Thrifting ...

After a bit of a dry spell, the thrift stores offered up some great 'stuff' this week.

All sorts of goodies - a lovely rose tapestry, books beads, tins to deconstruct, a teapot for a friends garden and a delightfully faded folk-arty placemat - think it will become a bag!

Doesn't Skip look regal? Pretty glass beads in such lovely vintagy colours are surely a sign that Spring is on its way?

I couldn't believe my luck finding such great art books - they are a bit rare in the oppies around here.

Inside the Australian Art in Prints book are lots of lovely plates - this is a Brett Whitley image - The Mango Tree - a lovely etching.
The screen-printing book is a bit dated so I was surprised to find images that are very contemporary. Or is it that we are just embracing a retro kinda aesthetic contemporarily? (I challenge you to say that really fast!) Just look at this great screen print from the book ...

I am about to embark on a printing adventure of my own and some of it will revolve around bugs so I thought it pretty serendipitous to find Outlines in Entomology in a thrift shop! Amazing information about creepy crawlies of all kinds and anatomical drawings to boot.

I also came across a book on Australian insects and it has gorgeous pictures throughout - like this one ...

A really fun book that I found is called Life After Man by Douglas Dixon. In it he imagines a post-human world where creatures that we considered vermin etc have evolved to become strange but recognizable beasts. It has a foreword by Desmond Morris who is a zoologist/anthropologist that I admire. The book is an interesting read and has some interesting pics - this one is kinda cute but some of the animals have evolved into scary looking critters ...

Not really sure why this spaceman held so much appeal that I had to bring him home. Perhaps it is his ray-gun?

and finally, although not collected at the same time as all these goodies, I just have to share my little gothic gal.

She isn't dead - just a little cracked - I have plans to emphasise that!

Yeah - she is a little creepy - mwha ha ha ha ...
Have the op shops faeries been kind to you this week?