Gizmo and other oddities

This is really just a short post on op shopping...which I love...and which has all kinds of unexpected surprises...and among the most unexpected and surprising are those strange coincidences that can occur.

For example...a few months ago I posted about the huge Halle für Alle charity shops I came across in Vienna when I was visiting relatives...the old handmade doily below was one of my (many) favorite finds:


Not long ago I drove down the coast and came across an almost identical twin...or at least a very close relative...in a little op shop in a little country town:


Now all this "twin business" is getting a bit much so I won't labour the point...but they do look very alike, don't they...well that's my first coincidence...then, just the other day my neighbour gave me this book called "Paris: Made by Hand"...voila:


...and in the book was a photo of this odd mechanical-looking little Parisian fellow with black boots and a lot of personality...


anyway...I had come across one of these fellows a few weeks before at an op shop in a little church only 5 minutes away from my home...mine has red boots...he doesn't walk far but he can still take quite a few steps...


I call him Gizmo.