I feel so happy but a smidge guilty

My sister in law told me of a book shed that's in the hills near here. It's a little like a book op shop where people donate their books and others, like me, then buy them. If you look at my purchase like this
it looks like I went crazy and bought two thirds of the Little Golden Books there (which I did, well 35 of them anyway). And all for the unheard of prices of 20 cents and 30 cents. That's the guilty bit for some reason...

But then if you look at them like this

you might say, oooh, ahhh, what choices you've made, what treasures you've found! That's the happy bit! This is a little selection of what I found today. My particular favourites in this shot are 'Happy Birthday' - love the illustrations, and 'The Twins' - that one reminds me of the Stepford Wives for some reason...... Now off to catalogue them!

And the winner is.....

Curly Pops!!!

Yay, whoo hoo, yipee!!! Congratulations Curly Pops on being the next proud owner of the Toddler's Jumper and Bell-Bottomed Pants vintage pattern. I will pop it in the mail tomorrow for you. We will all be looking forward to photos of the resultant cute kiddy clothing!

And to leave you with a little feel good photo before I retire for the evening.... I'm not one of those mums who keeps their kids in their good clothes every day. Let's just say, I let my daughter fully experience our non-landscaped backyard. Ah, it's good to be a kid.

This is......

where I work. I love the amount of windows I have to bring all the sunshine into the room. Nice new bench custom built just for moi. Mmmmm, I think I'm in lurve with this bench. And yes, I'm running out of space for my fabric stash......

Thanks to One Red Robin for motivating me to do this!

Bell Bottom Beauty

We visited the Botanic Gardens yesterday and whilst waiting for a friend, we frolicked in the fallen leaves. I'm enjoying the really simple things lately, like giggling like a gerty with my daughter whilst we kick leaves around. Doesn't take much to make us happy. :D
I made my daughter's swing top and bell bottom pants that she is wearing in the photos above. The pants were super easy to make and the top took only a little longer. Now that we have a cute outfit for her to wear, I would love to pass on the vintage sewing lurv and give away the pattern that I used, featured below...

It's a size 2, and is officially called Toddlers' Jumper and Bell-Bottomed Pants. It's vintage 1974 and has all patterns pieces and instructions included. If you would like to be the next owner of this pattern, simply leave a comment and I will announce the lucky person next Tuesday evening.

Doll Quilt Swap #4

It's official, I'm in!! I've joined my first ever internet blog swap of any kind, The Doll Quilt Swap #4. And I'm up for making a doll sized quilt and sending it off to a person I've never met! Kind of a whacky idea, if you put it that way but if you think about it, it reminds me of the days when people had pen pals and you corresponded without even having met the person. Well, I feel this is the same but you also get to lovingly craft a small sized quilt based on things they like. Aww, shucks, that was a warm and fuzzy moment!

So I thought it would be good to post some details about my likes and dislikes, as there apparently is a person out there who might be interested..... here goes!

Current favourite things/obsessions.....

• Vintage style circa 1950's and early 1960's
• Kitchenalia
• Steiner and Waldorf dolls
• Aprons
• Michael Miller and Alexander Henry children's print fabrics
• Cath Kidston prints
• Raspberry spiked chocolate brownies (just thought I'd throw that one in, don't know how it relates to quilting... LOL) and Pepsi Max
  
• Sunshine
• Little Golden Books, the older the better
• Rand McNally Junior Elf Books
• Cotton fabric is my favourite material in the entire world; and
  
• Op shopping and garage sale hunting where I search for vintage aprons, Little Golden Books, vintage embroidered pillow cases and vintage patterns
  

I guess that is a good round up of my current interests and passions. I'm a fair newcomer to Flickr and blogging so I've been madly adding favourite photos of other people to my faves in Flickr. I'll post again with some more ideas. And here's a little list of the things I really don't like:

• Orange, the colour nor the artificial flavour
• Cartoony prints and things
• CLOWNS
• Cutesy, modern Disney, commercial style advertising aimed at young kiddies
• Wasting anything that could be reused/recycled/reloved

That's enough about me, me, me!! I'll leave you with a photo of my favourite four legged person, Ella.

The Happy Swappers

I like to think of myself as a fairly easy to get to know kind of gal. The kind of gal that is very willing to help out another happy gal.

So of course, and definitely no personal gain interest of any kind involved here (ahem), I've started a flickr group called The Happy Swappers.


It's a group where I envisage that people post photos in the photo stream of the swap cards they wish to swap. They leave the photo there until a) someone contacts them saying they would like to swap with them or b) they see some cards they would like to obtain posted in the photo stream. Once they have agreed to swap with the other person, they remove their photo from the photo stream. Clear as mud? Any suggestions? Please contact me if you have any ideas as to how to make this new group more streamlined.

Thanks to Liz who put the first word out there that she had cards she wanted to swap. Let's hope it builds to something nice. :D

Bear with me on this group as it's just in it's infancy and I'm working it out as I go along. Sounds like life a little, don't you think?

