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!

Montage in Northbridge

I was excited to learn today that Montage will be back again. This time around they will have a pop up shop in Northbridge. Montage are a collective of designers and artists from Perth. They have some lovely handmade pieces! I am looking forward to seeing what they have on offer.

The details from the On William website are copied as follows:
Montage Collective : Pop Up Shop
Posted by The William Street Collective Inc
From: 1st of July 2011
To: 31st of July 2011
Hours: Mon - Thurs : 10am-6pm
Friday : 10am-8pm
Friday : 10am-6pm
Sun: 11am-5pm
More Info: http://www.montagecollective.blogspot.com

If you go to their blog then you will learn that the address is 224 William Street.

E and I made it to the Fremantle Pop Up and we have a whole month to make sure that we get to the Northbridge Pop Up. We should manage it.

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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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Checking out William Street

Elissa lured me out of the house today with the promise of markets. I have been feeling sorry for myself with a cold and chesty cough these last few days but I thought that a bit of sunshine and fresh (city??) air might be a good thing as the couch has moulded itself to me.

Unfortunately we were two weeks early for the markets but she did drag me from one end of William Street to another (the Northbridge section) and introduced me to a few shops I hadn't seen before.

The first was William Topp. Elissa was surprised when I told her that I had never been there before. They had lots of interesting items, and many artists and designers that I recognised including local artist Margali Dincher, Melbourne labels Otto & Spike and Mattt Bags. They had many goodies to tempt and probably it was a good thing for my wallet that I wasn't feeling too flash.


The second store was the newly opened Scraps. Their opening party was last night and Elissa was their first customer! They had some lovely Australian clothing labels as well as cool prints on their walls and it will be good to see how the shop evolves.

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Morrison Knitwear

A few weeks ago I met E in Fremantle for some shop browsing. My sister and I catch up usually over shopping and food, two of my favourite pastimes.

I am always on the search for woollen garments to wear. I have found that it is great, especially in winter, to be able to layer woollen tops! No acrylic for me thank you; I seem to have escaped the issue other people have of getting itchy when wearing wool.

I was happy to find a brown merino layer at Morrison (Made in Australia!) and I snapped it up to add to my collection of tops. My current work wardrobe is very bland, mostly blacks and charcoals so the brown changes it up slightly.

Other staple Fremantle haunts include:
- New Edition Bookshop
- Remedy
- Store
- The Home Provedore
- B&M Felt Pop-Up Store

Mount Lawley Expedition

E and I went into Mount Lawley for lunch after our visit to Made on the Left. I hadn't been for a while and thought it would be good to see what the shops there had on offer!

I found this gorgeous silk top by local designer Lin Pin at Libertine. It is brighter green in person and I love the silk detail. (My wedding dress will be Lin Pin, and I am already a fan!) Libertine stocks local designers and there are always interesting and unusual and gorgeous clothes to admire.

We also dropped into Store where I picked up a couple of pairs of Metalicus tights (Made in Australia). I am looking forward to making a statement with the red ones!


Other stores of interest where E spent her hardearned money include:
- Ruck Rover
- Zakka Box

New mud!

I headed back to Form yesterday to see what mud products had been added.

The items that had come in had been coded but not put out on display and the lady there very nicely shuttled back and forth between the shop and the store rooms to bring pieces out for me to view. It took me ages to make up my mind - in part as they had limited colours, and also because I wanted to choose something that we could use - and in the end I left with the six bowls you see above. Two red, two slate and two off white, in noodle baby size.

I thought that they would make great dessert bowls. The mud products are meant to be oven safe so I could imaging baking individual puddings in the bowls.

I shall keep an eye out for a pair in another complementary colour to bring the total up to eight for our table setting.

One thing that I learnt was that the warmer colours cost more. The red bowls were more expensive than the other two colours!

Great Form!

One of the engagement gifts that Chad and I received was a voucher for Form, a funky gallery on Murray Street. E and I went shopping yesterday; there were a few items on our agenda and one of them was for me to find something to spend the Form voucher on! Chad and I had earlier looked at their stock and he opted to leave the choice up to me.

Form have lots of nice pieces to choose from. They sell books, jewellery, bags, vases, platters, bowls, and all sorts of funky homeware products. From their website "Specialising in jewellery, glass, wood and ceramics, FORM on Murray also stocks books, bags and sculpture. Some of our most popular Australian brands include Dinosaur Designs, Fink and Mud." Other items I spotted include Mattt Bags.

There are so many pretty pieces to choose from, and they have some very high shelves with items arranged by colour. It is all very confusing and hard to decide what item would suit best!

As well as wanting something pretty for the house, I also like the something pretty to have practical value as well. I ended up speaking to the lady working there about what she would suggest. Prices are not readily displayed and the first item I considered was double the voucher amount and more than I wanted to spend on a bowl!

One of her suggestions was items from Mud Australia. Having already confessed to loving the Mud range I was easily swayed. The selection and colours on display were limited, and I was told that they have a new shipment in to be coded and put out for sale this week! The items in question included cake stands, so I will definitely be interested to see what they are like.

The outcome is that at the end of the week I will be heading back to Form to see what new mud products are there. Hopefully I can find a combination of colours and items to keep me happy for a while!

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Perth boutiques

Last night I had a look in a couple of Perth boutiques, tu and Miin.

Tu is in Shafto Lane next to Pigeonhole. Last night I learnt that Tu is moving to 218A William Street, Northbridge shortly. They are currently having a sale at their store, and there are lots of interesting items in their store - clothes and accessories. They sell their own label Tu as well as lots of other Australian labels.

Miin is on Murray Street, closer to the malls. I have had a few Miin pieces in my wardrobe. They are locally designed and made, and I was also scouting out to see if they had any dresses that could be suitable for a bridesmaid or two! Miin are opening up a new store in Mount Lawley on Walcott Street.

