Flea Market Finds

I found this little beauty this morning at the Dayleford Sunday Market.

A sweet 1960's folding dolls highchair, in near perfect condition. I've not seen one of these before, and it was a mere $10-! It will make a great display for my dolls at the market and I'm sure Charlie will enjoy it in the interim.

I also found a few tins and doilies to add to the wedding collection. I'm going to use the tins as flower receptacles on the tables. The outback tin was free and the other two were $2-. I then walked on and saw the bird tin in a different colour at another stall for $35-! I love it when that happens!

You check out more flea market finds here :)

Pretty Patterns

I'm so loving these! They are hand painted patterns on the covers of some vintage Readers Digests I got from the Yandoit Primary School Garage Sale months ago. I think I got them all for 50c!

Aren't they divine? Don't you wish books looked like this these days?

Could this be my best vintage find ever?

I am so in love with this gorgeous dress! I found it at the Daylesford Bazaar and it think it could possibly be the best vintage thing I've ever uncovered- simply because it's so perfect in every way. For a start, its Italian. Then it's fully lined wool. The colour is just perfect.

It has the most adorable details; the ric rac, the fabric covered buttons, the pleats...

and best of all, the peter pan collar. I love the peter pan collar! I wish all of my frocks had a peter pan collar. Seriously. Every single one!
Unfortunately this one is a size 7, so it won't fit me but I have 6 years of adoring its beautiful simplicity until miss Charlie can wear it.

Little shop of...

From Camberwell Market on the weekend I also got this lovely wee owl brooch. It's made from plywood and I love it 'cause it reminds me of the owl from Meg & Mog. I loved those books as a kid and I'm still loving them as an adult reading them to my kids.

It's made by the very talented Bec Albinson, and she has opened a real life shop in Melbourne at 8 Woorayl St Carnegie called Little Shop of Handmade. It's filled with treasures from lots of different melbourne designers. Or you can see her stuff online here. Beautiful little things at very reasonable prices!

The latest addition to the family...

I've been busy little bee... sewing and crafting like mad to get ready for the Made in Thornbury Market. Not mention looking after kidlets and generally trying to enjoy life.

I often feel frustrated at how limited my time is these days... there are so many things I want to do and often I want to post about about the millions of ideas I have and the projects I'm working on but it's usually more important to actually work on the projects than blog about them! I wish I had more time to post more often... I really do. Perhaps this week I will make more of an effort!

Anyhoo, the past weekend was devoted doll making... and though I had the entire day Saturday and grand plans of making 5 dolls, I finished up with one complete doll.

Her name is Madeline (SOLD). You can see more about her here if you like.

I also slipped in a visit to Camberwell market on Sunday. I acquired this gorgeous vintage fabric child's nursery rhyme book which I'm going to make into either little bags or t-shirts. I LOVE Camberwell!

My new bike...

Oh how I have longed and pined and wished for a beautiful vintage bike for what seems like eons. I have been following this gorgeous Californian vintage bike blog, Riding Pretty and it certainly did nothing to diminish this desperate longing. I harped on endlessly about how I didn't have a bike... I needed a bike!

So a while back Adam found this one...


in a clients back yard and was going to restore it for me. Months later however I looked around at the many and varied unfinished or yet to be begun restoration projects and came to the sad conclusion that it would probably never happen.

So took the matter into my own hands and consulted the great purchasing oracle that is Ebay. There I found my beautiful new bike at an absolute bargain price... here she is...


I'm so in love. She is from The Indian Bicycle Shop in St Kilda and was only ridden a handful of times by her previous owner. She is so comfortable and cruisy.... a total state of mind, just like my car, the Volkwagen Caravelle Van (the modern woman's Kombi)!


I would love to get her some of these gorgeous panniers from London's CycleChic, but I will have to put a kiddie seat on the back for wee Charlie. So I will stick with a standard wicker front basket.

All that's left then is to give her a name and bring on spring baby wee are off and cruisin' in the sunshine.... yeeeha!

I'm a winner, really I am!

I was one of the lucky winners of Amy over at Badskirt's 500th post competition and I received my fabulous little package of lovely fabric scraps in the post today. Lucky me! Thank you Amy. I'm about to start on a whole bunch of new dolls so I think I shall use some of the fabrics in those and some to make Charlie a hat for summer. I can finally use the pattern I got from the Stitches and Craft Show.


I also got these cute 70's snap cards from the op-shop today. They are just crying out for a cute little craft project. I just love the little bird card. I also got some fabulous blue suede shoes and cute polka dot frock perfect for summer bike riding and wine sipping. Top it off with a lovely lunch with friends and kidlets and it was a fantastic day. Hope yours was too!

A vintage button treasure trove!

I've been a busy little bee sorting and cleaning and organising buttons. I'm almost finished one box, just another 31 to go! God am I crazy?

Here are few of my favourites so far. They are all colours of the rainbow and remind me of looking through the glass of the dairy lollie counter as a kid, trying to decide how best to spend my 50c pocket money.

They are bright and yummy and they make feel really happy! I'm so excited thinking about all the fantastic things they are going to be made into. Rescued from a backyard in Frankston and given a new life! Oh yay!

From Despair to Euphoria: Tale of (30) thousand buttons.

I've had no laptop for over a week!!! Oh my god I felt like I was missing a limb, a really important constantly used limb. I can't describe the feeling of despair I encountered when the spotty girl at the mac service center told me it would take a week to order a new part for my power cable. Yes that's right, power cable. It took a week, to fix a power cable! Why not just replace it?? Honestly how ridiculous!

Anyway that feeling of utter devastation was soon replaced with euphoric joyousness (is that even a word?) as I filled my van up with 32 boxes full of vintage buttons I had just purchased. I have 32 of these babies!!! Oh my god they are AMAZING! I've since spent hours going through them all....wow look at these ones, oh god look at those ones!

They are all still in the original tubes from the shop and there are so many I had to take over the next door neighbours shed. People who don't know me that well might be thinking I'm mad! So I plan to spread the love and sell some of them once I have sorted through them all so stay tuned for market details!

Words and Pictures :: Souvenirs

My cheesy Queensland souvenir. Not from Queensland as you might think, but an op shop in Lilydale (dodgy outer Melbourne suburb).

words and pictures is hosted by Pip

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?

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 :)