roll up, roll up it's giveaway time....

sssshh don't tell Nick that I've stolen a few things from the shop. There's one thing that I can't find that will be added to Arthur's showbag giveaway. So in the meantime please leave us a comment if you would like a piece of the above. Included is a photo by me, card, magnets, elvis calendar from 1966, clown toss toy..... and the winner will be picked at random, by some unknown and unbiased process. Eg: "hey Nick, pick a number between 1 and ?"....I'm thinking you have until Thursday, when I'm back in the shop to post a comment and all shall be decided.

get ready for post 100

I must admit that shop sitting can be a tad boring at times. I'm quite sure others in retail will agree. At least nowadays we have the internet to kill a few hours. But I also try to be creative or do more useful things while I'm tied to the shop front. Today I managed to make a start on photographing some vintage toys, start an idea for an exhibition and then this afternoon a lovely lady came in with a box full of goodies for us to sell here. Nothing like a good rummage through other people's possessions and to make a purchase or two, to brighten up the day. Then I get to re-arrange and photograph. Such as the dog clip and monkey head. It was getting dark and the exposure's a little off, but you get the drift. If we didn't have the shop, I definitely would like to be a stylist/photographer for other people. Oh this is post 99, so as promised tomorrow or the next day should bring a little joy to at least one of you out there.

all the way from norway

ooooh these arrived in the mail today, all the way from norway, thanks to the two talented ladies at darling clementine and we are the only place this side of the world to be selling them. (Although if other people/retailers see them here, I may have to poke them in the eye with a stick.) We've got 12 of their card designs and if I get a chance I'll try to put a few online. Their cards are perfect to frame and given half a chance we will be doing so.
Oh and by the way, if you ever see anything on our blog, website or flickr sites and are interested in purchasing etc, please send us an email, as you never know your luck in a big city.

up for sale

We managed a night away earlier this week in the countryside at Nick's brother's farm. A bit of horse feeding, sheep patting and piggy oinking. It's lovely to escape the city at times.
Not much to report this week, no sneaky finds as yet. I did add the photo below to our bigcartel site as well as this one of Mickey. I'm planning to do a series of photographs of vintage toys from our collection. I just need to find a little daylight and non-Arthur times to try and get it done.
I'm also thinking of having another photography exhibition in the shop to be a part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival. So I better get off my butt and do some time planning.

would any buy ?

Today I grabbed a few new (old) items and photographed them to add to our bigcartel shop, such as these cute egg cups. But I then decided that I quite liked the actual photograph of the egg cups as a diptych. So here's the question, would anyone out there want to buy a photo of eggcups?

blog number two of goodness

I first saw these plates on flickr, not realising they were brand spanking new. So when I saw them again at uppercase, I knew I had to have a set for me, as well as for the shop. So a little internet hunting and shazam, now in our shop. They're melamine, not microwave friendly but they are cute and a little oddly disturbing.

which to blog first?

oooh how great. A wee box of 20 (not all shown) children's colouring books. They are partly used, but who cares when the covers are this great.

new open hours

Now that the chilly weather and early sun sets are fast approaching, we have decided to change our opening and closing hours slightly. They are now Thursday to Sunday, 11am to 5pm. And also by appointment. If you happen to forget and are left standing at a closed door waiting for us, please try ringing the doorbell (we are more than likely around.) Failing that, our favourite local cafe Fandango is less than a 5 minute walk away at 97 Errol Street. Arthur and I shared a very tasty tuna melt and cup cake there today. Yum.

more on bigcartel

We have finally uploaded a few more items to our online shop. Included are these cute 'learn to sew' cards by moda home.

a little idea

The shop has been a little quiet of late. I'm trying not to take it to heart, because of all the lovely people who have visited our shop (both on-line and real-world) who have been extremely positive and love what we do. We also have some regular customers already so I can't complain too much. (Except when ye olde bills are due.) Apparently lots of other folk / businesses in Melbourne are quiet too. So in times like these I re-arrange the shop and come up with new display ideas, of which I'm sharing here. So if you have any old tambourines lying around at home, I think they look good displayed together on a wall. Much like other collections people have grouped on walls....think: clocks (like us), plates (see here) or even bundt pans (see here).
So I have put the tambourines up for sale at big cartel just in case you like it too.

remember these?

