op shop booty - Semantically driven

Yes mum, you can put that on Facebook

December 22, 2010 by Jen

This image shows JJ with a couple of his favourite things. One, a Beast Quest book which he is right into at present. Next is a fibre optic lamp that badly needs its batteries replacing and next to that is a plastic figurine of something gruesome that he found at the op shop the other day. In the background of the image you can see Monty with a camera flash evil eyes thing going on. And he said I could put it on Facebook if I want. Not sure if he gets the concept of this blog yet. I’ll show him one day – ‘Hi JJ’.

I’d dragged him into the op shop and he hates it when I make him come into one. He’s old enough to go exploring on his own now and this is the first thing he found. It cost about $2 so I said I’d buy it for him. I then found him a hooded top which another shopper said looked really nice on him. I moved on to find something for myself but found something The Surfer had asked me to keep an eye out for. Then JJ came over with another top that looked like it would fit.

I asked him to find out how much it was. Instead of looking at the tag (which I could have also done) he asked the woman we’d just been talking to who doesn’t even work at the shop who luckily didn’t mind. I’d had to gradually walk away from her while she was talking to us so I gathered she was up for a chat, so a nine year old boy asking for a price probably didn’t bother her one bit.

JJ also found a book and I eventually found a really nice dress. He conceded that he’d had an okay time at the shop and I think buying a couple of things to keep him entertained while showing him the joys of buying second hand is totally worth it.

Last night we watched his favourite show of the moment, ‘The Zoo’ and then I read him a book I haven’t read to him for ages. It’s called Crunch the Crocodile and it’s about a bullying crocodile who gets his comeuppance from the local animals who are sick of being scared of him. Apparently I used to read out the Crunch bit when he says his name and wants his lunch in a really good way that JJ remembers and I wasn’t quite up to scratch with it last night! How critical children can be.

After that I gave him a good tickle. He loves being tickled so long as it’s not on the armpits.

He enjoyed it so much that he got his little diary out and wrote down that he’d had the best day of his life because his mum tickled him. It confirmed for me that it’s much better to devote some time to him doing stuff like this than buying Nintendo DS games willy nilly (not that I do this that much anyway).

He also then showed me the other things he’d written in his diary. I felt very privileged and very loved. I think I’ll donate all his Christmas presents to the Salvation Army and spend some more time tickling him.

Garage sale loot

January 18, 2009 by Jen

I’ve been away on a four day break and my first post about it is what I bought at a garage sale. There’ll be more about the rest of the mini-holiday soon.

Here’s my very own Barrel Bingo. It’s actually not for me, although we’ll have a go and see what we think. It’s a prize for next year’s safari pub crawl. I like that’s it’s a ‘professional style’. Now all I need is a professional bingo caller, or perhaps that’s me.

I also bought a wok. It’s a bit rusty but I’ve already started cleaning it and it should come up a treat. I’m not a wok expert but it looked like a fairly good wok, so I’m hopeful. The lid is the worst hit rust wise. The inside is not too bad.

Concert number 2 and a clown outfit

December 7, 2008 by Jen

It was really a performance, not so much a concert, of JJ’s circus school. He got bad stage fright during the rehearsal but I knew that he was stressing out about the performance and sure enough he did really well during the actual performance.

The theme was circus and they were able to dress up if they wanted. I found a cheap clown wig and one day before the performance I found myself in my local op shop looking for something suitable. There were plenty of fairy/ballet type outfits, but nothing befitting a circus performer.

I asked the manger if she could think of anything and she produced the perfect pair of overalls. I think these are actually meant for a woman, and I’m guessing a pregnant woman, and either a very short pregnant woman or they’re supposed to be big overall shorts.

With some pom-pom decorations sewn on that night, I managed to make it a bit more colourful. And here’s the finished outfit. The beauty of it is that he’ll be able to wear it again. All up, including the wig, it cost $10.

The group did some trampoline work to start with.

And then they had their solo acts. Three weeks ago, JJ had never ever done this. See the concentration on his face. If you’d seen him earlier you wouldn’t have believed that this would happen. Here’s the video.

All up they did a really good job. Even the pyramid at the end went without a hitch and all the kids had an absolute ball. I think it’s good to get them to do these little performances as it teaches them a lot.

