Getting in the spirit

Even though I have about a million things to do in any bit of spare time (don't you love this time of year?) I managed to get to two market-type events today. And it was such a lovely & sunny day, which made me feel slightly less guilty.

First up was the Scandinavian Christmas Bazaar at the Swedish Church in Toorak, which I've been waiting all year for. It was super nice to again hear the lilting tones of Swedish speakers (and those of other Scandis) - such lovely sounding languages, even if I can't understand! And there was gravlax, of course, along with kanelbullar and other treats.

I dragged Jed along and he seemed kind of OK about that, although he did spend most of the time sitting around looking kind of bored while I looked at every single thing I could, including lovely Christmas decorations (above are a wood-cut snowflake, heart, leaf and moose from nordliving) and lollies and clogs.

On the way home, Jed deposited me at the Melbourne Design Market (he'd given up at that stage and could think of nothing better than lying on the couch). I spent way too much time at the Note Maker stand (the stationary obsession that started in childhood lives on), which is where I got the super cute Merry Christmas sign from (in the top photos). And how good are the ceramic bells below (argh, but forgot to take note who made them - sorry!) **UPDATE** Thanks to Lizzie who let met know that the bells are by Ingrid Tufts. Thanks, Lizzie!

Some new stuff

Have just put some new things in le Etsy shop...plush cushion covers in two styles and hemp/organic cotton tea towel packs - a polka dot 2-pack or a polka dots & letters 2-pack.

And here are some things you might not know about hemp, more reasons why it's such a great fabric:

• It is very absorbent and has a natural antiseptic character
• It also holds its shape and does not fade in the sun
• When blended with organic cotton, the fabric gains strength & elasticity and is extra soft

I noticed Etsy seems to have had its layout tweaked again - every time I look, something's been moved around. This time, each seller's main shop page has been tweaked to fit four items across the width and it looks great, go Etsy peeps.

OK, now time for some book shopping and weekend-planning. Happy Friday!

A gift for me

I've wanted some blank babushkas (matryoshkas) for a while now, and today I got them - a winter's gift to myself, let's call it, to fit in with my mid-winter melancholy. There's something so beautiful about the blanks and I wouldn't dare attempt to decorate them, much to the shock of the shopkeeper at Babushkas.

OK, time for some mid-winter cooking-of-hearty-food (a tip from Mattt, and great) while listening to some sad music.

Warms wrists, Swedish style

Look what arrived in the mail yesterday...

Photograph © Sandra Juto

..some lovely Wrist Worms made from a soft charcoal merino wool, all the way from Sweden. To die for! Jed got a grey pair too, so we're almost matching, and are very pleased to have very very warm wrists. Thanks Sandra :)

OK, off the finish cinnamon buns batch #2, I'll let you know how they go.

Obsessed by the weather

I know I seem kinda obsessed by the cold, but that's because it's freezing. And here's a Melbourne tree in winter to prove it!

So I had to buy myself a new blanket, which is sooo cute. It's actually a baby blanket but I think I want to keep it myself as a lap blanket :) I love PataPri's work, it's so great, and I had to stop myself buying this - swoon. And the new baby I mentioned? I'm making her a blanket, which I'm pretty excited about. Not that I've started yet, as I haven't decided if it's for her cot or to play on. Either way, I'd better get onto it as she's two weeks only already and so cute :)

Time to buy another suitcase

After a fruitless search for shoes yesterday in Stockholm, today in Gothenburg we stumbled across the cutest clog workshop. And they've been made in the area since the 1930s, originally by the parents of the storekeeper, no less. Needless to say I'm in love and in a bit of pain - they're hard to walk in but hopefully that will sort itself out.



So now there's not much more to do than drink another coffee and eat another kanelbullen (cinnamon bun) and/or kardemommeboller (cardamom bun). And go back to the shop to buy another pair or two :)


Cinnamon buns - I've almost eaten too many of these, if that's possible.


Buns with vanilla and jam - mmm!

