Can someone PLEASE buy me this frock?

Ossie Clark blood orange crepe "Cuddly" evening gown

Or this one...

Christian Dior haute couture brown tulle evening gown

Or pretty much anything from Kerry Taylor Auctions
My lovely friend Pas has the awesome pleasure of living just down the road from this place and introduced me to the joy of scrolling through these AMAZING frocks.
She has the most incredible stuff... it just blows me away! Insert squeals of delight...
If you love vintage fashion, scroll through the upcoming or past auctions :)

Words and Pictures :: Tucked Up In Bed

My mum always used to say that bed was the best place to be.
In those days I was jumping out my bedroom window at night and getting up all sorts of mischief and I thought to myself, bed? The best place to be? Huh... I don't think so woman!
Now I'm not so sure she was completely crazy.
Well okay she was definitely crazy, but not entirely wrong about the whole bed thing. At least not when you have one of these to snuggle up to, especially in the wee hours of chilly winter darkness.
In these moments I tend to agree with her, tucked up in bed really is the best place to be.

Tucked Up In Bed is hosted by Pip

I finally finished this custom order baby sling today...
the bag took me a lot longer than I thought it would!

I love making slings for people because I know that pretty soon they will contain teeny tiny wee bubba's, snuggled up all warm and cosy next their mum or dad. Mmmm bliss!

A wonderful weekend of collecting...

We just had a wonderful weekend down on the Peninsula at Rye and of course hit some markets and op shops while were there. These are some of my fabulous finds! Firstly and most excitingly I met a couple who owned a haberdashery store from the 50's to the early 90's and they were selling off all the old stock.... oh my god, amazing!!!! I was heaven :) I got lots of random haberdashery items, all 50c each! And whole cards of vintage embroidered trims for $5- each! Apparently they have even more goodies at home and if I could get someone to lend me some money... I'd go down and buy the whole lot!
I also had the pleasure of meeting a wonderful elderly couple at the Tootgarook Market who were kind enough to invite me to their home and show me their incredible collections of ceramics, vintage toys, rock and roll memorabilia, bakelite radios and most importantly for me mixmasters! Oh my god it was absolute heaven for an antique and vintage lover like me. Their house was full from top to toe, front to back with wonderful old things.
I've always wanted a yellow mixmaster for my kitchen but they have always been way out of my price range. Now they had 30 mixmasters, all different colours and models and were kind enough to sell me this beauty for $80-. It even has the ceramic juicer attachment. I'm in love :)
And lastly a lovely crocheted tea cosy for my tea pot made by a lovely woman at the same market.
I recommend checking this market out, it's enormous and has everything. There is even a really great op-shop (the best on the peninsula I'm told) across the road.

What more could you want?

Holly's new home!

Stella and Suki, originally uploaded by cheekylittlemonsters.

This gorgeous little girl is Estelle and she's the proud new owner of my Holly Golightly Doll... the first doll I made!
Except now she's called Suki, which is I think is just perfect :)
I'm sure they are going to have lots and lots of fun together.... yay!

Fluffy Mail!

Expecting a package of yummy fabric I ordered from Duckcloth... I was delighted to find in my mail box a parcel of divine woolies for my wee Charlie. A beautiful raspberry pixie cap which fits her like a glove and a pair of perfect red mittens to keep her tiny fingers snug. So soft and SO cute! The pixie cap does up under her chin with a little button, so the little minx can't pull it off! Ha!

They were made by the lovely Hadley of She's Crafty over in New Zealand. She makes the most divine little things and if you are a knitter (unfortnately I'm a wannabe knitter...) she has fabulous patterns and is even putting out a book!

Thank you Hadley and thank you to my uncle Andy over in NZ who sent me $50 in the post for my birthday which Hadley kindly accepted as payment via snail mail :)

Pinnys, rompers, playsuits and jerkins

I recently aquired these amazing Enid Gilchrist pattern books from the 60's (or maybe late 50's?). I've been poring over them... I love it!! The language for example 'Tiny girls can look just as smart as big sister in a gay set of matadors', the cute kids and the nostalgia of it all. Bonnets and babies wearing rompers with nothing but a pair of gumboots!
I think I will start with the 'one piece pinny' and move on to the pleated sunfrock.
I've sticky-noted about 30 patterns for Adam to draw out for me on CAD and according to Enid I can make Charlie's entire wardrobe!
SO excited!!!!

Charlie's Great Grandma's Patchwork

It's gettin pretty cold here now, especially in our ice box of a home so I decided little Charlie needs a snuggly doona. She only spends the first part of the night in her cot, but I want to make sure she's toasty roasty.
I really wanted to use this hand stitched patchwork that my mother in law passed on to me for Charlie. It belonged to her great grandmother and middle name sake Evelyn. It's so beautiful...and hand stitched! It was too big for a cot, probably better for a single bed, So I used a very wide straight stitch to tack it to some fleece so I can un-stitch it later and back it properly. I filled with an old wool quilt I had that wanted to recycle and wa-la! Snug as a bug in a rug :)

Love Autumn!

Today on our morning 'put the baby to sleep' walk we decided to look for autumn things to make a nature collage. We talked a lot about the seasons and what happens as it get's colder I was so surprised by how much Escher knew about things like deciduous and non-deciduous trees!
So we collected lots of beautiful red, yellow and orange leaves, yellow wattle flowers, flowering gum nuts and a few green gum leaves and we drew a tree splodged on lots of glue and stuck it all on. It was so much fun! :)

Happy Mothers Day!

Love to all mama's new and practiced!
Here I am spending my day in bed... with a hangover after a beautiful wedding last night, breakfast in bed lovingly prepared my wonderful man, a beautiful Lea Stein brooch as a gift a few hours of rest and special mums day dinner (homemade pasta with a carbonara sauce and tarte tartin- my favourite meal :)... a perfect day!

Earlier I pictured a half finished doll.. and here she is whole & complete.
I've called her Ruby Rose, partly due to her gorgeous coloured wool felt hair and partly because a friend of our has recently had a beautiful baby girl of that name :)
She has a gorgeous NZ Merino wool scarf and boots and I used this amazing antique 20's trim I inherited for her belt. Will have to get a close up of that later. She looks kinda Scottish I think...

Thank you Thornbury!

We had a wonderful Day at the Thornbury Community Market :)
Thank you to everyone who came along and especially to all of you who gave our little friends a new home. It was great to meet some talented local crafters and so many lovely local people. We left the market feeling very happy to live where we do!
So the next Market will be in September and I will spend the cold winter months creating some wonderful new things so stay tuned :)
I will also be listing lots of new stuff on Made it over the coming week.