My Upmarket Haul

E and I had a very enjoyable Upmarket this time around. I am not sure if it was because the crowds were smaller or because I came planning to spend and E to save! Whatever the reason we got partway through the market and stopped spending as we had run out of cash. I bought from old favourites and found a few new favourites as well!

I have cards and wrapping paper from Huckleberry Hill, chocolate coated orange segments from Whistler's Chocolates, gorgeous organic cotton blankie and onesie from inuk designs, organic cotton tea towel with instructional message by Tex & Joe, and fabric pack form Old Grey House.

We also played a small part in supporting the food stalls and sampled chocolate macarons from Rochelle Adonis, chai latte from Chai Baba and a coffee.

Other special favourites include Mel P Designs, Miss Riseborough, Monster Alphabets, Mokoh Designs, Pigeonhole, Tall Rabbit and Future Shelter.

To be honest though there were so many lovely pieces that we were spoiled for choice. It was probably a good thing that we ran out of cash!

We learnt that Stacey from inuk designsand Marianne of Tex & Joe have combined to create Foxes of Fancy. Located in Mosman Park they "showcase uniquely designed earth friendly products including homewares, fashion, skincare and other truly unique products all handmade in Perth, Western Australia". It is now on E's and my list of places to check out!

Wandering up William Street

Yesterday evening I went for a wander up William Street. We had been in Northbridge for the afternoon for a team bonding session and after I felt that I had bonded enough with my work colleagues I set off in search of a shopping adventure. Yeah!

My first stop was New Edition Bookshop. I had not been into the store since it opened, more a reflection of how infrequently I go shopping these days.
(I just looked for the blog post that I wrote about the opening and learnt that it was back in December that they opened. I really must get out more.)

I love to read and I have an ever expanding collection of books. I tend to head to a certain (solvent) generic book store and pick up a book or two from their shelves. Lately though I have struggled to be inspired by the selection and it takes me a while to find something that I would like to read. Last night, whilst standing in front of the shelves of literature and New Edition I felt spoiled for choice! Eventually I settled on The Count of Monte Christo by Alexandre Dumas but I now know where I will be heading when I have finished the 1243 pages.

New Edition list a Top 10 Books on their website. I was disturbed to realise that the only book on the list that I have read is not The Very Hungry Caterpiller as you might expect, but rather Lolita.

I could have stayed all evening in New Edition however I thought that I should check out the rest of the On William group.

Right at the end of my trek was William Topp. I was inspired by all of the pretty homewares and was reminded by their Otto & Spike selection of beanies and scarves and warm things that I in fact owned an Otto & Spike beanie that had not been worn yet this winter.

In amongst their collection of pretty items, including many Australian designed and made pieces, I was intrigued to find a couple of glass Sunbeam Mix Master bowls similar to the one that I have! I now know where to go if I (or C) ever break my small mixing bowl.

I added to my crafty book collection and purchase Vintage Fabric Accessories by Kaoru Ishikawa. It is a lovely collection of patterns for girly accessories like clasp purses, card wallets and bags. The book has gorgeous photos of different versions of the items in many fabrics as well as some great photos to illustrate step by step the process of following the patterns. Hopefully they will be simple and detailed enough for a novice like me to follow!

The other stores that I popped into were tu and Wild Lily Empire. The items that struck my eye in tu were gorgeous little onesies made in Australia by Urchin. The beautiful Australian made personal care products of Tonic Australia stood out for me in Wild Lily Empire.

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Out on a Limb

E and I headed out today to check out a new lunch venue and shops! We made our way to Maylands and Sherbert Cafe and Bake Shop.

Before we had lunch, we visited a shop called Out on a Limb. A couple of handmade designers whose blogs that I follow, Red Revival and Eucalypt Homewares, have recently supplied goods to the store.

The store states that their "ethos is to sell predominantly australian and new zealand made eco friendly sustainable products and to support local artisan talents to create an interesting mix of gifts and homewares". Awesome!

E and I found many beautiful items to admire while we were there. I came away with a stack of Blueberry Paper cards. There were so many lovely designs to choose from and so I grabbed a handful!

The collection was eclectic, with an assortment of homewares, clothing and accessories. For more details best go to their facebook page, as they seem to update this with information on what is in stock.

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Getting ready for winter...

It has been very warm here in Perth, with temperatures above 30C here for the last four months it feels like! Tomorrow is meant to be 21C and raining and so in honour of the coming winter I randomly ordered some tights. I am now looking forward to them showing up, and the weather being cool enough to wear tights.

I was inspired by this post. I had seen Tightology previously and checked out their website but I am fairly sure that the collection I looked at last year was mostly footless tights. In winter I like to have my feet covered and so the previous collection did not tempt me. I try to buy tights that are made in Australia and Tightology tick a few boxes. Their legwear is made in Australia using organic materials. The packaging is 100% recycled. Environmental inks. Awesome!

Here are the two styles that I ordered. Strangely I steered away from the green and yellow and have ended up with the muted colours of red and grey. Now, if they had blue tights with a pattern that I liked...



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Aussie made sportswear

On a recent trip down south, N took me to Brava, a shoe and sports clothing shop in Albany. My eye was caught by a cute white lycra jacket and I was even more excited to see that it was made in Australia! As lovely as the white was I do not think it very practical for exercise and I found that the jacket also comes in red or black.

I settled on black as it suits my conservative nature and also I thought that the red was too pink. Besides, the black I can wear to hockey in the winter as it will complement my uniform.

I am definitely keen to keep an eye out for more of the Bella Bustiere product. I had thought that all sportswear was Made in China (or Thailand etc) and I hadn't looked too hard to find something locally made. I do not think that their entire range is MiA (and the website does not list where items are made) and so I shall have to be selective.

There are a few stockists here in Perth or you can buy online on the website. Maybe the clothes will inspire me to exercise more frequently!!

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Nelson Molloy

I am pretty excited. E and I found a new designer when we were over in Brisbane - Nelson Molloy! We followed Kylie's Brisbane guide to the West End, and fell into the Nelson Molloy Boutique.

They had some lovely, funky pieces. All flowy and floaty and creative. I admired the dresses but I am on a dress diet for the moment - at least until my expensive white one is made and worn!

I picked up these two pieces. The first, brown skirt was a sample off the sale rack (score!) and the second was brand new from the workshop (downstairs to the boutique). It has pockets on either side and a different shape to what I normally wear. The sizing is quite small, either that or I have really eaten too many meat pies.

Both skirts are wool, my current favourite fabric. They are unlined, and I am guessing that is due to the climate in Brisbane (it was 27C last Saturday!).



I have enough skirts now. I have to stop buying. (I have a couple ordered that I am still waiting to be delivered and that will be it. I promise.)

More on our Brisbane shopping adventures to come.