Bowerbird Bazaar

This Friday we are flying up for the Bowerbird Bazaar in Adelaide. It is one of our favourite interstate markets and runs for three days with an evening event on on Friday night (did you know someone invented drinking and shopping?) then opens up again on Saturday and Sunday during the day. Although the days can be long, interstate markets are always loads of fun. It is kind of like school camp for adults, the camps where your teachers made you sell stuff you made. You remember those right?

It is held at the showgrounds, which is just south west of the city, a nice walk through some parks and you're there. It should be a good weekend, I've checked the weather, it looks like it is going to warmer than Melbourne and with Mother's Day the week after the perfect time to grab a card. The big questions still remains, will we be out at Gary's Bar* on Saturday night till 2am? Come visit me Sunday morning to find out.






*Not actual name of the bar.

One kind Mum

Last month I got my Mum thinking cap on to make lots of new Mother's Day cards. Each year I wonder if I can come up with anything new and that maybe we have said everything that can be said about mothers. Once I get started I realised how wrong I am, there is always things to be said, especially about Mothers!

I was in our local Post Office a week or so back, stood in front of the Mother's Day display and thought I would have a look at what they had available. I noticed a very distinct trend, all the cards had flowers on them in some form or another. After noticing this I realised how we don't use flowers on any of our Mother's Day cards, except this one which is ALL flowers. I'm not sure if flowers is something that represents Mother's Day in the same way golf/plaid represents Father's Day and cupids and love hearts represent Valentine's Day. All I know is we didn't follow that rule. We did follow the rule that says at least one of your cards needs to feature a cute pink jumper with a snowflake on it and we created this, for the unique snowflake mother out there. The card is available on Etsy for that kind Mum in your life.

I really really really want a grandchild!

Being in the middle of my early middle 30s and the eldest of three childless children I can safely say that the desire for me to have children has been hinted at a few times. So much so that when creating this card I thought it might be fitting to slightly model it on my own parents. Will my own Mum fist pump the sky when she hold a grand kid for the first time? Probably. Will my Dad look slightly awkward in his blunnies and red explorer socks. Again probably. The card is available here.

Colour Box Studio Pozible Campaign

Last year we got involved in a new community arts space in Footscray called Colour Box Studio. They had a pop up shop running in November and December that we stocked with a bunch of other local people as well as some workshops, one of which I ran. The space was founded by Amie Batalibasi and a bunch of hard working volunteers.

Amie Batalibasi with Li Paapaa the programs manager. 

This year they have run both a Digital Media Program and a Fashion Month with a big focus on local and sustainable. We saw the space both before it was open and after and it is a credit to Amie and everyone involved and it is good to know there is a space like this available in Melbourne. It is very much there to support the artists and to create a community creative hub in the West of Melbourne.

They are now in the middle of a Pozible campaign to raise money for things like running costs and property maintenance so they can continue to run different programmes and support local artists/designers/makers. They have a bunch of different rewards available for the various pledge amounts (including one of our tea towels if you pledge in the $65 category) and they have 15 days left to reach the $7000 target. So if you want to help out you can pledge, or share it on Facebook or Twitter. Every little bit helps.

If you don't know much about crowd funding then have a read of what it is about on the Pozible website. We have supported a few projects and find it a really fun way to spend money. More often than not you get something for your pledge as well as the warm fuzzy feeling from becoming a "venture capitalist".

Wet and Wild dishes

We have just got our new tea towel design back from the printers and it is now listed in our online shop. This design is based on our wet and wild card and after a night enjoying some fancy champagne we thought it would be great on a tea towel. I spent some time trying to get the dishwater to look just right, at one stage the bubbles were too big and Gareth said they looked like grapes. I don't know about you but we are not ones to use grapes to wash our dishes. Mash them up and drink them in pretty sparkly drinks while watching TV shows? That we are into.

The blue on this tea towel is a really bright and lovely shade and I would say it is one of my happy colours, that's for sure. Used dishwater on the other hand, that is not a happy colour.

Post Finders Keepers Wrap Up

Over the weekend we participated in Finders Keepers in Melbourne. This year the market was huge, there was so many stalls full of amazing stuff. I got to have a good look around while Gareth helped man the stall on Friday night and the quality of the set ups are amazing with some looking like mini shops. I always feel so proud at these events because we live in a country that supports such amazingly creative small businesses. I've also filed away lots of different things for my wish list, including those beautiful shirts from Only Midge you can see next to our stand.

We Mother's Day next month we had our new Mother's Day cards out and it was fun chatting with people about which card they chose. On the Friday night the sorry I don't call you enough card was quite popular, a card I designed after feeling guilty for not calling my own Mum enough, so I had a few chats with like minded daughters on our inability to use the phone.

The next Finders Keepers is in Melbourne in October and I think I'll be saving up some pennies before then. Shopping Spree!

We went to Sydney

Last week Gareth and I spend a few days up in Sydney. Leaving the warm hot embrace of Melbourne was a little sad as the weather reported Sydney would only be a measly 27 degrees. We arrived a few hours late due to someone removing an emergency sticker from the plane (nice souvenir??) and got to Potts Point hungry and scanning Twitter like crazy due to the resignation of the premier.

We had a pretty delish meal at an Italian place Gareth found, along with a nice bottle of plonk, hoping for an early night so we could get up and hit the beach. Not as early as I envisioned we got the train/bus to Bondi and spend an hour or so in the water with me splashing about saying it was the best thing ever. I have to admit I was a tad jealous looking around at all the houses and imagining living so close to such a lovely beach.

We then hit the Art Gallery of New South Wales, had a spot of lunch and soaked up the artwork. My two favourite artworks were Anish Kapoor's Void Field and Ugo Rondinone's if there were anywhere but desert. wednesday. It's funny when you look at art and think about your own personal criteria for making something 'good art' and to be honest there were other artworks I sound more aesthetically pleasing. These artworks where deemed my favourite purely for the affect it had on me and knowing I'll remember them for years to come. I think I spent a good few minute's looking at the Kapoor work trying to work out what the void was. The confusion coming from not knowing if it was pigment or if it was actually hollowed out. In the end we asked the security guard as I was too afraid to touch it. As for the clown artwork, I don't think I'm someone who is scared of clowns and compared to a Muick it wasn't that 'lifelike' but the sounds combined with the way it* was sat there I was seriously expecting it to come alive.


*see what I did there!

We also went to visit a few shops that we stock which is always a fun oh look it's our cards experience. One shop that was high on the list to visit was Koskela in Rosebery. I had been before but wanted to take Gareth and also try the Kitchen By Mike menu for lunch. We had a great time pottering around, eating and being inspired by all the amazing products and art they house. The space really does fall into the category of dream space you only imagine exists on pinterest.

We had a lovely early dinner the day we flew out at Ms. G's and after naming the file below I wondered if it was a play on MSG? We got to the restaurant just as it opened and our Jerry Seinfeld parent-ness rewarded us with the best seat in the house overlooking the big bay window. The food was pretty good although we sadly didn't try the dessert called Stoner's Delight.

Now you may be wondering why we were in Sydney? Although we did do a bunch of work stuff it was also my birthday. Yay happy birthday me. I'm now heading into the prestigious mid thirties section of my life. A time everyone aged between 19 and 29 only dreams about. Well guess what young people, it is totally AMAZEBALLS! We also happened to discover our friends from Jubly-Umph were also in town and had a night of drinking and Mexican food (not the trendy kind) to celebrate. We even saw a cat on our walk to the gallery, so all in all it was a good way to say hello 33.