Following the last post about how we quite liked Bittern Market, here are some of the vinyl record treasure we bought for less than $2 each!

The other week we headed down the peninsula, south of Melbourne to such a beautiful part of Victoria.

We veered east to Bittern, for the first time, and discovered it’s Sunday market and what a treat! A good old fashioned local market under the shade of Australian natives. We sifted through car parts, budgies in cages and scary used LaLaLoopsy dolls and found a few treasure to make it worth our while! I think we’ll be back to Bittern.

What we actually lucked on was a treasure trove of cheap vinyl records. I’ll share some of the classics with you in tomorrow’s post…

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The best part about Empirical Style for me is the road trips! There is always an excuse to get in the kombi and get on the road to source new products and have a family adventure. This week we went to Bendigo which is about 1.5hrs out of Melbourne. I shot this little movie on iPhone using the 8mm app for the vintage and very forgiving effects! The beautiful song on the film is The Swimming Song by Loudon Wainwright III. We however mainly cranked up Mondo Rock on this trip!!

We headed north to purchase some maps, visit an estate auction and pick up an ebay purchase. Steve hadn’t been to Bendigo before so managed to see every op shop and vintage store possible! If you want to do a similar trip here’s what we recommend:

• Bendigo Pottery. A working pottery the back section holds a large room of vintage wares and collectables.
• El Gordo, Chancery Lane. I love that we manage to find the coolest most delicious coffee in a new town. Set in a very Melboure-esq lane way.
• Bendigo Estate Auctions. On once a month I’m sure this would be significantly cheaper than the city. we had a browse but didn’t stay the night for the sale.
• View Street, Bendigo. This is where all the vintage stores are.
• Bendigo Wholefoods. I love to finding a wonderful health food co-op in a new town filled to the brim with the local produce.

Sometimes the most beautiful vintage items are so close! This was the case when our neighbours cleaned out their shed next door to us. Steve spied these beautiful kids scooters in their throw out pile!

I was in East Bentleigh this week dropping off some lighting for the Uni Park Cafes owner Ricardo. While in the area I always make sure to pop into the Salvation Army op shop opposite Woolworths. I did super well coming away with five vintage toddler dresses at $5 each!

It’s been a while since the last blog entry as we were considering what we wanted to share with you. So as a start we’d thought we’d let you in on what we do best- weekend markets in Melbourne! We’ve been in this city just over a year now and literally sought out the best and the down right poor markets of this trash and treasure trove of a city.

It seems every time we plan a trip down the peninsula it inevitably rains for us! So we were very excited to discover the Cheltenham Rotary Market in an undercover carpark and rain free!! Below we have rated it according to Empirical Style standards: 1. Steve: bargains in vintage wares. Helena: local organic produce. Odessa: toy fun factor.

What we bought:

Vintage picnic basket $5

3x Succulent hanging pot plants $30

A bag of figs and 2x huge zucchinis $6

Homemade sausage rolls $4

Retro stool $5

80′s Ayres Rock key ring $1

Copper piggy jello mould 50c