life in cool lands..

We've been finding some ace books recently (totally un-shop related). I love lots of old illustrations such as these from an old scientific pictorial knowledge book.
I haven't felt like blogging, uploading to flickr etc much of late. Trying to find the time to do all house chores, running a small business and entertain our 3 and half year old has become a little tricky. He just seems to love getting into mischief whenever our backs are turned. Today whilst I thought he was playing in his room (and I was in the room next door), he was actually smearing half a tub of zinc cream on his toys and dresser. Trying to make dinner last night, whilst he was out of sight but in ear shot, instead of colouring / drawing on paper, he thought it was better to colour in his hands and I mean completely.
Waaaa..... so not sure how much time I have to blog at the moment. We'll see...

finally....

Today I finished wiring up and hanging these lovely screenprinted postcards by Anke Weckmann. They're from a set of eleven. I had bought these for the shop quite a while ago, but there always seems something else to frame by the time Nick or I find the time to frame things. There's still another three to go with these ones....
And on another note, I have a question to pose. Recently I made a wholesale purchase from a company from overseas (who shall remain nameless) and their product didn't live up to my and my customer's expectations as they had noticeable 'imperfections' shall we say. My question is this, would you expect a full refund including postage costs? A partial refund for the product amount only? Offered to be sent a replacement item? Or just grumble to anyone who would listen?
You can probably guess that I am none to happy with the outcome and their response. I guess that with the internet you can never be guaranteed that what you see in a product (often photoshopped) photograph is what you shall receive.

soapy business

These arrived yesterday in our shop. And they're oh so ace. Yes it's a moustache soap on a stick. Available in blonde, brunette, black and red. These are made from vegan glycerin and natural colours and flavours, perfect for them dirty children. A lovely lady called Kelly makes these in the USA. She makes loads of different soap designs (with 2 young boys in tow). So I've chosen the soapstaches, pickles and ice cream sandwhich soaps for our shop. I may even get a few more of her designs before Christmas. False teeth soap for Grandma anyone?

card making machine

Making cards, making cards.....years ago when I decided that I wanted to go to university and study to be a photographer, one of my reasons was so I could take good pictures to put on cards. Simple really, no grand plans of where it would take me. 10 or so years later the thought came back to me. And lo and behold I have my own shop to do just that. That way I don't have to make those scary phonecalls (or emails these days), clutch product in sweaty fingers and nervously approach them scary shop keepers. And here they are a series of 6 photographs of five squeaky toys, and one roly poly bear missing a nose. He's my favourite and was my Mum's or Aunts from when they were little. I plan to print these up on either canvas or mount and frame them. No doubt I'll blog about it when that gets done. In the meantime I'm selling the set of cards over at our bigcartel shop.

new bag vs boxing gloves

So what do boxing gloves have in common with my new bag from kara smith ? Nothing at all I tell you, except I will bop you on the nose if you try and pinch my bag. I spied it on Kara's blog last week, ummed, aaahed for all of 2 minutes and then hit that buy button. How ace is that fabric? I love Kara's bags, they're handmade with love and vintage fabrics up in the Blue Mountains. We stock a few of her bags in our shop, but you can peek at her website and see all the loveliness yourself in the comfort of your own home (being chilly and winter and all in Australia.) Now I just need to find the time, a long lost social life and a snazzy outfit to show off my bag.

shop update

I am in the process of adding a few new (but old) items to our bigcartel shop. I've also spent a wee bit of today making some new cards. These cards have images from a vintage children's annual. Sadly the annual was falling apart, but the cover was great and there are some great illustrations, such as thie pic above. How cute is that starfish? Some may call it procrastination, I call it 'more fun than doing end of year accounting'.

the man is handy

A short blog for today as I'm a little tired, as our wee Arthur has decided that waking up between 5.30 and 6.00 am is a good thing. Clearly I do not. Instead I'm showing the latest cabinet displaying wares in the shop. It was found by Nick dumped near a friends house and Nick being Nick couldn't let it sit and rot, so he stripped, sanded and painted it green and ta dah now displaying vintage night lights. I like it.

hold on to your hats

we have a whopping seven page spread of our home in the latest Marie Claire magazine here in Australia. I've scanned the pages and they are over at our flickr site (see link at the side) for anyone interested in taking a peek. It's rather exciting (and a little daunting at the same time) and who'd have thought that when we opened our shop around 9 months ago, it would lead to being featured in the magazines that we have. So a big thankyou to everyone for their support thus far.