About Our Vintage Shop
Who is Grumpy Betty?
Established in January, 2020, Grumpy Betty is the product of two school-Mum friends, who turned 50 (we are 3 days apart in age!) and realised it was time to live our dreams and back ourselves.
With the determination to enjoy the rest of our working lives, to be in control of our destinies and to embrace our passions, in February 2020, we took a road trip to Canberra to visit Elizabeth’s parents, Pam and Stan Sparrow.
We spent an amazing time with Pam and Stan going through their life-times collection of beautiful items and returned to Caulfield with a trailer load and the beginnings of or first collection – Autumn 2021 – Australian Classic Country: The Pam and Stan Sparrow Collection. A shop was born!
Strong Design Aesthetic:
The Grumpy Betty approach to styling our own spaces is to embrace the items we fall in love with and to procure them in a manner that meets our value of having a positive impact on our community. We aim to keep our special items for a long time. During their time with us, they may find themselves in many different places in our space, and when we no longer can find a place that works, we make them available for a new life with someone else.
Positive impact on our Community – local and global.
We are also dedicated to reducing our carbon footprint and the impact our lives have on our precious planet.
The third element of Community is the not-for-profit sector and the many organisations that work tirelessly to directly improve the lives of people in our local and global communities. Grumpy Betty will work with organisations to assist their work, be it by fund raising or awareness campaigns.
Elizabeth Sparrow
B.Des. Int. Des.
Elizabeth is a qualified Interior designer with a passion for beautiful items, particularly retro, vintage and antique. She has been a bower bird shopper– collecting from op shops, markets, on-line and friends and family- all her adult life.
Experienced as a Freelance Interior Designer has worked in Design, Sales, retail, and Account Managing B2B.
Kara Lowe
Ba App Sci (Med. Rad), MBA, MMG
Kara is a marketing professional with a love for beautiful spaces and items with meaning. She began her working life in Public Health and has accumulated sales and marketing experience in both large multinational and national corporations and small national homewares wholesale businesses.
Read Our Story
The end of 2022 and what is happening in 2023.
As we close out our first full year of being open - HURRAY - we find ourselves reviewing the world of Grumpy Betty and contemplating what the next twelve months should look like. Many of you will know that Elizabeth, aka, Grumpy Betty, is off pursuing a fabulous...
Our first 6-week Furniture Makeover Course – the results!
It’s a wrap – our first 6-week Furniture Makeover Course has wrapped up and its been fabulous. We had three students, who are all now inspired furniture makeover artists. In the first 2 weeks we did what we cover in our Introduction Workshop, but with more time and...
This Father’s Day, give Dad a gift he’ll treasure forever.
THE FATHER TYPES: Father’s Day in Australia this year is Sunday 4th September. We prefer to call it ‘Blokes Day’, as not all of us have fathers, but most of us have at least one or two cracking blokes in our life who are worth celebrating! These blokes come in all...
