SPLINK

This was a public service announcement UK style that played frequently during Sean from Anorak's formative years.

Explains a lot huh!

The dust has settled..

We were closed three out of the last six Trading Days & I felt an explanation may be due.

I am sure you were aware that some pretty hardcore Dust Storms swept over NSW & QLD last week TWICE.

Anyways...we were too stressed at the time to think to take photos of how the dust impacted the shop.

Luckily the shop was nowhere near as trashed as our little cottage!

I did remember to take some quick shots of the impact on our home before we spent days & days returning it to it's formal glory.

This is one of our Expedit shelves after we had cleaned the top shelf off. You can see where our poor CDs were on the shelf!!

This is the top of my dressing table (with the ghosts of my jewellery boxes!) I know! It looks like it is coated in ash!!


Here is how my dressing table usually looks!
Couldn't possibly have only icky images in my Blog hey!

I hope this explains why we were closed on Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday!!!!

It must be love!

I have a new crush - on a store called Little Shop of.
Almost makes me homesick for Melbourne actually!
After a very intense week (more about that next blog!) it was a most welcome distraction to receive a surprise gift - sent just because I follow these very lovely folk on Twitter!!
http://twitter.com/littleshopof

This is where you can find their physical shop:

Or you can buy gorgeous treats from their online store:

http://www.littleshopof.com/


Here is what they very kindly sent to me:

A spunky pair of perspex earrings starring Red Riding Hood & The Big Bad Wolf by Melbourne Designers Morgan & Jane!

And a scrumptious necklace with a pendant that immediately brought Susy Pow from http://zines.wordpress.com/ to mind!

I am in a happy place right now!!!

Anorak's latest offering.... "Example#44"

The first print layer in black.

The second print layer was the yellow

(in the area of contact so to speak.)And, finally, the third print layer in blue
(the forced exhalation.)The result: New Tee for women called "Example#44" by Anorak.

So that sums up our Saturday.

And you?

Hoot!!! Hoot!!!

So.....for a while now "make softy owls & assorted creatures" has been on my never-ending To Do List......... I cannot express my absolute delight at being able to cross it off The List without actually having done it myself!!
One of our very lovely newer Customers came in at exactly the right moment with a Hand Crafted Owl under her arm & Bob's your uncle!
She had to leave the sample as I wouldn't stop hugging him long enough for her to grab him back!

He sold before I thought to take a mugshot of him. But these 4 lovely owls arrived this very morning!

I do not anticipate they'll be here long!!!

More are on the way though fear not!!!

What a simply perfect gift idea for a newborn!

A one off handcrafted owl!!

Oh they are made by Leanne & her label is called

Anya.

A touch of bohemia.....instore now!!!

Shana from www.shangitacandles.com has been a busy busy bee

& a delicious range of her gorgeous SOY WAX Candles has

arrived instore!!!

Blackbird Corner smells almost edible as a consequence!!!

Ahhhhh lovely!!!

These candles are particularly popular with our Vegan clientele & I do not anticipate they will last very long!

(I base this prediction on the fact that we keep running out of them as quickly as Shana makes them & brings them in again!!)

Many of this delivery are contained in retro/recycled glassware

& crockery and I'd love to keep all of them for myself!!!

They are ideal gifts for hard to buy for folk!!!

They are also very reasonably priced. The tealights in particular are great value - 6 hand poured & scented Soy Wax Candles for $5!!

I know!!! It is spectacular madness!!

Anorak introduces......

Sean from Anorak has expanded his horizons somewhat!

Very soon he will be stocking these spectacular notebooks from USA Company http://fieldnotesbrand.com/ at Blackbird.

"INSPIRED BY the vanishing subgenre of agricultural memo books, ornate pocket ledgers and the simple, unassuming beauty of a well-crafted grocery list, the Draplin Design Company, Portland, Oregon in conjunction with Coudal Partners of Chicago, Illinois bring you “FIELD NOTES” in hopes of offering, “An honest memo book, worth fillin’ up with GOOD INFORMATION.” "

There is only one other stockist of these sublime notebooks in Australia so I'm pretty excited.

(And they are in Adelaide-http://rhdstore.blogspot.com/ )

Sean & I share a passion for all things stationery related & I cannot wait to get my hands on a set of three!!!

But which ones to choose???

