Adoration....

We just adore Camera Obscura.

No matter what kind of grumpy mood I get in - Camera Obscura and or Belle & Sebastian can cheer me up almost immediately.

Do you guys have any particular Bands that affect you that way?

Five...

Five Saturdays till changes are upon us at Blackbird. To be honest these changes may affect us more than they'll impact on your life.

Unrequited Love.....

Ahhhh Newcastle, I thought it was a mutual affection.

We love you & were under the (perhaps mistaken) opinion that you quite liked us a bit too. We shared a really fantastic weekend together - shopping and chatting about mutual interests and passions. Passing the time of day together. Then we went home happy and content and a little bit giggly.

Hey I giggle when overtired. OK?

Then? The next day we find out it was all a bluff.
Maybe you were just toying with our affections.
Leading us into a false sense of security & contentment.
How embarrassing.

Sigh.

So we got to spend the afternoon doing the first coat of cover up in the rain instead of sewing or printing or doing something else more satisfying and/or worthwhile.

Ok sure I know it only takes one "little boy with teeny bits" to use a fluoro yellow spray can to deface an innocent bulding...I am trying to tell myself that. Trying to shake off the feelings of distrust & betrayal by reminding myself that the majority of Novocastrians are lovely & encouraging & supportive. That an extraordinary/disproportionate percentage of Novocastrians are actually incredibly creative; artistic & talented people who would never lower themselves to paint this shite on someone else's Property without their permission.

All in all I guess it's been a weekend of swings & roundabouts.

(That's just a nicer way of saying ups and downs don't you know!)

We got kept awake all of Friday night by the Bogan Neighbours From Hell. Literally got 45 minutes sleep. They decided to have a party. Consequently Saturday was pretty much a write-off. Above you can see a photo I took of the Local School's noticeboard on Saturday morning when I was a cranky pants.

That summed up the way I felt about the neighbourhood that day!

Then having slept like a content baby Saturday night, I did a lovely window display in the Shop Sunday Morning & felt back on track. Sunday was a really really lovely & busy day. Very satisfying & full of interactions with great fellow humans.

Wasn't even too manic about Monday morning signalling a return to my "day job" or "real job" or however you'd describe it.

And then Sean told me about the tagging of poor Darby Street.

I was way too cross to cry. So we spent nearly two hours dealing with that - thanks all go to to Sean for doing it! He had to climb the ladder because I'm such a klutz!! LOL

He gets to do the second coat of cover up tomorrow. Cross your fingers that it doesn't rain on him please.

Thanks for letting me vent. You know what actually? The good thing about today is that so many people stopped to commiserate with us about the vandalism & several even offered to help paint it out!

Actually Newcastle I do still love you after all.

xxx

PS. EnjYoy your week!!

Young & Baroque?

A little nepotism can't hurt.

Hey it's my Blog!

This event is being staged by our lovely Friends Sarah & Rose from Grey Gardens. They've been associated with our little store nearly since the beginning & they're just such clever clogs!!

As you know, because we have a shop, we don't tend to "do" or get involved in Markets as a rule. If we were to want a stall at a Market though it'd be this one hands down!

We'll be sending along some boxes of our Retro Lollies (Lick & Dips; Love Hearts & Lolly Pops) so they can be sold to raise funds to ensure that there is another Young & Baroque Artist Market so AFTER you buy lots of handmade goodness - use your change to buy some lollies!!" ARThive Gallery and local design duo Grey Gardens present:

an Artistic bazaar of hand made,

moulded,

printed,

pumelled,

drawn,

devised

and baked goods for you and yours

and all between!

MARKET WILL BE HELD IN RAIN, HAIL OR SHINE! WE'RE INSIDE! YAY!!!!"

Sunday 1st August

10am - 5pm

ARThive Gallery
Level 1/111 Hunter Street Mall
Newcastle, Australia
For more information or to apply to be a stallholder at the next Market -

contact Rose or Sarah at subjecthive@gmail.com

In the loop...

Here are some shots I took yesterday using my trusty mobile phone camera. Yes yes yes I must find time/inclination to buy a new camera I know I know! I moved things about (again) to squeeze more delish items in to stock (again.)

I guess that these photos are for those of you who can't just pop in whenever you feel like it! Like you Bianca Jagoe (who just upped & left the state to move to Tasmania!) or you Kelly-Jayne (who lives far away in Bendigo!)

The new Sukie range of Recycled Paper Journals & Notebooks on our latest piece of second hand shop furniture...

