Little Golden Books {in every Nook and cranny}

Do you collect things? Little treasures that mean something to you from childhood or from places you've been or things you simply find pretty?

I collect vintage teacups and linen and pretty, old or useful things. I have a small collection of seaglass.  I collect crocheted cup cosies and classic novels.  But by far my largest collection is my 'stash' of vintage Little Golden Books. I have over 300 in my keeping, some battered or coverless, perfect for preserving through crafty skill, some extra old and precious, and some we just love to read and admire.  Harper has her own collection of twenty odd 'first little golden books', the small ones, and we have a decent pile of giant ones now too.  The earliest copies are from the early 1940's and the earlier they are dated the more beautiful and saturated the pictures are.

Its no wonder you can find a Little Golden Book or a salvaged picture from one in nearly every nook and cranny in my home.

You'll notice I particularly love the Little Golden Books that are illustrated by Eloise Wilkin and I'd like to think I own 85% of these.  I fell in love with her illustrations as a child and when the girls were born I found them comforting in a way.  But there are so many others I love just as much.

Some other favourites:

Outside my window

Bambi

Wheels

Susie's new stove

My little golden book about God

Good-bye Tonsils

The Lively Little Rabbit

Snow White and Rose Red

The Christmas Story

The kitten who thought he was a mouse

The wait for me kitten.........

Do you have a favourite Little Golden Book? What do you collect?

xoxo

An imperfect home and a full heart

This morning my friend Sarah popped in for a cup of tea and a peek at our 'new' home. We sipped black tea and munched on my 'rustic' looking almond meal choc-chip cookies while we chatted easily about our surroundings, and about our little ones.  We discussed birthday parties because her little boy's is coming up and my biggest little has been invited to her first sleep over party and lets just say there is only one person around here who is excited about it!*

Sarah, my amazingly talented thrifting friend brought with her the best house warming gift for me: A vintage Atlas for decorating, an Eloise Wilkin 'big' Little Golden Book, and some gorgeous vintage wallpaper which I'll be using to upcycle a chest of drawers. Excited!!

She peeked at my untidy work-in-progress wardrobe and I gabbled about the plans I have for each space to make up for the current disarray.  I noticed all the unfinished paintwork through her eyes and we could have tripped over numerous yet to be sorted 'miscellaneous' piles and boxes.  But there are a handful of corners in our home that are complete enough to make me glad to be here and glad to share it.

 There is enough order in the pantry and the laundry and the bedrooms for me to be content and get on with life.  We wholeheartedly agreed that an imperfect home that still has order to it is much more inviting than a perfect home.  But oh my, you should see the garage and the front lawn, and the study/crafty space.  Blake is finishing our en suite vanity as we speak and then I have a list of shelving for him to tackle.  Its hot hot hot this week in Geelong and the cooling system is not yet up and running and this time last year we were having regular swims at the beach before autumn really hits. I have rugs to make and walls to decorate.  We are keen to get a little more order happening so we can have church here for our new Sunday afternoon meetings.  Its a crazy season for this little family.  I'm glad I have friends like Sarah to help keep me sane.

*Blake and I have been dreading the sleepover parties starting. We feel like if we let her go it will be the start of hundreds of them (huge exaggeration but easily done when one is as mortified as I am), she will want one for her 8th birthday in April (which we will say 'no' to), we don't know the parents very well, and she will come home exhausted and will take out her sugar hangover on us!

xoxo

Little Golden Books

If you liked my crochet star garland from the last post there is a great tutorial on how to make them here. (The Royal Sisters is a personal favourite crochet blog of mine.)  A big thanks to Erin from Taking time to create who kindly showed me how to link to other sites. :) I might go a bit 'link-crazy' in this post just to show off!

So why the obsession with Little Golden Books?

Ever since I can remember I've loved Eloise Wilkin's round faced illustrations in children's books, mostly in Little Golden Books.  When my mum gave me a copy of 'My Little Golden Book about God' when our little Miss 7 was born I remembered how much I love the faces of the children and the beautiful colors and themes in this book and others like it.

When miss 4 was born I needed a journal to write my letters to her the same as I'd been writing to her big sister since her birth. I used this picture from the book (yes, this was the first time I committed the crime of cutting up a valued book. eek) after I covered it with fabric and have since been writing her life down for her to give to her when she's older.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago when I found I suddenly had a little more time and energy to develop my creative side. I've always loved decorating my home with handmade paintings, fabric and ornaments and being resourceful and creative rather than buying everything new. Having two girls has brought out my girly side and has only encouraged my love of Eloise Wilkin and other delightful faces of Little Golden Book illustrators.  I particularly loved and still love 'My Teddy Bear' and I came up with the idea to use the pictures to display on the wall in the girls' play area for a vintage feel but also to preserve and accentuate these beautiful pictures. I mounted them on different sizes of MDF wood and simply blue tacked them to the wall about their vintage school desk!

That was the beginning of my/our (my vintage-loving-friend Sarah jumped on board to make creating more fun and share my passion for LGBs) process of 'rescuing' the beautiful vintage pages form tattered LGBs and preserving them on wood in the form of brooches, necklaces, wooden blocks, magnets and other fun things.

My love of Eloise Wilkin and Corrine Malvern for their ability to bring to life adorable children on the pages of books has extended to so many other LGBs both rare and common, the older the better, the more saturated the illustration the more admired. As much as possible I read them to the girls (they ARE on display all over the place at home and readily able to be grabbed in a quiet moment) and they happily read them to one another and beg me not to cut up their favourites.  I can honestly say that we only cut up double or triples or poor quality books :)

Now Sarah and I sell our wooden upcycled wares at Markets around Geelong and even Melbourne.  It helps that my husband is a Builder and hers is a Painter, so they are able to find and cut the wood for us  so we can focus on cutting, gluing, sanding, lacquering, packaging..... and crocheting (for me). Oh and oppshopping (thrifting) for vintage LGBs which Sarah has an amazing talent for!

I could post a hundred more pictures of other creations and books but I'll leave it here and have a cup of tea!

Whats your favourite Little Golden Book?