Secondhand Saturday

Lately I’ve had some awesome secondhand finds.

Hopefully they can be your inspiration for a successful secondhand saturday…

let me know what you find.

1. I love this textile. I didn’t know what I would do with it, but knew I had to get it home. At the moment it’s looking fab covering my pretty ordinary Ikea futon, which is a day bed in the kids toy room. Who knows if this is where it will stay. I kind of feel like it may have lived in a Kombi van at some time in it’s life. AUD$10.

2. This blouse was a steal and is great for layering over tanks or I can button it up as a mini shirt dress over leggings.

AUD$5

3. We bought this wardrobe door from a garage sale. My husband sanded it back and put a layer of laquer on it. I didn’t want it too glossy as the aged look of the wood was so beautiful. It’s currently at the glass shop getting mirror placed in the oval panel to become a full-length mirror. AUD$10 for the door.

4. Ceramics from Israel. The ramekin dishes at the top of the image I found last year, it’s not often that you discover ‘Made in Israel’ on the underside of ceramics and I loved their slightly mottled finish and perfect hand painted stripes. This week I found the matching dinner plates and side plates. They were actually given to me as the store was getting rid of all of it’s knick knacks… imagine, these would have been landfill. I can feel another ‘collection’ coming on… Made in Israel. AUD$0

5. This woollen blanket is actually going to the dog in my life, a beautiful Staffy named Finn. I love these classic woollen blankets with a stripe and edged with blanket stitching. This one can be cut up and made in  to two doggie blankets for Finn, IF I can part with it. My cat has already discovered it and slept on it all night. The loosened blanket stitching makes it all the more endearing. AUD$7

Fab Find: Balmain Road Antiques Centre

I have a confession to make, as an overt vintage/second-hand/shabby-whatever lover I have never delved into Balmain Road Antiques Centre (BAC) in Sydney. I seem to always spy it while I’m on my way elsewhere (usually Rozelle Markets) and it tends to be one of those places that I think I’ll pop into next time I’m in that neck of the woods.

Well today I finally made it my mission to get there and it proved very rewarding. Not as overwhelmingly extensive as Sydney Antiques Centre in Surry Hills and not as jam-packed as Mitchell Street Auction in Alexandria, BAC is a great first foray into antiques for the uninitiated.

The BAC happened to be having a ‘garage sale’ this weekend and I managed to pick up a great white sequinned blazer for $8 and a velour beaded turban for a dollar… score.

The Balmain Road Antiques Centre is located at 483A Balmain Road, Lilyfield NSW 2040

Here are some of the fab finds at the BAC today:

On the 6th day of Valentines my true love gave to me…

Vintage map of a place you both love, vintage New York map circa 1935 US$14, Etsy

Top 4: Byron no beach

I’ve just returned from Byron Bay on NSW’s North Coast, and while the trip was meant to be all about Wategos and Tallow there is also a lot that goes down in Byron that is not just about the beach. Here’s my Top 4 to do…

The Top Shop. Photography by Kylie Jacobsen

1. The Topshop

This is THE coffee and breakfast spot. Do not bother to go anywhere else. Sourdough made on the premises. The best breakfast burger you are ever going to taste and remarkable coffee. I wish this was my local. We went there so much, they hugged my husband on our last day.

2. Bangalow

Bangalow is to Byron, what Lee Radziwill is to Jackie Onasis… a bit cooler, more stylish.

Visit Our Corner Store for Papillionaire bikes, vintage baseballs and Kate Lanphear tees.

The Bangalow Hotel for fine dining and/or pool and jukebox action.

Bangalow Pharmacy for Cire Trvdon candles and a covetable collection of perfumes & cosmetics

3. The Byron at Byron restaurant

Local produce, fine dining, extensive drinks menu, tree setting. Enough said.

4. Teven Valley Golf Course

Is this the prettiest Golf Course ever? We think so. Time to take up a sport.

Terra Terra Terrarium

Terrariums are having a moment.

I have very fond memories of my Nanna making them in the 80’s. She loved anything oriental, so along with bonsai’s, we’d make miniature Chinese gardens in these balloon shaped glass jars.

Driftwood would be collected as logs and we’d cover the soil in moss for grass.

Recently we’ve been cleaning out my grandparent’s home as they’ve now both passed on.

One of the many treasures I found was two unused terrarium jars, so I set about making a set of terrariums of my own.

