November Antique Market finds...

If anyone made it down to the ‘Craft and Antique and Collectors Fair’ last weekend you would understand why I said wear comfy shoes.. it was bigger than ever this year and I must admit I didn’t even make it around the whole thing-

Being my fault as I was running out of money to spend so had to bail before I found anything else I could fall in love with….

However I did pick up 2 bags, 

One of which a woman agreed to sell to me for $15 if I took all of its contents.....

Cant say I was a big fan of old hair curlers, pins and clips but i just love this bag :).......

My second purchase for again $15.. fully intact and no rips or tears or old bag smell

Now after walking around for about an hour, developing a massive apetite, and tolerance to realisng to try on clothes I have to strip down to my underwear in a room full of women with no curtains or such,.... all i can say is thankgod I was wearing my good underwear... not sure i would of wanted to strip down in some of those ones i have hanging around in the depths of my undie draws. Too much info.. ok i promise i wont go further but I know you all have them..dont you?

Anyway it was about at this time that any freebies I could get from food stalls I would accept almost too graciously... consiting of a piece of biscuit about the size of a 20cent coin or a di sized piece of bread to dip into some spice.. when I came across a masterpiece.

It was at that moment I died and went to heaven...two words..

TURBAN CHOPSTICKS

 

This range of indian (so easy to cook) foods are a new found favourite, they have sauces, soups and rice dishes.. I actually am speechless over this food, with not much money left to spend I bought a hamper, any 5 objects for $35.. i'll admit im a little obsessed, its just if you ever feel like indian food and you dont have all the spices needed or all the time to sit in a kitchen trying to make your fried onion and spices into the perfect base paste this is it.. this solves everything, it is delicious and not full of MSG or any of those preservatives in sauces you buy from the shops.

So after my friday at the market.. i walked out with a bag for decoration when I eventually get to decorate my own house, a black purse to keep my things and an addiction to a new range of food products, hope you found something for yourselves!

This Weekend...

This years last Antiques and Collectors fair is setting up shop this weekend at Claremont Showgrounds!

It runs for 3 days starting this Friday at 9.30am - 4.30pm everyday, last day being Sunday. 

Plus Polka Dot Vintage Market is showing its lovely face, vintage and retro clothing, accessories, jewellery & collectables.

So if your stuck for christmas gifts this year, I recommend heading down and checking it out, your nanna, mum and mother in law all done in 1 day (dont forget to score yourself something too!). Admission $6.

Might see you there :)

P.S I recommend wearing comfy shoes and giving yourself more than an hour to look around, there is some seriously cool stuff here you just need to look harder.

Outing 1: The not so Secret Garden, Shafto Lane, Oxfam

So if you found your way to the bottom of the page, you would see on the calender that yesterday was a day dedicated to finding the infamous (according to my boyfriend) Secret Garden Café and I must admit I was a little excited too.

I was in Perth early on my own and just knowing it was near Wolf Lane I decided to find it myself. The whole ‘Secret’ of it turned it into a welcomed challenge. So I set off out of the Perth underground and down Murray Street in the direction of Kings Park for - lets say 50-100 metres - and I see a sign outside a Lane off to my left saying ‘Tiger Tiger, Secret Garden’. I turn left and directly in front of me sit two cafes, one of which I was expecting to be lost for at least 20 minutes looking for.

Evana :1

Secret Garden: 0.

The menu looks inviting however, it is almost 2pm at this time and my boyfriend will not be in Perth until at least 2.45. So in order to kill some time I find my way onto Hay Street.

Jackpot.

I make my way into an unnamed shop selling books at half their price because of a closing down sale. Score myself 3 cookbooks,

-‘Fat Free Indian Cookery’ (because I have an unhealthy obsession with Indian food but find it hard to stomach the really oily stuff) .

- ‘180 Best-Ever Recipes for Vegetarians’ (because I was craving something sweet at the time and it has a wicked Apple Strudel recipe)

- ‘Vegie Food’ (one of those extremely thick and heavy cook books that you know you will never make at least half of the recipes in it  but if you can just perfect that Phad Thai or Vege Mousakka it will have all ‘bean’ worth it. (See what I did there).)

