Friday afternoon saw me battling the masses of traffic on the Ipswich Motorway in my travels up to Toowoomba to visit the folks. Alas, due to a lack of funds & frocks I gave Cooly Rocks & Wintersun Port Macquarie a miss & opted instead for the artic cold of The Darling Downs.
Before heading out to Oakey to visit the Old Man I decided to hit some Toowoomba op shops.
"Oh" my mother exclaims "There is a big vintage clothing store above the LifeLine Emporium in Ruthven St!". Why in all my years of visiting Mother she has neglected to tell me about this store I will never know.
Slightly breathless with excitement I sped off. I found the store & parked around the back. I walked up the vintage apron-lined staircase to The Vintage Wardrobe.
I thought I would do the right thing & ask permission before taking some pics. The young lass who worked there went & got the manager who was a very very surly little asian lady. She was quite rude & seemed very very suspicious of me talking photos. I explained that it would be advertising for the shop & I wasn't photographing her security systems so I could drop in later ala Mission Impossible style to steal her scarf collection. Finally she grunted some sort of yes at me. The shop has lots fur coats, hats, gloves, scarves, shoes and heaps of men's ties. As far as clothing goes though it was mainly hideous 60s-80s.
Most of the people in the store were seeking costumes for fancy dress parties.
The prices were pretty cheap though. Gloves around $8 & handbags around $10. I went through all the racks pretty thouroughly under evil-eye asian lady behind the counter. Eventually, I settled on a nice plain cream handbag ($8), 2 x plastic bangles ($2 each) & a very cool little apron ($4). I thanked the manager who scowled at me & grunted.
Next stop was one of my favourite shops "Lancaster's Antiques" in Railway St.
When I approached the staff/managers of the shop to ask if I could take photos they were very very excited & even offered to set up things for me if I needed. The staff are always so friendly in this shop. It is very easy to spend a good hour in this shop. They have a real mix of goods & you never know what treasures you will find.
As I headed down the first aisle I saw it. My holy grail! A chenille bedspread! Mint condition! Only $88.
(I was willing to spend up to $150 for one in good condition). I immediately ran to the counter with my prize and bagsed it. It was there that the manager showed me the other cool thing that I bought ($10). A Taubman's interior design book from the 1950s. It is fantastic. I has all the colour wheels of what is in vogue & numerous guides to how to decorate your whole house. eg. If my rug is Green it is suggested that my drapes be Mustard, Tan or Grey. My walls should be painted Primrose, Shadow Grey, April Green or Orchid Green & my slip covers Primose, Mustard or Tan.
Now if someone asks me if my carport matches the drapes I will know how to answer (LOL).
If I would have had more time I would have loved to have hit every op-shop in Toowoomba but I had to get out to the bracingly freezing town of Oakey & make sure Dad hadn't frozen solid.
I was pretty stoked with my finds though. Big Smiles!
