Charity Shop Handbag Love

I am not the kind of gal who has a handbag for every occasion. Or a bag that matches every pair of shoes. I usually use the same bag until the junk in the bottom gets so bad that it is easier to just move on to a new bag than to clean it out... 


The other day I popped into one of my favourite charity shops in the hope of finding something on my list of things I keep my eye out for in charity shops. 'Hand Bag' is not on that list. But... I found this one, it was $4. I liked the colour, it would match my boots. I also liked the pockets. I also liked that it didn't smell like an old wardrobe filled with moth balls. It was coming home with me.

I then saw this one, it was $3. Oh dear. How to choose? You guessed it, I bought both! 

When I got home, I looked in the cupboard where I keep my handbags and discovered a few other bags that I had bought from op-shops. It seems I like handbags....

Getting these photos was not as simplistic as you would think... My fashionista chickens were back! This is Lilly.

The total of these handbags is under $20.  I know that they are not DKNY or Gucci - but hey, they are fun and funky. I am not so precious about them that I can't put lollipops or half eaten gingerbread men in them. It is amazing how many people ask about my bags - I think good shape and colour is always in style.

What follows you home from charity shops?

May $10 Op Shop Hop

In May with my hard earned $10, I bought the following items....


1 x scarf with red and blue chain and lock motif
1 x Nina Ricci Silk polka dot scarf
1 x 'Every Occasion' book by Ita Buttrose

Now, it would not be bbeingcool without the stories behind these items.


Scarf with Red and Blue Chain and Lock Motif


No story, it is generic. But, it did look like something that would look great with a nice white shirt and jeans and cute red shoes for a nice dressy casual kind of look.


However, this is how it has been most recently worn.

Miss A, as a girl Pirate.... Too Cute.

Nina Ricci Silk Polka Dot Scarf


I was drawn to the colours of this scarf - the green and navy blue was so fresh and clean. I thought it too would look great with a white shirt and a great pair of navy trousers or a skirt, or yes, my favourite, jeans.


I did not know who Nina Ricci was, I honestly just liked the design. But, Nina was a fashion icon. My goodness. She began an aprenticeship in dressmaking when she was only 13 and worked her way up the fashion food chain. She married a composer, had a family and then began her own fashion label at 49 (hallelujah, there is hope for me yet!). Her company started in one room, a little while after World War 2, the design house took up 11 floors in 3 buildings. That is great!


Her designs were always feminine and she actually made the dresses on the mannequins so that the fabric fell in just the right way. Before long she was famous all over the world for her feminine and romantic dresses.


There are not too many pictures out there of dresses made by Nina, but here is one. This shows her interesting use of fabrics...

The fashion house of Nina Ricci is still going on strong. It pumps out dresses, handbags and perfumes. They are about to launch a website - if only they had it all ready to go for this blog post - sigh - you just can't get good help these days. But... It is a lovely display of beautiful dresses. I am honoured to have something from that fashion house scrunched up in my draw ... 

ninaricci.com

'Every Occasion' by Ita Buttrose.

Oh, Ita. What a snippet of Australian legendness. Before Madonna made the gap between the front teeth sexy, it was Ita. She had that great blonde hair and that fantastic lisp. She has done everything from radio, tv, magazines and even promoting weight loss products. Ita is Australia, honestly.


She was the founding editor of Cleo magazine and was the youngest serving editor for Woman's Weekly, the world's highest selling magazine. She was also the first female editor in chief for Mr Murdoch in the 80s. Ita is renowned for her appearance and has written a variety of books on manners and etiquette.


Being the hostess with the mostess, I thought it fitting that I have this book on my shelf. It has been quite an eye-opening read. I had not known how to introduce an admiral at a baby christening or how to eat a snail. But, with this book in my collection, I will not look like a numpty at any social gathering. It is kitsch in its presentation and has fabulous charcoal drawings. I love the way she writes, as if every one out there knows that to give gardenias is to tell someone you love them and that you must telephone from a payphone if you are going to be late for a dinner party (it seems pay phones are as rare as dinner party invites these days).


Ita has not been in the spotlight lately. But her homepage did make me chuckle.... Check it out...

itabuttrose.com

April's Op Shop Hop

April - $10 Op Shop Hop

I really want to have a more vintage look this year. To do this I have made the decision to find as much cool vintage stuff as I can in the op-shops. I live in a city with LOTS of charity shops, LifeLine, St Vinnies, Salvation Army and the list goes on and on. I also think I live in a town with some really well dressed, stylish people, so there are some great finds to be had in the op-shops - if you are willing to look.


I think I am going to make Op-Shopping a bit of a hobby. I can afford to buy clothes, this is not a mission to dress on the cheap, I want items that are unique and not on the shelves of every department store. I don't want to look like the centrefold of a mass produced glossy catalogue delivered by a spotty youth on Tuesday afternoons. That is not me and I personally don't think it is cool.  I want to shake it up, keep it fresh and keep my good quality older items (like jeans, coats and bags) and mix them with newer more hip items from various places.


So.... This is my... 

April $10 Op-Shop-Hop. 

Look what I got for under $10!

I snaffled some very cute tan peep toe shoes out of the grasps of a lady whose feet were clearly too big, and she would have had nothing to wear them with anyway. They will be great with jeans or a skirt or even a dress and I shall look into the rule about wearing tan shoes with grey.... They were marked at $4. I also got Baby Cool a 'onesie'. It is in pretty good condition and I love that it has booties - he does not like have socks on. This was marked down to $1!

Now, you may have wondered about the little glass bowls.  This is where the cool comes in, there is a story behind these bowls. 


Over 40 years ago, my parents were married in a white church in the time of cool cars and scary sideburns. Someone gave them this set of bowls as a wedding gift.

Growing up these bowls held prawn cocktails, fish cocktails, trifles, dipping sauces for croquettes and many other things, as you can well imagine over 40 years!


Several years ago, my parents moved from a big rambling five bedroom house into a compact three bedroom duplex. Of course there was not enough room for all their junk, oops, stuff. So, mum started giving away some of her things to her beautiful daughters to look after/have.. I got this set of glass bowls - but as you would expect, over 40 years, not all the bowls survived.


I have used these bowls myself a lot over the years. The big bowl is just the right size for a trifle for 6, sigh, I only had 5 bowls! Before kids and even before we lived overseas, I found one of these little bowls; it was dusty and dirty and lurked in the very deepest darkest corner of a cupboard that housed all the spare mangy cups at a school I worked in. I nearly took it when I left. But that would have been wrong. How could I leave someone else without a full set of these bowls?


So, over the years I would poke through op-shops and markets from time to time looking for another little bowl.  Yesterday, I found one. Actually I found 6! But they were $4 each and I did not have enough in my alotted $10 to buy more than one. When I got to the counter however, the lady (who was, by the way, really grumpy) told me the glassware was half price - so I actually bought two - as you do!


I hope that one day, one of my beautiful daughters will love the story behind these bowls and will tell the story over prawn cocktails or trifles. I hope they appreciate having a spare one too, just in case!

Yesterday's op-shop-hop was fun, but I have a lot to learn. There are some real pros out there who were digging in bins up to their armpits to find the good loot down the bottom - I was not that gung-ho. I had to be somewhere else looking semi-decent.


I wonder what I will find in May?  I may need to have more of an idea of what I want to look for, I don't think I should be buying brick-a-brack every month, I have enough of that junk oops, stuff...