Vintage Children's books - love them!!

I love old Children's books and have a growing collection.
Everything 'vintage' is getting quite pricey in Australia and its obvious people have a yearning for things of yesteryear....
I love a good bargain so here are some cute books I found recently!
Ive also started a flickr set on Vintage Images where I will be adding some cute vintage illustrations from my books that I love so much!


I found this book 'I love Dolls' in the country town Orange for only 5cents!!!



Pussy's Doll - 1957


















This book, ' Escapade' by John S Goodall is only 20 years old but I love silhouette graphics
and the book has no words, only beautiful black and white images!


This image comes from a book called 'Curly Locks' and was published in 1912! Stunning
















A great blog for more vintage images is Prints Charming
and I recently found this website, Childrens Books online which has an extensive library section with amazing vintage images!!

Illustration Friday -Peace

Hey Peace Angel, throw a little peace dust our way!

I left this as is, I might try to colour her in tommorow.

Peace to all!

One More Sleep to Go!!!



Milk and biscuits for Santa and his crew.
Its hard work delivering toys!


*Illustration by Albert Hencke


Wishing you all wonderful festvities with lots of delicious food, family, friends and love!

Two Today!!!

Happy birthday my sweet sweet Neo!!

You brighten my day and brighten my life!!
Love and smooches, Mummy
xx

Ive been tagged by the adorable Ellia - love these little questionaires!
so here goes......

Four Things

Four Jobs I’ve Had
1. Saturday casual at The Cookie Man – during quiet times I had to wear a paper hat and give out cookie samples to passing shoppers…totally embarrassing for a 15yr old!
2. Plate Smasher – a casual job during University days. After stocktaking, we had to smash any left over stock with a hammer so all the limited editions of Collector plates that had already been sold would one day become collectable. At the time I thought the plates were tacky but Im sure Id be keen to have some of those plates now.
3. Hotel Receptionist – lots of unusual requests like 4 to a room for a few hours (what were they planning to do? Huh??)
4. Accountant

Four Movies I watch over and over …(gosh too many!!!)

Sound of Music
Amelie
Anything staring Doris Day
Love Actually


Four Places I have lived
Stanmore, Sydney
Petersham, Sydney
Larnaca, Cyprus
Earlwood, Sydney

Four TV Shows I love…again too many favourites but here are my current obsessions….
Antique Roadshow
The Amazing Race
Entourage
Project Runway

Four Places I have been for Vacation
Paris
SanFrancisco
Thailand
Noumea

Four Websites I visit daily
Bloglines.com
Ebay.com.au
News.com.au
Gorgeous Mammas group

Four Favourite Foods
Eggplant Parmijana
Steamed Dim Sim
Vietnamese rice rolls
Noodle soup

Four Favourite Desserts
Lindt chocolate balls
Crème Brule
Custard
Rice Pudding

Four Places I would rather be
In my grandparents kitchen having coffee with them, laughing and chit chatting, Larnaca – Cyprus
Japan – one place Im so keen to visit, i think I'll go wild in the 100yen shop
London – once I get over the jet lag I’ll be right to go - so much to see and do!
New York – cant wait to visit Helena Christensen’s flea shop Butik, eat at Les Halles (love Anthony Bourdain) and maybe bump into The Sartorialist?


Four People I’m tagging…

Anyone who wants to join in on the fun - Go for it, your tagged!


*Top image is from an Enid Blyton Sunshine book

*This sweet Christmas scene is from Joan Walsh Anglund

The week before Christmas.......

Its going to be a busy week I can just feel it. ...I have more shortbread and biscuits to bake, people to visit, the last of the Christmas shopping to do but look who is on TV at 7.00pm each night this week!
Domestic Goddess, Nigella Lawson!!!
Love the woman!!
her passion for food, festivities and eating rubs off on me and I just want to bake all day.




Last night Andrew had his work's Christmas dinner so I tucked the boys in and spent the evening making my Victorian ornaments that I bought from Ulla. They turned out lovely and are ready to be hung up and shown off!













Have a great day my blog friends - I'll be off now and heading out to take on the Christmas shoppers in their frenzied spending spree.....

EDM Challenge 96 - Draw Something sweet

and a recipe too!

Blend raspberries with icing sugar (confectioners sugar)

cut up peach in thin slices

serve over icecream!

Voila!

A Town Called Orange.....

On Friday we headed out of wet and soggy Sydney (hello Summer where are you???) and drove through the very foggy Blue Mountains all the way to Orange, a town which I had heard a lot about but had never visited before.

We stayed at Duntryleague guest house built by an Irish immigrant, James Dalton in 1876. What a grand house, with such high ceilings, dark wood detailing, a beautiful grand staircase and I must admit I got a little spooked out too as I could imagine it as a great set up for a haunted horror movie!

We visited Cook Park and the rose gardens were beautiful, you could smell their fragrance in the air. The boys chased the ducks and we lazed around enjoying the warm sunshine.

In the evening there was a Christmas Steet Fair and we got to see Santa Claus drive down the main street in a Tip-Top bread van. My boys are still get a little freaked out by Santa so kept their distance.

