Visit us at the Maribyrnong Makers Market!

Every year in September I have a big Spring Sale at my favourite market - the Maribyrnong Makers Market.
Put it in your diary and make a day of it! Love to see you there!

Visit me at the Lark Garage Sale!

I've spent the last few weeks having a big cleanup! What a job! But guess what? The results of all of this sorting out and tidying up are going to be for sale at the Lark Garage Sale!

For those of you who came a couple of years ago - you will know how great the Lark sales are - worth a lovely drive to Daylesford for!

I'll have lots of samples and seconds from my own ranges, crafty bits & bobs, a few vintage treasures and discontinued shop stock.

Come along and snap up a bargain next Saturday - the 20 July from 10am to 3pm.

Because I will be in Daylesford all day the Crafty Squirrel shop will be closed for the day.

Definitely not to be missed! Love to see you there!

Happy Birthday Sale!

Aren't Birthdays the best! 

Did you know that coming up this weekend is the Crafty Squirrels 2nd Birthday? Yippee - I say!

To celebrate this wonderful milestone I am holding a special 30% off sale both in store and online for two days only!

The online sale will begin on Friday 28 June at 9am and will finish at 12midnight on the Saturday 29 June.
Just hop over to the shop and enter the code Happybirthday at the checkout!

And for those lucky squirrels who live close enough to Ballarat - well you can come in store and help me celebrate!

Opening hours are:
10am to 5pm Friday & 10am to 4pm Saturday.

Vintage Apron of the Day

Some of the favourites from Vintage Apron of the Day

Mavis, Bill & family circa 1944

I have been collecting vintage aprons for quite a few years now and for the last year and a half I have been celebrating – Vintage Apron ofthe Day every Friday that I work in the shop.

Each week I choose a different one from the collection and celebrate it for the day. There is something so very practical about aprons but it is the fabrics and trims and various pocket combinations that particularly tickle my fancy.

I love thinking about the person who made them and whether they were given as a gift, made by the wearer or bought from a store. Often they have been loved but sometimes they are starched and brand new as if they were kept for good. It’s funny to think of such a practical everyday item being kept for good. Perhaps the owners had lots of aprons some of which got more wear than others.

Often people ask me where the things I have in my collections or have in the shop come from. Increasingly I tell them that ‘they find me’. By that I mean that I seem to have an uncanny knack for treasures presenting themselves to me in my travels at op shops, garage sales, auctions, antique shops and trash & treasure type markets. But more often than not these days I meet people in the shop or at a market who strike up a conversation with me about what I love and then offer to give me things that they in turn have inherited or no longer want. Of course I always say – yes please!

Mavis' apron

This week though was slightly different…this week I inherited a lifetime of sewing bits & bobs and various treasures from Mavis. Mavis - affectionately known as GG (Great Grandma) is the mother of my Mother-in-law and will be 95 this year (Born 1 Dec 1918).

Whenever I see her GG loves to tell me a story about her younger years. She was many things, amongst them all a seamstress. She was also of the mindset that everything should be saved – because you never know when you might need it. You can imagine than what treasures she had stashed away for a rainy day, particularly too, as she had lived in the same house for 60 years.

Amongst the boxes I came across a gorgeous apron and thought how appropriate it would be to wear for this week’s vintage apron of the day. I would guess that she has made this herself in the 1940s/50s.

I also asked her a couple of questions –

What is your favourite colour – Red (great minds think alike)

Favourite decade for fashion - the forties when she was married (1940)

Dish she most liked to make – Sweet & Sour chicken (Yum)

Thank you GG for your generosity and kind heart. This vintage apron of the week is dedicated to you!

Mavis and Bill circa 1939

I've been hanging out with Instagram

Cute as a Button cushions from my new range

The Crafty Squirrel & Morgan Wills stall at Finders Keepers

It is probably not surprising to you all, that I think of myself as a visual person. I am totally won over by certain colour combinations, smitten with a pattern discovered on a vintage fabric or just totally inspired by the treasures I find in my travels and the trinkets I choose to surround myself with.

So...when I finally succumbed to Instagram - I realised how delightfully addictive it is to celebrate and share my take on the world via images.

Taking snapshots of my every day is like creating a visual diary - a scrapbook of moments in time and a wonderful way to remember the road traveled.

I would love for you to join me on my journey.

Morgan x.

Vintage fabrics in the studio

The children created this one day in the backyard

My stand at The Big Design Market - Dec 2012

Thrift shop Fuzzy Felt find...

Treasure hunting on my beach holiday!

Merry Christmas and late night shopping!

We're on the home straight now my lovelies and I'm here to tell you that there are only two days left to pop into the Crafty Squirrel shop. This Friday (21 Dec) I am celebrating this very festive time of year by opening until 8pm and for all of you that would care to join me for a christmas drink - please do! I will be serving a glass of sparkles from 6pm to 8pm on Friday. Then on Saturday I will open from 10am to 4pm as per usual.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to say a really big heartfelt THANK YOU. Thank you to all of my gorgeous customers and the many amazing supporters I have met over the course of this year. I couldn't do what I do without your support and friendship and I feel blessed to spend my days really doing what makes my heart sing.

I hope you all have a wonderful restful break with your families (I know I will be!) and I look forward to sharing 2013 with you all! The shop will re-open for trading on Friday 3 Feb 2013.

Wrap up - The Big Design Market

It has been very busy here at the Crafty Squirrel headquarters of late because for the last few months in the lead up to Christmas I have been filling my wholesale and online orders, managing shop sales, setting up pop up shops and going to markets. 

All in all - flat chat really. So it was a big call to shut the shop and pack everything up and head on down to the first ever 'Big Design Market' held over 3 days at the Royal Exhibition Buildings in Carlton Gardens.

And BIG it was! Over 170 designers from around Australia and internationally came along to sell their wares - it was an amazing honour to be side by side with some of the best creative designer/makers around.

To say it was a HUGE success would be an understatement...apparently they had a massive 33,000 customers come through the doors over the 3 days....and I must admit by the end of it I had almost sold out of everything I had brought with me and was so tired I could hardly speak!

Here are a few snaps of the stand for those that couldn’t make it!

And for those of you who live in or around Ballarat – you can see me at my last market for the year – The Design Exchange, on this Sunday (16 Dec) at the Mining Exchange on Lydiard Street, Ballarat from 10am to 4pm OR visit the shop on Fridays 10am to 5pm and Saturdays 10am to 4pm. Last day of trading for the year is Sat 22 December.