McMagic

What’s the strangest and most apparently useless thing you’ve ever bought at an op shop.. or any shop? I’m willing to bet it’s not a sporran, although that would be my entry if there were ever a competition for ‘bizarre objects purchased at op shops’ (which I’m going to go out on a limb and say would be a more interesting competition than, say, the World Cup…)
I got this about two years ago, although I didn’t have a purpose for it in mind at the time. But the thing is, you never know when you will need a sporran. And how often have you seen them at op shops? Never, right? It was a bit pricey (like about $20) but as my sister was with me she offered to get it for me as a birthday present. Two birds killed with one stone – she didn’t have to agonise over my birthday present and I didn’t have to agonise about forking out $20 for an item for which I had no immediate use. Isn’t it great when synchronicity actually works (or more to the point, when sisters happen to be shopping with you and you can convince them you love something so much that they should get it for you)? I only got it back from my sister recently as I’d lent it to her for her to photograph with the creatures that she makes out of used socks (yes, thrifty creativity runs in my family), so I’d actually sort of forgotten about it. (I know, I know, how could I forget that I own a SPORRAN?)

Anyway after this two-year break my brain finally hit on what I wanted to do with it. Originally I’d planned to make earrings out of it but having dark hair anyway they wouldn’t have really stood out as it was the tasselly bits that I was planning on using, not the main patchy bit with white hair. Plus they’re a little bit heavy to use as earrings. So instead I took the tassels off (using pliers and being careful not to catch tetanus as they were attached with rusty metal rings) and dug out some leather thonging that I bought about 15 years ago when it was cool to wear pendants on leather thonging (ie the 90s). A few knots later, I had a brand new necklace that (like most of my stuff) people will either love or run shrieking from making the “vax for life and death” sign*.
I probably wouldn’t wear it with this top (which was $1 from previously mentioned Wantirna Trash and Treasure and part of the outfit that had my friends concerned for my sartorial state recently) but lots of my other tops are dark and the tassels wouldn’t have shown up in photos. And then you wouldn’t have been able to see them. Aren’t I lovely to you?

*the vax sign is used to ward off girl/boy germs… something akin to ‘cooties’ in US-speak I think.

Category : crazy competitive streak, op shop, sporran, tassels