Ticks and Tens for 'Naughts and Crosses'

I am a sucker for kiddo curios. I love colour and cutesy things for little people and there is an itty bitty little store hidden away in an laneway of Elwood full of it! It goes by the name of  Naughts and Crosses and it's a total swoon bulging with beautific things for little ones!
Whilst goo and gaaing with childlike glee over all those beautific things, I got chatting to Louise one of the sweetest shop owners going around! As I pointed out her gorgeous props I learnt she had bought a few display pieces from the Waverley Antiques Bazaar and that she knows people I know, we both like this, and we love that, and all that vintage Jazz talk. During our nice little chit chat I loaded up the counter with a pile gifts for the 'Baby Beatniks' ...aka 'Santa' stash.. (shhh)and Louise wrapped them with a rainbow of tissue paper finished with coloured confetti, ribbons and bells. Cute! Now that's a few less presents 'Santa' will have to wrap and more wine time Christmas Eve watching Carols. Nice!
Supporting local biz for 'Silly Season Shopping' is way better than boring old mass produced blahhh! So that's ticks and tens, not naughts and crosses for this little winner of a shop!

Vintage Connection

One of the many things I love about being in the world of vintage is all the gorgwa people I am constantly meeting and coming into contact with! It seems that lovers of old things are generally super amazing people, full of character, kindness, and with a wealth of information.

A couple of the many lovely people I have met within my vintage lifestyle are Tamarah from  Shabby Vintage Junk and Lisa from Vintage Influence. Both have a style and wares to die for! Recently they held a 'Vintage Showcase' and lucky for me I got to see a preview of their collaboration before the big event!

Tamarah and Lisa set up an open house vintage sale and invited selected buyers, merchandisers and stylists for an exclusive shopping feast. Tamarah and Lisa make a great team and did an amazing job of displaying their beautiful wares. The following photos are just a taste of what was on offer and do not reflect the outstanding job they did enough.

I probably should of taken my pics before dusk on that balmy night, but the offer of a cold brewski and chit chat with fellow vintage fans was a way to tempting distraction upon my arrival!

Where the Hell is 'North St'?!

Sunday morning whilst still recovering after a fun filled night with the gals... I found myself weary eyed and in a frantic navigating pickle in Footscray. I was in a mad, lost frenzy on my way to do the 'Perfect Posy' workshop at Colour Box Studio with Emily from North St. Flowers. Finally, after a few wrong turns...okay a lot of wrong turns, I made it to the studio. Thankfully they had kindly waited for my arrival, and the sight of stunning Peonies brought me a sense of calm dissolving my stressed state.

'Colour Box Studio' is a new pop up art space run by a bunch of creatives to showcase some of Melbourne's amazing arty peeps and crafters. So far they have held a pop up market and are also running a range of workshops. The space is an ever changing one, heavily influenced by the diverse range of artists involved within the community focused project.

As I mentioned in a previous post 'North St. Flowers' created a stunning display at the 'Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show' and were deservingly awarded for their work. The opportunity to do a workshop with the very talented Emily was one I was not going to miss, and well worth the 'lost my sense of direction meltdown' I had in the car!

The class and I arranged a mixed bouquet whilst picking up lots of great tips to create the 'Perfect Posy'. Emily let us in on a few of her floral ways including her commitment to enviro respectful floristry. She consciously chooses to lean on her expertise to create arrangements and utilises a variety of reusable and recyclable vessels avoiding the use of floral foam (Oasis), which is quite toxic and harmful to the environment.

North St. will be opening a store in the next few days and I can't wait to see what Emily comes out with in her new retail space where she will also be running workshops from soon.

'Colour Box Studio' used recycled materials for their fab looking shopfront fit out 

Emily, her floral enthusiasts and our perfecto posies

Puppy Lurve

Meet our newest addition to the Beatnik clan - 'Rosie'. Isn't she just a delight! The eldest Beatnik Baby thought up her bloom related name which I think was super cute of her! 'Rosie' is cuddly, playful and oozing mischief. We all fell in love with her immediately and absolutely adore her beautiful little nature. I am not a fan of her crapping and messing all over the house though eew and argh!

A couple of days after bringing her home we found a vintage 'Golden Book' in the Op Shop that was very fitting for our new pooch experience ...

Keepin' it Fresh

So zee Blog has had a revamp as you can see! I am still reworking and tidying up a few things, but I'm liking it's fresh new appearance. A little Blog spring cleaning if you will.

