Kitchen shelf re-styling

So last weekend Aaron removed everything off our kitchen shelves to oil and paint them. It was one of those jobs that didn't quite get finished in the big scheme of our renovation. We have a few little jobs like that around the house that need finishing off and Aaron is now going through each room and ticking them off one by one.

 

 

After living with it all cleared and empty for a week I decided I was tired of how it was before and it was time for a change. This was the perfect excuse for a total refresh.

I started by putting out everything that was previously on the shelf and piling it up onto the bench in front of me. Then I walked around the house and looked in my cupboards to see if there was anything else that I thought might need to go up there too.

 

It actually took ages. Lots of rearranging and changing my mind and stealing things from other places in the house. But it was heaps of fun! Now I want another shelf to do!

 

 

I reckon it looks a lot better than it did before. See the before photo below. I had just kind of added to it over time without really thinking about how I actually wanted it to look like overall. It looks a lot fresher now, less cluttered, and more balanced. What do you think? Or maybe it doesn't look any better but it's just nice to have a change of view!

 

 

Here are some detailed pics below - and of course most of the items are bought from the op shop, or otherwise they are gifted, or family hand-me-downs (mostly from my Great Granny I've just realised! She did have some very cool stuff and created amazing art!).

 

SMALL GREEN BOWLS - op shop. GREEN PLANT POT - op shop. PLANT - cutting from one growing wild. WOODEN PEARS - op shop (these used to be in the kids kitchen play set. PHOTO OF FORGET-ME-NOTS - taken and developed and printed in the dark room by me! LITTLE BASKET- op shop. POTTERY URN (which holds my eggs) - family hand-me-down from my mum. BLUE TIN - gift from my mum. KITCHEN AID - gift from my dad (which turned out to be the perfect colour for my future kitchen!).

PLANT POT - op shop. PLANT ON TOP SHELF - Mitre 10. ENAMEL FISH DISH - handmade by my Great Granny. LARGE CAT - hand-me-down from my Great Granny. SMALL CAT - op shop. BAG OF COFFEE - gift from my in-laws from the Philippines (I love the packet!). COPPER WINE GOBLETS - gift from my dad. TOY MEN - Aarons from when he was a kid. WOODEN OLD MAN BOTTLE STOPPER - family hand-me-down from my mum (I always thought of this as my Great granddad 'Puppy').

BLUE POTTERY JUG - op shop. GREEN MUGS - made by me, the remaining two of a set of four (I just checked the bottom and these were made in 1997. What! 20 years ago! But aren't I only 21 ?!). HEN ARTWORK - "Fowls" by Ruth Coyle (my Great Granny) family hand-me-down from my mum. NATIVE BIRDS ARTWORK - by Flox (free with Your home and Garden magazine). WOODEN VASE - op shop. POTTERY VASE - op shop (actually stolen from a pile destined to sell in my shop! It just looked so good up there, sorry).

BROWN COFFEE CUPS - op shop. (With two cool tea bag quotes that I needed to keep. "Be giving, forgiving, compassionate and loving." "In all things of nature, there is something of the marvellous. - Aristotle." LIGHT BROWN POOLE CUPS - I have a set of 6 of these, some are op shopped and some are family hand-me-downs from my Great Granny.

WOODEN BOAT - op shop (Liam has kindly lent me this from his boat collection upstairs!). ARTISTS MANIKIN - op shop.

ARTWORK - Oil on canvas. "The drink of milk" by Ruth Coyle 1950 (My Great Granny). Written under the title is 'My son Ewen'. GREEN POT - op shop.

 

And there you have it folks, all you ever wanted to know about my kitchen shelf! And probably more than you wanted to know! Ha!

And as a side note - there still needs to be an extractor fan fitted onto that wall above the oven, and a tile back splash - they're on the list! Oh and a big photograph to be hung on that wall on the right - I have one already bought from this amazing local photographer, just need to get it printed and framed!

