17 days Till Christmas...

You've probably noticed that it's already Dec 2009. Where does the time go? Soon it will be the start of a new decade. The newspapers here have made up competitions for a new term for the 2010s. No more "Noughties". Good riddance i say. It's a silly term i feel.

ANYWAY....now that i've gotten the boring rant over with, can i just go on and show you what i would love for Christmas? Yup, the wishlist is long and growing but my pocket is small and not growing that much. So maybe it's a wishful-thinking list (shrug). On with it!

From zorya

from MadArt

from paleolochic

from shopelegante

Sigh...black is so timeless...

Brrrr.........

It's freezing. 12 degrees in the mid-morning yesterday and feels just as chilly today. Are you kidding me???

Fortunately, i was home all day (today too) and wore my new cashmere-feel acrylic pink jumper. Well, the tag said it's a cashmere feel. I don't care much for acrylic usually but this feels very very comfortable. I suppose this is what cashmere feels like??

And i have a new-ish pair of arm warmers from gertuine:

Super warm arm warmers

Highly recommended. She makes lovely fabric cuffs too, all salvaged materials. Yay for eco-friendly! She is a lovely seller and my package (she's in Korea) arrived in 2 working days! A salute to Korea and Australia Post may be in order.

She makes some bags too but i'm really in love with her affordable fabric cuffs. My favourite is this one:

Currently coveting

Check out her shop!

Gertuine aka the Sewmeister at Etsy.com

Recycled/Upcycled/Invented Practical Fashion, Accessories and Tools for Life

Found and Bought - Treasures

Time to reveal a bit more about myself. I'm currently working as a volunteer at an op-shop in the next suburb. It's only for 2.5 hours on Wednesday afternoons, so it's not too time-consuming and is quite fun. =)

I read people's accounts of how they find treasures in op-shops/thrift stores all the time, sometimes more so if they work there because they get first picks. I never thought i would be one of those people as i had always been refused in previous applications. But a few weeks ago, magic happened and i joined one of them!

The OneNoffs shop in Randwick Junction is run by The Ted Noff's Foundation. TNF helps youths and their families who have drug and alcohol issues. And now on reading the website more closely, i see Ted Noffs was a co-founder of Lifeline. Interesting.

I've been on 3 shifts so far and have seen some interesting items, but didn't make any purchases. Then earlier this week, lo and behold! I discovererd a gem (to me). Presenting...

This beautiful black velvet pencil skirt

Everything in store is currently 50% off. And because i am staff, i get another 50% off! So from $10, to $5, and finally i got this beauty for a mere $2.50. =D This has got to be my best op-shop buy yet. $2.50!

And i didn't even get first dibs at it. It was just hanging on the rack along with many other black skirts.

It's a very good velvet material. Most velvet clothes i've seen are thin and wrinkle very easily, but not this one. It probably needs to be handwashed carefully. This skirt certainly made my day.

Velvet really does not photograph well, let alone black velvet. Notice it's not wrinkly or too lint-y.

In crafting news, i'm still working on "designing" note cards and notebooks. It's tough. No wonder designers charge an arm and a leg. All that time spent thinking and trying to come up with something appealing and original.

It doesn't help that using reclaimed paper means having a very unpredictable supply. So i decided to get some truly recycled paper, for some of my future creations.

Ecocern paper is made from 100% post-consumer waste (photos coming soon). That's right. That means it's made entirely of office scrap papers, and what-not. No new trees were chopped down to make them and no bleaching agents were used to make these lovely, earthy-feel brown-gray paper.

Ecocern does sell 100% recycled white paper as well if that is what you prefer. I also bought some cardboard to experiment with because i only eat so much cereal in a month. =) Anyway, check them out:

http://www.ecocern.com/

78-90 Old Canterbury Road (it's in the Industrial Complex - i walked right past it twice - another story another time),

Lewisham, Sydney, Australia.

Till next time...