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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An inspirational lady

I recently finished (re-)reading the autobiography of Dame Margaret Joan Anstee. She is such an inspiriational lady! Born in an era when women were begrudged an education, she forged a career in the United Nations and rose to the level below Secretary-General. Her life was full of many firsts. She is one of the trailblazers who showed us the way.

She worked in many interesting countries at all stages of career, including Chile, Morocco, Columbia and Angola, and rubbed shoulders will people from all different walks of life.

An amazing lady.

Read an interview with Dame Anstee.

Hobart

After seeing a small part of Tasmania, it was time to hit be a tourist in Hobart! I had a few items on my hitlist and wanted to have a walk around the city centre.

Of particular note was Thumbprint, a jewellery shop that was closing down. They had some gents dress rings that caught my eye, and I asked what the largest size was. C has quite large fingers and my experience here in Perth has been that the largest size they carry is an X... his ring size has been measured as Z+2 (or Z+3) so about four-five sizes up. I was stoked to find out that they had several around the Z+2 size so I snapped these two up.


I was also in search of a book or two to read, as I had finished the two I had brought from home. I wandered into the local Angus & Robertson... then wandered back out again after I found that they were selling the Popular Penguins, with RRP of $9.95 clearly on the back, for $10.99. I was much more impressed with the Hobart Bookshop at Salamanca, and added to my library there and at the ABC Shop.


Absurdistan is by ABC reporter Eric Campbell, and covers his time as a foreign correspondant for the ABC based in Moscow and in Beijing. I recommend this book. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and it made me think about the world.


Saturday mornings in Hobart means the Salamanca Market. I did not realise just how big and how popular it would be! The crowd was claustrophobic and quite slow. There was however an abundance of locally made timber goods, foodstuff, fresh fruit and vegetables, jewellery, clothing and more.


I was very much overwhelmed however I did manage to find a few lovely items. A cube bag by Sashiko Design.

Organic bamboo onesies by Sahara Bloom.

I also bought some locally made silver earrings as well as a biscuit assortment to take to Easter Sunday lunch!

I was all shopped out so took a detour past Arthur's Circus on my way back to the hotel to get dresed up for the wedding!