From Costco...with love

Went for a little road trip to Melbourne on Monday for some Costco lovin'.  Apart from buying Nashi pears which came from China, here's a little look-see at what you Costco virgins are missing out on...

chocky puds by the pallet load

spam to the left of me spam to the right

cubby for giant children

a gigantic kayak

cakeloads of calories

random drum kit

75,000 choc chip muffins

nanna's apple pies en masse !

yep, Reese's peanut butter cups by the bucketload

random asian guy playing a grand piano

the legend himself, Mr Potatohead

and to top it all off - THE BABY JESUS!

Costco - what's not to love?

New Bsirius just in!

Ok, the handbag and wallet fetish continues. 


Check out the latest offering from Bsirius, a Melbourne based accessories label.


All Bsirius bags are vegan and are manufactured with an ethical mindset.  This season's colours are just beautiful with muted red & blue solid colours combined with complimentary floral and denim accents.


They are all available on our website here.

Fold Over Bag ~ $99

Coin Purse ~ $30

Zip Up Wallet ~ $88

Race Bag ~ $90

Patchwork Bag ~ $120

Little Bag ~ $94

Clutch Bag ~ $88

Big Bag ~ $170

There are other colourways available on our website, this is just a lil sneek peak.


Enjoy!

The wait is over....

Rapture is here!


We are super excited to announce the release of a brand new line from Najo.   If you are a jewellery lover, you would already be familiar with the Najo jewellery brand that we carry in the shop and I'm sure that you'll love their latest offering, Rapture.


Rapture combines luxury leather bracelets and a range of distinctive detachable charms, allowing you to create your own unique look.


Wear one bracelet with a single charm for a sophisticated, minimalist look or wear multiple bracelets and charms to achieve a more layered look.

You can choose large charms to make a statement or small charms to be more discrete, or choose your own combination to simply be you!  As the charms are all detachable, you can also wear them on a necklace or leather gamuza.  We are giving away a free leather gamuza valued at $15 in either red or black to all customers who purchase a leather bracelet & charm from the Rapture range, so that you can interchange your charms between your bracelet or your gamuza.

Free red or black leather gamuza - length 1 metre

Rapture was only released this week and is available both in our shop and on our website here.


There are 36 charms in the range and 3 types of leather bracelets in varying colours and sizes.  Below are a few of my favourites.

This was our first weekend with the range and it is was completely hectic with bracelets and charms flying out the door.  It truly is a beautiful range and the style and quality, as always with Najo, is first class.


Enjoy!

If you go down to the woods today...

What do you get if you cross a jack rabbit and an antelope?

A jackalope of course!  

And that's just what we got here in the Portal yo....

We dressed up as ninjas last night and made a woodland scene in the shop and here's the end result....jackalopes, owls, bambis, squirrels, mooseys, sausage doggies....the lot.

Before you get freaked out.  We didn't kill anything, they are all fake.

Kyla and I went on a reconnaissance mission to Victoria Park in Daylesford last night and found some moss, logs and pine cones and staged the jackalope and the sausage dog around their own little camp fire....because, let's face it kids, spring time has sprung and it's a campin' time!

We are also selling the book "Unlikely Friendships" ($20) which you can see in the background.  It's an oh so cool book about the formed friendships between different species of animals....and the stories are sooooo beautiful..."queue tears now".

Everything is available in store, it hasn't made the website yet but we will get it all up over the next week or so.  If you would like to know pricing of anything, just email me here.

By the way, did you notice the Owl?  Just call that Chapter 7.

The haunting continues....

Chapter 4. of the Owlly Stevie Nicks magic for you...I painted this painting a couple of months ago. 

It's been hanging in the hallway the whole time.  My friend Lesley walks past it every time she comes to my house, which is on average, say, twice a week.  Anyway, on Sunday just gone, she walks past it and goes, "oh my god, that Owl painting is beautiful....is that new?  where did you get it?  who painted it?"  I'm like, "dude, it's mine, I painted it, it's been there for ages....you've walked passed it like 30 times"  Lesley goes, "oh wow, I just got back from a road trip up north and I was talking to a friend of mine about the symbolism of having an owl visit you..."  No shit.  I said, "have you been reading my blog, about my owly shenanigans?".  She's like, "no, I've been on the road...but I want to buy that owl painting though, can you put a red sticker on it for me?"  Sweet as apples!! 


So there goes Chapter 4.....


And now I'm gonna sucker punch you with Chapter 5!


Today I went to the letterbox and there was a letter addressed to me.


Inside it was an early birthday card from a friend Becc together with this beautiful message....

along with a hand drawn picture of this little guy...

check out the edges all the way round.....connie connie connie...


I've been feeling really blessed in the friendship arena lately.  I must have done something in a past life to have such cool people wanna call me "friend".  Thank you my beautiful friends, I hold you high...


Well, I'm not sure if there will be any more Chapters in my book of owls...but I remain open hearted and joyful for their magic thus far.


As far as Stevie Nicks fitting into the owl equation...she doesn't....but I reckon that old witchy tambo swinging hippy would have had her fair share of owly shit go down too....surely....all those feathers and leather and top hats and lace are a dead giveaway I tell ya..