Little Shop Of...Fun!

Finally, finally I visited Little Shop Of last week, so cute! Yes, it's wee tiny but it's so packed full of stuff that the tininess doesn't matter so much. I dropped off a bunch of my tea towels and fabric, chatted to Bec and then headed up the road for a delicious bagel, mmm! Morning well spent :)



Speaking of shopping, how much do I want to these shoes? Soo cute. And yes, I must have a thing for yellow shoes (and red shoes, and blue shoes...)

Cutest thing ever

Photos from Yellow Owl Workshop

Are they not? I love you, Yellow Owl Workshop.

(Found via Distillate)

Little Tokyo Shops zine

How great - a wee zine dedicated to sweet shops discovered on a recent trip to Japan. Now I really want to go! You can buy the zine for a mere US$5 via Angela's Etsy store. And while you're out and about, don't forget to visit her lovely blog about Melbourne shops - Open (*love it*)

Fabric is in the shop!

I've put some of the new fabric in my Etsy shop, woot! The shop's been a bit neglected lately, so have put a few other goodies in there - hello fabric covered buttons, in a range of colours. So go crazy and make something - you know you want to :)

*UPDATE* Have also put some new Elephants & limited edition tea towels in the shop, which is neglected no more. In fact, it's probably never been so full and even goes to more than one page - wow!



Speaking of shops, how gorgeous is this one?


Photo courtesy of The Design Files

I saw the postcard for Ramona Tienda, a new shop in North Melbourne, at a cafe in Kensington and just knew I'd love it. And I do - it's so sweet, with a select range of lovely items. And thanks to Lucy's post on The Design Files, I now know part of the reason why - as well as being super talented in her own right, Ramona used to work at Wilkins and Kent (lovely furniture and gifty things *swoon*) and the parallels in style between the shops certainly shines through. It seems like there are more and more great shops being set up around town, I love it.

Orla Love

Excited to see this a little while back -


Yes, Orla Kiely quilt covers/pillowcases/towels available in Australia (OK, maybe they're available elsewhere but I've not seen them) and at Myer no less. From September. I'm there.

Today must be a good day

When I discovered craft blogs (and I have no real idea of when this was as all the years blur together) it was all about Loobylu, Hop Skip Jump and a few others - almost all were Australian, now that I think of it. But as much as I looked, I never got to actually own any of their very limited edition creations (well, besides a fabulous little Loobylu pear, which I then gave it to a friend - lucky them). Until today. Yes, today is my lucky day indeed, as today I became the rather proud owner of Maudie. How very cute is she?


Photo by Fiona Dalton of Hop Skip Jump

It was hard to pick her out of the bunch, as everything Fiona makes is so cute, but I'm thinking her name might have something to do with it (similar to my Mum's).

Thanks for being so inspirational and making such amazing stuff, Fiona :)

Peg peg felt

After putting it off for what seems like forever, I can now say I've been to Winterwood, a lovely little shop out in Park Orchards (and near at least one lovely orchard). Putting it off as it seemed so far away (it's not THAT far) but definitely worth the trip - so much woolen felt, so much carved wooden goodness. It's all quite dangerous. And I also got a bag of wool stuffing, which I've been looking for for a while.

Above are some pegs I picked up, just like the ones we had when I was a kid (actually, I'm pretty sure my mum still has those). And I finally got the latest MixTape, which made for lovely reading in the afternoon sun (topped off with beer = heaven).

Snaps

I finally went to the mysterious and fun-filled Junk Company in North Melbourne a weekend or two back (which is kind of like the Camberwell Market, but in a shop).

I picked up a beautiful and very rusty old biscuit tin and almost wanted to take home this display:


Bowling women one one side, men on the other, set behind smudged glass. What the? I have no idea, but still wanted it, although all I managed to get was these pics.

Shopping is fun

Bought a few fabulous fabrics online recently - finally got a PataPri 'apples' teatowel before they sold out - lovely. Don't think it will be used for dishes...it would be better in a frame. And a bag full of Lotta Jansdotter fabric remnants - brilliant! Will have to pull the sewing machine out.

