Some of my Favourite Op Shop Posts

For the purpose of this post and others like it I may do in the future, "op shop" will mean op shop, thrift store, secondhand shop, true vintage shop and any other place you may get "pre-loved" clothing, toys and homewares, including online.  I fished some really fantastic things out of the bin at a sharehouse I was living at, once, and I am extending "op shop" to include things like that, too.

This post is essentially a list of blog posts which I have found especially inspirational or inspiring.  In some cases I searched through many posts by a particular blogger to find just the right one, in some cases I knew exactly what post I wanted to feature before I even started.  I hope from here you get some wonderful, inspirational ideas!
They are in no apparent order save for the order I found/rediscovered them.

First, a little shameless self-promotion with this post of my own: Things You May Not Know About Charity Op Shops

2. This post about clothes swapping by Agy: Have You Been To A Fashion Swop?

3. Thrifted maternity wear with Erica: Human Friendly Fashion Blogger Outfit- Maternity Edition

4. This one at I Love To Op Shop, in which I quite like the ugly clock: How Ugly is my Clock?

5. This adorable collection by Op Shop Mama, as I'm a sucker for a kid's xylophone: But Wait, There's More!

6. This one by Ali, because she opens with a delightful pun: Confessions of a Serial Shopper

If you enjoy reading these, let me know.  I would love to make another list for you.  Lists are cool.
I was a bit sad that some of my all-time favourites are from blogs that have been taken down.  Boo! :-( Lots of gems here though, all from blogs that are still up and have a lot of interesting content. :-)

Do you have a favourite op shop post or thrift blog?

Signed with love,
Cassandra Louise.

Follow-up to that thing I asked you about...

In my last post here I was asking for gardening advice.  Some of you had some great suggestions!  I think I've worked out what the problem was, and I hope I've fixed it.
The soil was very sense and tough, which is a common problem in pots; it needed to be dug over and aerated.  Unfortunately it would have been very difficult to do that with the tiny little plants in the pot.  I did manage to save the largest silverbeet plant, which hopefully will take off now.  One silverbeet plant that I had to dig out and add to my compost (never easy for me!  I love all my plants!) was only two centimetres tall but had roots close to thirty centimetres long, so obviously the plants in that pot were trying very hard, they just couldn't take hold.  I've since planted some radishes and calendula seeds in the tub.  The radishes have already sprouted and seem to be growing a little every day so I think I have solved the problem.  The tub now looks like this:

And my darling little radishes look like this:

The main problem I had with my last lot of seedlings was transplant shock, so to avoid that I've decided to put my Autumn nursery in peat pots and egg cartons.

That egg carton at the front there has lettuce seeds in it.  I've put them in an egg carton and not a peat pot so I will have to do less thinning out later; when the little lettuces appear, I will simply plant the entire egg carton in one of my garden tubs, just as I would a peat pot, but longer.
That big round plastic pot there has/had a potato plant in it that I found in my compost bin.  Having had a dig around, I have my suspicions that the plant rotted in the rain.  I would still quite like to grow potatoes, please, so just in case I planted some more.
I checked the one potato in my pantry for eyes.  One eye!  Plenty!  I cut a small slice of potato with the eye on it and planted that in the pot.  It should be sufficient to grow a new plant.

Worst thing that can happen is I'm no worse off than I am now.
The other plants in my garden are all doing quite well.  Here's pictures of all of them which I expect you to look at and enjoy as if I were showing you a cute thing my baby did...

For those playing along at home, that's two kinds of tomatoes, chillis and strawberries.  No fruit on the strawberries yet, but since I thought it was dead for a while there that's ok.  The first few years are always rubbish for a strawberry plant, anyhow.
The herb garden is also going well but looks a bit stragly, so I'm not going to show you any pictures of it, much like it's my baby and it just farted or something.

Happy gardening!
Love to you all,
Cassandra Louise.

I need gardening advice...

I planted up this container a few months ago and everything in it is stunted.


The tub contains amaranth, borlotti beans and silverbeet, some of which are so tiny you can't see them.  The beans sprouted in this tub, the other plants were added as seedlings, so the beans are the only thing that grew at all.
I have aerated, fertilised, watered more and watered less.
If anyone has any ideas about the cause or possible solutions, I want to know!
Lots of love and thanks in advance,
Cassandra Loiuse.

Shameless self-promotion

Hello lovelies!  I know I haven't been here for a while, but I'm hoping you still love me...




Yes, I want something from you.




Don't worry, you don't have to vote.




I would like you to visit my shop-blog here and see if there's anything you would like to buy, maybe follow the blog and see what is added in the future.

Everything is handmade by me and I use as many recycled/upcycled bits as I can.  I have an Etsy shop here with lots of things (ok, 28 things) in it, and I am moving the whole thing to my shop-blog (blog-shop?  someone confirm!).

Basically, if you could drop by and make me feel popular, that'd be great; if you feel moved to buy something from my Etsy shop or my blog shop, that would be most marvellous!

Signed with love,
Cassandra Louise.