Everything I know about terrariums I learned from The Terrarium Man website here.

Instructions after the jump…

One of my terrariums. Photography by Eclectic Kate

Instructions:

Tool Kit:

Large open jar or vase (available at thrift stores, Etsy, Ebay or $2 stores)

Stones, river pebbles or fish rocks (purchased at Bunnings)

Spagnum moss (purchased at Bunnings)

Potting mix

Plants (I used succulents as they don’t need a lot of water)

Terrarium essentials

Method:

1. Ensure the jar is clean and free of dust and finger marks

2. Layer stones, sphagnum moss, potting mix in that order

3. Play around with arrangement of plants before planting. Remember that terrariums are often viewed from all sides and the top, so you want to consider what it looks like from each of these angles. Place plants in soil once arrangement has been finalised

4. Give plants a water.

Tips:

Think about where you are going to place your terrarium before you create it. They don’t like to be in direct sunlight.

Feel the soil every few days and if it feels dry, give plants a little water. I use a water bottle with a drip nozzle so I don’t overwater.

Snip off any dead leaves as you see them.

This is a pretty cool project to do with kids and something they could have in their rooms. To add another element of fun for kids, let them choose a carnivirous plant such as a Venus Fly Trap. Small toy dinosaurs, wild animals or fairies can be added as decoration after planting the planting stage.

For more inspiration check out this beautiful book – The New Terrarium by Tovah Martin and Kindra Clineff on Booktopia. 

Finished Terrariums

A Sit Down With… Photographer Michael Mundy

Happy 2012!

Over the last few days I’ve been obsessing over a few things, one of them being a new blog I’ve fallen in love with called An Afternoon With…

An Afternoon With… is the brainchild of New York based photographer, Michael Mundy and his partner Nhi Nguyen, in which Mundy shoots subjects in their spaces amongst their own things. I love seeing how different people organise and decorate their space, it satisfies my inner voyeur.

Readers are given only one line at the end of every post about the subject, allowing each set of images and their ‘things’ to tell the story. It’s a simple, honest yet beautiful portrayal about people. Adding to the blog’s simplicity, all images are lit naturally and appear without retouching.

Michael politely obliged Eclectic Kate with a sit down over New Years, here is what he had to say:

EK: You started in the industry by shooting rock bands, how did you get into interiors?

MM: I  started assisting a photographer (Oberto Gili) who shot interiors. I had never seen anything like it before. I was immediately captivated by how he looked at things. I had never thought about shooting rooms and inanimate objects before. But the way he shot them was like art not just pictures of rooms. That changed my life.

EK: When and why did you start “An Afternoon With… “

MM: An Afternoon With was started in April 2010. I had started a blog just showing things I liked and inspiration etc. Nhi (AAW Co-founder) saw immediately that this was the perfect platform to present images I had been shooting of my friends and acquaintances. She started taking these shoots I had been doing and putting them online. Little by little it started to come together as the project you see now.

EK: How do you choose/find subjects to shoot for the blog? 

MM: We started with friends and asked each one to recommend someone else. This way there is this organic growth built-in which we wouldn’t have otherwise. Along the way we choose people we meet who we feel will expand the project.

EK: If you weren’t photographing interiors and creating blogs and Tumblr’s… what would you be doing?

MM: I’d still be taking pictures it’s what I do. If I didn’t do that maybe Id write more. Pictures were always a quicker means for me than writing though I see them both in the same category.

EK: What’s your New Years resolution?

MM: As always to try to be a little nicer than last year. As far as goals for this year I want to start this portrait series I have in mind. That’s definitely on the forefront.

Michael Mundy’s work can also be found on his other blog, The Refind and via his Tumblr.

All photography in this post appears courtesy of Michael Mundy and An Afternoon With…

Orangespiration

Vintage Scarves

Last week Pantone announced their “Colour of the Year” …and the winner was Tangerine Tango.

Im not sure what other colours were in the running, or how said colours felt about losing, but Tangerine Tango sounds like a bad 2 4 1 cocktail. I do think the actual shade of orange that Tangerine Tango represents is a great colour. Think vermillion and you’re pretty close.

Here is some orangespiration in honour of the colour of the year…

Blocks

Just a hint of orange

Orange to Yellow to Green

Today's fruit

Poppy

All photo’s credited to Eclectic Kate