Oopsi Daisi!!SoHi and Sheeps Clothing & Martha Goes Green! With Back Issues of great magazines LifeLounge, LipMag and Peppermint!!

Retro lollies, Stationery & Playing Cards from San Francisco, Pezimystic Colouring Book for Grown Ups & Grey Gardens Brooches.

I love our little shop.

xxx

Things I rather.....

I would rather eat cat sick than have this man as PM of Australia.

I'd prefer to eat brussell sprouts or liver.

I would like to think I'd leave this beautiful country were he to win but I cannot afford that (and I'd miss you lot far too much!)

What would you rather do than have him as PM?

Leave a comment - make my day!

xxx

PS Thanks to the very lovely Siobhan Curren for the image (not sure where she got it from though sorry!)

Sukie is here!

Rescued Paper Scrapbook $15

My First Novel $19.95

Blank pages so you can write YOUR first novel!

Mr Bird Journal $19.95

we love you!

xxx

New arrival!! SOHI

SOHI is a hand numbered magazine about creative living in the Southern Highlands and surrounds.

Be quick as they do go quite quickly.

They're just so pleasing!

And only RRP $5. It's an absolute delight to sell these!

Hex(6)

The Hex(6) range, by my Sister Jen, is an eclectic range of gorgeous, mostly one-off items.

This means not only do you have to like it - it has to fit you!

Sort of like Cinderella's Slipper!

Jen has some very exciting plans to bring some stunning new pieces (well a whole collection really!) to Blackbird Corner in a couple of months and, accordingly, needs to make room in her allocated space in the shop to squeeze them in!

Why am I telling you this?

Because Jen went crazy with a red pen this morning and drastically reduced almost half of the Hex(6) stock currently on her racks!

So pop in & peruse!

Nab the item you've been coveting before someone else does!

*Note: Because they're on sale they're not returnable/exchangeable etc - not that you'd want to part with them once you've made your choice!

Tuesday

These gloves sell so quickly! We're having trouble keeping a range in stock! (Sorry about the biro in this shot! I think Sean was suffering Domestic Blindness when he cropped it for me!)

More of these Barrel Of Monkeys Brooches are in stock too.

Only $7 each so why not buy one of each colour?!

Hee hee I made a cheerful curtain for my workroom - it is so much more welcoming than what was there previously.

It inspired me to spend all afternoon cleaning & reorganising the whole room actually!! Because it looked shabby next to the new-ness of the curtain!

Oh, and this morning I actually cooked a cake.

From scratch!

That NEVER happens! I used my Frankie Afternoon Tea Cookbook & baked the All Together Cake (the simplest recipe that we had the ingredients for.)

Can you tell I was home sick with an earache today?

Feeling much better now thanks for asking!

Back to the "real world" tomorrow.

xxxx

PS. Off to try a piece of cake now that Sean's home. Fingers crossed that it tastes as nice as it looks.

Six Saturdays.

There are only 6 Saturdays until changes are due at Blackbird.

Got your Tickets yet?

Did you know that we sell Newcastle Roller Derby League Tickets?

No?

We do!

All of the sales go directly to Newcastle Roller Derby League too. We take no commission - we just do it to help support our local Derby Team!

Tickets to the above bout are on sale now AND so are tickets to the bout the following Saturday! Posters & Flyers soon I'm told!

xxx

Latest arrivals!

For any of you who were curious what the lovely Stacey from Sheeps Clothing gets up to when it isn't freezing cold & her scrumptious scarves & woollen hats are not so in demand....

She creates gorgeous handmade hair accessories out of retro fabrics & Vintage buttons of course!

And......coffee cozies!

Little woollen wraparound scarves for your cuppas!!!

We are very lucky to have small range of her lovely creations in stock now! Be fast or miss out!! Her scarves sold out very quickly!I'm wearing my new Vintage Button Hairclips right now!

xxxx

PS. We are having a really lovely but very busy month which is why I've not had time for Blogging or Twittering or Facebooking!

Think it's under control again now so onwards & upwards!

Dream About Changing

Oh Sally Seltmann - we adore you so!

On a lighter note....

Last Saturday afternoon Sean & I threw responsibility to the wind & embarked on an impromptu two people "Pub Crawl". We really needed to let our hair down & chill out. So that is what we did!

We started at Darby Street (poor old slowly dying Finnegans) and then traipsed down Hunter Street stopping at each licensed premises we encountered, finishing up at the Albion in Wickham.

We decided to take photos of Newcastle as we went - because that is just how we roll. OK??

Because it wasn't planned, we didn't have our LOMO Cameras with us - we made do with the camera on my mobile phone again.

