Eloise and I made cookies this morning. She doesn’t get many foodie treats because of the dairy thing. I feared these gingerbread cookies may be a bit too spicy, but no, sure enough she comes toddling over and drags me into the kitchen asking for ‘more star peaaseee, more star’. (this also explains why only one star made its way into the photo above!)

Cooking doesn’t come naturally to me, actually I’m not very good at it at all. So when I had to improvise and use a wine bottle as a rolling pin I freaked out a little. I think I also overcooked them a bit….but hey…my little customer isn’t complaining….although she did call my gingerbread man a bear!

It’s cloudy and bleak outside, actually it’s so dark I have had to put the light on even though it’s daytime. The leaves have long fallen from the trees and the air smells like open fires (ooo I wish we had one of these!). Rohan has rugged Eloise up and taken her down to the park and I am sitting back all toasty and warm with a coffee, and going through some of my latest treasures. Wow…there are lots…a lot more than I had thought…oh dear…I think I have another problem!

I have always loved op-shopping but lately my addiction has leapt to new heights as I find myself wandering into my local thrift store with alarming frequency. The sign does say ‘1000’s of new items arriving daily’ and indeed it’s true! It’s like a different shop every day so the temptation is huge! Too rainy to go to the park? Too ‘can’t be bothered’ to sit in a cafe trying to keep Eloise still long enough for me to finish a coffee? Well lets go spend an hour in Savers playing peek-a-boo up and down the aisles and maybe a treasure will jump out at me while we’re at it!

I can’t walk past a good looking tin if I see one! The colours, the illustration and the size of the old Sunkist Ice Cream tin above make it perfect for display and for storage. Left is another gorgeous tin. Yes it’s battered and weathered, but for me that adds to it’s charm.

I also found these two small plates (for 99c a piece!). They’re designed by Kathie Winkle for Broadhurst. The top one is from the series called ‘October’ and the bottom one is called ‘Olympus’. I am not sure what I’m going to do with them yet….but there was something about the graphic hand painted looking leafy patterns that I could not resist.

I don’t often find fabric in good usable sizes, but these two pieces below are huge! I have also come across a lot of vintage buttons lately. This is just a random handful. The ice cream tin above is full to the brim of vintage buttons to sort through.

More show and tell to come. The family is home from the park, new ‘pet rock’ and all!

After thoroughly enjoying Nichola’s last postcard swap I jumped at the chance to join in again. What I hadn’t bargained for was the busiest working month since Eloise was born. Working from home of course has pros and cons as it’s nice to have the extra cash, but horrible horrible HORRIBLE to have no time for myself! With a toddler ruling the roost, working from home really translates to working nights and weekends and I am exhausted! (hopefully this also explains the low level of activity around here). In ten days time I’ll get a breather and a chance to get stuck into some of my own projects and a couple of swaps. I cannot wait! (yes yes yes Sabine I would love to swap!)

Thirteen of these cards are now ‘winging’ their way around the globe! If the last swap was a struggle with glue…this one was a debacle with scissors! Apologies if my ‘cutting out’ is a bit tragic. I blame the fact that I’ve misplaced my ‘good’ scissors and that I was sitting in really bad light, really really late at night (ie. early morning). Maybe they have a more homemade handcrafted look because of it? Hopefully not just bad execution! I used this photo {click here} of a six year old girl taken on June 22nd 1898…108years ago almost to the day. Other ingredients: a mix of vintage and reproduction papers, buttons, eyelets and some 3D foam tape.

Embarrassingly I still haven’t done a ‘public thank you’ for the swap in May. Thanks again to all the lovely and talented girls whose work I was lucky enough to receive, they’ve been on display since the day they were delivered. I love looking at them all together! So inspiring and all so different. Click to view: nikki-shell {postcard:blog}, pyglet whispers {postcard:blog}, Cheeky Beaks {postcard:blog}, Buzzing Bee {postcard:blog}, Kitty Baroque {postcard:blog}, 6.5st {postcard:blog}, Red Instead {postcard:blog}. You can also see more —->here!

Has the birth of my daughter made me super sentimental? Am I trying to relive my childhood? I’ve always had a tiny collection going, but lately it’s been a Holly Hobbie thrift store bonanza. (I’m talking original Holly Hobbie, not the revamped modern Holly Hobbie they’ve just introduced posing in the form of Holly’s Great Grand-daughter.) Maybe a bunch of thirty-somethings are tossing nostalgia out the window and having a big cleanup (lucky me!)!?

My first introduction to Holly Hobbie was when I was three. I ran through the dining room and a small Holly Hobbie porcelain egg that I had been given as a first Easter gift from my Nanna and Papa fell from the hutch and chipped. My parents weren’t strict, but to this day I still remember being told not to run in the house after that incident. The egg still sits on my desk as a warm reminder of my childhood and the first house we lived in.

I have seen a few Holly Hobbie references out in blogland recently, so it’s nice to see I am not alone and that Holly Hobbie holds a special place in many a seventies child’s heart.

Amy at Inspireco talks of a Holly Hobbiesque miniature garden {here}. Oh to have had a Holly Hobbie magazine!!! (Holly Hobbie aside, you really should take a peek at Amy’s beautiful and inspiring blog. *sigh* it is all so so pretty!)

I have a few Holly Hobbie thrifted sheet sets that I am saving for some bags, patches and other sewing adventures with Eloise in mind (that’s a pillow slip behind the doll in the photo above). I recently came across some lovely totes over at Noodles and Doodles that have combined similar fabric with bright girly colours. She’s done a gorgeous job. Very inspiring!

And for some other thrifty Holly Hobbie finds, over at Colorfool she found some Holly Hobbie buttons (check out all the other lovely buttons too!) and at Bella Dia a 1977 tea towel!

There’s so much out there and I’m finding at least a piece a week….so I think I’ll have to get selective…something I have never been very good at!

Featured Gem 6
Real Photo Postcard

‘Little Bo-peep has a Very Tiny Sheep’

Date: 19th October 1907
People: Unidentified
Postcard Back: My Dear Boy Blue, Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and hope you will not be rushed with work tomorrow, with love from Bo-peep. Addressed to: Mr Boy Blue, 98 Hope Street Brunswick, Victoria.

Notes: One from my collection of fancy dress costume photographs. Young Bo-peeps costume is fabulously detailed but I think the thing I like most is the very small sheep. How absurdly out of scale!

I wonder if she was in costume for a reason. It may have just been a novelty photo…but she could have been off to a fancy dress ball or something equally exciting!

I think I am a bit of a stickybeak. I enjoy reading and collecting old letters, diaries and postcards. Not only is the language often beautiful or indicative of the era, but the handwriting is often elegant and is such a dying art form these days. Even on this simple postcard, the flourishes of the uppercase letters are just lovely. (especially the D and W)

Don’t you just love the message? I like the way she has underlined her ‘name’. I wonder if ‘Little Bo-peep’ and ‘Boy Blue’ ended up happily ever after? I love messages laced with romance and intrigue!