On Sundays I like to walk down to the Esk Market with Theo while C sleeps in (I sleep in most other days). There is a stall there run by an older woman who collects dolls and she always has lots of vintage baby dresses for $3 each (which I suppose she dressed her dolls in), so I grab them by the bundle for my collection. I really hope I do have a girl baby one day to wear all of these dresses! Sometimes when I bring them home, I put one on Theo and watch him swish around in it - he loves it!


I found this sweet old pink radio at the aforementioned markets a few weeks ago. Unfortunately it had been dropped at some point and has a crack in it and doesn't turn on anymore, so is purely ornamental. I also picked up the cute tiny little metal tins at an opshop recently and thought they'd be perfect for housing tiny succulents.



We took a drive to Deloraine last week and visited our favourite antique store, Sunny's. They had around a hundred of these maps of Tasmanian regions, which I thought were quite beautiful. I picked up four of them. I am resisting the urge to cut them up and use them in collages.


A sweet little pink pinny from the markets.


We always walked past this framed image at the markets and C would joke that it was he and I, so one day I decided to buy it and now it sits above his desk, ha.



I found this little floral travel diary at the markets recently and thought it was so sweet. The information at the beginning made me smile. Deck sports!





FOUR pink dresses!


I don't know what it is about these, but I seem to be starting another collection.


A sweet little vase from the opshop (with roses and gardenias from my garden).


C bought this lovely old map of Tasmania from Sunny's last week too.



Two sweet little floral numbers.


A hand illustrated guide to indoor gardening. How dreamy!


A sweet little cherry dress.


And finally, one solitary boy's vintage outfit.

What have you been thrifting lately?

My first assignment for my new course was just to go for an 'awareness walk' around my town and take photos of my observations. I do this all the time, so I thought it would be easy, but I walked around for about an hour without having taken a single photo. I really love the suburb I live in. I grew up in the middle of the bush, so I never thought that I would love living in houses side by side, but I do. I have the loveliest neighbours and there is a big park called Heritage Forest five minutes from my house that has a playground, outdoor gym equipment, trails, a picnic area and a dog park. It's a five minute bike ride into the city, 4 minutes to uni and 10 minutes ride to my work. The houses here are mostly lovely old federation cottages with sweet little gardens. People seem to care about living here and take care of their homes and gardens and say hello when you walk by.

I was hoping I'd get to photograph some of the (seemingly hundreds) of cats that live in Invermay sunbathing, but they mustn't have been feeling photogenic today. C has a hashtag on Instagram he uses to document all of the neighbourhood cats #catsofinvermay. Anyway, here are some photos I took on my walk.



I was taking photos of the bees in the lavender bush outside someone's house and they pulled up outside in their car and gave me an odd look and I was like "Uh, I'm just taking photos of the bees" and they were like "Mhmmm".




There are also two really great opshops a minutes walk from my house. A big plus.










I'd love to see some photos of your neighbourhood if you feel like doing an awareness walk too. Link me!

I recently borrowed a tripod from my uni so that I could film myself working on a painting. I set up the tripod really high above my desk in the perfect position, with my camera on it and left it for a few days before I wanted to start painting. When I came back to it, I moved my desk slightly and the tripod fell, hard. And my lens broke. Bah, bum. And replacing it is $200 that I don't have. So I've reverted back to using my beaten up old Canon for these photos. It was my first time using a tripod/taking photos of myself by myself. It felt very narcissistic and I was worried my neighbours might be able to see me. I only lasted four photos. Here are the four photos. I also probably should have ironed my shirt.



I also wanted to mention that I've started a new course! Already! Yay, no break! It's a Diploma of Design through the Tractor Design School in Melbourne (online). I'd like to write a little bit more about that in a post soon. I am really enjoying it so far. I wore this outfit today while I took some photos on an 'awareness walk' around my neighbourhood for the first assignment. It was quite windy. Did my skirt blow up and show my undergarments several times? Yes it did.

+  Am I watering my house plants enough (or, am I watering them too often?)

+ Even though I just had a really good time hanging out with someone, do I need to analyse every single thing I said over and over again in my head for the rest of the day until I'm sure everything I said was embarrassing and I never want to see that person again?

+ Where have my cats been during the day and what have they been doing?

+ Am I going to be a really good designer/illustrator and make a career out of it (or should I just concede defeat early and commit to working at a supermarket for the rest of my life)?

+ Various and assorted 'mum guilts': e.g. Am I feeding Theo varied enough foods? Should I be reading to him more often? Does him having a tantrum mean he's going to have ADHD? What did he just put in his mouth? Am I spending enough time with him? Why doesn't he know how to say mum yet? Does he love me?

+ Have my cats peed on the pile of clothes in my bedroom that I'm too lazy to put away?

+ Is this migraine really a brain tumour?

+ Is Tony Abbott going to ruin everything I hold dear. And, if so, what kind of world will Theo grow up in? What can I do about it?

+ Will I ever get to go overseas? Am I not cultured for not having travelled? Will travelling make my life more meaningful?

+ Do my cats love me or do they just hang out in my house because I give them food?

+ Will we stop Ebola?

+ Do I need to get a Dachshund? Why are their legs so short?

+ Do I love my husband as much as he loves me? Does my husband love me as much as I love him?

+ Is there lipstick on my teeth?

+ Why do I always stay up way too late? How can I stop doing that? Is staying up late taking a toll on my health?

+ Should I just stop doing everything I'm doing and go off and become an aid worker?

+ Is worrying about these things simply a ridiculous example of first world problems?

+ Am I going to finish uni? Done as of this week!

+ What are you worried about?