The USD price is USD$9.95 so we're both pretty stoked that we can keep the AUS Dollar RRP down to AUD$15 after calculating in the UPS freight charges etc - geez USA Postal Services Prices are steep! Makes you appreciate AUSTPOST I assure you!!!

Anyways these should be in stock next week we hope!!!!

Pop in & peruse our wares then!!! See you soon!!

Our favourite artists wares in stock!!!

oh my GOODNESS!!oh my GOODNESS!!oh my GOODNESS!!
We are very fortunate to be able to offer a limited range of goodies from our FAVOURITE artists!

We have a couple of these limited run boxsets of

Mark Ryden Tree Show postcards!

We are planning on framing ours!!

One of our biggest regrets is that we didn't spend that one month's rent on a Ryden painting all those years ago in Melbourne!

Obviously our priorities were mangled! It would now be worth at least SIX months of that rent now!

(We are talking big rent too! We were living in posh apartment in Flinders Lane at the time!!)

NOTE:If we had made the right decision & made that purchase we would NEVER sell it regardless of our financial situation

I assure you!

We also managed to nab some stationery sets designed by the wonderful & inspirational Roman Dirge!

He is the acclaimed creator of Lenore - my favourite little girl!

Due to rather extravagant (& unexpected) Postal Delivery Charges from UPS these are a tad more expensive than I'd anticipated but they were put in to stock yesterday & are already selling very quickly so obviously you guys don't mind!

Now to buy FIFTEEN nice frames....

I have a Lenore dolly!! I love my Lenore Dolly!!

All I want.......................

I believe!!!

The latest issue of American publication The Believer arrived yesterday. It is published by McSweeneys & has a healthy international following indeed!

This issue retails for AUD$18.00 and promises to be a very interesting read.

There is a piece contributed by Australian creative genius

Nick Cave so I'm sold on it!

We still have copies of the Annual MUSIC Issue in stock too. It retails for AUD$24.00 & comes with a bonus CD compilation with some very impressive contributors.

Thanks to Alice from the Australian journal Ampersand for bringing it to our shores (and our attention.)

Not sold separately.....

Today I used my PMT energies for good instead of evil

(mahahahaha!)

I finally hung the anorak calico bags on the wall behind the counter in an accessible manner (previously they were all hung on top of one another on an old hat stand - a completely impossible "system" that drove me crazy!!)

Whenever you buy a Tee from the adults' range you receive a complementary handprinted matching calico bag.

anorak Tees are designed & printed by my Sean Prawn & are exclusively available through Blackbird Corner.

And no. They are not sold separately.

: )

We love pressies!!!

Uh Oh! I think we have a crush!!!

Have you met the lovely http://www.petapledger.com/ yet??

We met on Twitter.

http://twitter.com/PetaPledger

I love few things more than a good chinwag with all the crafty folk on twitter.

Imagine my delight when the Postie handed me a little parcel this morning............

Inside was this:

And this too...

And......... oops my niece Freyja Moon nabbed the THIRD gift

before I could even take a photo!

It is a gorgeous Rockabilly style bow brooch in a lovely cream colour. She was thrilled at the unexpected gift too!!!

I so recommend that you look at her pages!

http://www.petapledger.blogspot.com/

http://www.petapledger.bigcartel.com/

OMG I almost forgot (in the excitement!) she makes spectacular, awesome, beautiful dresses!

Peta sums it up perfectly on her site: "Drawing inspiration from vintage patterns, Australian 50s housewives, pin-up glamour, rock n’roll and tattoo culture, Melbourne designer and dressmaker Peta Pledger creates one-off and small run garments and accessories.
Using quality fabrics, Peta’s specialty is made-to-measure figure-flattering garments, which she designs to be equally suitable for rockabilly gigs, weddings or garden parties."

Yep, we definitely have a crush.

*giggle giggle*

Karma

Blackbird Corner would not steal from you.

Do not steal from Blackbird Corner.

We know that the new Australian made lip balms from

http://www.oopsidaisi.com/ are very tempting.

But they are only $7.00 each.

Not worth a Police Record.

That is all.

Oh - no it isn't!

To the very distinctive & memorable guy whole stole a Woman's Large Anorak "Bueller" Tee

(Blue with red ferris wheel print - Limited run of EIGHT!)

- DO NOT DARKEN OUR DOOR AGAIN.

That is all.

Thanks.