I know I said I hadn’t been to the op shop for ages.  And I hadn’t.  But being the  person that I sometimes am, just writing that down made me determined to prove the statement wrong.  And so I have in fact been to the op shop 3 times in the past week.

But I HAD to go …

1.  I needed new pants (trousers and jeans and the like – it seems winter may well be approaching now after all).

2.  I need images for collage.  And for copyright reasons I need to use magazines and publications that are over 25 years old.

I already had a whole lot of old knitting pattern books (quite possibly the funniest pictures of people posing ever taken).  To this I have now added a book of great landscapes of the world, some National Geographics, some cookbooks and then I found a copy of an old House and Garden Kitchen, Bathroom and Laundry special release.

I could happily spend many days of my life looking through these mags at op shops and thinking about how I could use them … but I am going to hold back now until I get to Anglesea op shop.  They have loads of old holiday house magazines and they are usually only 20 cents a pop. There’s bound to be some rippers …

In the interim, here are some of my collage ideas …

How insane is this photo of the chick with the steaming thingy?  I can just imagine her  steaming this waterfall.  Or, perhaps if I reversed her she could be blasting the clouds into this peaceful rural scene …

And then there are the photos below … it would be fun to swap the bone carving for a person.  Here are 2 options.  The girl in the hard hat already looks like the hat is squished down on her and might look nicely squeezed, fitted between the finger and thumb … but I do like the attitude of the girl in blue and I like the idea of her balancing a little precariously … And I like the lines in this one.

And what about this?  Kids playing in the city could look good.

I think collage and I might be friends – it certainly appeals to my sense of humour (although careful cutting has never been my strong suit – I blame my left handedness – so we’ll have to see).