Actually, this is a pissa.  Just as I finished typing the above paragraph,  the heck of it, I just googled "Stevie Nicks Owl"...and look what came up.


http://bit.ly/mOCRTb


She's a chick who does a Stevie Nicks Tribute Show which she calls  "Mystic Owl - Stevie Nicks Tribute".  And you can listen to her  audio!!  Does it get any more tragically cool?


Actually, I am gonna call that Chapter 6!


Later.

It's a miracle!

Ok, so I posted last week about going to see the band Owl Eyes at the Palais here in Hepburn Springs.  It was a wiggy night out, despite some dude standing in front of me as soon as the band began and when I got up from my table to get him to move, I accidentally pulled the table cloth off the table and smashed all the glasses and spilt a whole votive of candle wax on my brand new jeans.....


But that's not the story here.  The story has a new chapter.  


I got to Chapter 2 in my last post, where I shared that I was walking home (ok maybe stumbling) and I saw a bird fly over head, out the front of the next door neighbour's house and land right above me.  I stopped to check it out, and to my disbelief it was a fricken owl.  No shit.  There were some chicks having a fag out the front of the neighbour's house and I whispered about the owl and one of them came out and we stood, drunkenly, ogling at the majestic beauty.  It checked us out, flew off, did a 360 degree swoop and came back and landed there again.  We checked eachother out again, and then I continued on my way.  I have lived here nearly 7 years and never ever seen an owl here.  A dirty old maggie, sure, but negatory on the owl sightings.


So, here comes Chapter 3.  Yesterday, exactly 7 days after my owl fiasco, I was sitting in the sun out the front.  I was playing with the back of my hair because I had had it cut a few days earlier and was wondering whether the hairdresser hadn't graded it properly and it felt a bit chunky.  I go to Kyla, "hey, check the back of my hair out, does it look weird, it feels chunky, like she didn't cut it right."  Kyla takes a look and goes, "Holy shit, you gotta check this out".  I thought the hairdresser must have given me a dodgy rat's tail or something unbeknown to me, so Kyla went inside and grabbed the camera.  


Before I post the photo of the back of my head, I just wanna show you this.

This is a horn owl lamp that we sell in the shop.


And this my friends is the photo of the back of my head.

Freaky much?


Could be worse I guess.....could have been 666.


I am having a tortilla for lunch.....guess what I'm lookin' for?


Will there be a Chapter 4?


I'll just have to wait and see.

New Nancybird....nice

Here's the latest offering from Nancybird....divine.

Limited Edition Maya Bag - for more info. click here

Scarf bag - for more info. click here.

Spring Racing Clutch - for more info. click here

Embossed bag - for more info. - click here

Limited Edition Kalbarri Wallet - for more info. click here

West Bag - for more info. click here

Oak Wallet - for more info click here

Bedford Wallet - for more info. click here

This season Emily has done both her Spring/Summer 2012 Range and her Classic Range as well as a first time project of a limited edition range.  It is a collaboration between Emily and some of her artist friends.  It was inspired by native orchids which grow on her partner's property in the north east of Victoria.  She also spoke with Bush Heritage Australia, who are an organisation who buy land of high conservation value, and manage the flora and fauna of that land. They manage land throughout Australia and they suggested some orchids that were endangered, and the collaboration grew from there.  Her friends produced watercolour paintings and illustrations around the theme of endangered orchids.  Emily then purchased the artwork and also paid the artists 10% of all profits from the range.  She then had fabric produced of that artwork, which is a core aspect of the limited edition range.  Nancybird are donating 20% of the profits of the limited edition range to Bush Heritage Australia.  The leather component of the range is kangaroo leather as Emily believes it has a lower environmental impact to the Australian bush.  They are part of an extremely small run, with only 30 handbags and 50 wallets made of each style.

Look, I could bang on about it all for ages but that's basically the low down.

This is a small taste, there are loads more, and all are available in store and on our website.


If you're down with the limited edition range, don't delay because each shop is only allocated one item of each style and once they're gone....they're gone....

  

You'll just have to "make do"....

Me as a Kid: "Mum, can I have a pony?"


Mum: "No Connie, we are poor so you will just have to make one out of cardboard".


Me: "But mum, all the other kids have ponies".

Mum: "Cry me a river".


Me:"My life sucks".

Sound familiar?

Well, there's no need for cardboard ponies to be second class citizens any longer!

Thanks to Makedo!

makedo is a reusable connector system that enables people to build and create by using found or reclaimed materials. It aims to inspire social change through playful creativity by injecting value into objects that might otherwise be considered waste.

With the makedo parts and a bit of playful creativity, people of any skill level can take everyday materials such as cardboard boxes, plastic containers and fabric scraps and connect them to create new things  – from cufflinks to costumes, rocket ships to furniture, stage sets to temporary shelters. 


makedo is made from nylon.  When recycled, the integrity of nylon isn’t degraded so the same material can be used over and over again without having to add in new virgin materials (as is the case when you recycle other kinds of plastic).

You can buy them in Freeplay kits, or specialty kits such as robots, flowers and dollhouses which include stickers.

Below are some wiggy photos of stuff people have made which appear on the Makedo website.

In the shop we currently stock the Freeplay kits which are $20,   the Robot and Flower kits which are $15 each and the Dollhouse kit which is $20.  They are not on our website yet, but you can email me here if you want me to hook you up.  They are fricken awesome.


And by the way, my old lady was never that mean.