Plastic Fantastic

When she saw my plastic toy collection, a lovely acquaintance of mine introduced me to the Edward Mobley Co that made plastic toys from the 1940's - 1960's. They were manufactured by Arrow Plastics Industries Co, and had painted hair, inset stationary eyes and were marked: ©The Edward Mobley Co.
How beautiful are they? They are definitely top of my wish list this year. 

The Southside Market (Vintage)

So for part two of the Southside Market - Vintage.
I will start with Millie Francis, who actually falls under handmade, but she was sharing a table with Hollyhocks & Polkadots, who does do vintage wares. Millie makes these great Scouts badges and lovely crochet flower pins while Hollyhocks offers a variety of beautifully handpicked vintage items.

Bruna Capodanno offers lovely vintage linens and collectibles. I always like me a retro piece of fabric!

PVD (Pauline's Vintage Delights) generally specializes in vintage jewellery but also had some beautiful clothing on offer on Saturday.

There were so many more stalls worth the mention, but I will stop there.
This market is situated in St Kilda which is such a fun area filled with coffee shops, bakeries, ice-cream parlours and books shops. The whole day was great (until we got a parking ticket, as the free parking changed to pay parking at 12.00 noon and we got back to our car at 12.18 and had been ticketed - sigh).

Just a note to end, that follows the vintage theme. In Durban, South Africa, that same night there was a 1950's dance, and my girls were there in full force. You look beautiful darlings!

The Southside Market (Handmade)

Continuing our search for the right market for ONCE to have a stall, Darren and I went to The Southside Market yesterday. It is a great mix of handmade and vintage goods and is held on the last Saturday of every month in the RSL club in St Kilda, Melbourne. It is run by the most delightful lady, Anne. Darren summed her up beautifully by saying "she literally glowed". Her friendly manner must be infectious as all of the stall holders we chatted to were so sweet and engaging.

It is not a huge market but the stalls all offer very high quality goods. Once again I had to choose but a few people to mention. I will however have to break this post up into two, and so will feature the handmade items today and the vintage treasures tomorrow. First up in the handmade section were Black Diamond Accessories who sell romantically dark delights. I absolutely love the Mexican Dia De Los Muertos celebration so could not hold myself back from a small purchase here.

Run Wild Horses' work was also amazing. They combine found objects into stunning, steam punk-like jewellery.

Hannakin blew me away with her beautiful illustrations, stationary and felt dollies. I have always loved the lyrics to The Postal Service song, so this print was a winner for me. I bought a few of the love is dead cards too!

All of these stall holders have online shops, so if you missed the market please buy their wonders online, the pricing was very reasonable in each case.

My Birthday Love

It is my beautiful Darren's birthday today. We have been together 18 years and I still can not adequately express how I feel about him. Suffice to say he rocks! We are just about to have the teeny tiniest celebration. Cake (tick), pressies (tick), fancy whiskey (tick), eager tiny groupies (tick).

ONCE Market Stall

We are currently applying for markets stalls and some markets want a pic of what your stall would look like, so yesterday Darren and I set up a mock market in his office and this it what it would look like. We have decided that we would use some of our vintage children's items as props, but they would also be for sale so the stall would be constantly changing. What do you think? Any suggestions?

Late Afternoons

We took the boys to this great outdoor playground they have down the road from us. There is a wooden boardwalk that links the playground with the beach. Our crazy little things went swimming on quite an Autumn afternoon. The light was beautiful though.

Hoping With A Fragile Hope

I have been finding such beautiful things on Pinterest lately. Here are some snippets from my paper creations board. I have not credited each artist here, but have made sure the names of the artists and the links back to the original sources are on the pins. So if you like anything, please go and see more from the original source.

The Abbotsford Convent

I am still searching for the right places to sell my products, which is great because it has taken Darren and I to some wonderful markets all across the city. This Sunday we went to the Abbotsford Convent complex because on the third Sunday of each month they have a Makers Market.
The complex is wonderful - it is an old converted convent and has an art gallery, coffee shop and many other attractions such as the Sunday markets. The buildings and grounds are so beautiful. Even the toilets have great murals on the back of the doors. It is a perfect family outing with lovely wares for sale.

The Makers Market is held inside one of the old buildings and so would be a great Sunday activity even if it was raining. It is not overwhelmingly large, but has some stunning stalls. Here are some of my favourites.

Sandra Eterovic really stood out. I did not realise it at the time but she is the same artist I had just seen on The Jealous Curator's site. She makes beautiful prints, paintings, cutouts and cards and has an etsy shop if you can't make it to the market. 

Another wonderful stall was that of E.M. Hurst who is a children's book illustrator and fine artist. Her work is delightfully whimsical. She sells digital prints and cards among other things online. 

The colourful world of Square Patch also caught my eye. I love her use of recycled vintage kimonos.

While there were many great stalls there I am going to finish off with Lyn Paterson's delightful knitted goodies. I love the possum everythings and the great strawberry and watermelon kiddies hats are fab. Unfortunately she does not have an online presence, but all the more encouragment to go and see for yourself next month. 

Strange Beings

My friend Anthony is a strange being. He posts the most bizarre things on my Facebook page sometimes. Today's was priceless.

What could the point of the internet be, if not to post pictures of a scared panda holding on to a policeman's leg after an earthquake?