Good things come in great big boxes!

Ahh, the deliciousness of a big whopping parcel arriving all the way from the US. I'm a self confessed fabriholic and am a very proud owner of some new arrivals....

Some beautiful Michael Miller and Robert Kaufman fabric, those two are amongst my favourite fabric designers. And the piece de resistance, a few boxes of divine Moda Learn to Sew Lace-Up Cards for the kiddies. I'll post more about these sweet vintage inspired treasures tomorrow. They will be up for grabs in my store soon....

And another thing I'm really getting into lately is making half aprons for girls in vintage fabrics using vintage patterns. I've found some lovely 50's fabric at the op shops lately and have already popped two up on my site. More to come next week.

I'm being talked about in the US of A!!

Lucky me has been written about by the lovely linguist Mary Ann on her blog indie-pendence.
She's written a low down on my website Silly Gilly and posted some photos of my hats, smocks and bags. Mary Ann also runs a Swag-a-Licious each month, with giveaways from wonderful indie designers and craftspeople. Leave a comment and maybe you could be a winner!

Mary Ann's other blog is also quite the read, and one of my favourite days is Wordy Wednesday. She challenges the brain cells by asking for meanings for some loopy words.

And of course, the winner of the three boys vintage patterns is...........

bit of a Dave Groll drum roll here......................


Cathy!! Whoo hoo Cathy! Congratulations on winning this bundle of vintagey gorgeousness. Please email me with your postal address and I'll pop them in the mail for you pronto.

More photos and updates on some new creations for my Silly Gilly store tomorrow. My camera is out of batteries so I will leave you with a photo of my little jet setter on the phone at Melbourne Airport last year....

I'll show you mine if you show me yours...

Ah the fun of swap cards!!

The very lovely Liz from Lino Forest originally posted about her desire to exchange swap cards here and I took her up on the deal. Next, we flashed the cards we were willing to swap via email. How's that - virtual swap carding!!

So lookie here at what arrived yesterday for me!!


My faves are the barber shop singers and the 1800's girls and the rooster and.... you get the picture! Liz has put it out there that we are looking for more swappers, card swappers that is (!), so if you are keen then flick either of us an email with a picture of your cards and we will either swap with you or match you up with someone!!

Blatant 'Read My Blog' First Giveaway!!

Ok folks, so how am I going to get you kids to read my blog and come back for more vintagey, op shoppy, Silly Gilly goodness? Give you some free stuff of course!

In my latest rampaging op shop expedition, I came across some scrumptious boys vintage sewing patterns. In my travels, when I find vintage patterns, they are most always girls patterns. Well, lucky readers, I found three great boys outfits that I have no use for myself, but would love another vintage pattern lover to enjoy.

First up we have Style pattern for three boys jackets, size 4, dated 1969.

Second, we have McCalls pattern for Boys' Proportioned Pants, size 6, dated 1962. (This is a cracker as the three proportions include 'Husky' LOL. 'Why yes sir my son is husky'... LOL

Thirdly, we have Simplicity pattern for Boys' Shirt & Pants in two lengths, size 4, date unsure possibly pre 1965?

All patterns have their instructions and a little wear and tear to the packaging given their ages. Make the little man in your life look squeaky clean in retro fashion!!

If you would like to be the grand winner for this pack, please leave a comment below. Tell your friends too! The winner will be drawn by random name selector, aka my kidlet, on the eve of Tuesday 10th June. Good luck and happy sewing!!

Bundle of books

Another couple of days of op-shopping under my belt. My daughter now asks, when told that we are going shopping, 'To the op-shop Mummy?' with a hopeful tone... Am I starting her too early? I think not. Nothing like being a thrifty two year old.

So I thought I might update with my recent finds.... I think I have a new collection growing, aside from the Little Golden Book obsession collection. Fifties and sixties children's books with their gorgeous illustrations and sometimes scary and not entirely little kid appropriate messages.

I quite like the book titled Ginger the Foundling... do you know of anyone that uses the word foundling anymore? Of course I had to look it up in a dictionary - foundling: A deserted or abandoned infant; a child found without a parent or caretaker. The book had more full colour illustrations inside and curiously not one paragraph indent....

The Lazy Fox and Red Hen (1958) is a great parable, advising in a roundabout way that it's always handy to have scissors and thread in your pocket. Now there's a safety tip if ever I read one...

And of course there was a couple of cracker Little Golden Book finds, including Jerry at School (1972). Makes me think of Jerry Seinfeld!

A Little Flickr Game....

My creation
Originally uploaded by gidgetstarbaby

I had fun doing this...... a bit of a twist on doing the usual 'answer these questions in ten seconds or else your right foot will drop off' type of quiz.... I found the link here

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.


My answers
1. Gillian
2. chocolate
3. Frankston High
4. hot pink
5. Johnny Depp
6. champange
7. Ireland
8. caramel anything
9. happy
10. Nevada
11. quirky
12. Gidgetstarbaby