My vintage shop update

My little dream shop is going great so far. I am having so much fun finding amazing treasures, there is so much good stuff out there waiting to be discovered and appreciated and given a new life.

My only problem so far has been wanting to keep things once I get them home! Oh dear! They always look so much better when they are bought out of the context of the opp shop chaos and given the chance to shine! They steal my heart I tell you!

 

 

I'm getting the hang of wrapping valuable treasures in a million layers of packaging, fortunately I happen to have a giant roll of bubble wrap that should last me a while.

Below are the items that have been shipped off to new owners so far - I hope they have found their way safely and are being appreciated like they deserve.

There are still plenty more beautiful items for sale in my shop and more waiting to be photographed and listed. If you want to have a look you can view my shop here.

Forest friday

We always visit the horse farm on Fridays with all our home schooling friends and head into the forest to explore. So I thought I'd start sharing our Friday forest walk pictures each week. These photos are from the last couple of weeks.

 

Can you see Isla disappearing into the bushes?

The kids have claimed an old shed as their club house. It's amazing to watch the way they work together and make plans, so organised and industrious! They have great plans and dreams for this space! they have already spent hours clearing it of moss and leaves and spider webs.

 

Liam repairing the roof.

We saw two wood pigeons! I love these birds! It's very rare to get to see them. The photo isn't so good as I was zooming in on my phone.

My new shop - Craftykin's Curated Vintage Goods

So you might remember me recently talking about the fact that I would love to one day open a little shop selling a mix of vintage and handmade goods? - with a little coffee shop on the side that would sell the best coffee in town?

Or maybe you don't remember that, well anyway, I'm making that dream come just ever so slightly true. It's just online not bricks and mortar, and there's no coffee, sorry, but I am drinking a really good coffee while I type this, if that's any consolation.

 



I've been noticing that there are all these amazing 'curated vintage goods' style shops in the US, it's basically like someone has gone op shopping for you and collected up all the coolest stuff from all the op shops and put it in one place. You know like that awesome thing that you stumble across every so often in amongst all the junk. So it's like a shop of all your best op shopping days! Yes!
So you don't have to spend time searching through all the junk! But most of these cool curated vintage shops don't post their goods overseas - so little old NZ misses out!

 

So I thought I'd check out if anyone was doing the same in New Zealand, but I couldn't really find anything (please do tell me if you know of any!). There are plenty of great vintage and second hand shops around but they still take a bit of sifting through to find the really cool stuff. Of course everyone's style and taste is different but to me really cool looks like bohemian/scandinavian/earthy/handmade kinda, do you know what I mean?

 

So hey, I've decided to make one of these shops myself (I do have a slight problem in that I keep deciding to keep the stuff, must work on that).

 

I've pondered lots on this idea over the last few weeks, and tried to figure out how I could best make it work. My mum has currently taken over my Felt shop with her beautiful handmade things, and anyway, I don't think you can sell vintage stuff on there. My Etsy shop is sitting vacant at the moment so I considered selling it there, but then I open it up to overseas buyers and the postage just gets too expensive to send from way down here in New Zealand. So I've decided to use good old Trade Me for now, and maybe I will open up my own independent online shop at a later date.

 

These photos are just a few of the things that I have listed at the moment. You can find my Trade Me page here and I will be updating it often, so you can save me as a seller if you're interested in being notified when I add new stuff.

I've tried to make the prices reasonable, I don't want it to turn into an expensive antiques store! But I also need to make all my hunting (and shop keeping shenanigans) worthwhile. I've set prices that I would be happy to pay myself (and I'm pretty tight when it comes to spending money haha!) So I hope you agree.

I also have a link to my Trade Me page up at the top of my blog - if you're viewing this on a PC its the VINTAGE SHOP heading at the top. If you're viewing this on your mobile its in the drop down Menu.

So there you have it, I'm quite excited about my little venture, and perhaps, maybe, one day, it will turn into a real life shop, with good coffee.