A day in the country

My word. Whoever knew that Mildura was going to be such a fabric mecca?

It's certainly not something I expected. Over the past 24 hours, I've bought 2 queen size vintage 70s sheets in orange and red flowers ($2), 2 metres of pink and white candycane striped cotton ($1.50), the previously mentioned coral and white polka dots, 2 metres of peppermint and pink argyle drill cotton ($4), 3.5 metres of fantastically flowered canvas ($4), a purple and white drapery snippet (50c), a handbag patterned aqua cotton (50c), a madras pintucked rainbow stripe (50c), furry art deco patterned flannel ($3.50), a pretty peony cotton ($2), a pink and green Chanel-ish tweed (50c), and what looks like a Kaffe Fassett floral in pink, salmon and chocolate ($5.50).

Yes that's right. All of those fabrics cost me a little under $25. Hoo-bloody-ray!!!

I have also found some lovely vintage tins in secondhanderies and op shops - there are a little clutch of them in Merbein, all on Commercial Street: Clairgate's PreLoved has wonderful tins, as does Garland Antiques, Merbein Buy and Sell and the one next door whose name I can't remember. Absolutely fabulous stuff! I love trawling through antiqueries, poking through the rubbish and extracting the treasures.

And the antique shops out here are stuffed to the gills with fantastic trinkets and china and bottles, and oddly, one shop seemed to have over a hundred rolling pins. It also had a beautiful big green glass jar which I am currently cooing over in my mind, trying to justify the price of, because it's beautiful and I love it and it's my anniversary weekend after all, isn't it?

And I can't begin to go into detail about the immense amounts of vintage and antique furniture, which - if we'd driven here instead of flown - I would have stuffed the car full of. We'd have driven back to Melbourne with me cackling manically all the way home!