Firstly Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all who celebrate. Here in Australia we had our Christmas pie (steak and cheese) and our pavlova four hours later (lots of leftovers) – plus TWO walks – yesterday. The date line and time make no sense to me. But there you are! We got there first.
We gave no presents because we have spent the last two weeks buying things for each other.
And we both hate mandatory present giving anyway.
After trolling through a days worth of second hand shops – we found a little table for the corner of the kitchen.
My desk.
A side table.
And today we go back to pick up a set of drawers we could not fit in the car.
All the way we are keeping our eyes open for solid wood chairs. As long as they are all solid wood we don’t much care if they match or not.
Furniture is not what it used to be. It is a study in planned obsolescence. Backed in cardboard, shelves that collapse, surfaces that chip revealing particle board beneath. There is done beautiful solid stuff but who can afford those new pieces of furniture even though some of them are so beautiful. New in our budget is going to be rubbish.
Not to mention the economic and environmental impact of buying endless replaceable pieces of junk.
So, better to buy solid pieces – second hand. If a good piece of furniture gets a scratch you oil it. Also buying your furniture second hand in our circles is a point of honour. We share the delight when we find just the right pre-loved piece at the right price.
The second hand shops here are heaving with glass, crockery, cutlery even garden tools!! All cheap. All perfectly good. We are on the look out for tiny bowls, garden tools (obviously), and long water glasses. I know we can buy these – made in china- from a big box store but where is the fun in that plus second hand is in my hand code.
Good morning.
One of the neighbourhood bunnies rushed the cat again yesterday – the dog leapt to the cats defense and all hell let loose. Now the dog is fixated on the gap in the fence where it disappeared and we are apologizing to neighbours in advance in case we end up with bodies.
A monster rabbit war is not what we expected when we moved out to suburbia. These rabbits are bigger than the cat. They eat well. And they are not afraid.
Anyway have a lovely day!
One garden almost finished. I carefully shifted five standard roses into one garden together and added lavenders. It is NOT the right time to shift plants but they will be fine as long as they get lots of water. After today’s heat it is mild for the next ten days.
I will plant rhubarb with their lovely pink stems and big green leaves, in behind the roses. We all love rhubarb and I love planting food in with the flowers. There is honestly no reason not to.
We will walk early then drive over to collect our last furniture buy. And hopefully three more hydrangeas. And a rhubarb plant that I can divide. I have gaps!!
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
31 responses to “second hand all the way and happy holidays”
I love second hanging furniture and home goods – makes so much good sense. sounds like a wonderful holiday week and lots of plants
we went to pick up our chest of drawers and came out either two baskets as well’ 😂
that’s the best –
Steak and cheese pie sounds delicious – I had goose and just made stock with the bones. I completely agree on furniture, good quality second hand wood is far better all round that chipboard, which falls apart and is bad for environment.
Merry Christmas!
exactly / already in circulation so we just move it our way! Merry Christmas!
I enjoyed reading your post! I love old vintage and collectables browsing and shopping. I have an odd assortment of objects in my home that I have repurposed – old copper washer is a beautiful pot plant holder and one of my favourite things.
I love copper! I found a real hand made colander once but am too scared to use it!
Merry Christmas to all of you!
merry Christmas from all of us to you too!
enjoy; marauder rabbits; what a concept; how long will you be there; best to you always kiddo. love too, esther
I am here another ten days then back to the deep winter!
Marry Christmas 🎄 😍 ♥️
And for you!!
Thrifting is such fun. Every other week my SIL and I, both widowed and my sister who is caregiver to her mostly disabled husband, (she gets a respite caregiver every other week for 6 hours), go thrifting. Sometimes we score, sometimes not. More importantly we laugh, a lot, and of course go out for a delicious lunch and catch up our families. Those 6 hours absolutely fly.
that sounds like a delightful outing! What fun!
I love good-quality things and am not bothered if they are second-hand. I bought some of my furniture at garage sales.
I love garage sales. especially in neighborhoods I can walk around!
I love the hunt for hidden treasures. Repurposing a discarded find makes my heart sing.
Indeed! Giving old things new homes makes perfect sense to me!
People don’t mend things enough. So much is discarded because it has a dent or a scratch or a tear. All it takes is a little attention. Having said that, when I first arrived in Australia I had almost no furniture, and paid a visit to the big blue and yellow store. I have treated my bookcases, chairs and sofa carefully, and they are still with me and in daily use 20 years later. Cheap need not mean shoddy, it just makes people throw things out more readily because they didn’t invest much in it. I plan for my stuff to last me out!
Looking after your stuff certainly pays off and I am sure those two big dogs love their comfy sofa!
They do, and it has survived some quite, um, energetic dog games!
Steak and cheese pie! That’s a nice Christmas dinner. My grandparents lived in Australia back in the 1920s and my Nanna used to tell me stories of Christmas on the beach. My daugther’s boyfriend is visiting her from Melbourne and the British Columbia weather didn’t deliver him a white Christmas unfortunately. Typical uncooperative Canadian weather. 😂 I told her they should have visited us in Ontario. We had a white one!
Weather has never been cooperative! Evidently the farm is very muddy from rain and warm temps. No snow there either! I hope your holiday week is lovely!
I’m with you al the way on second-hand furniture. Since our first unfurnished apartment in the early 70’s my husband and I have gotten just about all our “hard” furniture (tables, chairs, desks, bedroom sets) from auctions, secondhand shops or antique stores. You can get some wonderful beautiful, sturdy, eminently usable furniture at a fraction of the cost compared to the stuff they sell in furniture stores these days. Our bedroom set (matching bed and dresser) that we got for about 150 dollars 50 years ago is right around 200 years old and in great shape and I think it is beautiful.
We had steak and cheese pie for Christmas dinner also. Yummy!
your bedroom set sounds lovely. And $150 – 50 years ago has quite the ring to it! I hope your holiday week is going well. Now we have New Years ahead then we can all relax again!
The garden and furniture hunting all sounds wonderful! Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you too.
And you Grace!! I hope you are getting a few nice breaks in the bedlam!
Thank you 🙂 it was a busy and lovely Christmas Day with my mum, sister and brother-in-law and their five children. And now to relax. I’m not a big Christmas person (though childhood Christmases were magical) but the week off is a treat!
The only word I read was Pavlova!!! Then my mouth started to water. End of blog. 🙂 I have one for my birthday every year. Hope you had a great Christmas holiday and a happy new year.
pavlova is especially good the next day!!