Peter eating fairy floss on a stick. It was larger than his face so we all helped out...Yum!

There was old fashioned games to play, live music, jumping castle, sausage sizzle and lots of craft stalls


On Saturday morning we drove to Huntley Berry Farm just outside of Orange.

There was fresh Strawberries, gooseberries and blueberries to pick and they taste delcious! We also bought local cherries that were delivered to the farm that morning. We've been eating them all weekend.... I think I'll be making blueberry pancakes for a treat today!

Happy 6th Birthday Styliana!!!!

My niece Styliana turns 6 and we are off to her house for a birthday lunch - lots of fun!!!

Happy Birthday darling Styliana, we love you very much!

Vintage Christmas Swap.......

Look what lucky me received in the mail this morning!!
All the way from Dallas, Texas and my Vintage Swap partner Lisa-Gabrielle, how generous!!

So many cool vintage Christmas gifts!!
How darling is this Christmas apron...


Some lovely pine ornaments that look perfect on my red current trees

a beautiful angel tree topper, a vintage red stocking, gorgeous table cloth and Christmas linen napkin and check out the Christmas card....love the collours!

More goodies - cute paper bags and Christmas ephemera



Books , books and more books....I love all the illustrations! and she even sent Mary Engelbreits christmas magazine - love that mag! so much fun!!!

I really love this vintage elf tea towel!



and how cute are these ceramic NOEL pieces - they are on my mantlepiece now and look perfect!!!

Thanks ever so much Lisa-Gabrielle!! Have a jolly good Christmas!

Illustration Friday - Mask

This week's illustration was influenced by my son's superman mask, which cracks me up with laughter everytime he wears it. My youngest son is a little scared when he sees his brother in the mask but he's getting used to having Superman around....


Superman: Im here to save the world

Spiderman: Huh?? thats my job

Handmade Christmas cards.......

Two seperate styles

Retro fun - Have a sweet one! (She is eating chocolate if you cant tell...Yum!)


Victorian Spoilt Brat - Peace!

Look what came in the mail today!
I ordered this from Ulla's etsy shop - cant wait to make these adorable Victorian christmas ornaments.
The little boy's face is adorable!!

Attack of the Toys.........

I have to remind myself that when I look at beautiful images in deocrating magazines, its not real...it cant be!!
All the homes and rooms seem so calm, the colour scheme is perfect, everything is in its place and clutter free.
Well I dont know about your house, but mine at the moment seems to be taken over by huge, bright colourful toys that just drive me crazy as we have no storage room left!!!
we started off with 1 large toy box and are now onto our third plus the garage is full of more bulky toys!
Im freaking out because Christmas is 3weeks away and I know we'll be getting more toys to add to the collection!
Ive been thinking of updating my boys room for a while now. They are getting past the baby/little boy stage (boohoo). I spotted the two magazine images below and love them both...but deep down I just know what I have in mind is not going to stay that way for long.

EDM Challenge 95- Draw a Holiday Card

Here comes the Christmas pudding Elf

Happy 59th Birthday Dad!!!

we all love you very much......
xxx

Putting on the Glitz.....

The other night we went to David Jones, a department store in town that has the most magical Christmas window display.
My camera died on my me but I managed to get these two photos. The boys were mesmerized by the moving puppets, the music and beautiful christmas scenes.



This is a handmade ornament that I made last night that is heading out to Daisy Lupin in the UK, as part of the society of secret fairies handmade christmas swap.
I covered a boxboard square with vintage piano music and a bird image, some tiny vintage paper flowers, a sheer ribbon and lots of glitter. I think I overdid the glitter haha. The back is also covered, pale blue rose paper and an image of snow angels.
I hope she likes it!

Im also getting ready a parcel to send to the lovely Lisa-Gabrielle my partner for the Vintage christmas swap - Ive got a couple of cute retro things which is just her style and on saturday Im heading out to Rozelle Flea Market as I need one more thing - dont you just love thrifting?!!! any excuse to thrift!

Illustration Friday - Might

She might just have a tiny peek....

This was me as a child, I couldn't wait until christmas and still today Im very impatient with suprises haha

I used to sneak in and gently unfold the sides of the wrapping paper to have a good peek at what was inside.

Some Christmas fun and lots of cherries....

Ive been decorating the house for the past 3 days - the tree is up and so are the fairy lights outside but I still have more empty spaces to fill with christmas cheer that bring a smile to my face.

*For a christmas snowman story and a giveaway have a look at Mrs Stagg's and join in on the fun!
* i just discovered Jennifer, of Sis Boom now has a blog - beautiful inspirations!

I made this retro garland last night, I got inspired by Shae's christmas cookie cutter ornaments. So using some scrap vintage wallpaper I cut these christmas tree shapes - I think they look great, I might make some more for other corners of my home.



My parents went cherry picking on the weekend and Andrew and I are planning to go in 2weeks time. I think the boys will have a great time picking and eating cherries plus we'll get to stay in Orange, a town Ive never visited so that should be great!
Ive only ever been mushroom picking which we do once a year at Oberon Forest, so Im sure fruit picking will be a fun experience.