My Fabric

Photo © Aunty Cookie.

OK, so it's kinda small, but that's my Akzidenz fabric (ABC etc) in the front cushion, made by Aunty Cookie - how exciting! And how great are her fabrics (pretty much all the other fabric). It's the first time (I think) that mine's been used by someone else to make something. It could be enough to motivate me to get onto making more of the above, and the new idea I've got that I've been procrastinating about for ages.

Oh, and these are for sale in Aunty Cookie's Etsy shop, but most of them are already sold.

Two-colour Nectarine

Looking at the cut nectarine of the previous post made me think of hearts, and with Valentine's Day coming up I thought about turning that into some sort of heart (not that I condone the overly syrupy-ness of V's D). As with many ideas that seem great at the time, that was hard to do, but instead it has morphed into an abstract two-colour pattern. Can you tell I'm really into simple graphics, often with no more than two colours?


I may also have gotten some round-about inspiration from one of the books that arrived for me in the post today (thanks to an Amazon voucher from my lovely sister). So much fun is ahead of me.

Saturday & Sunday

Whew, had a fun crazy weekend. On Saturday morning I found out that Idlewild Press, a letterpress studio based in the Nicholas Building in downtown Melbourne, was having having an open day that day. How exciting! It's a one-person studio run by Carolyn Fraser of the Girlprinter blog. I went and had a look and as expected, the space is beautiful and the equiptment and type drawers and type pieces and various pieces of paraphernalia were just asking to be photographed.



I had to stop myself by only buying this set of cards - so sweet - but could have bought everything



While trying to find my way out from the sixth floor of the Nicholas Buidling I stumbled upon this great shop called Buttonmania, that just happened to be having its twice-yearly button sale. I got a handful of great looking buttons along with these great old knitting patterns.



Melbourne Design Market was excellent, as ever, and picked up a few great things including some coasters by Lightly, some earings (which punch out, how fun) by Limedrop, and a beautiful vase.

And stitching at Mikes was fun. Here's a before and during shot. The glass of bubbly explains the slight wonkiness in the pole!

Design Market & Stitching

Yes, the Design Market (no longer the ReadyMade Market, possibly because of my favourite magazine) is back on Sunday (Fed Sq carpark) and I am hoping to get there early so it won't be so crowded (this plan never works as everyone else has the same idea!) Oh well, should be fun for some pre-Christmas shopping & getting out early on a Sunday morning.

And no, the photo above is not an indication of what it is like in Melbourne at the moment - it was taken pre-name change in winter last year, hence the grey sky. That seems a long way from today's 28 or 29 degree heat.

And on Sunday night I'm going to my first stitching night at Mikes - should be exciting. Rather than go for some cutesy thing (which was tempting), my stitching will be of a light pole and electricity wires (I made a line drawing from a photo I took). Yes, definitely not cutesy but the kind of thing I find interesting to look at.



Whether it works for stitching is another thing, but there's only one way to find out. Not sure how many colours to use but think I'll stick to just a couple. Can't wait, bring on the cupcakes.

Mikes Mirabel Softies & Elephants

Look what I discovered today -



Yes, the softies for Mirabel have been 'installed' and look so great. I was only outside the shop for a couple of minutes, and EVERYONE walking past stopped to look an oh-ed and ah-ed. So impressive and great to have been a part of. Good one Pip! And they'll be there for just one week before heading to their new homes. And there are more photos here and here.

And I got through another batch of elephants today. Well, almost. They still need to be stuffed and stitched up, but nearly there. Whew. Some are bound for Mikes soon, and some for the many babies that I know who've been born lately.



And a find for today -



Not a bad find, all for $1 at Industria in Fitzroy. Like everything from Industria, these have an untold history - they're not shiny new buttons but seem to be used and a little scuffed. They're all the same otherwise - utilitarian and puposeful-looking.