Better to laugh than cry.

It is Thursday evening and school holidays kick off tomorrow.

I for one am looking forward to 2 weeks of commitment free time with my family- no lunches to make, clothes to lay out, after school activities to attend, camera words to learn...I could go on....I won't.
We will slum in our pj's, go to the movies, have milkshakes for lunch- be carefree...we don't get enough chances in life to be carefree and I desperately need some of that at the moment.

Not to go on about our trip to The States, but the entire process has gone on long enough for my liking. From conception to now it is has been 6 months and still nothing to show for it....my optimism is waning. I am exhausted mentally and emotionally...I just want our stuff please.

After paying our customs brokers a ridiculous amount of money on Monday, and knowing our boat had docked, we said to each other -"Ok- now the fun begins- this is it!". Surely after all the hard work planning, saving, travelling, lugging cart after cart to the van, cleaning, packing, logging, processing it all , scraping together more funds for shipping, surely now, we could relax and enjoy?

It lasted less than a day.....

Email Tuesday from the broker.."oh by the way, you do have a forklift don't you? Because you will need one and if you don't we are going to take a whole lot more money off you (basically).

After an afternoon of Simone and I texting swear words back and forth, we made some calls...we were lucky. The conreting plant next to the Vintage Shed have a forklift and would be happy to help us out (note to self- buy a slab of beer for the forklift man) Problem solved and running out of patience...on with the show please- give us a day- when is it coming?? Wednesday? Thursday? even Friday, although not ideal would be ok....Friday? Yes? Yes? ...............No!

Phone call today.

Unknown man:- "This is blah blah blah from  the shipping company. I'm ringing to let you know that your shipment has been inspected by customs and 1/2 of it has failed".

Me: "ummmm what does that mean exactly"?

Unknown man:- "I can't really say"

me: "well, when you say 1/2, do you mean 400 of the 800 things we bought failed, and what exactly did they fail?"

At this point to prevent myself from crying, I picture our boxes being given a polygraph test and a man asking an old milk bottle if it intentionally tried to smuggle dirt into the country and the milk bottle crumbling under pressure......I smile.....

unknown man" "Ok, so maybe not 1/2, but there were a few things that need more cleaning and they will be taken away now and cleaned and thats of course going to be $$$$$$ and thats all I am at liberty to say at this point"

Now I am picturing our boxes being taken into a small dark room and having a bright light flashed on them and being interrogated about just how much or how little detergent was used prior to packing.

It's all I could do to prevent myself giving up on this whole thing....Simone is ever the optimist and assures me whatever happens from here doesn't matter- we will get something and it will come soon.
She is of course right.

The funny thing about all of this is, and Simone and I both agree here...as harrowing an experience as it all was and has been, we both cannot wait to do it again and GET IT RIGHT...now that we know "WHAT NOT TO DO".

At this point we are aiming to have alot of the stock into the shed and ready for purchasing on Thursday, but will keep you all posted.

I hate to do a blog without pics so I will show you 2 pics and 2 things that did cheer me up today.

1) my new ottoman- made just for me by the lovely Lisa at Vintage Influence...
http://vintage-influence.blogspot.com.au/

It is Chairman Mao but in our house this will be affectionately referred to as
"The Communist Poof" (no disrespect intended)


2) After months of searching for dining chairs, I finally found something as close to what I want, without spending $400 per chair, and found in an op shop for $20 a piece- I am thrilled. Now to find the table...The room is desperately in need of some curves so a round table. I would be interested in your opinions though as to whether I paint these chairs and what colour or keep them as is.

Ok, time for some sleep. I always enjoy doing my blog posts. And equally I love reading others...

We are off on Sunday for a couple of days. My little family, my older brother and his wife and daughter, my mum and my younger brother and his partner...all off to the Comma House in Daylesford...I will definately post on this- supposed to be an amazing house with lots of lovely vintage touches....and some much needed carefree time.......


Bec xx

Christmas is coming............

Well not anytime soon really..... but for us I think it will feel a little like that as we count down the days till we start to unwrap our Brimfield haul- 3 pallets, 35 boxes packed to the brim boxes with the most amazing Vintage finds..on sale at the fabulous Vintage Shed very very soon...........

just a small preview of the things to come!

In other news our little sale continues down at the shed, so throw on a coat,hat maybe even some thermals and get down to the Vintage Shed!

