Queanbeyan Swap Meet '10 Part 5

Huge plastic Smiths Crisps container, c 1960's.



Two vintage metal farm templates, numbers 6 and 8, I was so lucky to find these as our house number is 68 and these were the only two numbers that they had..it must have been fate!


An engraved lidded urn (a pressie from my sister :) and 2 more vintage trophies, 1 dated 1933.



A closeup of the sweet bird finial.



Pretty Cadbury Roses tin.



Vintage set of bakelite knuckle bones or jacks. A vintage clock face plate and wooden yard stick.


Victorian bisque bust, made in Germany.



Pretty stationary box and little box that I will use for a Xmas decoration, its not that far away now...OMG!

Queanbeyan Swap Meet '10 Part 4: Dog Show Ribbons

One of the vendors was selling a box filled of Show Prize Ribbons, I rummaged and found a few dog ribbons (pink and mint green) and 4 huge rosettes. In another box I found the certificate for a Champion English Setter, dated 1967.





Check back tomorrow for the FINAL installment of my Swap Meet finds.

Queanbeyan Swap Meet '10 Part 3: Antique Dictaphone

Dictation anyone? I found this awesome Dictaphone at a price too good to pass up. It is c1900. Dictaphone was an American company, a producer of dictation machines—sound recording devices most commonly used to record speech for later playback or to be typed into print. The name "Dictaphone" is a trademark.

This Dictaphone was distributed by the Dictaphone Co (Aus) Ltd, 19 Hunter Street, Sydney, and is plated as such. I found an original advertisement below.

It came with wax 5 cylinders, although only 1 is complete. I have cleaned it since taking these photos, now I just have to find somewhere to put it :)






See you tomorrow with part 4 :)

Queanbeyan Swap Meet '10 Part 2: Rabbit Booties

Aren't these the sweetest little baby booties? They are so small and delicate, made of silk and trimmed with rabbit fur. They are very, very old and came in their original silk covered box. Only 4 inches long and as light as a feather. They were sooo cute, and are my favourite find.





Back tomorrow with part 3 :) Have a good one, Tamara

Queanbeyan Swap Meet '10 Part 1

Howdy guys, back from our early morning trip to the annual Queanbeyan Swap Meet. It wasn't as large this year, and the majority of the stores were car part related, but we still managed to find a few treasures. Just when I said I had finished spending I bought 5 more things..oopsy. I took a few photos for you above. I will post my finds over a few posts so that you don't get too many photos all at once. In the next post I will show you my favourite find!!!

Back soon, Tamara

Junking Makeover: Victorian Mug and Broken Figurine

I bought a fabulous box of old bits and pieces from ebay a while back. Oh, it was like a treasure trove, all the pieces had been dug up from an old rubbish dump in rural Victoria. Most of the pieces were broken or chipped, but they had so much character. It was like Christmas when the box arrived!

This little lady was amongst them. Her poor body broken and her hat chipped beyond repair. Included was this gorgeous Victorian moustache mug, missing the handle and guard of course. They were a match made in heaven, their colours mimicking each other with glorious greens and rich pink tones.

I rummaged through my button stash to find these pearly beauties.



I cut a piece of styrofoam to fit snuggly in the mug and cut a couple of holes so the little lady could stand. I covered the styrofoam with the buttons and a sprinkling of pinky pearls.




I glued a few buttons on to her bonnet to cover the missing piece and to tie into the buttons below her waist.



She now sits proudly once again.



We are venturing early tomorrow to the annual Queanbeyan Swap Meet, I will try and take a few photos, and hopefully bring back a few treasures too. The weather is forecast to be nice tomorrow, a sunny 18 deg C, so it should be way better than last year :)

p.s. Natasha @Artistic Creations is having a Revamp it Party, I have added my link. Pop on over and check out all the wonderful makeover ideas.

Bye for now, Tamara

Corners of Home: Feminine

Hello fab-u-lous people! I know that I should be catching up on the housework instead of snapping away but before I get started, I put together a few photos. These I have labelled feminine .

Enjoy and have a wonderful week!

Collections: Ventriloquist Dummies

I like to collect different and interesting things, hence the ventriloquist dummy collection. I like the older composition dummies, not the newer plastic ones, and have a Jerry Mahoney (middle top), Charlie McCarthy hand puppet, a Danny O'Day?? (top left), a clown (Mr T collects clowns) and the bottom is unidentified. Mr T had them on his side of the bed, but he thought they were creepy so I moved them into the lounge room, he didn't like them staring at him while he slept.

They don't bother me though. I have a antique composition doll next to my bed which has a little hole in the seam of the leg that is stuffed with human hair. This is why my sister won't stay the night at our house, she thinks its haunted. That, and the children I have heard running up the hall during the night and when I have checked on them they are fast asleep, oh and the bouncing ball in the kitchen and press-book that would go off at 2am in the morning...ha ha

Have a good one, Tamara

The Best birthday present of all :)

Last night while I was checking my sons school bag, after the kids were in bed, I found a little envelope addressed to ‘Parent’. Oh…it must be the results of the NAPLAN test (a national numeracy and literacy assessment taken by years 3, 5, 7 and 9). I was expecting Kade to rank as average across the board, I knew that he had run out of time for the language and spelling tests and had hurriedly chosen answers at random towards the end, and I know that his spelling is atrocious :)

I was shocked to see that Kade was placed at the very top of the Reading test (the black dot is Kade's result, the black triangle is the National Average and the empty triangle is the school average). The reading component comprised of reading several articles and answering questions based on what they had read.

I was astounded to say the least, this is a wonderful achievement as we have spent considerable time over the last couple of years to improve his reading. This year, to my amazement, he started reading books without any encouragement, and seem to be really enjoying them.

Tonight little miss had a speaking part in the Kindergarten to Year 2 school play. Her class performed 'The Christmas Spiders’ and she had 3 paragraphs that she had to recite. She did awesome. She was also dressed as a cat, so she was very excited. Here is a photo I took earlier for the dress rehearsal, she did have a pink nose and whiskers drawn on tonight though.



I am so proud that I have been telling my work colleagues all day…well they are men so I shouldn’t be surprised that they were far less excited than I…he he

Mr T and I could not be any more prouder of our kids if we tried :)

P.S. Thank you all for the wonderful birthday wishes; it made it a lot easier to come to terms with the fact that I am nearly 40!