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Table dressing

Our friends L&C wished to give C and me something extra special as an engagement gift. The brief was for something that we would look at and go "How cool! L&C have great taste and gave us that as a gift". (Or something like that.)

As the date of our party approached I managed to have less and less interesting ideas - apart from the fact that I love the Mud Australia products! - and in the end my suggestion of a voucher to a funky homewares store was taken up.

We received a voucher from Monde in Claremont, that being very much a funky homewares store and somewhere to buy Mud Australia. They have lots of cool and interesting pieces, including Alessi, Mud Australia and Chilewich to name a few.

I have long been an admirer of the Chilewich tableware, however the cost of them has meant that any purchase is deferred until I could justify the expense. Suddenly, I had a very good excuse to spend some money and buy some placemats!

Initially we purchased rectangular placemats in the Bamboo style, Pepper coloured. Once we got them home however and arranged them on our square table we realised that they were too large - the edges overlapped! I also thought a darker colour would look more effective against the jarrah. C went back to the store and they were happy to exchange them for Smoke coloured square placemats.

So now we have some trendy placemats and we can think of L&C whenever we dress our table up with them.

Thank you!

New camera...

I checked out a few cameras today. I went to Plaza Cameras and spoke to the very helpful Harry!

I saw the Olympus mju-8000 and mju-8010, as well as the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT1 and DMC-TR7. I really liked the DMC-TR7, and when I did some investigating online, I realised that there was a new version!!

So, the Panasonic DMC-TR10 is my favourite at the moment! It's made in Japan (always a plus) and has a Leica lens, 12x optical zoom and lots and lots of megapixels.

My current camera is an Olympus mju-300 that I bought back in 2003 before I went over to Europe. It has served me well - and indeed still serves me! - however I am after a camera that will better compensate for my lack of talent when it comes to photography - low light situations and sharper focus.

Image from Panasonic

I heart felt!

I saw B&M felt at the Unwrapped Market in Leederville just before Christmas. I really liked their felt product, and at the time was extra keen to get some for our table as a centrepiece. I thought that the Pepper colour would look good as well as being practical, but they did not have any in stock in 3mm.

Time ticked on and C's sister K gave us table clothes as a Christmas gift - tablecloth in RED with matching napkins, and square place mats made of small plastic discs held together with fishing wire. The urge for FELT subsided somewhat.

I would still like some! They have eight new colours on offer, so even more colours to get confused over. They are also opening up a shop in Fremantle in a few weeks, read here for details.

Until then, check out their store.

Photo from B&M Felt Blog

O Christmas tree

Early in December I was halfheartedly looking for a new Christmas tree, as the tree that I currently have is about 30cm tall and quite forlorn looking. Our mother bought it when E & I were both overseas for Christmas one year, and she happily passed it onto me the following year as I had finally moved out of home! I have been meaning to buy a new, more normal sized tree for a while, however it is not high on my list of priorities and having a tree that fits on top of a table has its advantages in a small house!

When I was last in Melbourne, N bought some lovely wooden Christmas tree decorations made in Europe. They were gorgeous, and I wanted some of my own but could not justify it without having a tree that was worthy of hanging them on. I controlled my spending urge and admired N's.

So... what better type of tree to hang wooden decorations than a wooden tree!?

This tree by local design store little design horse in North Perth.


The ultra trendy Buro Tree. Looks like a lot of fun but I am not sure how well my decorations would look on them!


A tree appropriate for your partridge - this pear tree by Pulp Creative Paper.

Christmas

We celebrated Christmas within the immediate family yesterday evening, once E had finished work and made it to Mum and Dad's. E arrived with her Christmas sack (that is, a green shopping bag!), and started pulling gifts out. There were a large number with my name on them. This is very exciting however I only had one with her name on it and was starting to get a bit concerned. Her presents for me were lots of smaller, useful items, and it was lovely to open them one at a time.


I received lots of nice useful items from E. The apple you see is made by Craftapalooza, a local Perth producer. I see them regularly at markets, and I love their apple pincushions. I kept telling E that I would buy one once we had more room for a sewing machine, craft etc. Obviously she decided to take matters into her own hands and I now have a lovely apple of my own!

To complement the apple, E also gave me a book, called The Crafty Minx. For once, it is Australian so directions and materials should be self explanatory. I hope. The projects in the book seem fairly straightforward, so I will hopefully find it full of inspirational ideas and a good start to making my own items. You can buy such lovely fabrics from local screen printers, and it would be nice to be able to turn them into beautiful items. There are also some lovely ideas for blankets and scarves using old woollen jumpers!


Making items out of wool reminds me of a Victorian label Maiike. They make lovely toys, blankets, scarves and other goodies out of recycled wool! Such beautiful products! I have seen them at Remedy in Fremantle and Leederville. Such lovely produts, they are also very inspiring.

Distracted

My sister E knows many of the trendy shops tucked away around Perth. She is the one who took me to Distracted in Leederville. okay, so they are not really tucked away, however they are a little walk from the Oxford/Vincent Street intersection.


It was there that I fell in love with Dibbern. I have started to collect sets of teacup, saucer and cake plate, and when I saw the Dibbern colours I thought that I may just give up searching and collect all of their colours! I have two Dibbern sets at the noment, in Pacific Blue and Seawater Green.

I also love the look of their bowls and the soup tureen, and this photo is in my favourite colours! (The Dibbern pictures shown here are from their website.)

To check out the different colours available, go to the Beclau Homewares website and play with the styles and colours.

Back to Distracted... they are sending through emails for the twelve days of Christmas, showing different products that they have on offer. The seventh day is the cutest little robots! I just had to write about them.