Local Talent

A collection of very good friends are part of a current Design Exhibition here in Tassie running as part of the 'Ten Days on the Island' program till April 4th. Such clever folks down here! It's called 'Furnished' and is being run by DOT (Design Objects Tasmania - Australia's longest running design collective). Check out the website for some wonderful design finds! Current fav's are: Isis St Pierre and her brilliant armchair! Abigayle Tett and her hand formed chandelier. Joanna Gair with Martin Vinnicombe with their combined book terminus. Loz Abberton and her light shade. The simplicity of Stuart Williams standing lamp. And the smooth lines of Belinda Winkler's vessels. Worth a look if you are in this part of the world.

down the rabbit hole.....

Like the ubiquitous Alice, I find myself in a wonderful, whimsical and very delightful little place. the rabbit hole is a lovely new store here in the heart of Launceston. Created by Alison Hayward along with her mother, it is full of knicks and knacks and everything in-between!Alison found me at the recent Niche market and was kind enough to place an order of candles and lip balms for her newly opened store.
So Eat Me/Drink Me and find your way to take a peek. It will be well worth your while.


the rabbit hole
Shop 4, Cuisine Lane

new treasures

Just a quick few words to show off some lovely new treasures - courtesy of Sophie from That Vintage and Rose from Foal Design, at the recent Niche market. I know it was a while back now, but I'm still catching up on lost 'computer time'!

Beautiful earrings and ring (I get comments every time I wear them - though it's becoming more and more likely to be "are those from That Vintage?)

Hmmm.....not sure about the model, but the hat is pretty neat!

This last one is a bit of a mystery object....... more soon.......

Onwards and Upwards...

We're back!
The computer trouble is being resolved and we think we have been able to save all of our files!
WHEW! Big relief there.

I know it's been a few weeks now, but here are a few 'on the run' shots from the recent Niche market at the end of August.

Ruby Victoria Paperie Stall - my neighbours on one side. Narelle had the amazing printing press (just seen bottom left of picture) going throughout the market, drawing heaps of onlookers. Hubby, Alan (pictured) was a handy man to have around - he did coffee runs for appreciative stallholders.

Yummy Mini Cupcakes (sorry girls I didn't get your name - too busy eating!!)

The beautiful Rose from Foal Design and her lustworthy cloth hats - Rose is currently showing off her engagment ring! Yay! I bought a stunning aqua blue number!

The stunning Joanna and her papercraft were my other neighbour and what good company she was. Joanna was the original creator of the famous Roo Poo paper from the Paper Mill at Burnie. She uses century old papermaking methods and all of the illustrations are her own.

Once more, Sophie from That Vintage, was innundated with keen shoppers for the entire 2 days! I don't think I saw her look up from her stall until closing time on Saturday! Yay Soph!

Sam (seen ducking down) and Maya, from Hideyo, dazzled us once more with their incredible folded art. I loved seeing almost every second person walking through the markets clutching a bunch of their beautiful flowers!

More soon......

Once more with feeling.....

Yep! It's that time again.... the St Giles Niche all wrapped up Market is coming up next weekend - Friday 27th and Saturday 28th August.

It's come around really quickly and I just hope that I haven't forgotten anything!

Just a little bit of labelling to do and I think I am ready to go. Having said that, I am already having dreams where I am late for setting up and am as far from ready as can be! Hmmmm...

Here's looking forward to lovely weather and a huge crowd!

On other news, I was very fortunate enough to pick up a new stockist locally. Very exciting!

The Tamar Visitor Centre at Exeter is a lovely space created by Karen Burnett and run with the help of a wonderful team of volunteers. As well as tourism information and bookings, Karen has stocked a great retail space of local goods and crafts and has been kind enough to give my little products a go.

Well worth a drop in when next you are in this area.

Morning Tea anyone?

Just wanted to show a rather lovely little spot we have found here in Launceston called 'Tranquility Gardens'. It's a bed and breakfast as well as a tea room. Gemma (of Loz & Dinny fame) put us onto it as we would never have driven in otherwise. Five minutes outside of the city, it is a beautiful place for morning tea or lunch. It's history is as a private residence for a Japanese businessman who created his own japanese style garden. Complete with fountains, a lake and stone sculptures throughout a garden just made for wandering around in. Well worth a drop in if you're in this neck of the woods. As I am writing this, we have a lovely gentleman installing a hand made Blackwood Timber screen door on our house. Now, seeing as it was something like minus 3 degrees this morning, I can't see it getting a whole lot of use until next summer! But this was the earliest that Michael had available to make and install for us. We didn't want to go the aluminium route, and were very pleased to stumble across Michael at the Deloraine Craft Fair last year.