Made my way up to 78 Records which is still a favourite store of mine even though I know I can buy my music much cheaper. Stood in there a while battling with my head over whether to buy a ‘Whitest Boy Alive’ CD, refused and bought Frankie Magazine instead (I shall dedicate an entry just to Frankie later on down the line).

Then on to yesterdays ‘worth mentioning’.

Still with time to kill I notice a sign outside ‘Shafto Lane’. If you have been to Shafto Lane already and you know me, shame on you for not telling me! This lane has Jacksons, a gourmet burger bistro with amazing burgers- vege and meat, and best of all Pigeonhole.

I have known about Pigeonhole and its alternative, fun, and very stylish nature for a while now but actually walking in yesterday and seeing their Polaroid Film stock was a highlight. Pigeonhole’s products aren’t cheap (not burn a whole in your wallet expensive either) but they are beautiful, quirky and cool, and they are one of the only stockists of ‘The Impossible Project’s’ Polaroid film in Australia.

For anyone interested, for the Polaroid 600 its $44 for 8 sheets- as you could gather on my budget the Polaroid is only going to show up on special occasions from now on.

Moving onto the Oxfam shop- one of my favourite worldly shops. Oxfam on Hay sells so many beautiful things, homewares, jewellery, rugs, table cloths, ornaments, pots, bags and the list goes on and on. I have to mention their Tea range in there. These teas look and smell delicious and all their products are fair-trade!! Christmas is coming up people, go check it out.

After planning my purchases for the next 3 pays, my boyfriend makes his way into the city and we meet up as I direct him to the ‘almost impossible to find’ Secret Garden. Its 3:05 at this stage. The Secret Garden closes at 3.

Secret Garden: 1
Evana: 1

Until next time..

Todays 'worth mentioning'... stay tuned

 

Shafto Lane, Pigeonhole, Oxfam on Hay St

A necessary explanation

Im not an artist.

I don’t have an expensive camera.

I know very very little about web design.

And I am capable of talking about food in almost any conversation.

Please forgive me. But for these reasons in particular, the appearance of my blog may be changing every few days (or in todays case every 30 seconds as I tried over and over to centre a picture).

Also if I talk about food too much, I apologise again, but I assure you every restaurant or recipe I review will be with all honesty and if I say its good, even if you are vegan, vegetarian or not, I believe if you try it you won’t be disappointed!

Where the new journey begins..

I made a decision over a year ago to book a flight and get on a plane to London and travel through Europe. Not on Contiki or Top Deck but travel in my own time to places of my choice, to gain independence, learn things about myself I couldn’t do at home and to clear my head, get some perspective and have a break. So as it went, I deferred uni for a semester, packed my very large backpack, finished my last uni exam for at least 9 months and hopped on a plane 4 days later to a much larger, more populated and cultural land.

If you’ve travelled and been on a small enough budget to stay in hostels (they aren’t as bad as you think- just do your research people!) you’d know it’s the best way to come across a lot of interesting people. However being Australian I can guarantee you, you will meet a whole lot more of Australians overseas. In the very large handful, or should I say 10 very large handfuls of Australians I met in my 4 months travel, there was a significant number of people from Perth that seem to have a common trait. We were away for an extended period of time- 4 months to 2 years, and the ones that had gone home, got back on planes to Europe as soon as they could afford it.

Why?

I have to admit, I did, in amidst my sadness to running out of money and having to come home, believe that even though Perth is a beautiful place, it was slow, quiet, so far behind other cultures and ideals and just… well kind of sheltered and boring.

I have been home now for almost a month and after many days and moments of sadness and frustration at my current pause in travelling, I decided that I was being a bit of a sad sap (with the help of friends telling me also).

‘For those days in Perth’ is a journey I have started myself on whilst adjusting back to Perth life after backpacking through Europe for 4 months. I know I have caught some kind of bug, originally thinking it was the travelling bug but I have decided it’s the discovery of the once unknown I’m addicted too.

After all,
‘The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes’.

Marseille, France 2010