Thrift-a-long

Every year a man turns up in the Valley selling bags of mangoes from a stall on the side of the road. For me his arrival  heralds the beginning of the warmer weather and the anticipation of a summer fruits - yum. It also signals that it will soon be time to make mango chutney! I didn't buy any of his mangoes this week -  they are probably not as gorgeous yet as they will become and also I didn't have time to make chutney this week. However, with a bit of rare forward planning, I did call into a local op shop to get some jars. I bought a lounge suite. Yeah you all know how that happens don't you - it isn't really a huge leap from a box of jars to a three piece lounge suite now is it?! Other than that I visited my daughter and we went to a couple of seaside thrift stores. We didn't unearth a lot of treasure and since it is school holidays, the shops were pretty crowded. I am taking that as a good sign. These kids are the next generation of op shoppers and are learning the ropes from their parents!

In the end I came home with a handful of beads and scapulars and some devotional cards, having had a lovely time with my kid. The scapulars are the devotional kind, worn by the faithful to remind the wearer of a pledge or promise perhaps to a certain saint or a way of life. They often have religious text or images on them and are made of two small pieces of cloth or wood joined by a strip of fabric or string.One rectangle of cloth is placed on the chest and the other hangs over the wearers shoulder.

The ones I found are not overly beautiful but I rather like the idea of incorporating them into a piece of mixed-media jewellery.

This is an image from a devotional card and is in a style that I particularly like - somewhere between medieval and Russian icon! Deep, rich colours and she kinda seems to be looking at you ...

Ah Job's Tears - what can I say about these delightful natural seed beads? These amazing seeds come from a drought-resistant grass and have been used as beads since at least 2000BC - which is unsurprising in that when they are fully mature, they have  a perfectly formed hole through the middle - easy threading. A completely natural bead, crafted by Nature. They are often used to make rosaries. Indeed Mother Theresa's favourite rosary was made of Job's Tears.

So it would seem that my thrifting this week had a quite ecclesiastical bent  - well, apart from the lounge suite - nothing spiritual about that at all! How about you, what sort of things did you hunt up this week? Did you find something special to add to a collection perhaps? Click on the link below and share the fun!