What's in a name?

The very lovely Michal - creative force behind

A Girl called Mike popped in today!

And brought me some of her luscious sterling silver wares!

We'd not actually met before today, despite frequent online interactions. It was a real pleasure too.

She was exactly as I'd imagined - really really lovely.

Sometimes you "meet" people online and have a mental image of them which winds up to be completely off the mark. Do you find that?

xxx

LOVE the LOMO

eeeek! New LOMO Cameras have arrived!!!

I love Lomo delivery day!!!

We've got the Diana+ 120mm Clone "take my heart" $200

And oooooooh the Diana+ 120mm Instant back $180

And there's the Diana+ 120mm Hong Meow $200!!

And.......

We have literally one LCA in stock - $515!

This is the creme de la creme!

Swooooooon....

I love it when it rains....

....on Darby Street. Especially if I'm snug behind the counter in my lovely little shop.

Lucky. Because today is very mood swingy weatherwise.

I'm having a pretty intense & swingy day myself.

Waiting for "the phone call" to advise me that my house has sold - without a cooling off period.

I'm told that call could come any minute now.......

accordingly time is passing excruciatingly slowly....

Once it does it means we have 5 weeks to pack, renovate our new home (rip up carpet/get boards polished/get walls painted etc etc)

and move in! EEEEEEEEEEEK!!!

And so I'm watching the beautiful rain fall on my favourite street & just breathing.

xxxxx

Slowing down

My beautiful (two year old) niece, Annabelle Daysi is so clever!

She somehow managed to buy Sean & I an Easter Bunny each & arrange for her other Uncle to deliver them to us today!

Well, that's what my (shopaholic) sister in law tells me.

She just can't help herself. Too generous by half.

I adore her. And our beloved niece. To bits!

Anyway...I just wanted to pop by & let you know that things here may be slowing down a little over the next four - five weeks as we've got a lot going on. We're very close to buying a new home.

It's gorgeous, but needs a little bit of TLC.

So our focus will be split between running the actual shop; making and ordering the actual stock for the actual shop and tearing up a LOT of festy carpet & getting things actually done.

It'll all be under control soon I'm sure.

Wish us luck!

xxx

PS I'm actually pretty excited.

Hoppy Easter!

Just very quickly popping in to wish you a very happy Easter!

We're feeling extremely blessed & happy today and hope you are too!

Sean & I decided to close the shop today - based on previous Easter Sundays being extraordinarily quiet days indeed.

So we will have two days off in a row together -

usually we get to share Mondays so we're pretty excited!

We're thinking that we'll spend today clearing out the tiny courtyard behind the new home we're in the process of buying from a very dear old friend. Fingers crossed it doesn't rain please!

Yay!!!

xxx

Pretty pictures - saddening words

If you have a spare moment, would you consider clicking here and quickly reading about Fibromyalgia. Despite 2 - 4% of Australians suffering this syndrome, noone I speak to seems to have heard of it.

This is an all encompassing illness that effects every aspect of the lives of those unfortunate enough to have been diagnosed with it.

There is no cure for it on the horizon.

In fact, just treating the symptoms seems pretty beyond medical science to date. It's pretty depressing stuff really.

Sorry to have mentioned it.

More than one member of my Family suffers from it, in varying degrees. Scarily it often "runs in families."

I took some pretty photos in the country today for you; to cushion the depressing words I wanted to share with you.

Hope you're OK with my mentioning it.

Anyways, Thursday May 12th is National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day.

Sadly, I'll bet you know someone or someone who knows someone with this horrid, nasty, rude syndrome.

Next time you see someone walking slowly from their car, parked in a spot marked for disabled people, who "doesn't look disabled" - let it cross your mind that they may not actually have just "borrowed" their relative's sticker to scam for good parking.

They may be just holding it together, in extraordinary pain.

They may be dragging themselves to yet another seemingly pointless medical appointment - or even just to buy milk.

You don't have to look sick to be sick.

xxx

PS Again sorry to wave this in your face without warning.

Be grateful for your relative good health today maybe?

Hop hop hopping along

Perfect Autumn Afternoon

Well.

Newcastle had a rather damp day (to say the least) today.

Perfect doona/PJ's weather if you'd have asked me.

Noone did ask me - fortunately.

I certainly wasn't expecting to see many people out shopping.

I was so wrong. I think everyone was a tad stir crazy, so they decided that it is only water & that a stroll in the rain might be a little fun! Consequently the shop (and I) had a rather lovely day.

We did close a whole 5 minutes early as the floor was so drenched that it was becoming a tad slippery!

Then we popped to The Local for a quick beer (or two but definitely not three!) Hey - it's been an intense week!

Afterwards we decided that it's ideal beach weather and drove around above the spectacular Newy beaches.

We stopped and parked between Nobby's and The Ocean Baths to admire the sheer vastness (and to take some photos for you guys.)

Puts everything back neatly into perspective.

xxx

PS While I'm typing this Sean is cooking a mushroom & chicken risotto, it smells divine. Life is pretty good all in all.

Good friends & self bought gifts

It has been a rather intense week for us.

Not in the shop!

The shop has been wonderful! Spectacular even!

Lots of both regular & new Customers have been extremely patient whilst the frazzled woman behind the counter talks on her mobile phone waving and miming her apologies!

That frazzled woman is me.

