Look out for this months Big Issue. A great 4 page story on our current exhibition “Westography’ by Warren Kirk. I love the Big Issue! They do great stuff!  You can support them through getting a yearly subscription to the magazine here or find your local vendor.

Thanks to everyone who came to the opening last night. A great turn our and a real celebration of our neighbourhood! Pictures of the opening coming soon . . .

Warren Kirks exhibition opening is tonight from 6 – 8pm. With help from his good friends Sally and Dave, Warren came in last night to hang the show. What can I say . . . you are in for a treat! It looks fantastic. If you cant make it tonight the exhibition runs till the 31st of this month.

Guest blogger the infamous NDM contemplates Mothers day. That’s Not Drowning Mothering . . .  for those not in the know.

IT REALLY IS THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS

Remember that age old saying “It’s the thought that counts”?

Apparently, as mothers, we’re meant to apply that double.

We’re meant to smile and drink the cold tea and eat the square of charcoal that the kids are passing off as toast and proclaim it to be “Delicious!” and “The Bestest Breakfast Ever!”. We’re expected to “ooh and aahhh” over the lipstick holder ‘Made in Chian’ (a neighbouring country to China, apparently) with the words ‘LOVELY MAKEUP JOY FUNTIME GIRL!” emblazoned across it in hot pink and give pride of place on the mantlepiece to the pasta shell-encrusted mirror made at kindergarten, along with that card lovingly hand-written by your child’s kindergarten teacher. I don’t know about you but the words ‘Dear Mummy’ written to me in another adult’s hand kind of gives me the creeps.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love the thought. In fact, I’m absolutely crazy about the thought. It’s just that… well, it would be nice if that thought could occasionally be extended a little further than the $2 shop.

One year, I actively encouraged such ‘thought extension’ by insisting my son, who had asked for $2 to spend at the Mother’s Day stall at school, take $5 “just in case”. Turns out the “just in case” was a “just in case you get a chance to spend the $3 change on icy poles for you and your friends”. Who knew?

Still, the thought of my son being the Most Popular Boy in his class with his “Zooperdoopers on me, boys!” attitude, should have been enough for me, right?

And yes, yes it was. But still…

I guess I can’t really talk. As a child, I gave my father handkerchiefs every single birthday, Christmas and Father’s Day long after I was old enough To Know Better. And perhaps that’s where the thought comes into its own. The thought that one day my own daughter might get her own pair of electric blue feather earrings from her child which she’ll be forced to wear on special occasions. Or better still, the thought that early one Sunday morning in about 13 years’ time, I’ll drag my kids when they’re hungover like bastards out to a café and force them to buy me breakfast for Mother’s Day… Now that’s a thought worth holding onto.

Tea for two? I have just gone a little nutty for tea and we have now in store a great range of T2 teas. Really you cannot go past a tea called “ Liquorish Legs” or “ Gorgeous Geisha” or how bout “Turkish Apple” If tea is your thing we now have herbals, organics and the good old classics such as English Breakfast, Darjeeling . . . Earl Grey is Girly Grey in T2 land  . . . now that’s gotta be cool. AND if you wanna know something really cool you can get these Blossom teas . . . which yes as the name suggests the flower opens in your cup . . . whoever knew tea could be so sophisticated? I am yet to get the T2 range on our online store but will endeavor to do so . . . just as soon as I enjoy a nice cuppa!

May is our daughter’s middle name, the title of a 2002 American horror flick starring Angela Bettis, and apparently Brain Tumor Awareness month (yep I do not lie) . . . BUT most importantly it is the month we are hosting our next exhibition – WESTOGRAPHY by local photographer Warren Kirk.

Warren is a lover of all things old, a hunter and collector of images and a documenter of the past. At a time when the area is going through rapid change and development, Warren has meticulously documented ‘old school Footscray’ and surrounding suburbs with intuition and heart.

It is easy to make Warren squirm . . . just call him an artist. But you know what folks . . . . he really is!

Join us for the opening on May 17^th from 6 – 8pm. Exhibition runs till the 31st of May.

For some reason it is Jos’s work that I always to neglect to get up on our website?? Sorry Jos! By far our most popular product has been his bicycle coat rack’s. Each one is hand made from steel and recycled timbers, which are now available to purchase on our online store.

Jos recently was commissioned to do a number of these racks for Kathmandu stores in New Zealand and more recently in Melbourne. I will post some pics of them as soon the new Kathmandu fit outs are completed.

Included in the range of photos is a picture of Jos in our backyard (gardening is not my strong point) as well as jos working on some of the coat racks in the studio.

This put a smile on my face walking into work this morning . . . sorry Barry Plant but it is sort of funny!

I was lucky enough to meet the lovely Lene Kuhl Jakobsen the other day where she showed me her amazing ceramics range.  What could I do? I couldn’t not stock her work it is . . . well fabulous!

Lene is a Melbourne based Ceramic Artist and trained in her birthplace in Denmark. Moving to Australia in 1985 Lene continued to pursue her love for ceramics. Exhibiting here and overseas Lene’s work has found its way into prominent public and private collections throughout the world. Her work is largely vessel based and is all hand thrown in stoneware clays. Drawing inspiration from both the Australian environment and from her Scandinavian background, Lene creates pieces with tactile qualities and shapes of restrained simplicity in order to achieve a contemporary yet classic look.

We now have a range of Lene’s work in store and on our online shop

It seemed somehow very sad dismantling the Steampunk exhibition. So much work went into building the themed rooms and putting it all together and here we are at its end. Thankfully it took much less time to take down than it did to put up! We are now gearing up for the next exhibition with local identity Warren Kirk. Stay tuned . . . his exhibition is set to be a real treat particularly for all you locals out there!

For now here are some pics of the Steampunk exhibition being taken down – the shop is nearly back to normal with loads of new product in store . More on that shortly . . . .

On the eve of packing up the show we had the very talented Mercury Megaloudis come to do a photo shoot using the Steampunk themed rooms. Modeling Clockwork Butterfly’s outfits were Silhouette d’Amour, Brend Bunte, Chris Bennett, Kerry x and Ixia Black . . . and of course the poodle who’s name escapes me right now? The pooch gave us a run for our money by refusing to stay put on the table but in the end proved himself a pro by pulling out some stella poses! Mad Uncle Cliff dropped by and all up we had loads of fun doing the shoot.

Can’t wait to see the finished pics from Mercury . . . but for now you will have to contend with mine . . .