Some more Op Shop and eBay purchases..

Today was one of my rare 'free' days, so I decided to do something useful instead of taking off in the car and checking out more op shops. S was working, otherwise we may have done just that, as it is much more fun when there are two of you! However, I was very productive; I vaccumed, washed floors, defrosted the fridge, and fixed this computer...well, I hope I have. Before I started on the housework, I set it up for a thorough ScanDisk, which took about 6 hours, and followed that up with a defrag. The message at the conclusion said there were errors found on the hard drive, which are now fixed. So I scanned these few items tonight, with only one freeze.
At the risk of sounding rather strange, I am going to describe what has been happening to my computer over this past week, and I am keen to hear if anybody can offer an explanation. When I am sitting here typing or reading emails etc., everything is fine for most of the time. But if I move away from the desk, either to put something in the scanner (which I can't reach from where I sit), or go out of the room for even just a minute, the computer freezes. Not just temporarily - I have to turn it off at the button and restart, usually resulting in that awful safe mode screen. It is just like a child - throwing a tantrum when you leave them alone. It is actually quite spooky...am I producing some kind of energy field that interacts with the computer, so it goes off when I move away? Weird...

For all you Peacock Lovers - isn't this stunning!! No, not embroidered - it is a piece of quilting fabric I think, that I saw on eBay and had to have! Don't know what I will do with it yet, but I am sure some of my more creative friends here will give me plenty of ideas! It isn't a fat quarter, by the way. It is 1 metre long, and about 12" wide.
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This is the other teacosy ex eBay.
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One of two tea cosies I have recently won on eBay. This one has a smaller version of this design on the other side of the cosy.
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Another huckabuck hand towel. I scanned this on the angle, so I could show all the stitching on the edge. Isn't that pretty?
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This is the cover of my Op Shop bible, for any of you who are in Melbourne, and want to keep an eye out for it!
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Sorry this is sideways - I still haven't figured out how to rotate pictures while I am scanning, or when I get them on here! This is a huckabuck hand towel which I just had to have! I have another one, and some more bits, but this is when the scanner spat the dummy and refused to co-operate!
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An exquisite piece of whitework, featuring drawn thread work, embroidery and I think tatting on the edge - looks too tiny to be crochet work....but I am not an expert on this. This pic doesn't do the doiley justice. My first scan was completely washed out, so I put the purple tissue paper underneath the next time, but apart from the fact that you can see the stitching a bit better, it still doesn't show the overall beauty of the piece. The lady in the shop glanced disparagingly at it and said "oh, twenty cents for that".
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If anyone can guess what this little bag may have been used for, please leave a comment! The lady in the shop said she thought it might have been to put shoes in, but it is too small - unless she meant very small ones for a child or baby. It has a drawstring at the top. I think it is so sweet.
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This is a simple little piece of gingham that was possibly either a napkin or a placemat. It has a couple of small holes in it, but I had to have it because of the lovely chicken scratch work on it!
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Another doiley with a basket of flowers. This is not a good pic at all - I fiddled around for ages with the colours but couldn't get it right. They are actually pale pastel, nothing like this at all, but at least you can see the design.
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Doiley (or centrepiece) with basket of flowers at each end. I should have put a darker piece of paper under this, as being so white, it doesn't scan well.
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My latest piece of completed stitching.

This is what I have stitched on the first Round Robin that I have received from the group I am in this year. I have been working on a few things this past month or so, and this one is the first to be finished. As I finish the others, I will post them here.
The rest of the photos tonight are of some of the items I bought on my op-shop jaunt last week. Each pic will have its own description, so I am not going to repeat everything here. Unfortunately, I couldn't scan all the things I bought, as my scanner and PC seem to be fighting tonight. Every time I completed one scan, the computer would freeze and I would have to reboot it. I got sick of doing that after an hour, so I hope these little machines will kiss and make up over night, so I can scan the rest of my bits and pieces later, without these annoying interruptions!

This is my contribution to the first RR I have received from the group I am in this year.
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Long awaited photos of where I live!

Here they are, after much cursing and swearing last night, when Picasa 'died' on me. I had intended to put these on Patra's Other Place, but as usual I was too quick off the mark, and by the time I realised I hadn't selected the right blog, I had already posted two photos here! So I thought stuff it - they can stay here.

Final photo for tonight. Ken and I are steam train buffs, and together with some friends, we organised this train to come to our suburb a few years ago, as part of the local town festival. This wooden trestle bridge is the only one of its kind still in use in suburban Melbourne. Costs a fortune for the railways to maintain, but they aren't allowed to pull it down because of its historic significance.
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This was taken from the front door, at the top of the steps, looking down into the front yard. Notice the possum nestbox on the tree in the top left corner of the picture. Ken had to climb to the top of our extension ladder to install this! The stag horn fern on the gum tree in the centre of the photo started out as a few fronds taken from my stepmum's place about 15 years ago. All we do is put banana skins in it now and then. Must be the right spot and the right diet - it is HUGE!
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Our place from the street. Again, can't see much for the trees, but we like it that way!
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This is part of our street. It is about 2 kls long, and has several hills along its length. We are down 'in the dip', just after the roundabout on the left hand side. You wouldn't think there were any houses here at all, would you?
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The joys of Op-shopping!

Over at The Blank Page, S mentioned a new book on the market, called 'The Treasure Hunter's Guide' - a guide to opportunity/thrift shops, second hand stores and trash & treasure markets around Melbourne. I was going to wait until I saw her copy before I bought one, but I found a copy in our local newsagent earlier this week and snapped it up. I only had one job this morning, from 9 to 10 am, then I was free until 2 pm, so I figured I would have time to go and check some of the shops listed in this little book.

Well!! Did I have fun! I didn't bother going to the places I already know about close to home; instead I went a bit further afield, and in doing so, found a mistake in the book. One of the addresses given was a private house, so I kept on driving, and around the corner I found the shop listed. It was an obvious error - the street changes name around a bend in the road, instead of being a definite corner, so if the author was unfamiliar with the suburb, I guess she just assumed it was the same road. I also found two more op-shops that aren't in the book, so I will be contacting the authors to let them know, as they have indicated in this book that if they get enough responses, they will publish another edition.

So was it worth all that driving around? Most definitely! Here is what I bought at several shops:
Two Chicken Scratch cloths
Two embroidered table cloths
Four aprons (three embroidered, one plain with unworked design)
Three plain huckabuck towels
Two embroidered huckabuck towels
Three large embroidered doilies (one exquisite whitework)
One pillowsham
A small embroidered calico bag (not sure of its purpose, but it is old)
and three books.
All this for less than $20! Now to get that digital camera working...