble tulip table. Still deciding on the lamp and a rug. I'll just recycle something from somewhere else in the house. Better get back to it.

... and he's right. I haven't yet. He bought it from ES Traders just before Christmas when we were supposed to be on a spending moratorium but he never sticks to those anyway. It's an enamel washstand, basin, jug and soap dish from the Queensland Railway workshops at Northgate. Love me some enamel and I do rather have a crush on this. I was going to put it in the bedroom but there is another washstand in there already. Remember the moratorium? Well he forgot about it again just before Christmas when he purchased a cedar wash stand cupboard that came from a judge's chamber in the old courts in Brisbane before they were demolished. Got that one from the guys at Vintage Advantage who swear they can't reveal their source. Must take a snap of that one day :) In the meantime I pulled the enamel washstand over near the top landing window as it was the only decent light upstairs when I took this photo. So much rain. So many grey days. Thank goodness it seems to have stopped.

Here's the reason why I had to move it. The light was lousy. That used to be home to Mary and Jesus at the end of the strange balcony but they've moved in to share the office with me. Oh look at that pre-painting photo. Thank you Jesus ;) those burgundy doors have gone.

Love thrifting. Love secondhand shops. Love the bargain hunt for bits and pieces for the house. Just a few things I found this weekend. First up a Demetrio 70 coffee table by Vico Magistretti for Artemide circa 1966. Found it in a thrift store here in Ipswich for $10. (See one here for a lot more.) It's still a little wet in the photos because I dragged it in out of the rain to take these snaps. Don't think it will stay in the breezeway though because Kelvin uses it as a thoroughfare and a coffee table slap bang in the middle is a tripping hazard for a blind man. Bugger.

It has a few scratches but nothing too deep. I'll try some auto metal polish on it to buff them out and if I need to I can always have it sprayed. Love it. I already have a Stadio 120 table (1969) that I bought on eBay from Katherine so now I need just one more piece by Vico and I'll have a collection. LOL. I actually love the Atollo lamp and hope one day to have one or a Selene chair or 4 (just like these ones.)

For the same grand total of $10 I picked up 8 Poole duos in a lovely tiffany blue, pale grey colourway. Now I have plenty of cups if you all drop in for tea. Also on the bargain list are these 6 cane baskets from Glen and Grant at The Vintage Advantage. Cheap as chips and perfect for clothes sorting and shoes by the door. Might play around with one as a lampshade.

Like these new card index drawers I picked up last week. An absolute bargain, cute and great storage for weird little things. And boy do my husband and I love collecting weird little things. That's some of Kelvin's vintage hair clippers and a few of his "foot things". A couple of shoe lasts and an advertising leg. Apparently it was for displaying socks or stockings. They are in what we call our breezeway. A little enclosed space between the house and the kitchen wing. Old kitchens were built away from the house because of the fire risk. It feels a bit like a conservatory.

The other thing that made me happy this week was confirmation that our decision to paint the living room walls in a breathable paint seems to be the right one. We had well over a 100mm of rain in a day and the resulting puddles pooled on one side of the wall, slowly soaked through and are slowly drying out. You can see the tide marks which will fade away over the next few days. Walls will be dry again and no more mold or flaking render due to water trapped behind impermeable paint like before.

It's rare that water collects there. Maybe a couple of times a year but over the years the old paint layers kept the water trapped. Not any more. One day we will look at improving the drainage but that's a big and very expensive job. We will eventually have to take the front veranda off and rebuild it because it was badly refurbished in the 60s and a lot of the drainage problems are due to this. One day in the future we will have a beautifully restored Georgian style verandah like this old house used to have. One day.

Or is that trunk full of tomes. Went to the Lifeline Bookfest in Brisbane yesterday with Glen and Grant from The Vintage Advantage and Kerrie from ES Traders. That's a Jag boot so you can just imagine how many books we bought between us. I'll admit to 9 bags of vintage Penguin books. I have a thing for Penguins in case you couldn't guess.

Things are sliding by here at the new old house. Because funds have dried up for the moment I've conned myself into believing that there is nothing I can do. What a load of crock! So much to do. I've decided to start with something easy. I'm going to finish these drawers. Strip the remaining paint, sand smooth as silk and wax. I'll try to boil the paint off those handles too.

Second on the list is to "wallpaper" the hall. You can see part of it just past Mickey. Old books again. Big job. Need my head read. Ladders are coming and I have no excuse.

I'm also working on a 110 x 110 cm oil painting in pinks and oranges for the wall beside the surveyors stick. Need an injection of colour into the brown room. Hopefully I'll have it finished soon. Just an abstract. A lot like all the abstracts out there in blogland at the moment. Easy and fast to do and great for a colour jolt. Now that I've written this all down I'm hoping you hold me to it. I need someone to nag me out of my complacency or nothing will get done!