These are the shots that I liked the most.

Hope you like them too.

There's a bit of "stuff" going on behind the scenes at the moment shopwise - so I'm glad we had such an out of character Saturday while we could.

xxx

PS We will be adding the new LOMO 360 Degrees 35mm Camera to our range in mid-August for those of you asking about it! It looks F.U.N.

And remember kids - drinking & gambling are not good for you!

From little things big things grow

OXFAM Australia is part of a global movement of dedicated people working hard to fight poverty and injustice in 26 countries around the world, including Indigenous Australia.

But I'm sure you know this already!
Oxfam TRAILWALKER

is a 100km endurance walk through the Australian bush. Two of our lovely, young Customers Georgina & Riarne (and their friends Morgan & Dean) are taking this on to raise money for Oxfam Australia.

Georgina & Riarne invited Blackbird Corner to contribute some prizes for the Raffles which they'll be holding on their Fundraiser Evening in August.

Here is what we contributed:

Young people like these are so inspiring. We are so lucky as Blackbird Corner really attracts intelligent, polite, honest & friendly teens. Teenagers are generally given pretty bad press these days - blamed for everything wrong with "society" and labelled as "lazy" or "expecting everything handed to them on a platter" etc etc

Well thanks for your sensationalism TV Land but we happen to know you are wrong!

What these young folk are challenging themselves to do is evidence!!

xxx

PS. They're also happy to accept Donations ONLINE:
DONATE NOW IF YOU'D LIKE!

Interesting times........

The crow brings tidings that changes are in the wind at Blackbird Corner. Stay tuned.

xxx

This Year

The Mountain Goats. This Year.

I.Love.This.Song.

xxx

Seedy Sunday

Sean drew this pigeon for me. She even has Wayward Girl written on her anklet whatsit.

Naturally, like all of the items we make, it is Copyrighted & no you may not use it. It is mine all mine! That being said I'm urging Sean to do an Anorak version to screen on some Tees & Hoodies.

Here is a blurry photo of the red drill Wayward Girl Pigeon ALines in stock now. For some reason when I take photos of red things they come out blurry. Ah what can you do? It gives you an idea of how lovely they are!

Here is another recent addition to the Wayward Girl Limited Run rack. A nice, simple dark blue ALine with a Red Riding Hood panel.

Hee hee Cate from Polka Dot Rabbit popped these cute brooches into the package when she sent her latest vegan gloves up to us! I immediately nabbed a red one for myself! There are literally only three left in stock as I type this Blog!

So that's the latest from Blackbird Corner! I'm a tad seedy from our impromptu mini-pub crawl yesterday afternoon so methinks a quiet lazy night is now in order.

xxx

Aesthetics

Sean nabbed this gorgeous French piece of Easter cuteness from Cooks Hill Books' FREE BOX this afternoon. Just thought I'd share it's gorgeousness with you. Not certain what we'll use it for but certain that we both love the aesthetics.

xxx

Lalalalalala!

Hee hee...Sean drew me a piece of cake. Reluctantly.

Lolly/gift cups we gave away randomly yesterday!

Karen from LOMO gave us the lovely cups!

She is so lovely!!

And we gave some socks away! This deal is still on by the way!

Perfect SECRET CULTURE scarf buying weather this week in Newie!
Brrrrrrrrrrrr

Also, in the middle of the crazy day new POLKA DOT RABBIT gloves arrived! They're selling rapidly! Be fast or miss out again!

It was such a lovely Birthday! We had pretty much decided to make it a Birthday week! It started last Sunday at 11am with our "Magazine buying rewards"! We gave free back issues of other mags with each mag we sold! Sunday it was SPOOK; LIFELOUNGE on Tuesday & Wednesday and then HAPPENSTANCE on Thursday. These giveaways went down a treat! Also on Thursday we gave our LAST EVER Lomolito (disposable LOMO Camera no longer sold in Australia) away with the first LOMO sale of the day to a very lovely lass who was Birthday gift shopping.

The Blackbird Birthday Week will wind up this Sunday at 11am when we draw the winner of GIVEAWAY#2 on Facebook.

It.Has.Been.So.Much.Fun.

It has been an exhausting but incredibly satisfying week after another exhausting but incredibly satisfying Financial Year. And on the personal front we got some news today that was "better than winning the Lottery" as my Dad put succintly.

Yes Dad, you finally got mentioned on my Blog.

(He reads it religiously - or so he says! This will test the claim!LOL)

Tonight I will have a peaceful sleep indeed. Life can be good.

xxxx