We are really happy with it and are hoping the cats won't use it for climbing practice or claw sharpening! Michaels details are: Michael Thomson Design & Sculptural Furniture (03) 6369 5170 if anyone would like more information.

birds of a feather...

Cloth to Creation

A friend from Brisbane put this gorgeous birdcage she had made for a friends birthday on her blog and it inspired me to find a few other feathery friends to show.....

That Vintage

The Purple Finch

Bespoke Press

**all pictures courtesy of artists websites/blogs**

The Nebulous Kingdom

A big Thanks goes to Tabitha Emma for introducing me to this completely wonderful french artist Anne-Julie Aubry.

In fact I was so taken with her work that five minutes after I found her through Tabitha's blog, I bought some prints from Anne's Etsy site here.

The two prints I bought are below and I am waiting with such anticipation of their arrival! Plus I am planning my next buys as I can see a wall being covered with these amazing illustrations!

Les Cocquelicots (Poppies)

The Red Room

**Photo's courtesy of artist**

More from Niche

Too many great stalls to do justice to them all! This is just another snapshot of the weekend.

Apologies to all the amazing stallholders I have left out!

Life as a Bird Florist - I watched these beautiful flowers and arrangements walk out the door every day!

The Ruby Pear stall

Rebecca Roth - beautiful resin jewellery - gorgeous colours and style

Hungry Kitty - scrummy cakes, biscuits and more that kept all us other stallholders alive for the weekend! Contact Naomi here.

Susie of Black Eyed Susie

Isis, with trusty offsider Raewyn, and her brilliant recycled journals - we were side by side for the weekend (awesome company!) - also met her lovely partner Damian.

Find Your Niche

Just a quick post to pop some photos from the weekend's Niche Market. Three days of glorious handmade and design heaven.... sigh....
It was great to see some faces from the previous Niche Market and lots of new goodies as well. To all those who came along, a big thanks! Weather was a bit of a challenge, but heaps of folks braved the elements in order to bag a designer bargain and get a jump start on Christmas Shopping!

My little corner of Niche...

The always lovely Sophie from That Vintage

3 Blind Mice - 'upcycled' candles - just beautiful

Vee (The Purple Finch) and Kate (3 Blind Mice)

Sam & Maya from Hideyo - amazing origami artworks and bamboo clothing - contact them here

More soon......

Bespoke Letterpress Giveaway

This is a brilliant giveaway by the very generous folks at Bespoke. Bespoke produces the most exquisite hand made letterpress paperie and I have been savouring their blog for some time now like the quilty pleasure that it is!

When I came across this blog entry, I had to share (and not just because of the chance to score an amazing prize!), but also to support the work they are doing with emerging artists.

Earlier this year, Bespoke decided they wanted to be able to help launch young designers & illustrators. To be able to have to their work crafted on a vintage letterpress is a dream way beyond reach for most young designers.
So they opened the table for illustrators across the world to submit their work - The only rules were they must be emerging illustrators and they must produce a three colour illustration. See here for the results.

Some of my favourites are below:

So take a peek and see if there's anything that catches your eye.

It's been such a popular blog entry that there are 232 comments - takes you forever just to scroll through them all!

Nook

Back after a lovely warm weekend away in Brisbane (the weddding was lovely, thanks everyone who asked. The newlyweds are spending their honeymoon in Fiji - here's hoping the Tsunami warning didn't come to fruition where they are staying!).

While in Bris, I was lucky to meet Michelle who owns and runs a handmade designs store called 'Nook' in West End. It's only 6 weeks old, but already looking very much at home in this fairly understated, but hip and happening, suburb of Brisbane. Nook runs out of the front of Michelle and her partners home and they have done a great job with its presentation - there's even a rather tasty looking organic garden patch to wander by as you come through the front gate.

Nook already stocks That Vintage and Michelle stocks some of her felt goodies in our very own Ruby Pear!

Also part of the goodie hoard is Hot Toffee - it was great to see some of Nicole's work again.

Kind enough to let me sneak in before opening time - Michelle and I spoke about perhaps stocking some of my candles and melts. I've done up a Vanilla, Pomegranate & Black Currant Soy Candle and a White Tea & Ginger Soy Candle for her and will pull together some different melts for her to play with. I'd would be very proud to have my little candles in her store!

The only thing I am unhappy about is that it opened after I left Brisbane!

All pictures courtesy of Nook's blog

Introducing.... Retro Toes!!

Just finished reading a blog by a friend in Brisbane and she has just started a second blog to showcase her latest creations... Retro Toes!

Cathy had mentioned these a little while back, but I didn't really understand what she had meant until I read the blog - these are really fun and really groovy!

They are actually little clips that you can pop onto your favourite ballet flats or heels - what a great way to brighten up your shoe closet.

They could well be this seasons hottest trend!!