Happy New Year!

2016 has been another busy and productive year, and I'm no less vintage for it LOL.

My passion for the old continues to grow, and has this past year taken me to Melbourne, Bendigo, Tasmania, the Sunshine Coast, central QLD and Toowoomba, with a few hush-hush road trips in between. I squeezed in outings to see the Hoodoo Gurus, the Violent Femmes and Henry Rollins, made new friends both within and without the industry, hosted and attended the odd party and went to lots of antique fairs.

A South Pacific cruise holiday was the final highlight for the year, and proved a fabulous break from my everyday life, not to mention the internet. Naturally I was accompanied by the vintage baby (VB), now nine and not exactly a baby...but you know what I mean..they're always our babies aren't they?

VB in Noumea

My personal collection saw a good bit of movement, with several pieces being added and subtracted as I continue to improve it. A collection of mid-century Scandinavian ceramics has begun (woops oh dear how did that happen?!) with a few small items of Figgjo and Finel, but there are so very many pretty patterns I'm sure it'll grow from here...in fact there's already more than in the pic below which I took a few weeks ago.

Part of my everyday loungeroom view- how lucky am I to have this inbuilt shelving ?

The small collection of wall heads in my office expanded a little- I love these so much, I always want more, but they're so hard to find aren't they?

The kitchenalia comes and goes, lately I've added some red and yellow items into the mix. That yellow mixmaster is no.3, I seem add a new colour every year.

My presence within Woolloongabba Antique Centre (WAC) continues to evolve, and is currently comprised of a sizeable floor space and a cabinet of jewellery located in the foyer. It's hard to believe that I've been there nearly five years now- I'm sure time goes faster as you get older- but I can't imagine being anywhere else.

Lots of changes have been made, I've moved right away from furniture and fashon and more into smalls (as we call it) and jewellery, so if you haven't been into the WAC for a while, here's the current look of my space.

There's a spare square inch in there somewhere, I'm sure of it...

Over 2000 items have been sold from this little 3 x 4 metre space this year! I'm so grateful to each and every one of my customers even though I rarely meet them. (In QLD dealers aren't allowed to work in their centre).

I bought and wore some fantastic vintage outfits this year. While I'm almost finished with selling vintage clothing and have sold off 90% of the stock I had, I'm personally still a keen vintage wearer and I delve into all the eras.

BTW I'm a size 14 (US 10) these days, and have sourced all this and lots more within a few short months- if anyone thinks they can't wear genuine vintage because of their size, talk to me! I'm happy to advise on styles/eras/shapes, etc., plus show you where I look online to find great stuff in plus sizes.

Cooking has been both therapeutic and entertaining. VB is autistic and has severe issues with food, so it's something we do together, not only for the benefit of the focussed time, but encountering and handling new and 'scary' foods is highly beneficial for her. I love tweaking and/or inventing recipes, and include hot salads, experimenting with kale, discovering black garlic, an olive and pistachio-stuffed roast pork, anything with pistachio dukkah, savoury pies and an asparagus and proscuitto quiche amongst this years favourites. Remembering to photograph my endeavours is apparently something to go on the 2017 list LOL.

Speaking of the kitchen, a long-standing project was *finally* finished and put in place. This wonderful retro kitchen dresser was a lucky find indeed. All-brown upon discovery, I repainted it to suit and am thrilled with the result. It came from a local deceased estate, where it was originally a room divider. The flatter end you see was attached to a wall; when the original kitchen was renovated in the 1980s it was removed but kept as a freestanding unit...how lucky am I ?

Now, to fill it up....

Instagram has become more familiar for me this year, I'm loving their upgrades and am slowly building a following.

Some say that you should stick to a narrow niche when posting on social media. I made a conscious decision to reject that notion and post what I actually *want* to post, and I'm much less stressed as a result. Feel free to follow my mish-mash of pics over there, I'm @kittys_vk).

The website I started two years ago has now closed. I found it too difficult to manage in addition to the WAC shop, doing fairs, etsy and ebay, so I've streamlined the way I do things, closing the website and the etsy shops and putting everything on ebay. It's taken a lot of work, but I now have two ebay stores (one for jewellery, one for everything else) with nearly 1000 items listed, and hope to increase that in 2017.

Here are the links for ebay in case you'd like to take a peek. I have sales on ebay regularly so perhaps you'd like to add me to your favourite sellers to find out when my sales are on.

http://stores.ebay.com.au/Kittys-Vintage-Kitsch?_rdc=1

http://stores.ebay.com.au/BuzzyBoo-Baubles?_rdc=1


A couple of new side projects, including Youtube, came along in 2016. A channel has been started (see pic above), but there's a big backlog of footage yet to edit & upload, so I won't go into talking about that just yet.

Meet the newest member of the family, Koh Koh! This lovely 11 year old girl came into our lives in September and she's such a joy to have around. Immaculately trained, quiet, and with the softest coat
imaginable...well let's just say I'm now a British Shorthair cat convert! VB loves her to death, and although Koh Koh doesn't always return the affection, I do feel that a gentle pet is of benefit to her on so many levels.

Here's hoping 2017 is a great one for us all. Remember to be kind to yourself, be green and buy vintage, and love the ones you love. If 2016 has taught us anything, it's that anyone can pass at any time, so don't take anyone or anything for granted- live it large all the time!