Speaking of thermals- I have just spent another day wishing I had some behind the counter at the Vintage Shed, followed by Auskick and rounded it off with my 6 year old sons school disco.. nothing like spending the night surrounded by 60 6 year olds pulling dance moves and seeing who can have the most amount of glo sticks on one arm.. Time to relax now though, have a great weekend everyone , Simone xx

SHABBY VINTAGE JUNK

A quick post to let those of you who don't know our friend Tamarah over at Shabby Vintage Junk is having a little grand opening of a new project she is working on and she is letting the public loose on her latest loot from the U.S..So follow the link for the details and get yourself there !Shabby Vintage Junk

SALE & NEW STUFF

We are counting down the days until we are re-united with all the beautiful pieces that we bought during our crazy week at Brimfield , dreaming of all the lovely displays we can set up in our space at the Vintage Shed... So as they say it out with the old and in with the new- we are having a rather large sale,so hurry on down to the Vintage Shed for a bargain!

As I was doing my usual cleaning/ putting my house back together routine on a Monday, I couldn't resist taking photos of a few new things happening around my house...

First is finally a couch for my 'good' room- I have looked at this empty room for about 3 years and finally couldn't take it any more and headed on down to a local furniture store and paid a rather large sum ( it scared me a little actually) of money for this beautiful and huge sofa. It is just waiting to be dressed up with some beautiful bright cushions and to have the chairs that I blogged about a while ago re- covered in something a little bit bright and fun to liven it up a bit..

Next is a gorgeous Vintage Bowl that I coveted and waited and watched for a very long time at the Vintage Shed and finally decided that I couldn't live without it.. I plan on filling it with green apples ( look out Aldi here I come) and putting it in that 'good' room- when I get a coffee table instead of the current option- a beaten up Thomas the tank train table!

Then there is a new bit of chevron brightening up my bedroom- I think I have made myself clear on feelings about chevron on this blog- borderline obsessed. I nearly fell over when I saw it reduced at Target to $50..

A little bit of reading for these cold winter nights- UNDECORATE is one of my favourite decorating books, lots of inspiring homes not all of them looking like showrooms.. Just family homes with lovingly collected pieces. I inhale interior design magazines and books, spend way too much money on them, but does anyone else think the homes featured are a little like airbrushed models on magazines? Too neat , too perfect and just not possible to have when you have young kids ( well ones like mine anyway) running around..

Lastly a few new editions to my wardrobe... I had a birthday recently and have been wanting a pair of D.Co boots for a while- so I instructed my husband and my mum no presents please, I little donation and I would gift myself- which I did! I have to say it was love at first sight, they fit like a glove and I am sure they will be with me for a very long time- in fact in the event of an emergency I would of course grab the kids first, photographs and then the boots! whoops - did I forget to mention the husband? Of course he is in there somewhere..

The earrings are an Anthropologie N.Y purchase, I spent much of my time in New York in bed feeling horrible ( I was well looked after by Bec !) then on the day we were leaving after a visit to a really lovely N.Y doc to check all was o.k with baby we did a quick dash around the shops- not bad for about 1 hours shopping !

All in all lots of good things happening for our little vintage business and for me personally- life is good!
Hope you are having a lovely week wherever you may be....
Simone x

New Facebook Page

Good evening Blog friends.

Just a quick note tonight to let you know that we have a new facebook page. Our previous page was not actually a "page", but classified as a "place" and limited us as to how and what we could post to you.

Hopefully this new page will give us more room to share everything with you via facebook and we plan to share often!

Please show your support and click on the link below and "like" our new page so you can keep in touch with all goings on at Vintage Girl...

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vintage-Girl/288047064563404

Many thanks..

Bec and Simone xx

Lots of good reasons to get the Vintage Shed!

Its cold wet and rainy down here on the peninsula and this post is only about 5 days late! And yes the Vintage Shed is not open again till Thursday, but I couldn't resist showing some photos of a little revamp Bec and did last week on the stall, as they say better late than never..

Lots of good reasons to get down there asap on Thursday!!

Buzzing Saturday

Good morning all,

I hope you are enjoying your weekend. I managed a lovely sleep in this morning and now, am preparing for some very good friends who are coming to stay tonight.

The house has been dusted and mopped and cleaned to within an inch of it's life, but it only takes the kids a couple of hours to change that, so another quick vac later will be required.

I shall spend the afternoon cooking- we are having an Indian feast.  I have been making my own garlic nann lately and the kids love it. Cooking from scratch is becoming addictive for me and after comparing the taste (and ingredients) to the ready made alternatives, it's hard to go back....so many additives- yuk!

Anyway, after hours of housework yesterday and seeing my house in mint condition, I took some photos....

the newest addition to my knic knac shelf..hello fellas



some of my "little" teacups

I have always loved "little" bowls as well and have loads of them. The bottom one is my newest- purchased at Anthropologie in New York a few weeks ago..you can never have too many of these for olives, dips, nuts etc...



This is one purchase Simone and I made at the fair that you won't see at The Shed. We bought one of these bags each....made from old cavas tents- instant love!

Enjoy the day all!

Bec