"My bargains and my well-won thrift"

As promised, here is a nesting post. More photo's of our sea-side house to come next week (post essay hand-in).



Most people develop a style over the years, which seeps in to every part of their life. Home decorating, fashion and general taste, all depend on this style. My style, is no style & every style collectively. Please keep this in mind when judging viewing these pictures. Most things that I have in our house either serve a practical function, have an emotional or sentimental attachment or make me smile. Cheap should also perhaps be a category.

 We bought these Jason placemats and matching coasters, in their original boxes from Trademe. Cost: $10. 

The placemats alone are $35 at Briscoes. I'm not a huge fan of this sort of placemat, but they are excellent for protecting your dining table, if serving hot food from the table.

Fish "bowl" (tee-hee-hee). I Love having a dish to throw keys and phones in to when you get home. If they have a resting place, I'm less likely to lose them. Cost: $1, Saturday morning market stall.

Square-ish vase.  Cost: $1, Saturday morning market stall.

Hand-held vintage mirror. Cost: $1, Saturday morning market stall.

In our first beach house bach we had the word 'dream' across the wall, behind our bed. I made them out of card, but after a while they got crappy. We bought & painted the 'B' & 'N' wooden letters this time. 'B' for my love, & 'N' for Nicole. Cost: $2 each.

This side cabinet is probably the best bargain we got. Again, we won it on Trademe. The only bad thing about it, was carrying it down 200 metres of  steep concrete steps in Wellington, to get it to the car. It now houses board games, family videos, elastics, barrel-of-monkey's and play-doh. Cost: $5.





A breakdown of what's on it. Note emotional attachments.You might have to click through to enlarge.

And just to finish off, a photo from the top of the sand dune, at the end of our back yard.