Lately I have been driving Mr.Beatnik insane in our home with my spring cleaning antics. The trouble is when I 'clean', I sort, cull, rework, reshuffle, create a bomb scene. Ask myself why I even started the arduous task in the first place! Then go on to move everything around so much the poor man doesn't know where the hell is! Me and my random OCD styling hehe. Now I have taken to a little on line clean up to give the poor love a breather - hence the Blog makeover. 

Christmas is a comin' and I have put my hand up to have it at our pad this year. Which will be my first time. Crazy or enthusiastic? I don't know. So an episode of OCD will come in handy for all the preparations needed for that! I actually am quite into Christmas. I know it's probably super cool to be a 'Grinch' these days, but you will rarely hear a 'Humbug' from these festive lips! I shall channel the talents of 'Martha Stewart' to help me pull off the hostess thing I think. Perhaps a kick arse centrepiece for the table may charm my guests if I don't come through with the goods in the Turkey department! At least they will have something gorgwa to look at!

Well.. just a quick check in to welcome you to the new look, accompanied with a mini freak out that Christmas is approaching!

Cheerio

A Petal She Is

Not last night but the night before a recipe for disaster was turned into a magical evening at 'The Social Club' in Northcote when Mr.Beatnik and I went along to see beautiful band 'Tinpan Orange'. A random and unexpected power failure which included the frying of a fuse box, provided an unplanned but perfect opportunity for an intimate acoustic singsong. What was not an ideal occurrence ended up in fact enhancing the warmness and sweet folksy vibe of their deep and playful tunes. Lead singer Emmy (Emily Lubitz) dazzled us with her charismatic personality, beautiful voice and completely won me over by handing out wild and untamed flower bundles for the besotted audience. Awww what a gorgeous bloom lover and petal she is! This gig was part of their recent album 'Over The Sun' promotion tour. 

Being the fleur fancier I am of course I'm loving their song called 'Flowers' which I have shared below. Look out for all the bursts of floralness throughout the clip sooo super yummy!

Little bloom bundle from the lovely Emmy

www.tinpanorange.com

What a Bunch of Wasteful Mofo's!

In relation to my previous post I am back from a couple weeks of roadside pouncing. The treasures of the curb have kept me super busy amongst everything else that life involves. I have come out of the last couple of weeks wounded and weathered by the carelessness of some people. I own the face of a vintage heroine and hoarder. Have you seen that television show 'Hoarders'?! It's a scary thought that my fate might be on along the lines of that existence. Do you know what's even scarier though? The wasteful world we live in and how excessive consumerism is our way of life!!!

Sorry to say it but we are a bunch of brainwashed wasteful mofo's! So much of our ignorant lives are spent acquiring 'things' and disposing of them. The amount of thoughtless waste I witnessed on the roadside was a disgrace. What's the excuse? "We don't have enough time to give a hoot?" Is that because you are working your guts out to buy more 'stuff'?! Let me ask you ...if you saw $100 on the side of the road, could you prioritise and find the time to take it to the bank, or spend it at the shops? Hmmm... I think you would.

As I witnessed the crusher of the rubbish truck smash to smithereens perfectly fine things, I couldn't help but get depressed about all the time and energy put into producing those things. The cost to our environment and in turn to us as dwellers of the earth. I thought of the design process, the materials, the manufacturing, the likely and unlucky person in a third world country that had to take part in it's production. The distribution and miles travelled, packaging, the toxic byproducts that were about to be dumped into our earth, and the consumer who may be wracked with credit card debt to pay for all this 'stuff'.

I can understand that we need to dispose of items from time to time, but I can not understand and support outright and ignorant waste. The price of excessive waste is payed by ourselves - wasteful mofo's. It is up to us as individuals and communities to wake the hell up and give a damn about our buying and disposing practises.

There IS a positive perspective and that is, that there are so many ways, big and small we can make a difference.

Watch the movie below, 'The Story of Stuff' and you will understand my gripe. Become aware of our impact, be open to and participate in change. October is 'Buy Nothing New Month' challenge yourself and give it a crack.(Don't know what that is? Check out the links below).Trust me it's a challenge! List your unwanted items for free on 'Ziilch' or similar websites or hey move your butt, support fellow peeps, and donate them to a charity.

This blog post is not a judgemental attack just simply a cry for awareness and resistance against excessive consumerism and thoughtless waste. I urge you to watch this movie and give an iota about this magical earth we live on. I invite you to join me in my quest to live a more eco friendly life. That is, if you are not already, and if you are cheers to that tree hugger!

A fab concept I heard recently was 'Buy experiences not things' That's one of the things I'm going to work on for this little Beatnik family in my aim for greener living.

So who's with me?

http://www.storyofstuff.org/

http://www.buynothingnew.com.au/

http://au.ziilch.com/