All the things we like about Brisbane

Gareth and I are back in Melbourne after our trip up to Brisbane for Finders Keepers. I was getting a little sick of the cold weather here in Melbourne so we spent a few extra days in Brisbane. I wanted to make the most of the 22 degree days and the option of wearing a t-shirt till 9pm at night in winter!

Although it wasn't really a holiday as such, we did get to do a few things that had been put off recently. We had some cocktails at The Bowery on Ann Street in the Valley, went to see Ron Mueck at GOMA and saw Exit Through the Gift Shop at the Tribal Theatre. The Robin Gibson '70s architecture of the Queensland Art Gallery overlooking the Brisbane River was also highlight. I first saw it as we took the City Cat from Hill End into the city and thought it was pretty amazing. Getting to travel interstate really is one of the highlights of running your own business and I give Brisneyland a big tick of approval!

Finders Keepers on Saturday and Sunday was great fun. Gareth and I really enjoy watching people's reactions to the cards and moments people share deciding on which card to get. I saw a funny exchange between a young girl and her mother while choosing a card for her own mothers birthday. The young girl was adamant "I love you so much I want to jump on the couch" was the perfect card for a Grandma's birthday! We also did a little bit of shopping, Gareth picked up some very spiffy cufflinks from A Skulk of Foxes and I got a Sarah McNeil bird brooch from the Leeloo stall plus we got some lovely letterpress cards from Bespoke. The event ran really well, the weather was perfect and it was nice to catch up with some familiar faces we don't get to see very often.

Bleeding Heart / 166 Ann Street, Brisbane

On Monday we walked from The Valley to Southbank along Ann Street and found Bleeding Heart on the way. I was drawn to the large 'School of Arts' above the front door so we went in to have a some tea and cake. They have a cafe, a little shop selling local designers wares including Liana Kabel, Biddy Bags, Wicked Child Designs (including The Beatles Softies from the latest Frankie Mag!) and a gallery. Definitely worth a visit if you're in town. The big veranda is the perfect place to sit and watch the world go by.

Bleeding Heart Gallery Space

All things forgotton

The last few weeks have been a bit hectic around our way so the old blog has suffered a bit. I'm going to do a longer post with a bit more information on it to make up for the lack posts in the last little while.



First up, we were feature seller on Etsy a few weeks back. It is almost four years since I started my first Etsy shop so this was pretty exciting for me. It was also a busy few days with some late nights, lots of packing as well as discovering that this Father's Day card may well be one of our most popular cards to date.

With our interview we got to chose our 5 favourite films, books, music and websites. I think we had too many favourite things so our five favourite websites didn't get included and I just wanted to put them here because they really do deserve a mention:

http://www.thedesignfiles.net/
http://pikaland.com
http://thejoyofhate.com/
http://machinarium.net/demo/
http://www.threethousand.com.au/

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Next up, one of our card 'models' has a new facebook page. Many of you know him as the Mix Tape guy. He is kinda cool, kinda aloof and likes to spend a lot of time getting his hair to look just right.

Turns out his name is Archie Cassette and you can make friends with him on Facebook. His page is only new, he resisted the urge to join until he realised he had an ex girlfriend who required some stalking. Archie likes to think of himself as a bit of a man about town and last year he went to Poland for a conference, but I will let you look him up to find out why.

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This weekend is Brisbane Finders Keepers and it is going to be a wow of a time! We have some new card designs ready to go and are looking forward to visiting some of our Brisbane stockists while we are up there.

Gareth and I are spending a few extra days in Brisbane, so if any of you QLD folk have some suggestions on things to do and see, please send them our way. It is the first time I've been to Queensland and I have a feeling I wont want to leave due to the weather being just a bit warmer than here in Melbourne.

Details for the market are:

Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th June
BRISBANE FINDERS KEEPERS
When: 11am - 6pm
Where: The Old Museum
Cnr Bowen Bridge Road & Gregory Terrace, Herston

Don't kiss your sister Luke!

So we have some more gift tags available in the Etsy shop. This one is based on a joke Gareth once told me and I figured Christmas is the perfect time for dorky jokes. Maybe next year we should make Christmas Crackers because Gareth has a truck load of jokes suitable for crackers. Did you hear about the magic tractor? It turned into a field. Gold.

Anyway these tags are available on Etsy in packs of six, or at our upcoming markets which I have put up on the Able and Game website. For those of you in Sydney we will be down next weekend at Finders Keepers with cards, calendars and references to not only Star Trek, but Star Wars.

We are coming to Sydney!

Gareth and I are both very excited that Able and Game will be taking part in the Sydney Finders Keepers Market in December. The market is on Friday 4th December from 6pm-10pm and then on Saturday 5th December from 10am-8pm at Carriage Works in Eveleigh. We will have our full range of cards including Christmas Cards as well as 2010 Calendars, prints and some other new items I'm working at the moment. For those of you in Melbourne, we will still be at Rose Street that weekend. Gareth is working on a cloning machine as we speak.