Oh to be 8 years old, hooning around the footpath, tripping over, scraping knees and breaking wrists again....pleading with mum that these lace up skates (that you put over your shoes), just weren't cool and that you needed speed skates or those fancy white boot skates with red wheels. (My sister got the white ones and I the speed skates).
We have been rather busy here at Arthur's Circus and sometimes feel that we really need to get our skates on, to do all the things we want to do. We are in the process of having some great features coming out about us / the shop / our home. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to spill the beans on things that are yet to come out. So I'll keep quiet and give you this link to where we have been featured recently. So thankyou to Virginia and Home Beautiful.

for the efficient housewife

How sweet is this? A vintage chalkboard for the babysitter. The original accompanying paper promotes an "exciting new home accessory for the efficient housewife". Now given that I'm pretty disorganised, this can only improve things at our house. Sometimes inefficient time spent on the internet turns out to be quite efficient after all. Thankyou ebay, sometimes (not very often) I still like you. See a close up here.

raiding the shelves

We have expanded our bigcartel shop to include more items. So over the next few days I'll be photographing and adding more vintage, handmade and just plain old cute things to it. Although with Arthur trying to help me out, things may be a little slow going. Eg: Arthur is selecting stuff and supposedly putting them on a background, or in reality, in a bag and running off with them to have a pretend picnic. The joy and not so joy of running your own business so close to home.

how many posts?

Okay I thought I was approaching 100 posts, but then I checked and it seems I had saved a few as drafts, without realising. So I think they are included in the 100. But then I deleted a few of the drafts and I think I deleted the posts too. It's confused me, so I stopped deleting and I'm back at post 97 (I think). Der, all I needed to do was look at my sidebar and realise that last year I had made 40 posts and this year 47. So I'm only at 87 posts So I'll leave it at that, and you'll have to wait a wee while longer for a giveaway. It may include a magnet set I've been making. As I finally found a cheap online magnet store that had the size I was after and wasn't through ebay. So I've been taking photos, had the badge maker out, super glue and lots of old games bits and pieces out and making a mess. You can find them online at big cartel or etsy.

oh lars

Last night we managed a night out without child. Dinner at the town hall pub, followed by lars and the real girl and choc tops at the cinema nova. Oh what a fantastic movie this is. I don't proclaim to be a movie critic by any means....but the shorts / trailer really don't do the film the justice it deserves. It's funny and sad and a lovely story and not what I expected. Hand claps.....and yay to Lars.

yet another shop photograph

Yet more holes in our walls....Vintage children's book illustration pages. I am always in two minds with what to do with old falling-apart children's books. They have such lovely illustrations that are forever sat on bookshelves and occasionally glanced at and admired. I love them framed on walls but then wonder about the lost story that accompanies the images. Ideally it would be great to copy them but that would infringe upon copyright I'm sure. Especially for us to sell them. We also don't want to be a shop that sells photocopies. So please know that we sell original prints, posters, artworks etc and when they are not, we will make it obvious so you know too.

more stuff

I have been making some more magnets, this time using photographs I have taken of old squeaky toys. I'll be selling these at our etsy shop me thinks. Today I'm working on photographs and changing a few things around at our big cartel shop too. As I am constantly re-arranging stock in our real world store, it makes sense to do it online too, for all of you who can't make it in person.
And the other image are of new letterpress prints by yee haw, which arrived yesterday in the mail. So we have a few available to buy. I love their work. Email me if you're interested. They're $55AUD each.

new prints woo hoo

We have put some new artwork up on our walls. I finally had a day to go framing and make a start on all the delightful artwork we have lurking behind the scenes. First pic is of 2 vintage French safety posters for the railway and the other is a screenprint by Canadian Artist / Illustrator Gary Taxali, whose work I love. Ooops left my umbrella in the shot.