For many months there has been little activity on the op shop front as my work hours are the same as theirs. However, whilst running motherly errands for the evil twins on Sunday, I came across something which I did not know existed outside the realm of fantasy- it was a Sunday oppy and it was good.
There was a jolly red suitcase which I moved by swiftly.
Some gorgeously tomato red pyrex tempted but did not engage me.
$18 for chipped pyrex?! I think not.
Living in a 1930's farmhouse I was drawn to this sweet old light fitting for $4 but wasn't sure about it. Foolish in retrospect.
Then I discovered the retirement home for old ceramic kettles. What a booty! The one on the top shelf in the middle is just lovely but unnecessary. The endless replacement of elements in these kettles is a deterrent...but it was so pretty. Still I showed steely resolve and moved on.
Time was a ticking for me to get away and purchase the back to school bits when I found a jackpot of old silver. There just wasn't time to sift through it but I did get a big silver tablespoon- the sort you can serve dinner with or eat ice cream with to make it seem a tiny amount. I'll be back, silverware.
As I rounded the corner to leave, the skies parted and I heard choirs of angels or it may have been the other customer's phone ringtone. There, stacked on a table, was the motherload of Johnson dinnerware. This is the stuff I have always regretted not getting when they revamped
the convent or primary school I grew up with. From the age of seven till fifteen, I observed this dinnerware carrying scones and pikelets and delicious left overs baked by floury little old nuns too ancient to teach. They were relegated instead to a grand old kitchen full of warm smells and towering ceilings like something out of a Bronte novel. Maybe it was actually very poky but in my memory it was everything I would love a kitchen to be..and it housed THIS crockery.
So I bought it. Not all of it but enough for a roast for the family or scones with a friend or...
a burnt mandarin cake for the boys and their friends.
The knitting needles were an afterthought and I restricted myself to one set of each colour. I do love these old knitting needles. They must be full of very good nanna karma like little rainbow wands of kindness and caring. In my mind, elderly hands held these and gently coaxed cuddly garments and toys for beloved small people. I am assuming they were elderly hands because of the age and style of the needles. I have a bouquet of them and they radiate warmth and goodwill from the yellow jug in the sunroom.
You may remember this photo from a long time ago. Rainbow, knitting, nanna-ness...what's not to love?
Hi Annie just catching up after my hols! Wow what a find, I love, love, love that crockery! Oh and Lola, I'm looking forward to her adventures! Looks like you've had some great family days just recently....I'm glad you've started to blog more again, hope work is still going well! :) x
ReplyDeleteAnnie I'm so jealous, as you can imagine.
ReplyDeletethe silverware and Johnson, my oh my it all would have come home with me. x
Love those piles of beautifully pastel plates ... particularly when topped with a bundt cake. Happy week to you Annie.
ReplyDeleteCrockery to die for.
ReplyDeleteIt's great to have you reporting from the oppy sites again.
And to see a gathering of the eclectic electric jugs.
Your rainbow knitting needles seem very fertile to me. Their number has dazzlingly doubled..
I'd eat that mandarin cake in a jiffy.
That looks like an amazing Oppy with multiple objects of the same kind on offer like that. Love the plates! We eat off Johnson too, all different patterned ones and I just love them. I usually find 1 plate here and there hence the different types but to find a whole stack like that, and in that blue? You hit the jackpot there!
ReplyDeleteOh my lordy lord......those blue plates...............that is my collection sitting there, all ready collected....I search and search, and fossick for one at a time pieces of the blues...I have the start of a decent setting for my family of five, but that photo made me fall of my seat.................sigh...............
ReplyDeleteOppy delights abound on a Sunday, clearly. I wonder if any of the Johnson is still there!
ReplyDeleteto show such restraint!!!...im very impressed. I left behind a blue Johnson set once....I still have bad dreams about it. The knitting needles look fab x
ReplyDeleteMy god that is crockery nirvana! I have one small pink johnson bowl that the girl has pinched for her porridge but I have never stumbled onto anything like this. You'll have to shake out the floral tablecloths and set up a full spread so we it can see it all in use. mel x
ReplyDeleteOh - I would have had to buy all the blue plates.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that I need more crockery like I need a hole in the head is completely irrelevant.....