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Have you entered the DVD giveaway yet? This is the first of three and closes Monday night.

Cardigans are my favourite

June 17, 2008 by Jen

For a long time I’ve loved cardigans. They’re great to wear because of their ease of getting on and off. I’m sure there’s other reasons I love cardigans but I can’t think of any right now.

I used to be known as Jen Cardigan ……. because that was all I wore. This name even got lengthened to Jen Off The Shoulder Cardigan …… (the dots are my last name).

I bought this cardigan because who couldn’t resist this type of detail? I used to have a similar cardigan but it wore out and had to be thrown out. I spent more on this cardigan than I spend on most of my clothes because I’d received a couple of vouchers for a second-hand clothing shop and bought some great stuff there, including this.

In fact, one day, I thought I’d go to this shop to use my voucher but spent at least one hour looking for it and still couldn’t find it. I rang the shop and as they don’t keep records of these things they couldn’t replace it but suggested I look in my handbag. I’d already looked in all my handbags to no avail, but I had another look – a proper one this time – and it turned up.

When I used to knit more prolifically than I do now I knitted some cardigans.

I bought this mohair wool when in Melbourne in around 1986 from a little shop in the city somewhere. I originally started knitting a jumper but realised that I wouldn’t have enough wool so unpicked what I’d done and found a cardigan pattern and this was the result. This was the cardigan responsible for the Off The Shoulder name mentioned above.

I wear it a lot in winter and JJ was born in winter so I wore it a lot for the first few months of his life. He was one of those babies who threw up a lot after feeds and despite wearing towels over my shoulders, his vomit invariably ended up on my clothes. I distinctly remember handwashing all my winter woolies that year.

This is acrylic I bought when still going out with my ex-boyfriend about ten years ago. It took nearly that long to make but I eventually finished it a few years ago. It is really warm. I wore it the other night and had no need to put a coat over the top to keep me warm because this was warm enough.

Now I feel like getting out the knitting needles and knitting another cardigan. Perhaps I will!

Shoes

May 23, 2008 by Jen

I love buying stuff from op shops, or thrift shops. Out of the clothes I’m wearing today only my underwear and my jeans were bought brand new. Everything else is from the op shop and the shirt was given to me but that was from an op shop too.

I had a good haul a few days ago. I bought a pair of Doc Marten shoes. They’re hardly worn so I don’t mind wearing someone else’s shoes.

I also bought a pair of work pants. The shoes were $20 and the pants $6. Bargain.

I’m kind of at the stage where I don’t buy a lot brand new and I certainly don’t spend a lot of money on new clothes. Even JJ’s clothes I get as many second hand as I can, especially as he grows a couple of inches every couple of months it seems.

If I keep this up I’ll have enough money to spend on the food that JJ keeps eating more and more of.

Just about my whole winter wardrobe comes from Goodwill

July 10, 2005 by Jen at Semantically driven

I’ve been a bit slack with putting up my latest op shop purchases for viewing. I had a good haul a few weeks ago. I took the photos outside and hung everything on a lovingly decorated coat hangar a friend gave me as part of a birthday present a few years ago. Of course, it came from an op shop. The prices are rough because I threw out the tags.

Goodwill – Hindley Street, Adelaide

Price $6.50 (It’s a Country Road top)

Price $4.00

Price $7.50

Price $5.00
The best one – a woollen dress that is very flattering on and fits really well as if it were made for me. The photo does not do it justice but the pattern is a silvery/sparkly colour.

Designer gear

May 5, 2005 by Jen at Semantically driven

Did my almost weekly jaunt to my local Goodwill and browsed through the tops and found this excellent black pure will jumper by Veronica Maine – a label I wouldn’t pay full price for. I wouldn’t pay full price for any ‘label’ gear as I just can’t afford it. This is in really good nick and it was well within my price range. For pure wool it’s also lovely and soft and I won’t have to wear anything underneath to stop scratchiness.

Excuse the crappy photo. My digital camera is not good at taking close ups and getting details of stuff, especially black stuff so I had to use the night setting.

Goodwill – Hindley Street, Adelaide

Price $4.50