And dealing with the confusing game of smoke and mirrors that is real estate is what has sent me to the brink.

It is extreme gestures of kindness that are helping me make it through the week! I wrote a slightly pathetic & very self pitying update on my personal Facebook yesterday afternoon...and my dear friend Shana (from Doll Eyes) sent me some cheer up flowers this morning! I thought the Florist was lost when she walked in here!

hee hee seriously i did!

I welled up (just stopped short of actual tears!) at her extreme kindness! Not that I should have been surprised. She's one of those people who doesn't just think "oh my friend is sad - I should send her some flowers" (like I am!) She acts on the thought!

To top off my lovely morning, a gift I bought for myself arrived minutes later!

Another delightful plate from The Storybook Rabbit was delivered by my favourite Courier - Brian. I ordered it the other day when I was tempted by their Birthday Sale as another affirmation that we will, eventually, be living in our lovely new home with a lovely little kitchen decorated with a beautiful collection of plates on the wall.

xxx

PS Gotta go! My dear old friend Harold has just arrived bearing musical gifts for me!!

I am blessed.

I smell like Fruit Tingles...

OK - Back to feeling positive & motivated after yesterday's little, unexpected hiccup.

We just screen printed a million large cahiers with Sean/Anorak's "I love to draw" design. I love it when they're all laid out in neat rows, so I took a picture of them for you. Bear with me while I learn how to use my iPhone's camera please!

Ryan from Koala Glass removed the horrid smashed pane of glass & replaced it with lovely new, shiny (and very laminated) glass in no time at all this morning.

We also reinforced the bottom half of the doors with lovely thick, nailed on wood so I can resume sleeping at night.

Thanks for listening to me whine yesterday!

I was having a 'pity party for one'.

xxx

PS I smell like Fruit Tingles because I FINALLY found out the name of the perfume I love! A lovely Customer who was wearing it last Saturday spilled the beans. It's called Marshmallow by MOR from Melbourne and I ordered mine online from a gorgeous online store called ReAwaken - the owner even sent me some crystals as a special little extra. I love dealing with other Small Businesses instead of huge, impersonal multinational corporations don't you?

Swings and Roundabouts...

Today started like this:

Lovely cuppa on the deck;lovely sunshine & church bells

& chatter with loved ones.

Then, after I opened, I discovered this:

That's just super.

Obviously an incredibly intelligent human was either having a bad evening & needing to let off steam by damaging another person's property or actually trying to break in - through very thick & double laminated glass. Either way (and I hope you don't find this mean spirited of me - but I am taking this rather personally) - I do hope that they're very sore & sorry today.

ie I hope they did this with their fist or foot.

So, instead of ordering some lovely handmade jewellery this week - those funds will be reallocated to glass replacement.

Again, that's just super.

We're now in the process of boarding up the lower half of these doors. So no sewing tomorrow then! Super!

On a much brighter note we have a gorgeous new range of That Vintage jewellery in stock this week. Handmade by the very lovely Sophie Hill from Tassie; these earrings are already proving very popular indeed!

There are so many different ones to try to choose from!

Thankfully I had a truly delightful day, full of lovely Customers both regulars & newbies! I decided not to let the horrid actions of a stranger destroy my day, despite having to do icky things like lodge Police Reports etc.

Hope you had a relaxing, happy Sunday.

xxx

Snap! Snap!

Snap!

Can you tell?

I finally got an iPhone4 after being on the waiting list with my mobile "provider" for 4 ridiculous months.

I went snap happy with the hipstamatic "app" today!

Makes any photo look special I reckon!

Bit excited I am.

(Talking like Yoda I am.)

from the entrance.

Lovely new range from That Vintage which is now in stock.

Gorgeous new range of REX retro toys!

Chocolate-free Easter gifts!

kabwares garden markers in front window

Sentimentally yours...

Little metal paintboxes just $2.95

Skipping rope in a little tidy bag $9.95

Set of four wooden spinning tops in a tidy bag $7.95

Red (or blue) Harmonica in Box $7.95

OK. I am showing my age by saying this...but do any of you recall when children's toys required an additional ingredient?

The Imagination?

When the toybox (is there still even such a thing as a toybox??) was not full of bulky, fast to break, toys with American accents?

When books were not interactive & self reading?

Well I may be idealising my childhood a tad, but I remember when toys like those pictured above could keep me entertained for hours with very little adult intervention required.

We'll be popping lots of these in to stock on Thursday - when I miraculously create the room for them.

I reckon they'll make gorgeous non-chocolatey Easter gifts.

What do you think?

xxx

Saturday is Holly Throsby Day

just because I said so.

I am a tad anxious this morning.

We have a fair few folk "inspecting" our little home today to consider if they'd like it to become their little home.

I'm sitting in the shop trying to focus on the shop but my mind keeps returning to our house.

Did I leave everything spotless & tidy?

(Of course! It's been that way for weeks! I was sweeping the back yard in the dark this morning!)

Will someone fall as in love with it as I did

when I first saw it?

(How could they not? It's even nicer now!)

etc etc etc etc

(etc etc etc)

Luckily listening to Holly Throsby immediately calms me down & fills me with positive, happy thoughts.

So I can enjoy my Saturday in my beloved shop & stop stressing about things beyond my immediate control.

OK.

xxxx

PS Apologies if you come in today & catch me singing along.