Busy bee getting ready for the Hunt!!

I've been busy this week getting organised for the upcoming Great Down Under Nappy Hunt, which starts tomorrow, 1st September. I'm one of the sponsors of the hunt and have provided the library bag shown below as a prize which is in the Grand Prize #1 draw.

The hunt is a great opportunity to win some fabulous prizes, not only cloth nappies but other things like bags ala Silly Gilly, shoes, toys, children's clothing, all delicious!! Click on the button below and you'll be able to find out all about registering for the hunt. The general gist is that you hunt through a list of online stores looking for a particular icon at each store. As you wind your way through the list, you also get to see some amazing stores and products along the way.

I've also been sewing up a storm to get my Silly Gilly store full of lurvely things for the hunters to see. Have a look at these two new smocks I've popped on today. Rain Dance, a gorgeous print with little kids in kimonos. Also, Paper Doll Princess, a retro inspired print featuring paper dolls clothes that you might remember playing with.

A wonderful parcel arrived this week too, but I'm yet to take a photo, so that shall be tomorrows post. And my other goal for tomorrow is to show you a sneak peek of my completed Doll Quilt Swap that will be wending its way to a suburb near you (well actually only to someone who hasn't received one yet.... ). Love this secret squirrel business!

And if you've read this far, a little reward.... I've been sorting my vintage childrens sewing patterns and am getting ready for a giveaway next week!! Stay tuned!!

A silly photo to end the week

Here's my husband and daughter spending some quality father/daughter time this morning.

He's teaching her how to bottle up the home brew. She was fascinated!
At least he's teaching her how to be thrifty!!

Oh no, not more Little Golden Books...

Yep.

Found more today at a garage sale. 35 more to be exact. Today I actually decided, out loud, consciously, to aim for collecting the whole damn lot. Not that that was my intention previously, but now it is. Am I loony? Methinks.....

I have also been a busy bee this evening piecing together my Doll Quilt Swap 4 quilt. I found the pattern here. 12" square, it still needs lots of embellishing but apart from that, it's coming together nicely. I'm thinking of some red or pink stitching. Maybe buttons? Sorry for the low quality photo, that's late evening photography for you.


But there is one piece in the quilt that is bugging me completely now I've uploaded this photo... Can you guess which one? It's funny when you view something through a different medium, it gives you a fresh outlook. Looks like some unpicking is due tomorrow.

And I've finished a smock that's been waiting in the WIP pile for some time. It features a great retro print with little boys and girls playing pirates and finding treasure!
It's size 5 and available here in the Silly Gilly store.

Have a great Sunday everyone!!

Sunhats and Sausages

For some inspiration, lately I've been busily scouring my vintage sewing books. I've made this hat before and keep going back to it again and again as the brim is lovely and deep and the hat has such a happy feel.

It's a lovely cherry red colour, is adjustable at the back with some nice long ties and fits girls aged 3 - 5. I've popped it in the Silly Gilly store.

More op shopping yesterday revealed this sweet, sweet vintage childrens book about a sausage dog! Now I need your help, fellow bloggers. I know there is a great blog out there about a crafty gal and her sidekick sausage dog. Anyone know who it is? I just can't for the life of me find it amongst my terribly long list of bloggy bookmarks. I'd love to be able to send this book on to her....

The handing down of the patterns

Garage sales rock. They are a lovely new family tradition. Here's a great garage sale story from this weekend.

Find garage sale in progress in empty office building. Bit suspicious but venture inside. Find in back room a three box bonanza of vintage sewing patterns. Feel like I've just passed out and I'm hallucinating...

Bark quick instruction to husband to ask woman how much patterns are each. "50 cents each" is the report. Frenziedly make a 'must have' pile, a 'how cute' pile and a 'what were they thinking but quirkily cute' pile (I've gotten terribly efficient in weeding out the bad patterns).

Woman comes down, sees the slightly manic but ecstatic glint in my eye and we banter excitedly when she finds out I sew with vintage patterns for my daughter and she offers the lot to me for $2. Two Dollars!!!!!!!!! I feel quite light headed and thank her effusively. Leave with 30 vintage patterns dating from the 50's and 60's, mostly children and some ladies. Here's some of my favourites:


I have also started the hair cap for another Steiner doll. This one just a little influenced by a good friend of mine, the elusive Miss C. Don't you love the colour?? Seeing my knitting makes me giggle. I'm a very new knitter.


