Urgh ... feeling icky but still having fun

Apologies for my lack of blogginess recently. I've been quite sick for the past 5 weeks and haven't been feeling particularly creative or communicative....

Oh, that being said, G and I have been rather busy, hunting down homewares online and at local markets to furnish our new country estate (ahem .... well .... our little Port Fairy cottage). Gumtree and eBay have yielded a wardrobe, a tallboy, a queen-sized bed (almost new, with mattress, for $50!), a hall table, a dining table, eight wooden chairs, a fridge, a coffee table, two bedside tables, two little nested tables, an armchair, a vacuum cleaner, an iron, a new cutlery set, a block of kitchen knives, an electric drill, and a toaster.

Yesterday we ventured over to the Coburg Trash and Treasure Market - we scanned the rows of junk with our eagle eyes and managed to snap up more bargains! We bought:

- a lovely silver-backed mirror in a timber frame, perfect for sitting on a mantelpiece - $5
- an axe (to help us get our firewood ready) - $20
- a timber ladder, which we'll sand back, clean up and use as a library ladder - $10
- two old three-footed iron shoe-making lasts, which will likely begin new lives as doorstops - $10 each
- two small vintage suitcases (now I can extend my collection to Port Fairy!) - $10 and $15
- a timber chessboard - $10

(pics coming soon)

A lovely guy at a fruit stall even gave us some delicious apples for free. As I went to pay he made me put my purse away .... he told us he was like a drug dealer - his fruit was so good, he knew we'd go back after the first taste. Ha! They were pretty good apples.

I also found an old copper coal scuttle in a junk shop on Saturday, which I'll give to my mum as she's ruing the loss of a similar scuttle she used to fill with roses for professional displays. Only $10 for that baby too!

We've been boxing up painting supplies, carefully wrapping crockery and glassware, collecting bits of furniture from all over town, and I've started piecing together a slipcover for a comfy but rather bland old armchair that we found on eBay .....

It's been really fun, but I must admit that I'm looking forward to clearing all that stuff away from our verandah and the three cluttered rooms that we're still camping in!