And if you are twoing and froing about whether to see The Dark Knight, just do it. It is AMAZING.

Happy crafting everyone and have a great week!!

My beautiful brown haired Steiner boy

I am honoured to introduce my newest and very sweet boy Steiner doll.

I've created him over the last month and have really bonded with him, as I've spent so many hours bringing him to life. He has fair skin with blue grey eyes, is 38cm/15" tall and is made from cotton fabric, then stuffed with wool fleece. His hand spun 100% wool hair is really thick and very tactile. Each strand of hair has been attached individually. Whenever anyone picks him up, they all run their hands through his hair! His little cord pants and grey blue gingham shirt are 100% cotton.

This doll is perfect for children from 2 years of age and upwards. He would be a great birthday or Christmas gift. You can find him at the Silly Gilly store!

Doll Quilt Swap #4

I've received my lovely package from my Doll Quilt Swap #4 from very kind Toni Duke, all the way over in Miles City, USA.

She's done a lovely job and really put a lot of effort into it. Thanks Toni!! Toni also included some handmade postcards and other little goodies, but my daughter has already distributed them across the house so I haven't gotten a picture of those. My daughter loves the quilt and is often borrowing it for her dolls.

Now I just have to hunker down and finish my quilt that I need to send off. Hopefully the recipient will like it!

On other news, I had a fantastic day today at the Future Families Fun Day. Quite a lot of people attended today and I got to meet some lovely women and their children. There was an opportunity for the children to do some dancing with beautiful music and there was quite a variety of stalls. A massage therapist who specializes in helping new parents bond with their newborn, a naturopath, a Tri-Nature consultant,and the Australian Breastfeeding Association, amongst others.

And I have an order to make two Steiner dolls for a lovely mother to give to her children at the birth of her third child. What a lovely thoughtful gesture of this mother, to think of giving her two elder children a special gift upon the arrival of their new sibling. I'm really looking forward to creating more Steiner dolls. Tomorrow I shall post a pic of the new boy who is now finished and looking for a new home!

Back to Crafty Land!

I'm managing to crawl my way back to crafty land after being completely submersed in web page designing. The new Silly Gilly site is by no way complete, but it's getting there!
Desperate plea to follow: If anyone knows how to make my site work in Internet Explorer, then I will be forever indebted to you!! Email me and save me if you can!
All fixed now thanks to one character little error. Can you believe it??!! Just one little character and it mucked up the whole page.....

On the crafty front, I have been enjoying finishing off my latest Steiner boy doll. I've had the wonderful experience of knitting his hair with some delicious yarn (see photo below) and have chosen the fabric for his outfit.

A month has absolutely raced by and this Friday is another Future Families Fun Day. I'm off to sell my wares and hopefully meet some more lovely people like I did last month.

And, last but not least, I have signed up for my first Block of the Month quilt by Janelle Wind. I bought the pattern from the lovely Sarah at Quilt Fabric Delights. I can't wait to get started on it. There is a lot of embroidery in this pattern so I will be building skills as I go! I'm not that familiar with embroidery but I have a very skilled MIL to help! Hi Robyn!

My brain is boggling!

I'm teaching myself HTML.

I'm teaching myself CSS.

My head was going round and round until I found the mother-lode of all things - CSS web page template generators.

How geeky does that sound!!!!??? I think I majorly qualify as a computer nerd, with me sitting here at 11.30pm on a Saturday night, learning about HTML and CSS.

All in the name of saving a few $$ by writing my own new website template.... LOL....

Someone give me a life!

Just to lighten this completely nerdy, geeky, brain boggling post, here's a picture from today's happiness in the backyard. Girls, mud, tutus. Of course they all go together!

Stuff is good.

I like stuff. Most people do. But stuff you win is even nicer!

So skedaddle your way on over to Mary Ann's indie-pendence: July Swag-a-Licious to be in the running for $100 of fantabulous goodies. At this stage though it's for US residents only. Thought I'd just pop that in before all you kangaroo riders get too excited.

The reason I mention this is that I've contributed a library bag for the swag. So bag a swag, don't nag, just sag down in your beanbag, chew on a snag, and shoot off a comment to Mary Ann's mailbag!

Oh, that was soooo bag.. oops I mean bad.......